We sold our house and moved to our new one in December. None of that would have been possible without the help of our realtor/guardian angel Kathy. Seriously. She saved me from many a mental breakdowns during both the home buying and selling processes. We moved to a sixties ranch that is only a few houses from both my mom and Derek's parents. The turquoise tile bathroom stole my heart, and NO, that's not sarcasm you're sensing. Honestly, we weren't sure how the living in such close quarters to both parents thing would go, but it has been nothing but a blessing thus far (love you grandparents!). There's nothing like a true sense of community, which is something we felt was lacking in our last neighborhood. I guess it helps when you're neighbors are the very people who brought you in to this world. So, for now, we're loving it. I hope in a year from now we are still able to say the same thing. 😊
The girls are doing great and growing way too fast for this baby-stage loving mom. Claire recently turned four and Nora turned two, so naturally my body is screaming MORE BABIES! I then have to quiet the crazy and remind myself we are expecting, but our baby is coming wrapped as a seven year old rather than one in diapers. I'm still equally as excited for the arrival of our new bundle of joy!
The adoption world has not exactly been kind to us the last few months, but I still think we have had it pretty easy compared to a lot of families. Since October we have gotten Matching Approval (yay!), then Article 5, and we are now waiting on the FINAL step, which is the High Court Order (aka approval to travel to Hong Kong and bring our son home). After Article 5, it takes about ten weeks to receive the HCO. Since we received Article 5 in December, we thought maybe we would get HCO in March. We were so, very wrong. On February 24th (one day shy of ten weeks since receiving Article 5), we found out that the Adoption Unit would not start our HCO wait until they received our updated home-study from our social worker. Unfortunately, what we thought would be a quick home study update has not been what we'd consider "quick". It's been three and a half months since we've moved, and we still haven't heard back if our home study update has been approved on the Hong Kong side of things. Until we hear back, they will not start our HCO wait. If I've lost you by now, that means we aren't traveling for a few more months, which will put us in prime tourist season when travel costs double (seriously. double. I've checked). I'm trying so very hard to find the silver lining to this cloud, I really am. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated at this point, because I'm starting to feel like that frantic pregnant woman who is 68 weeks past her due date and will do anything to get the baby out. I'm just ready to meet my son. I'm ready to start our lives as a family of five. I'm ready to quit hanging in this limbo that it seems no one can relate to (unless they've hung there themselves). I'm ready to be done stretching every dollar we have to pay for adoption expenses. But yet here we are, and I've got to try and make the best of every day for the sake of our family.
On to some excellent news, we've been selected as one of the five families to receive a grant from the 5/5/5 for families organization through Reece's Rainbow. I really would encourage you to hop on over to their page and find out a little more about what amazing things a group of adoptive moms is doing. The short version is - they help 5 families on the 5th of every month by encouraging people to make a $5 donation to the grant. It is SO encouraging to know we are not alone at the end of this process as we face a huge hike in travel expenses. You still have time to donate if you feel the cause is worthy, and can do so here:
Last thing, promise (extra points if you're still reading..)! Today is WORLD DOWN SYNDROME DAY (3/21), and we'd love it if you'd spend a minute or two educating yourself on what it's like to live with Down Syndrome. Check out Megan's message about setting limits for people with disabilitieshere:
