HALLELUJAH!!!

Well gang- it's official. Seriously this time. It's done, completed- signed, sealed and delivered!

Our Homestudy is finished, in my hand, amended, and approved by our family coordinator. The other day I went downtown to a lawyers office (Abby Austin's lawyer) to get my 2 copies of our HS notarized along with a few other important papers. Here is what they do here to notarize something- they put a sticker on it, stamp it with a seal, sign it, then charge you a small fortune! GOODNESS MERCY! I thought it was only going to cost me a couple hundred shillings. Try again Captain Frugal- 5,000 SHILLINGS!! My mouht flew open immediately. I couldn't hold it shut. Fortunately, I had gone to the ATM and gotten out exactly 5,000 shillings "just in case" right before I left for downtown. Then I just happen to have 400 shillings in my wallet to pay my driver. Tell me that wasn't God's provision! I'm over that it cost me a small fortune, I mean really, what is 5k ksh to God anyway? I just can't tell you how thrilled I am that it is over....well, this part. We have been working on this homestudy for close to a year. Okay, 10 months, but that is close to a year!

One week from now will mark one year since we started this adoption process.

We are still about a year away from seeing our children, but God has made it so clear that it will be a time of G-R-O-W-T-H! Spiritually, parentally (that's a funny word), and as a couple. SO much will be taking place the next several months so I'm thinking that this time will just FLY by..... at least part of me hopes so. Since I will (hopefully) be working- Chris will be taking on more responsibility of the adoption stuff and I am GLAD to be handing it over. He'll be making MD appointment, ordering new Certificates, sending off our I600 and all of that type stuff.

More on this later- thanks for your sweet sweet prayers, my friends. Can't wait to hug your little necks soon!

Oh work update:

Yes, indeed. I did loose my job. I was only a tad ticked about how it happened, but God had prepared me for it. I had 3 dreams the 3 nights before I got "the email". In my dreams God made it clear to me that it just was not what he wanted for me. I won't go into detail, but I just feel so "taken care of" in a Daddy-Daughter kind of way. Do you ever feel protected from something- like when God is more of a Daddy to you? Oh- I just really love that feeling...

So I'm on the hunt again in case you guys are running out of things to pray for and need something :) I'm just not really sure where to start looking.

HE WILL PROVIDE though... just as Daddy always does.

Adoption stuff... for real...

I realized that this here, is supposed to be an adoption blog. Have I said ANYTHING about adoption lately? Nope. For that friends, I am sorry. Life has been in rush mode getting ready to come home, packing, buying junk for the yaya market... which is a TON of stuff, and trying to get our homsetudy done. So nothing has really happened much on the adoption front other than me amending our HS, sending it to Terra (our country coordinator), her sending it back to me corrected, me fixing a few more things and sending it to Social Worker Steve (SWS), him sending it back to me, me changing and sending it to Terra and ALL that over again and again. HOPEFULLY I pick it up this week (I'm trying in the next 2 days). THEN I have to send it to get Kenyan notarized. Ugh.. 10 days people! 10 days to get this all done. Makes my tummy queasy.

I'm so excited about coming home and seeing all my peeps again, seeing our precious niece and nephews, and getting to sit down face to face with Lindsey to work on Run4Revolution stuff. I just want to warn you all, that I might act like a bit of a hermit for a while. It's hard sometimes adjusting to American culture. You'd be surprised at how much I dream of being in the house just vegging with my family, staying indoors only going out to run and for church. Don't be disappointed in me, I'm just being honest about what I get excited about. :) And I am looking SO forward to my sweet beagle to come back to live with his mama and daddy for a little while. I know, just a dog; but he's been our pseudo child for 5.5 years.

I was sort of getting excited about working however I think I might have just lost my job. I was hired via email and phone interview with HPRHS ER. I worked there as a new grad for 3 years. Well, a few days ago I opened a can of worms. I emailed the ER manager asking if they could get some soap that would accommodate my needs. I had a lot of problems with eczema when I was there not knowing I was allergic to ingredients in the soap. I explained that I was allergic to propylene glycol, quaternium 15, formaldehyde, and fragrance. If I use soap with these products my hands itch, crack and bleed. After several emails they have given up on me and said that I can't be in direct patient care b/c the soap that I can use isn't really a soap. I have a hard time believing I am the only medical person in the US that has a weird skin allergy. I am going to try one more thing before I throw up my hands with the ER. I am going to try and make my own Thompson-antispetic-concoction. If they don't accept it I'll need to find something else. Anyone else know of anything nursing jobs?! I'm coming home SOON and was supposed to start work on Dec. 7th!! Seriously friends, keep your eyes and ears peeled for me! Or we could just pray that this situation works itself out. ME WORKING- is the purpose of me coming home! I HAVE TO make some money so we can our babies home from Rwanda and so we can return to our Kenyan family!!!

Here are some random pics for your viewing pleasure!

Abby likes Chai!  

