Dossier is There!

Wow! Go FedEx! FedEx rocks!

Our dossier is in Rwanda, signed for, and delivered!

It was scheduled for delivery on October 6! It arrived a full week early! How often do we hear of things being delivered before we expect them?

Thank you, Lord.

"Cease striving and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth." Psalm 46:10

Let the wait begin!

Dossier On Its Way!

While we were at Disney, our dossier was approved by the Rwandan Embassy in Washington, DC, and we received our letter of non-objection.

Wahoo!

For those of you that love dates as much as I do, it was finished on Friday, September 25, which was 3 weeks to the day after it was taken there. Just about 14 business days, like I was told.

Now I have another tracking number, which I love, and am able to see where it is at all times.

Right now it is in England, in a place called Poyle!

Where In The World?

Can you guess where we have been?

Why, Disney World of course!

Our four blessings and both sets of grandparents took a fabulous trip to Disney World, and we had a blast! We soared, we Toy Story Mania-ed, we safari-ed, we tower of terror-ed, we rock-n-roller coaster-ed (whoa!), we mission space-d, we Peter Pan-ed, we Philharmagic-ed, we Expedition Everest-ed, we dinosaur-ed, and we got to meet Cinderella herself.
Caleb and Marie got to fight against the powers of darkness, and battle Darth Vader himself.
Little Ezra fell in love with Goliath from Jo-Jo's Circus.
We had such a good time and made lasting memories.

First Day of Soccer

What a great day!

Caleb and Marie Joy are on the same soccer team this year. How fun! That means only one weekly practice and only one game on Saturday!

Today was their first game, and Marie Joy scored for the first time ever! We are so proud of her. Last night, Joel took the kids to the park to kick the ball around, and he told them not to look at the person who has the ball, but to just look at the ball. Go after the ball.

It clicked! It was the first thing she told me this morning after she got up. "Mom, did you know that you go after the ball?!"

We Will Never Forget

God Bless America

Watermelon Salsa

I know this is not a recipe blog, or a cooking blog, or anything like that.

This blog was created to document our adoption journey, to share with others what we are doing and why we are doing it, and to remember. I know that as the days roll on, I will forget all that God has done each day, each moment of this process. So, mainly I blog to remember.

"Set up for yourself roadmarks,
Place for yourself guideposts;
Take note of the highway,
The way by which you went."
Jeremiah 31:21

Since there won't be any adoption news any time soon, I have a choice to make. I can either just lay low, and not blog really at all since this is an adoption blog and there is no adoption news going on, OR I can blog about a few other things, even if they aren't adoption related.

I can blog about all things I want to remember, not just adoption things I want to remember.

So, with that in mind, I just have to take a detour for today and tell you about the most amazing thing. It is called Watermelon Salsa. I had never heard of it before yesterday, and am not really even that big of a watermelon fan. But I bought this huge one last week to have for our last big summer cook out over Labor Day weekend, and, well, my family wasn't here! So I had this big huge watermelon and no one around to eat it.

So I delayed the cookout a bit until Tuesday night, when a bunch of guys come over here for dinner and Bible study, and served it all cut up, as you would expect, since it's not really good unless it is cut. I still had over half of it left. What can I possibly do with all that watermelon?

Thankfully, last night I was hosting a baby shower for my sweet friend, Erin. I had yet another large group of people coming over who could help eat this huge watermelon.

But how could I jazz it up a bit?

I happened to have two large pineapples, one of which was being used as a centerpiece. The other one just needed to be cut up and enjoyed. So I put my leftover watermelon, and my freshly cut pineapple, all in the same bowl. Then I just began to add the salt. If that sounds gross to you, I understand. It didn't sound right to me either.

But then I tried it.

Watermelon and salt is absolute heaven. And pineapple. And salt. And red onion. And salt. And then a splash of balsamic vinegar. And salt. And feta cheese. And salt. And fresh basil. And salt. And fresh mint. And salt. And then the magic magic: banana peppers, and a bit of banana pepper juice.

I have never tasted anything so unbelievable. Definitely something to remember.

Serve with Tostitos Scoops and you will be in heaven.

Just in time for the big NFL game tonight!

Little by Little

Now that I am enjoying the freedom that being done with paper chasing brings, I am looking for all sorts of new ways to fill my time. As I started making a mental list of all the things I could set my mind to accomplishing, my mind started to get crowded and overwhelmed, wondering when in the world I was going to get any of it done.

My school room, for example, is a total wreck. Not that this is a surprise to anyone who has seen it before, or that this state of affairs is any different than it has been ever in my short little homeschooling life. But it has been blissfully ignored and walked over for, just, ages. I was beginning to feel some conviction, some gentle, loving conviction, that perhaps the time may have come to begin, just begin, dealing with a few of those piles.

As I contemplated all my new free time, I realized as well that somehow, over the last month, we have really ignored our budget/receipts. We are just in love with Quicken and how it keeps track of all that stuff for us with such ease. But it is only a beautiful, helpful tool if you enter in the receipts, not if you leave your receipts in the biggest, most unmanageable pile of receipts you've ever seen on anyone's desk in your whole life. Of course, I could just wait until the bank downloads it into Quicken for us, but then it wouldn't know how to categorize it for us. Was $20 spent on groceries at WalMart, for example, or $20 spent on miscellaneous items? And if you really don't care if it was groceries or miscellaneous (my personal favorite category), then you really don't need to bother with Quicken.

