The Sky.

I’ve been meaning to write in this slightly neglected blog for some time now.  I have a bit to share about Ethiopia and adoption.  We’re still waiting, no news, just a bit of sharing about how things are going for the Grovers these days : )  But… this is just a teaser cause I’m too tired to write at the moment.  It’s 11pm and I’ve had a really long couple of days.  Just take this as my promise to update friends and family on this so called blog – SOON.

On another note….. So, I thought I had a minor obsession with taking photos of the sky with my iphone, until I went to download them to my computer.  As it turns out, I have a MAJOR obsession – and I wasn’t sure what to do with all the photos I found!  So, here they are, all nice and neat for your (and my) enjoyment….

 

 

 

MONTHS.

I just recently informed my poor brain (who likes to take as many rests from doing math as possible) that it has actually been 6 and a half months since our adoption packet was sent to Ethiopia and approved.  6 and a half months of waiting for a phone call.  This waiting game is tough, it’s almost like trying to fathom the concept of eternity.  There is a child out there that exists, they may be born, they may not yet be born.  We may have to wait for 5 more days, we may have to wait for 12 more months.  My head is spinning.

It’s almost like people dread having to ask how the adoption is going as much as I dread telling them nothing is really going on at all, we’ve just passed a bit more time.  Some folks may think, 6 months of waiting, that’s nothing, time goes by in a flash!  But if your name is Brenda and you work at a certain UPS store in our town you know exactly how long this total of a 10 month process has been.  Brenda signed a good majority of our paperwork as a a notary, and she’s also the sweet smile that greets me everytime I send of a package of photos to a client.  Every time I walk in that store I know she’s waiting for news!  She knows how it wears on you to have nothing to share.  She knows how the days stretch into months and the months turn into a year.  It’s a short time of long silence and it’s the silence that sort of drives you a little crazy and makes the days stretch by like centuries.

At one point this never-ending sky will land on a day and on that day we will be parents, I can’t imagine a happier thought.

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2.25.11

There’s a big storm outside the windows as I pause to reflect on what I know of you.  I know you are far way from me right now in Ethiopia. I know you will begin your life in a very different way than I began mine.  I now that you were never really an orphan – as even now while your tiny life unfolds I can’t wait to bring you home.  I know that you are loved, deeply by two people who are so ready to become mom and dad.  The thought of even just holding a picture of you in our hands can bring tears to my eyes.  I know that you have already changed Eddie and I forever.  We are different people because you were born – and we couldn’t be more thankful.

I love you my sweet little one, more than words can say.

- mom

LIFE LATELY

Hello.  I think I remember starting this blog last summer… I am so bad at keeping up on this!  It’s been about 4 months now since I’ve updated!  We’ve been doing a whole lot of nothing in particular too.  I’m back into wedding season for the summer and Ed has been keeping himself pretty busy being an associate pastor with a little bit of schooling on top.  (He’s almost done with that masters degree, yay Ed!)  I can’t seem to think of anything else new…. oh wait, we got a puppy  : )

This little ball of cuteness and fuzzy hair may or may not have been the result of my greatest persuasive argument yet.  But really, she filled in any gaps that needed convincing in Ed’s mind as soon as we went to take a look at her.  : )  She’s a miniature Australian Shepherd and Queensland Healer mix – and yes, she’s going to stay pretty darn tiny.  We figured we’d just go for the opposite of Kingsley in every way and see what we end up with – not really – but she is pretty much as different as you can get!  So family – these pictures are for you – since we kind of have neglected to even tell you guys that we got a dog… oh… a week ago!  {***update per Davi’s request – her name is TOBI – and I can’t believe I forgot to mention that the first time!***}

 

Don’t you want to come visit us now and see her?!  Ok, you can come : )

In other news we are still waiting on the adoption referral.  It has been 4 months and 9 days since we sent out our packet for review by the Ethiopian government.  Wait times have gone up and down – and currently they seem to be completely in the air.  You may have heard news of slowing adoption wait times in the news and it’s looking like that may actually be coming true.  The short story is that the Ethiopian ministry of women’s and children’s affairs has requested to process a dramatically fewer number of adoptions a day, causing the wait time to possibly move to something closer to China’s system (years!).   We have no way of really knowing at this point if they will be able to go through with this or if the government will keep the process running as normal (or maybe something in between).  It seems from our end that people who are right in the middle of this process – like us – will just have to wait it out.  Our wait times will help determine the average wait time for folks adopting later on down the road.  While the potential of waiting a lot longer than I’d hoped for a child may have driven my desperate pleas for a dog to physical results, we’re actually not too down or worried about it on the whole :)  God is in control of how long we wait and what child He has for us!  I actually feel quite lucky to be in the middle of our wait time as this whole process is being re-vamped, we’ve already got a bit of a head start and who knows how long we would have to wait if we were to start this process a year from now.  It can be tough on some days for sure, but I’m hopeful and I know that God has things planned for us that I just can’t see yet!

