New pics!!!!

We had a great day in adoption land yesterday! We not only found out the papers needed came much faster than anticipated but we got NEW pictures that were taken within the last week!! We had NO idea we would get something like this.

Oh, so exciting, yet hard to "see" him and hold in the desire to hop on the next plane to Thailand! The last pic we had was from a year ago and, of course, we think he is adorable. Taller but still very thin.

I wish we could share a pic of our new son, however we have signed papers saying we will not share his picture, specifically on the internet, until he is officially ours!

More tomorrow--kids are gone to Grandparents so Papa and I can do more sorting and cleaning! I need to work fast!!

Love to all,

M

Another.....

Another board meeting has come and gone in Thailand.

We, of course, were not there.

Right now, it seems a small chance we will even be there in March.

UGH-- A thousand times over, UGH

M

Update and weather

We heard on Friday the Thai SW will work to get the necessary documents to submit to USCIS in Thailand for us. Unfortunately, the documents will need to be sent to the US/our agency and then back to Thailand but that seems par for the course at this point.

We, of course, have no timetable for the wait. Still.

On another note, we have some friends on a cruise of Asia right now. I received an email today saying they are in Vietnam and she says it is "very hot and hot and hot"!! There is not breeze and high humidity. The crazy part is they will be in Bangkok on Tues and Wednesday. We actually thought we would end up being able to be there at the same time! These sweet friends live in IL so it will be some time before they meet our new son. They were also the first to meet our Bug as they met Papa at the airport when we picked up Bug. It would have been very special to meet them in Thailand.

My sweet friend was actually silly enough to ask me in the email if there was anything I wanted her to pick up while she was in Thailand. LOL

I answered with 2 simple words-- MY SON!!!!!!!!

I love ya, L!!


M

Wake up call

This morning it was a chant from Peanut's bedroom--

We want ___ home, we want ____ home

Over and over again! I LOVE them so much!




Amazingly enough, it has the ability to make me smile and want to cry. He needs to be home.

M

It is almost...

WEDNESDAY!!!!!!

Of course, I am not expecting to hear anything but it sure would be nice!

I will have more to say tomorrow.

A post about another of our adoptions.

Check back!

M

Wednesday

Next week, Wed. is the soonest we will have any contact/update from our agency. The tough thing is that will mean we won't be able to get any response back until Thursday Thailand time due to the time difference.

So really, in English, we will be lucky to get one question answered this next week. The most we seem to be getting each week is 1.

Our agency does consider there benefits of our being physically in Thailand to deal with these "issues" however they say we need to be prepared to "possibly" be in country for 2 months!!

Where is the *shock* emoticon when you need it!! ;))

This is truly starting to wear on my soul.....

Please pray for a miracle in the paperwork process.

M

A Momma-in-waiting

I would like to introduce you to a friend I have had the privilege to make in this blogging world. Sarah and her husband have been through some very tough times in the past few weeks in their journey to become parents. It is one Papa and I understand very well.

My heart just aches for them. I can't wait until the day I get to see a picture of Sarah holding her child. Having walked the road they are walking right now, I can say that it WILL happen. God knows their child, the timing just isn't right for THEIR child to be placed in their arms.

Please stop over at Bunches of Burches, keep them in your prayers and leave them a comment of support. It is an incredible feeling to know there are others out there sharing in your journey! ( for that matter you could leave me a comment, too!! lol)

Also, check out the calender on the side of my blog they are selling to raise funds! Very cute!!

M

Orphanage Donations

The orphanage where our son lives has a wishlist for items they need. We, by no means, have to do this, however, we would like very much to be able to take a suitcase FULL of items to donate to them. They have cared for our son since he was 10 days old. He isn't too far from double digits now, so this has been his home for a long time. We would like to provide for some of the over 300 children that are waiting for their forever families in his orphanage alone.



We need YOUR help to fill the suitcase!





I have listed the items off their list below and would love to share our address with you if you are interested in helping. We have made this a service project for our children in the past when we have done similiar projects! They love to go with to help pick out the items and pack them up! If you would prefer to make a donation and we do the shopping that is fine, too. (More money can go to buying items without shipping costs.) I again, would provide our address to save on the Paypal fee or you can make a donation through Paypal. Please specify it is for the suitcase donations. Please leave me a comment!!

We also hope to take cookies or cupcakes when we are there for a party for the kids! They have sports items listed like soccer balls, basket balls, plastic bats and balls, etc....that we hope to purchase there and take with us.

Fun things to think about while we deal with this dreadful wait and uncertainty!!

Thank you for helping this orphanage provide for these little ones! God bless you~

M


Pencils, pens, texta colors, crayons, pencil sharpeners, rulers, paints and paint brushes, palletes, colored paper for collage, sticky tape, coloring in books, Baby shampoo, soap, baby talcum powder, heat-rash powder, toothpaste, toothbrushes, nail brushes, hair brushes, sun block, babies bottles, Dettol, bandaids, cotton wool, antiseptic creams and swabs, bandages (all types), saline, tweezers, eye wash cups, aloe vera gel, aeroguard or Rid, wool or cotton blankets

Travel?

There seems to be a strong possibility that we will need to go to Thailand to solve the problems we are experiencing to bring our son home. We would be traveling with an unknown time for returning to the states.

We need HUGE prayers for this situation as this would obviously increase our costs. Plus many other considerations: Would we take the kids with us? How would we leave them with family and not know how long we could be gone? That would add 2 more plane tickets--YIKES. Papa would need to be home to go back to work. How would I fare in a city on my own with 3 kids where I don't speak the language? I suppose munchkin #3 could do the talking! ;)) I MUST keep my sense of humor or I will completely lose it. I am shaking inside at the thoughts of all these things.

