We caught them all!

We have no more papers to chase for our dossier. We received our amended 171-H today! I want to jump right up and have it notarized and send it to be state sealed, but that will have to wait until Monday. I really wasn't expecting to have it yet, but I am SO excited that we do! It won't make it to Ethiopia by the end of March, but hopefully it won't be TOO long after that!

PICS!

I'm too tired to think straight, but can't sleep. (More on that situation tomorrow.)I figured I'd try to post some pictures since I haven't yet. Hopefully, this doesn't require TOO much thought ;-)

This is our beautiful dancing princess!


I have said so much about Mya, but have neglected our boys :-( Meet Diego, a.k.a. the masked bandit, and Jake. (If you have questions about the dirty floor and door, all I can say is to look at the paws!)


And this is Mya. I haven't been able to find a good picture of her without the flash making her eyes look white.

A Letter from God

“Dear Child,

I look upon your heart and see your sadness. I search your soul and know its despair. You turn to Me but cannot find the words to pray. You look to Me but cannot find the song to sing. Do not worry, child of Mine. I know all that is within you, and I understand. For now, your silence will be a prayer to Me, and your tears, an offering. I do not wish for you to act a part. I do not require a spiritual charade. But bring Me, instead, your real feelings, your brokenness, yourself. That is what I wait for. And I will meet you in the silence. There I will stay with you and heal your heart. And later, when the music has returned to your life, you will look back in love and recall this silent song We sang together.

Be quiet and know Me,

God”

To you dear friends who are in this place now, and to those who have been there before...you are in our thoughts and prayers!

Problem Child part II

David took Mya to the vet Friday for another check on her eye. The vet said she has healed wonderfully (and it only took three visits this time!) They didn't even charge us for this visit. All is good, now, right?

But wait...her ears looked kind of gunky. So now we have exchanged the eye drops for ear drops, just to make sure she doesn't have ear mites. The vet also put on a flea medicine that should keep away ear mites, too. So, our "free" visit ended up being about $40.

I was feeling sorry for her because she REALLY doesn't like the ear drops...that is until she almost pulled down our bedroom curtains last night. Argh!

Elizabeth's quotable quotes

One of our MOPS mentors mentioned Friday that we really need to write down some of the cute things our kids say. I have thought this for a while, but have not been very good about practicing it. Well, wouldn't you know several she had several "quotable quotes" just this evening. :-) I actually DID write them down to add to her scrapbook, and David asked, "Are you blogging those?" Well, I hadn't thought about it, but now that you mention it! ;-)"

These are from tonight as we were cuddling with her in her bed:

"Dear God, thank you for this day, for keeping us safe, and us getting better. Thank you for our family and friends. I know sometimes it can be difficult, but I love them anyway. Amen." I asked her if she was saying it was difficult to love us. Yep! hehehe

"Daddy, you're smelling on my face. Could you smell the other way, please?"

This one is from a couple days ago while we were listening to the radio. But I shared it with a friend today, so it's still fresh in my mind. The song "God of Wonders" came on and that started a conversation about like this:

Elizabeth: "Mommy, it's Alex's song!"
Mommy: "Why is it Alex's song?"
Elizabeth: "I hear Alex in the song!"
Mommy: (Thinking she meant she heard a voice like Alex's) "You hear Alex?"
Elizabeth: "Yes, it says 'Alex sees' in the song."
Then mommy heard: "God of wonders beyond our galaxy..." AHHH, now I see ;-)

Have a good night!

Blessings

Can I just tell you that God is a great? His plans for our lives are so intricately woven, and we don't even know the tiniest fraction of the ways He works in our lives. But I want to share one particular blessing from today.

Elizabeth and I had a conversation today about what it means for individuals, particularly siblings, to be family. She understands that a baby we adopt would be her brother or sister, but I think she was a little bit confused when I mentioned that the children who come to our family might be toddlers or even her age.

What is the blessing? We have many families in our church who have children both through adoption and birth. I was able to point to some of her good friends and their brothers and sisters as a concrete way for her to see that no matter how they came together, they are still family. I was amazed at how readily she understood this. Thank you, God, for letting us know these wonderful people!

What makes this an even more incredible blessing, is that living here now and going to this church was not in David and my plans. I don't believe we would have the same kind of friends, support, or examples had we followed OUR plans. We would have gone to "our own" church and then moved half-way across the country. Many would attribute it to circumstances--David's dad being sick and passing away lead us to stay at the church, and the contract for his company not going through prevented us from moving when we planned. However, I believe GOD ordained it all. He knew where needed to be, and He lead us to this time and this place.

