Travel Update!

In case you’ve been wondering…

· Toby’s birthday party Sunday: simple, done and fun!

· Plane tickets: obsessed about and finally purchased this morning

· Other documents prepared and being sent to Oregon and on to Bangkok tomorrow

· Meeting Thursday with United States Citizenship & Immigration Services to figure out what’s going on with Kamin’s visa

· Lots of praying and praising and thinking this all seems impossible but knowing with God everything is possible.

And this weekend? We’re going camping. Because it was planned a long time ago to go with some good friends and their kids and it will be good to be in the mountains one last time without a toddler, spending time together and taking a break from the preparations, paying attention to my kids who are getting less than normal right now since I’ve been staring at plane ticket options for days at a time (or so it seems) (I’m so grateful for our local grandparents!) and breathing a bit before this rollercoaster starts up again next week.

So now you know. : ) And I’ll say it again… God is good!

Melissa

"If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast."

Psalm 139:9-10

And I thought I was excited about an update... WE FOUND OUT YESTERDAY WE'RE TRAVELLING TO THAILAND IN AUGUST!!!!!

I am in shock and so, so excited and a bit in a daze... (Lowell keeps saying I'm "so pregnant"... meaning I'm doing things like putting conditioner on my hair (in the shower) before rinsing out the shampoo. Stuff like that.) Yesterday our adoption agency called and asked if we had plans for the last week in August... (AUGUST, PEOPLE!!!!! DO YOU KNOW HOW SOON THAT IS?????) We are scheduled for the August 27 board meeting in Thailand where we will be approved to adopt Kamin! We were expecting to travel the end of September at the earliest, so August is a total surprise. Goes to show you just never know what's going to happen! We were matched with our little boy in March and typically people travel 6-9 months later. We are travelling after only 5 months. WOW! Apparently God thinks it's time! : ) We'll probably fly out of Fresno Thurs. 8/21 and we'll meet him the first time Sunday the 24th. You can pray that our immigration application for Kamin gets approved quickly. According to the processing times found online for the USCIS office, we need a miracle. : ) But that's what God does, so I'm okay with that. I'll try to write again soon with more details. I just wanted to share our excitement with you all. You are definitely a part of our adventure! : ) But if you don't hear from me again right away, it will be because I'm working on travel documents and getting mixed up about things like shampooing my hair and not sleeping at night and staring at his pictures and walking around in a daze saying things like "I can't believe we're leaving in less than 4 weeks!!!" and trying to figure out what to do next. YAY and THANK YOU GOD!!!!!

We got another update! Yay!

We were surprised yesterday with another update on Kamin! It's so amazing to me how much he changed in the 2 months between the updates! As of the end of May, he was sitting, crawling, pulling up on stuff. I'm betting he's walking by now. But what made me the most excited was that they said he likes music! : ) I was so excited to see that!!! While I know almost all kids like music, I'm still happy that he likes it enough that they would bother mentioning it in his progress report! My kids and I marvelled at seeing a picture of him holding pictures of them in a little photo album we sent back in March. So surreal to think he's looking at pictures of us and maybe listening to our voices on the CD we sent later! Mikaela and Toby also said it looks like he's turning into a little brother. So sweet. : ) When I was tucking Toby in last night, he wanted to know why we couldn't go get Kamin and bring him home already! Anyway, I just thought I'd share with you all!!! We're still not posting pics on the web, but if you email me (or just leave a comment if I have your email address already) I can send you a picture if you want to see one. I keep staring at the pictures trying to burn them into my memory... I'm glad I won't have to do that forever! : ) Melissa

Thank You & Thank You!

First thank you... to all of you who commented or emailed birthday greetings to our son. You are all so sweet and even though the comments have not made it into the journal yet (see below) they will!!! And they will be cherished forever... : )

Second thank you... To God and to my husband who managed to recover the files we thought might be lost forever when our hard drive decided to stop working and start crashing on Tuesday. Ahhh... The little file called "Recovery" created from our backup files brings new meaning to the term "Celebrate Recovery"! : ) Our pictures from the last several years aren't lost!

On the other hand... I did spend less time on the computer this week and that wasn't a bad thing. Though the house is not so clean that you would know. And I had something really thought-provoking to tell you all about that I had been pondering... but it too has apparently not been recovered from some crashed file in my brain. So for now, this is all you get. Until my brain is recovered.

