Crazy Spring Almost Over

We have 1 more day of school and I can't wait! This has been the busiest time we've ever had, these last 2 months. It was crazy and hectic when we got ready and went to Africa last year, with just 2 weeks notice, but this spring was much more busy. We have had so much going on. I've tried to take pictures of everything but sometimes it has taken weeks to get a few photos from an activity as we've been running around. Today will be the last day for any activities and we are ready for the break after enjoying all of them so much. Here was our schedule after school and work (for Jeff) each day.

We had Boy Scouts on Monday nights, Jeff as an Assistant Scoutmaster and Jacob has recently joined after earning his arrow of light in Cub Scouts and has earned his Scout Rank.

On Tuesdays we had to be especially organized and we didn't always remember some things we needed :)
First we had swim lessons, Jacob in the first session then Camryn and Bailey. They love swimming and are learning so much, it is so nice to know they are safe in the water and having fun!

Once Jacob had finished his lessons I would take him home to shower, then I had to go to Cub Scouts where I still help with Advancement. Isaac and Jacob would eat their dinner once at Cub Scouts or home.

When the girls had finished their swim lessons Jeff would take the 2 of them to the park for Camryn's soccer practice. The girls would eat their dinner in the car on the way. When they had finished they would swing by Cub Scouts to get Isaac so all the kids could go home and get ready for bed and finish showers.

Jeff and I would finally eat dinner once I was home about 9pm.

Wednesdays were a lot calmer, though busy in the mornings since the little kids and I would head to bible study once the big kids were at school.

Jeff would usually walk in the door to eat dinner with the straggler (Isaac) while the girls and I headed out for Girl Scouts. Camryn is a Daisy Scout and one of the other families had a girl Bailey's age so they would play together. We have the last meeting tonight. Camryn will be bridging to Brownie Scouts and Bailey is getting registered as a Daisy Scout. They have really enjoyed all the fun activities, learning so much and the fun field trips we had. I helped as the Cookie mom for the Troop.

We enjoyed a break most Thursdays. Once a month I had a Cub Scout meeting to attend and once a month Jeff had a practice for worship service at church. But usually we had nothing after 4:30 and we really enjoyed time at home together.

Friday we had one more soccer practice for Camryn. Half the time Jeff was still at work, but no matter who was there we would sit and watch her practice a little and the little kids would run and play in the open grass.

Saturdays were very different for us, this was the first time we had a scheduled event week after week. Camryn had 8 soccer games and we tried to support her as much as possbile. Jeff or I would go and sometimes we both got to go. But it was cold the first few weeks and the little kids whined too much to even let us watch the game so sometimes they stayed home with one of us. The last games were beautiful. She learned so much at soccer, this was her first time on a team. She played defense, they don't have a goalie at her age, most of the time and showed so much improvement; she also scored a goal in one game. They don't really keep score, but I think they ended up 3-3-2, all the losses were at the beginning of the season so we were so excited for the girls to get better and better. It was a fun new activity.

We all enjoyed all these activities so much but we will now enjoy the break and look forward to the next time we enjoy them :)

Sheri

Happy Birthday Camryn!

Our sweet girl is 7 today! Camryn is the most energetic kid. She loves people so much. She is Isaac's best buddy. She loves to swim and play soccer. She adores reading and playing video games with Jacob. She loves sharing a room with Bailey. She is just finishing 1st grade and can't wait for her new class in 2nd. She enjoys her bike and scooter. She loves to travel. Camryn is just so fun!

We celebrated her birthday this past weekend

We love you so much, happy birthday Camryn!


Sheri

May 20, 2011

One year ago today was amazing! I don't even know when yesterday ended and today began last year. We were just flying westward on and on and on. At some point during the night we landed in Rome (oh how wonderful if we could have gotten off the plane!) for about an hour and a half to refuel. Then on and on we flew. Isaac did not sleep, he would fall asleep, I would settle him in the bassinet and as soon as I would slip to the restroom or get comfortable to sleep myself he would be awake again and it would be hours before he would fall asleep. Now, the blessing was that he was perfectly happy. He never cried at all on the flight. He drank his bottles, ate his food, was happy, just didn't sleep. I was so exhausted. I finally let Jeff switch with me and try to get him to sleep but it didn't last long. We were too close to landing, and since another person had filled a seat that had been empty the entire flight in our row, we now did not have enough oxygen masks for everyone seated, so Jeff showed up in our back seat and I had Isaac again. But we were finally landing so praise the Lord we did survive the 16 hours on the plane!

Isaac when he did sleep in the bassinet:

Our flight landed in Washington DC and it was so fun. Well, first we had to get through customs, there was the juggling of the baby and all the bags we had carried on and getting papers ready. We waited in a long line with our whole flight, to finally step up to the customs officer. This was where we handed over the visa packet we had guarded with our lives, he set it over to the side, asked a few questions and we were on our way. Isaac and Addy were US Citizens at that moment! We collected all our luggage, took it to check for our next flight, submitted our form about what we needed to declare, went through our final security for the trip and we were free.