If only we were independently wealthy--I would take the whole family, go do what we needed to do, go down the beach in Thailand and stay there until the Embassy has it all worked out! I hear a beach vacation is a great way for the new family to bond together in the child's country and very inexpensive--like $30 a night at a resort right on the beach! We could count it as a field trip for school and all is good!!!!!!!

Well, a girl can dream, can't she?!

Please pray~

M

102*

That is the temp expected today (Wed in Thailand) where our sweet son is currently living. And it was a balmy 42* when my kids went outside today to run around the circle for gym! Our temp was unseasonably warm, too!

Yikes, is our boy in for a shock!!!!!!!

M

Prayers

Please pray for this family. They found out their sweet daughter had cancer on January 25th and she passed away today. I simply can't imagine the agony.

Thank you for praying for them.

M

Surrendering

We received a big surprise a few weeks back when my Mom called to say she had received a check in the mail for our fund. A friend of hers had heard our no interest loan was not available from our agency anymore and she wanted to help. Such kindness!

As I have been feeling discouraged lately with costs to travel growing and our fund not growing, I haven't checked Paypal lately. I did so last night on a "whim" (encouraged by God I am sure!) and a friend had put a donation in a couple of days ago!! Our home study update is paid for by these 2 donations! Praise God!!!!!

God surprised me with a reminder to have faith that He is in this adoption and will provide for us and our son. It is so easy to put our focus on things of this world or allow ourselves to be consumed by doing everything on our own. Just like that toddler who wants independence to "do myself", we also can fall "victim" to being independent in following our own will/plans. I am glad God wants me as His child enough to use those gentle reminders, calling me back to Him, giving me the reassurance that He will take care of me. I need only to surrender it all to Him!

Where are you in surrendering it all to God? Let me know, I'd love to hear from you!



Thank you to those who feel lead to help make one less orphan in the world!

M

Peanut

Peanut and Bug spent a day at my parents house sans Mama and Papa. 8 hours to be exact.

Upon returning home, Peanut said it felt like it had been 3 days.

A half hour or so later, she looked at me and announced she needed a ticket to go to Thailand, too.

One can only imagine how long 10-12 days will feel to her when we go.

Heaven help my parents!!!!

We love you, Nana and Boppa!!

M

Police Station

Did I scare ya?!

We got fingerprinted AGAIN today! Our homestudy needs to be updated for all our clearances. I find it crazy that we have to pay for this to be done. It took us max 30 minutes total time with a slow elderly gentlemen doing the prints. And that even included collecting our fees, fingerprinting Bug, chatting about baby wipes..... We paid $25 and still have to send in another $40 for someone at the capital to find out if we are criminals.

Mind you the crime would have to have been committed in the last 18 months. ;))

Moving forward!

M

Latest news

After a 12 day wait, we received a reply from the US visa dept in Thailand as to the next steps necessary. We are waiting to hear how we can meet the items they are requesting. Our agency has indicated there is still a possibility we could travel this month. We do know they are anxious for us to travel so as soon as we notify them, they will probably give us the next available meeting.

We, of course, wish to travel ASAP as well. However, we are concerned with the potential costs in last minute flights. We are also concerned with their reaction if we don't immediately go due to costs.

One assumption we had was due to the changes in the process under Hague, we would not be as likely to run into struggles/issues causing us to need to be in-country longer than the 10-12 days. Recently, we found out that is NOT the case. We by no means want to be unprepared for the possibilty and that requires more money for hotel and food.

Our homestudy needs to be updated since the process is taking so long. This requires fees to our social worker, police dept fingerprinting, new child abuse clearance forms.....Hopefully this will not slow things down! Praise God our SW tends to be very speedy in these cases!!

We continue to be in need of prayers and donations.

We received notification from one grant of not being chosen. We have 1 left.

We now have a girls bedroom and a boys bedroom. Peanut and Bug have yet to not sleep in the same room!! At least the new bunk bed has a double on the bottom that should fit all 3!!

We thank God for the opportunity to be advocates for adoption and for leading us down this path to older child adoption. We can't wait to have our 3 munchkins under 1 roof!! Thank you for your prayers!

M

Rocks

Peanut and Bug were sorting their rock collection today.

I overheard them making a pile for #3. :))

It was so endearing, even more so because they used his American name. We have called him by his Thai name for a long time, it is odd for any of us to use his American name. Add to that the fact that Peanut was rather perturbed by our choice of name, and I was speechless!

As I was checking morning schoolwork I was feeling so good about these thoughtful children I had. They were sharing their precious rock collection with a brother we have been talking about for 18 months. A brother they have only seen a small handful of pictures of with two small videos. If I were them, I would truly think my parents were making this all up by now!

I was SO proud!

Peanut came into the kitchen to grab a bag for #3's rocks.

Peanut says- We have rocks for #3!

Me- Wow, that is was so nice of you guys to share with #3!

Peanut- Well, we had some neither one of us wanted.


I'm off to eat some humble pie~ ;))

M

When?

This was the conversation between Bug and I today.

Bug--When is Munchkin going to come home? (Said with much sadness)

Me--I just don't know, Honey.

Bug--Well, we've known about him since I was 4 years old.

Complete pause from me and after a few minutes of thinking.....

Bug was right. He was a few months away from being 5 when we first found our son. Bug is now a few months over 6.

I would love to be able to answer his question.

M