Party

We haven't gotten any good news on the adoption in quite a while now. We're still not back to where we were 17 months ago. It's so discouraging.

I read today's post on Lysa TerKeurst's blog and it was very fitting for me. She talks about not asking God "why" when you're in a difficult situation but instead asking "what now". As in, what would You have me do, learn, glean from this now. You can find the post at www.lysaterkeurst.blogspot.com .

We had our party at church last night. It was a lot of fun but I'm glad it's over. This is the way it looked before the people got there.

This is A dressed as an 80's girl.

And her friend E as a red hat society lady.

This is A helping E avoid a wardrobe malfunction.

There was a Dolly sighting.

And a pretty pirate lady.
And a bunch of crazy people.

Robin Hood and Maid Maryann were there. (That's R and bf).

And a biker guy chick (or maybe a biker chick guy??)

Raggedy Ann showed up.

Cakes for the cakewalk. We gave 24 cakes away.

This is pumpkin head. There was a tub with cooked spaghetti noodles and peeled grapes. They couldn't see into the tub and just had to reach into it and find the "eyes" in amongst the "brains" and put the eyes back into place. (It has a candy in it's mouth as a tongue for the pic.)

There really were kids there too. They played all the games and collected candy and had a lot of fun.

Who is this guy? Where have we seen him before? Oh yeah, last year. Or was that his twin?

Thanks to the loan of a bunch of straw bales, we had the biggest and best hay bale maze ever.

Whew! He made it.

Mono, parties and pet pics

This has been a busy week. We had a big sale at work yesterday. Well, it's all weekend but Saturday was the big day. R said her throat was sore. I took a look in her throat and decided that she needed to get to a clinic. She left work early and found a clinic that would take her and her ins. The strep test was negative so they tested her for mono. It was positive. She doesn't act real sick but we're trying to make her take it easy. She is resisting.

Nothing new on the adoption front. It's very discouraging.

We're having a party Wed. evening at church. All these parties and sales are fun but I'll be glad when they're over. R and bf are planning on being Robin Hood and Maid Maryann, A is planning to dress up like a guy and I think I'll pull out the Queen of Hearts costume again. Last year I was Pippi Longstocking and everyone thought I was the Wendy's girl. You can't mistake the Queen of Hearts though. T has a King of Hearts but it's hard to get him to dress up.

R took this pic of Sanome. I was there first and she wormed her way in behind me. It's kind of comforting to have a soft, warm, purring creature squashed to your back but she doesn't look very comfortable. I like this pic though.
T took this one. He calls it "absorbing The Word" (she was laying on two Bibles).

Oh, I love this one. A called me and said to get the camera as Misty was being cute. As soon as I walked into her room Misty popped her head up. She stared at me for a few seconds and put her head back into A's hand. Isn't that precious?

Life

No good adoption news. Are you surprised? We seem to hit every possible problem. I guess most of our file is good except for one paper. It is still stuck in Parquet while the rest of the file is in the lawyer's hands. I think. It will all still have to go through MOJ to get stamped. Please, please pray for us and for this file. We've already lost one and went so far backward that we haven't caught up to where we once were. We're at 37 months of waiting. It's just so hard.

The old, ugly 5th wheel belongs to my brother. He hired my children to clean it up for him. I must say that it looks about 90% better. We're hoping that his wife gives it the thumbs up so it can be hauled off of our property and onto his. He's planning on putting it on his back 40 so SIL won't even have to look at it. And I won't either. Sounds like a plan to me.

I mentioned a long time ago about needing to start coloring my hair and that I would do that after I turned 40. I turned 40 back in Jan. I was plucking gray for a long time but it got to the point that I either needed to color or get a wig because the grays were overtaking my head. I recently tried a temporary color at first to see if I liked it. It was a liquid. I got that mess everywhere. I decided that if I continued coloring it might be worth the money to have someone do it for me so that I wouldn't ruin everything in my bathroom. The color was okay but I got drips of brown liquid all over. Not a good thing when you have a white shower curtain and rug. My friend talked me into trying it again and gave me some pointers. I tried a cream this time and it went much better. The color matched my natural color, sans gray, well enough that I'm sure I just surprised some people who read this who know me in person. If you're thinking about coloring I have one word for you. Cream.

