The Health of Adopted Ethiopian Children

Here is some interesting and encouraging news from the International Adoption Clinic, in Boston, Massachussets. Below I have brought a quote from the site. But for those that want to read it at the site, here is the link to the article.

Since 2000, American families have adopted 1,700 children from Ethiopia. Little is known about the health and development of these children. Patients and Methods Retrospective chart review of the arrival health status of all 50 (26F:24M) children from Ethiopia/Eritrea seen in the International Adoption Clinic.

Prior to adoption, most children resided with relatives; 36% were >18 months old prior to entry into care. More than 50% were true orphans, often due to HIV. Arrival age ranged from 3 months to 15 years (mean +/- SD 4 years +/- 43.8 months). At arrival, growth z scores were near-average (weight -.59, height -.64, head circumference -.09); significantly better than adopted children Guatemala, China, or Russia seen in our clinic. However, some Ethiopian children were significantly growth delayed (WAZ
Medical issues on arrival included intestinal parasites (53%, [14% with >/=3 types]), skin infections (45%), dental caries (25%), elevated liver transaminases (20%), latent tuberculosis (18%), and hepatitis B (2%). Age-appropriate vaccines had been administered in 15-77% of children (depending on specific vaccine).

Behavior problems were uncommon. Gross/fine motor and cognitive skills were approximately 86% of expected for age. Age correlated inversely with developmental scores for cognition (r = -.49, P = .003). Five children had age reassignments.

Ethiopian/Eritean adoptees differ from other groups of internationally adopted children: they reside for relatively long periods of time with relatives prior to institutionalization, often have uncertain ages, exhibit few behavioral problems at arrival, have better growth, and may have less severe developmental delays. Whether these differences at arrival predict better outcomes for the Ethiopian/Eritrean children is unknown.

A Caring Post Mistress

We have the sweetest lady working at our post office. When I first told her that we were adopting, she was so enthusiastic and happy for us. We live outside a small town and have a tiny outlet for our mail, so there is a small town friendliness here.

A few months ago, while I was sharing about the step we were at in our adoption we got to talking. She is a Christian and goes to the church near to where we live. This got us talking about faith and all the miracles that have happened in our adoption. As I was mailing out my envelope (I don't even remember which one it was) I asked her if she could keep our situation covered in prayer. At this point, she told me that she did pray for us. Actually, she prays for all the people that get there mail at this outlet. What a caring lady!

The other day when I stopped in to drop off our PRV envelope the office was empty. Usually when I pick up packages and mail I have to drop a few cryptic words cause there are customers lining up behind me, but yet she wants to be kept up to date. This time I had the opportunity to talk quickly and fill her in on all the exciting details that have been going down this last month.

I could see a shine of tears in her eyes, as her heart was touched at the goodness of God and the obvious show of His hand on our lives and adoption. What was so wonderful was that while I was filling in the paperwork for sending our Permanent Resident Visa forms by Express Post, she began to pray over the envelope. Now, I know she wouldn't do this for 'anyone'. She did this because she knows that I have faith, and because we have discussed the adoption each step of the way.

It feels so good knowing that we have support coming from the most unlikely of places! The post mistress! I am very thankful.

Rewarding Paperwork

What a day!! Right now it doesn't feel like much. But I tell you, this morning I was busy and it felt exciting and good!!! After doing nothing for our adoption since October, it felt so great to be actually doing something again!

Back in July, when we began our adoption I got all the Permanent Resident Visa papers together. But for some odd reason I felt that we shouldn't send them off. So they sat for the last seven months. Now that we have made the decision to go through PRV it feels *good*. So good to make this decision. As long as it was unknown and undecided, it was like a weight around my neck. I knew that we couldn't proceed with a referral, until we decided which way to go.

And the the pressure of knowing that if a referral came in, we had better know what to do RIGHT THEN, was awful!! Then last week on Wednesday, I just got this feeling of - NOW, DO IT NOW!

The ironic thing is, a friend of mine, Sandi, also had the same feeling last week. I didn't know this then. I found this out today. And the reason it is ironic is because our files went to Ethiopia on the same day. So maybe one of us is in the offing for getting a referral soon. Wouldn't that be remarkable! We both have a little bit of an unusual request. We are asking for girls basically 0-7 years.

So I sat today for hours!! Papers strewn all over the table, floor, couch; printer on the table, laptop on my lap....

It was a bit overwhelming what I had to fill in. Not because it was hard; because I was worried about making a mistake and losing time while the government sent the papers back to me to be redone.

I had to gather and fill in: financial evaluations, sponsorship agreements, applications to sponsor, document checklist, birth certificates, passport, marriage certificate, notice of assessments for income last year, statement of business activities and I am sure there was more!



Thankfully, we have the internet. So I was able to reach out to my two adoptive friends, Corrie and Sandi, who have also recently filled in their PRV forms and get help. They were wonderful and I got all my mistakes ironed out *before* I mailed the forms out.

Adoption is rather like riding a rollercoaster. First you go up the hill and that is when you have that tredidation in your stomach of what is to come. Nervousness! Well, that is what I felt like today while anticipating filling in these forms.

And then, there is the feeling of when the rollercoaster goes down the hill and you realize what fun it is!!!! WHEEEEE!!




My papers are going in the mail, and we are ONE MORE STEP CLOSER to adding our children to our family.

It is SO exciting to think that out there in that far away continent of Africa, there are children that God has chosen to add to our family. What an amazing concept!



It is so exciting to see that we are that one step closer. When the referral comes in, we will be ready. We will know which route to bring our children home by. What a rush!

Changes onthe Citizenship / Permanent Resident Front

We were all *so* hopeful that things would speed up once Bill C14 passed in Parliament. Well, that hasn't happened. It has been a mess, since it all began. Every day I watch our Yahoo group to see comments from those that have gone before us, to see what is going on in their situation.

We knew that our family did not have a referral, so we figured we were safe to sit on the fence, until something became clear. A few things have become clear over the last 7 weeks.

First, we now know that to go the Citizenship route (versus the Permanant Resident Visa route) we have to apply for Part I of the paperwork. This takes about 2 weeks. This can be done while waiting for a referral and does not impact the wait time.

So at the moment we know that you can apply for Part I at any time. But then you have to wait for your Court Date to proceed with Part II. From the Referral Date (the time you see pictures of your child for the first time and then actually accept the referral) to Court Date could range from 2-3 months. It is not til then that they can begin Part II.

At this time, there are some important papers sent on - I believe it is Passport and some other documents for the child. These have to be gathered before Part II can begin. For one family that has already eaten up another three weeks!

And then we are hearing rumours from the CIC themselves, that Part II is taking 8-12 weeks.

