Glimpse into our Minds

I just thought if you could read my mind you would probably understand why I may seem insane or distracted all the time.  Here is my internal dialogue today, and pretty much every day the last 2 weeks :)

About Midnight last night - "The Ministry will be opening soon, end the day with prayer for tomorrow, for all the children at Home of Hope Orphanage, for the good friends we have in our group, for word of referrals and approvals tomorrow or for God's peace if not"

2:00 am - "The Ministry may have sent us our referral, should I get up and check the email, probably not that would be crazy (though sometimes it doesn't seem all that crazy)"

6:30 am - "Must check the email, maybe we will see our picture today, or someone will have sent out their good news, nope, well it is still early, The Ministry has many hours of day left"

9:00 am - "Nothing today!  I think The Ministry is probably closed now.  But I have heard of emails being delayed we still may receive something later"

1:00 pm - "I haven't heard anything, maybe I should check that other email that The Ministry doesn't have, somehow it may have gone there, nope"

3:00 pm - "I guess we won't be receiving anything today, it probably would have gotten here by now, right?  But someone may have gotten a referral today and they just haven't emailed us all yet, praying for movement still"

6:00 pm - "Nothing new today, but the traveling families had a great day, that is always encouraging, one day that will be us.  I am still disappointed we did not hear of new movement today, and tomorrow is Friday, the last day of the week, last chance, thanking God for His blessings and that He supports us every day"

10:00 pm - "Time to really dig in and get down on my knees and pray for tomorrow! Someone will surely receive their referral tomorrow.  I pray many will come in, we can see our children finally.  And when are those approvals going to start coming in again?"

12:00 am -"Time to repeat it all again" 

So, it continues.  I am praying that I can enjoy this time, enjoy my cute, sweet kiddos and trust in God's timing for our referral to come. 

To try and distract myself we took advantage of the first really warm and dry day of spring break and went to the zoo, along with the rest of the Boise area :)  It was a lot of fun and so beautiful out.  We arrived at the zoo and the kids got all excited talking about the "vote", our zoo has those coin drop things that circle around and around and you always get to vote for something.  This time was so fun because they spotted a choice for the African Wild Gorillas, which have the largest population in Rwanda, so cool.  Here are the kids with a statue of a gorilla:

And I have to include the cute meerkat that was "dancing" with Bailey:

Hope you are enjoying your spring as well.  Time to go check the email, just in case :)

Sheri

(NOTE: for those who asked about our comments, Jeff did fix it and you should be able to comment now, thanks, we are learning)

Project Blanket Complete

As we continue to wait and wait and wait, you get the idea :)  I feel so motivated to do something, anything that feels like progress towards bringing our son home. We have begun collecting things we will need for the time when we travel.  We can't wait until we can go out and purchase things we need that are dependent upon his size!!  But for now we work on what we can and we research what we want to learn ahead of time. 

One thing I have worked on is a blanket for our newest son.  My grandma made us all quilted blankets when we were born, and she made a few for her great grandchildren as well. Jacob and Camryn were able to get their blankets from her but then she felt she really couldn't make them anymore.  I couldn't leave Bailey out when she was born, so while I was pregnant my mom helped me to recreate from our example blankets and I made her one as well.  Over the last year I have worked on a new one, I really knew I had plenty of time as we continued to wait for our approval, so I worked really slowly.  Recently I finally felt like I just wanted to have that finished and ready for him and check something off the list.  I finished finally and it is all ready for him to come home and warm himself as he adjusts to Idaho weather.  Here is the finished blanket:

And the big kids posed with their loved blankets:

One more thing done, we're almost ready so bring on the referral!

Sheri

Happy Year #3

On Sunday 3/27/11, our family moved into the third year of our journey in this adoption process.  Some significant things have happened during that time that, at times, make this process seem insignificant (but very important to us).  In June 2009 the first global pandemic was announced for the H1N1 since 1968.  The earthquake in Haiti in January 2010 which engaged a large number of people from Nampa, ID from Mission Aviation Fellowship.  The soccer World Cup took place in South Africa during 2010 (first time on that continent).  The one constant in these situations seems to be the human response to help and try to rise to the challenge.