I've been camping out in Eph for the past few weeks. Yeah, it's a little detour from the Psalms. It's really been impressed on me that our struggle to bring J home is a fight that is much more about the spiritual than the physical. I've read Eph. 6 over and over and in multiple translations. My favorite is the Living Bible, which is the "old" paraphrase and not a literal translation but I love the way it's worded in there. Eph. 6:10-16 "Last of all I want to remind you that your strength must come from the Lord's mighty power (I'm so glad it doesn't have to come from me!) within you. Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand safe against all strategies and tricks of satan (oh, he's a sneaky one). For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against persons without bodies-the evil rulers of the unseen world; and against huge numbers of wicked spirits in the spirit world (it sure feels like we're fighting against flesh and blood sometimes but it ain't so). So use every piece of God's armor to resist the enemy whenever he attacks, and when it is all over, you will still be standing up (I love it! Someday we will come to the end of this adoption process battle and we will still be standing up. That's good stuff!). But to do this, you will need the strong belt of truth and the breastplate of God's approval. Wear shoes that are able to speed you on as you preach the Good News of peace with God. In every battle you will need faith as your shield to stop the fiery arrows aimed at you by satan." And he throws oh so many fiery arrows. And sometimes my faith shield is oh so lacking. Pray for us, please.

I think a thankful list would be good here. It's been a while since I've done one. I'm thankful for the rain we've had in the last couple of weeks. I'm thankful for my hubby and children. And for our pets. I'm thankful for my church family. I'm thankful for music.

Cats in the spotlight

We've had an interesting day. I don't know anything new about our adoption file. Sigh...but work was interesting. They are having a "best scarecrow contest" for our dealers and we have some very creative dealers. I loved them. We have a cat scarecrow, a sponge bob scarecrow and a crow with a scarecrow in it's beak amongst others.

T called me at work this afternoon and said that he bought a 5th wheel. I did not believe him. He likes to jerk my chain now and then. When I got home there was indeed an old, ugly 5th wheel in my yard. We were all looking at it when my mom says, hey, there's a cow behind your house. We got ready to chase it into a pasture until we could figure out whose it was when it crossed into the neighbor's pasture. Our problem quickly became the neighbor's problem and we fixed the hole in the fence to make sure it stayed his problem. However, the dogs are carrying on like crazy and I'd guess it has something to do with the cow. Oh, the 5th wheel doesn't belong to us, it's just parked here for now.

I snapped this pic of Misty yesterday. Hence the title of this post. The lens cover didn't open completely and she was laying in a spot of sunshine and this is what I got when I snapped the pic. I think it's really cool.
R's bf was sitting in the living room yesterday and he asked what was up with Dexter on the towels. He said he was using the bathroom and looked up and saw this-two glowing eyes.

It caught him off guard. T made this shelf for above the toilet in the girls' bathroom out of an old door that we salvaged out of an old house. Dexter has never gone up on it before but he decided that the towels looked like quite a comfortable place for a nap.

Misty often jumps up on the bar stools and sits there watching everything going on in the kitchen. Sometimes she reaches up and sneaks things off the counter to play with or eat. Sometimes she just sits there and looks cute.

Isn't she cute?

Another "black Friday"

It's so hard to go so long without hearing any good news. Fridays seem to be the worst. You know another week has gone by and it will be at least a few days before you hear anything again. It represents another week, which turns into another month, which turns into another year. We are fast aproaching our 4th Christmas without J here. He still has presents in his room that have been waiting on him from last year. I don't see how this is good.

Our file is still not out of MOJ. It's just a stamp for crying out loud. Stamp it already! So we're still not back to MOI, still not back to where we were 17 months ago. There are days that we wish we'd never walked down this road.

Day trip

R, her bf and I went to bf's grandparent's farm yesterday. We had a good time and it was a beautiful place. Thanks Pawpaw and Bubba (shortened from a slavic form of the word for Grandmother).

