Failed court again

Oy this is a hard one to write - we have failed court again. All over the same piece of paper that we have been repeately reassured that they have. His case is reassigned to the 23 of Dec. Our represenative in Addis didn't advocate for an earlier date because he is concerned that they won't get it done by then anyway. Seriously???? The orphanage has known since June that we want to adopt him - and he has been there for 2 years so there has been plenty of time to complete his file and yet they haven't. Now I know that Africa works on different time and things just aren't as important but SERIOUSLY?????

This is the hard thing about adoption the waiting on someone else to do thier JOB so that your child can come home. And it is the hard thing about our agency - they have a horrible reputation for getting kids though court and I guess that is going to include our kids.

Now I'm just going to go cry.

Pity party over...

soooo today we got a little report on Alemtsehaye detailing her likes - favorite food (ice cream) favorite color - pink (of course now we will have 3 little pink girls!) her clothes and shoe size all sort of little tidbits. AND a little note she said to tell her family that she loves them (aaawwwhhh).

Then promptly I began to have my own little pity party because I want to be on my way to get her - not hearing someone elses impressions of her (by the way she loves skirts - especially red ones .... hopefully I can find one!). Sigh, but we aren't on our way just yet - thus the pity party. (It doesn't help that I am totally not sleeping - ugh)

But that needs to end - being thankful is a choice and I choose to be thankful for the opportunity before me - the opportunity to pray for her and Estifanos the opportunity to long for them the opportunity to trust God for His perfect timing and His perfect provision. I choose to glorify God even when I am waiting and longing. All through Biblical history people have been waiting and longing. Waiting and longing for a Messiah or as Becca's favorite Bible story book describes it for God's secret rescue mission. Then after Jesus' death and resurection the longing for His glorious return. I am thankful this day that I can wait and trust that God has plans to prosper me to give me a future and a hope!

Just 2 more days until Estifanos' court date - please Lord let your will be done in that court room, let the judge submit to your plan for Estifanos, that he would be called a Grover from that day foward....

National Adoption Day

yep that is today - Nov 21st. Now let me just say how thankful I am for adoption - for my own adoption into the family of God - that has led me down this journey to continue to build our family through the miracle that is adoption.

It is hard to imagine our lives without our adopted children - from Kathleen - 13 years ago! To Becca just 1 year ago to Estifanos and Alemtsehay who we are still waiting for, our lives are richer and more blessed. Our lives have been expanded and our capacity to love has overflowed by having these amazing kids in our lives.

Thank you Jesus - for first adopting us and then calling us to these kids - what a blessing you have given us all the days of our lives. Thank you for trusting us with these precious ones.

(and only 4 more days until Estifanos court date - please Lord let everything be in order that the appointed time for him to be a Grover arrives this week)

8 days

Eight more days until Estifanos's court date - aaaarrrrgggghhhh - can't wait!! Our agency thinks that the orphanage has the paper needed - so I guess we will just have to wait and see. If he passes we are hoping for a mid Jan travel date - hopefully his post court paperwork will come in more speedily than Alemtsehaye's has (hers still isn't in).

Now the question is what to do with all my nervous energy! In the last several weeks I have redone all the bathrooms and painted the kitchen cabinets, painted the laundry room and hung bead board. Scott may have to work all weekend so I'm going to need something to keep me occupied..... hmmm wonder what it will be.

Well then - never mind

Thanks for all the great thoughts and prayers - unfortunately some paperwork our agency had been expecting from the courts has yet to show up and we are not going to make the Dec 2 embassy date. Sigh. honestly we never expected to have that date - the last few days have been a total whirlwind of decisions, and lists and panic - now we have to wait - and choose a new date. Since we still need a waiver the 16th is out so that leaves the 30th or the 13th of Jan. not sure the implications of the waiver on the 30th - kind of a wierd situation, no one knows quite what to expect. (and anticipating that we have already asked our senator to look into it for us - because I really don't think we should need one in Dec at all! but we will see what they find out) The thing is though that the thought of having her home early - was such an amazing gift we were all so excited, so thrilled at the thought of our early Christmas present - that knowing we are going to have to wait , well it makes the wait hard. The hardest part is going to be telling Emma and Luke - they are sooooo excited. Last night I overheard them talking about having her home and what they wanted to show her and play - just cute, cute , cute. so I know they are going to take this kinda hard (me too.)

Panic

Aaaahhhhh - not sure how I thought I could be ready to go in 3 weeks - really need to be ready in 2 weeks cause the kids have Thanksgiving week off so I won't get much of anything done then. It will all be fine I know - but YIKES is all I have to say right now. Thank God my mom is coming - Thanksgiving until Christmas so there will be an extra set of hands for everything and someone to hold the house together while I am gone.

It feels a bit like juggling - so many balls kids, meals, house, Chistmas, travel, meeting new daughter!!!!, embassy.

Pray for us! Especially pray that her visa waiver comes in quickly - like 5 days so we can get home early!!! (and folks that would be a big miracle)

Feeling totally unprepared - travel in 3 weeks!?!

Alrighty then - I had totally prepared myself for being offered a Dec 16 embassy date - we haven't been waiting long, unlike alot of folks, haven't had any delays with Alemtsehayes case so really weren't expecting the email we got today saying we were cleared for a Dec 2 embassy date - I almost fell out of my chair. Estifanos has court scheduled for Nov 25 and if he passes then his embassy date will be Jan 12 - no way to make it earlier due to all the translating of documents obtaining of birth certificates and passports, embassy medicals etc. BUT Alemtsehaye is ready to come home now - huge dilema. Where we are right now is that it must be the appointed hour for her to come home - It will take 2+weeks in country to get her visa and waiver and we aren't really sure at this point how to make it all work but are pressing foward with making plans and getting embassy paperwork ready to go - gulp!

