I'm moving to Africa... or something like that...

Alright Friends!  Remember when I told you good things were happening and big decisions were being made?!?  Well, they've been made.  The verdict?  I'm moving to Africa... or something like that...

Many adoptive parents during this stage of the process fly out to Ghana to file their 1-600, visit their child, fly back without their child and then allow their Power of Attorney in Ghana to handle the remaining pieces.  (Apply for Visa, conduct Visa medicals... etc.) Then (after all the above is approved... 1 to 3 months later) the parent(s) would either go get their child or have their child escorted home.

The above is a very good plan and up until last week that's what we were going to do.  However, due to Abiella's special needs and the nature of various factors, we have decided to go ahead and take custody of her now. At this point Abi is legally our daughter (and so I'm fully allowed to have custody of her), she's just not able to come into the states yet. Sooooo... I will fly out next week and get custody of Abiella!!  Wooohoooo!!!! When I think of holding her in my arms as she leaves the orphanage for the last time, I can hardly handle it.  There's absolutely no words to describe the joy!

After leaving the orphange, we will live in a hotel room together for an unknown amount of time...We're estimating 3 to 6 weeks. (Hopefully much less... pray for miracles!)    During that time we will go through all of the steps mentioned above (1-600, visa medicals, visa, etc.) We're still waiting on her passport to come in, but since we can do the 1-600 without it, we're moving forward. Our hope and prayer is that the folks working on our case will see Abi's need to get medical care and expedite our case.  As soon as we get the last step done, we'll be on a plane headed home!!! Mama and baby!

Thankfully, my wonderful mama will begin this trip with me! Woohoo!!!!

All this to say, please pray for swift processes and a happy, healthy baby! We will be transitioning Abiella's diet while we're there, so please pray for a good feeding experience. (Last time, feeding was a bit challenging... to say the least.)

Am I thrilled about being in Ghana for an unknown amount of time?  Well.... I'm thrilled to be with Abiella and I'm happy I'll have more time to experience the culture.  I do however, desperately want to get back where I can get her the medical attention she needs AND to be a family of 3 in the same house.  So staying in Ghana for 2 weeks? 3 weeks? 4, 5, 6 weeks? A year ago, I would have been FREAKING OUT that I didn't have an exact plan, but after all the stretching I've been through the last year (not to mention the insane amount of sadness being an ocean away from my baby) I am THRILLED.  I can't WAIT to go and having my mom with me for part of that time certainly eases my worries. Can you believe it? I'm going to have custody of Abiella soon!!!! In a week!!!!!!

I just can't imagine what it's going to feel like to text Sean: "We have custody of our baby."

Thank you (as always) for all of your prayers.  I can feel them!  Please keep them coming! 

God Bless!

love,

Hallelujah!!!!!!!!!

Oh my gosh.  I can not begin to explain the last few days.  They've been good, they've been great, they've been miraculous!!!!  On Thursday we unexpectedly received a few new pictures of our baby girl!  This was the first time we'd seen her since we left her at the orphanage over three months ago. After worrying ever single day, "Is she eating enough? Is she losing weight? Is she happy?" I can't describe the pure, intense, overwhelming joy of opening my email account and unexpectedly seeing her beautiful, happy face! What a blessing!!!!! AND It appears as though she's even gained some weight!!!!!  Praise God!!! All day long, Sean and I called and texted each other just to talk about how beautiful our baby girl is and how excited we were to SEEEE HER!!!!

THEN, the next day, I wake up to an email from our coordinator and when I opened it there was our decree!!!!!!!!! THE official, signed, watermarked decree!!!!!!! The paper we've been waiting on for 3 and a half months!  Earlier in the week we had learned that the person whose signature we needed was out of the country and could be back in a matter of days, weeks, or months. Nobody knew. So, waking up to this document was COMPLETELY unexpected.  I sat there and read the email over and over and just cried and cried as I called Sean to tell him the good news.  "GUESS WHAT?!??  WE HAVE OUR DECREE!!!!! THE OFFICIAL ADOPTION DECREE!!!!!!" There were many tears and cheers coming from Tennessee on Friday.

THEN, TODAY  I get a call from my coordinator, and she tells me that Abiella's birth certificate (with our names) has been printed!!!!!!! (Remember these were the two documents we've been waiting on for three and a half months!) I screamed over the phone, laughed, cried, and told her my knees were so weak I was going to have to sit down :)  We can now move forward with the next step: Filing the I-600!!

To say Sean and I are on cloud 9 is a massive understatement.  I feel like the barrier has been lifted and we're now zooming down that river again! So what's next??  Well, big things friends, big things.

