Lilypie Waiting to adopt Ticker

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Can't wait for life to change...

Nothing new to report on the adoption front. We are still waiting to get approved by the Philippines to adopt. We'll hopefully hear new on that front in the next month or two. In the meantime we are staying busy busy busy, and trying not to dwell on the waiting.

I've been assessing how crazy busy we are right now, and I can't wait until we have kids. Our life is going to change completely, and I can't wait. Between vacations and work trips, Dave and I will be home for 12 of the next 30 days. ugh. Most of those 12 nights are filled with our new sign language class (every Monday night for the next year), church meetings and dinner with friends. I know all of this will be fun, but I miss our house sometimes too! I can't wait until we have good reason to just stay home with our kids, and bond and be a family.

Things I'm excited for:
- a loud house filled with the sounds of children
- cuddling as a family
- being home more as a family
- watching our children grow in leaps and bounds
- hugging and kissing our children
- embarassing our kids as they become teenagers by kissing Dave in front of them, and dressing like a dorky mom
- watching my fave kids movies from when I was little, and finding new goodies
- cooking together at home
- sleep deprivation
- hugging and kissing our children
- toys to clean up each night
- teaching our kids sign language and a bit of Tagalog
- being busy with the things in life THAT MATTER
- listening to our children talking
- singing and praying with our children before they go to bed
- hugging and kissing our children
- so many more things, I just can't wait!!!!!!!!

Hanging out with Grandma Alice at her new apartment

Monday, August 13, 2007

Philippine group

Dave and I waving to our friends, Andy and Tyler, from good old Okoboji
I joined a Yahoo group specifically for families adopting from the Philippines. I still haven't decided if this was a good idea or not. On the one hand - I love love love reading the stories about the families uniting. There was a beautiful story about how a mother couldn't take her eyes off of her new 1-year old daughter who she was just united with last week. She wrote that she is the most beautiful, and most loving little girl she could have imagined. I can't wait until that day comes for us. Even cooler was the fact that this little girl was from the little children's home in Manila. This is the orphanage that our very good friends, Andy and Tyler, volunteer at, and it is also the orphanage that Louis came from (the little boy we met at our adoption training). My favorite part was knowing that in some way, Andy and Tyler touched this little girl's life. (We also thank our new friends - Andy's parents - for the pictures on today's post!!)I've also been reading updates from a family waiting to be able to pick up their little 1-year old boy from the little children's home.

The reason I'm not sure if it was a good idea to join this group or not is because I also read about the problems people have experienced through their adoption process. I know that it is good to be prepared for whatever may come by reading about other people's experiences, but I also don't want it to feed into my fears about the adoption. The psychologist already assessed that I am a fearful person during our adoption assessment - do I really need more fodder for that?!

Dave and I have decided that we want to make a conscious effort not to be spazzes about this adoption. I don't want to be the nag who continually calls Karin asking for updates, and demanding that they try to push this process to go faster. We understand that the Philippines is completely different from the US, so we can't come at this with an American frame of mind. Americans expect immediate results, and it just doesn't work that way in the Philippines. We completely trust that Karin will give us updates as soon as she receives them - she has told us this numerous times. Our adoption dossier was sent over to the Philippines on Friday, August 3rd. We haven't heard any news that they have received it, but after hearing a story about the Philippine postal service this weekend we are now praying specifically that our dossier moves smoothly through the Philippine postal service and lands on the right desk of the right person at ICAB (the government adoption group for the Philippines).

Our good friend Nikki gave me a great idea last night. She told me that when they were pregnant with Sammy (the cutey-pie in the picture), they prayed specifically for him to be a cuddler, as well as other personality traits. She asked me for things that she could pray for specifically for us. I had never thought about praying this specifically to God for our children! So Dave and I are in the process of making our list and praying over it. Like Aaron and Nikki, we do pray that our child is a cuddler - we are touchy-feely kinds of people! As we think of other specific prayer requests, we will list them.

Thank you for reading along with our blog. It is encouraging to hear that you are reading about our journey with us, and to know that you are thinking of and praying with us!!

What a cutie-baby!! Sam-a-lamb

Thursday, August 2, 2007

Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow!!

Today we sent in our next payment which covers the dossier preparation on our agency's side, and part of the Philippines fee. I e-mailed Karin to let her know that I mailed the check via Priority Mail. She e-mailed me back to tell me that she would mail out our dossier TOMORROW!!! AWESOME!!

We are only 3 weeks behind the inital deadline that we had set for ourselves. I think a little part of me thought we would never get to this point. I kept thinking something would come up that would prevent us from finishing the dossier, or sending it out. I guess it's that part of me that feels like I don't deserve good things. God keeps continually reminding me that I'm his beloved, and He wants good things for me. I feel His blessings pouring out on us as we wait on His timing for our children. Not to say that I have been waiting patiently, but I feel like His blessings are better than I can imagine because I constantly remind myself that my babies are in God's hands.
Dave and I got to attend the annual Hand in Hand picnic last Friday. It was such a fun evening!! Karin was right, it was like going to a United Nations party. There were kids from all of the different countries that Hand in Hand adopts from. It was so beautiful!! We saw another couple from our training sessions. We got to catch up with them and meet their little girl who they had biologically. She was such a cutie!!

While we were waiting for the line to go down for the food (we figured since we are kidless, we can wait to eat), Karin introduced us to MaryLee (the founder of Hand in Hand). MaryLee was just up visiting from FL for a little while, and timed it perfectly so that she could come to the picnic. I got tears in my eyes when I was talking with her - I'm so grateful for her, and for the strides she has made in making adoption from the Philippines happen for so many people. She is the one who helped the Philippine government write their adoption laws - WOW!! She also introduced us to her son, Jeremy and his wife. MaryLee adopted Jeremy from the Philippines years ago. He was such a nice guy - he told us that he thought we were pretty great people for adopting from the Philippines. He is so grateful to his mom for adopting him. We felt a huge surge of encouragement from his words, and had a good time getting to know him.

While we were eating we were sitting near a family and their three teenaged boys. We learned from them that they had always wanted a little girl, and they were adopting an infant girl from Guatemala!! We had a great time getting to know them and hearing their stories. They were able to go meet her a few days after she was born!! How cool. The process takes a long time there, though, so they are hoping she will be here with them by Christmas. They already had pictures of her, and she is so beautiful. In Guatemala, they require that the birth mother take a picture with her baby. That small little Polaroid packed such emotion as I stared into the eyes of this 18-year-old woman. She looked so very sad to be saying good-bye to her daughter, and my heart broke for her. It made me realize that in addition to praying for my babies, I need to make more of a conscious effort to pray for the birth mother of our children as well. Birth parents make such a brave choice when they make that adoption decision.

We also got to see little Louis (the little boy who gave us hugs and kisses during our first training session). It was so fun to see how big he had gotten and his eyes sparkling as he played with the other children. There were lots of games for everyone, and there was even a pinata!! My favorite thing to watch was how intent those kids were on hitting that pinata, and seeing even the little ones smacking that pinata with all they had!! As we were leaving, Karin gave us a hug, and told us that she couldn't wait until we were one of the couples chasing around our little ones. I can't wait either!!!