ARTHUR'S ROOM!

Last week's news has been difficult to handle. The weekends are always long because there's no new information. There's no one working on our case over the weekend. We are excited about a new week and we're inviting joy into our lives.

We have been dying to show you Arthur's room, but we've been waiting because something really exciting happened! The beautiful people at ohdeedoh have decided to feature Art's room on their blog! See the post here under "kids room tours". Still can't believe it! What a great way to express joy and hope as we start the week! Our friends at SCOUT PHOTO did an amazing job capturing the space!

THIS IS HARD

Up until a few weeks ago, I would have said that the adoption process really wasn't that bad. The wait was hard, but we were prepared for that. Every once in a while we would hear something scary, but it would soon be cleared up. Everything had sort of gone as expected until yesterday...

After we passed court we were told to expect to wait 4-6 weeks to travel.... well 4 weeks came and went and we hadn't even been submitted to the Embassy! I was starting to feel so anxious and and angry and I didn't know what I would do if we went another week without being submitted!!! I would lose my mind! Well, yesterday the rest of the families were submitted and for reasons I don't totally understand our case was sent back.

I took the day off and Aaron and I just crawled into bed and pouted and snuggled and prayed. This morning I really felt better. I was hopeful. I focused on hearing positive news today while keeping my "worst case scenario" at a comfortable distance. Unfortunately, I found out today that my "worst case scenario" might actually be my best case scenario. It's crazy how things can change in one day!

Our agency sent us an update today. Here's part of it...

" ...the best thing for us to do is to take your adoption decree back to the courts next week and ask the registrar to fix the decree to say "...private information..." This is the way the courts have written decrees for other families in the past in similar situations and it sounds like this is exactly what the Embassy wants it to say. I do not know why the courts changed their wording on the decrees and it is more than unfortunate to have this wording holding up your submission to the Embassy. I think that this is a good idea to just ask them to correct it. She said she hopes the registrar can fix the decree without the judge being present; otherwise there it would have to wait until after the courts re-open. Have your prayer team pray specifically that this can be rewritten without the judge.

Let’s keep the prayers coming! God is in the business of miracles and he can both move this out of the way and bring peace beyond all understanding to you in this time!"

First of all, how amazing is Ashley from our agency... I really love her. This news was not necessarily the news I was hoping for, but so many people have been praying. The things that are holding this up seem so trivial... it almost gives me more hope that God is all over this. Surely He could have overcome this if He wanted to and with so many people praying I just feel like there's got to be some reason for this hold up.

A friend asked me how I was feeling today... I said, "mad, helpless, sad, anxious, stupid, desperate" I'm feeling all of those things, but I'm also trusting in God and remembering that Arthur is His child and He knows how the rest of this is going to go. I am holding onto my dream and feeling so lucky that I get to be a part of this amazing story.

Thank you so much for your prayers and tremendous support!! We really need you guys right now.

Pouting on the porch... I like how you can see my Arthur ring even in this dark picture.

CRANKY!

Today marks five weeks of waiting since we passed court and nine weeks of waiting since we met our sweet boy. NINE WEEKS! That sixty-three days! Two months of growth and development we've missed out on.

I'm trying to be careful and really think about what I say and what I post on facebook. In the past 24 hours I have posted and deleted two different comments! ha! I don't want to be negative or complainy... I'm just SO CRANKY.

One of the comments was about maternity leave. It's been a frustrating topic since day one. Frustrating and just so complicated it's hard to even explain. In my personal opinion, every mama, adoptive or not should get six months paid maternity leave with their child. Sound good?

When I step back and take a deep breath I can see clearly how lucky I am...

I work for a company who offers adoption assistance! wow!

I have a husband with a very flexible schedule (allowing him to watch Arthur when I go back to work)

I have a debt free life (if you don't count our house and one car)

A debt free adoption (with help from all of you lovely people)

Oh! and the most beautiful son in the whole world. I'm going to stop complaining now.

Hoping to share good news soon!

KIDS JAMBO

How stinkin' cute are these little ones in their JAMBO shirts!!! Thank you, friends, for the pictures!! Makes me smile :)

UPDATE

I know you've all been wondering... "why is this taking so long" and "when are you going back??" These are the things we wonder EVERY DAY! I feel the need to explain a little bit about what's going on right now. You all know we passed court on July 20th. Here is a list of things that have to happen before we can go get him...

1. The adoption decree is written by the judge naming the adoptive parents as the legal parents of the child. DONE

2. The child's birth certificate is filed for DONE

3. The child is taken to have photo taken for passport. Passport is created. DONE

4. Child has visa medical exam. DONE

5. All documents (along with any supporting documents) are submitted to the US Embassy in order for a visa interview to be scheduled. NOT DONE

There are twelve different families from CHI who sort of went through all of these steps together. Last thursday the staff in Ethiopia gathered all the documents for these twelve cases and took them over to the US Embassy to be submitted and something really stupid happened.... they turned them away. Apparently it was too late in the afternoon, even though they went around the same time they had gone previously. From what I understand the staff pleaded and did everything they could it was just not going to happen. The thing that really bums me out about this happening is that Thursday is the only day that cases can be submitted to the US Embassy, so we have to wait a whole week to try again! BOO!!

After our case is finally submitted, we will start receiving emails from the Embassy regarding the progress of our case. It's not uncommon for the Embassy to request additional documents or interviews with the birth parents. From what I understand, it typically takes a week or two to be cleared. Once you get clearance from the Embassy your visa appointment is scheduled and it's possible that you could travel that same week!!

So, yes, this is taking a little longer than we expected, but if all goes smoothly from here on out, we could be traveling in mid September.

OK! OK! THE CRAZY WEEKEND...

So, the weekend in Lubbock was filled with great times with family, sad times with family, busyness and just a lot of little obstacles Aaron and I had to face together. But, the craziest thing that happened was on the drive home. When we got to Perry, Oklahoma we drove right into a dark and very scary storm. We decided to pull over so Aaron could drive. I was scared! We were under an overpass about to switch drivers when 90 mph winds threw gravel and rain at our back window, shattering it and breaking it in. The rocks continued to fly into the car breaking our side mirrors and rearview mirror (yes! the rearview mirror INSIDE THE CAR!) The dogs were with us. Poor Peaman was so scared he threw up and I somehow managed to catch it in a towel. Does that mean I'm ready to be a mom?

Here are some pictures of the damage.

And this, Ladies and Gentleman is why we have insurance!

MORE PICTURES

I started to write about my crazy weekend and then thought... you guys probably don't care... you probably just want to see more pictures of Arthur. How about these?

Theses are pictures of Arthur pretty soon after he was placed in the orphanage (I'm guessing). We're really lucky to have these pictures. A travel buddy just happened to have them after she requested photos from Numan orphanage. She recognized Arthur and sent them to us! Little bitty baby Arthur... so sweet!

WOW! IT HAS BEEN A CRAZY COUPLE OF WEEKS

I want to tell you all about it, but while I recount and gather all the pictures I will leave you with this sweet message I received this morning.

I have the best friends!! Thank you Leslie for sharing! This is just the sweetest!

TODAY ARTHUR IS 8 MONTHS OLD!

It's been about six weeks since we were in Ethiopia meeting our boy. When we left we talked about what he might be doing when we saw him next. It was hard to think about the things we might miss, but knew it was good for him to grow!

A sweet family from CHI was kind enough to take pictures for us while they were at House of Hope meeting their little girl last week. While it was sort of sad to see the pictures and learn how's he's changed, I am SO PROUD of this boy! Look what he's doing!!

And look at all that hair!!

So ready to go and get that boy!