Paperwork Pregnancy

I thought I'd give a little update on our adoption process, although up to this point it has just been a lot of paper work and procuring documents. We are seeking to adopt a young child from the DRC and are using One World Adoptions for this. We're also using another agency for our homestudy process (Small World Inc.) which is nearing it's conclusion. This has been one BIG first step in terms of paperwork and preparing for the actual interviews and home inspection we'll have mid April. Both agencies have been really great to work with thus far. Small World is planning our homestudy in conjunction with 2 other couples in our area of the world, so as to make the travel expenses less. (We have to pay these in addition to the HS fees). We're very grateful to have found such a great like-minded agency to come all the way to Asia for our HS!

While putting together our HS paperwork and gathering needed documents, we've been able to work on our Dossier for the DRC too. Much of the paperwork is the same and actually the Dossier is quite simple and requires just a few addition items. So...as soon as our HS is completed and given to us (May), we can submit our Dossier to the DRC and be officially on the waiting list for a child referral!!! Then comes lots (but hopefully not too much) waiting. While waiting for our referral, we will apply to USCIS for pre-approval for a visa for our future child.

We're so excited to be moving forward and while we know there could and probably will be much waiting and bumps along the journey, we're so thankful that God has clearly lead us to adopt a child from the DRC and He is making a way! These decisions (country, agencies, etc.) have not been made lightly, but through almost 2 years of prayer and research.

As we are nearing the end of our homestudy process, the question of funding the remainder of our adoption is starting to weigh on my mind. We're quickly running out of our adoption savings so I've been researching grants to apply for. So we're praying that during the wait period of being matched with a child, we'll be given a grant or two. We know the Lord will provide. He has called us to this and we're confident He'll supply the means to complete our adoption and bring home the child He has planned for our family. The time in between seeing God move is always a time of teaching us to further trust Him and have faith in Him. One blog I keep up with wrote a good post about this very topic. It is here. She is a friend of a few of my friends and has given me much good advice about adopting from the DRC. She is a really great photographer and the mother of four young ones, two of which were recently brought home from the DRC. Her post was very encouraging and a good reminder to not scheme up my own plans of how this adoption journey will go and how it will be funded. God's plans are always better than my own and I regularly need this reminder.

We would appreciate your prayers for our upcoming home study (mid April) and for God's provision to finance this adoption. Also, please pray that the Lord will teach us much through this process. Adoption is a beautiful way that God grows families. Not only does He give a loving family to a child in need of one, and not only does He bless a family who wants to grow their family in this way, but He teaches us more about Himself, His love for us, His sovereignty, and His faithfulness. My prayer for myself is that I won't grow weary of the work, waiting, and cost of adoption, but that I'll see every step of it as a portion from God that He is giving to teach me, mold me, and refine my character to be a better mother to our children and a closer disciple of Christ. 

Playtime!

We're grateful we have a nice shady garden in our society with a walking path and playground. It's especially nice in the evenings, when the heat lets up a bit. It's full on summer time here with the daily average over 100 F. Like our home state, it is nice and dry during the summer, so we're also blessed in that respect. To enjoy the outdoors more (and save our sanity), we bought the boys some bikes a few weeks ago. It is the treat of every day, which they look forward to after nap. It is also a good way for us to meet our neighbors and spend some quality time with the boys. We also love kicking the soccer ball with them and playing on the playground, despite the need for it to be more than repaired :) We got some shots of them enjoying the outdoors today.

I was trying to get him show the number 2 since he's almost 2, but it didn't work...and he is 1still, so it's ok!

This was right before he told us, "But actuawy, I am an adult!" He was trying to talk us into letting him ride where we can't see him.

I love his many expressions!

Doesn't he look so big?

Doesn't mind having his photo taken at all :)

"Cheesh Mommy!"

Too busy watching some boys play cricket to smile for me.

What a ham!

Look at those grubby hands! 

Paparazzi and Baby-back Veg

Today was a fun exploration day of our city. We hired a taxi for a few hours to take us to a historical fort in our city called Shaniwar-wada. I'm not sure about all the history of it, I'll have to Wikipedia it later. It was quite a warm day so we took the brief tour, or at least tried to. We kept getting stopped every few minutes to be asked to join a photo, or have our photo taken, or have just the boys photo taken. And my kids thought I was bad at hassling them to say "cheese"! We felt a bit like celebrities at first, but it got old quickly. The boys draw so much attention and sometimes they like it, sometimes they don't. So for those that ask for a picture, we tell them to ask the boys and they are free to say yes or no. Although some don't ask and just scoop them up real quickly. They seem to take it well, being that they are so outgoing. I'm still thinking they got my dad's personality in that department.

The front gate.