Anyhoo, can you sense the dilemma? Where to start? What to do? As I discussed these things with my husband, my wonderful, precious husband, we came up with a never-before-tried plan where he would take the entire gang to his parents' house, and give me time to work, alone!

Joel has given me lots of time to myself over the years, without the blessings, just to kinda, you know, recharge. He has reserved hotel rooms, just for me, while he stayed home with the kids and sent me on my way with magazines and chocolate, which is very important. I so recommend this to anyone reading.

But this time, I was going to be alone, in my very own house. This is a new twist. I started to think about all the things I could secretly put in our give away box while the kids were gone. I started to think about all that could be accomplished in that school room. On that desk.

I packed the kids up real quick.

I have a few hours left of quiet and they will return today in time for lunch. Then violin. Then school. And within moments, we will be back to the loudness and craziness that is so normal around here.

As I think about it, I realize that the trick will be to find ways to get these big tasks done even when my blessings are here, underfoot and needing me every few minutes. I remember the Lord giving me a sweet "trick" when I was first married and learning how to do all the things that wives do, and not doing it so well. One morning in desperation, as I read my Bible, I read:

Exodus 23:30 Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land.

and later again in Deuteronomy 7:22

	The Lord your God will drive out those nations before you, little by little. You will not be allowed to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals will multiply around you.

This sweet word has saved my tail over and over again. This is what God taught me. No matter how overwhelming: little by little. Step by step. To not be slack in my work or overindulgent in my computer time.

And while eliminating my work load all at once sounds really good to me, it is not reality, it is not the nature of my work load (my current work load tends to really repeat itself, like several times a day), and in this case, and the cases of those quoted above, it is not what God deems best. He says "we're gonna do this little by little."

So, the plan when my blessings return is to do a little each day. And then I will do a little bit tomorrow.

But for now, I am enjoying the quiet, the insane productivity you can achieve when all alone.

And I am lovin' it.

What now?

Just for those of you who love details:

Now that all my paperwork is at AWAA, it will go to the US State Department, and then to the Rwandan Embassy for translation and authentication.

This process takes 10-14 business days, which means that the week of September 21, we should hear something!

I'll keep you posted!

Outta Here, Baby

It is finished!

While those are some of the best words Jesus ever said, they also describe where we are in the paper chasing process!

D-O-N-E!

Marriage license certified/authenticated...check!
Sent to Terra...check!
Arrived on her desk...check!

Washington DC birth certificate ARRIVED...check!
Overnighted to Terra...check!
On Terra's desk...check!

There is not one thing left for me to do!

Except, of course, to go watch college football with my husband and three oldest cherubs. We've only been waiting for, like, EVER for football season to start.

Except, of course, to clean off this desk. And to wash the dishes that are in the sink. And to fold that HUGE pile of laundry waiting for me.

But, for now, I am reveling in this DONEness.

On the Way!

So there was a part 2 to the story I posted yesterday after we got all the documents certified.

On the way home, I was so relieved that we had the certifying done. I was thinking I was so done for the day, and that we would finish it up the next day, ya know, after some rest, after some encouragement that I AM a good parent, and after some serious caffeine. Ya know, tomorrow would be the day we tidy up all those loose ends.

Tomorrow.

But then I got a phone call from Joel, who had just arrived home from work, and found in our mailbox document #2 that we were waiting for. For some reason, this news energized me.

I mean, really energized me. It energized me so much that we decided to meet at FedEx Kinko's, make all the copies, and send it all that very night.

Let me repeat: we met at Kinko's, with four children, after a very long day in the car, at dinner time, with some serious work to do, work that had to be completed all before 7pm, when the last FedEx guy leaves that site.

What were we thinking?

I guess we were thinking of a precious little boy or girl in Rwanda who is waiting for us to come and make them a part of our family, and of the fact that that little jewel shouldn't have to wait one extra day, especially if it is within my power to get my work done one day sooner!

Or something like that.

So, we worked. And we worked and we worked and we worked. We copied furiously, sorted, ordered, and stacked. If it weren't for my little worker bee, Marie, we never would have gotten it done in time. She worked so hard, all for her new brother or sister, that none of us know, but all of us love.

As we stood in line at 6:58pm to send this thing, we could see the FedEx guy loading up his cart with all kinds of packages, and getting it ready to take it out to his truck. As he passed us, I said, just as kindly as I could, "Don't you leave without this envelope!"

He was not amused.

He had to come back anyway for a whole other LOAD, which I didn't know, but there was just no way he was going to leave without my precious envelope.

And, off it went! Just like that! It is gone. We have two documents outstanding, my DC birth certificate (surprise surprise) and the actual certification of my marriage license. I will have those sent directly to AWAA.

And as a side note and total bonus, my husband loves all things technological, and made a video of us doing the dossier thing. He lovingly put this together for me to remember our labor of love.