Miles like Chai too.  And he likes to stick his pinky out whilst drinking it...

Kailyn just before bedtime with uncle Chris.

CT, handsome as he is, up in South Horr this week with his friend Michael

Miles with the kids in South Horr and their new disk golf corse.  Miles' dream came true!  They LOVED it!

This pic is for Laurie, my sis in law. These are called Fushia's, but she can't remember the name of them.  She took it upon herself to rename this plant.  She calls them "Geisha's".  I can't look at them without a chuckle, thinking of her.  

KayKay and I with the doggy at the tea plantation today

Melia... thinking hard about the life of a 6 year old

Zippidy doo da...

i know, i know- i ask you people to pray and then i don't give you an update. sorry.

Zippy-

She is alright other than having a bad experience at the hospital here. Aparently this hospital we had heard good things about is having some problems or SOMETHING. Or it could be that it is still a 3rd world hospital. Tuesday I picked up Thomas when it was still dark. We drove to hospital X in a matter of an hour and 20 minutes. Supposedly Zippy was to have had her surgery before we ever even got there. We found her laying in bed with 2 hands full of bruises and holes. Thomas and I both thought she had already had the surgery, only she had not. She said some "trainees" had stuck her 4 times trying to get an IV. "WHAT? You're veins are AWESOME!" (you know i'm one of those sick nurses that gawks at peoples veins, all but drooling).

Whatever. I guess I could get over that. The "trainees" also tried 3 flippin' times to put her catheter in. I suppose soon I'll be making my way to the pharmacy for some antibiotics for her UTI she's destined for. Grrr.

So at 8:30 they take my friend to the "theatre" aka OR waiting room. We were told to come back and check on her at 12:30. So we sat in the car for 3.5 hours, away from the germs, then went back inside to where we had left her sitting. Guess who was STILL sitting there- yep. Zipporah. She was in tears. Her IV was hurting and she had told people but no one cared. I looked at it and it was infiltrated- no doubt. She said they kept telling her it was fine. I promptly went to the nurse and told him that her IV was hurting and infiltrated and if he "doesn't take it out then I will." He gave me a glare and walked to her. He agreed it was infiltrated! Good, now we're getting somewhere! I showed him exactly where he could put the next one. huhuh... gotta love me- I'm such a pain in the butt when it comes to people I love. I gave her a quick pep talk and back rub assuring her everything was going to be fine. (why i didn't just go to the pharmacy before hand and get her some valium ,b/c it's OTC here, i don't know. I could kick myself!) We talked to the staff and like many nationals do they told us what we wanted to hear: "She's next. As soon as this emergency gets out of the OR." I understand emergencies, so whatever. Thomas and i went to the cafeteria to get something to eat about 1pm. We tried to joke a little while we attempted to stomach hairy ...hair infested ... locks of curls .....ehem... our food. (Okay so we just tried to pick out the hairy pieces. I mean come on people- it's hospital cafeteria food at it's worse. We really did try to eat it reminding ourselves people are starving.)

After we ate we went back to the theatre to see if Zippy had gone into surgery. Nope. Still sitting. She had been sitting on a dirty wooden bench for 6 hours being told she was "next". I was done. I starred at a man texting and smiling wondering if whatever he was doing was too important for me to interrupt. Finally I walked over and as politely as I could utter, I asked why in the world my friend had been sitting there for 6 hours. He was very nice and allowed me to look at the OR board telling me that the patients are numbers in the morning. That day, they had 7. Zippy was number 7. I asked if he had any type of time frame other than "next". He pointed to a Mzungu doctor and asked if i'd be willing to talk to her. So i walked over to her inquired about my friends' surgery. She told me 15-20min! And i felt like i could bank on that- she was an American and we all know what freaks we Americans are about our time. When asked to leave the OR waiting- as mannerly as i could i told them I'd like to stay to assure my friend would be going in this time. She finally went in and Thomas and I went to the waiting room. Thomas was so precious sitting there twiddling his thumbs and bitting his lip. He really was such a wonderful husband through this. So other than them also losing her chart, sitting in the OR waiting for 6 hours, being a pin cushion, crying her eyeballs out, and not receiving adequate pain meds, she's great!

I took a chicken pie (her favorite thing to eat is chicken) to them tonight because she just got home. She had a horrible, painful ride back in a Matatu (taxi van)- so she was in some pain, you can imagine. She felt really warm to me and was having some epigastric pain and "pulling" so she has very specific instructions to call me tonight and i will take her to the ER if need be.

She wanted me to tell everyone thank you so much for their prayers!

a last minute prayer request...

i know this is last minute and I've been meaning to post it.

my very best kenyan buddy that partners with us is having surgery this morning. her name is zipporah. her husband and I are about to drive to the hospital which is about an hour away. i've never driven there before and it's pouring outside which now makes it a 2 hour drive. please also pray for safe travel for us in addition to God's protective covering over her body.

thanks so much