Evan's Birthday

This past WEEK was Evan's birthday...and we celebrated constantly in the way of surprises that kept showing up. His party was at the Karate school, and it is by far the best party in town. That young man played those kids into exhaustion and they Loved it!It was his kids from school and was just the right size for activities. Evan did get his Wii and it really has been fun for our family, though I play it very little. The day of Evan's birthday we hosted our friend from Belize, Sharon Arthurs and her team of bible quiz members, 4 kids from ages 10-12 and 2 more chaperones. We had an absolute blast with them here and enjoyed the short time with them immensely. Evan loved the kids and they were gracious to meet him on his level of interest and play. The kids did a demonstration of how they answer the questions and have also memorized the book of 1st Corinthians. Yes, all 31 verses. It was both impressive and humbling to say the least. We ended the time together by going to Landrum Dayspring church and Sharon spoke a wonderful message that day. I was sadly distressed to learn that the host and owner of the hotel we had stayed at in Belize had been robbed, tortured and murdered in that very hotel last March 10th. His son found him when returning from school. That man was such a gentle happy soul I cannot imagine his last hour on this planet without tears. They did catch the three men but the justice system in Belize is lame to say the least. Maybe it is easy to say that when you know the person whose life ended in such greed and injustice. Anyway the story said that the wife and son would stay in Belize as they cannot sell the hotel and basically have no where to go. I think I remember they were from Taiwan originally.
Evan's real birthdate was yesterday and it was very hard to convince him he was 5 again and still, rather than suddenly 6. Too many birthdays I guess. Yesterday we got home and yes, there was another gift in the mailbox. Thank You Shelly! We also got a sweet card and financial support from our prayer warrior Susan...remember when you used to just be Marina's warrior?? Thank you as well!
I know there are alot of problems in Ukraine right now getting the interpol clearance forms printed out for everyone over there who has court coming up. The clearances have appeared to be done, but not printed. So no one has proof of said clearance. Nothing surprises me anymore with government involvement in general and how often it involves paperwork that has gone amuck but that does not mean I am not troubled by these events. As long as we have been at this journey we have seen Ukraine stumble and shut down many times in this adoption department. Thankfully they get going again so far each time something comes up. In that there is some light I think. I am reminded here that we have been battling our own US paperwork troubles as well. and.....
We have yet to hear anything from USCIS immigration. I know they have 90 days to respond. They will either say yes, no or they need more docs. I am resolved to the fact that as usual this is way out of my hands. Evan asked for a little sister for his birthday as we got to school wednesday. I said not today and count on the fact that she will be big by the time we get her. I could not tell who was more disappointed, me or him. Even Tully is getting frustrated and he is usually the last to say anything about the frustration of waiting. So we go on living our lives here and trying to get ready for going there. One day it will come....