Okay, so let's do a simple summary and the math: 2-3 months for a Court Date (and most are taking 3 months); 3 + weeks to gather documents for Part II to begin; 2-3 months for Part II (or so we hear; it could be more or less). That adds up to about 6 1/2 months from Referral to Travel!!

That does not look like Bill C14 shortened *anything*. Not only that, it is very unpredictable as no families have actually brought their children home yet, on this new CIC route! So until this happens they are all guinea pigs.

Now as to the Permanent Resident Visa route (PRV) we knew that it was 2-3 months for Court Date; 4-5 months (thereabouts) for Medical; 4 weeks (approx) for Visa. Then Travel. So a total of up to 9 months for this route.

At this point it sounds like the Citzenship route would be the best to take - even though it is unknown.

But then we got some new and exciting news. News that made all our thinking go back in the Think Tank.

Some very dedicated families approached our agency about why we can't begin the Medical at Referral, rather than waiting 2-3 months til after Court Date to start. This has been brought up before and nothing has come of it.

Thankfully - praising, praising, praising - we got wonderful news last week!!!!!!

Our agency has approached the High Commission and gotten information that tells them that they can indeed, begin the Medical at Referral. What does this mean to us??

It means that once we get a Referral of a child, they will then *immediately* begin the Medical, simultaneously, while waiting for a Court Date. So our timeline if we go through PRV now looks like this:

Referral comes in:

Medical (4-5 months) & Court Date (2-3 months) (done at the same time) - max total time for both: 5 months

Visa - 1 month

Grand total with new approach - 6 months maximum!!!!! Doing the Medical, while waiting for the Court Date, (instead of after the court date) can (probably) shave off 2-3 months!!!!! This is HUGE!!!

On top of this, there is other information. We had been advised by our agency (who like everyone else, does *not* know the answers. Who could? Only the CIC and they don't even know yet!!) to begin both processes - CIC and PRV. Then when Citizenship got your paperwork through Part I, we would receive a letter letting us know and we would then have 30 days to decide to continue with CIC or let them know we were going PRV.

We all took this to mean - nothing. Simply that if both files were open then when it came time (a few weeks into the process) we would have more information from other families making it through and then we could choose the most expedient route. Many of the Yahoo families seemed to think the same way.

Ray and I had believed that we did not have to make a decision (as to which of the two paths to take) until we had a referral. It all made sense why there was no rush. We were going to begin our process after the referral and we were thinking we would probably go through both routes and then make the choice when we had to. Kind of buying time and hoping to see from other families which way to go. Who knows, our referral might be months away and children might be home by then and then the decision would be made for us.

But THEN yesterday morning we began getting emails from our Yahoo group stating that this was not the case. Apparently another agency is telling its people that if they are going through the PRV route, then they need to apply BEFORE they get a referral!!!!!!

This means that if we get a referral tomorrow, we are behind by a month!! Our child would sit in an orphanage for another month needlessly!!

So now we had to make a decision and fast!

Well, it had become pretty clear to us that we were going to go the PRV route. We had so desperately hoped and prayed that Bill C14 was going to change things for us, but it doesn't look like it is so. Perhaps for families that will come along a year from now. Those ones will have this years families to look back at and gain knowledge from. But for us, we have decided to take the well travelled route, especially now that we have eliminated about 12 weeks of the Medical wait!!

So hopefully next week, we will begin our paperwork for our Permanent Resident Visa. And then hopefully soon after that we will get a referral for our children! It is so nice to have that decision settled!!!

Homeschooling Our Way

I have been asked a number of times about homeschooling. What it means to us and how we do it. There is no small, easy, quick answer. Prepare yourself for a typical long response. *smile*

When we began homeschooling our oldest son, 13 years ago, I began the 'School At Home' route - the one everyone I knew was doing. It was very exciting! I went to homeschool seminars and bought all the textbooks and manipulatives (for those that don't know what those are, they are the little coloured teddys, dinosaurs, blocks etc that you use to understand math better), charts, readers etc. We were ready and off we went. I set up my 'classroom' in my kitchen, hung my ABC charts, and began school. I was young and excited and had no idea what I was doing. But I knew that I knew how to read. I could easily handle putting a preschool/kindergarten workbook in front of my son. Even if I didn't have a teachers certificate, I was sure I knew how to teach him to read and do Grade 1 math.

It wasn't so easy. He learned his letters just fine. He learned that C-A-T, says Cuh-Ah-Tuh, but do you know how hard it was to teach him that Cuh-Ah-Tuh, says CAT!?! *laugh* I remember calling my sister-in-law in exasperation and asking how to get a child to put those letters together and stop stuttering over the sounds. He was five. Goodness, he was old! Shouldn't he be reading by now? *wry smile*

He did eventually learn to read little readers and write little stories and we moved on. He got very good at his math text book, and completed his spelling quizzes and learned his times tables.

But, his little brother, who was now nearly 5, was not looking forward to going to school. He saw how hard it was and how frustrated both my son and I would get over him learning to read. This was not a good sign.

I tell you this in the hopes of helping other parents avoid the possible stumbling block. Home Education is *not* School At Home - it is Lighting a Fire - versus - Filling a Bucket.

When a child goes to public school or we choose to 'school at home' in the traditional way, it is typical that we tend to 'Fill a Bucket'. What this means is that the schools, and then often us, when we earnestly begin schooling at home, tend to try to get as much information into our children's heads as possible. We literally fill their little brains with facts.

But the question is - How much do they retain in this manner, and how much enjoyment do they really get out of this?

You might argue that school is not about having fun; it is about learning. That is where, in my humble opinion, you would be wrong. Learning *is* and *can be* great fun.

When you move out of the mentality that Education is Filling a Bucket and instead, embrace the belief that Education is instead, Lighting a Fire, you will see that learning *is* *great fun*!

What is the difference between the two methods?

Lighting a Fire means getting a child excited about learning. Learning should be lifelong, not just during a period of 9 am -3 pm at school. Lighting a Fire means following your child's interests and providing them with material to explore what excites them.

The summer after my son finished grade 1, I read a phenomenal, life changing book. It was called, The Successful Homeschool Handbook. This is available through Amazon.com. I also read Better Late Than Early, and Home Grown Kids. These two are available through Abebooks. Just follow my links and you can order them.

What I discovered that summer, while feeling bad about our not so joyful school days, was that school does not have to be about teaching a child to read and write and do math, all before he turns six years old! Each child is different. Some are ready at five, some are not ready until they are closer to eight!

I read about the value of a child playing outside in the dirt - learning about bugs, and building dams with rocks and sticks and sod, and seeing how dirt and water mix to make mud - science in the early years. It was better to experience these things than to just read about them.