We headed right for the restrooms and cell phone coverage. We took turns getting freshened up the best we could when we just wanted a shower and calling or texting our kids, parents, siblings and friends to let them know we were back in America and we were reachable again.

Then we knew where we were headed. You see we had discussed this at length in Rwanda, we had dreamed and planned, discussed almost daily the meal we would have. The 6 of us headed to Chipotle. We wanted lettuse and ice! It didn't matter that it was about 7am at this point. We had wonderful food full of lettuse and we had our fill of soda with ice, it was heaven. The kids enjoyed theirs too but I don't think they were as impressed.

We spent the remaining time we had in DC at our gate for our flight to Denver. The Stengels were on the next flight after us so we had this last bit of time to visit and watch the babies together:

The DC to Denver flight was uneventful, our seats were together this time and so it was much more relaxing. Once we reached Denver we realized the Stengels flight had made much better time and was coming in right after us. We met them at the gate to welcome them HOME and we exchanged our goodbyes :( We know they had a wonderful welcoming by their older kids and many family and friends on the other side of security but we didn't have enough time to go through with them. But we will see them in 2 weeks, yippee, one year later!!!! CANNOT WAIT!

Then our final flight to Boise, it was our roomiest plane by far, so comfortable and enjoyable, also the shortest, of course :) During the 2 flights in the US we experienced the first of many questions, asking where Isaac is from, how long the adoption took, how the trip was/how long it was.... the fun questions we still answer each week and we all enjoy retelling the wonderful gift of our youngest child.

Finally, we landed in Boise. We hurried with all our stuff down to security so we could get the the other side. Our 3 older kids didn't know we were coming home early, they were waiting and watching for their Uncle Cory to come for the weekend and then spotted us instead. It was so wonderful to finally hold them again and to introduce Isaac and we were a mess on the floor. We totally forgot about our camera after capturing the kids as we approached, but you can imagine the rest of the scene:

It was 48 hours from when we awoke Thurs morning until we were back in bed at home Friday night, so we topped off our homecoming with a lot of sleep! And now as we celebrate one year home with Isaac we also have just reached the point where he has lived with us longer than he lived without us, I have so looked forward to May 2012!

Thanks for walking with me back through the memories, we hope to one day go back with all the kids to Rwanda, but for now we are unlimited in the joy of living each day together.

Sheri

May 19, 2011

One year ago today was sooo long and busy. We began the day with breakfast at the guest house, then we visited a coffee factory for a tour before lunch. The coffee factory was very interesting. We walked through the entire process from coffee beans to brewed coffee. There were lots of big, loud machines. Seemed crazy to me that we could take babies through the facility, none of us were required to wear a hard hat or anything. But really the only hard part was the room where they were roasting the beans, it was too much for me and I had to go outside, just hard to breathe, the air was so hot and dusty. We enjoyed this experience a lot.

After our outings we finished packing, called home on skype to give them the details of our arrival and visited with the friends we would soon be parted from. 3 families had left the day before, 2 of us would leave this day, then 2 more the next and the final 2 on the following day. Our travel group was already past the last time we would all be together and we enjoyed getting pictures of the entire group of 32. Now we had our last time to be together with more of our new friends.

That evening about 5pm we loaded all our luggage, us and the Stengels, into a van to head to the airport, it was 8am at home. Getting unloaded, checked in and through the first security was the easiest we had had in Africa, but we also had only 6 people so it made sense. We had a lot of time at the airport as we didn't have any desire to miss this flight and didn't need to be anywhere else. When we had all but gone to our gate when we stopped for a break. We got a little snack to eat, used the INTERESTING bathrooms - oh Dillon the stories you had to tell :)

When the time had gotten close enough to our flight we went through our last security in Africa to our gate, the "cell". We waited in there for about an hour to board. We had changed our flights the day before and so had to see what seats were available. It turned out that the Stengels received the last bassinet seats and we had seats a little ways back, but a nice lady switched seats with me so I ended up with a bassinet as well but Jeff was back in our original seat. It was much easier to have the extra room and bed for Isaac and I was across the aisle from friends.

Isaac slept the first few hours, while I watched a movie, but after that he didn't sleep more than 15 min at a time the entire trip-the long trip, on into tomorrow.....




Sheri

May 18, 2011

One year ago today we finished! We began the day at our appointment at the Embassy. 7 of the families in our group had our visa appointments, the 2 families with the oldest children had to wait on their tb results to be submitted to the Embassy before they could get appointments. Our appointments were set for 9am, so we all traveled over to get through security in time. The place was very full. This Embassy, being in a bigger city and offering more services, was very large and very full. We waited for quite awhile, but really not too bad. The babies all did so well.

