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....

When, oh when, will this mountain crumble??

Actually it seems to crumble as I am climbing the side of it now that I give this some thought. It has been hard to update this week since we were cleared by social services. I have never gotten so much as a phone call to explain to me what has occurred but from what little bits and pieces I can gather, social services had taken apart our home study to pass it around and read it. Albeit they had it for three months so why it could not remain intact is beyond me. This is the part where I write that they seem to have misplaced some of the papers. The certified ones. That are somewhat difficult to obtain at a moments notice. I have been lead to believe that USCIS will need the original documentations on these. I am so discouraged and sad, why can people not understand that every day Marina is not HERE she is losing out on opportunities to learn and be cared for? Children have windows of opportunity where learning certain things are easier when that window is Open...hers have been sliding down and closing each day that we are carelessly set back. I take some responsibility for this as well for some of the things we had to clear because we were once ever so stupid, but at this point my biggest concern is how much institutional damage has been done and how difficult to learn to love will it be for her? I have been communicating third party with the newer facilitator in our region in Eastern Europe and she does not have recent information on Marina because the director of that orphanage always wants an update on us and there is little that she has had to offer him so she has been avoiding the orphanage altogether. From what I have heard she is now very happy that there has been connection with us and will be able to talk with that director and give him the insight as to our whereabouts on this crazy board game we are hopping around on. It is a far reach but I sure hope for some more recent photos and maybe even a guestimate on what size little Marina is now. Evan talks about her at school and all the time here at home, trying to ascertain what she might know and what she may not. This has been relatively funny and sad at the same time. He did say that he might need to teach her how to be wild. I am pretty sure that is a freebie thrown in for all kiddos by God:) Then Evan asked me if she had any clothes or was she cold and naked. I wonder how that four year old little mind of his works. The day I found out about the lost papers incident I was distant and brewing a storm in my head, therefor not paying any attention to Evan even though I was giving him the MMhummm answers that are usually reserved for marriage talk. He flat out asked me, are you mad at me or what? I felt pretty bad so I sat down and told him someone lost some important papers that were taking away time to go get Marina and he fell apart and started crying! He finally was able to explain to me that he was afraid someone else would find the papers and go take Marina from us. WOW! The age of enlightenment has sure hit him earlier than it hit me, perhaps by about 35 years.
So here is my basic understanding of things. I believe that God is the creator of everything. I believe some of those things revolted because of the nature of power and greed. And I believe that there is a battle raging over our heads that we could not possibly comprehend. We are often pulled into that battle because we are the objects of God's heart and jealousy is as ugly as power and greed when left unchecked in these revolting little creatures that create mayhem and destruction on the earth to turn us from God. There is a chance that we will turn to Him as well though and that was the turning point for us that sealed the deal that we would never turn back. So now that we have chosen our side, the battle is to create doubt about the power of God. And disrupt our hearts. So as the mountain crumbles under foot as we climb forward, I know that we have been given certain abilities and gifts to navigate. And I can rest in the truth that whatever we can do, we should do. Whatever we cannot do, God will handle. Prayer is fuel. Fill'er up!