As of this morning our file was still not out of Ministry of Justice and I haven't heard anything new. It's beyond frustrating. Please pray. If it doesn't get out by tomorrow it will have to wait until next week because Friday is a holiday in Haiti. I'm so tired of this 37 month paper pregnancy. Blech!

Trying to keep it positive, here are some pics from our day trip. R and bf were on the 4-wheeler and I was in the gator with Pawpaw and the dogs. Aren't they cute?

We stopped on a bridge that overlooked a river/creek. The dogs loved the water.

R and bf walked down there too.

This is a dam and the foundation of an old mill in the shadows.

This is an old stone and one of the turbines from the mill. It's now a yard ornament.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, I had to snap this pic of one cat overflowing the remote basket and another one overflowing a box on the floor. I'm not sure what the third one is doing but I thought the other two were funny. Misty really thinks she fits in the basket.

Th, th, that's all folks.

New pics

We got some great new pics. Thanks to another adoptive mom, J! (Another "J". This could get confusing.) Here is our J, sitting on top the monkey bars or whatever they're called.

Oh yeah. All boy. I love this pic.

Hang on, kiddo!

Love the kid in front of J with the sunglasses. He has two pairs of sunglasses on and neither one is doing him any good. One is on top of his head and one doesn't have lenses. Too funny.

Rolling on the floor, looking pretty happy about something. Maybe he was busting some new dance moves?

Oh, I can't wait to get him home. Please, Lord. Let it be soon.

Nice ending to a rough week

This has been a rough week. We are weary after being "paper pregnant" for 37 months. But the good news is, our file got out of Parquet and possibly out of Ministry of Justice. It will go back to MOI next and at that point we will be back to where we were 17 months ago. Lord, keep Your hand on that file this time around. Please.

New pics to come, maybe tomorrow, compliments of one of the other moms.

Rain

It is raining. Thank you, Lord.

Sorry about the blogging break

The blogging break was unintentional. We've just been busy.

We got to talk to J on his birthday. That was so cool. He sounded so happy. I said, "Hey kiddo, how are you?" And he said, "I'm fine. And you?" Somebody must be working on phone etiquette and/or manners with them. He said he was having a good birthday and that they were eating ice cream. I asked what kind it was but he didn't seem to get that so I asked what flavor it was and he said it was brown, white and red. I'm guessing Neopolitan.

We got to "see" J today. They do skype calls every other Sunday afternoon as weather permits. Today is overcast in Haiti but we/they tried it anyway. We were able to see J over skype but we couldn't hear him and he could hear us but not see us. So we talked and sang and he smiled and nodded and signed "I love you." How precious is that?

T and I went to the movie "Fireproof" this week. Have you seen it yet? It's very good. I think it's awesome that this church in GA is reaching people the way they are. What a great tool. There is a song in the movie called "While I'm Waiting" and it's done by John Waller. Oh my gosh, I will be getting the CD. So perfect for us in our waiting for J to come home. We're pushing the 37 month mark since starting the paper chase. Sigh...

Someone who loves us went to Paris and all we got was this. But it's chocolate so it's worth a lot in my book. Thanks C and S!

R and her bf were going outside the other night and they came right back in saying that there was a possum in the driveway and how were they going to get through? So, us being the goofy people we are said, let's take a pic! It was a kodak moment after all. So bf takes the pic and hands the camera back and just about the time R says, "How are we going to get around it?" bf starts running and flailing his arms and making this strange hissing sound. The possum was gone before R got all her words out.

We have not had rain here for over a month now. Sigh...everything is an ugly brown color and dust is covering it all. When you slam the hatch down on the van you have to turn your head away so it doesn't choke you. We have had some cool nights though and actually got out the feather comforter. We haven't gotten as far as putting it on under the quilt yet so it's just laying on top of the bed. Sanome is enjoying it and here is a pic of her. A perfect picture of relaxation. Makes me want to curl up next to her. Or wake her up.

That's all for now.