I can't believe it has been two weeks since we took the trip of a lifetime to meet our son and bring him home! It still cracks me up that our "other baby"--the adoption paperwork binder--is in so many of our pictures. Look how Corey is clutching it almost as tightly as I'm clutching Micah! Ha, ha!! ;0)
Is it too early to be reminiscing? Oh well, here goes... ;0)
One of the most special things about the trip was meeting two of my closest e-friends and experiencing this life-changing event together! Amber (left, with her son) and Katy (right, with her daughter) are beautiful, strong, Godly women, and it was a sweet privilege to be in Liberia meeting our children together. We all stayed at the Guest Compound together, and I enjoyed their company so much it almost makes me want to do another 40+ hours of claustrophobic travel to get back to the sticky-hot, cold showers only, itchy bites from who-knows-what all over my body place if it meant more time with them! (This pic was taken just inside the gate of the Big Kids' Orphanage.)
Here's Katy with her husband, Scott, and their daughter.
One more pic of Scott and Katy's daughter (on the left) that I snapped while we were watching her and her brothers one afternoon.
Here's Scott and Katy's two boys.
Talk about surreal! Here's me, playing soccer in my skirt with Scott and Katy's boys, as the security guard makes one of his rounds... yeah, like that happens every day for me in regular life!
Here's Amber and her son in the Guest House living room.
Here's Amber's husband, Peter, just after he snapped a photo of a super cool lizard running along the wall in the background. (This pic was taken inside the Big Kids' Orphanage, too.)Since we've been home, things just get better and better every day. My biggest challenge is not adoption-related; it's just growing from a family of 3 to a family of 4 and the chaos that transition brings! This time of transition has really highlighted for me my love of order and routine. We're getting the kinks a little more worked out each day, and I'm loving all this time we get to spend cozied up inside together!!
It sounds like we might be getting even more "cozying up" time than we expected, because Micah's Insurance isn't in place like it was supposed to be by tomorrow, and we need it in place before his blood work can be done. Evidently 15,000 Lane County Residents alone are losing their Medicare at the end of this month, so the Insurance Company we're working with is super busy trying to transition those Seniors.
Kendra loves having Micah here. She rarely leaves his side, begging to go look at him every five minutes when he's napping. She LOVES poopy diapers!? She absolutely pleads with me to let her do the wiping, but she has to settle for handing me the wipes and diapers, and cranking them down in the diaper pail. I'm not kidding; there has not been a single diaper change that she hasn't been a part of if she was awake!
Oh--In other Kendra news, I finally figured out what she's been doing the last month or so... She frequently says something like, "Mom? You lkjxsdpq!" or, "Hey! I'm going to khdcbkm, okay?" I finally realized that she has caught on to Corey and me spelling things so she doesn't know what we're saying, and she's doing it back to us! Crack me up!!! ;0)
And my last little update: We had our post placement visit today, and it was a treat! Our social worker, who helped us with Kendra's adoption and has become a good personal friend over the years, drove down from Hillsboro to meet with us and meet Micah. She works for Bethany Christian International, and unfortunately they don't do Liberian adoptions right now, but I would HIGHLY recommend them as an agency. They are absolutely stellar! For what it's worth, Alma--the Consular in Liberia--said the same thing. So if you are ever looking into adoption, I would heartily encourage you to start with Bethany! They're WONDERFUL!!!
I'll wrap up with a few more pics:
When Micah's not smiling, he's arching his right eyebrow, giving me the, "Oh, yeah?" look. ;0)
Micah playing under the tree.
Micah chowing down on broccoli! Yay, Micah!!
