Quick

Tomorrow afternoon we have our physicals, Wednesday our fingerprints at the Criminal Investigation Department, then next week will will have our first homestudy.  We probably could have pushed it for this Friday.  But there is so much going on and that means we'd have to miss our NLH visit.  Our guests leave Thursday night and I am so far behind in Kiswahili.  CT is supposed to be tutoring me b/c I'm still "that kid".  Mom, just to let you know I STILL have to sit at the front of the class and I'm STILL the last one to catch on.  Hopefully after this week things will start to calm down a bit.  

Also, I found out that a friend from Winston is coming March 5th so she will be bringing all our paperwork my bro n' sis were going to have to Fed ex to us.  God works out all things!

:)  Love you all and really missing you this week.  

step forward

Have you ever experienced silent joy?  You know the kind of excitement- that makes you scream inside your chest?  I know that may sound crazy to some of you... but I experienced it today.  CT and I always go to NLH on Fridays, as I've said before.  Well, today we decided to leave a bit early and go by our agency that is doing our home study.  We have been a bit frustrated b/c we have had so many unanswered and half answered questions.  So I sent our social worker an "sms" (aka text msg) saying that we would be there before 12.  Well, he wasn't there which ended up being a blessing.  We got to talk to Susan who is the head honcho.  She answered ALL of our questions and concerns.  This was the kicker.  I have been so stressed about getting the home study done before we leave at the end of April to come back to the states.  We already bought out tickets earlier thinking surely we would get our home study done before then.  See, it was going to be pointless (only for the adoption) for us to come home without the homestudy.  We couldn't apply for grants without it, nor work on or complete our dossier without it.  She told us that it is totally possible to get it done by then!!  AND we thought we were going to have to drag our poor doctor that will do our physicals, all the way to the embassy to have our physicals notarized.  Apparently we don't have to have any of our KENAYAN documents notarized. YAY!  Okay- so all this to say- we're on schedule... i mean... for the most part.  

And can I just say that I hate leaving this one little boy on Fridays?  I'm REALLY trying not to get too attached.  But for goodness sakes- he walks right up to CT and I grabbing at our legs and reaching up his little arms.  He's not like us at all; very stoic. 

Welcome FELIX IV

Our sweet Nephew was welcomed to the world on Febuary 15th at 12:22pm.  

      (I think he looks Chinese in this picture)

Emma loves Felix

Daddy laying his eyes on his baby boy.  How TENDER!

Nice and clean now with his mommy.  Isn't she beautiful?  PS- I talked to her... literally like 20 minutes before she had him.  She's really awesome... and tough as nails.

Today has been a very emotional day for me.  We recieved pictures from Felix III and saw Felix IV for the first time.  It was a very nice ending to the day.  I promise you I was in the office for 6 hours in the morning working on adoption "stuff".  Then the internet stopped working.  I drove 30minutes to the coffee shop where my computer kept freezing and doing all sorts of non sense..... but I got my files sent to the right people.  We'll see what happens next!  

I am not only missing being with baby Felix and celebrating with his family, but I will confess that I had a tid bit of a sob fest on my bed... (maybe even twice). 

I am just really MISSING our children!  How is that?  I miss the children that we don't even have yet.  I long for them.  So tomorrow- I'm determined I will be better and less emotional and completely together... (ha!)

I got to talk to Mom and Dad today and that was really great.  I asked Mom if the blankets she is making are gender specific (the plan was to adopt 1 boy, 1 girl) .  She assured me they are not.  See, there are SO many boys at NLH.  Apparently, for several reasons, people adopt more girls than boys.  I think out of about 25 toddlers- there are 2 girls.  I guess I have had that on my mind lately and I began sewing yesterday.  (Ruthan just arrived and brought my sewing machine... talk about excited.)  So I made these 2 blankets b/c I didn't know what else to make... and I just HAD to sew.  I will take a picture when the buttons are on and I'm completely done. Whilst making them I said to myself:  "I think the boys will really love these."  Then I said "self, did you just say 'boys'?"  Um-  might just be a prompting by the Holy Spirit.  But I tell you what: I don't care WHAT they are.  I just WANT THEM HERE!!  I told CT- I am totally cool with having 2 boys.  He is too.  

We just want to be obedient and willing to take whatever children He wants us to parent.