I learned that children can do so much if you follow their interests. Our then seven year old, was a 'man in a little boy's body'. He had so much interest in big boy stuff. He wanted to build a boat; so he did! He designed his boat on paper, told his dad where he wanted things cut, and then he took over. He glued and screwed and painted and completed that boat!

Building a Self Designed Boat

I began truly allowing interests to dictate a lot of what they learned. A lot of the learning took place outside of 'school hours'. Below is a picture of my 8 1/2 year old son rebuilding a chainsaw. We had it returned to us from the store, totally dismantled. They had tried to find the problem with why it wasn't running, and couldn't. It didn't occur to them to rebuild it!! LOL. But it did occur to our 8 year old. He successfully rebuilt it.

This same boy then went on to build a 14" wing span airplane out of 2'x4' in my basement!!! This airplane was equipped with two old baby carseats and had a running propeller run by an old electric blender! That is his giftings. See the science, mechanics, and electronics that were taking place outside the 'classroom'!





While building our house our boys learned a ton of skills! They observed so much and were also able to help on simple jobs.

Years later, this same boy has built many houses and foundations. He has had many job offers as his work ethics are outstanding and he is good at what he does. The skills that he has learned through something that he was interested in have opened up the doors to him being able to think about going to Africa one day to build a boys home.

While reading some of these homeschool books, I read how a little boy could raise a rabbit or a steer or a goat and how much he could learn about that. Much more from doing it, than by reading in a book. A few short years later, when our second son was seven years old, he spent many days labouring down at a neighbours house. He cleaned her barn for a dollar a day. It took him about 30 minutes a day to do a little tiny section, but he was earning money to buy his goats.

She gave him a deal of buying the goats for $50 each (instead of the typical $110). In the course of just over 3 months, he learned about the value of a dollar, the value of hardearned money, how to work towards something he really wanted. He also learned to clean a barn, how to look after goats, and how baby goats are born.


During his three years of raising those goats he learned even more: how to heal a goat from colic - very scary for him; how to trim their hooves; how to build a corral and a goat house and how to take his goats without a leash for walks through the valleys, meadows, and back roads of where we lived.

On top of this, he was mentored by this lady who was to become a good friend. She would take our boys for walks and as they walked she would educate them. It wasn't about education to her; it was a way of life. Nature at its finest. She couldn't not share with them; there was so much to see and learn. During the walks they learned all about what plants could be eaten and where to find water when there was no water in sight. They learned about animals and birds, nesting habits, and survival methods. This was a very rewarding experience for the boys. All this biology from real life.


I also read an amazingly inspiring story of a family that took their homeschooled kids and headed for a rural mountain life. These children were not schooled from within textbooks, but yet three went on to be accepted at Harvard. They learned chemistry and biology while raising their cattle and planting their crops; they learned about geometry while building their barns; Their book Homeschooling For Excellence will inspire you.


That fall when I came back to school, I had found another method of teaching the children. We learned about Five In A Row - this is a wonderful, gentle approach to learning. It is a unit study approach - one book basically does it all. We would sit on the couch and read a story and then this was the spring board to many wonderful activities. While reading about Madeline (that famous little girl from France) - we learned about Symmetry, and ate Baguettes and eclairs, and read about France.


While reading about Very Last First Time - we read about the igloos and Inuit and living in the North. The boys made edible glaciers and sculpted igloos from sugar cubes.



As well as reading all of these wonderful classic children's stories, and then using them to learn so many things of a Social Study, Artistic, Applied Math, Science nature, we also did traditional math and phonics. But I changed my approach.

I began reading to them more. I read picture books and novels daily. I relaxed on how early they had to read. I started exposing them to sounds and words, but took the pressure off on them having to know what to do with those sounds.

I have now had four children learn to read. My first learnt to read at 5, but did not enjoy the process. My second, third, and fourth all read lightly by seven but were reading fluently and enjoying it immensely by age nine. That to me is the key. Are they enjoying it?

While they may have not been trained early, they made up for it pretty quickly! By age nine, they are introduced to their first classic: Pinnochio and they really enjoy it. Tom Sawyer, Secret Garden, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Robinson Crusoe, Treasure Island, Little Princess, Huckleberry Finn, Oliver Twist, - these all follow, plus many more.

My Bookworm

After that, they are given a stack of books each year that I expect them to read. Reading is a wonderful way to learn! Science, history, nature, biographies - it can all come from books. By the time they have reached sixteen they have read at least two hundred books, plus what they choose to read. Reading quickly becomes a choice - not a chore - because I offer them such exciting choices of reads.

The wonderful thing is, no matter if a child is a 'late reader' (according to whose standards???) or not, he can still be a book worm. This child pictured above, didn't take off in reading until he was 9 years old. At that point, he was stumbling along reading Magic Treehouse books. He was not fluent. Then one day he decided he wanted to read The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. This was enough for him to get determined. He picked up that book and worked and struggled and made his way through it. He did it. He probably missed 20% (at least) of the words, but he persevered and understood the story. He did it quickly too. He then moved onto the next books in the Narnia series.

A book worm was born! This child can be seen up before dawn reading, reading while working, reading while playing, eating, and sitting in the car. He always has a stack of books. When he goes to read his daily reading, he will take a stack of books that he is working on. He reads a chapter or two from each book. This way he works his way through Biology, Science, Nature, History, Biographies, Classic Literature and Pleasure.

Even though our oldest is nearly 17, I still read to him. He sits with his brothers of 5, 8,11, and 14 and nightly we continue through a novel. Once that is done, we begin another. We do tend to miss many nights due to life taking over, but as soon as we can get back to it, we do! It doesn't matter if you only read four or five novels a year; that is four or five novels they wouldn't have heard if you hadn't read to them.

It was my grade five and seven teacher (the same man) that exposed me to the most wonderful 'living books'. Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry; The Family Under the Bridge; The Upstairs Room - these books were about Black America and the Depression; A homeless family in Paris; and two sisters hidden away during World War II. I hunted these books down when I was an adult and my children have now had the pleasure of hearing them read aloud.

I always try to find books that will impact them in some way. Recently we read - I Am David - a book about a little boy that was raised in a concentration camp in Eastern Europe. It is a book about now. This child escapes and makes his way to Denmark on foot. It is a book about hope. We discover the world through the eyes of a child. A child who has never been exposed to anything with colour or laughter. A child who doesn't know how to smile. It is an amazing read. It held us all - from ages 8 - 16 enthralled til the last page.

If you are interested, there are book lists of books that are not twaddle - I'll get into that one another day. That is a post by itself.

Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn Wannabees

When the children have quality books read to them, they tend to reenact the stories. The story sticks to them. Here the boys are playing Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

As well as reading to the boys, and following their interests, I began letting life take the lead. One day, our boys were interested in putting on a restaurant. So each of the three older boys did this. Our second son put on a restaurant called the Black Cat Cafe. They wrote their own menus, made the menus, made the restaurant sign, cooked the food, served the meals and then enjoyed eating the food with us. They were a great success!

Making Croutons For His Caesar Salad

Reading the Menu Choices to His Customers

Serving the Meals

As time went by, we explored other methods. Methods that we have pretty much kept to. Charlotte Mason was a woman in the 1800's who pretty much pioneered the way for Homeschoolers. After discovering the gentle method of schooling my 6 and 8 year olds with the Five in a Row curriculum and loving school again, I was introduced to Charlotte Mason.

Her methods include teaching a child to write by having them copy from great works, narration as a way of having them show you what they have retained, versus having them do tests which only shows you if they have retained the ten or twenty questions you are asking them.

You would be amazed when you read to a child and then ask them to narrate back to you, how much they have kept in their heads, but if you follow the traditional method of giving each child the same set of questions to answer on a test, you may find they will not be able to answer them all. Different parts of the readings stuck with different children.

Instead of using textbooks, we began using Living Books - books that bring the subject alive! Our kids love to read the books I give them because they are full of life. More on that one later. Do you know how much more they retain about a topic if it is read to them from an interesting historical fiction versus a textbook? Because both my son and I are interested in the human interest side (me) and army side (him) of WWII, do you know how many books we have on this topic! Tons!

The nature walks our children took and the nature journals they kept - those are all Charlotte Mason's methods of teaching science to the children.

Seven Year Old Drawing of a Bald Eagle He Saw

Three Year Old Drawing of Red Clover

We pressed a bunch of different wildflowers we found. In my slow manner it took me about another year to actually get them out of the encyclopedias and actually draw them. But we did! Even the littlest ones are capable of copying the flower and then copying your writing to create a label.

Something else we had a lot of fun doing and need to resurrect are Artist Studies. When my 11 year old was three years old and he walked by a self portrait of Albrecht Durer, he was able to point out to his dad who did it. His dad had been away on a work trip and was quite surprised. Our children love the artist and composer studies we do.

It is so simple to introduce a child to an artist - we read about the artist through wonderful children's books and the simply have the children recreate what they have seen - another form of narration. You would be amazed at some of the wonderful works they have done. I will follow with some examples of work that the boys have done to show you how capable they are.

A Nine Year Old's Replica of the Mona Lisa

The important thing to realize is that we are surrounded by art and music from the past, and until someone opens our children's eyes, they simply will not 'see' it. Once they are aware of it, you will be amazed how they notice it. One day our seven year old was walking through Walmart and he was excited when he heard Beethovens Fifth Symphony. Not a hard thing to recognize - if you have been exposed to it.

As time as gone by and life has put things in our way, we have moved with the current. We are not able to do all things all the time, but we have a general idea of what we like and believe in. Coming out of textbooks was, for us, liberating. We began having fun with science and history while learning about other things, like the Ancient Greeks, Romans and Egyptians. We read tons of books and did crafts and timelines and activities that allowed all the children to work together as a group - rather than having each child in their own dry textbook learning 'age appropriate' stuff.

Learning About Columns in Ancient Greece

Here the boys have been stacking books on top of a column. They learned how and why the Greek columns could carry so much weight. They kept on adding books until they had a stack 24" high!! We would not have remembered this fact if we had simply read it from a book; by doing it they got involved and experienced the fact. This was during a time that we did a unit study on Ancient History. It took us a number of years to get through Egypt, Greece, and Rome, but we had fun during it!

When I was pregnant with our sixth child, the older three boys created the most remarkable 'baby books'. We went online weekly and learned about the stage of development our baby was at. They would then narrate to me and I would type up the information. The older ones did their own typing. They would then create an illustration for the book based on what they saw online. When the baby was born they continued their developmental books until he had his third birthday. They now have the most incredible biology books showing the development of a child from conception to three years. Can you imagine how wonderful and helpful these books will be when they are parents and want to share the miracle of birth with their own children?

A Baby Journal by a 13 year Old

Baby Journal by an 11 Year Old

When we went on our road trip last year to California, the boys created really nice trip journals. This is the second trip we have taken where they have had to make journals from their trips. This includes me taking pictures, picking up post cards and stickers and then them drawing pictures at home and writing or narrating their thoughts for each picture. This is all compiled in a wonderful hardbound book by blurb.com This project is art, language, social studies and more, all in one!

Our children also have a healthy amount of workbooks. They use them for Math and some of their Language Arts; the majority of what they learn comes from Real Life and Books. They also learn French (when they are older) by computer program and how to type.

Balancing Two Students at the Same Time

Last but not least, there are Life Skills. Our children are taught how to help from as soon as they are able. A two year old is quite capable of putting rags or dishclothes in a drawer. A four year old can run a vacuum, fold and delivery laundry, or set a dinner table. An eight year old can run the washing machine, stack firewood, empty a dishwasher and assist in cleaning a kitchen. And an 11 or 14 year old are quite capable of cooking meals, taking care of little brothers and sisters, doing yard work, cleaning bathrooms, or learning about your family business.

My son was recently at his play practice and when he had finished trying on his costume the costume designer complimented him by saying how he was going to make someone a good husband one day. Why? Because he folded his clothes. We had a laugh when he got home, and I asked him if he had told her that he can also cook a mean roast beef dinner! *laugh*

Such a simple thing was noticed by the world. Goodness! Children are capable of learning so much and being such a valuable help. Not only that, they also *enjoy* how useful and *needed* they are! It makes them part of the family! And when they are grown up they don't have to start all over learning how to do things. The basics are understood.





So that in a large nutshell is how we have moved through homeschooling over the years.

Two Down

We have now passed the two month mark. At one time that was considered the beginning. Not anymore. Now we are still one month from the starting line....

It is stated that Adoption is not for the faint of heart. This is so true.

People say such things as, "You are taking the easy route," when talking about adoption versus having children biologically. To be honest, before entering adoption myself, I would probably have thought the same thing. But it is not the easy route. Really, I find having children naturally easier... by far!

You have some pain at the end. But other than that I was climbing fences and step ladders right up to my delivery date. Three weeks of morning sickness. I enjoyed being pregnant. My labours were 1.5 hours long.