I'll write about them tomorrow, b/c Sean and I've got some brainstorming to do tonight.  But for now, just know that I am SO THANKFUL for your prayers!!!! PLEASE keep them coming! We need to get this little girl home!!!!!!!!

Blessings,

    

A few nights ago...

A few nights ago I came home, opened my inbox, and found this beautiful email.  I was absolutely floored.  There are really no words, so I'm just going to share it with you. 

(Don't worry,  I got permission from the author to post it here.)

***

Hi Mae, 

I am your newest follower on your blog. I was following blogs from operation fabulous thing. But then I decided to click through yours some more and I saw the story of your little girl. She is so beautiful and the story is beautiful too. I pray that she comes home soon. I know that you will be an amazing mother. I have cerebral palsy myself and I also have a twin with cerebral palsy too. I am not adopted but I did want to say thank you for having a heart and for opening up your home and your life to that little girl. there are so many children that need homes these days. society just pushes them out of the way and doesn't regard them as anything. I am sick of this and yearn for it to change. I want to make a difference in the disabled community. I may have a disability but that doesn't mean that I am as different. I can still do things just like everyone else. I may just not be able to do everything that people can do. I want to share a poem with you that I wrote on my blog: 

My life is

unique because I

was not supposed to live

born at 1 pound and 7 ounces

I fought for my Life

Doctors said I was not going to make it

God had other plans

He blessed me with a disability

yes a blessing

because I have had so many experiences

as a result of my disability

God has grown me into a beautiful young woman

I may be different

but that doesn't define

who I am in Christ

or who I am as a person

my disability shapes my life

in a beautiful way

My disability

leaves me unable to do something

but I am still able to do so much with my life

God has a plan for my life

and I REFUSE to let my disability get in the way

***

Absolutely beautiful. I can not wait to share this poem with Abi as she grows up. 

I can not describe how much Jessica's words meant to me.  I've since emailed with her a few times and she told me that she wants to be a voice for those with disabilities.  She told me I could contact her with any questions I have and she even hooked me up with a non-profit focused on disability ministry. She then prayed with me and the whole "meeting" meant so much. Some days I'm reminded how God can use anything to bless people.  Even two blogs, an email account, and a kind soul willing to reach out to this new mama.  Thank you Jessica!!

Here's a link to Jessica's blog.  You should go read it.  

Just call me Ginger...

Soooo... I may have gone red.  I've always wanted to have red hair and I've talked about it on a weekly basis for over a decade.  Last weekend, while I lounged in my own piece of TX paradise, I thought... "What the heck? It's JUST HAIR..." So I contacted my hair dresser, talked about my options, and made an appointment.  Today, at 12:45 I sat down in the chair and said, "Do it."

A few hours later I was in my car and headed home. A ginger.

Sayonara highlights and hellllo red...

I was totally clueless if I'd love it, hate it, kind of like it, really hate it... but alas, I'm loving it!  It's fun and different and it seriously shocks me every time I look in the mirror. Will I ever be blonde again?  Sure.   Will I ever be a brunette again?  Sure.  Will I ever have blue, pink or purple hair? I sure hope so. But for today, the red is pretty darn fun.

Sidenote: While I was at the salon a nice woman sitting next to me was going from super blonde hair to suuupppper red... like comic book character, Little Mermaid's Ariel, fluorescent red. She had been blonde her whole life. I liked her guts.

Thinking of doing something fun with your hair? Doooo ittttt... and then send me a pic :)

Houston...

Friday afternoon, I packed a small bag (complete with one pair of pj's, one pair of jeans, and a bathing suit) and headed to the airport with my friend Ashley.  By 3:00pm we were soaring 30,000 feet above the air towards Houston.  As passengers around us tried to sleep, we belly laughed until I thought I was going to pass out. The young flight attendant even came by and hung out in the aisle laughing with us for a long time. I know the business men around us just LOVED hearing three squealing women laughing about embarrassing moments and scenes from Bridesmaids.

2 hours later we landed and walked outside to greet our beautiful friend Danielle.  The rest of the weekend was fast-paced and lazy all at the same time.  Good food, a day at the pool, an Arbonne party, brunch on patios, great friends, ordering pizzas, movies watched on the carpet of D's bedroom, and three solid nights of sleeping in the most comfortable King size bed... all by myself.  Staying at D's house always makes me feel like I'm in a resort.

See what  I mean??

Her house is the perfect combo of stunning, comfy, and cozy. 

You want to stay and lounge forever.

In the midst of all our fun, I was having to step away in order to correspond via email and address some adoption related struggles.  The girls were great to give me space when I needed it and on Saturday night when I was upstairs delving through the latest debacle, they were downstairs (unbeknownst to me) saying a prayer.  