Personally we have celebrated many birthdays, the start of kindergarten, arrival of new niece and nephew, new brother in law and various other life happenings.  Sometimes it is hard to take the global view and look at the overall impact that can be made.  I once read that the most important and difficult job that a person can undertake in their lives is to raise their children well.  I know that many we have connected with during this process certainly want that experience with their child from Rwanda.  We are no different.  We cannot wait to bring home our son and introduce him to the newer family members (as well as everybody else).  We also cannot wait to celebrate the life happenings with our son.  In the future we hope that he learns from the example of those around him, hopefully us, to give back to the world in a great way.  Children are to potential what each new day is to hope, constantly renewing and yet to be realized.

I am pretty sure that we will wake up in the morning and check our email again for the wonderful presence of an email from The Ministry.  I also know that we could be let down in not seeing what we hope.  However, we will continue to hope that the Lord will see fit in his timing to provide us a precious new son to invite into our family, love and help to realize his potential. 

God Bless,  Jeff

Spring Cleaning

We began this week with the intention to do some deep spring cleaning around the house, just get rid of that dust buildup on the plant shelves and all the sticky fingerprints on the doors.  Sometime in the first half hour or so nesting set in, at least for me, I don't think Jeff ever gets excited to start moving around furniture and setting up things we don't need for many weeks at least.  I am thankful he will not deny me when I just want to change things up a little, though he would like to sit and watch some basketball instead.  He really should put that on the family calendar, how am I supposed to know that there are important games happening?  Anyway, we are so hoping to have our referral soon and since we were already moving furniture around the room to clean under and behind, why not put up the crib and while we are doing that we really should paint the wall behind it first, am I wrong?  So, we did all that and we are excited to have the nursery all set up.

Our son, Jacob, the future paleontologist, has wanted us to do a dinosaur nursery forever, but with 2 little girls we just didn't feel that fit.  So, we are now meeting his request and have our little dino bed all set up, hopefully our referral is for a boy :)  Jacob even donated a couple stuffed dinos to the decor. 

We also had to purchase a stuffed Ty Baby Frog to match the others in the house.  Jacob has an elephant, Elliot, since he was born, Camryn a puppy, Penny, and Bailey a hippo, Hannah.  We named our new edition Franklin and the kids just can't keep their hands off him, here he is:

This nursey area is on one side of Bailey's room, she is so excited to share her room.  So, one half is dinosaurs and one half is The Frog Prince.  Here is Bailey's little girly side:

It is so fun to see things all set up in the room, now we are ready to see the little boy who will live there, hopefully soon!

"What's behind the blue gate?"

If anybody knows Sheri and me, they know that we absolutely love our children.  They are the humor, the joy and at times the sadness in our lives.  Their prayers make us long for the innocence that they show.  Their view inspires a continued simple hope in the promise of what is to come.  Their answer to the question that is the title of this post is amazing.

When I came home this evening, I was looking at our new blog while sitting on the couch.  Bailey was looking over my shoulder, and she noticed the picture that was on our front page.  I asked her, "What was behind the blue gate?"  Without even taking a moment to think she immediately responded, "My brother."

You likely noticed the picture that is on the formatting of our blog of a blue gate on a red dirt road.  That gate is the outside of the Home of Hope orphanage operated by the Sisters of Charity.  That is who will match us with our son, who is likely currently taking care of him and who we cannot wait to see.  That blue gate is likely to bring emotions out of us that we cannot yet contemplate.  I liken it to the first time I visited Mexico on a missions trip and visited the children's home or the camp in Galeana.  That blue gate is a hope for us that soon we will have our son home with his forever family.

When we asked each of our children, "What is behind the blue gate?"  Without any prompting, each gives the same response.  Each continues to pray that we will soon see his picture, and that Sheri and I will make that emotional approach to the blue gate in Kigali, Rwanda.

The Coming Days

Friday March 25, 2011 started the way that many have of late.  I am up after 12 am, and I remember that Rwanda is 8 hours ahead of where I am.  I frantically (and I do mean frantically) pick up my phone and check my email to see if we got "it" yet.  What we are getting is our referral.  I feel like Charlie Bucket from Willie Wonka anxious to see that Golden Ticket.  I am almost certain that I won't see it, but I still hold out hope.  I slowly and carefully log into my email and look for a familiar name starting with a "J" that will be from "The Ministry" in Rwanda.  I know that if I do see it I am not allowed, per my marriage vows and threat of repercussion, to open, read or otherwise scan the contents.  And like Charlie Bucket I carefully, and slowly draw out the suspense...to no avail.

