Little E and Redemption

We have known for quite some time that S had a little sister, E. We learned that sometime back in the summer. Then in October the day before our incredible Both Hands project we found out that she has tested positive for HIV, but that it may be a false positive since her mother had it. We have spent the time in between our when our homestudy was finished and the time praying that God would heal her or just let it be a false positive. But the whole time, I think we both knew we wanted to adopt her. I do not know that if God will heal her here on Earth and give her body redemption from the mistakes that her mother might have made, but I do know that if she comes home with us that she will have the opportunity to hear about everlasting redemption. And that someday she will be completely healed. This is the most beautiful gift and makes me cry as I am thinking about it. That is one big reason why we want to adopt little S and E in the first. I have been reading a book, "Adopted for Life" by Russell Moore. It talks about how God adopted us into his family and our mission through the gospel. That mission should be to join Christ by encouraging and helping the abandoned and helpless. The book continues to explain that because of our adoption in Christ we should mimic Him here on earth by the adoption of children. Without the Gospel's version of adoption, adoption can be seen as just a charity, and without the mission of adoption, it is can easily be seen as just a metaphor. That is really just one part of the book, but I think it really is helping us to understand why we feel we have been called to do this.

No news, good news, and stuff we can't talk about

So you'll remember the post from a few weeks ago in which I showed you all that lovely sky blue and gold that was our dossier. It was submitted to the head office on the 15th and we were silently hoping not to hear anything because that would mean it's all correct. So yesterday I had to go down to the agency's office and take them yet another check and our case worker confirmed that it had all been correct and was on it's way to Russia with another family. In fact it's probably already there and hopefully being submitted to "THE COMMITTEE" (That is always in capital letters in my head). So no news was good news.

And then there is the thing I'm not prepared to talk about in this space because it's new and fragile and I don't want to jinx it. If you want to know and you know us personally shoot me or Tim and email or call us and we'll tell you, but I'm not quite ready to put it out there for the world to read about just yet. It's not bad, it's very good. It just feels like a secret you want to hold on to.

And now I'm being a hopeless tease. I'll stop. Just pray for us in the next couple of weeks as we make some big decisions and some leaps of faith. And pray that we stop buying kids stuff. That kind of shopping is addictive.

P.S. Nevermind, Tim spilled my beans.

Skippyjon Jones and other less exciting things

My name is Skippito Friskito. *clap-clap*

I fear not a single bandito. *clap-clap*

My manners are mellow,

I’m sweet like the Jell-O,

I get the job done, yes indeed-o. *clap-clap*

Yesterday I found the BEST book. I was literally cracking up reading it at Borders and immediately picked it up (along with Goodnight Moon and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, I mean they were buy 2 get a third free.) If you have never read Skippyjon Jones go read it now. I will wait for you. I am now determined to buy all five of his books. Plus it's about a cat who is a boy. Big plusses in our household.

Not much else going on this week. Our paperwork is somewhere in the Bethany system, but our caseworker is out of the office this week so we won't hear anything unless something needs to be redone. In this case no news is good news.

I also just put all the paperwork for USCIS (the immigration people) in the mail. I'm just praying that it gets to Dallas safely and gets processed quickly.

Other than that not much going on, just a whole bunch of basketball games this week. Go Bruins!

This is a very boring update. Here, go visit Skippyjon Jones website and amuse yourself.

In Soviet Russia, blog updates you!

So we have sent all the money into our agency for our dossier fees. Unless we get E then we owe them more money. First time in my life that I would excited about owing someone thousands of dollars more. Soon our dossier, homestudy and various other documents will be translated into the beautiful language of Russian. In Soviet Russia, blog updates you. Then it will be sent to Russia. I am hoping that the In Soviet Russia joke is the first thing they read. I think it will really encourage them to process our paperwork more quickly (don't worry that is not in our paperwork). We really have no idea when we will be travelling possibly in a couple of weeks or in a couple of months. Carrie has not really read any blogs about families adopting waiting children. I tried searching the internet, but dealing with Russian websites I have to remember that in Soviet Russia, website searches you! Never gets old. What I have learned so far in the process is that there really is no solid predictor of when things will happen. The processes that we expect to take a while are usually quick and easy, and the things that we expect to be no big deal are time consuming and difficult. So my conclusion is that adopting from Russia is much like a Yakov Smirnoff joke. It is a reversal (not really that funny), and what should be difficult is easy and what is easy is difficult. In Soviet Russia, child adopts you.

What I did over my Christmas vacation...

On the left you'll see the most important thing I did during my vacation. That stack of lovely blue and gold paperwork is our entire dossier, notarized, certified, apostilled, and delivered to Bethany. As soon as we can get Bethany the money this week our dossier will be winging its way to Russia to be translated and submitted. Hopefully we'll hear from Russia in February if all goes well.

The second thing I did was buy the fabric and sew the curtains for the kids room. This is only a big deal to me since I have tried to learn how to sew about a million times. As a little girl I watched my grandma and my mom spend hours sewing dresses, quilts, and anything else. As a teenagers I tried unsuccessfully to learn to sew and this time something just clicked. I told my mom that sewing must be a "mom" thing. The curtains were fairly easy I just need to make curtain ties.

And here is the project that consumed the rest of my vacation. My mom and I picked out fabric for quilts for both S and E in late October and my mom assembled the top for E's quilt a few weeks ago and then progress had stalled. Since I had her sewing machine and all the materials I started piecing it together Tuesday night. I then did nothing but work on it until Friday when I got the front and the back quilted together. Don't let the picture fool you, it's not complete, I didn't have enough material for the binding and they don't have anymore of the fabric at Joann's. It's nowhere near perfect but it looks really cute on his little bed and hopefully he can treasure it for a long time.

There is a list a mile long of things I didn't do on my vacation including studying for the Praxis next week, working on my Russian, cleaning the house, doubling my workout and about a hundred other things. But overall it was relaxing and I still came out of it with a sense of accomplishment. Tomorrow it's back to the grind for both of us, but we go back with a sense of optimism that 2010 will be much more exciting than 2009.

Happy New Year everyone!