Adoption

I read on another blog that JSCIS wanted people to blog about their adoptions today. I don't know why. This whole blog has been a lot about our adoption story. You can click on the labels of "adoption", "adoption (or lack thereof)" or "or lack of adoption" to read all about it. Here it is in a nutshell; we made the decision to adopt in August of '05 and began the homestudy and dossier prep in Sept. of '05. We also contacted a few orphanages and printed out pics of a few boys. In Oct. '05 we were matched with J but birthmom was saying no at first. Just before Christmas '05 she said yes. We slowly muddled through the Haitian process and by April of '07 J had our last name in an adoption decree. All we had to do was go through the Ministry of Interior and get a passport and visa. Yeah, right. In April of '08 it was determined that our file was lost (along with 3 others) and we began the process of "reconstituting" the file. By the time our file entered MOI again in early Jan. '09 I had decided to spend the month in Haiti with J at T's parents. His mom had pneumonia and back to back teams so we helped out some with that. Hardest thing I've ever done and I'm so glad I did it. I still sometimes work off that base I established with him during that time. They added to the MOI process while I was there and we didn't get the passport until July of '09. We got a visa appointment in August and came into the states on Aug. 29th and home on the 30th. And here we are, 7 1/2 months later.

Sanomae's laundry

I haven't posted a "Sano in the laundry" pic for a while but not because she hasn't been in it. This cat loves, loves, loves the clean, warm clothes that come out of the dryer. She roots through them like a little piggy searching out the warmest and most comfortable spot. Then she lays there and snags her claw on anything that you try to pick up and fold. Here is what I found yesterday.
Yup, that's her tail sticking out. It was the only part of her that wasn't covered.

I started pulling some things away and folding them when I found this.
Aww, I woke it up again. Isn't that too bad? But isn't she cute?

We've had a few crummy weeks in a row as far the adoption process goes, or doesn't go in this case. Apparently they can't find the "register" which is the book they need to make our new extract of archives paper. While I'm not that surprised, I am very discouraged, disillusioned and frustrated beyond belief. If you believe in God, please pray for us. I'm not holding up well under the strain right now. I can see the strain in the rest of the family too. Thanks.

Pics from trip

We are back. We had a nice time and it was good to go but it's good to be back. We've kind of jumped right back in to things. We still haven't heard anything from anyone about the adoption process. This is very hard to deal with. Huge sigh...

Well, I promised pics from the trip so here they are. We don't have tubing pics yet but I did take a "waterproof" camera with me so when I get them developed we'll see if we can scan any of them in, if they are worth the effort. Most of the pics were taken by T and the girls.
Old barn. I really like this one.

Cabin in the woods.

Path in the woods. I really like this one too.

Here's an old mill wheel. I love the moss on it. Oh, the stories it could tell if it could talk.

This is a bridge over a little waterway.

An old church.

Just some scenery.

My mom wanted me to take her pic with this old heater. She said her and her brother used to race each other down the steps to see who could get closest to the bottom of an old heater just like this. I guess the bottom is where the heat came out. They grew up in WI so who got the prime heat location was a big deal.

And of course we did the go-carting thing. A of course beat us all. This is me in the purple cart and the son of some friends in the other cart.

Here is A, the little speedster.

We have not fallen off the face of the earth...

...we are vacating with some family and friends. Pics to come. We are having a nice time, mostly relaxing. Just wanted you to know we are still here. We still know nothing new about the adoption process. Pray for us, it's so hard.

Life

It's really quiet here right now. The girls are gone and T is at a meeting. I just finished baking 3 loaves of sourdough wheat bread so it smells really good. I'm a bit melancholy with this being another "no news Friday". I'm so sick of them I could scream. Sometimes it feels like this whole process is driving me crazy. I keep asking God to work it together for good, but I just don't see the good. Maybe I'll just do a thankful list and show you some pics. Let's see, T just got home and we can spend some time together. It looks like rain and we really need some. I got a bunch of scrubs donated for the nannies at our O. They are in great shape and there's a lot of them. I'm thankful for a job. I'm thankful that A has not crashed our cars, yet. My hair turns gray by the second when I ride with her but the cars are all still in one piece and so are we.

Okay, pics. A wrapped Dexter's head up in a scarf.

It looks like a turban and he looks real pleased, don't you think?

I recently had 4 teens in my kitchen baking for a bake sale.

Baking, baking, baking and having lots of fun.

Here are a few of the things they baked.

And I have no idea what that face was for but I thought it was funny.

Father's day and the waiting game

Happy Father's day (a day late) to all you dads out there. I feel blessed to have a dad and a husband who strive to be Godly men. We had a nice time at my parent's house with my brother and his family. We had just finished up dinner when J called. We all got to say hi to him and we sang to him in Creole and he sang to us in English. We were with him last Father's day. I never in my life dreamed that he wouldn't be here with us this year.

The waiting is getting to me again. A month and a half ago I was just happy that they declared our file lost and were working on it again. Now it's back to the same old waiting game that I am so weary of. There is not much communication as to what is going on with the file. It's all very frustrating. Please pray for us.

Pray for Tricia Lawrenson too. You can see her updates on CFhusband's blog.

I think I should do a thankful list. I'm thankful for the rain we had over the weekend. It was much needed. I'm thankful for a great family. I'm thankful for great friends.

Another "no news Friday"

Here we are, 33 months into this crazy adoption process and no news. Fridays are hard with no news because you know it will be at least 3 days before you have a chance to hear something again. Huge sigh...

