We Have a Daughter!

You have no idea how long I have waited to say that!! Yes, it is finally official...we have a beautiful 4-month-old baby girl. We learned yesterday afternoon that our case went to court yesterday morning and we had been approved to adopt our HotDog. Yahoo!!! Words cannot express how happy and relieved we are. Of course, as with everything in this adoption, something good cannot happen without being followed by a bit of bad news. Up until now, we would wait the 30-days (which is standard after court decisions in Kyrg), then an additional two weeks for the child's passport. However, we heard yesterday that it is currently taking two months to get the child's passport ready, which means we will be waiting an extra two-to-three weeks. So it looks like I'll be heading back to pick up OUR DAUGHTER (it is so cool to say that!) at the end of September. While I am sad that it will be two more months before we can pick her up, I know it will fly by. Considering that we will have been working on this adoption for two years when she comes home, two more months is a drop in the bucket. Now I can finally start working on her nursery again (I shut the door and didn't think about it while we were experiencing the delays)...and yes, Christen, I promise I'll post some pictures of it:)
In the meantime, I'll offer you a sneak peek at our little girl; I don't feel entirely comfortable posting her picture until the 30-days is up and the paperwork is signed. Once the 30-day wait is over, I'll be plastering her picture everywhere!

A little camera shy

So tiny in Daddy's arms!

Mommy's little cuddle-bug

Bittersweet

A few days after my last upbeat post, my attitude took a nosedive. I know exactly what caused it too. We got updated pictures and measurements on our little girl. We had some friends that were in Kyrgyzstan picking up their children (yeah!!) and they promised to get some new pictures of the waiting children. I was so excited about seeing her face again and finding out how much she has grown. I was checking my email every five minutes to see if they had arrived. Late last week we finally got them. I was overcome with emotion. There was that little face that I would recognize anywhere - that little button nose and rosebud lips. I fell in love all over again. We also got some new measurements for her; holy cow she is one big girl! She seems to be gaining about two pounds every month and we can definitely see that in her big cheeks. Even her arms have little fat rolls in them. We are beyond thrilled to have these updates on her. We treasure every little detail we receive. However I was surprised to find myself feeling a little melancholy about these new pictures. I am SO happy that she is healthy and growing. But it is so bittersweet to see her getting bigger over there by herself, while we are sitting here, desperate to pick her up and bring her home.
I am praying we hear some news this week. Hopefully the judge will be back from vacation today and he'll schedule our court case ASAP. Then our 30-day wait after court will begin and we can make plans for going to pick up our little girl. In the meantime, we have one more week of summer vacation to enjoy.

Hot and Bothered

I know many of you are anxious to hear an update about our court date. Unfortunately, we don't have one. Early last week we learned that the judge hearing our case is on a 45-day vacation and not due back at work until next week (July 28th). So, we continue to wait. I could go on and on about all of the bureaucratic crap we've encountered during this adoption. I could rail against the continual political game that people play while innocent children are waiting in orphanages. I could wallow in self-pity and be miserable. But I'm not going to do any of those things. Instead, I am going to focus my energy on my rays of sunshine, Chipmunk and Monkey (and Stu too, of course). I am going to enjoy these last weeks of summer; school starts in two weeks...yikes! I am going soak in these last moments of calm (relatively speaking) before our family is turned upside-down (in a good way) with the addition of a baby. I am going to get HotDog's room ready for her long-awaited arrival. I am going to become a zen master and realize that the timeline for getting HotDog is completely out of my control.
I would love to be excited about this adoption again, but we've been thrown so many curveballs in this crazy process that I will not be jumping up and down with joy and excitement until I am sitting with that little girl in her bedroom in our house. In the meantime, we'll continue gazing at her pictures throughout our house (and we might possibly get updated pictures of her this week...yahoo!!), watching the video of our time with her in Kyrgyzstan, and loving these hot summer days with our two fantastic little boys.

Beach Boys

We are home from our beach vacation. We had a wonderful trip! We vacationed with our immediate family, my brother and niece, and several of my cousins and their families. We were a bit worried about how all of the children would get along during the week (we had a wide age range, from a new-4-year-old up to 12-years-old). But we had no problems at all. The kids all had a blast together and it was nice that there was always someone around with which to play, walk on the beach, dig in the sand, etc. The house we rented was right on the beach, which was nice since the Monkey woke up every morning by 7:00...that way I could take him on the beach for a nice long walk as we waited for the rest of the house to wake up. It was wonderful to have a lazy vacation where we literally did nothing more than hang out on the beach each day, all day long. The Monkey definitely preferred digging in the sand, while the Chipmunk became an expert with the boogie-board. We had a fabulous 4th of July too. We went to a parade on the island, where the kids had a great time waving the flags and gathering the candy that was thrown from the floats. Later that night, there were fireworks displays up and down the beach by our house. It was amazing. It went on for hours and seemed to surround us. I'm sure the kids will never forget it. While this wasn't a really relaxing vacation (but what would be with a 5-year-old and two 4-year-olds to watch??), it was nice to have one last trip as a family of four. As for the news on the adoption, we were scheduled to have court this week but got word today that the judge is sick so it has been delayed by a week. So we could really use some prayers and positive energy that it doesn't get delayed any further. Our baby girl is waiting for us and needs her family! This weekend, we will be heading to St. Louis for our old adoption agency's annual picnic. We look forward to attending this and seeing so many of the families that have brought children home from the same region as our boys. And we love to catch up with our travel buddies from the Monkey's adoption. It is amazing to see how much this kiddos grow from year to year.
I'll leave you with a few pictures of our vacation:

The boys on the beach with my niece

Chipmunk and Mommy

The Monkey lounging on the beach

Chipmunk digging in the sand

Monkey doing his best pirate impression

Happy beach boys

Ready for the parade

Monkey and Mommy