Forward motion

Today we finally got the call that we were cleared to submit to immigration for final stateside approval. After much contemplation social services has smacked their seal of approval on our homestudy....nearly 10 months after starting this process and finding out that misdemeanors are not nearly as harmless as they appear on paper. Social services of SC has forwarded our homestudy onward to USCIS where immigration adoption personnel will have the pleasure of sitting down with that 45+ page homestudy and a cuppa whatever, and again, strangers decide if we can do this thing. I honestly feel that the more yesses that are said, the less likely a NO will be the final word.
TOday, other than the homestudy approval, was not totally terrific. The HVAC dude came out and determined that our compressor was shot and our unit had a freon leak, unrepairable. I can drag this 3 and a half ton unit over to sit next to our car that was given the same diagnosis. Evan also came home sick from school but I feel he can at least be repaired. He is sleeping softly next to me as I type this. His questions on the way to school today involved various birthday plans and ideas coupled with when is Marina going to come here to stay? Can I take her to school with me? Can she come to my party? And finally, "Don,t worry mom, she really is coming here". He plans to teach her how to be wild and crazy. He will certainly be a fine teacher! He was watching Signing Times at school yesterday and that is the coolest little video! I think we will try to keep an eye out for this as it will be a great tool for teaching Marina how to speak what she wants or at least sign for it til she gets the word figured out to go with the want. Evan will be 5 in 22 days and that is the big fat deal of the century for him. Tully will be another year older on the 9th and Caylyn left on the 8th, 2 years ago. My mom has a birthday the day after Evans and my brother in laws' is the 16th. Wow, That is a lot of celebrations! I might add that World Down Syndrome Day is March 21. Since baby Sophia got her family last month I am happy to add baby ANNA to the advocation spotlight! Fundraising for her grant begins today. I hope to have one person a day donate at least 21 dollars to her fund each day. This makes a huge impact on who gets adopted as the experience is very expensive...and worth it! Please consider a tax deductible donation to help defray the costs of bringing her home so her family might take that leap of faith and commit to her!
Will keep the updates coming with the process of obtaining our 171-h, the approval of immigration. Pray for speed for us and no more financial warfare, and that Marina stays protected healthy and happy, looking forward to all the goodness that she cannot even dream about now. The days where Evan teaches her to be wild and crazy....oh boy!
ps did I mention we had a flat tire this morning as well?? Yeah, lets not bring that up!

PSS Will update photo of Anna soon as photos on other computer.

Tulips against the forecast....

I resist the urge to start out with "It was a dark and stormy night..." but it looks like it is turning out to be just such a night. Winter weather advisory for slush tonight and tomorrow. This matters because our heat pump is on its last leg...and the compressor is nearly done on this thing. Three days ago I was taken by a scam artist regarding the repair of my car to the tune of 1250 dollars, unless you add the fact that I probably totally ruined the car by driving it, then it really begins to add up. A minor detail is that my car tags were stolen as well...the good news is that I have work (galore) and Tully is also working. Perhaps we can keep digging long enough to get out of the sand trap we have rolled in to. This is also a find time to call up those sermons on how if you are being tested then God must really love you...man I am sooo feeling the love today! :) I am ironically at peace with things, except for waiting on furthering our adoption plans. Wondering if DSS will notify me if they send my home study on to immigration so we can be approved there. Our fingerprints were done in about 5 seconds and they stated they are only waiting on the home study. I did find some errors in our dossier but was able to fix those with no effort and have them renotarized. Now once again with DSS dragging their opinion around in circles we run the risk of timing issues and having to redo things yet again. If I am able to submit our dossier in March then we are ok not to have to redo everything...if too much time drags this into April I will have to start re-ordering documents. Ukraine has this crazy rule that nothing can be notarized for longer than 6 months in the paperwork that will be submitted to them. So, my prayer request is that you pray that Marina will be on the hearts and minds of every single social services worker that is involved in this process to the point that they cannot sleep until we are cleared. I know that is a bit drastic but we should be moving forward and as many nights as I have laid awake wondering and thinking of Marina, maybe they should be too. Perhaps they don't get the urgency of her situation.
Ukraine has a new president and cabinet members are coming into office, many members of the court system are being replaced...it is a veritable changing of the guards over there. We had hoped to beat this administration change because change is not often promising for eastern european adoptions. Already interpol clearance was added recently to the list of things we still have to do. The elusive moving carrot--I wonder that we will ever find our selves there. I watch the tulip buds at the end of their little green stems and wonder that they will bloom, and yet there is an air of promise seeing them, waiting until the exact right moment to surprise us all with what we knew we would witness. This is the hope that I hold on to. I ask for additional prayer for my friend Shelly who is bearing the weight of the world on her heart these days for her own adoption process. I know I have my friends and family to journey with us, but her, not so much. I forget that the world is a crummy place alot of days when it treats those so poorly who seek to do such a noble thing as bring an orphan (or 3) into their home and hearts and family. You guys around me, you are good to make me know that I have chosen my friends well. I have seen so much mean-ness in this world aimed at special needs children, but really, must we trample their parents to be to the ground as well? Thank you that you support us. I do not take your love and prayers lightly. Perhaps you might blanket her as well? We are all tulips waiting to bloom against the forecast....but I know with your help we can bloom and assist those children into blossoming as well. And that is the journey goal for them. Thanks forever and always, Cathy

Fingerprint appointment set!!!

