All I want for my birthday...

Today is my birthday and all I want is our home study to be approved. That and maybe for this cough to go away so that I can get more than two consecutive hours of sleep at a time. I will not lie, the past week has been frustrating. We must have given the adoption agency a hundred reasons why we want to adopt and it feels like most of them have been rejected as not good enough, too religious, not specific, etc. I'm almost to the point of asking them what it is they want me to say so that I can say it. I know this is part of the process, I know the process can be frustrating, but this specifically has been hard on me. Tim is so good, he just takes it in stride. I am not patient. I know that the longer this takes the less and less likely it is anything gets done in Russia before mid-January. We did get a wonderful surprise this week. I have been drooling over the Rosetta Stone Russian program for probably two months and our family sent it to Tim and I as a combined birthday present! BbI! (that's sort of Russian for Thank you!) We have such a wonderful supportive family we could not have asked for better! God is faithful. God controls even Russian bureaucrats. I will be strong, take heart, and wait on the Lord.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday S!

Today is S's birthday. At least we think it is. I was telling my third grade class at church this and asking them to pray for me because I knew that today would make me feel sad and they didn't really understand why. So I've decided to take on their attitude and not be sad. On S's third birthday I didn't know he existed, on his fourth I'm praying for him like crazy, and on his fifth I will buy him the gigantic cupcakes from costco and some obnoxious boy present that is big and loud and that I will probably regret immediately.

We bought paint for the kid's room this weekend and last night at 5 pm I wanted to pull everything out of the room and just go at it. Tim wisely stopped me but the urge remains. We are so busy this week that no painting will be done until probably Friday. If I can wait that long. The paint makes it feel real. The fact that Tim has found toddler beds on the internet and that we have every intention of buying them makes it real. The fact that I called my mom this morning and was trying to subtly hint at her that I wanted to make (rather I wanted her to make) quilts for their beds and she brought it up first makes it real.

Also, it is very hard to figure out a room that needs to be both for a boy and a girl. I mean there is a reason that there is nothing on the walls in our room and that they are the same beige color they were when we moved it. We decided on green for the walls, with brown and navy accents for S and pink and brown accents for E. I don't know how this is going to turn out but we shall see.

Pray for my little S today on his birthday. He's four, and if you were to ask any of the 3 year-olds in my Sunday School class that is a very important birthday.