Looking Back: One Year Ago Today–Waiting for News

Thursday, October 21, 2010

We sat around, still waiting due to our Embassy delay.  Bless his heart, David prayed with Hubby and I today.  He is an awesome man, and I broke down in tears only to end our prayer and look up and see that he was crying, too.  Our love for Blake already is so overwhelming and the thought of not being able to bring him home with us over a stinkin’ typo just isn’t right!

But guess what?

We talked with the Consul today and she IS APPROVING Blake's visa!!!!!  It will be ready on Monday to be picked up with Lauren's!!!!  They are issuing the visa the same way his name is on the passport and then they are also issuing an "Also Known As" statement saying that he is also known as the name shown on his adoption decree. 

Oh, praise God!!!!  We were overjoyed to have that weight lifted!!!

We had planned to go to the orphanage today where Blake and Lauren were placed, but were unable to because some of our friends in Group 1 had to go Ethiopian Air to change their departure tickets and that just took too long. (We only had one driver.)  So instead, we sat around playing lots of Bananagrams. I had never played that game before this trip, but I love it!  It is so much fun, and we’ve played hours of it on this trip!  We laughed and laughed today.  One of the guys had some really interesting words he was fighting for like rewood.

One of the many games of Banangrams

Oh, and while finding out that Blake would be receiving a visa was the clear highlight of our day, we did get to have some M n M’s tonight.  Oh, they tasted good!! 

Back home, our dear friends’ daughter was having major open heart surgery to reconstruct her heart.  I couldn’t sleep just praying about her and wondering how she was doing.  It was terribly hard to not be at the hospital with them.  I’m just thankful for an internet connection, no matter how finicky it is.  At least we could keep in touch with them.

Looking Back: One Year Ago–Together Again

Saturday Oct. 16, 2010

After my rough night last night, I was very grateful for a good night’s sleep.  Barb called around a little and one of the local missionaries, Tim, agreed to help us out and came to pick up me and David. We arrived at the hospital and you could see that Hubby was relieved to see us.

We started to make the transition again for me to stay the day and Hubby to head back to the guest house.  I got tears in my eyes when I realized that David wasn’t just making sure I got to the hospital safely, but that he planned to stay with me for the day. I had no idea.  I tell you what, these people we are with are just amazing.

Tim was a wonderful advocate, explaining the system to us and being proactive. Blake seemed a little bit better and we decided we were going to push to be discharged. Well, there is no discharging in Congo. If you want to leave, you leave. But still. We needed to be able to treat Blake at home. Fortunately, when we saw a doctor (not the same one Diana and I met with the previous night), he recommended going home on his own. I guess the doctor last night really did just see us as a chance to make some money. 

Just before noon, Hubby (he hadn’t left yet…there had been too much going on that morning), David, and I packed up, paid our $465 bill, and headed out to look for a cab. Praise God, we were going back to the guest house, our home away from home!  But as we walked down the street, 3 white folks with a black baby, we got lots of stares. And we noticed zero cabs. We went out on the road and stood for a moment but became increasingly nervous. Cabs aren’t marked as cabs. How were we to know what was a cab and what was a person trying to get us into their car to drive us to who knows where and take everything we have and leave us for dead? So, we decided to walk back to the hospital and call Tim. He was unavailable then but said he could come get us in 30 minutes if we could wait. Yes, yes! We could wait. 

It was wonderful to arrive back at at the guest house and just settle in to life here again with the four of us. Blake was still sick, and he still fought his medicine, but he was eating and his fever was being managed with Tylenol. Hopefully his amoxicillin would work. I did some laundry in the tub and we gave the babies a bath.  It was great to go about normal routines again. Saturday evening was pizza night – and we each got half of a pizza to ourselves!!! After being used to being rationed, it was heavenly. We all crashed pretty early.  It had been a long couple of days.