Finally got our fingerprint appointment for February 16th at 11 am in Charlotte NC. I also have all my reference letters that were in addition to the ones already submitted to DSS and will drop those all to my social worker on Monday. The last thing I have to do is be approved by immigration. It is not a slam dunk so prayers would be appreciated. Oh yeah, and I have to raise about 9 thousand more dollars. I am sooo ready to go to Ukraine. Now if everything else lines up we should be there in March. Oh one other weird little glitch. I have put my passports somewhere in the house that is logical and safe...so logical and safe that I cannot find them. Only Evan's:) It is really important to locate these specific passports because new ones will have a new number will create a ton of new paperwork. They also cost about 80 bucks a peice. This is a stupid thing i do when I am stressed- and have done this for years. One time it took me three months to find my house payment in cash that was stuck in the cd shelf. And we all know I do not have the luxury of 3 months:) If they don't appear by next friday, I submit for new ones. Thanks, Cathy


2 Hours Later!! Passports found in one weird place--an old notebook I had started for our adoption 10 months ago??? Have no idea how they ended up there but I have them now, in a real place that would make sense. Thanks for whoever prayed along with me:)

No real news just wanted to update

We are on the little waiting hamster wheel that goes round and round. I assume it will eventually come loose of the screws and take off for real:) DSS has requested additional paperwork such as more reference letters and some information on what we plan to do with our kiddos if we get taken out of this world early. I also had to get local police clearance which of course was no problem, just a bit inconvenient. Kind of like going to the department of motor vehicles because ya never have the right information on paper the first time ya show up. In the mean time immigration was waiting patiently to assign us a fingerprint appointment in a constantly overbooked list in Charlotte so I finally tracked someone down to say that for the love of pete we would take an appointment in Charleston instead. While this adds an additional 2 hours each way, it is better to have some appointment somewhere rather than no appointment anywhere. I expect to get that actual appointment in the mail this next week along with all the out of state reference letters. I am amazed at how many nurses and doctors relocated since our last hospital stay of March 08. One of the few reasons I love facebook is that the social network transcends all that moving and I can still find folks pretty quickly.

My texas friend and adoptive mama Shelly has sent a little sweater dress with hairbows for Marina for court day and also a wonderful sage color winter coat. I am now ready to get on a plane and put these clothes on that little girl and get on with this program. For so long we have been praying that Marina stay safe and filled with peace, but have recently changed the prayer to hurry up and get us there for her. (keeping her safe in the meantime). Sometimes we just forget what and how to pray I think. I am reading the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan and it really addresses this prayer issue that we have--like how we recite the same words all the time and ask God to do what he was going to do all the time anyway. Tully and I are both going through this bible study together and it is starting to put God in a much larger perspective. Since we as humans are so finite, it is easy to slot God in there as well, again and again, seeking the sky genie's services. But I know there is more to this than meets the eye and I am always searching for answers regarding the effects of prayer. If I am going to spend the time, I would like to know that it does not sound ridiculous and waste the time using virtual baby talk to the Creator of the Universe.

This has been an icy and snowy weekend. The first sound I was awakened by yesterday morning resembled something out of a war movie as Evan yelled WOOHOOO at the top of his not so little lungs. Followed by the I told you so dance--yes there was snow on the ground. Unfortunately it was very cruncy ice masquerading as fluffy snow...sledding on ice is only fun in one direction and dragging the sled back up the hill was daunting to anyone. Evan has a small abrasion where he skinned his face twice on the ice slipping down. Today we went for a movie instead, finding it to be a safer alternative than ice sledding. Planet 51 was pretty cute and then we went to a little seafood restaurant for sandwiches...upon entering we were faced with the most beautiful wall water fountain. This is the kind of waterfall that penny wishes are made of and Evan separated me from all of my pennies immediately. He only threw one though. When he came to the table he told me he wished for Caylyn to come back and for Marina to get her brother. Who says pennies are not worth much?

