I received a call from our Social Worker yesterday morning. Since we may not receive a referral until May, some of our paper work will expire. When we started the process, never did we imagine that we would reach a point where we would have to paper chase again!!
Our home study needs to be updated because it will expire in May. We also have to redo our fingerprinting, which will expire in September. We should be travelling before September, but just to be on the safe side, we need to plan ahead.
This adoption journey has taken much longer than we expected. There are several reasons why the process has lengthened, one being that in Ethiopia, they are taking more measures to making the process more ethical. For this, I am thankful for.
We are handling the wait relatively well. Knowing that God is in control and not us or anyone else, brings comfort. All three of my labors were physically hard. This time, I'm not experiencing the physical labor but the emotional labor. Either way, the pain and struggles are much worth it in the end. I am happy to redo paper work, just another step in the process to bringing our child home.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Charity Water
See how one family is making a difference in Ethiopia:
(first pause the music at the bottom of my blog)
The Budde Family Well / charity: water / Ethiopia from charity: water on Vimeo.
(first pause the music at the bottom of my blog)
The Budde Family Well / charity: water / Ethiopia from charity: water on Vimeo.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Valentine's Day
We had a very sweet Valentine's Day. In the morning, as we were making plans to head out of town for a day of shopping (which we haven't done as a whole family for years!!), Steve presented each of us girls a Valentine card. In each card, he expressed the qualities he most admired about each of us. We were all very touched by his thoughtful expressions. It always feels good to be appreciated as a mother and wife but what touched me the most were his loving words to each of his daughters. He is such a good father to them. The type of relationship he builds with them will no doubt impact how they select their future husbands.
After getting on the road, we made a quick stop at a coffee shop to treat ourselves to a yummy coffee for the trip. Picking up a coffee and heading out of town with my family, is one of my favorite things, so I was in heaven!!
The "Daughter's Heart" Celebration is this Saturday, so we bought the girls new dresses for the occasion. Steve was such a good sport and had lots of patience while us girls browsed through the stores. On our way home from our shopping trip, we had dinner with Steve's sister.
The entire day was a treat and so perfect! I love my sweetheart!!!!
After getting on the road, we made a quick stop at a coffee shop to treat ourselves to a yummy coffee for the trip. Picking up a coffee and heading out of town with my family, is one of my favorite things, so I was in heaven!!
The "Daughter's Heart" Celebration is this Saturday, so we bought the girls new dresses for the occasion. Steve was such a good sport and had lots of patience while us girls browsed through the stores. On our way home from our shopping trip, we had dinner with Steve's sister.
The entire day was a treat and so perfect! I love my sweetheart!!!!
Monday, February 9, 2009
Still waiting
Our agency gave out a batch of referrals last week and according to our specialist, they had several toddler age children. Unfortunately our son was not one of those.
So, we continue to wait. Steve and I talked last night about how we feel our life is on hold. We didn't schedule a winter vacation because of the what ifs and now we can't even talk about a summer vacation, because most likely that is when our son will come home at the rate things are going.
School was called off today due to icy conditions. This has been a long winter for our family and looking back, we wish we would have scheduled a winter vacation. But I'm trying to look on the bright side of things. That is, if we wait until next winter to take a warm weather vacation, our son will be with us.
Even though I have low moments, I'm really trying to be optimistic during the wait. God has brought our family through quite the change since we started this journey. Although this journey has not been easy, the challenges have allowed us time to grow. And for that, I can be thankful. We are even more ready to receive our son into our lives.
Our specialist also informed us that the time between referral and travel went from 12 weeks to 16 weeks, which means if we get a referral soon, we will not travel until June.
There is a reason for God's timing and His timing is perfect. We can't even begin to imagine the big picture of things unseen happening around us. God is intentional - He knows what He is doing.
Tabagon Fun! This past weekend we watched our friend's two girls. The 5 girls had a blast sledding yesteray afternoon. Can you see Avery?
Saturday, February 7, 2009
"Come pick me up!"
Over Christmas break Lauren attended a ski camp out of town for 2 nights. 10 inches of snow fell the morning they were suppose to leave to come home. The night before, I confirmed her ride home with a trusting parent.
The day I expected her home, Lauren called that morning and the first words that came out of her mouth were, "come and get me! So and so's dad is not coming now because of the weather and I don't want to be stuck here!" She had great anxiety and desperation in the tone of her voice.
As her mother and one looking forward to her returning home, my heartstrings pulled hard that morning. My first instinct was to get in the car and go get her. But it would be too much of a risk with the current weather conditions.
After consulting with other concerned parents, we began making plans for our kids to stay one more night. I spoke to Lauren on her cell phone several times throughout the day with updates on the weather and lodging preparations.
I offered her as much reassurance and encouragement I could throughout the morning. During our last conversation together, her cell phone went dead but she was ready to settle in and accept the fact that she will not make it home. But being 'cut off' from one another, I could no longer give her comfort or reassurance.