We know that there is a time for everything that is happening at this point, but the waiting is enough to drive anyone insane.  I also know that the more times my heart breaks from hearing, "Did we get the picture today?" is the harder it is going to get to sleep.  Not that staying awake until all hours of the night really will help.  Much like a watched pot that never boils, my computer does not spew out the desired email when I wish for it.  As it is, I am going to now close down my computer and get some sleep before I have to wake up in the morning.  Maybe just one more check of my work email to make sure that they didn't send it there by accident.  Oh well, there is always next week if we do not see it on Friday.  God is good, always!

Our Children's Prayers

Since we started discussing adoption with Jacob, Camryn and Bailey, they have been excited in normal conversation daily.  This carries over to their prayers every night before bed.  Often it is something as simple as a prayer that he will get here soon and is safe wherever he is (Jacob) or bless this boy (Camryn and Bailey).  As we have been talking more and waiting longer, the impatience that we express is further shown through our children.  We are imperfect and rely a great deal on God for the peace we need daily.

This week the kids have started talking about "the picture."  We know that when we get a referral from Rwanda, it will not include a great amount of information.  Normally it includes a brief medical history, in French, and a picture that we can use to get a little bit of physical information.  In our conversation over the last few days we have been hopeful for our referral because of ongoing progress that is expressed through our chat room and other sources.  It was especially cute when tonight Camryn said tonight that she could not wait for the picture.  You can imagine the innocent excitement and the giddy face that lights up her beautiful round face and below her curly hair.  You could probably also imagine little Bailey bouncing up and down and yelling, "Yeah!  Yeah!"  It was wonderful to also hear Camryn say that she needed to make sure to pray for the picture tonight.

I know that we will continue to pray with our children for our son.  I know that our Bible study and church groups will also keep us in their prayers.  I also know that God has already been answering prayers as we have gone through this process.  We can wait (if we have to), and I imagine that God is waiting to jump up and down with us and express his joy when we finally receive our referral and plan our travels.

Our life currently...

We started in March 2009 with simple research, prayer and a belief that God had a wonderful child out there for us.  After discussing our thoughts with our good friends, we chose America World Adoption Agency out of Virginia.  After we researched the different programs available, we elected to pursue Rwanda based on their culture, fit with our family, timeframe and other factors.  We started and finished our paper chase and home study process in June 2009.  We waited, impatiently, for our processing through United States Customs and Immigration Service (USCIS).  Our paperwork was submitted to America World to send to Rwanda in October 2009.  Our dossier was forwarded to Rwanda and designated DTR (dossier to Rwanda) on 11/13/2009.

Jacob, Camryn and Bailey are likely the most excited people in our lives when it comes to their new brother.  We have been in constant conversation about when he comes to live with us.  It is fun to hear what they say and to watch them clamor with each other over his absence and affections.  Cannot wait until they are actual big brother and sisters to him.

Fast forward (or plod along) to March 2011.  We received a non-objection (approval) letter from MIGEPROF (The Ministry) saying that they do not object to us as adoptive parents.  Rwanda has changed their process, at times, to try and impose an order on their prospective families on processing their applications.  We were #20 last fall, and other families have travelled and brought home their children before and after us in number.

Currently we are awaiting a referral for our son between 0-12 months.  What we expect to see in the next few weeks (God willing) is an email from The Ministry including a single picture, basic medical information and who knows what else in French.  Beginning at 12am (the start of The Ministry's work day), I start checking my phone email for a possible note telling us great news.  Sheri and I share text messages and emails each day as we wait for the referral.  We also spend some time rejoicing with others from America World and in other groups who have made progress in their adoption process.

We are very excited for the adventure ahead and a culmination of a lengthy "paper pregnancy".  We are excited to take our camera, camcorder and netbook with us to Rwanda so we can share images as we get them.  If you have any other recommendations on what might be interesting, let us know as well.  Thank you for your support, and we cannot wait to introduce you to our son.