It was bound to happen....

I'm sure every adoptive family can tell you about the delays they experienced - it's totally normal. Well, ours was bound to happen too. The judge in the girls city is a very busy man with a lot of job responsibilities and very little staffing, so we have been delayed in the last steps.

Honestly, if he didn't have the power of making us parents I would feel bad for the guy and try to help him out. But, he does have that power so as understanding as I want to be I am instead upset he is so behind on the adoption cases. Originally we thought we could be meeting our girls in a few weeks, now I'm just hoping it's this summer. Ugh!

Some happy news though. My amazing family and friends are giving us an adoption shower tomorrow. It will be great to have a shower we can drink wine at! We have been getting gifts in the mail all week- the postman must think we are crazy hoarders of some sort. I'm super excited to celebrate with everyone and feel overwhelmed by the support and love we have around us. I will share photos of the good times on the next post.

Now, if only the judge would be so loving and supporting of us we could really have a big party tomorrow! I'm sending him good thoughts and prayers that he hurries up already!

La dee dah...

There's not much to report really. The judge heard our case about 5 weeks ago and still hasn't signed off on our adoption. The wait is killer!

Some of those near and dear to me have offered the following suggestions so I don't go totally insane waiting:
* stalk old friends and/or boyfriends online (hmm, they are in the past for a reason, onto the next idea)
* take up a new hobby like sewing (yeah right! Duct tape is how I sew)
* start the girls scrapbooks (good idea, but I want them to be legally ours before starting such a big endeavor)
* Zumba class (yes please...next week)
* plant flowers (will do, but in Colorado we need to wait a wee bit longer)

Their room is done, 50 Shades of Grey is almost completely read and with all these (huh humm) great ideas all I can do is take one day at a time and not think too much about the girls...

Any and all other ideas are welcome :)

Care Packages 3

We sent the girls each another package for May. I'm not sure they have received the others we sent, but I like to hope they are getting them. We put in a photo album for each one with "mom", "dad", and "I love you" translated into both French and Tshiluba. We also put in pictures of ourselves holding a small blanket they will get in the same baggie. Then, when we first meet them, we will be holding replicas of the blankets so there is a connection. A great idea another mom from our agency tried.

I have been feeling really low this week. We were hoping to get the judge's signature by May 1st then travel in early June. Well, as of today we are still waiting for his signature. Every day longer this takes is another day we can't meet our girls. Adoption is so hard because of unexpected waits like this. I don't know how long I can hold my sanity while we wait for the judge.

Here are pics of the latest packages. I sure hope these are the last ones- at least until they go away to college :)

Sara's:

 Nalya's:

I Am Congo

I belong to Raise Hope for the Congo and the Enough Project, two great NGOs raising awareness about the DRC. Yesterday they published this video, and it is awesome!! Watch it to meet the people we are all now connected to through our children, see their homeland through their eyes, and know there is hope for this amazing country....



To see the entire story, visit http://www.raisehopeforcongo.org/apps/iamcongo/