Then, early that afternoon, I got a call from another parent who just received word that the team decided to drive home after all. They had just enough seat belts between all the cars. This caused most parents to become even more anxious, those who had teenagers driving and those, like me who has a child riding with teenage drivers. Not that I don't trust teenagers - it's just that they don't have as much experience driving in this type of weather.
Well, after much concern, our team arrived home safe.
I keep thinking about Lauren's words of panic that one snowy morning: "Come and get me!" When I received her phone call, I hung up and cried. Sadness overwhelmed me. I can't forget my feelings from that day.
In the past few months, each time I think about our son, I am almost always on the verge of tears. I think about how hard it is to wait, not knowing his condition, not being able to communicate with him and I don't even know his face.
I think about the transition time when he will not have anyone to call daddy or mommy. This is the time he will spend in an institution with several other children who are also waiting for their forever family.
Our agency has a list of children waiting for families. Most of these children have medical concerns or are older, making it harder to find them a family. For one, there is a sweet 5 year old boy living in our agency's orphanage in Addis Ababa. He has been living there for 3 years. He has autism. During his 3 years at the care center, he has watched more than 700 kids leave with their forever families. I often think about this child and wonder how many anxious moments he has had waiting for his family. I think about how he doesn't have anyone to call family and he doesn't have anyone to call at all to come pick him up.
Friends of ours adopted a toddler boy from China. A few months after being home with him, he asked his father why it took him so long to pick him up.
After we receive the referral of our son, it will be 3 more months before we travel. This wait for a referral has been hard and now I'm starting to understand why adoptive parents say that the wait time between referral and travel is even harder. Once we know our son is waiting for us, I hate to see him wait much longer.
The day I expected her home, Lauren called that morning and the first words that came out of her mouth were, "come and get me! So and so's dad is not coming now because of the weather and I don't want to be stuck here!" She had great anxiety and desperation in the tone of her voice.
As her mother and one looking forward to her returning home, my heartstrings pulled hard that morning. My first instinct was to get in the car and go get her. But it would be too much of a risk with the current weather conditions.
After consulting with other concerned parents, we began making plans for our kids to stay one more night. I spoke to Lauren on her cell phone several times throughout the day with updates on the weather and lodging preparations.
I offered her as much reassurance and encouragement I could throughout the morning. During our last conversation together, her cell phone went dead but she was ready to settle in and accept the fact that she will not make it home. But being 'cut off' from one another, I could no longer give her comfort or reassurance.
Then, early that afternoon, I got a call from another parent who just received word that the team decided to drive home after all. They had just enough seat belts between all the cars. This caused most parents to become even more anxious, those who had teenagers driving and those, like me who has a child riding with teenage drivers. Not that I don't trust teenagers - it's just that they don't have as much experience driving in this type of weather.
Well, after much concern, our team arrived home safe.
I keep thinking about Lauren's words of panic that one snowy morning: "Come and get me!" When I received her phone call, I hung up and cried. Sadness overwhelmed me. I can't forget my feelings from that day.
In the past few months, each time I think about our son, I am almost always on the verge of tears. I think about how hard it is to wait, not knowing his condition, not being able to communicate with him and I don't even know his face.
I think about the transition time when he will not have anyone to call daddy or mommy. This is the time he will spend in an institution with several other children who are also waiting for their forever family.
Our agency has a list of children waiting for families. Most of these children have medical concerns or are older, making it harder to find them a family. For one, there is a sweet 5 year old boy living in our agency's orphanage in Addis Ababa. He has been living there for 3 years. He has autism. During his 3 years at the care center, he has watched more than 700 kids leave with their forever families. I often think about this child and wonder how many anxious moments he has had waiting for his family. I think about how he doesn't have anyone to call family and he doesn't have anyone to call at all to come pick him up.
Friends of ours adopted a toddler boy from China. A few months after being home with him, he asked his father why it took him so long to pick him up.
After we receive the referral of our son, it will be 3 more months before we travel. This wait for a referral has been hard and now I'm starting to understand why adoptive parents say that the wait time between referral and travel is even harder. Once we know our son is waiting for us, I hate to see him wait much longer.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Update on our girls....
Gymnast:
Our little Avery started gymnastics this past summer. She took a preschool gymnastics class just to see if this would be something of interest to her. Fast forward 6 months, she has passed through 3 classes and is now a 5 year old SALTO! This girl can do cartwheels, flips, the splits and a bunch of other things that I don't know the name for...basically, we have a gymnast in the family! As a side note, I tried doing a cartwheel and almost threw my back out. Needless to say, I don't only not know the names of the 'stunts' she has mastered, I also can not show her how to perform anything.
Olivia's after school interests still include drawing and writing stories. She wants to be a children's author and illustrator when she grows up. She is well on her way to fulfilling her dream with a portfolio filled with her creations.
