Patience? What's that?

Many of you know that Patience does not seem to be my virtue. It seems that these past two weeks have really proven that. I would love to say that I waited out this adoption gracefully as many of you have commented that I have. Even if I came remotely close to doing so, these past 2 weeks have ruined me:0) We sit here after being approved for 2 weeks, and continue to wait for any confirmation that we were submitted for his birth certificate. We were told we were, "last week". If that were the case, we would have it by now. I have not heard a word from my agency since Wed. when I got this update. I sit here and know that God's timing is perfect and that a year from now, this really won't matter. At the moment, the not knowing is definitly not bringing out the best in me!! While these last few steps should run 3-4 weeks, we, once again are setting a record for not getting it done in the time frame given. I seem to be checking my email mutliples times a day for any news. I will definilty be going through computer withdrawl when this process is finally over!!!

"I'm so sorry"

I found myself saying this to a dear friend of mine last night, Demarie. Demarie and David started an adoption from Guatemala over the summer and they were told last night that Joshua would never be coming home. It turns out that there were too many unknown and unexplainable things in his paperwork, such as birth mom birth certificate etc. Although I found myself saying it many times last night, the words "I'm sorry" really don't cut it. I thought about this last night as I laid in bed. During our current process and 3 of our preganices , we were told "i;m sorry" in many different ways, all coming back to the loss of our child. Many may not understand the loss that is felt when something like this happens. I know that I heard comments, 'well at least you hadn't held him yet." , or atleast it happened now and not later." The fact remains that the pain is real no matter what the circumstances leading up to the loss are. God brought this child in to their lives for a reason and my heart aches for the pain that they are going through right now!! Please bow down with me and pray for them. Ask God to heal their pain and to give them peace as to how Joshua will be taken care of. Ask God to show them the direction that He wants them to go now. God does not put the desire of adoption in to the heart of HIs children for no reason!!!

And He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning or crying or pain. Rev. 21:4

God must put people in your way for a reason!!!

I heard from two different families this morning that our using our agency. They were both given updates last night. We of course, have heard nothing!!! This to us means that they didn't have anything exciting to tell us and that they prob. haven't even started moving on our case. If only we could go do it ourselves. Christmas is def. going to be out as well as the end of the year at this point. I just have to hang on to the fact that God allows incompetent or lazy people in to our lives for a reason.
Thanks for letting me vent. I thought that this process would get easier now, but we still wait with no one returning our emails and calls and still no travel date even remotely in site:0(

Thanksgiving is over.....

Well, Mum and Joe fly back to England tomorrow. Our Thanksgiving holiday is now officially over. We had a great time. We shopped and played games and the kids have had a blast. Today we went in to D.C. and went to the'lovely' aquairum, the Bureau of Engraving and ended the day with the Museum of the American Indian. For those of you that have never had the pleasure of going to the National aqarium, it takes all of 30 minutes to walk through:0) While we were on the tour at the Bureau of Engraving, we saw a pile of money that valued $340,000. Alex said, "that is soooo much money. Why can't they just give us some?" By the end of the day both kids were in melt down mode, but all in all, we had a GREAT day!!

On the adoption front, we haven't heard anything new. We were hoping to have heard that we were submitted for his birth certificate by now. I really wanted new pictures before my in-laws went home too, but why should our process change just because we are almost done? Hopefully soon, i will have new information to share. In the meantime, we appreicate your continued prayer!!!

Nanny and Grandad are here......

Gareth's parents, Janet and Joe flew in from England last night. They arrived safely and we are already having loads of fun.
Tonight we are setting up the Christmas tree, (I know, is seems so early) but we are doing Christmas morning with them on Friday. The kids are over the moon. It didn't take Callum 5 minutes to realize who they were and he has been all over them since.

On the adoption front, we should get new pictures and a new medical the first part of next week. We are also hoping that they apply for his birth certificate this week as we were told they would. We will have to see about that:0)

Have a wonderful day!!!!!

Newest Update....

We were told today that we should be submitted for Nicholas's new birth certifcate next week. We also found out that our US Embassy appointment, when we finally get there, will now come via email to me from the US Embassy in Guatemala. I was looking forward to being able to give up my "addiction" to the computer for a while, but now I will still have to be on the computer daily. We have made our list and I started organizing the boy's room tonight. (doesn't that sound so awesome, 'the boys'?) Anyway, it will be interesting to see how it will work out with Callum being such a light sleeper. I don't think that it will be easy. Alex said that Nicholas can sleep in her room so she can get up with him in the middle of the night. I am half tempted to take her up on that. (just kidding) Gareth's parents are flying in on Monday from England, so for now, we get to enjoy their company and have a good time until we get more news. At least we have a lot going on so it will be a good distraction!!!!