The real story of the Spiderman shirt

Okay, I got the real story behind the Spiderman shirt. Remember that I mentioned that I had not given him that particular shirt, but another T-shirt a while back. I said how the kids share everything. Well, the mom who took the stuff down told me that she had told the kids at church that their parents had sent gifts and that she would be over to the boys house later to give them their things. Well, the boys apparently couldn't wait and they came over to the girls/babies house and she had to dig through all the suitcases to find the gifts. She found everyone's except J's. She could tell he was kind of bummed but he understood. So she gave him a Spiderman sweatshirt that was sent down with her for the O. When she found his stuff and brought it to him the next day, there he was in the sweatshirt, in 90 degree heat. So here is a pic of when he got the sweatshirt.

I've been reading the book "The Shack". My SIL recommended it to me and even let me borrow her copy, even with the dog ears and highlighter marks. I feel a lot of emotions and a long post coming on after I finish it. I don't know when it will be as I don't have that much time to read. So far it's very good and I recommend it.

Please pray for our adoption process. It feels so painfully slow. It's been almost 33 months since we started the process and no end in sight that we can see. It's been over a year now since we've had forward movement. I struggle. I personally know of at least 3 couples who have waited longer but it doesn't make me feel better. It just makes me feel bad for their wait. It should not be so difficult to adopt a child. Thanks.

Congrats to...

...it seems like a lot of congrats going out for a lot of people. Family by Love bought the plane ticket for their son to come home. Congrats to them. Tricia and Gwyneth (CFHusband blogspot) are both out of the hospital and will be heading home to Outer Banks soon. Congrats to them. The littlest Johnson-McCormick finally made her appearance. Congrats to them on the birth of Meera Grace. You can check them all out on their blog links to the right.

Boy, I feel left out. Nothing new under the moon in our adoption process. It feels like he'll never come home. Sometimes I wonder if people think this is all a hoax or that we've been duped. Sometimes it's very hard to trust-people and God. I'll do a thankful list so I don't get too down. Let's see, I just picked some wild honey suckle and two different kinds of roses (off the same bush-go figure) and put them in a vase on the table. They smell sooooo good. For that simple pleasure, I am grateful. My house is mostly clean and T took the hairball out of my bathroom sink. I'm thankful that I didn't have to take the hairball out and it is draining properly again. A friend had brain surgery today. They wanted him to be able to recognize his family by tonight or tomorrow morning. He recognized them an hour after surgery. God is good. Another friend had a safe trip from the other side of the world. For that, I'm thankful.

Still stuck on the cat bathing topic

Well, we upgraded the internet some and I tried to post a video but it still time's out on me. Pics are loading pretty well though, so here are some pics of the poor cat. I must say that we feel real bad for her but at the same time she has been a constant source of comic relief for us. Her tail alternates between open and slightly oozing to scabbed over so we are continuing with the cone for now. I don't know how she does it but she occasionally does get a hold of her tail. We seem to be making gains on the fight against the fleas. Yay! Oh, and we did take the cone off for her bath. This is right after the bath. No matter how much she licked herself, she just couldn't get dry. Hmmm.

Yes, still licking and licking and not getting dry. Look at her toes. She has some long toes.

Yes, she did eventually dry off and we put the cone back on. She was exhausted after all that licking.

Oh, the look on her face here is priceless. If looks could kill, we'd be dead.

We haven't heard anything yet this week about the adoption. People sometimes remark on how calm I seem. I'm just happy at this point that they finally decided to call the file lost and start re-doing it. We've taken so many steps back that I don't feel like we're going forward but at least we're not just spinning our tires anymore. For that, I'm thankful.

Nothing new under the moon

I didn't realize it has been 3 days since I posted last. We've been busy with graduation stuff, animals, Mother's day plans, etc. I need to get announcements and invitations out and we need to get the house and yard cleaned up for my family coming over Sunday for Mother's day.

There is nothing happening with the adoption right now. Well, I should rephrase that. We don't know of anything happening right now but hopefully they are busy replacing photocopies of our file with "new originals". Yep, I hope they are busy, busy, busy. I cannot fathom how the Lord will bring good of this. This has been a rough journey, like Lewis and Clark parking at the bluffs thinking they were close to the ocean only to find the Rocky Mountains. Zoiks! Please Lord, let J come home quickly.

Sanomae

The cat seems to have resolved herself to the fact that she will be wearing this cone on her head indefinitely. She's on antibiotics and some kind of nerve/pain pill. Whatever it is, I could use some. LOL. She is a happy camper. It's totally pathetic and yet absolutely hysterical to watch her. She has to line up her cone and fit it over her dish to eat. She has crusty stuff on the side of her mouth that she can't clean off. She bobs her head side to side when she walks. She's a real live bobble-head toy. We can't tell if it's because her shoulders hit the cone and push it side to side or if she's turning her head on purpose in order to see where she's going. She still bumps into stuff now and then but she's getting pretty good at maneuvering herself with her new appendage. Another plus is that the other cat who used to beat her up is now afraid of her. And her tail looks great at this point. So all in all the cone is a good thing so far.

No news on the adoption front. Somebody told me that this process would drive them bonkers. I told them it had already driven me bonkers and I was flattered that I hid it so well. Please keep praying. It's so, so hard.

Saturday (with an evening edit)

Late Sat. edit: It's kind of weird, after I wrote that (I wish I knew what God wanted...) bit I was working on the order of service for tomorrow morning and I was looking for a Psalm to read before the first song. I didn't use this one for that but I just about laughed out loud at the Lord's sense of humor when I read this one. Psalm 119:33-35 "Just tell me what to do and I will do it, Lord. As long as I live I'll wholeheartedly obey. Make me walk along the right paths for I know how delightful they really are." Isn't that hysterical? Gotta love it.

Another "no news Friday" has come and gone. It just makes no sense to me whatsoever. I wish I knew what God wanted from me so I could do it and our son could come home. It feels a lot like being punished, only I don't know what for and our son certainly didn't do anything. Sigh...