Looking Back: One Year Ago Today–The Moment We’d Been Waiting For

Tuesday Oct. 12, 2011

After switching planes in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, we were all settled on our new flight and headed on to Brazzaville, Republic of Congo.  It is their capital city and is directly across the Congo River from Kinshasa…our final destination.  Brazzaville looked more like what I was expecting Africa to look like.  As we sat on the plane there for about an hour, watching some passengers get off, and some new ones board, my tummy was going crazy.  I was getting more nervous by the minute. The flight attendants were upset with us because we were moving seats now that the plane was not as full so that we could be together as a group.  Well, that, and for some reason they didn’t want us even standing up during the 1 hr. stop. You try sitting there with your stomach in a knot not doing anything for an hour! 

But soon, we were on our way.  It was less than a 10 minute (14 mile) flight over the Congo River to Kinshasa. It seemed like a waste of jet fuel to just go that far. But that’s what happened, and soon, we were on DRC soil.  It truly felt like a miracle that we were there.  The months of waiting and wondering what this would be like!  And here we were!!! 

The plane had to do what seemed like a 17 point turn around on the runway – there was only one strip for the whole airport. So you land on the runway, come to a stop, and then turn around and go right back down it to get to the terminal.  They have these trams that meet you at the plane to take you to the building, and we hopped on that and rode to immigration. This was the portion of the trip that I was most fearful of.  We had heard about what a horrible experience the Kinshasa airport is, and while it is completely unlike anything here in America, I was surprised – the first portion of it was air conditioned, I didn’t see men armed with machine guns, and most of the people were friendly. There was some concern with our yellow fever cards because the month and day dates were reversed, but we were able to show them how that’s just a cultural thing.  While we write August 11, 2010 as 8/11/10, they’d write it as 11/8/10.  While it freaked us out momentarily that they weren’t letting us pass through and giving us all sorts of looks and telling us there were problems, they did let us through.

We soon met Bob*, the guy that works with DGM (Congo’s immigration) – and we were so happy to see someone sent by Pastor Peter! (I’m calling him Pastor Peter because he is an amazing man…truly a rock to all of us!  In the Bible, Jesus called Peter the rock that He’d build the church upon.)  It was crazy to me that I was the one in the group with the best French, and I struggled to put together any French I could (it had been like 14 years since I had studied French!) so I could communicate with Bob.  Thankfully, I had a pocket dictionary where we could look up what we wanted to say and point. 

It took awhile for our bags – it was a little stressful because of the language barrier and the fact that it was very hot (the air conditioned portion of the building didn’t last long!) Finally, we got our bags, but people kept carrying them off after our American attorney, Diana (I would call her Wonder Woman because she is that amazing, but that would feel a little strange to read an ongoing story about Wonder Woman.  I googled Wonder Woman’s real name, and apparently it’s Diana.  Who knew!?!  Anyways…I digress…)  told us not to let them leave with your bags! She had told us just to sit on them if necessary!  It was quite a scramble. But again, we made it through just fine.  Pastor Peter and Diana pulled up in a van outside the airport to pick us up – it was wonderful to see them!! We left for our guest house. At this point, I was so grateful that we made it through the part of the trip I was most nervous about, and I was just filled with excitement.  Well, excitement and sweat.  Yes, the sweat.  Did I mention it was hot?  But who cares!?!  We were here!!!  We really were here!!! 

It was about an hour journey to the guest house, and the streets of Kinshasa were fascinating to watch.  Some things stood out to me right away.  First, I was amazed by all the dirt. Roads weren’t necessarily paved, and there really wasn’t any grass.  Just dirt on the roads, dirt along the side of the roads, dirt everywhere.  The streets were very narrow. However, there were very wide “shoulders” with tons of people selling things, just hanging out, etc. There were people everywhere.  The buildings were very old and run down. We did come to an area of Kinshasa that felt much more urban, but there were still people everywhere.

The traffic was downright crazy. The first one there wins. It seemed crazy to me that in a city of upwards of 10 million people, there were no stop lights!   Some intersections had multiple police officers trying to direct traffic, but there were cars everywhere.  It was like a giant game of chicken.