 

set back...

This whole "doing this in Kenya" has proved to be more tricky than we thought.  It can be done.  And the problem is unprofessionalism combined with being given the wrong paperwork.  We were given the wrong paperwork to begin with and we didn't know any better.  So we've been working on the wrong paperwork this whole time.  In fact, we've gone as far as emailing our references, doctors, pastor, "God parents" etc. their forms they are supposed to fill out and get notarized.  It's a bit inconvenient to go back to them and say "oh- we gave you the wrong paperwork.  We need to get you the new, correct paperwork and you need to do it over again and get it notarized... AGAIN."  

Here's the other catch- they won't give us the forms on the computer.  They have only given us the tangible ones.  Which means it will take few weeks to get to each person- then they have to get them completed and mail them back.  Thus delaying us more.  I was hoping to have the homestudy finished before we come home in a couple months.  We'll see, I guess.  

This is our 3rd meeting with the agency over here and this is the first time they have given us a list of things we need to have completed before they will even come out to the house.  Frustrating?  VERY!  They could have at least said "you can find a list of things you need to have completed on our website" during one of our first 2 meetings instead of leading us to believe this was one of our actual homestudies yesterday.  Then I might not have flipped about the paperwork being wrong.  I mean, at least we wouldn't be starting ALL over.  

My man, well he was more upset than I was.  I kinda liked seeing him get all passionate about our little ones.  He's going to be such a great Daddy... taking up for his little guys.  

This was Chris yesterday "You know, Lindy- you can't MAKE people care or hurry because it's not THEIR kids they are missing out on.  If it were their kids- they might try a little harder."  

I sure love my man and there isn't anyone else I'd rather go through this with than him.  He's really great....  (just FYI)

I know I'm sounding like Debbie Downer again, but I don't mean to be.  Yes, it it frustrating- but God wants us to learn something from this.  Just like Michael and Emily- they (and the kids ) have learned so much about Ethiopia that they didn't know before.  Not to mention- they are now officially professionals at putting a dossier together!  Not only does God want us to learn something (possibly to help someone else out) but He also has really special and specific timing for all of this.  

Just have to keep on reminding ourselves of that and this won't be the last "challenge" we go through in this adoption.  

We appreciate your prayers!  We really felt them yesterday!

Still counting it ALL joy...  

 

The Real World...

This was supposed to be Friday's post but, again, out internet is messing up.  Wish I could download more 

Chris and I are trying to set aside one day each week to go to New Life Homes to volunteer.  We like to go feed the babies early morning, then they go down for a nap about 9:30ish.  Then we wander over to the 1-2 year olds to play with them outside.  IT IS SO MUCH FUN!  The 1^st time we went CT got to go.  The second time was a whim.  CT was in Kawangware and Isaac hadn’t shown up for “school”.  I was already 20 min from home.  Since Isaac hadn’t come I figured I’d go on the NLH to spend my day.  When I told Chris what I had done that day he was really disappointed he didn’t get to go.  Okay- so he was straight up jealous of my bonding time with the kiddos. 

As I had said before- one particular little girl grabbed our hearts.  Actually she got Chris’ first.  Then mine.  She’s a tiny, petite little thing with a smile that could melt anybody’s heart.  The first time Chris went over to her she smiled and reached up for him.  I told Chris about the babies schedule and how I wanted to be there early.  He said “Oh- yea!  So we can see Wendy.”  Exactly.  I was getting to where I was praying about her becoming our child.  I was even praying just this morning (Friday) for her when I felt a tender whisper “What if she’s not there?”  Of course I didn’t let my mind sit very long with that thought.  I ignored it almost as quickly as it came to mind.  As we got to NLH Chris and I were both looking over all of the children… trying to find little Wendy.  I didn’t see her.  So I asked “Mama, where is Wendy?” (This is the same Mama that asked me just last week if I wanted Wendy to be my little girl.)  “She’s gone.  She got a family.”  Bittersweet.  See, that’s the catch 22 here.  You look into the eyes as you get to know each of these children wondering “Could I be looking into the eyes of MY child right now“?  (We know God has 2 children already picked out to fit perfectly in our family).  Yes, it can be a struggle- but that place just draws you in.  It's like a REALLY great, all you can eat- buffet.  You can’t get enough and you can’t help but go back for more.  I had talked to my sister about whether or not I thought I'd be able to go and volunteer there.  Now that I've started, I can't stop.    When you hear their stories and what some of them had to overcome to get to NLH- you too, would be drawn to go back.  

