Out of the Mouth of Babes

I have been trying so hard to understand and get a grip on my emotions of late.  Life is very busy for us.  We are so blessed with our two sons, and at ages 11 and 7 there is never a dull moment.  Currently it is little league wrestling season, our oldest couldn't participate because of his broken arm much to his disappointment, but we have still been very busy with practices and duals with Ian.  I literally have to sit on my hands to keep from biting my fingernails and waving around like crazy every time I watch a match.  They are such boys and love it so much, me I really think we should focus on golf and I have a feeling I have a lot of nervous moments in store.  We are also very involved and busy at our church.  I assist with the Children's Ministry, together we serve as Youth Ministers, my husband is our Praise and Worship leader, and I sing on the Praise and Worship Team.  Combine all that with work and life in general, you get the picture, we are very busy.

 In the middle of all the busyness and fun-filled moments there is still this constant ache around my heart.  It seems I'm crying every time I turn around.  I cried on the way home from our sale on Saturday, from joy at being so blessed, and feeling so overwhelmed at how much we still need.  I cried for my new friends I've met in a Thailand Adoptive Families group, over their joys and frustrations that match mine.  I cried when I made a Thai dish for our supper and realized how hard it will be for her at first with everything being so different, including the most basic things like food.  The crying seemed incessant, so much so that I thought, girl get a grip! 

On Sunday I was reading an adoptive mother's blog about the emotional roller coaster of adoption and how you are constantly two things at once:  Happy/Sad, Frustrated/Patient, Angry/Calm...it was me in a nutshell but I still couldn't put a finger on the ache around my heart.  Today, my rambunctious but sensitive 7 year old asked, "Mom, when are we bringing Cherish home?"  I said, for the hundredth time, "Probably not for a while."  "Man," he sighed, " I miss her."  and off he went.  It hit me so hard.  That is the ache.  I miss my daughter.  She has already been born to our hearts and our world and I miss her.  I understand waiting is all part of the process, but understanding does not lessen the ache. I miss getting to experience her first smile and first little laugh.  I miss feeling her little hand reach up to stroke my face as I rock her.  I miss not being able to give her eskimo kisses, or duba do's as my boys have renamed them, whispering the nonsense words under their breath as their noses rub mine. I miss sharing her wonder at new things, and seeing her eyes light up in excitement.  I just miss her. 

I have been reading several blogs of families who have brought their children home, or are currently in the process like us, and I glean a little strength knowing they feel exactly as I have and have survived.  One wrote that when you finally meet your child the wait is washed away.  I'm holding onto that, as I sit once again with tears streaming down my face.  I can't help but smile through them, earlier Ian asked AGAIN "when are we bringing baby sister home?"  Again I said, "It will be a while, we have to wait."  Another sigh, "geez," he said rolling his eyes dramatically, "are we going to have to wait like 45 days or something?"  And I am reminded how time feels to children, and one day it will be like she has always been with us and the missing will be over.

Yard Sale Success!

Whew!  What an amazingly long last couple of days.  We have been working over the last several weeks to organize an adoption benefit yard sale.  We recieved many donations from friends and family, and added a ton of our own stuff, to put in the sale.  Instead of prices we simply asked for a donation towards our adoption.(we did have minimum donation requests on a few larger items)  We opened the doors at seven this morning and, wow, we stayed busy until closing at 2, raising over our $1000 goal to put in our adoption piggy bank!!!  We were so blessed by the generosity of our family, friends, and community we just want to shout a HUGE thank you!  It feels so good to see that figure for our referral fee start to decrease.  We talked with so many today about our adoption and it gave us a chance to really look at how far we have come.  It is actually happening, we are adopting a little girl from Thailand, and will be bringing her home to her forever family.  Thanks again to everyone who helped bring us one step closer to making it possible.