I don't usually like to brag about my girls' accomplishments but this is a brag for the Lord:
On her first quarter report card, Olivia's teacher wrote words to describes Olivia and her character. As a side note, Olivia and Avery attend a Christian grade school where the goal is not to be the smartest kid but rather develop a deep faith in the Lord and learn to lead by Christian example. I know that most of this is learned in the home but to know that it is also being embraced and practiced in school, brings much comfort to me. This is what Olivia's teacher shared about who she is as a person:
Olivia is a blessing to have in 3rd Grade. She leads by Christian example. Her faith is obviously important to her. It's fantastic to see a little girl so on fire for the Lord. She is social, but knows the difference between work time and play time. She participates in all areas of learning. Olivia is self-motivated, working to do her best to improve and learn. She is an intelligent young lady. She picks up on new concepts quickly. I have seen great improvement in her math times sheets.
This brought tears to my eyes. It's amazing to see all the ways God works through a child during their walk of faith. I feel blessed to have the opportunity to parent my three daughters. I have had the joys of watching their faith grow one step at a time. And for this, I can say, this is a brag for the Lord.
Lauren is our daughter who has to be in EVERYTHING!! Even though she keeps us hopping the most of all three of our kids, Steve and I set limits to her activities to balance out our family and church life. It can be challenging to maintain a balance life at times, especially while we try to embrace all of our kids' interests and encourage them in the areas they are gifted.
We always want to be involved in the lives of our children to show our care and support, EVEN when it requires us to volunteer our time at a ski meet outside for 3 straight hours in 30 below windchill weather. Nonetheless, we very much enjoyed watching our daughter take off at the starting line and cross the finish line. This particular race, she came in 8th place! GO LAUREN!!
Here are the friends she has bonded with on her cross country ski team:
Here are the friends she has bonded with on her cross country ski team:
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Reality
(I wrote the following for our Women's Ministry newsletter and thought I would post it here as well)
There are numerous shows tagged as Reality Shows. They seem to attract millions of viewers all over the world. In most Reality Shows, life situations are played out and filmed as entertainment for TV viewers. Most shows present a challenge and reward the strongest player.
“Survivor,” a popular reality show, challenges a few brave men and women to put their life survival skills to use on a deserted island with limited resources. The person who plays the most clever game of survival, walks away with $1 million at the end of the series. The losers, other than brief notoriety, will return to their comfortable lifestyle, most likely.
In reality, there are millions who will not ever watch one second of these reality shows but they will live their whole life just trying to survive. Survival to them is reality.
In November we hosted an event to honor our missionary women. One missionary serving in South Africa shared the story about a woman standing on a street corner in pouring rain with her children by her side trying to sell one mushroom. Selling this mushroom appeared to be her only hope for the day but as dusk was setting in, her hope would diminish.
In December, we held a tour of homes to benefit a local woman’s shelter. At this event, we heard from a survivor of domestic violence. Her courageous story of survival was humbling and eye opening.
If you miss an episode of your favorite reality show, it will still be there next week. However, there is reality you can’t ignore. We don't want to miss the opportunity to make a difference in the life of God's hurting people. “Once our eyes are opened we cannot pretend we do not know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls knows we know and holds us responsible to act.” (Proverbs 24:12)
In February, Women's Ministry will give you the opportunity to help end the reality of Human Trafficking, a real life tragedy. Our National project, “Break the Chains” is an effort to save one child at a time from this horrific lifestyle and to give them hope of surviving in this world; to give them hope for a better future.
In real life, there are no actors or performers and unfortunately sometimes very few survivors. The struggle for survival is not a game but a reality. Pray about your role in serving the Lord to help provide a better reality for those less fortunate.
There are numerous shows tagged as Reality Shows. They seem to attract millions of viewers all over the world. In most Reality Shows, life situations are played out and filmed as entertainment for TV viewers. Most shows present a challenge and reward the strongest player.
“Survivor,” a popular reality show, challenges a few brave men and women to put their life survival skills to use on a deserted island with limited resources. The person who plays the most clever game of survival, walks away with $1 million at the end of the series. The losers, other than brief notoriety, will return to their comfortable lifestyle, most likely.
In reality, there are millions who will not ever watch one second of these reality shows but they will live their whole life just trying to survive. Survival to them is reality.
In November we hosted an event to honor our missionary women. One missionary serving in South Africa shared the story about a woman standing on a street corner in pouring rain with her children by her side trying to sell one mushroom. Selling this mushroom appeared to be her only hope for the day but as dusk was setting in, her hope would diminish.
In December, we held a tour of homes to benefit a local woman’s shelter. At this event, we heard from a survivor of domestic violence. Her courageous story of survival was humbling and eye opening.
If you miss an episode of your favorite reality show, it will still be there next week. However, there is reality you can’t ignore. We don't want to miss the opportunity to make a difference in the life of God's hurting people. “Once our eyes are opened we cannot pretend we do not know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls knows we know and holds us responsible to act.” (Proverbs 24:12)
In February, Women's Ministry will give you the opportunity to help end the reality of Human Trafficking, a real life tragedy. Our National project, “Break the Chains” is an effort to save one child at a time from this horrific lifestyle and to give them hope of surviving in this world; to give them hope for a better future.
In real life, there are no actors or performers and unfortunately sometimes very few survivors. The struggle for survival is not a game but a reality. Pray about your role in serving the Lord to help provide a better reality for those less fortunate.
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