Playing outside

Spring is here! Matt and I both really enjoy spending time out in the yard, and are always looking for ways to involve the kids in what we do. This spring we decided to put in some blueberry and lingonberry bushes on the bare birm that was created from the leftover soil from excavating for the addition. (Since we didn't want to pay to truck it off, we found places to put all of the dirt that we dug out, and most of it found its new home in a long birm between the back of the house and the vegetable garden.) The architecture background in me wants to give you an image of the site plan right now, but I'll refrain...you're welcome.

To our great delight, Reuben's increased ability to attend to tasks and participate in the work that we're doing outside has hung on over the winter. We saw this a bit last fall and it was great to have him out working with us on the blueberries.

His technique leaves a little to be desired, but he both understood the concept, and was interested in being a part of the sequence - dig a hole, mix the peat and soil acidifier, put the tiny plant in the hole (that was his favorite part.)

We brought Krassi out with us, too, and gave him a nice place on the sod that Reuben and Daddy laid last fall (see the post I linked to above) and a few toys to play with. Poor guy was rather crabby, so I went back into the garage looking for something that might catch his interest - ah ha! an empty egg carton! Just the thing. (No, really - this is the kind of thing that really gets him excited.)

Do you see where Krassimir is playing? Is he on the nice, lush grass? No. He's laying on the rocks. With his feet hanging over the edge. ;) But, more importantly, can you see the difference in this photo (above) from the one above it? Yes - he's smiling in the lower photo. He noticed after I took the first one that I was doing pictures, and he's hamming for the camera. I like it.

Reuben eventually gave up with the planting and wandered back inside, only to come back out on his own with his iPad a little bit later...wearing his little sister's pink butterfly rain boots. Such is life around here. It was pretty sweet that he went to sit near Krassimir, though that didn't last long because both the iPad and the boots are things Krassi covets even more than an empty egg carton. (It's important to note that he doesn't want to play on the iPad, but just wants to grab at the rubber case and poke his fingers in the holes.)

So, that's a little taste of life around here. Playing outside looks a WHOLE lot different for these two than it does for my other boy!

Ups and Downs

Yesterday I hit one of those incredible points where you're just going about life as normal, but feel like you're on top of the world. I was so utterly delighted with my situation that I had to pause to snap a few photos to capture it and be able to share it!

And now it's today, and I have some time now to post the photos and as I ran out the door to pick Leah up from church earlier this evening (3 minutes after I was supposed to be there and I still had an errand to run on the way), I had to laugh at how quickly 24 hours can change things.

So, yesterday.

Make of it what you will that the pinnacle of my "on it" day was making supper, because, really, it hardly gets more mundane than that! Particularly because we weren't even having anything exciting: pasta and sauce. But looking down and seeing this little person sitting up so straight and tall looking up at me with that huge grin on one side:

And on the other side, is this little guy smiling up at me as he happily puts onion into the pot One. Tiny. Piece. At. A. Time. filled up this mommy's heart with indescribable joy.

Top it off with this little face...

...and I could have exploded with happiness and the feeling that I was exactly where I was meant to be doing exactly what I was created for. (After all, doesn't any child asking to eat fresh veggies make a mother's heart sing?)

So I'm grateful for days like today when there isn't really anything particularly bad that I can put my finger on to explain why I don't feel like I'm on top of my game today, because it reminded me of something very important.

The way I feel is not what determines whether I'm doing the right thing or not. The way I feel is not the indicator of whether or not I'm doing what I was created to do.

B and T's adoption process has been rather devoid of (noticeable) action which leaves plenty of room for feelings. I've had many days when I am practically giddy with excitement about our two new daughters - seeing T's little photo on the refrigerator and wishing I could snuggle up with her in the rocking chair, or thinking about how excited B will be when she gets told that there is a family coming for her and hardly being able to contain my anticipation of opening up a life for her where her disability is a minor inconvenience rather than a sentence to a mental institution. I am SO excited to see her life unfold after she comes home! But there have also been days (which, I must add, were heavily in the days when Gloria was roughly 4-7 weeks old - days that anyone who's ever been a new parent before knows are the toughest ones where you feel like you'll never get anything done ever again, or even get your own head put on straight ever again), and one some of those days I remember thinking, This feels like the dumbest thing we could possibly think of doing! On some of those days, and I'm laughing recalling this, Matt and I both will look at each other and be thinking at the same time, "What if B meets us and decides she'd rather take her chances with the mental institution?" After all, who in their right mind would choose to live in this crazy household?

So, time to step away from feelings, because feelings can be deceptive. The truth of the matter is Matt and I are both fully convinced that we are living the life God has laid out for us, whether it's a day when we feel that way or a day when we're ready to crawl under the covers and stick our heads under the pillows.

And when my feelings are lined up with that truth, I can fully embrace them and enjoy the ride. And when they're not, then it's the time to take every thought captive and press forward toward the prize set before us.

Onward!

Looks who's so tall!

Look who's sitting up so big and tall! Corners are great for this big boy because he gets just enough support at his shoulders that he can sit just a little straighter and taller than he can otherwise.

Don't you love how he totally hams for the camera? That's a skill he's sure learned since coming home. ;) Unlike some of our other kids, he's got a great camera smile!

It's not as nice as a video within the blog, but since I don't know how to edit videos to make them shorter, this one is too long to upload to blogger, so I'll have to give you the video in another format. [Click here for the link, if you're interested.] In some ways it seems kind of silly to be posting a video of my son sitting, but I want to show him off a little - he's SO much stronger! But more importantly, look at the way he engages with me, both my silly prattle, but also looking directly at me. This is a skill he did not have when we first met him, and we've worked hard and long at it, and it's neat to see some real marked progress, particularly in his ability to hold the gaze, and hold it with a smile. I'm so proud of my boy!