With adoption there are so many places that you are waiting for approval: approval of first agency application; approval of second agency application; approval from homestudy; approval of foreign affairs; waiting for a referral -

and then you hear that the wait times have just been extended. Now you are no longer waiting 2-6 month for a referral - meaning that we are at the 1/3 mark - now you are waiting 3-8 months - meaning we are at the 1/4 mark. We just went backwards.

I don't dwell on it. I know that God knows our children, and He know when will be the best time for them to enter our family. I might think it is right now. I might want them sooner. But perhaps God knows that our children will fit in our family when certain children are older. Or when my husband is off for the winter holidays. You know?

I don't dwell on it - but I do plan. So now, I have opened my mind up to thinking that if we get a referral by December, that would be good. Well, actually, that would be 12 months since we began waiting, and it shouldn't be that long. But by doing that, I am preparing my mind for a worse case scenario, and I would rather not be sad when it stretches out longer than we were told when we began this process.

And to be fair, it is not our agencies fault. The timelines are changing because the demand for Ethiopian children is increasing quickly. China has changed its rules, and therefore, many families have moved from there to Ethiopia. We are being updated on a quartlerly basis, or as needed. Unfortunately, the last update we got was only a month or so ago, and now the wait times have increased by 2 months! So we can only pray that the referral times speed up!

PINK

As I was driving to Costco today, I was telling my son that some people talk about buying clothes for their children, while they are waiting for a referral. They suggest buying for the upper end of their request.

I told him that that was pretty impossible for me, since our age request goes from 0-48 months and 0-7 years. That would mean I would have the joy of buying for what? a 4 year old and 7 year old. What if we got referred the bottom end? So that wouldn't do - too bad. No buying cute clothes.

A little later, I was at Costco and of course one of the first places I look are the books and dvds. I like to get classic dvds for the boys. I lucked out and found a classic box of dvds including: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Cheaper By The Dozen, Dr. Dolittle, My Friend Flicka, Those Magnificent Men and Their Flying Machines and more.

It is so much fun having a large family. When I first starting copying movies on the vcr for the boys sixteen years ago, I had no idea we would still be adding children nearly 20 years later!! What a blessing!! So it is FUN when I get to start a new library in a new era - no more tapes - dvds now!

Anyhow, after I found the boys ones, I saw this pink box of dvd's and as I saw it was my old favourite Shirley Temple, my brain went "PINK!" "GIRL!" "I can buy that!!! "




I grabbed it and was thrilled to get it!! I would have bought this years ago, but knew that it wouldn't last with boys. They just wouldn't get a thrill out of it.

The ironic thing was the thought that followed. While I was thrilled to bits to have a pretty pink box of videos for my girls (something that they couldn't grow out of before they arrived), I suddenly had a sobering thought. Having birthed six caucasion children this thought has never crossed my mind before. It did today.

Would my little girls like a box of videos about a cute little white girl? Would they wonder why there were no little girls that look like them? I am not sure. But it kind of made me think.

Time For Something New

Since we are going to be waiting for a long time for a referral, according to the new timelines from our agency, I figured it was time to do something new on my blog. When I first began this adoption I was under the impression that most people reading my blog were first time adoptive parents. I have since come to know that there are many parents reading my blog that have lots of children! Knowing that I have been encouraged by other blogs that share 'extra' information on their blogs, I thought I would do the same.

If I stick to adoption information my blog will be sadly lacking over the next twelve months! So here we go!

Oh, and by the way, our agency is updating us every couple months on the estimated timelines for adoption. Our timeline was 2-6 months for a referral (matching us to a set of sisters). It has now been increased to 3-8 months. This is rather sad, but I have to remain confident that it doesn't matter what the numbers say, God knows where our girls are and when we are ready for them!

A nice thing to know is that we are not on the infant list. There are *many* people on this list.

I am a person who does *not* cook for pleasure, but rather because if I don't feed the people in my house they are likely to mutiny. *smile* Also, besides not loving cooking, I am also pretty busy teaching Preschool, Kindergarten, Grade 3, 6, 9, and 11. Therefore, I find as many recipes as I can that can be prepared in the shortest timeline and simplest ways! Quick to me means it is prepared in about 20-30 minutes!

Sometimes I do recipes that cost a fair bit, but I can justify this by causing the meal to "live a second life" the second day! :o)) A big money saver, but yet you eat well.

My recipes are big enough for a family with two adults, 2 well eating (adult sized) teenage boys, 1 medium sized boy, and 3 small servings. You can use these numbers to modify this recipe for your family.

Because I like to cook with chicken and am too lazy to work with bones, I always buy chicken breasts while they are on sale. I also buy the bulk boxes that weigh 3kg. By causing my meals to live the extra day it really brings down the cost of working with chicken breast.

When I cook the chicken I always cook one large (or two small) extra breasts. I do this with all meats, so that I can save the extra chicken for the next day as a meat to go in the soup.

This meal is delectable!

FAST CHICKEN

7-8 chicken breasts (uncooked)

2 cans mushroom soup
1 cup sour cream
1/2 (or less) package of dry onion soup mix (any more than that makes the chicken too salty)
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp pepper

Put the chicken in a large casserole.

Mix the soup, sour cream, dry onion soup mix, lemon juice, pepper, together in a bowl. Blend well and then pour over chicken. Make sure to cover all chicken.

Put in oven at 350* for 1 - 1.5 hours. You will know it is done because the chicken is no longer pink.

I then cook rice to go with this meal. Another one of my new tricks is to use Uncle Bens Quick Rice. I do this because I cook the grossest, slimiest rice that noone would want to eat!!! To justify this expense, I buy it from the bulk aisle and get a killer deal! For the amount of chicken (including the extra chicken breast) that I make, I cook up 6 cups of raw white rice. This makes me an extra amount left over (this gets put aside with the extra chicken breast).

When I do my vegetables and yep, I am the queen of frozen veg. Oh, I love to cook with raw, but I also am realistic and I do not know how people with lots of kids have time to cook fresh every day. So I don't. *smile* I do when I can. When I do my vegetables I just pour and pour lots of frozen vegetables into the boiling water. I do not measure. I know that when the pan is full I can't put anymore in. *grin*

There is method in my madness. When I serve dinner we eat all we want and the rest is frozen for 'soup' extras.

This dinner is a yummy one!! It is a nice looking dinner and a nice change from casseroles.

Now for the "live a second day" meal. *smile*

After dinner, I take out a large 8-10 quart soup pan and put in the left over rice, the extra veg (whatever kind I used - most often peas or mixed veg (peas, carrots, corn, beans)), and then I slice very fine the left over chicken breast. I also add all the extra sauce from the chicken. There is lots of this and whenever I use a nice sauce it creates a unique soup base. This now goes in the refrigerator until the next day.

