Homestudy update

Our homestudy update is officially underway! We met with our social worker today, and tomorrow is running around to do fingerprints and mail off clearance check paperwork. Home visit is in 2 weeks. Paperchase has begun.

We wait

Our family profile has been submitted for translation in the hope of adopting a 6-year-old little boy with Down Syndrome from Eastern Europe. Again, please pray for us and for this little boy, that if it be God's will we can provide a new home for him. More details as available...

Missing Daddy

2 weeks ago, Stew left for New York to visit his sister. Little Onnolee can't talk yet, but is definitely Daddy's Little Girl. When we were up late last week packing to leave for Utah, Onnolee disappeared. The search found her, curled asleep next to Daddy's side of the bed, wrapped in his dirty jeans. She sure did miss her Daddy!

Another gem of a stone, and hope...

Well, I've been carrying around a stuck kidney stone for almost a month now---just like they promised at the ER..."Sometimes they can take a whole month..." and wouldn't you know, it waited until I was on my week-long vacation out of state to decide to act up and jiggle around and torture me for two whole days. And finally, it came to pass! Goodness, it was huge, bigger than the one I posted about a few months ago. I am definitely going on the kidney stone diet. I can't be doing that any more. It was awful!!!
BUT, on a positive, optimistic note, I am waiting for news on the possibility of adopting a little boy from Ukraine, and may possibly have more definite word tomorrow or the next day. The last email I got sounded hopeful...

Vacation

We've been away from home for a week, and are headed back to Edgewood this morning for a ten to twelve hour drive. We've all been passing around a stomach viruse the whole time, so it hasn't been all fun, but we did get our visiting in and a trip to Idaho---more details on that later. Jesse had his eighteenth birthday party yesterday at Serena's house complete with lots of water in the backyard and twelve cans of silly string. He had a great time. I will post pics as soon as Serena sends me a copy on a CD.
The last word this week on adopting either David or one of the other two boys is a hopeful "maybe." I am expecting a more definitive answer on Monday or so, and I will post as soon as I am sure. I have gotten two emails now from USCIS passing my questions on to a higher level, so this Hague stuff is confusing even for them. I just wish we would have found David last year. Oh well, it will be interesting to see what God's plan is this time.

Chillin'...

Well, I have not been able to find out any definite information from USCIS concerning our paperwork. Due to the new Hague requirements, we are probably not going to be able to adopt David after all. It breaks my heart as his little face is already imprinted in my mind. He so badly needs a home and a family to love him, and I was really hoping it could be us.
There are two other little boys from a non-Hague country, and Reece's Rainbow is trying to find out if we would be able to adopt one of them.
I am waiting and praying.

PRAY

We have a possible roadblock to adopting "D."
More details tomorrow. I have an appointment with immigration to see if things will work out.
Please pray, for "D," for us.
If he was truly meant to be with us, this should work out.

The other half of this group

Well as my wife said I freaked when I found that I had totally misread the date of my departure to NY and thank goodness things worked out.
Since I have joined this crazy group things have been just that crazy. I have gone from not knowing very much about handicap kids to one who wades in and gets things done. Bre taught me that and that you can love and be loved no matter what life has thrown your way.
Yes we are at it again and this had better be the last time as I am getting to old for this! I am starting my Masters degree at the end of this month looking for work and now house hunting and still need time to have a birthday party for one of the kids that I might miss because of things. Oh well no one ever said life would be dull with this family and all we have to do and go through in this life.
Some of the kids are real stinkers then they do something really nice and ruin it all. But you are so glad that they do it because it gives you the desire to keep banging your head against the wall to help them grow as you grow right along with them.
The last two little guys are the ones who dad just enjoys to the max and then we have the older ones who have grown so much in the last four years and still have some growing to do. When you can see change for the good it is so special that you just can't give up on them or you.
My wife is the most special person I have ever known and only hope some of her values have rubbed off on me and that we can pass them on to our kids.
In this life you reach out and grab some of it or just let it pass you by it our choice and if by chance you pickup a few of what the whole calls handicap kids you are the better for the journey and all that it will teach you.

Moving along...

A lot happening around here...
I am off now for the rest of the week. A lot to do in a few days...
I have two job interviews in Idaho next week. I am hoping for an offer I can't refuse. We are going to try to look at some houses while we are there too. We've done some online house-shopping ahead of time and we are pretty sure we can find something we like, if we can only hopefully sell this house and then get financing for another one.
Stew is leaving for NY tomorrow afternoon. When he went online to print his boarding passes he freaked because he realized he was supposed to leave TODAY. OOPS. Thankfully, they changed the date for him with no penalty!
We leave for Salt Lake on Saturday. I am driving up in the van with all the kiddos. That should be an adventure!
Adoption progress- We are almost done with our preliminary homestudy paperwork, and will be mailing it off to Idaho, hopefully this week. I made appointments for next Monday for our physicals, and we will try to get our background checks done at that time too. Half of our 6 reference letters are done and on the way to Idaho too. I think that is almost all we can do for now. I am waiting to hear back from the adoption agency for more details. It is starting to sink in and be real! I will post pictures as soon as I am allowed. Wait until you see my angel boy!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

IT'S ANOTHER...

BOY!!!!!!!!
Born November 4, 2003 in Eastern Europe.
We have committed to adopt "D."---
a very special little boy!
"D" was listed on Reece's Rainbow, www.reecesrainbow.com , a ministry for orphans with Down Syndrome.
Love at first sight.
Yes, Roberta, I am "pregnant" again!

Okay, this is NOT the interesting news, BUT...

I PASSED THE HUMANITIES CLEP TEST!!!

I AM ***DONE*** WITH MY BSN, MY BACHELOR'S DEGREE IN NURSING! I DID IT!!!!!!!!

STAY TUNED

I should be posting some interesting news in the next few days...

Fourth of July

Unfortunately, very unfortunately, I did not bring a camera to fireworks last night. I ended up by myself with the 2 babies on the grass, as Stew sat back closer to the parking lot, on a bench with Jesse and Marisol, and Kory went wandering around with his 12 year old curiosity to see what all there was to see.
First of all, in 3 years living here, we had never been to Balloon Park, and there is REAL grass!!! It felt so good to go barefoot and to sit on. The two little ones didn't seem to know what it was . Onnolee just sat for many minutes with a puzzled look on her face feeling the sensation of it on her legs, and then leaned over for a very close staring session. After the novelty wore off, she had to be in my lap for the rest of the night. Meanwhile, Estuardo had taken off his boots and ended up barefoot the whole time, which is extremly strange for him. He loved the feel of that grass! He got so excited, he bent down and started doing SOMERSAULTS!!! I didn't even know a 2 year old could do somersaults yet! I think he must have learned that one watching Noggin channel on TV. He immediately befriended the 2 year old little girl who was sitting next to us and they ran around together for the rest of the evening. After awhile I had to corral him and force him to sit on my lap with Onnolee because it had gotten really dark and it was hard to keep track of him. He had been running back and forth and tossing his taggy blanket up in the air time after time, laughing, and having fun with his new friend. When fireworks started he quieted down and watched closely for the first fifteen minutes or so, and then he wanted to get back to business running around so it was a real challenge. At least by that time, Kory had gotten back to help me!!! Anyway, we had a fantastic time and it was a wonderful fireworks display. I am glad we got to go! Just wish I had pictures!!!!