Retail Therapy

Had to go to Sam's today to get food for the Daycare, so we loaded up the whole family and made a day of a trip to Springfield.  Ryleigh had won a gift certificate to Houlihan's and it was about to expire, so we ate there.  Isabella was in rare form and dominated the conversation, but in a very good way.  Every once in awhile (like maybe 4 or 5 times since I have known her) she wants to talk about her life in Latvia.  We talked a lot about her birth mom.  Isabella went on and on about memories of her, mostly ones that break your heart.  It came up that they had 3 sisters in Latvia, one older, two younger, which of course we knew, but I don't think Ryleigh and Reagan did.  We also told them about the brother that they never knew because he was born and taken away from their birthmom after they were in foster care.  So sad.  Isabella also told me that she never saw a baby picture of herself, ever.  It really bothers her.  She said she saw a picture of Becca once, but never herself.  It hurts to the deepest part of my heart for her.  She loves looking at pictures and taking pictures and I know she feels a huge void in her life because she doesn't know what she looked like as a baby.  Both the girls have said they wished they would've been babies at our house and not in Latvia.  It is so, so, so sad.  Becca was very quiet during the lunchtime conversation today.  I wish I knew what she was thinking.  Isabella wanted to know if she was Vietnamese because their birth fathers were supposedly from Vietnam.  It's very confusing for them, as their birthmom probably didn't know who their fathers even were.  She named one of the sisters after some pop singer in Latvia and tried to tell the kids that they were related to him.  Kinda like someone here claiming that Justin Bieber is the father of their child.  Anyway, I love that Isabella feels safe enough to talk about things and that it was in an atmosphere that was not overly serious, so we had a deep conversation with deep thoughts, but it was never uncomfortable and I couldn't burst into tears either!  God has a way of opening those doors at the right time.  Praise Him!

We went to Target and I decided to buy diapers!  Since we got his updated measurements, we were able to know we needed to buy size 4 diapers!  Hoepfully he won't need them for long, I forgot how expensive they are!  I also found a couple of shirts and a pair of pants on clearance for him.  And a hat! And some socks!  I love looking at little boy stuff!  I haven't bought anything except clearance stuff, so I love Target for that!  The girls love to shop for their brother and Tim is always a good sport.  I think he knew to be patient today after the week we had.  He knows that retail therapy helps the most when we are waiting, waiting, waiting...

We also went to Sequiota Park and fed the ducks.  The girls tried very hard to catch some massive crawdads, too, but they didn't have any luck (thank goodness!).  It was a beautiful day and we had fun just being outside and not being on any kind of time schedule.  That's rare for us!  I did carry my phone around in hopes that we would get the call today, but no such luck.  It did ring a few times and I practically jump out of my skin trying to look and see if it says "Great Wall". 

Hopefully I am not getting my hopes up, but the latest email from our agency is that we should expect our letter "soon" because they inquired about our paperwork and the CCCWA let them know we have moved from the Review Room to the Matching Room.  Even though to a rational thinking American, it would seem like the matching room could just grab Ethan's file and our dossier and put them together and send us our letter, it apparently is not that simple. Although nobody really knows why.  It occurred to me today that sometime in the near future, this wait will not seem so bad.  As soon as the letter comes, things move relatively quickly and the last steps in this process are much more predictable.  Pretty soon I will be freaking out about what to pack! 

We a letter from Show Hope informing us that we did not receive a grant.  It sounds bad, but we were a little shocked and a lot disappointed.  We had received $5,000 from them for Isabella and Becca's adoption.  I know that they prayerfully consider each application and I know that God will provide for us in another way, but I am a little worried.  We are planning a huge garage sale with some other adoptive families at our church, and after cleaning out the 3 big girls' closets, I think we could fund our entire adoptin of we could sell all the clothes we have to get rid of.  Tim has some stuff to list on ebay, too.  Luckily he will have time to work on all that in the next few weeks before he has to start teaching his summer classes.  I think God teaches a lot of lesson during adoptions and one of them is how to be creative in fundraising and how to find ways to humble yourself and allow others to help. 

Here Ducky, Ducky...



On a mission to feed the ducks!