March Happenings

March is here!! For us this means we should move up on the waiting list as other families will be blessed with finding out their matches this month.  One step closer:) Holt receives referrals of children to match from Thailand once per quarter, so the next matches will take place in June.  We are looking towards the expenses once again and will be having an Adoption Benefit Yard Sale next weekend.  We have decided to make everything (except large items) a donation only instead of pricing everything.  Other families in the adoption process have had success with this.  We also will have our homestudy update next week, since we moved the social worker has to come view our new home, and then we can file with immigration.  Yay, more paper work!! But one step closer.  Currently, I have applied for three grants, please pray with us that the families who need those monies most to achieve their adoptions are granted them. 

On a funny note, last night as the boys were doing their chore of emptying the dishwasher Ian said, "Mom when we get our baby sister will she have to help with the diswasher too?"  Me, "When she's big enough,"  Ian, "Ah man" :)

Adoption Tax Credit

Today I learned that the federal tax credit available to adoptive parents, will sunset at the end of this year. While it will not deter us, it was a disappointment as we hoped to use the tax credit to help offset some of the expenses. The average cost to adopt is any where from $25k-$35k or more, currently for 2011 families are eligible for a maximum of $13,170 as a tax credit, which is still sometimes less than half!!! So, what does all this mean and how can you help? Today I signed a petition to extend the tax credit for 2012 and 2013 which will directly affect our adoption...add your name to mine at www.change.org/petitions/make-adoption-costs-fully-refundable-in-the-2012-2013-tax-years  also there is more info about a bill being presented to make the tax credit permanent, and who to contact if you live in one of the states currently supporting the writing of the bill.  I can't tell you what a blessing this can be to us and so many other adoptive parents out there.

Worried???

Life is so crazy busy for us right now. I keep telling myself all this craziness is making the time go by for us faster, but it doesn't make it any less exhausting! I recently allowed myself to start worrying over the funds we need. We are a week or so away from moving into our new home, and while it is a blessing as many know moving/building is always full of last minute expenses you don't anticipate. It seems like its been hard to put extra back and very soon we will need to file with immigration. This week I found out we are to receive a bonus at work, the amount is based on the hours worked during a certain time period...wouldn't you know that added to what we have put back will cover our immigration fees! It was God saying once again, Don't worry I've got it all taken care of!!! So yesterday when our ten year old Peyton broke his wrist at school, and they had to anesthesize him to set and cast it, I just said okay God I'm not going to worry about this you have it all figured out. Thankfully, the doctor was able to skillfully line it all back up and doesn't anticipate it will cause any problems...except for our sanity over the next few weeks poor guy it was his left hand, yes he is left handed. Our lives are so short here on earth, I hope I'm able to continually keep in perspective that worrying is not going to add a day to my life and as long as I keep doing my part, well God is perfectly capable of handling the rest!!

21 on the Waiting List



Finally. After weeks of waiting our paperwork came back from D.C.. Today we added the necassary copies and mailed it, Express, to the Holt office in Oregon. We called our social worker to let her know the Dossier was complete and in the mail. She told us that we are now 21 on the waiting list and should expect to be matched with our daughter by December of this year. She reminded us that it was an estimate only, and we of course are hoping it is sooner than that. We are just relieved to be (almost) done with this portion of the paperwork. The rest is in God's hands and in his timing. Naturally we have quite a bit to keep us busy, including hopefully moving into our new home in a few weeks. They painted today. Cherish's room is soft yellow! Her brothers' room is burnt Orange:)

Off to Washington DC

After checking, and double checking and triple checking our documents, we Express Mailed our precious Dossier to a courier service in Washington DC today. They will hand deliver it to the US State Dept to authenticate our State Seal and then hand deliver it to The Royal Thai Embassy for their authentication, after which it will be mailed back to us. We were told the whole process should take about 7 days. Then we will mail to Holt and they will place us on the Thailand Waiting List. One step closer. Tonight we prayed for God to continue guiding our process, continue to give us patience to wait on him, and to keep his protecting hand on our daughter. We just can't wait to meet her, and bring her home.