When it was our turn, we were called to the window, the technician examined eveything we had submitted, returned our documents, and asked us several questions. After finishing up each family would reorganize their documents and make sure we had been returned everything. These were precious papers and we needed to be sure we didn't leave without having them all. After our group was done we were told to return in the afternoon for visas.

We went to a travel office to change flights for many in our group. Some families choose to leave this day, praying the visas would in fact come though in time. Others choose not to change flights from their original. We decided to change our flights to the next day, which was 2 days sooner than we had originally planned. We wanted the extra time to get our packing done and be sure the visa came in, we also were happy that the money we would save on the accomodations, food, etc would almost pay the entire cost of changing our tickets.

A group of us then visited the Lion Zoo that afternoon while others were packing, and little did we know, at least one family had to run back to the Embassy to show something, stressful for them. I have no pictures to share of the Lion Zoo, it was actually quite depressing to me and I never turned on my camera. It was a good experience and made me really appreciate how well the animals are treated at the zoos I have been to elsewhere. It was nice to walk along and visit with our guide and the other families who went along.

At 3pm that afternoon our guide was able to go to the Embassy and pick up all our visas, the 7 from the appointments earlier that day. We were so thankful to hold those precious packets in our hands. They each had the picture we had taken on Mon on the front with their name and we were not allowed to open them. We had to guard these carefully and have them with us at Customs when we entered the US. How thankful we were to have our last proceeding in Africa done!

That evening we began packing for our travels home. It was so nice to only think about weight and not worry about spreading things out in case we lost a suitcase, we were going home :)

Sheri

May 17, 2011

One year ago today was all about paperwork for us. Our group gathered with one of our guides to fill out some documents and put together a packet for the Embassy to apply for the babies' visas to enter the US. We had brought some paperwork, we needed some others; one of the couples with us was able to print the copies our group was short so we could all get the correct sheets filled in. The hard part for us was the documents we had just received in our care package from Rwanda were not translated into English yet. I went along with one of the dads in our group and one of our guides to find a translation office.

We drove through the city to a new area we hadn't been to yet. It seemed like such a large city, I don't know if it was because nothing was familiar or if we did truly see a lot of the city, or maybe it was just the crazy driving that made the drive feel really long. One time we saw the driver of a van slow down and honk at a person in the middle of the street, when he didn't move fast enough he leaned out and literally pulled him out of the way so the van didn't have to ever stop. It was so different.

When we reached a strip mall type location we entered a translation shop to inquire about getting our 4 documents and the other family's 1 document translated. Our guide had informed us we would have to pay a higher price because we did need them in a hurry, probably twice the normal cost. We understood and of course were happy to pay so we could get the kids home and knew we would probably pay a huge amount if we were in the states, if we could find someone who could translate the ones written in the native language of Rwanda. The manager did have a technician that could translate for us in the short time we had available, I would have to pay twice as much for one of our documents as well because it was extra large, actually 2 sheets long. In the end to get my 4 (5 for the long one) documents translated into english it cost $34.00! Can you imagine, this was twice as much, you know we did not fuss for paying $34.00 for the documents.

After our guide brought back our translations we put together our packets for the Embassy. It was so stressful to take all those documents we had fought hard/waited long for and turn them over. We packaged it the best we could and added in the money for the cost of the visa processing. One member from each family in our group then went over to the Embassy to submit the packets. Once the applications were accepted we were able to receive appointments for our kids' visas. Big step done!!

We had these moments of running around, making sure we covered everything, worrying a little about something, but lots of down time also. We enjoyed different resturants and sights. We really enjoyed spending lots of time in our little apartment, just resting up after the hectic, crazy 2 weeks in Rwanda. Some of the best times, just relaxing and having time visiting with good friends, watching the babies change so much each day, watching "Planet Earth" that Tim and Alison brought :)

Sheri

May 16, 2011

One year ago today we were so blessed, we saw God's hand, yet again, on us. It would be impossible for us to ever say we didn't know if God was with us...wow was He ever. We had our issue over the weekend, along with 3 other families in our group we were missing some paperwork we absolutely needed to bring Isaac home. We had finally communicated to those in Rwanda what we were all missing but we didn't know how we would get them. We heard early this morning that our documents were in Ethiopia!

We had met another family with a different agency while we were at Home of Hope visiting with Isaac. This lovely couple, and their beautiful daughter, were a joy to visit with on our few days at Home of Hope without anyone else from our travel group. It was so quiet on those days, just our 2 families both gazing intently on our new babies. We had then been with this family at the Embassy on the Friday when we were all applying for our visa packets. They received 1 of the 14 packets issued that day; however they were not leaving Rwanda until Sun. Our poa had gathered the medical papers and other documents we were missing then located this couple and passed it all over to them. What an amazing gift that they carried all our papers with them on the flight and dropped them at the medical center where we needed them. Only God could have arranged that they were traveling then, that we had met them, ... all the details.

