New Pics

I love getting new pictures of our girl. I really do, but boy they just make me miss her even more! This newest set is pretty cute though. She makes some of the funniest little faces and I know she will fit right in with this crew of silly folk.

Don't even try to tell me that's not beautiful right there.

Look, she's trying to call me!

I can just imagine she's saying, "Mom! WHAT is taking so long?!"All bundled up in September? Is it really that cold over there?

And there's that silly face again :)

Ahh, the sweetness! It is almost too much :) Oh, and any Mama's want to take a guess at what size she looks like she'd wear?

Please keep praying that things would start to move at lightning speed. We are having interviews with Dr. Psychologist on Friday and then we want to interview with Ms. Social Worker right after that so we can officially be DONE! Oh, please Jesus.

Liza Update: Psychologist

Where are we at with the whole psychologist thing? I've been asked that a couple of times the past few days and figured it was time to update.

We did finally settle on a psychologist to go to. He was suggested to us by a counselor friend and turned out that he is an adoptive parent himself and was very interested in helping us get to the bottom of this. He is charging us a little more than the one mentioned here but I think he may be a little more thorough and is definitely understanding that this is a strange situation. He also agreed to hold off on collecting his fees until we actually meet with him for the interviews, so that helped.

We have met with him once already and we filled out all the psycho whatever-you-call-em tests he felt were appropriate. He now has been filled in on the super secret "negative comments" that were made about us and said that he plans to fit us into his schedule this week. I am really hoping it will be much sooner in the week than later. The better for him to wrote his report, get it to the agency, and let us get this show on the road again.

I'm hoping and praying for meetings with our SW in the next two weeks and then everything being submitted to USCIS right after that. I finally convinced the agency to go ahead and send our background checks off to be done. Well, they are sent off now that they finally sent me the correct form for one of them, and then I still had to send the entire thing back to them because they didn't have the director's signature notarized. Aye YI YI! They wanted to wait until all this was resolved so that they didn't expire according to VA law. But, if it takes another 90 days to get this resolved I may seriously go postal on someone.

So, that's where we are now. Hopefully in the next week or so we will be further along and then in the weeks after that we can be waiting for our I-171H to come. I have been given an email address for the USCIS office our HS will go to and plan to email them in the hopes that explaining the need for a rush will cause them to have compassion on us and get our approval QUICKLY. November is coming on WAY too fast!

If you're looking for ways to pray for us I would ask that you:

• openings in the Doc's schedule so we can get the interviews done
• for everyone (psychologist, SW, agency) to get on board and get their part out of the way ASAP
• for all of this to come together so we can get submitted before November
• that we will get approval from USCIS in record time
• and that once it's all in Liza's country we will have no issues and get a travel date so we can finally BRING HER HOME

Oh, I can't wait for that day to finally come! Did you see those eyes in the picture above? Don't they look like they're just looking for her Mama to come?

Knuckleheadedness: Noah's Turn

Remember when I talked about Austin's Knuckleheadedness? Can't have you thinking he's the only one. Noah is every bit as much a Knucklehead as his brother is.

Where do these kids get this from, by the way? Did Austin teach Noah or were they born like this? I am pretty sure I had nothing to do with it. *cough, cough*

We are sitting at the kitchen counter looking up a recipe for something on the Internet. One of them we run across calls for lard. After I explained what lard was Austin asked why the recipe called for it and not say....butter.

This is what happened after that:

ME: "Well, the lard is supposed to....."
(and there goes ADD Mom's attention caught by something on the Internet)

(So Noah being his helpful little self finishes my sentence for me)
NOAH: "help block your arteries?" *GRIN*

ME: "Um, yeah that's what it's supposed to do."
(heavy on the dramatic eye rolling and sarcasm)

ME: "Knucklehead!"

I'm beginning to think I'm outnumbered around here.

Conversations With Rick: Is that Aretha Good?

Rick and I have some hilarious conversations at times. He is one of the funniest people I know and is very quick. He snaps come-backs out of nowhere sometimes that make me laugh out loud even when I'm trying to be mad at him. I'm contemplating trying to remember some of them and feature them right here on the little ole blog for memories, or blackmail..... whichever I feel the need for at the moment.

Here's one from yesterday. Poor hubby is sharp as a tack but pronunciation (or as he says, "prunciation") is not his forte.

A little background, we're talking about how things can always be improved on.

Rick:
"so, a Good thing can be Better!"
"And a Better thing can become Great!"
"And a Great thing can be Fantastic!"
"And a Fantastic thing can be Arethrile!"

ME: (thinking)
"Did he say Arethrile? What's that, Aretha Franklin good?"
"I guess that could be pretty good"

ME: (out loud)
"What?" "What did you say?"

Rick:
"Arethrile"
"E.t.h.e.r.e.a.l."
"Arethrile"

ME: (laughing my head off)
"That's Ethereal"

Rick: (laughing in spite of himself)
"Oh"

Music and Life: Tearing Up

Ok, so I am NOT "gonna keep drinking till I'm petrified" or "lost my mind", and half the time I "can't even think" sober. After last night's post I had to cheer myself up and for some reason the title made me think of this song. I thought it was appropriate cause Liza is constantly on my mind and the constant tearing up is because I am lonely for her, right? So, if I had a beer right about now it would most likely have a tear in it!

Well, anyway. I thought it was funny! Going to check the fridge....... ;o)

Tearing Up

That's what I have been doing ALL day most days! Everything is making me cry. Songs on the radio, stories on facebook, and videos on blogs. I'm not usually an overly emotional person, in fact sometimes I think I'm not emotional enough. But, this latest road block is really getting to me and I am starting to feel defeated which is showing up in daily life as crying at pretty much the drop of a hat.

