Enough Already

Ok, this blog was not a place I created so I could moan, groan and complain. It is really easy to do that though when you know nothing of the status of your case, when you don't know when you will travel (one date had us going this week, now who knows!), and when for all you know the adoption process has all been a very expensive dream with no end in sight....enough already!

But, I digress. Happy thoughts, inner peace, joy radiating out..one day I will look back on this with fond thoughts of free time, movies that are not cartoons and nights out without a babysitter. It is absolutely beautiful outside with birds chirping and neighbor kids playing, life is not too bad after all.

On days like this as you journey to your adopted children, remember how lucky we are, how many little things we should be grateful for and slow down the thoughts running through your head by taking a long walk in the sun - or spin circles in a sunny field, even better! Enjoy life even when you obsess over what you don't have have or fully know, after all we only live once (unless your Buddhist).

Just Keep Swimming

I love Nemo. Basically any Pixar cartoon is great in my mind. With nothing new to report and being in the complete dark over if my file is even in Congo anymore, I am going to repeat, "just keep swimming"- words of wisdom really.


I'm sure there are Bible verses, Buddhist mantras and Pagan rituals I could try too. If some good news doesn't come our way soon I just may resort to all of these and more.


So to all the adoptive families out there sitting in limbo, playing the waiting game and checking your email every 10 minutes, think of Dory the fish and smile.

A Shower & Hope

I have been so busy I haven't been able to write about the wonderful adoption shower my family and dear friends put on for me. It was so amazingly overwhelming to have so much support and love surrounding us, I almost feel like the cute thank you cards I'll be sending out are not enough.

 Here is a quick recap. We had food- but not pink punch and finger sandwiches. We had fufu, goat, and champagne mixers (I know our girls eat fufu and goat, the champagne was just for us:) )

We had games, but thank goodness no guessig my stomach size with string or guessing the candybar in a diaper. Instead we got to name as many African countries as we could and figure out trivia questions on the DRC.

We did have cake and some of the best sugar cookies on earth (thank you Papa Dave!):
  

In case you can't read it, the cake says, "you did not grow under my heart, you grew in my heart" with a heart in Africa and a heart in Colorado-  it still makes me tear up!

Finally, we received so many gifts for the girls it took 2 hours just to find a place for them at home. Thank goodness we now have two car seats, a double stroller and a wagon among all the other packages we opened- we are so blessed!

It was a blast! Here are Matt and I after opening gifts- the scarf is from a great friend who just adopted from Ethiopia-

I hope this shower sent out enough good energy into the universe that it will have no choice but to bring our girls home to us soon. We have not heard from the judge and are starting week 8 after going through court....come on good mojo, let our girls come home and enjoy all the new things they received!

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/