Exploring the arrow holes in the wall. Daddy tried to explain what they were used for but I stopped him when he got a little over descriptive. 

View from the back of the fort-looking at the inside of the grounds.

View of the outside of the fort wall.

The celebrities and their onlookers in the background.

Hanging out at the top look-out

Remains of the inside of the fort.

We had lots of hand-holding and carrying of the kids on this field trip. The lack of wall on the left side leads to a pretty good size drop-off.

Jackson conquering the GIANT steps by himself.

Taking a break from the heat and paparazzi (or so we tried)

Speaking of my dad, the second part of our tour landed us at his favorite restaurant, Chili's! Yes, that's right, we have a Chili's here! Crazy huh? We're glad that we have it, but also glad that it is clear across town (about 40 minutes away in "light" traffic) so the temptation to go (and the cost to go) will only be given in to once in a blue moon. The mall it is in is unbelievable! Seriously...two malls I've seen here are bigger/nicer than most in the States. And I'm not talking the Lubbock Mall, I'm talking Dallas' Galleria type malls. I can't believe that there are enough people who can afford to shop at these places, living in our city. Jackson cracked us up when he zoned into the tv and exclaimed, "those guys are naked!?" They were playing WWF wrestling (for some reason they like it a lot here) and we had to explain that no, they were wearing wrestling costumes and "fake-fighting." He said they were "not being nice to each other!" Such a preciously confused look on his face. I told him I didn't understand it either :)

They only down side to Chili's here...the big mouth burger (and all other burgers) are Veggie patties. No baby back ribs either. They do offer mushroom fajitas and fried paneer for appetizers, both of  which looked pretty tempting. Everything else appeared to be the same.

Our trip today gave us a feel for how big our city really is. 5.5 million is hard to imagine in small town America. It has the feel/look for a compactly crowded village, not an urban city center. Although that all depends on your individual perspective and where you're coming from. We witnessed a funeral processession parading the deceased in a glass box (held up by 6 men) right down the middle of a busy road. Sights like that are just surreal and hard to connect with the ritzy-pristine shopping malls. A land of contradictions for sure.

*******UPDATE!!!*********Our chili's now offers burgers that "moo"...it's not on the menu, but they do offer them quietly!

A Cultural Day

Today (and much of yesterday) we got to experience some of the differences of our new home, from our old. Our landlord came to town to get our lease registered with the courts and to help us get the necessary documents we need to be "registered foriegnors." These documents are needed for everything here. Like getting internet, cell phones, cable, gas, etc. We started yesterday afternoon and after hours of mostly waiting at the courthouse, we got the lease registered. Our landlord graciously stayed over to help us with the other things today. However, after trying all morning, we walked away with nothing. We went to 3 different places before we found the right office. The office was "closed," despite the workers actually being there. It is open for 2.5 hours on weekdays only. Then the next office wouldn't process our registration with our "c" form. But this "c" form says we need to register with the police in order for it to be processed. So around we went and didn't get anything accomplished, but sure tried are hardest :) We've been warned things just take longer here and if you get one thing accomplished in a day, it is a good day. So we weren't frustrated, just felt bad for our landlord staying over for no reason. It was a cultural difference none the least and we hope to have it settled on Monday, but who knows what could happen :)

Tonight, I had another "first"...shopping in the dark. Power outages are common here but are not "scheduled." So you could be anywhere and it happens. I've been in an amazingly nice mall (nicer than most in the states) and in a nice department store when the lights go out suddenly. What's interesting, is I'm the only one looking around to see "what happened". Everyone else just chills out for a break or pulls out their handy pocket flash light and gets back to what they were doing. Thankfully, we recently got a battery backup for our flat that gives us lights and fans during the outages. So when I went out at 8pm this evening, I didn't realize the power was out until I stepped into the garden area. I do have a mag-light from the states that I could carry with me, but I'd probably get even more odd looks then I already do. (It's huge!) So when I HAD to get diapers and some sort of food to feed my kids in the morning, I just continued on hoping the lights would return soon. Some shops have back-ups, but not the main one I wanted to visit. So I picked out my fruit by the light of a tiny pocket flash-light, and pointed out the only Kellog's cereal I could make out  from the top shelf in a completely dark shop. And when they didn't have correct change (NO ONE seems to have change here, even big grocery stores) I bartered with them, in the dark, over chocolate vs. pepsi as my "change" and then settled on a pack of gum and 10 rupees. I felt quite proud of myself by the end of the walk back to our flat, until I stepped in a dirt hole in the middle of the sidewalk. It wasn't 24/7 Super Walmart, but it worked! I'm just so thankful we have shops within walking distance that have nearly everything we need. It is amazing how much they pack into these tiny shops. You could spend an hour just turning in circles and finding new things high up on the wall shelving.