Home!

So sorry for not updating sooner.  I've done the classic adoption blogger move and not updated upon arriving home.  Life of course has been a whole lot busier lately!





Here's a picture of our beautiful boy celebrating his 1st birthday at home in Canada!  We were so fortunate to have him home for this big day and to celebrate just the other week when he took his first steps.

And here is one of our first family photos of us as a family of FIVE.  This was taken at our favourite French cafe we visited often in Lesotho (hello good coffee and crepes!).  We ended up staying at Lancer's Inn right in the middle of city centre which we loved.  It reminded me a lot of Addis Ababa.  There were a couple restaurants in the same complex that we could walk to or pick up food from and bring back to our rooms.  I would highly recommend this place for families that will travel in the future.  We traveled in the winter and it got to be -3 at night and very very cold.  Buildings aren't insulated like they are here in Canada so you really feel the cold there.  We tried to stay at another place in a more remote location but just couldn't tough it out!  Way too cold for me!

I will try to post more later but I just wanted to give a quick update.  Solomon has fit right into our family and we are all adjusting well.  The trip was challenging but good.  Flying that long (30 hours) with young kids is something I don't think I ever want to do again!!!  Of course it was all worth the stress in the end.  Our kids have embraced their little brother and our family finally feels complete.

Travel is booked!

I have been so busy the past few weeks I have had no time to update this blog and say that we are now ready to travel.  We got the call that all of our boys paperwork is in.  He is legally our son and we can't wait to go and meet him.

We leave this coming week and will be gone for 3 weeks.  I'm excited to have him in my arms but am dreading the long flight with our two kids to get there!  Please pray it all goes smoothly.  There has been a lot of stress lately due to the fact that I wasn't aware South Africa has a new law that requires extra paperwork to get in and out of the country for all minors.  Mostly it is simple (long form birth certificates for your children that show their parents names on it) but if you are an adopted child it gets more complicated.  It honestly makes me mad since my son is a Canadian citizen and he shouldn't have to bring court documents from years ago but I believe this law is in an effort to stop child trafficking.  Anyways, please pray that our documents are suffice (we do not have the original court doc that they want, only a copy) and that we are not help up anywhere.  My stomach is in knots over this!  Also, pray that Solomon's Canadian passport comes in time for our flights out!

I can't wait to post a picture of us together as a family of FIVE for the first time!


thanks for following along.

xo

We got THE CALL!

I still can't believe it happened.   Last week I got the call from our agency that we were matched.  I was in shock because it is April and I knew there were no matching meetings happening. I kept saying this can't be real, it's April!  But they assured me it was.  I literally was shaking!

Turns out those rainbows I saw on the day of the last matching meeting in March really were a sign after all!!!   I remember how strongly I felt that that was our meeting.   Well, it turns out our little boy was matched to another family at that meeting.  The details and pictures never did make it to them because when the agency called them to let them know they were matched they had to decline due to some personal circumstances.  I don't know anything more but our agency then told Lesotho that the family was no longer able to move forward and then they went back to the table and chose us!


"I am choosing to believe that the rainbow I saw that night was meant to encourage me to keep waiting a little bit longer."  

Our little boy will be named Solomon.  He is only 8 months old right now!  We hope to travel and bring him home in 4-6 months.

The kids are thrilled and can't wait to welcome him into the family.

I'll post more later and perhaps his photo once I know we have passed court and he is officially "ours".

