The Process and Why I Hate the Word WAIT

Those of us who live in the middle of the adoption world just LIVE the steps so much that we often forget that many people don't know what comes next.  Unfortunately for me, most of it involves the word WAIT after each move.  We are SO CLOSE now, but waiting is just so hard.  Please pray for us as we wait and especially for them.  Pray that the process moves quickly and that the "wait" parts are very short and the "move" parts are close together.  Pray that the government and court officials who see our case will see the urgency of Matthew's situation and expedite his paperwork through as fast as possible.  "WAIT" can mean 5 minutes, a day, a week, or two. . . . I'd really like it to mean 5 minutes. . . . but days instead of weeks could make a huge difference in Matthew's life.  There are wonderful people in the country that my children are from who really do care about children and we just need to pray that they recognize the urgency of Matthew's situation and move it along as quickly as they can.  We need to pray that holidays, breaks, and other things don't slow it down either.  PLEASE PRAY!

Next in our process is that we need our documents to be submitted to the government and then we wait on a SIGNATURE.  We pray that the government official who needs to sign it honors the "medical expedite" for Matthew.  His medical expedite states that because of his current condition it is important  for him to get home as quickly as possible because his life is in "imminent danger".  Every time I think about that I get sick. . . .

After that signature, then our documents will be submitted to court where they will wait to be assigned to a judge.

Then our case will wait for a date to be given by that judge.

Then we will wait for that date to come.

Then we will have court and become their legal parents, but will have to wait for the documents to be ready before we can even get dates for travel.  This day they are declared ours, but we still have to WAIT!

Once the documents are ready then we will be given a date to travel to pick them up and will have to wait for that date to arrive.

24 hours of travel to get to their country means lots of time spent waiting.  I hate being away from my 18 kids at home and then not even with the 3 there yet is super hard waiting.  Knowing I am getting ready to bring them home for good will make this waiting a little easier!

Once in country the wait is tremendous because once you are in their beautiful country, but can't get your children immediately it just is unbearable even though so close.

Once the day arrives you wake up WAY before the alarm goes off and have to wait for the time to go pick them up.

Once you get to the orphanage I will have to wait for them to bring my kids to me, even though I want to RUN up the stairs and grab them because I've waited way longer than anyone should ever have to wait.

After we pick them up we will have to rush back for passports and then go back to the hotel.

There will be tons to do over that next few days and all of it is just more of the process that is part of the wait to get them home to join our family and have all 21 of my kids together in one place safe and sound.

The travel to get home takes usually around 24 hours with kids who are tired, grumpy, and overstimulated.  Matthew will be needing to get some medical care soon after getting home too, but we are hoping to be able to not go straight to the hospital and have appointments set up to keep him from inpatient if at all possible.  Keith finds hospitals very stressful, so we don't want to thrust him into that right off if we can help it.  We are praying we can manage to meet all his medical needs without going straight to the hospital and will set up appointments as soon as we have some idea as to a pickup time.  That waiting in airports and on airplanes will not be easy!

NOW DO YOU KNOW WHY I HATE THE WORD WAIT EVEN MORE THAN A THREE YEAR OLD DOES???? 

I feel like a 3 year old whining, but I WANT THEM NOW!!!  God has to be tired of hearing me whine.  We really expect that we should be able to travel in October or November. . . even though I know the word "WAIT" is used a lot of times. . . it just seems like FOREVER still. . .

Please pray that they expedite on his account and that they help us get him home where his life won't be in "imminent danger" any more.  Those two words haunt me in my sleep. . . I need to make those words no longer exist for my little boy and tuck all three into their beds at night where they are safe and loved.   

You can help be a part of this end part of their journey home by CLICKING HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT OUR GIVEAWAY! 

 

Aleshia Heart Surgery Update

Well Aleshia's open heart surgery did not go as planned. . . .

The day started out early and calm.  We left the house with her still sleepy, in her pajamas, and doing well.  We had to be there the day before the surgery to be admitted.  The trip to the hospital was great.  She was happy and pleasant.  I can't say that things stayed that way though. . .

 I can't type it all again, because I am SO drained.  I'm adapting a post from her heart page as far as the explanation, but then adding some more details of other things too.  

 

 Our time in the hospital was SO HARD. Aleshia was all the way to the holding area for surgery before it was cancelled. The hospital itself was VERY traumatic for her. She threw up at shift changes, had to have knots in the sleeves of her pajamas, and was sticking her fingers waaaaayy back in her eye sockets. SO HARD TO SEE HER THAT WAY!!! (We requested meds, but ...were told not until later, but they have been informed that this will NOT be the case next time and a plan WILL be in place.) Four adults were required to get labs. After she kept making herself sicker they finally ran other labs bc she began to run a fever. We made it all the way to the holding are for the surgery before they got the results of an elevated white count. That ended the surgery! They started to talk about checking for lung infections, but I insisted on a strep test since we had a child with a positive test that they knew about the week prior. Our primary care had wanted to treat Aleshia then, but the first person I had to talk to at Cardiology had said "no" and not relayed the information fully and told me he worked for a different hospital. The second person said it would be up to the primary care, but it was too late at that point since our primary office is small and was closed. The rest of our day didn't go any better as the nurse didn't do the strep test right the first time and then still the 2nd time didn't use a tongue depressor and wasn't going to swab the tonsils. . . I insisted and Aleshia did test positive for Strep. She is rescheduled for September 16th for her open heart surgery. This is pushing WAY TOO CLOSE to adoption pickup time for our newest three kids. We really do need prayer for that.

 Aleshia needs lots of prayers!!!  The whole things was very traumatizing. It reminded her very much of her time in the orphanage and institution. IT IS SAD THAT THE MEDICAL COMMUNITY HAS SO LITTLE KNOWLEDGE OF CHILDREN FROM TRAUMA BACKGROUNDS!!!  We are seeing regression and she doesn't want to get in the van. We had to go to our primary care provider today and she was terrified to get in the van and SO upset. Please please pray for her to be ok soon. Please pray that we can work with the people there to come up with a plan for her care for the next surgery that will reduce anxiety levels for her. Healing will be very hard if she is that upset. She cannot be so upset she is puking after open heart surgery. There is a special team there specifically for kids that have had previous issues in the hospital that I will be working with and I will be making SURE that we come up with a plan that seems to meet her needs in the best possible way.  We now know what her reaction is and we have to make sure we do everything we can to make sure we are doing everything possible to keep her calm.  I'll be calling them to start the planning next week.  Please pray for all of us as we try to come up with solutions!

 

Please also pray for our adoption of the three children we are in process for right now.  All three need to come home soon, but Matthew is in very severe condition and needs to come home extremely badly.  He has a medical expedite that says if we don't get there quickly then he may not make it home at all.  We did get good news today stating that our Article 5 interview is going to be Wednesday.  Unfortunately many people are on vacation there right now, so the signature we need for the next step could be much delayed. . . .

 

Please consider helping get them home and us get funded for their adoption by sharing or donating.  We have great gifts to offer in our GIVEAWAY SO CLICK HERE!    Our trip for them won't be that long after her surgery now with this delay, so I need to find some way to get funded and I'm trusting God to help us do that.