Electrical inspection...passed! [by Matt]

Yesterday we called for our final electrical inspection on the west addition and the inspector seemed a bit surprised when we gave him the permit number.  We explained that we did the work ourselves and it took us a while!

All of the electrical has been up and working for well over a year, but it was finally a couple of months ago that Andrea and I got downstairs to get the sub-panel circuits labeled.  Then it took me some time after that to clear the path through the mechanical room so that you could get to the panel and have the required clearances around it.

However, as of this afternoon we have our first official "final" inspection signed off on.

We also temporarily closed the opening between my office and the living room so that we can have our final inspection for the whole project.  Most likely next week I can have the local inspector out to sign off on the plumbing, mechanical and general permit final inspections.

A delightful gift

As part of the additional information we received from our agency when we first inquired more about B, we were given a video of her speaking with an off-camera interviewer. We, not knowing a speck of Bulgarian beyond, "Da," (and we were able to decipher "musica") had no idea what she was saying, but watched it over and over, soaking in her mannerisms, the way she smiles, and holds her head, and raises her eyebrows.

In a moment of brilliance (comparatively - remember, we're still living in a newborn world over here! Gloria just turned three months old yesterday), I thought of the woman we met through Krassi's adoption who is from Bulgaria, but now teaches at a university in Texas. She knows English and Bulgarian! Bingo!!

She and I hadn't emailed in a while, but even with some busy things going on in her life right now, she was able to not only get us a translation back in just about a week's time, but she also provided it to us in the form of subtitles on the video, so we can not only know what B is talking about, but also see all of her body language while she's talking!

It's hard to express how meaningful this is - one more deeper level glimpse into this marvelous young woman who will hopefully become our daughter!

Funny thing is, there's not really that much useful information about her in it. No, she isn't interested in sports. Her favorite subject in school is biology. And she's shy. Very shy.

I realize *I'm* nervous about meeting her because although there's nothing like architecture school to force you out of being nervous to talk in front of people, I'm still just a shy little girl myself inside in many ways, and I can just see us sitting there together when we get our week to visit with her, and none of us being brave enough to say anything. ;) Well, I'm not *really* worried about that because I will make sure we have something to talk about - there is SO MUCH I want to learn about her and share with her about our family and our life here to give her a glimpse of what she's got in front of her, but I'm also planning to bring a coloring book my mom gave us so we have something to do to fill awkward moments. ;)

~~~

My heart aches for this (soon-to-be) daughter of mine. As hinted at on her Reece's Rainbow page, she believes the lie that she is not valuable because she's older and in a wheelchair. I imagine her going to bed every night wanting a family, but believing, because one more day has passed and she's heard nothing, that the lie is true - nobody wants her. What she doesn't know is that we DO want her, and have already been working for months to make her ours.

I've been thinking lately about the parallel in that to the way God works in my life. From my one-sided view of things, a situation may seem impossible. It may seem like nothing is happening - is ever going to happen - but it may already be happening.

off to the USCIS

We finally have made it one more step forward on the checklist of what needs to happen before our girls come home. This morning a nice fat envelope (and a fat check) went off to the USCIS. Turn-around for the I800A approval is usually 1-3 months. Phew. Back when we started this process we were told by our primary agency that the turn around time was closer to the one month side of things. I have no idea how quickly things are processing now.

At this point, we really have no idea when we'll be traveling. With Krassi's adoption, we sent the paperwork to USCIS at the end of December, traveled for trip one at the end of March, and finally brought him home in mid-October. Assuming everything goes at a similar pace (is it wise to make any assumptions about time frames in international adoption??) we're not looking at having them home before Christmas anymore. But we shall see...

Here's the updated list from this post:
 

• we've submitted our commitment documents (12/31/2015), and they've been accepted (1/27/2016).
• the home study is completed (4/9/2016)

• our I800-A application has been sent to the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) (mailed 4/11/2016)

• once we get back approval on our I800-A, we can submit that along with the rest of our dossier (fancy name for all of the documents we need to collect and send) to the Bulgarian Minister of Justice
• when our dossier is approved by the MOJ, we will receive our invitation to travel for trip #1 (this is the point at which B will be informed that she has an interested family) 
•  after trip #1 we can submit our I800 to USCIS, and upon approval of that, we can send final documents to Bulgaria to allow them to finalize the adoptions
• once the adoptions are finalized, we will be given travel dates for trip #2 when we get to go pick up our girls and bring them home 

It's here! and... [now with an update]

...then again, it's not.

This is what we got in the mail today!

TWO Priority envelopes - one small one addressed to Gloria - her passport! And one to us from our home study agency - the copies of our completed, signed, notarized home study!!

The passport looks great, but the home study...on the first page, I found information that is not the same from one copy to the next, and as far as I can tell, neither number is the correct number.

So, I've got an email off to them, and we'll see what happens. But it looks like we won't be sending our application to USCIS in today or tomorrow's mail.

~~~~~~~~~

After a series of back and forths with our home study agency, I just got the last email with a corrected version of the cover page. Hard copies are getting sent out (not sure if it's going to make it in today's mail or tomorrow's, but, once again, it's in the mail.

The (homestudy) is in the mail

Another new week, so we decided to email our home study agency to see how things were coming, and were told that they have, in the office, the signed and notarized copies of our homestudy AND the new license with their new address on it (the office moved to a location across the parking lot last week) so they'll be putting them out in tomorrow's mail.

Hard to believe it's April already, but once we have that document in hand, everything else can start moving forward again!