Such a blessing to have friends that can be on "vacay" with you and get it when you're up and when you're down. 

Yesterday morning, Ash and I were back in a cab headed to the airport before the sun even came up. And by 7:30 we were sitting at a terminal waiting for a plane to take us back to "real life." 

Oh, Houston-You were so good to me. 

Thanks for the weekend D! It was much needed :)

PS- I had a very interesting woman in front of me on the plane yesterday.  More on that to come.  Right now, I've got to go visit my husband at an absolutely killer studio downtown.  

Heck yes, new record!!!!

Woohoo!!

Keep fighting...

This is what I'm counting on....

Let me let you in on the last two weeks of our lives...

As you may recall, we've been waiting since June on a document for our adoption that was estimated to arrive in three weeks or less.  THREE WEEKS. (In case you aren't counting the days like I am, it is now September 4th... a mere 3 months and 1 week later...) Well, two weeks ago (when I wrote THIS) I had just received news that the person in charge of filing this paper realized why we didn't have it yet.  HE FORGOT.  THREE MONTHS OF WAITING.  THREE MONTHS OF OUR AGENCY CONTACTING HIM ON OUR BEHALF, WHILE HE REPEATEDLY SAID, "SHOULD BE SOON."  "ANY DAY NOW!" and then... a QUARTER OF A YEAR LATER...he realized, "OH! I don't think I ever even filed that paper!"

Ladies and gentlemen,  the neighbors may never recover from the things they heard coming out of my mouth that afternoon. 

ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE. 

For the next 5 hours Sean and I went through crates of paperwork and reevaluated all of our expiration dates.  Three months of lost time is a huge deal for a number of reasons.  #1 We lost 90 days with our precious Abiella.  #2 Our homestudy, and fingerprints, and 1-600A's, etc. etc. etc. all have upcoming expiration dates and must be dealt with soon.  So for the entire afternoon we called coordinators, and home study agencies, and USCIS, and a million other people trying to begin the process of updating all of our paperwork.  

We also realized that afternoon that we would need to take a trip back to Africa to file our 1-600 when the time came. 

Did I mention someone forgot to file our paper work?  

Oh, I did?

Okay.  

Sooo, by 8:00 that night, Sean and I were at FedEx overnighting a request for re-fingerprinting and by 8:30 we were sitting at dinner staring at each other like we had just walked out of a storm. We were okay, but we had a lot to do to pick up the pieces. 

So what's happened since that night?  Well, we've miraculously got our fingerprints redone... and now we wait on that form to come in... We confirmed that we still have 2 months until we have to update the remaining paperwork (Praise God)... and we've begun planning the trip back to file our I-600.

Sean will not be able to go this time. Three trips to Africa in 8 months is a lot of work to take off and he has numerous obligations in the next few weeks that need to be fulfilled. 

Soo... we prayed. 

And guess what? My mom is going to go with me!!

Woohoo!!!

The dates are still unknown, but sometime in the next few weeks my mom and I will board a plane to Africa!

We'll land, go to the hotel, file the papers and visit Abiella!! 

Moral of the story:  I do not understand God' plan.  But we keep moving, we keep praying, and we keep fighting.

"Don't be afraid, for I am with you. 

Don't be discouraged, for I am your God. 

I will strengthen you and help you.

I will hold you up with my victorious right hand."

Isaiah 41:10

Less is More.

Oh man.This weekend I did something amazing.  I unplugged.  In fact, this very moment is the first time I've opened my computer since Friday... It's now Monday night.  Unheard of.  It. was. marvelous.  I cleaned the house top to bottom...not the dusting, sweeping kind of cleaning (although I did some of that too) but the "We have too much stuff and it's all got to go!" type of cleaning.  I now have a huge pile of things to sell at a yard sale, my car is stuffed with clothes I'm taking to Good Will, and my house has never looked emptier.  I'm in love.

It all started when I saw pictures from one of my favorite blogger's house. It was clean, simple, and relaxing.  Just looking at the pictures made me feel like I could think more clearly.  Sooo, Saturday morning I got up and started purging.

The purging continued for two days straight. I only took breaks for Mexican food, Sushi, and a few hot chocolates with The Cosby's. The rest of the time, the record player was blaring, a cold beverage was always by my side, and the boxes and trash bags were overflowing. There's not a drawer, a corner, a cabinet, a trunk, a closet, or an inch under any bed that hasn't been touched.  And guess what?  I can breathe.  The "excess" is gone and it. feels. good.  

via

How was your Labor Day weekend?

mae