A few of us were able to run over the the medical center, pick up our package, a joy to see the handwritten note from our poa, and take them to the nurse. She then got the info to submit in our evaluations and they were taken to the Embassy that day. It was great to know that all of our kids' medical evaluations were at the Embassy and we were 1 step closer to going home.

After we got the documents picked up at the medical center we went to another medical center. 2 of the children in our travel group were 2 so they needed to have a tb test as well as the other medical exam. We sat with these families as they waited to see the doctor for the test.

Next, we located a photo shop-leaving the 2 families who had their babies with them- and returned to the guest house, I ran up the 4 flights to get Isaac and knocked on each door on my way up. We all went sprinting with the babies down around the corner to get pictures taken. It was a hot, stuffy, crowded little shop. But it was so fun to see each baby get their first professional photo. We had to have just the right size photo to attach with the rest of the required documents to apply for their visas.

That night we had a wonderful birthday celebration. Our little roommate, Avivah, had her 2nd birthday this day! One of the families had located a bakery and ordered a cake, several members of our group worked on putting up some decorations and all of us had a wonderful evening celebrating her first birthday with her family. Happy Birthday sweet Avivah!!

Sheri

May 15, 2011

One year ago today was a beautiful day in Ethiopia. We had the wonderful opportunity to attend a worship service at a nearby church. I will admit it was so hard to get out of bed that morning. We were bone tired from the previous 2 weeks and once I had the ear plugs to block out all the noise: people, cars, music, animals, ... I was able to sleep so well.

But I was so blessed by dragging myself up and joining the group for church service. We attended a church full of people from all over the world. The service we attended was in english and had the most wonderful worship that morning. The songs were familiar, new to us several months earlier, and the message in each was sent straight from God of what I needed to hear that morning. My desire to stay "home" and my anxiety over what we could do about our missing documents, the concern that we would not make our flight home at the end of the week... He knew what I needed to hear and blessed me so greatly!

After the service our guides took us for lunch at a local resturant. Yesterday we had not ventured out for lunch when we had the opportunity because we were so in need of a nap, so this was our first experience in Ethiopia eating out. We caused a big stir entering the resturant, so many people stopping, watching, coming close to stand and stare, asking questions... We had gone to lunch with our group, our guides, as well as a few families who were staying at the guest house from our agency who were adopting from Ethiopia; either on their first or second trip. The food was very different than in Rwanda so it took some time to determine what was on the menu and order, but it was very good.

We also finally got word to one of our poa in Rwanda about the document needs for a few of us and he was working on getting what we needed. We prayed for it to work out, we had done what we could in communicating it.

Overall, it was a great day, just restful, full of God's peace and with little we could do yet for the process we were able to sit back and breathe for a moment.

Sheri

Mother's Day

Yesterday I received this beautiful necklace. I love it! It is a nest with 4 little beads representing each of my 4 kids. And I love the color, it reminds me of the blue gate at Home of Hope in Rwanda.

Jeff and the kids purchased this necklace from friends of ours from our travel group, the Brannons. They have begun the process to adopt again! Domestically this time. They are hand-crafting these beautiful necklaces as a fundraiser for the adoption of their 4th child. We are very excited for them and can't wait as we follow this next journey! If anyone would like to support their adoption or just want a lovely piece of jewelry you can find them here.

Hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day! My 4 blessings:

Sheri

May 14, 2011

One year ago today we were in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We had flown over night through Uganda to land at the airport where we first touched down in Africa almost 2 weeks ago. Things were so very different. We had those 11 beautiful children this time, praise the Lord, and we were worn out and missing home. But we were also so hopeful, we were one flight closer to home and to our families back home. We were missing our older kids so much.

The airport looked so different this time, we were obviously in a very different building then our previous connection to Rwanda. This was a much larger building. We all went through the process to receive our visas to stay in Ethiopia, a little difficult as we tried to show the correct documents to the officials from the backpacks full of documents we were carrying by this point.

Then we were able to freshen up and round up all our luggage. We had to go through security (again) to leave the building, but on the other side of this we saw the sign held up by our guides in Ethiopia. They had us quickly out to the numerous vans, our luggage loaded up, all 32 of our travel group plus the guides loaded up in the vans and off we went to the guest house.

The drive through Addis Ababa was much different than Kigali. It is a very large city. The driving is still crazy compared to America, but very different than in Rwanda. There was a lot more noise and honking, people everywhere. We saw a lot of different areas during the drive and tried to take it all in, but we were also so tired from being up all night. We finally drove down an alleyway, through the opened gates and into the courtyard of our guest house. It is a lovely building. Just an oasis in the city. I vowed at the moment not to step out of the gates until we had to, it was all so overwhelming, but of course I got more comfortable and enjoyed getting to see more of the city. It was never Rwanda though.