So, to end this, I promise I’ll try and think of interesting things in our lives to more regularly post on as we wait… we really aren’t that incredibly boring, I don’t think at least : )

PRAYER CARDS

So… last week Eddie and I mailed out A LOT of cards, to a lot of people, and unfortunately we got most of them back in the mail this weekend : (  Here’s a little snapshot of our sad pile….

I just wanted to let you know that if you didn’t get a card and you know someone who did, it isn’t because we don’t care about you!  Some made it and some didn’t – no real rhyme or reason for it.  The rest are coming, just a little slower : )

JUST A FEW QUESTIONS {PART 3}

If you read down a few posts you’ll see “part 1″ of this series with a little bit of an explanation as to why I’m writing out these questions.  Answering these questions in a written reflection has been a good process for me – and while I’m sure I will begin to add to some my answers as we continue further in this process of becoming parents and have the privilege on looking back on what God has done – I am grateful for having these to look back on as I do.  This next question was a difficult one, my answer is not exhaustive, but I know it’s the foundation God has given me to keep going.

Question 3: Have you thought about raising a child of a different race?

Ed and I thought a lot about this question before we decided on Ethiopia.  I’ve heard stories of adopted children almost resenting their parents for taking them in to a home and culture so different from their heritage.  I wondered if I could handle that kind of rejection – or if wondering that just further proved that such a family was never meant to be.  I know there are lots of answers to this question but what did it for me was a bit of reflection time on what I would say to a child growing up with white parents and dark skin; a child who felt out of place, a child who just wanted to fit in and was slowly finding out that what worked for him or her as a toddler wasn’t working as they became older.  The root of this fear is found in the soul of every human being.  We want to belong, to be accepted, to find our identity in something.  I know I would have love to offer, a good home and family values – but I also know this need runs deep.   Looking back into the heart of a teenage/college age girl I found that during this quest for who we really are and where we really belong, no question is off limits. Does my family really love me? Do they really know me?  Do I really believe everything I was taught?  These questions can be poison to a child who comes from the most stable of families, let alone one who has every right to question her background and the decisions made for her while she was too young to have a say.   While most might take a step back at the thought of this kind of parent scrutiny, I am not afraid.  I’m not afraid because my own identity is not found in my upbringing, my culture, my parents love, my ethnicity, my friends, or my talents.  I belong to Jesus Christ and He has adopted me as His own.  The savior of this world knows my name and I am His daughter.  I have this love to offer my children, this new identity.  Needless to say, being uncontrollably excited and beyond blessed at the thought of this task – is an understatement.

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AAAANNNND here’s the latest and the greatest, these bonus questions are all the rage:

Any new news on the adoption front?

Nope.  There will be none actually, for awhile.  We are in the “waiting stage” we are pregnant and getting fatter – only problem, we don’t have a scheduled due date!!

Do you know when you’ll get a referral?

The average wait time is around 6 months, so we’ve sort of set our metal clocks to sometime this summer.  However, the wait time is very unpredictable, it could be 2 months, it could be 10 – we really REALLY don’t know!  : )

Will it be a boy or a girl?

You guessed it, we don’t know : )  Our request allows for a male or female…. or…. set of twins!!

Do you know how old they will be?

Our request was for an infant between 0-12 months.  By they time we take them out of the country they could technically be a little older than 12 months though – so the span we’re looking at is probably between 0-18 months realistically.  Maybe still bottle feeding and in need of a crib… maybe walking and eating solid foods – not sure.

I think that just about does it for now!  We’ll let you know the minute we have any updates – no really, the MINUTE – I’m pretty sure we’ll be so excited we won’t be able to contain it for one extra second : )

A D O P T I O N   C A L E N D A R