"Haappiee BirthdAAAy"

Each morning as I wake and hear the birds chirping, the rain falling, or the wind blowing, I find my mind automatically wanders to my girls. I wonder, “what are my girls doing today.” I try and imagine their faces, their sizes, I wonder are they playing together, are they being loved on, and on and on as I climb out of bed and go through my day, my girls are never far from my thoughts.


As I woke up this morning, to the tune of Sweet Caroline (my phone ringing) I answered, "good morning," a precious little voice full of enthusiasm responded, "Haappieee BirthdAAAy," it was my nephew, Liam. What joy his enthusiam and love for his Aunt Racy brought to my day!  As I hung up the phone the thought that I sang in my head, (in a sing song kind of tone) one day closer to my girls….. and as much as I dislike this waiting, I am thismuchcloser.  In my 35th year my Peruvian Princess will be coming HOME!!!

Our Deepest Fear

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate-

our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us.

We ask ourselves, 'who am I to be-
brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?'

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small doesn't serve the world.

There's nothing enlightened about shrinking-
so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone.

And as we let our light shine we unconsciously
give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear

our presence automatically liberates others.

~Marianne Williamson

THOUGHTS

Waiting & Wondering

As we wait and update paperwork some have of asked, "how do you do it?" well I often read other adoption blogs, I particularly LOVE the ones that have or are adopting from PERU. I find everything I can on Peru and I research all the orphanages or children's homes.  I look at thousands of pictures like these and wonder, "are my daughter(s) in this photo?

My decision to blog was inspired by my new friend Paige.  As I went from one blog to the next I stumbled onto her blog.  I was so excited.  I followed her blog for a couple of weeks to "check her out," Then one day following a visit from her parents, she posted about her dad two complaints with her blog and I agreed with one, she didn't post enough!  That was my que.... write to her. We have alot of similarities, it is great to have another waiting mommy with the same agency, in the same country, in the same agency.  We are hopeful that we will be in country at the same time, highly unlikely, but we like to think and talk about it.  Who says you are ever to old to pretend?

LIFE

The Adventure of life is to LEARN

The Purpose of life is to GROW

The Nature of life is to CHANGE

The Challenge of life is to OVERCOME

The Essence of life is to CARE

The Opportunity of life is to SERVE

The Secret of life is to DARE

The Spice of life is to BEFRIEND

The Beauty of life is to GIVE

The Joy of life is to LOVE

William Arthur Ward

Notary Anybody?

Today we had our medicals redone for the third time… yes, Peru requires medical reports to be no more than 3 months old at the time the dossier is submitted. However, you need your medicals done for your homestudy and your homestudy needs to be done for your dossier, so we were anticipating a second medical, and well, with adoption you quickly learn to expect, well anything. Note I said expect… and the quicker you accept what you did not expect the better you are for it.


It’s not as easy as going to visit the doctor, we have to locate a notary. The last time our wonderful doctor took her lunch and met Ben at the hospital across town to meet the notary to notarize. Today we were able to arrange to pay a different notary from the hospital to come to the doctor’s office and notarize. Hoping this will be out last time!!! Now off to Alabama to be apostilled and authenticated and then off to Peru to join the rest of our translated dossier.


Then what??? Our dossier is ready to be evaluated and submitted to MIMDES for referral.

Girls-your room is ready for you to come HOME!!!

Here is where the extra time has been added. We were initially suppose to travel within 10 days to 4 weeks after we accepted our referral. Now, we need to apply to the US embassy for the girls VISAS before we travel and also we need to have the psychologist who did our psychological evaluation and recommended us to adopt, review our referral and recommend us to parent the girls we are accepting, based on our psychological and the presenting children.

Peru is a country that feels very strongly about finding a family for a child(ren) not a child(ren) for a family. We appreciate their dedication to the children and although it is very difficult to wait and I long to have my girls home. I have been committed to using this time of waiting to learn, stretch my comfort zone, let go, and prepare for my girls. Although the journey has been long, heart wrenching at times, lonely, and beautiful all at the same time it is one I would not trade.

Paper Pregnant

If you have made your way here you know that Ben & I are adopting two girls from Peru. I thought I would (re)start the blog with the FAQ’s and provide informative or perhaps some adoption etiquette answers.  I decided to do this as I pondered the many responses I have received as people learn that my husband and I are in the adoption process. Most of the time I equate it to a lack of understanding and use it as an opportunity to inform (educate) about the needs of orphans. Other times I think not so much, this requires more... “do you know what you just said?” 


"Where and when are you getting them?" We will be bringing our girls home from Peru and we are waiting to hear when we will travel to bring them home. We were prepared to travel in May or June, however, there have been some changes and we have 2 more steps to complete, so it is looking like early fall.


"Don’t you want your own?” You mean biological. I am currently 16 months paper pregnant, with NO due date. Love is a CHOICE and it is born in your heart. We intentionally CHOSE adoption. They are very much our own.

“How old are they?” Our homestudy approved us for sisters between the ages of 2 & 8. We are working with a program called Waiting Angels. They place children over 5, or younger with physical and medical disabilities, or sibling groups (typically a little older) which are difficult to place. We are anticipating that our girls will be closer to 6 & 8, but we are not sure.

“BUT, don’t you want a baby?” Please think about what is prompting your question, is this about your desire for a baby or mine? Like I said, we CHOSE adoption. We chose Waiting Angels, older sibling group. We are CLEAR about the age of the children we are preparing to parent. I appreciate that you may have wanted a baby.

“Do you know their names or have you seen pictures?” No & No, one of the final steps is to receive the referral, which will include their names, ages, and pictures! We are so excited.

We appreciate the enthusiasm, love and support that many of you have extended to us.  We treasure it!