Thank the Lord, We have Approval!!!!!

WE HAVE APPROVAL!!!! I was at church for our monthly Women on Mission meeting and that is when I got the news. It couldn't have been more special. I had 7 of my friends and sisters in Christ to share the Joyful news with me!!! Funny enough, it was my Women on Mission meeting 2 years ago, in november that I got the call that we had approval for Callum too. Is there a lesson here? Make sure that you go to your church meetings!!:0) Anyway, There were MANY nights that I would lay in bed and wonder if I would ever be able to post this. 9 months to the day of entering PGN, our file was picked up with a big Approval stamp on it!!!!
We now apply for his new birth certificate with our last name, then his passport which should come a few days later. After that, we have to get approval from the US Embassy in Guatemala for his 2nd DNA to be taken. It usually takes a few days to get that done, an then we wait for processing. Once the lab in N.C. gets the results back to the Embassy, we are issued our appointment. I know it seems like a lot, and although we are not sure right now if we will have him for Christmas, at least we now know that we will indeed be bringing him in to our family FOREVER!!!!! Alex is soooo excited that she is going to be a big sister again. Before she went to bed tonight, she said, "you better go pack." It was too cute!!! I had to remind her that it will be a few more weeks.

We want to thank you all from the bottom of our hearts for all of your support and prayers. I will not say that this process has been easy. I will not say that we did not have many talks with God questioning His timing and asking many questions. I will not even say that I did not struggle and wonder if God was even hearing what we were saying when we prayed, especially the last few months. What I do know is that God is GOOD, and always wants the best for His children. I now wonder if I appreciate this moment more now that I have had to wait almost 2 years for it.

Anyway, enough in to my brain.....we now have lists to make and shopping to do. I haven't bought the boy a stich of clothing yet!! Gareth's mom flies in next week. Guess what we will be doing???? How much fun we are going to have!!!!!!

Thank you again for all of your prayers!!!!!

No new pictures

We found out today that we won't be getting new pictures in the batch that was just given out. Not suprising but they "forgot" to take pictures and video. We are the only ones that were left out. Go figure. We should get some before Christmas though, so that is something to look forward to. We also hadn't been kicked out by the end of business day today either, so that is a huge praise. Just praying that we get good news soon!!!!

Another week for us......

This week marks 9 months in PGN for us. Gareth and I were discussing the other day that we never in a million years thought that this case would surpass Callum's back in 05, but it has, and then some. There are quite a few families that are getting out of PGN in one go and a total of 8 weeks. I just pray that I remember God's plan in this and know that He has a reason that we are having to wait this long. We are supposed to hear from our agency this morning. Seems that everyone has gotten picutres and video, and we didn't. We had to just laugh becuase the one thing that would have been positive and helped to get us through, somehow got messed up. Is there any other way with us? Please pray for us as we wait. We will hear somtething in the next week or two, be it good or bad. Please pray that when we talk to our agency we are kind and gracious.

Yesterday, we went in to D.C. with the kids. We had a GREAT time. We took the metro just so that Callum could ride the train. He didn't want to get off. Alex loved the fossils in the musem, and asked all sorts of quesitons. We had a great day!!!!

Hopefully I will have another update for you later today once I have spoken to our agency!!

Here are pictures of Nicholas from July 2007!!!

Our Adoption

Many people have expressed that they always want to ask about how our adoption is going,but never want to upset us by bringing it up. Please know that you will never upset us by asking, but in saying that, I have decided to start this blog so that you can follow along without having to ask:0) We really appreciate your thoughts and prayers through this process!!! Please continue to do so as we continue to wait.

There are alot of terms that you may not have ever seen before, but I posted our timeline so that you know where we stand. We have currently been in the last main stage for 9 months. KO stands for kick out and that is when their agency decides that we need additional paperwork or that something needs to be redone. I know that it makes no sense, as it would seem a lot easier to redo them all at one time. Hopefully we won't have anymore. The moment we get out with an apporval, we can move on to bringing Nicholas home forever!!!!

Again, thank you all for your support!!!!!