We had just enough time to check in to our rooms, watch the very impressive strength of the women carry our bags up to our rooms and get everything settled inside before we left. The guest house does not have an elevator and so we began the often repeated process of hiking the 4 flights of stairs to our room on the top floor. The rooms were great. Most of us had a similar set up. We entered a common room from the hall, with a seating area, a small kitchen and a patio. Off of this room were 2 bedrooms with a bathroom each. We had the wonderful opportunity to share our "apartment" with the McLennans, and it was a lovely week staying there, not as much for Tim after he sprained his ankle and still had the stairs to deal with :(

After the few minutes to see the rooms we were off for our first appointment in Ethiopia. We were headed to the medical appointments. Each child needed to be evaluated by a doctor so we could have a clearance for their visas to enter the US. It was very different traveling in several smaller vans around town instead of our 1 large van for the whole group we had enjoyed in Rwanda, but it did allow us lots of opportunities to choose different outings that week. We drove to the medical office and waited our turns. It really wasn't too long considering how many kids we had, but it felt longer as we were all nervous about this going well since we didn't want a problem getting the visas.

When it was our turn we took Isaac into the first room where they weighed him, then into another to measure his height and head circumference, Isaac hated this, he screamed through the entire thing, they were only measuring him, it was so different from how he had been and we have no idea why this bothered him so, unless it was just his lack of sleep. Finally we were called into the doctor's office for the actual appointment. She asked us many questions about what we had observed since we met Isaac and she examined him a bit. We were very happy to hear he looked so well, she had absolutely no concerns about him at all. But it was during this appointment that we found a problem with our paperwork. Remember I mentioned we hadn't looked closely enough at the documents we left Rwanda with, well we were missing Isaac's vaccination records and a couple other documents, there were a few families who found they were missing those or some other document. We spent the afternoon and Sunday trying to get ahold of someone in Rwanda about getting the needed items. So, some stress, mostly we had felt like our group was all in the same place in the process finally and now we felt behind again as we didn't have something we needed and we didn't know how much it might hold us up.

The medical appointment was the only thing on the agenda for the day so we returned to the guest house after all the children had finished their appointments. I went with the McLennans on a taxi ride to a local grocery. We picked up some snacks to help out over the week. We had been spoiled with a very close store in Rwanda so we wanted to have what we needed while in Ethiopia. Then we all enjoyed a nice long nap before the lovely dinner prepared by the chef at the guest house. Pizza! We really enjoyed the set up at the guest house, the dinner for the day was always posted in the morning, you only had to let the front desk know how many plates you would like and they would be ready at dinner time and your room charged for the meal. We had this option as well as walking to any nearby resturant that week.

We were able to just rest up and get settled that evening, the time was much appreciated. We ended the day by waiting until 1am to skype with the big kids when they were home from school, then collapsed in bed, waking up to insert earplugs-Addis is much louder!!

Sheri

May 13, 2011

One year ago today, well what to say... it was the exact opposite of the day before. The day before we did nothing, today we did everything. Yesterday we felt hopeless, today we were brimming with hope and yet afraid for when we would have no reason to have anymore.

It was the craziest day. We started at 6:45am at the ministries office. After 4 hours of waiting, of meeting with the new minister (with 3 other families), waiting some more, seeing some monkeys :)

we finally had our "to whom" letter in hand-now all families in our travel group had this important document after a week of begging for them.

With this in hand we rushed off to the other side of town. Jeff and Tim ran into submit the letters so we could receive the kids' passports. Alison and I ran to the Embassy to join the rest of our group to complete our appointments to receive our visa travel packets. By the time we went through security into the waiting area some of our group had left, they had completed their appointments and submitted all their documents. We sat with the remainder and filled out a document and watched the door for the dads. After 2 hours we saw them running across the street to enter. As they were coming through security I approached the window and started submitting the documents for our appointment, Jeff rushed in and handed me Isaac's passport and "to whom" letter as our final items and we began. We had to answer questions, but this was the wonderful consulate we had met last week and she was so helpful yet again. It was 2 hours later before we had finished everything at the Embassy for our group, the McLennans and us being the final 2. But by this time some of our group had already begun to come back as they had been told to return at 3, the consulate said she would do what she could and we should all come back at 5 to see what she had.

This was a long 2 hours. We knew that this was the consulate's last day in Rwanda and that she was moving over the weekend, we also knew she normally processed up to 5 maximum of these packets per Friday. We didn't see why she would really be motivated to help us, she could just say her time was over, she was off and she needed to pack and catch her plane. We know God's hand was on our process that afternoon. The dads all returned to the Embassy at 5, but she was still working, they waited-along with 2 other families who were also waiting for their packets-and an hour later she came out and had all 14 childrens' packets ready!! Praise the Lord! She worked so hard, she went so beyond what was necessary and we couldn't have been more excited.