I have been promoted at work lately to area supervisor and have also expanded work to cover a couple of hours a week with Family Connection of SC, assisting families with their medicaid questions. This is somewhat hilarious since I probably have more questions than anybody but they swear to train me so we will see how good they really are I suppose.

That is about it for now, the sun is setting and the roads will be icing over again. Be safe and warm. After this weekend I have added thanks to my prayers for Haiti. Thanks that it is not winter as well...

PS the little baby girl Sofia who was our prayer angel at Christmas has gotten a family commitment so she is going home this year. I am very happy about this. I might add that if you click on her warrior button you will be taken to the giving stats for this past Christmas prayer warrior project for Reece's Rainbow. I can't decide which thrills me more, the grant money raised or the families who made commitments. Just check it out and see what impresses you the most!

Last time Christmas will be without you...

Twas the Night Before Christmas--for the Parentless.. ...

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the land
there are parentless children, with no toys in hand

No stockings to be hung by the chimney with care
no hopes for a family soon to be there

Their beds are not snug--but cold and quite bare
there are no goodnight kisses--no one to care

While we in our homes, laughing in delight
all settle down for a Merry Christmas Eve night

When in someones' heart--there arises a clatter
there are children in need--who's lives really DO matter!

Away to the computer please go in a flash
to see the sweet face with whom YOU could be matched!

While a child you see--their beautiful face all aglow
could this be MY child--could I already know??

When in the dreams of the orphan--what always appears
is a family to love them, to care and hold dear

As you stare at that child--your heart beats real quick--
for you know in your heart that sweet face will stick

More dreams sweet children have--to call parents by name-
come mama! come daddy! come family to claim!

To the ends of the earth--your heart seems to call
now child--I'm coming--I wish for you ALL!

So on a plane to your child--over rooftops you flew
to hold this dear soul--a wish did come true

And then in a twinkling-I saw through the door
this child of my heart-that was waiting no more

As I got my camera and was turning around-
into my arms did he come with a bound!

He was dressed in many layers from his head to his foot
and into my heart his life was just put

there was no round face--no plump little belly
just sad little eyes, and legs shaking like jelly

In a swirl of a pen, and a stamp and a seal
my world became brighter--like I could suddenly feel!

We spoke not a word--they weren't needed at all
and I knew in this moment where I got this call

God laid his hands on my heart--and to the occasion I rose
and He could do it for you--this question He'll pose.....

It won't be a shout--no not even a whistle
it won't be real clear--but faint like a whisper

Can you make room in your heart--if you try with your might?
And make a difference for one--help them see the light?

I can see you exclaim as you hold your child tight--
Thank you Lord for this gift--you got it EXACTLY right!


Someone posted this recently on RR chat and I wanted to keep a copy of it to remind me how I worried for Marina and the others especially through the holidays. I could never see how in the world my life would continue with the way it has already transpired, but here I am, adding warrior for the smallest of orphans to my resume. We are awaiting our fingerprint appointment and the courteous approval of DSS concerning our homestudy.
We stopped by our facilitator's house in Florida on the way home and really enjoyed seeing her sweet family...actually seeing what I would have expected as chaos and craziness was over run by love and peace that flowed between the children and their mom. It just worked so sweetly. 3 SN kiddos and an infant and a 6 year old little boy who was just precious. It was inspiring and precious and personally I would have spent the day laying on the floor sharing much of my time with Emma who was totally content to enjoy the music within her toy as it was laid against her head. Something about her is so beautiful in a way I cannot explain. Then there is Princess Brianna with her magic shoes and little wand and flowing blond hair. The stop was a good one and in two hours gave me the visual that replaces the imaginary when we are emailing and chatting on Yuku on Monday nights.
I cannot believe we were swimming in the ocean last week in Florida and it is sooo incredibly freezing here today. I am up early, coffee brewing, and I need to go set my work schedule for the day, but I sure do NOT want to go out that front door this morning:) Praying that all good mail comes this week. I would love for us to submit our paperwork to Ukraine the day it opens in February 1. Would welcome a prayer or two to join to ours. Cathy
PS found another photo of Marina that does not have someone's arm in the way, it is blurry but cute:)