After all this I feel so unprepared. The house is ready, the room is ready there are clothes bought and toys purchased - but wow it is really happening we are bringing home another daughter - we are so blessed. (and will be doubly so when Estifanos comes home)

No regrets

I am not going to regret one minute of waiting for these kids - they are worth every single prayer, every wet pillow of tears, every cry out to God - they are worth waiting for.

In a way adoption is a bit like being a week or 2 passed your due date - you have pictures and court dates and everyone wants to know when are they coming home - and you have to smile and say - I'm not sure, we are waiting for the embassy, waiting for a travel date and so on. Emma had the grace to arrive on her due date, Luke - thank God the doctor took pity on me and induced 10 days early, but AJ and Adam were both late, late, late and I didn't handle that well - in my defense I could hardly move and certainly didn't sleep well. But I was impatience and unable to wait gracefully.

This time I am going to wait gracefully - (I'm going to pray like crazy for favor for the kids remaining court date, embassy appointments and stuff like that) but I'm going to savor every moment, every triumph, every single bit of it - they are sooooo worth it. I can't wait to meet them - and say "We never counted the cost - you were worth every single moment - I would do it all again for the privilege of being your Mom"

Alemtsehaye and Estifanos - you are worth it, and you are already well loved.

Let the countdown begin

19 days until Estifanos next court date - we are praying hard over here!!

kitchen cabinets

Well I'm totally going to do it - I'm painting my kitchen cabinets this weekend - I'll take before and after shots to put up - hopefully by Monday, but painting cabinets is a big job and the rest of life doesn't stop in the mean time! We are also going to hang our Christmas lights (Mom don't laugh) I won't turn them on until after Thanksgiving - but the weather is supposed to be in the 60s and nice on Sat - and there have been years where the light hanging has been very abbreviated due to cold (and a year or 2 where they didn't get hung at all) AJ is more than happy to climb on the roof and hang the lights - and Scott is more than happy to pass that job over to him! AJ also has his last varsity football game of the season on Fri - thank goodness it is supposed to be warm so we can all go and see it. (although the little girls and I leave a halftime).

Now hopefully the younger kids will make it to school today and Scott and I can meet for lunch!

The only thing that would make this weekend better would be if Erin would email us about embassy dates - just saying I am ready to make some more plans!!!

Tugs at my heart

So a traveling family just sent me an email to let me know that although they didn't get to meet Estifanos when they were at AHOPE (he was at school) they did take a picture of his bunk bed and taped up around it were the pictures we have sent him - aawwwww. Totally makes me cry to think these kids of ours have a family of thier own and yet they wait and wait for the legal process to get accomplished, and many of the kids in the orphanages with Estifanos and Alemtsehaye wait and wait for a family. We have another picture of Estifanos as he is opening a letter filled with picutres - the look on his face is priceless - totally my favorite picture of him so far - it just pulls at the heart you know to see how precious those letters and pictures are, and how vunerable he is. We have sent letters to Alemtsehaye too and have a few pictures of her, but not as many families travel to her orphanage so unfortunately there are less pictures.

Yesterday Becca found a magic wand and has been trying to turn her brother into a frog or a rock depending on her mood - LOL you can't convice her that it won't work. I tell you this kids cracks me up!! Now if only her magic wand could move the mountian of court dates and travel dates! That would be something.

Dilema

(as an aside we kept Becca up all day yesterday and until 7pm - poor kiddo was soooo tired - but she slept until 7am woohooo)

So our dilema. Alemtsehaye passed court on Oct 23, Estifanos did not - he is rescheduled for Nov 25 and I had been hoping for him to pass sometime last week, but it didn't happen - so it seems like Nov 25 will be the big day. Our agency recently said that no one is going to be traveling in Nov so that means 2 possible embassy dates for Alemtsehaye - Dec 2 or Dec 16. Rightfully so the earlier date will go to families that have waited a terribly long time or who have very sick kids waiting to come home, so that would most likely mean a Dec 16 date for us and will mean 2 weeks in country (since the HIV ban is still in affect until Jan) well you can see the problem. We desperately want her home - but being gone for Christmas isn't really an option, being gone for 2 weeks isn't really an option - we'd have to tag team. And mostly I worry about how Estifanos would feel if we arrived and visited with him and then left with her - now of course we'd be back in a few weeks for him - most likely early/mid Jan but how hurtful would that be? could he really understand? I have had lots of kiddos that age and I can pretty much say that no I don't think he would understand. So then I think well we should just go once he passes - Jan is that much further off, but what if he doesn't pass again??How long should she wait. . . and her health is more fragile than his.
Don't misunderstand - I know that God is in control and they will come home at the appointed hour - but boy oh boy I'd really like that hour to be Dec 2 for both of them (with only a week in country)

Time Change

Who ever invented the time change did not have small children!!! Honestly - I - think - I'm - going - to - lose - my - mind with the waking up at such an awful hour!!!!! Mostly cause Becca wakes up in 3rd gear and wants to get dressed and going right away and seriously at 530 in the morning I'm not in the mood. While Scott was traveling she slept until 8, which was marvelous. Now that he is home she is getting up at 630, except with the time change that means 530 - and the sun isn't even up.

End of the Ban

On Friday the HIV immigration ban ended (well in 60 days) - it is a banner day. Praise God for the ways he goes before us when we don't even know what our needs will be!!