My second day soups are always different. When I do a chicken soup I usually add just carrots and potatoes. There is plenty of rice as a thickener, and then I add 2-3 cans of chicken broth.

I also slice up about 6-8 carrots and 4-6 potatoes. I slice them thin, and then cook them separately until the carrots are crisp/tender and the potatoes are well done. I do not drain the water. I add the potatoes and carrots and a fair bit (or all, depending on how much water you cooked in) to the soup. The reason for this is because all the goodness has gone into the water and you don't want to lose all that by draining them.

By the time I am done I have a hearty soup of rice, peas, carrots, potatoes, and chicken. It is so tasty and was so cheap to make. It balances out the expensive meal of the day before. I do something like this most days I make chicken breasts.

Depending on how much potatoes and veg you add to your soup, you may find (I often do) that you even have enough soup to have for lunch the next day. When you do this, it is often quite thick and you can then add more fluid and have nice buttered bread and a tasty nutricious lunch. This one won't be as hearty as the dinner one, but that doesn't matter as it is lunch time.

The Evolution of a Family Vehicle

When Ray and I were newlyweds, we weren't unlike many other young people. We didn't have it totally together when it came to financial decisions. Ray was doing well in his business, and I was still working. So we decided to buy a car. I fell in love with the Daytona Shelby. The one we bought was the Daytona blue. I couldn't find a picture of a blue one to show you. Trust me, this baby had it all: leather, t-roof, heated massaging seats with lumbar support - you get the picture.

My Sports Car (ours was blue)

After we had the car for about 4 years, we had two children. I was managing to squeeze one little guy in his toddler car seat into the back bucket seats, but then along came our newest little guy. The back seat was not set for an infant seat. It was looking clear that we might have to buy a bigger car. I was *not* planning to be one of those people that bought a 'family' car. Why *couldn't* I have a sportscar and kids! It seemed that everyone started with a sportscar and then made the switch to a family car. I did not want to buckle under....

Unfortunately, I soon had no choice. We prayed for a vehicle that we could afford. The sad thing is when our beautiful car was only three months old we had been on a road trip to Winnipeg, when we hit a deer. Man, talk about a shock!! Ray was awful for not wearing his seat belt and just prior to the accident we had stopped to get gas. I had asked Ray to put on his belt and he had done so. I believe Ray was protected that day! I can't imagine how badly he would have been hurt or killed if he had not put on his belt.

Our beautiful car was smashed in the front - undriveable!! We had an adventure though!! *laugh* We were picked up by a wonderful trucker and we drove all the way from Swift Current to Winnipeg (900 km) with this kind man! We listened to my cassette (back in *those* days! *Grin*) of Dolly Parton and Kelly Rogers Christmas songs all the way there. It was a blast. Have you ever sat in the cab of a semi when you expected to be driving a car!!! LOL!! Good thing I love spontaneous situations!! Our poor car was left there in the ditch, until we could arrange to have it towed back home - 1400km!!!

So when it came time to sell our beautiful car it had to be sold for a very reduced price. Of course, ICBC had fixed this beautiful car back to the original state, but it couldn't be sold for a good price.

When we sold it, we prayed for a van. A friend told me about a repo dealer who had a van with a minor fender bender front. It was only 2 years old. We looked at it. It was the same price we sold our car for!!! Our friendly Chrysler mechanic told us that we got the car for basically half price!!! God is good! We were now in the mini van business!! LOL!! And actually, I actually really liked it!! Me, who was never going to sell my sportscar just because I had a family! *smile*

That van became my favourite very quickly. It was a five seater. When I began doing daycare, about 3 years after this, it became apparent that it wasn't going to be big enough to carry daycare kids around in. I checked all the second hand dealers, and seats were going for around the $3000 mark!! I told my hubby I was going to pray for a van seat. I said it would be no more than $500. Very shortly after this, I found an ad in the newspaper from an old lady who had a van, and she did not want the extra seat in the back of her van. She sold it to me, and I had it installed through a RV dealership, all inclusive - under $500!! God is good!!

This van worked wonderfully for our family for another 8 years!! During the course of this time this truck was a "work truck"!!! Do you know what a Dodge Caravan is capable of hauling?? *grin* When we moved to the country, my hubby was not with us. He was still working about 5 hours from us. We had five cords of firewood delivered one fall day. This wood was dumped 200 feet from where it was supposed to be - smack in the middle of the driveway!! I was alone with four children - 8,6, 2, and newborn. So the van got put to use. We took out the van seats in the back and filled the van with firewood. Five cords - imagine 4'x4'x8' - that is *one* cord - I had to move *five* of those!!! Well, my trusty little van was loaded to the gills and then driven to the correct place where my little helpers and I unloaded it.

Living where we did, we didn't have a lot of stores to choose from. I would use the coast trips to stock up. By the time we came home from Costco, Walmart, IKEA, the bulk produce dealers - (visualize 6 - 50lb boxes of peaches) - my van was full!! It was a tight fit, but we got all of our goods and us home.

People were always amazed what I could carry. One day I was driving home from IKEA, and I had two rolled up mattresses, a coffee table, 2 bedside tables, a child's bed, a bathroom sink, two bathroom sink cabinets, (all broken down into packing boxes), plus my regular assortment of food items, Walmart shopping etc, all stashed in the van. I had taken one row of seats out and left a couple kids at home on this trip. As I was driving along I saw this station wagon beside me. As I drove up behind it, I saw a full mattress lying out from the back door up to the front seats. In the front passenger seat was a table. I looked at the *lady* (of course, we are so versatile because we don't have these pickups like guys do and we are not leaving those things behind in the store, just because we don't have a truck - we will make room!!!) driving and I thought, "You go, Sister!!" LOL!!!

When our boys were about 11 and 13 it became apparent that we were going to have to do something. We had a special gift in our unexpected little 6th child!! We would now be so incredibly cramped in this car! Remember, this was a five seater van with an additional bench seat installed. Try to visualize the space in the back row?! *grin* Well, there was about 8" between the rows and the boys had to hop over the middle row to get into the back row! Well, that only lasts so long before they are too big to do that!

That van began having health problems, and while Ray was on the coast, the boys and I prayed and fasted about our van. Ray was being told by the mechanic down there not to drive the van home. It needed major transmission work. This was serious!

When Ray came home, he immediately told me he thought we should buy a new van. He didn't think we should sink any more money into it. This is not a guy who makes impulsive decisions. I knew it was an answer to our prayers. I did my research online and knew exactly what size I needed. It would have to be an Astro van.

We went looking the following day. I had these numbers in my head. It had to be no older than a 2000; no more than $10,000; and no more than 70,000 km.

Now anyone who knows anything about vehicles - as I apparently don't *smile* - knows that those numbers don't match up!

