Miscellaneous Monday

Once again, it is not the news that I would like to share with those of you who are rooting for us in our adoption journey, however, it is what it is!  There is one thing for sure, this adoption journey is not for the faint of heart!! 

We received news this morning that we are probably going to have at least a 2 -3 week delay with the police report that is due to the embassy for additional information.  Truth be told, the police there in Ethiopia are not supportive of international adoptions and thus, believe it is their job to help make the process as hard as they can.  However, the reports eventually have always come in, but on their own time frame! 

Unfortunately, this is not the only catch we have at this moment.  Bereket's birth mother has not been found and they are trying to locate her so she can have an interview at the embassy per the embassy's request of course!!  They will continue looking for her and eventually our coordinator feels sure she will show up because she believes she will want to see Bereket one last time.  I have no doubt that she will cooperate wonderfully with the embassy for an interview, but she has to be found first!  If she cannot be found then our agency will be dealing with a first in this situation and we are not sure what the embassy would say.

You could say that I was just a wee disappointed.  OK, a very big disappointment, but I have found comfort.  This morning I was reading in Psalms and there were some verses that gave me comfort, as well as drawing near to the only one who controls all and see all!!  So often I feel like my perspective is so near-sighted, you might say.  Ps 123:1 - "Unto thee life I mine eyes, O Thou that dwellest in the heavens."  The last part of the verse was such a good reminder of why we can put all our trust in him!!  Ps 126:5 - "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy."  When we are truly desperate and needy we learn to trust in him and when he is in control there will be joy.  We can not see things as our Heavenly Father sees them.  I may hesitate to share spiritual things on my public blog as I don't feel like it should ever be shouted off the rooftops, you could say!!  It is personal, but this was just a little of what encouraged me today.  


On another note, we went to Cyrus' first football game on Saturday (scrimmage).  It was a long afternoon since there were many different teams competing in short games.  I figure I may as well get in all the games I can now!  The scrimmage was in Mt. Shasta and I may have spent more time looking at the beautiful mountain (remember, I grew up in IA where there were no mountains!!) than looking for Cyrus - he was hard to keep up with!!  

The beautiful Mt. Shasta, oh, and the football Miners team (red)!!

 Cyrus is in this picture, but hard to see!

 He is #62!

      
Lastly, I want to give a loud shout-out to my hubby for finishing my kitchen bench for our table!  The reason I wanted him to make me a bench is because I knew it would be a lot less expensive than buying one, to get the exact measurements I wanted (and height), and mostly for space-saving with thinking of having a family of eight!! 

TA-DA!! 

 Cade still has one more bench to make to go against the other wall.  The benches will butt together in the corner.

We have been trying out a small, piece of junk (or, err, very rustic) bench for a while against the wall to see how we liked it.  We decided that we wanted the bench taller for the kids (Cade can always take a couple of inches off the legs when the kids are taller) and wider, as well as longer, to fit the table better!  Don't I have a great husband?  Some people say it's the slave driver, referring to me, but I just provide the really great ideas (like the circle drive) and prompt my husband to see why those ideas would be so easy (in my mind they are way easier than Cade sees it for some reason!!) and so much more efficient as well as cost a great deal less if he would do the labor himself!!!

Happy Monday!