Waffle Art

Jacob was eating his waffle this morning and suddenly yelled "Mom, mom, look at my waffle, it looks just like Noah's ark." Sure enough it did look like Noah's ark - too funny. He is now asking for a 2nd waffle and I am wondering if he is going to try to chew/shape it into an animal for the the ark :-) I love his creativity!

The five senses

Here is a story that has nothing to do with adoption but gives you a peek into the type of conversations that go on at our house...

Jacob and I were reading a book about the body (he has been very interested in bones, skin, muscles, etc... lately) and there was a page on the five senses. Here is how the conversation went:
Me "What is that?" (pointing to an eye)
Jacob "an eye"
Me "What do you do with your eyes?"
Jacob "see"
Me "what is that?" (pointing to an ear)
Jacob "an ear"
Me "What do you do with your ears?"
Jacob "listen" (can you tell what we have been working on a lot lately??)
Me "What is that?" (pointing to a nose)
Jacob "a nose"
Me "What do you do with your nose?"
Jacob "pick it" (can you tell what we have been unsuccessfully working on lately??)

I do have to admit, it was hard not to laugh!

No sisters!

We have been having another ongoing discussion around here that always starts with Jacob informing me that he doesn't like girls. He is very adamant about this and absolutely sure he wants a brother and definitely not a sister. When I tell him that God made everyone, even girls, and we like everyone he is not at all convinced and tells me they are yucky. I point out that I am a girl and he says he likes me, then I point out the other girls he likes (grandmas, aunts, cousins) he always proceeds to change the topic at that point.

Last night we were rocking for a few minutes before bed and out of the blue he folded his hands (we had already prayed for the night) and closed his eyes and said "Jesus, please give me a brother and not a girl, please a brother and I will take really good care of him, Amen."

It should be interesting to see how this ends up turning out...

Siblings vs. Pets

I have decided to take a little break from focusing on our current situation and thought I would share a funny discussion that has been going on with Jacob regarding the adoption.

A month or so ago we were on our way to the post office to mail some paperwork for the adoption. We started to talk about "brothers and sisters" and I asked him if he thought we were going to get 2 brothers or 2 sisters or 1 brother and 1 sister. He thought for a few seconds and said "how about 2 pandas?". I told him "no, we are not getting 2 pandas". He replied "well how about 2 monkeys?". I informed him that we were not getting two monkeys and that he was enough monkey for us :-)

Just last week we were returning from a play-date at a friend's house and when I asked him how it went he told me about how he and his friend were building something and his friend's little brother kept taking the pieces. I told him that the little brother was just starting to learn how to play with other kids and he needed to help him learn and that when he was a big brother he was going to have to help his "brothers and sisters" learn how to play. In all his three year old seriousness he said "Mom, I'm not going to get brothers and sisters, I am going to get a dog." I told him we were not getting a dog and we were getting brothers and sisters. In all the drama he could muster up he says "I don't want brothers and sisters - I reeeeeeeaaaaaallllly want a dog - Mom can I Pleeeeeaaaaasssssseeeee have a dog?" We then had a discussion about how siblings and pets are not an either or option. He thought about it and said "I know, let's get both!"

to adopt from Liberia or not to adopt from Liberia - that is the question

We received a call from our social worker late this afternoon to let us know that Liberia has closed international adoptions. They are hoping to reopen the adoption process in 2-3 months but who knows - I wonder if that is what Guatemala said back when they closed. Anyway, we need to make a choice whether we are going to wait for Liberia to open, choose another country or pursue a domestic adoption. The good and bad thing at this point is that we have a lot of options.

Please pray that we would continue to seek God's plan for this journey he has our family on and that he would clearly reveal the path he would like us to take.

home study, fingerprinting and paperwork

I am not sure how much detail people are interested in but since a few of you want to know everything I will try to be somewhat detailed for them and for the rest of you feel free to skim or skip the less "exciting" stuff.

We were contacted by the social worker assigned to us for our home study. We will have three visits over a six week period so we should be done at the end of February or 1st week of March.

We are getting fingerprinted tomorrow for the background checks and I was relieved to hear that the E.P. police do it in their lobby although for some reason it still makes me feel a little like a criminal!

We also need to have a health form filled out by a doctor on each of us. The good news is that since Jacob recently had his 3 yr check up they will just fill out the form for us without him having to go in again which means not having to pay another co-pay - you have to like that! Too bad we can't schedule a joint appointment for the two of us and only pay one co-pay. I guess I am really frugal!

Besides that just need to gather up some certified birth certificates and a wedding certificate. So far it really hasn't been too bad which make me a bit worried that the worst of the paperwork is to come - hopefully not though.

God Provides!

As our first large payment came due we received a call from someone (who wishes to remain anonymous) who had some money to donate and after praying felt led to donate to our adoption fund (and they didn't even know it was tax deductible for them at the time). The amount they had to donate covered all but $23 of our first payment! I love that God often provides in unexpected ways!

Now to wait and see what he has in store for a vehicle that holds three car seats!!