But soon, we arrived at the guest house!!  There were several families there already, one of whom lives in our hometown and I had met a few weeks before.  It was great to see them all, and see them with their children!  We were told Blake and Lauren would be there in about an hour. Diana showed us our room – it was air conditioned and had a private bathroom! Wow! We sure weren’t expecting that!  It was very humble, but nice.  The only problem we saw was that there were ants everywhere. They had left water in pitchers for us. We were grateful as we were very thirsty, but we noticed that one pitcher was left open and ants were swimming in it! (We found out later, they do this on purpose to attract the ants to just one container.)

We had only been there a few minutes and had started to unpack when someone called our name and said, “Your babies are here!” EEK!!!! Ohmygoodness, the moment…the one we’d been waiting for!!!  We were about to meet Blake and Lauren!!!  I started shaking, grabbed the cameras and went to the common area. Everyone had their children but us. We missed their “gotchas!”  I was bummed that we had missed that, but I began frantically looking around the crowd for Blake and Lauren. They were on Mama Grace’s lap and she was sitting along the wall. Totally overwhelming. Amazing!!! I started crying. There aren’t words to describe what it was like to see the babies!  No more needing to kiss their picture on our refrigerator.  They were here and I could be with them!!  I was so grateful to Mama Grace (their foster mother).  I just cried, staring at my babies, and saying over and over again through my tears, “Merci beaucoup!”

So, my first impressions?  Blake looked limp – his head was just hanging backwards. Both of them were very tiny…much smaller than I was anticipating. But oh man, were they beautiful!!  She handed them to us.  It was so amazing to hold them after all this time!!! Lauren was really content and Blake fell asleep on my shoulder after just a couple of minutes. It felt surreal.  After months of loving them from afar, we were finally together. 

Together forever. 

We took pictures, ate dinner, hung out in our escorts’ room, Skyped with the kids and my mom (who was also in tears, getting to see her new grandson and granddaughter!), had a little meeting with the whole group (there were nine families altogether, plus Diane, and two escorts), then went to bed. Oh, what a day!!  Thank you, God, for the blessings!!

*For the sake of security, and because I don’t have permission from these people to put their names out on the internet, I have changed all names.

We'll Take Two, Please

Remember my post about needing to look for a new vehicle?

I have spent hours researching SUVs, but also narrow car seats. I can't tell you how many google searches I've done on "narrow car seats," "15 inch booster," "fit three car seats in a town and country," etc. etc. Seriously. I'm a nut.

Here's the maddening thing, though. I'd find one place that would say a particular car seat or booster was 15" wide and I'd get all excited, but then find the exact same car seat on a different website and it would say it was 20" wide. Um, hello. That's quite a difference.

As you saw earlier, we had given up on thinking we could fit three car seats across. But then came a new car commercial for Chrysler. They specifically mention in it that if you have five kiddos to haul around, their minivan is for you.

What!?! Am I missing something here??? I am the mom with five kiddos to haul around, but so far my Town and Country isn't working.

That gave us hope again, though, that maybe we could find car seats that are narrow enough. So for our exciting Friday night out, we headed to some of those giant baby stores. Love them, yet hate them, too. They're just so overwhelming. I saw a pregnant first time mama with the registry gun last night with a look on her face that said get me out of here. I'm tired. I'm overwhelmed. I'd just like to sit my big 'ol pregnant behind down on one of those cozy gliders.

Oh girl, I was so there seven plus years ago. Seems like yesterday.

Anyways...our car seat search. Babies R Us was not so helpful this time around. We went there first and felt pretty discouraged. But Buy Buy Baby? They're my new best friend. They had one of the car seats I've been researching like crazy and they let us take two of them out to our van to try them to see if they will fit. Praise God, they did!!!! It is going to be rather tight back there, and Josh may have a heck of a time getting his seat belt actually buckled, but they fit!!!! And they might have been $269 EACH, but of course I had coupons and when you compare $460ish to $28,000ish, it's a total no brainer!