The dads came to the hotel and for some of us, who didn't want to be too hopeful and be let down, knowing our packets were at the bottom of her pile to process, had to hurrrrrry and pack. We were so overjoyed! In our room/Stengels room, we had our last pizza from Sole Luna :) and just hit the suitcases. From the time they returned we had 4 hours to be ready to meet and depart with the group. It was enough time to not worry but we did have a lot to do. We were extremely thankful for the family who brought a luggage scale so we could stay below our 50 pound limit per suitcase. At the meeting we received a packet of documents and we loaded up the vans. We were just so glad to be making our flight we didn't remember to check our documents for everything, but that came up another day :)

We left the hotel at 10:30pm that Friday night and went to the airport for our 1:30am flight. Turned out we could have used a bit more time. We sat in line for security and slowly walked through to the other side. Then we waited, for hours, in line to check in for our flight. It was insane. Each family had a different issue but we all had one and it was hard to get through. Eventually a member of each family was sent up, individually, to another room then back down all while all the rest of us waited in line. It is so difficult to describe, but it took forever. Finally we ran up the stairs to the gate security, through there and to the gate. By the time we made it to the gate, outside and down to the boarding area, we along with the 2 families behind us were missing the flight. We are so grateful that we had a wonderful travel group who refused to let them close the doors and we all ran across the cement and up to the door of the plane. When our 3 families were aboard the door shut and we took off! Barely made it, for the late to leave 1:30am flight.

We so would have loved to stay in Rwanda longer, it is so beautiful, we love it, we would go back tomorrow if we could, but on this night we couldn't have been happier than to make that flight. We were with our group, we were all in the same place of the process, we were on schedule...and we were on our way home again, with just a week stop in Ethiopia. It was an exciting and crazy day and I am so thankful for how God showed up for all of us.

I am looking right now at the beautiful pictures of each of the children in our travel group, I won't post them here without their parents' permission, but let me assure you they are the most precious children and we were so glad to be going on that flight with all of them. A last look at our hotel, we would miss it:

One of the families with us had a photographer come that week to take some photos and they were so sweet to have her take photos of all the families. Here is a picture she took of us on one of our last days in Rwanda:

We had an amazing time in Rwanda, some very hard times, but also some of the best of our lives. We miss it so and pray we will one day be able to return.

Sheri

May 12, 2011

One year ago today was really hard. We did absolutely nothing for our process. The bright side was having Isaac with us full time. But we were beyond frustrated, we were so anxious about what the timing would be, we still had so much to do and we had plane tickets for the next day. We were angry, saddened, felt so small. Just not a good day for our emotions. It was hard to keep our hope up, to finish and get home to our older kids, by the end of this day. It is hard to think back to this day. I can say I know God was with us that day, no doubt. And we had so much support from friends, I can't imagine the state I would have been by the end of the day without the McLennans and Stengels. We were so very thankful (again!) on this day for having the great blessing of a travel group. There were praises on this day as well, most of our group received their children's passports and we finally had the final court ruling for the group, woo hoo!

Sheri

May 11, 2011

I have loved thinking back over our trip last year, one day at a time. There were so many things we couldn't share with anyone while we were in it. Things that we weren't allowed to share until we finished and other times we just didn't have the internet connection to share anything. It seems like it was so recent and yet also so long ago that we were in Rwanda. I have so many great memories. There were so many hard times, and yet with the passing of time and the Lord's blessings those things aren't as hard to remember as they were to live through. We have seen so much good come out of some of the things that were so hard at the time.

The hardest part of the trip was always being behind, waiting and waiting to get the next one piece of paper we needed to get on to our son, to the place where the other families were. Not that it was all easy for them, it wasn't!, but we just wanted to get to where they were because they had met their children already, or they had their children during the days, or whatever. But we saw even during our trip reasons why our experience was different, because of God's plan.

On the day when we finally had passed court and could take Isaac for the day (which was yesterday's post) we saw a big reason why God waited with us. We had only visited with Isaac at most 3 hours in a day, usually much less, at Home of Hope up to taking him out for the day. When we had him with us he opened up so much. He had played with us a little during visits and he had never minded us holding him or anything but he slept a lot and he was just what I thought of as zoned out most of the time. We knew we had turned his world upside down already because he was used to being in his room, not outside, and we were strangers and with different coloring than almost anyone else he saw daily. So we didn't think his behavior was unusual at all.

