A Smooth Transition

The title says it all. We did about as good today as we possibly could. We made it to school with all pertinent supplies, lunches and bags. I managed to oversee lunches being made last night and tonight. I am ignoring the fact that there is only dairy products in Aaron's lunch. He made it himself and that is a first step!

Actually, the six year old has been displaying a shocking amount of independence lately. He announced to the nurse that he didn't need her help to use the restroom today and he barely waved at me when we passed each other in the halls. I was very proud.

Isaac loves his teachers and was excited about them last week. My favorite line from his school beginnings this year was as follows:
"Isaac, do you want to know who your teachers are?"
"Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, (panting like a dog in expectation)
"Well," I said..."I'm not going to tell you"
"GRRRRRR" Hee, Hee. I love teasing the boy.
"Okay, It is Mrs. Shackleford"
" Yippee, Yes!"
"Do you know who that is?"
"No"

I gotta love the optimism. His low point was finding out that he will be the only 4th grade class in the old wing and therefore will not have lockers. Sadness!

As for the adoption. We are again waiting. The referral has been sent to China with our approval signed on it and we are waiting. Did I mention, we are waiting.... Anyway, her room is finished. I love walking into it and seeing the girly curtains (Thank you Margaret), the purple walls and the quilt spread across her bed. Now all it needs is the little girl. The boys keep asking when we are going. I wish I knew for sure, but it will be soon. After all, the clock is ticking and it can't be long now. I am glad they are excited.

Bringing Sarah Home - The Journey

It has been almost 24 hours since Leah our social worker called us and told us that China had sent us the official referral. I am still in awe and processing the news. We expected the referral at the end of Sept and to travel in November sometime. But it seems that we will travel much sooner.

Now that we have the referral, pictures can be posted and information openly shared. We are literally 6 (maybe 8) weeks away from having three children. (As soon as I can find the pictures of her, I will post)

We have longed for her, hoped for her and worked for her. I wish we could say everything was perfect and we were completely ready to greet our new daughter. But what I want is not necessarily what needs to happen, so that all the glory of this experience can go to God. When all was working on the expected schedule of travel in Nov. the financial part of the plan seemed in line. We had time to make grant applications and get responses. I was confident that it would work and the money would be completely in place.

Today I am not so confident. I am clinging (by this I mean dangling by one hand hold to a precipice) to the the knowledge that God is in control and if this is our child, no earthly force will keep her from us. It is only a matter of God's timing and having the faith to let him work and not get in his way with my ego or pride.

If you read this please join with me in prayer for our little girl. Pray for the health of her kidneys and the finances to bring her home.

Good News on the Eye Patch Front

Last June, we were told that on top of our other daily medical duties we would need to get Aaron to wear an eye patch. A year later, many tantrums, bribery sessions and pleading explanations later we got word yesterday that Aaron's eye sight has gotten a little better.

The progress made him smile and made him proud of what he did. We are not out of the woods yet, however. We have until age 8 to get his eye as good as we can. We have been given extra duties this year to help our progress such as coloring in circles for 15 minutes a day and seeing the Dr. again in two months to see if we should start putting drops in his good eye to make it more blurry.

Anyway, I am ecstatic!