I want to share a bit of what I call “the real world.”  Did your mom ever used to say “Welcome to the real world.”? My Mom certainly did and boy did it drive me bonkers.  Mom- no offense, but nothing about whatever I was going through was the “real world”.  As a matter of fact- just in the last 2 years I have realized what the “real world” REALLY is.

In India, the real world throws their baby girls in dumpsters.  Some burry them alive or leave them on the street because they feel like there is no other way out of their poverty.  Some women are given ultimatums- kill their baby girl or the husband will leave.  Some women even commit suicide at the same time or afterwards.  These heinous acts are out of fear that they won't be able to provide for the rest of their family because with her gender- she brings a dowry.  

The real world decided to abort this little boy at birth.  Somehow- it went terribly wrong.  As he was attempting his natural exit out of the birth canal, he was stabbed with a knife tearing his left side from the middle of his ribs down to his thigh.  Since that didn’t kill him- he was thrown into a field and left for dead.  Some children found him with a terribly infected wound infested with maggots.  He was repaired as best they could but now has such a tight scare that it pains him to stand.  In fact he even favors his left side when he sits.  He will have to endure a surgery soon to relax the scare tissue a bit so that he may be more comfortable.  He also had a bit of undiagnosed hydrocephalus.  When he began showing symptoms they took him to the hospital immediately.  However somehow they switched his CT with a 18-year-old boys and said he was fine.  Thankfully, he now has a shunt and is doing well with it.   What a fighter! He is so bright and precious.

 

The real world abandoned this little girl who is both blind and with cerebral palsy. 

 

The real world can’t decide if one little girl should get to have open-heart surgery because she also has Down syndrome.  They COULD be paying for another child to have open heart who doesn’t have Downs.

 

In the real world this normally jovial little fella feels rotton. Randall has Eczema…. All over his entire body.  He has been on creams and steroids, but nothing seems to work.  He needs a home and a special dermatologist who can test him a treat it.  He just laid on a mat outside- so lethargic.  I’m sure it just hurt too badly today to move.  And to think- I thought his Eczema looked bad last week.  He reminds me so much of a burn victim the way his skin sloughs off and the pink color of the new skin underneath.

I’m really not trying to be Debbie Downer… just wanted to get you to think and pray for these little guys.  And that you might think differently when you hear "the real world".

Office-study

We have our first home study tomorrow.  It's actually not at our home at all though.  It's at their office.  So maybe that makes it an Office Study.  I dunno.  It's after the evangelism in Kawangware at 2pm.  We are both really excited about it...

Stay tuned for more NLH pics and stories.  I might try and download them tomorrow at the coffee shop.   

Love you all... really I do. 

Happy Birthday Levi (and Emma)

Today was my nephew, Levi's Birthday. About 2 weeks ago- I wanted to do this with my niece's birthday- but the internet still hadn't been turned on.  I really hate that I missed Emma's first birthday.  She was very understanding though.  For Emma's first birthday-we were getting our orientation here in Kenya.  I mailed her a package of clothes and birthday goods that still hasn't reached her.  Then Levi was born the day before we returned back from our orientation. The first place we wanted to go was to the hospital to see that humongous boy-(that tried to stay in the oven a whole extra week waiting on us to get back!)  Missing their deliveries, and birthdays are tough, but we are so thankful that they have such wonderful parents and friends that surround them.  We also have been blessed that we have been able to come home and watch them grow more than most missionaries get to.  Most go into the field and don't see any family for 3-4years.  (I'm sure we'd be a wreck- if that were our case).  If didn't have such stupendous, remarkable, extraordinary family and friends- it might be a bit easier to be away for a longer period of time.  When we leave NC in May... THAT will be the toughest, b/c we won't be back for some time.   

At any rate, this post is not about us and our wants.  It's about our neice and nephews birthdays.  Here are a few pictures from our time in the states that make us happy!  We love you both so much and celebrate your birthdays over here in Kenya!  We thank God every time we remember you.  

Love, 

Uncle Chris and Aunt Nene