There are so many other blessings that I want to share. They are all running around in my mind (which may attribute to things coming out kind of jumbled in this post). However, I told my darling husband I was coming to bed about 45 minutes ago...oops! So, I guess these will have to save for another day.

Many, Many Blessings!

It's Here!

It's here! It's here! Praise God! In my heart I'm doing a happy dance. (Yes, I said IN my heart. So, NO! There are no videos ;-)) My birth certificate is finally here. I guess I can forgive the lady for not calling me back this time. Of course it comes THE DAY I send the rest of the dossier to our social worker, but I won't complain now. It's here, and I don't see any mistakes.

The UPS guy probably thought I was crazy because I accosted him as soon as he came up the driveway. I let him know that he made my day more than he can know. He laughed at me, but that is all right with me! ;-)

Still Waiting

So it has now been over two weeks now since the lady told me she would be sending out my birth certificate, and I still don't have it. I called week ago and left a message--she never returned my call. I called yesterday and spoke with her. She seemed like she had no idea what I was talking about and said she would look and call me right back. I still have not heard from her. I even tried speaking to someone else about it, and they all say I need to talk to her.

I was hoping she would just say that she accidentally didn't get it sent out, but she found it and was sending it right then. What does it mean if they can't find it? Does it mean someone has it who shouldn't, and what would they use it for?

I'm going to call again tomorrow and hope someone knows something. (Did I mention how much I REALLY dislike calling people I don't know well?) If I can get no information, I guess I will just need to pay the astronomical fees again and order another copy, then pray they don't lose that one, too. Any other suggestions?

I know that this will not keep us from the child or children God has for our family. It's just frustrating now because everything seemed to be going SO smoothly this time and, other than a new I-171H, this is the ONLY document left for our dossier. All the other documents have even been state sealed already.

Our Problem Child

So after this weekend away, we arrive home after a long drive, only to be faced with our "problem child." Mya, the kitten we brought home in November, had to be taken to the Vet. Mya was home by herself, nowhere near the dogs,and yet somehow damaged her eye...again. (Christmas Eve, we took her to the vet because her eye was irritated. It seems that she scratched it. At that same time she was also having a bad reaction to the sutures from her spaying.) This time it was the other eye, and it was a little more serious. So here we go with another round of antibiotics and eye drops. Hopefully, this time two visits will be enough instead of the four it took last time. The vet jokingly said Mya is going to be a problem child and we should have gotten insurance with this cat. She also said we are not allowed to go anywhere for about the next ten years. Either that, or we need to get a cat carrier to keep by our sides at all times. I'm starting to seriously think it might be worth looking into pet insurance with this one. ;-)

In moments of frustration, I have half thought of just finding another home for Mya. Neither David nor I are particularly set on having to keep the cat. But then I wonder how it will affect Elizabeth. When we bring home her siblings, will she think that we will just give them to another family when things aren't easy? In most adult minds there is a clear distinction between children and pets, but how would her almost-four-year-old mind see it?

"Weekend to Remember"

This weekend, David and I were blessed with a gift to attend a Family Life Weekend to Remember marriage conference. We travelled to my parents' home so Elizabeth could stay with Grandma and Grandpa while we were at the conference. My parents went a step further and paid for a hotel room for us, so we could have the whole weekend to ourselves! The conference was a good reminder of how God sees men and women, marriage, and family. There were no earth shattering revelations for us, but it was nice to have affirmation and encouragement to continue to grow closer to God and each other.

One of the interesting things was that the speakers have all adopted children, and they are at different stages and have completely different stories. The husband and wife who spoke adopted four children, now grown. What touched me was they didn't even say they were adopted until the third day. The only reason we know they adopted was because the wife shared her experience with infertility. They are their children, and that is what is important--not how they joined the family.

The other speaker often has his wife with him, but they brought home a newborn the day before the conference. They already had eight children, born into the family. But they felt God calling, and adopted this new little one. It was amazing to see how attached and "in love" this father was already. Many would think that it wouldn't be as big of a deal for him, as he already has eight children, but his excitement and devotion was constantly evident.

A woman attending the conference spoke up the last day and said she is a birth mother, and hearing the stories from these two families really touched her! God is so good! Listening to chatter among the couples attending, it seemed like adoption has touched so many families in some way, and it was just amazing!