At the hotel though, he was different. He was smiling so much, he was engaged with the toys and us, he was talking-babbling, he was alert, his eyes fully open. We were so glad to see him getting used to us. But when we returned to Home of Hope in the afternoon, the moment we walked back through the gates he changed again. During the visit that afternoon he zoned out again, he wasn't talking at all, he didn't really smile, his eyes closed down again. We saw God's hand in our timing then. The other kids seemed to be adjusting so well, over the time with their visits and the days when they would go out but have to be brought back, I hadn't seen them each day of course but they seemed to me to be connecting well with their parents/grandparents and being back with the nannies. We were so thankful that we never did have to leave Isaac at Home of Hope again after we had custody during the day. We don't know for sure but seeing his reaction when we returned we just don't think he could have handled being left, or what he would have thought when we returned the next day. As it was we did have custody to take him "home" to the hotel and the moment the van pulled away he was back, he was smiling and alert again. In that moment I knew God had planned our documents, all the timing, perfectly because for this little guy he needed to leave only once with us. I would definitely go through all that again knowing it was the best. I knew God's plan would be the best and would work out but it was hard to keep my thoughts on that during the hard times, how I would love to go back and enjoy all the great times with 100% certainty of the best as I know it now. Not being envious of those whose journey was different, we all had so many difficulties, so much waiting that was just so hard, but God worked it all out in His timing for each of us. We could see sometimes why and others we didn't but He had good reasons.

So, one year ago today, I contemplated all of this a lot. We had a great day of just being with Isaac. We still waited for our "to whom" letter, not knowing if the minister would be able to sign. She was in her office but of course there are a lot of things to do besides our one document. We really did so many fun things this day. We went again to the market and we were able to pick out more items to bring home, after our donations to Home of Hope we even had room in the suitcases.

We had the best time at the hotel. We spent a lot of time with the Stengels just enjoying having our 2 babies together, after the 2 years of dreaming that we would one day be together. We were overwhelmed with the blessing again that God let us travel together. And we played with them, watched them sleep, ate together....it was wonderful!

Aren't they the sweetest?!!

And for naptime, Addy was just on the other side of the wall on their bed and Isaac laid down here for his, how precious that day was!

Sheri

May 10, 2011

One year ago today was what I think of as our Gotcha Day! We had received our court ruling the previous day which gave us the opportunity to pick Isaac up in the morning for the day. It was a great and busy day.

The absolute best part of the day (having Isaac was awesome but also a given for the day) was with our friends. They went to the ministry and finally received their referral!! We had seen the nuns leave with the special package from Home of Hope that contained their referral days earlier and had been praying it into their hands. Today was the day! And we had the awesome privelage of being at Home of Hope when they met their daughter for the first time, it was amazing and beautiful. We celebrate with them today!! Love to the McLennans!

Here is the truck carrying their referral to the minister's office:

Our day consisted of picking up Isaac early and taking him back to the hotel, we were able to give him a bath for the first time and dress him in some of the clothes we had brought for him.

First time in the van:

We were so excited to find this Denver Bronco jersey at the second hand store, and it fit him; mostly excited because it was Denver not Boise State.

We went to apply for Isaac's passport next, we needed one more document before we could receive it but we were glad to start the process. The passport office was very busy so we had to wait awhile, we enjoyed a hilarious Japanese show about artists while waiting.

We were excited for the other 7 families in our group to receive their 'to whom' letters when we visited the ministry, what a blessing; but we could not have ours signed. We had a bit of a set back in this area. On the 6th when we recieved our referral the minister was let go from her position, she signed the letters that she could but since our court ruling was on the 9th we fell into the next minister's term. We now had to wait until she was sworn in and began working, very stressful; we did see the President of Kigali's motorcade today while we were driving maybe going to the swearing in ceremony for the new ministers.

We had a bit of time in our hotel in the afternoon as well before we went back to Home of Hope. We loved seeing Isaac play, crawl around, babble and smile for the first time. It was also the first time we could feed him food we brought or purchased, bottles we prepared, such a fun and normal activity with our son.

While we visited at Home of Hope in the afternoon, we were able to give some gifts for the children, clothes and supplies mostly, some candy. We enjoyed the amazing meeting of the McLennan's newest daughter and the joy of seeing all our group together with all their children for the first time. This was also a chance to thank all those who work at Home of Hope and care so well for the children. Here we are with a group we wanted to thank especially:

Jeff & Isaac during our visit:

It was also a hard visit as we knew we needed to leave him for the night once the visiting hours ended, but just at 5pm Home of Hope received a call, because of the unique situation of our court ruling and change in minister we had been given custody over night as well. It seemed crazy that we had legally adopted him as of the day before but didn't have full custody, so this was such a huge blessing. We had seen the effects of taking him for the day and bringing him back so we were so very thrilled when we never had to leave him again. Since one year ago today Isaac has been with us 24/7! To me that has been our Gotcha Day.

It was so great that night when we laid him in his new little bed and we could see him sleeping whenever we wanted. We tried to get pictures and use the camera while we were on skype with the kids, to finally show him to them in person, it was just too dark in our room by midnight.

It has been a wonderful year.