So we're now the proud owners of two of these fabulous car seats:

And we get to keep our minivan! Hooray!!

I'm sure that we'll be looking for a larger vehicle a couple of years from now since our kiddos are only going to keep getting bigger and bigger. But I'm glad that it doesn't have to be in the same year that we're incurring plenty of costs already. Plus, I think it will be much easier to have an SUV when the kids are a little bit bigger. I sure wasn't looking forward to crawling over the second row of seats to somehow buckle in the girls in the back! Or, for that matter, lifting an infant carrier with a baby in it up and over into the middle of the SUV.

Hubby, though? I think he's kind of sad we're not going to be getting a truck. I mean, he's happy that we don't have to spend all the money now, but he's much more of a truck/SUV guy than a minivan guy. Someday, babe. Someday.

Like Christmas in April

There really is nothing better as a waiting adoptive parent than to get new pics of your child! There's a group in Congo now finalizing three adoptions and I knew that our attorney's husband (their escort) would be visiting Blake while they were there. Our attorney told us the other day that he visited Blake and delivered 50 lbs of formula and baby supplies, but we didn't think we would see pictures until he returned to the States.


Imagine our surprise then when we returned from our interracial adoption training today to see new pics in our inbox!!!!




Oh. My. Goodness. I just stared at those pictures for an insanely long amount of time - over and over again, inspecting every single detail. Admiring his sweet little hands and face. Worrying because his belly seems big (it has since dawned on me that they use cloth diapers, which I'm not used to. He's just an itty bitty guy in a giant cloth diaper - that would easily explain the big belly!)


As I sat there studying the pictures, I alternated between really big grins and tears. I'm so touched by seeing the genuine love and care in the face of (who I'm assuming is) his foster mama. Grateful doesn't even come close to explaining what I feel for her and her family for caring for Blake while we wait to bring him home. And my baby? I cannot wait to hold him in my arms and kiss his sweet, sweet face.


He's so beautiful, so tiny, so precious, so helpless. So perfect. So very loved.

Happy Birthday, Megan!

There are some things in your life you just will never forget as long as you live. Two years ago today was one of those moments in my life. My sweet baby Megan breathed her first breath, cried her first cry, and slept in my arms for the first time.


It's so cliche, but time really does just fly by. Especially when you're having fun.

I'm so grateful for Megan. She is such a sweet and silly little girl and is such a blessing to our family. I'm so glad God chose us to be her parents! I think back to when Hubby and I were dating and how we'd talk about the family we'd like to have one day - two kids, maybe three if the first two were the same gender. Ha! God had much better things in store for us!! We had our two, but still didn't feel "done." He blessed us with our Megs, and now we're expecting two more! Having five little ones was certainly not our original plan, but I am so grateful for all of our blessings!

Megan, I know that our family would not be complete without you. Your joy is contagious, your cheesy grin is infectious, and your snuggles warm all of our hearts. I love watching you grow and learn and you surprise us every day by new things you've picked up on without us realizing it. Some day I'll look back and smile when I think of the dozens of times a day you want to share a knock knock joke that you've made up. Hearing you sing Jesus Loves Me (interrupted by your made up Precious, Precious, Precious song) has to be one of the most adorable things on the planet, maybe second only to your big eyes asking me to dance with you one more time before naptime. And then when you're all snuggly cute and you want to kiss our cheeks over and over and over again? Completely precious. You're growing up more and more every day and I don't want to take for granted one wonderful moment with you. I love you so very much and am so blessed to be your Mommy. Happy Birthday, Megan! I'll never stop loving you!

Paying Bills and Loving It

I don't think I've ever been so excited to pay a bill before. I mean, let's face it, paying bills usually is not fun. So why am I excited about paying a bill, you ask?

Because I just paid off THE LAST of hubby's student loans!!!

The great education he received at a not-very-cheap private university is finally paid for IN FULL!!!