We arrived in the town nearest to ours, and immediately went to a dealership, and saw an Astro that had just arrived on the lot. It was a 2000, 120,000 km and $18,000! Nope! Sorry. I didn't even give the guy a chance to dicker. He called and dropped it to $15,000, but I told him it would have to be $10,000 ON THE ROAD (including taxes) - plus I wanted to have winter tires in that price. I am sure he thought I was dreadfully unreasonable. But I was convicted.

We looked and looked and then we decided to look in the paper for vans. How silly. Right there, all during our long day of looking we had had the paper with us! I had missed the ad before because it said: 1998, 10,000 (thereabouts), 69,400 km. I had bypassed it because all I saw was the year.

We decided to drive out and see this van. It was in a town about 4 hours from us. Well, we quickly saw that God had worked a miracle for us. There was a reason I was so stuck on those unreasonable numbers - because God had a vehicle for us, and He had put those numbers in my head. This van was *technically* a 1998 - BUT it had not been sold until 2000. It had not even left the lot until 2000!!! We bought it, including getting new winter tires (and it came with brand new spring tires!), tax, insurance - for $9,400!!! Every one of my criteria were met.

If you ever have a conviction - listen - it might just be God leading you somewhere!

Here is a picture of our then new van. This one felt huge because it was built for eight, plus had about 18" storage room in the back! Add to that, this van had never left its little town it lived in; it was owned and driven by one lady (a mom); they had every single oil change done and kept all the receipts. It was a beautiful vehicle!!! Add to that, it was my favourite colour - red - and I got it on Valentine's Day. A gift from my hubby! How cool is *that*!

This van has been wonderful!!! It has taken our family on a 10,000 km round trip from BC through many states to Tennesse, and then back across Canada to our home town. It has been to California last year on a road trip with my kiddos and me, and it is about to embark on a Western Canada road trip. We *love* our van.

But.... now our family is expanding. When we began this adoption we made it quite clear that it did not hinge on having a large enough vehicle. We live 10 km from our church and other than that, we rarely drive anywhere as a group. It is usually groups of us at a time. So I knew we could manage going to church in Ray's work truck and my van.

Ray's truck is decrepit. It is nearly 20 years old, looks very beaten up, has 450,000 km, but is also very loyal!! *smile* We have been tossing the idea around of buying my hubby a new work truck. He needs a new one soon.

When we started talking about this new truck for Ray, a possible van for us has also come up. We have talked about buying him a new truck (end of year sales); a second hand one; or just wait til his loyal truck dies. We could save a years worth of interest and save a lot of money towards a new truck if we just wait for a few months or maybe the end of the year.

At the same time, after talking about it alot we think we would really like a vehicle that holds us all.

This kind of began when we were watching Jon and Kate Plus 8. We saw their amazing van and the *headroom*!!! I have a 6'2" son, plus more coming!! This van has a 6' ceiling!! WOW!! But then we looked at the prices. They are about $39,000 minimum! OUCH!


They even have my favourite colour!!!! AAAAWWWWWW!!!

So then we began looking at other brands and they were about $10,000 less. The new ones were so pretty!!


I am not keen on this colour. I love the burgundy one, but I couldn't find a picture of one.

The funny thing is I hear people talking about the vans as being "Geek Mobiles". I don't get it. I think what happens is our hearts change, and they are just maybe 'not there' yet. When I was a young mum with two kids, I wanted the 'Jones' life - the simple, fun life. I didn't have a vision for the future. I was having fun 'now'.

I believe God has used these vehicles as part of His tool in expanding our hearts to more children. When I had three kids and my friends had eight and they had to drive a 12 passenger, I thought they were so lucky. I no longer looked at it as the loss of a sports car. I was far beyond that! I now wanted a fourth child (and didn't believe we would ever have one) and saw that great big van as a beautiful vessel that carried that, "So fortunate family, that was blessed with all those children!!" Oh, if only *I* could have so many children that I would need such a vehicle!

People who think that these are ugly beasts are missing the beauty of what they represent. They don't realize that if we are so fortunate to have enough children to fill one of these vehicles that we are blessed beyond measure!!

"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
The fruit of the womb is a reward,
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one's youth.
Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them." Psalm 127

Whether our children are adopted or born to us, they are a blessing from the Lord!!

I will be proud to be seen in our town with one of these. People will know - here come the ______'s. *smile*

Now we wait. We are praying about it and going to see where God leads. It might be just 'wait'. God will have to provide the funds if we are to do this, that is for sure!!!

Actually, I feel a real 'wait' on Ray's truck and as far as a van for me goes, I feel that we need to hold for even longer. We don't need anything until the girls come home, and so we could go for another year for sure. But now we have begun looking it has been tempting!!

One day our three year old brought us a truck catalogue and he deliberately kept turning the pages until he came to the very attractive burgundy passenger van. Ray and I were at the time sitting talking about pickups. We had a real laugh. Neither of us had shown him this picture. It was surrounded by pictures of pickups. Well, maybe he knows something we don't know! We can only hope!!

So that is the story of how you go from a sports car to a 15 passenger and feel good about it! *grin*

A Rambling Monologue

So I found another way to take care of the time. Do the taxes! Oh YEAH!! Doesn't that sound like fun?? LOL!! Seriously though, I had a good reason to do it.

I *love* to clear the way of all the *have to* projects/jobs, so that I can look forward to doing some neat stuff. I have some great ideas in mind. I'll get to that later. First let me tell you about my day.

Up here in our little spot in the country we have a couple feet of snow. Our little ones have been housebound for the last few weeks. It has been *so* cold that I didn't send the out to play. We were really getting cabin fever. Goodness, the other day I actually opened the kitchen door to let in some AIR as it was days since I had stepped outside!! LOL!! Seriously, the kids get out to play, but do you know how easy it is to stay in? My sweet husband has been picking up the groceries after work.

Do you know what a great way that is to save money?? My friend, was talking about shopping for a certain amount of money per week to feed her family with seven children. Now, she lives in the States where food is much cheaper!! Gee, last year, we lived for a month in Tennessee and did all our grocery shopping. I could not *believe* how cheap it was!! Not here!

Anyhow, her kids are *not* my kids. Hers are all under the age of 12, and many are girls. Then there is *my* family - boys, boys, boys!!! Plus, I am feeding four adults (2 big boys and Ray and I), plus 4 kids. I can tell you it is way more expensive up here with my crowd.