rainbows and hope

On Thursday we had one of the craziest days of weather we have had in a long time.  The entire day was on and off hail and rain and wind up to 80 kilometres an hour.  The storm had finally passed and it was time for me to drive my son to gymnastics in the town next to us.  As I drove there I realized I was driving back into the storm.  I dropped him off with more hail and thunder and went about my errands in town.  When I went to pick him up the sun was starting to shine and one of the most beautiful rainbows was in the sky.  It was amazing.  A complete full rainbow.... as I pulled back up to his gymnastics I realized that there was now a double rainbow.  I stopped the car and decided to take a picture so I could show him when he got out.  I felt such a sense of peace when I saw this rainbow, as if it was God saying to me that my kids really are coming.  When I saw the double rainbow I immediately thought "it's the twins!"  For so long now I have dreamed of these twins that I have seen at Beautiful Gate.  Anyways, it is fun to believe in signs so I decided to enjoy it for what it is worth.   After I took the photo I checked my messages and saw that someone else whose dossier is in country had talked to our agency that day and heard there was a surprise matching meeting last week and they had just received the results.  An email was to be coming out shortly after the lucky families were called.


That's when I started to really freak out.  Like THIS IS IT freaking out.  I even called my husband and told him to get ready because I really believed we could be getting the call the next day about a referral.

Part of me worried the phone call would have already happened that day and that maybe they stay at work late for this sort of thing or call people at home in the evenings so therefore it wasn't us.  There was no message on my home phone when I got home that night.  But I decided it was still possible so I went to bed with hope.  Lots and lots of hope.

The next morning I was getting the kids ready for school and made sure my cell was turned on.  As we were getting our backpacks and literally just about out the door my cell rang.  My entire body literally shook.  My heart was pounding.  No one ever calls my cell at 8 in the morning.

And it was just an electrical wholesaler for work.   Ahhh!!!  So frustrating.  I tried to calm down.  When I came home I literally started nesting almost immediately.  Cleaning, organizing, and checking emails.  Okay, who am I kidding.  I was mostly checking my emails.  By lunch my hope was fading.  I knew it wasn't us.  They would've called right away in the morning.  Disappointment again.

I sware the process for Ethiopia was much easier!  Knowing when matching meetings occur and the fact that matches are made so subjectively makes this so difficult.

Anyways, as you can already tell we received an email that afternoon from our agency saying sorry but we were not matched.  There was one match for Canada, two for Sweden and one for the US.  Overall this is actually pretty good news.  Four matches is better than it has been in the last year.  Our agency also informed us that Lesotho has now agreed to have one social worker focus completely on trying to gather and complete paperwork for children that are adoptable.  This is great news.

I'm trying to cling to hope.  I'm trying to cling to the double rainbows that I saw and the fact that they spoke to me about our adoption even before I knew that there had literally just been a meeting.  Maybe that in itself should comfort me now.  Part of me laughs at how I look for signs in everything. Like this is something that I should've given up in high school.

But another part of me feels like it is actually a wonderful way to live.  Rainbows have always been seen as a symbol of God's promise to us that he will never forsake us.  I believe this is true.  I am choosing to believe that the rainbow I saw that night was meant to encourage me to keep waiting a little bit longer.

The wait continues

Well we are still here waiting.  Lately all I can think of is adoption.  I went from doing quite well with the wait the first year, to not so well.  It'll be two years this May that our dossier will have been in Lesotho.  I'm honestly getting worried about the program.  I think that if more matches were happening even if they weren't for us, I would feel better.  But the fact that so few are being matched (two last year) makes me think that it will never happen and that Lesotho will shut down.

Someone I know just returned from Lesotho.  They brought their kids back to see the country where they were born.  She told me not to give up because there were SO many kids that they saw in orphanages.  Currently Beautiful Gate is maxed out at 72.  But sadly I doubt many of these kids are deemed "adoptable" by the government.  And the one's that are..... I am losing hope that anyone will do the work it takes to get the paperwork.  The only reason our agency is giving us for the longer wait is missing paperwork.  It's not that there aren't kids who need homes.

As you might notice I'm sounding rather negative about it all.  Just being honest.

I feel like I need to know soon if Lesotho is going to work out or not.   The next matching meeting is supposed to be in March but I haven't heard a confirmed date yet.

I know I have readers from Sweden and the Netherlands.... I would love to hear from you if you have anything to add to this.  What are your agencies telling you?