I am just so sick of being held up. I am so tired of waiting for everything to come together and work out for us and for Liza. I guess I am just growing weary all together. I'm not ready to give up but I just feel like this ride is never going to end. November is getting closer and closer and the closer it gets the more I am afraid that we will not be ready to submit our dossier. Who knows what that will mean for Liza. Will she be sent to an institution before we can get to her? If so, will we still be able to adopt her?

I am just so ready to be at the other end of this and holding my sweet girl. Hearing her laugh, which I have been told is tremendously cute! I know this is a lame post. I'm just keepin' it real folks. I am worried but praying hard all day every day. Trying to believe that we will be ready before they take that Winter break. My little sweety has waited long enough. Dontcha think?

Another Way to Help Liza

*The Fundraiser give-away for Liza is back on. This time all money donated goes straight to our Reece's Rainbow FSP. That makes it tax-deductible for anyone who donates. Suggested donation amount will remain the same as what I have below.

A friend of mine from church, Robyn, graciously made and donated a sweet toddler-size quilt to us. We hope to give it away to someone who donates to our adoption fund. She gave it to me before the issues came up with our home study and I hadn't sat down to put up this post yet.

Now, I think I know why. We heard from another psychologist who actually practices in our area and he is willing to meet with us and write the letter we would need to be able to proceed with the home study. He is only asking for $675, which is a heck of a lot better than the last one we talked to!

SO, getting back to the quilt! I am really hoping to put every bit of money we might receive towards this $675. Even though it's less than what we were quoted by the others it's still a good chunk of money that we weren't counting on. I really want to get a pretty good response to this and get in to see this psychologist much sooner rather than later. My girl has been waiting in that orphanage long enough!

I thought a suggested donation of $5 would be wonderful! Thanks!

This is a shot of the quilt folded in half.

I just couldn't get a good picture of the whole thing. Each square has a different type of dog in it. they are all adorable.

I wanted to show a close-up of the background here and how it looks against the front.

It's all little paw prints, really cute!

And this one is a close-up of one of the squares. My personal favorite, the dog and his bandanna. And don't you just love the little white paw prints running thru the black material? :)

$2000

That's what one of the psychologists we heard back from wants for meeting with us twice and writing up a report for the home study agency. I am just totally disgusted by this whole thing! I just don't understand why we have to do this at all. I also found out that it apparently would be illegal for the foster care agency to have made any negative remarks about us, especially considering we were never under investigation for anything.

At this rate we are almost considering hiring a whole new agency. We may get some of our money back from the one we are with now and even if not it's cheaper than having the evaluation done. We just don't know what is the right thing to do and really just want this whole ridiculous problem to go away.

Please continue to stand with us as we command this mountain to be moved!

Knuckleheadedness

My kids are nuts!

They are always saying things that just make me chuckle and shake my head at them. I usually just call them a "knucklehead" and move on. I've decided that I need to start blogging these things so that I have them to remember and maybe even use as blackmail some day.

Here's a classic example of some Austin "knuckleheadedness":

We're talking about the new extra-curricular class he's in (cause he missed being put in Spanish on account of he told the teacher last year he was gonna be home schooled this year, don't ask. It's a post all it's own.) called "guidance" . This "class" is supposed to introduce them to different careers and prepare them for when they are ready for that decision? Um yeah, still not really sure.

Me: So, what do you think you want to be when you grow up Austin? An architect?

Austin: (with very bland, dry emotion, typical Austin) Nah....

Me: An engineer?

Austin: Nah....

Me: A chemist?

Austin: Nah.....

Me: doctor? lawyer? what?

Austin: (straight faced and without missing a beat) Superman

If he was 5 I'd say, "Aw, how cute!", but he's almost 13 so I chuckle and say "Knucklehead!"

Step Forward, Step Back, Step Forward, Step Back

Sounds like a CSI line-up, huh? Nope, it's the current state of conditions in this adoption. We take a step forward, and then we take a step back; we get bad news, but then we get good news and so on and so forth.

Remember that paper I needed from my county that I couldn't get the lady to write for me? Well, yesterday a very nice gentleman who works as the building inspector came out to my home looked around a TINY bit, filled out the form, went with me to the bank to sign it in front of a notary, and then told me if I needed anything else I knew where to find him! So, our proof of ownership letter is DONE! Praise Jesus.

On top of that bit of amazing news, we also got our mortgage letter from Ch@s3 sent to us via F3d-3X just a couple days after I faxed the request to them. It was PERFECT! The. First. Time. This has been notorious for being another one that took people months to get and then having to have redone cause it's never right the first time. I am still in shock over how easy it was, but so thankful!

Now, that was a couple giant steps forward. BUT! You knew that was comin', right? We got a call from the homestudy agency early this week telling us that they received some kinda not nice info about us (of course, we don't get to know from who or what) and we should meet with a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and have them write a letter. Then, they will have a meeting and decide whether to finish our homestudy. That is a HUGE step backwards. Without the homestudy we can have 500 dossiers and still not be able to adopt Liza.

So, I have spent the last few days calling all the local psychologists hoping one of them will do this for us. Only one of them has called back so far and he didn't feel qualified to do it since he is so new at practicing. We are praying for someone who is understanding and won't just judge us from whatever this bad news the HS agency has received is. More than having to go through all this hassle I am just devastated that someone has besmirched us in some way. And that even though the HS agency has at least three wonderful reference letters from people we know this can have such an effect. It just doesn't feel fair.

Please continue to pray with me that the Lord would remove every obstacle in our path. I have been asking him to move this mountain that is in front of us. Whether it's by finding a wonderful psychologist who will write a letter that is acceptable to the HS agency or just removing the need to see one at all. I am so tired of all this and just want to get Liza home. The enemy may attack, but I refuse to let him win!