The best part of the news, though? We are now DEBT-FREE with the exception of our house!!!!! (And our goal is to try to have that paid off by the time we're 40.)

Sorry I keep shouting at you, but I'm awfully excited!!!

How do we do it? First, we trust God with everything. He is always faithful to provide for all our needs and even some of our wants! All we have is His and we're just called to be good stewards. We love giving and have always been faithful with our tithes and offerings and we believe He has blessed us for that.

Plus, we've been through tight financial times (hubby's unemployment when Josh was a baby) and we understand the value of a dollar.

We plan out how we want to spend every dollar, we don't spend frivolously, and we live below our means so that we can pay down our debt. It's not always easy or fun (although I do admit to an abnormal fondness for my budget), but so worth it! (Dave Ramsey has LOTS of great advice for getting out of debt if you'd like more ideas!)

We can't wait until our debt is gone completely!! Can you imagine the freedom? We'll be able to give however we'd like, afford special extras, pay for college and weddings without nearly as much stress, and maybe even retire early!!!

And the great news is that as of today, we are one step closer! Praise God!!!

Noise

My days generally have lots of noise. Some good and some not-so-good.

Giggles, songs, and cooing - good.

Whining, fighting, and crying - not-so-good.

But no matter what noise the day has brought my way, I get to end it with one of my favorite times of day. Nuggle time.

What's nuggle time, you ask? Well, for a little girl who doesn't say her "s" if it's part of a consonant blend at the beginning of a word, it's snuggle time.

(She once ran up to daddy when he got home at the end of a day to show him her arm and excitedly announced, "I have a tamp on!" Daddy looked at me and we about lost it, but he gently held his daughter and told her he thought her stamp was cool. We shared our giggles later.)

Anyways, I digress...

Nuggle time comes after bath time, after potty and jammies and tooth-brushing, goobie-getting, hair-drying time. After story time, after prayer time, and after Barney's I Love You song time and The Wondrous Cross (sometimes sung at the top of our lungs) song time.

Then comes nuggle time.

I often miss out on nuggle time these days because I have a baby who nurses at this same time, but last night I headed in for nuggle time after I got Megan to bed. I knocked quietly on Sarah's door and asked if I could snuggle her. Those big brown eyes lit up and all the craziness of the day vanished. We snuggled and talked about the favorite part of her day. We played with each other's hair and snuggled for just "one more minute."

Total warm fuzzies.

And don't get me wrong - Josh can snuggle with the best of 'em, too. I enjoyed some quiet moments with him last night, too. I find that's the time that you can really get to the heart of your kids. He'll share with me what's on his heart or ask any unanswered questions. We've had some quite deep theological discussions during his snuggle time. And somehow right after a deep conversation, he'll still ask for "the tucker." So tuck, tuck, tuck...tuck, tuck, tuck...all the way down his legs to his little toes I go. He giggles and I kiss him one more time.

Doesn't get much better than that.

Except for when I get Megan out of bed to nurse her one more time before I head to bed for the night. She loves to be swaddled, just like the other two have, except that she pulls her right arm out of her blanket. So in her sleepy daze, she settles in to nurse and then grabs my finger with her free hand and holds on tight to me.

Bright spots, my friends...bright spots.

I'll take all the not-so-good noise. I'll even praise God for it because it means my kids are filled with life. But I cherish the chances for tender, peaceful quiet with the ones I love most.

Besides, I can rest assured that God-willing, there will be more noise tomorrow.

Picture Perfect

"This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."

-Psalm 118:24

This is the view from our front window. Absolutely beautiful sky. I guess that's why they call it a picture window.

Thank you, God, for a chance to be outside and enjoy my kids. Thank you for the breeze and for the mild temperatures. Thank you for the sunshine. Thank you that we could have our windows open. Thank you for picnics in the backyard. You rock, God, and I give you praise for your beautiful work!

I praise you, too, for stomp rockets. And tongues that when stuck out help the stomp rockets go higher.