So, she was giving suggestions for how to save money, and I had to agree with many of them. Plus, we have a few tricks ourselves. My main trick is when Ray offers to get a few groceries on his way home from work. He is such a wonderful husband. He knows that my day is so full and by him offering to get a few things it saves me from going to town and losing half my planned day. Plus, you know how guys shop. They buy exactly what is on the shopping list!! No surprises like icecream or chocolate. *grin*

Right after my friend was talking about this saving money, I went shopping. Right after I had said that I saved money by letting Ray get groceries. I should have listened to my own advice!

I went in for FOUR things! I came out with a shopping bill of $532.00 LOL!! Seriously, I do have a good excuse. I am not really that badly disciplined and there was NO chocolate or icecream. For some strange reason *hmmm, Corrie?* I have really had my sweet taste buds in hibernation lately! Must be all that harrassment about my unhealthy living. What's wrong with having icecream before bed every night? *smile*

There was actually a caselot sale when I arrived. And I *never* miss caselot cause I know exactly what I use and get killer deals. In Canada, we are not so fortunate to get the coupon deals that my friends in America get. I can't believe the deals you all get!!! Nope, it's case lot and sales for me!

As I was just finishing packing the groceries into the van, a lady walked past and smiled and said, "I wasn't admiring your bill! How much was it?"

So I said, "$532.00, but I got three cart loads." (Small town behaviour - we talk to each other *grin*)

She replied, "At least it was on sale. All one family?"

"Yep, got six boys." I LOVE sharing my family. People are so admiring when *we* show pride in our troops!!

Well, as usual I went off on a bunny trail didn't I? LOL!! So back to the taxes. Since we had had weeks of subzero weather the boys *needed* to get outside. Actually, *I* needed them to get outside!! LOL! So I packed them up and out they went. The sun was shining and it was a blue sky day.

I got up this morning with the intention of getting on my taxes at 6:30 am. I figured it would be a long day and I might as well get a headstart. Well, I made the mistake of calling my friend Erin in the morning. She has an amazing situation happening right now where she is waiting to see if they get picked to be parents of four precious children!!! How exciting is that? They are all under the age of 5! Twin baby girls of 3 months, a 2 year old and a 4 year old! Well, you try talking about that kind of excitment in the 45 minutes I allowed myself!! LOL!! Not likely.

Suffice it to say, I got started my taxes a lot late!! I finally got them finished by 9:00 pm tonight!! Lucky for me the two biggest boys were at a winter campout with their Cadets for the weekend, and my hubby and another child were at the Bye Bye Birdie rehearsal all day. So that left me with three little ones who were happy to play outside most of the day! They had lots of fun building snow forts and having hot chocolate and cookies.

And now I am trying to catch up on some blogging. I figure I'll continue in a new one...

It's Been Rather Quiet...

... on the adoption front. You know after all the running around and gathering papers is done there isn't so much to write about. Now we are waiting and waiting and waiting. Goodness, we could be waiting for another 4 months!! So I guess I better find things to write about!!

Actually, I have things to write about. It is just hard to be inspired when they are not *exciting* things!! *laugh*

So why haven't I been writing for the last few weeks, besides the fact that there is nothing outstanding to write about? Well, I have found that if I am not careful I will grow this laptop out of my lap!!!

Seriously, do you know how easy it is to check on your yahoo groups emails and then for 'just a few minutes', just 'drop in' on a friend's - or two or three or twelve - adoption blogs? Do you know how addictive it is to sit here and go see a friend's blog and then from there cruise on to another one and then to one that links from that one to another and on and on!!!

I *never* had a computer problem until this adoption! Seriously, before this adoption I used this computer as a tool. It has now become *entertainment*! TV? What is that. I have blogging to do, blogs to visit, blogs to write, and of course, all those yahoo emails - gotta keep watching them *in case* someone gets a referral!! AAAAACCCCKKKKKK!!!!!

So I realized that I didn't like the fact that this *thing* was sitting on my lap (laptop) all the free moments that I had. Not that I have a ton of those with six kids. But trust me, you would be amazed how many 5 minutes you can sneak away to 'check the email' in case a referral came in! I jokingly call it my 'smoke break' (not that I was ever a smoker) just to justify that I am entitled to a moment to sneak a peek!

I also realized that if I was *always* on my blog or on the email(or just thinking about whenI would be checking on it next time) the time was going to *crawl* by as I tried to get through daily life.

I am sure that all my adoptive parent friends can attest to the fact that when you are waiting during an adoption, it is like everything is linked to the next step and life feels like it is on hold. "I just have to get through the homestudy." "Oh, if only the Foreign Affairs gets it back soon, I can relax then." And then it is, "Oh, as soon as the referral comes in, then I'll stop watching and waiting."

Well, that's a LIE!!! *laugh* You (I) will NEVER stop waiting and watching and wondering WHEN is it going to HAPPEN!!!

Realizing this was the case, I figured I had better *try* to keep my focus on other things. Not that I wasn't doing my job already. I was. I was just a little (lot) distracted and my mind would wander at times. Ever been pregnant for an indefinite period of time???

Now all you who have had a baby know that nine months is a long time. We all know *exactly* how rabid we become when we go over our due date!!! Now try to imagine that you are pregnant and have been for seven months and you have a *possible* eight to thirteen MORE months to be pregnant!!!! That could be a grand total of TWENTY months pregnant! LOL!!

Weeeelll, that's what it feels like when you are adopting. And don't tell me you didn't scream to have that *overdue* baby deliver! *grin* Thankfully I was only overdue once; the rest were born early!! Gotta love that!


Now that I realize that blocking out the adoption 'slightly', is a better way of getting through, it has been better. I run through weeks at a time now - no longer day by day. *grin* I start my week on Monday and *focus* on getting through as much school as I can by Friday.

I am *sure* my kids *love* this point!! LOL!! One good thing about this adoption - my kids are going to get a *lot* of learning in!!

I have found that the last few weeks have actually flown by! I have just bypassed the *eight* week mark. That is hard to believe!! It feels like just yesterday that our file was off to Ethiopia, but here we are now already 5 weeks since Christmas! Wow, at the speed we are flying the year is going to shoot by, and we should see a referral. Plus, my kiddos are going to be so much the smarter!! *grin*

We also have a goal in mid May that we are working towards. Our boys are working very hard on their schoolbooks, so that we can begin our summer holidays with another Rambling Road Trip. My boys love when mum takes them on the road!!

Our intent is to be on the road by mid May, so that we can do the Western Canada trip. We have *lots* of adventures planned and trust me, the time will fly by! By the time we come home, it will be time for the official summer holidays to begin! Then we will be doing landscaping in our new home (never got the backyard done last summer) and probably another Road Trip later in the summer.

Now, saying Christmas as a goal for bringing our children home doesn't sound so far away. Before it was dreadful. Now it's not so far away....