OH!!! I just remembered what it was! I was going to talk about little girls and romance! I'll try not to forget between now and next time. And you'll get an extra week's worth of pondering. Scary, I know.

Last thing. Yesterday Toby said it was "sweltering." Learned that word from WordGirl, he did. PBS, you are amazing. : )

Have a swell, sweltering week, wherever you are!!!

Happy, Happy Birthday Baby!

Well, way over on the other side of the world... my son is celebrating his first birthday! It's already almost noon on July 7 in Bangkok... but to celebrate here, Lowell, the kids and I are going to dinner at the Elephant Bar tomorrow night. I know, I know. The food there isn't Thai. BUT Mik and Toby love it and there are really big elephants there and elephants are very Thai, so it's close enough. : ) The festivities will be topped off with an elephant cake... because I think it will be really cute and it might be my only chance to make one because by next year I'm sure he will have his own opinion about what he wants on his cake!!! In case you're wondering if this is an emotional day for us or not... I'll let you know when I do. I'm not sure how I'll feel tomorrow. There have been a few emotional moments for me, but not about what you probably expect. I never expected him to be with us on his birthday, so I'm okay with that. I actually think it's special he gets to spend this day with his foster family. I know they love him very much and we will (God willing) have lots more birthdays to celebrate with him. But I'm thinking also about his first mommy... the one who spent his first birthday with him and that's probably when I get the most emotional. Talking about her is way too personal for me to do on the blog... but I can say she has a very special place in my heart and I'm thinking about her... And while you won't be eating cake with us tomorrow, you can still do something special with us for him. I am extending an invitation to all of you to send Kamin a birthday greeting! I have been writing in a journal to him for over 2 years now and think it would be special to have in there notes from his family and friends. It is something he really WILL get to read someday and could mean a lot to him. (And even if it doesn't, it will mean a lot to me and his daddy and brother and sister.) So if you want to, leave Kamin a note in the comments or email it to me. Either way, I'll print it out and put it in the journal so he'll know he was loved before he even got home.

And Happy Birthday Kamin... We love you so much!!! Love, Your Forever Mommy

The Same and Yet So Different... Part 2!

Some more things I've been thinking about regarding our adoptive pregnancy... When you're pregnant, you're typically the first one to know what's going on. There are exceptions, but usually you find out first that you really are pregnant, you feel the morning-sickness and EXHAUSTION, you feel the baby moving, you feel the first contractions, etc. But when you're adopting, there are other people who know more than I do about my son! There are other women who have mothered him and social workers and doctors who have examined him and a family that loves him and knows him, and there will be a board of officials who will determine and know when we get to have him for good... all before I get to know! There are days when I'm perfectly at peace with that, and other days when it makes my heart ache. But thankfully, there haven't been as many achy days as peaceful days. All by God's grace!!! Another blessing (or not!) about being pregnant is that you are surrounded by many, many women who either are pregnant of were once upon a time and many of them will tell you their stories about being pregnant and labor, etc. whether you want them to or not!!! With adoption, first of all nobody can tell just by looking at you that you are in the process of adopting. (Once Kamin is home, it will be a little more obvious!) : ) But it's harder to find people who know what you're going through. I met a family last week who recently adopted a little girl and it was so wonderful to get to talk with them. And there a woman at our church who is also adopting and I'm so grateful to see her every Sunday! But I'm contemplating putting together (maybe) an adoption support/play/connection group so it can happen more often. We'll see..... I remember when I was pregnant, especially the first time, it was hard to believe there was really a baby inside me that I would be able to hold someday... but as time went by, I only had to feel her move and look at my ever-expanding tummy to know she was really real! This time, I have days when it's really hard to believe I have another child on the other side of the world... but I look at his picture and remember it somehow really is true! He is real and will be ours to keep in a matter of months! And then I'll get an email from our agency that says this: "You'll also need to provide a copy of the '07 return as a component of the pre-travel visa forms that you'll be receiving from me this week." Pre-travel visa forms!!! This week!!! Whenever I get stuff in the mail from Holt I get excited and it seems real (in a surreal sort of way) all over again. And then I panic for a moment when I think of all the work I have to do before then... switching the kids rooms, cleaning out their closets, etc... and life goes back to normal. : ) (Whatever that means!) : ) Melissa