Sheri

May 9, 2011

One year ago today was amazing! We got word in the morning that we had our court hearing scheduled. We went to the courthouse first thing and waited, watching as many arrived for work. We saw the judge arrive, and he is intimidating, wow about 7 feet tall, commanding presence, we couldn't believe he pulled himself out of the little car. We did get in to see him pretty quickly compared to all the waiting we had done in country. We entered his office with one of our poas, we knew many of the things we needed to mention in our request, and after all this was translated the judge asked us a few questions. When he asked about our son I pulled out the referral picture to show him and he smiled and asked if he could see it, it was fun to hand it over to him for a few minutes. It was a formal meeting but he obviously enjoys these types of meetings. At the conclusion of our meeting the judge said we could return at 2pm for our ruling, we were so excited to hear that same day.

Isaac played a bit on our visit today:

We just fell more in love with his sweet face each day:

After that we went to the ministry, some families were requesting their final letter needed for travel and one family was waiting for their referral, so we were requesting that all these letters be provided on this day. It was a long wait out in the courtyard, between speaking with our case workers and other staff, filled with prayer.

We returned to the courthouse for our ruling that afternoon. This was different than the previous group. We were asked to sit in for the court ruling to be read. We entered a new building in the back, off the tiered area we sat the week before. We felt like we were walking the plank as we descended some wood ramps and some stairs, past many shelves of box after box of files. Then we were in the courtroom, we sat on benches facing 2 tables on a raised platform in the front. The judge and an assistant entered and were sat at the tables. It was a really cool experience. There were 5 groups in the courtroom that day. For each group it was pretty much the same. The assistant called out our names, we stood and walked to stand in front of the judge's table. The judge then read out in french the entire ruling, while the assistant was writing it all in the native language of Rwanda. We had no idea what was being said so we just stood as respectfully as we could and listened. When the judge stopped speaking we weren't sure what was next and he must have noticed, he lowered his voice, leaned towards us and waved his hands as he said "it is done." He smiled at us and we were beyond thrilled. Isaac was now legally our son :) And we had such a fun experience. Today marks the 1 year anniversary of his adoption!

We didn't get a photo with the judge this day, he was really under the weather and we were so thankful for his time already, but here is a photo with the judge when we had our ruling for our re-adoption in Idaho:

It was a much longer wait after, as we needed to receive the documents of the court ruling. We took these directly to the ministry to be submitted so we could also request our letter for travel. We also gave them copies of the passport pictures we had printed for the group while we were waiting at court so they could be used for everyone's "to whom" letters. We did not get the letters on this day but we would be able to have custody tomorrow since we had received our court ruling today.

These photos were hard to get, we had to have them just right with each kids' face straight on, both ears showing, we ended up needing more for passports, but this is what we submitted for our letter at the ministry:

This was an amazing day, but we did so much running around and just the craziness of the day tired us all out so much, we had a quiet night at the hotel. We had some pizza in our room with the Stengels (we had adjoining rooms) from our favorite place and just relaxed, enjoyed the progress of the day and discussed our hopes for the next day.

Happy Adoption Day!

Sheri

May 8, 2011

One year ago today was Mother's Day and it was a really fun day. We missed our older kids of course, but did get to talk with them, and how much do I love skype that I could see their faces almost every day of the trip. And we didn't have to wait til midnight to call them since it was Sunday :)

We began this Mother's Day by attending a local church where one of our poa serves in ministry. We actually arrived, with 9 of the new kiddos, about an hour late. This was intentional since we wouldn't understand the language and had the babies with us. We then had the opportunity to listen to a member of our group, a grandpa who came along to help, share with the congregation. It was, as always, a fun experience listening to something shared and translated.

After the sharing and offering we worshipped with the members of the church. And oh how wonderful that was. They really know how to worship. The music was awesome, the enthusiasm contagious, their praise was felt in that building and God was glorified. One of the best moments of the trip.

In the afternoon we first went to do some shopping. There was a great little market with many stalls, lots of similar items but always a little different. We looked around a bit but had to get some items. We so love the little baskets, the necklaces, dolls and paintings, everything handmade of course and beautiful.

Halfway through the shopping expedition we were provided a taxi since we were the only ones to visit at Home of Hope that day. We enjoyed the experience and quickly we were back with Isaac for our afternoon visit. This day was a bit different. We were able to feed Isaac some food, I think they either had dinner a bit early or we were able to stay a little past. But it was great to see what he was used to eating and learn more about his daily life. We were excited, and surprised, to learn he was eating normal table food. We had assumed, like some of the other children, that he was mostly only having formula and maybe had only slightly been introduced to baby food. They handed us a bowl with bits of chicken, rice and vegetables. He ate it up well. He also was awake during this visit and even played a little with some toys we had brought and looked at the pictures of the big kids. He loved the little album of the other kids so much.

It was a great day, of course we were anxious for Monday when the offices would be open and we could make more progress towards having Isaac with us.

All the moms received these beautiful flowers from one of our pos:

Stayed awake for our visit:

Over spring break this year we went to a local museum in Boise to see the 100th anniversary for Girl Scouts exhibit. On our walk through the museum we were so excited to see these donated Rwandan baskets from a local resident who is from Rwanda, just like some we bought during our shopping:

Sheri