A Step Closer

We heard from our agency yesterday that our dossier was to be mailed overseas either yesterday or today. Yippee!!! A step closer to being officially matched. They also told us that a volunteer at the orphanage said that he has Cerebral Palsy, which is what I suspected from watching him on the video. Clearly it's mild and he gets around quite well. We should get his "Child History" file once we're matched then we'll get a professional medical opinion of a prognosis. So, my day was made yesterday. With adoption, you can go weeks without hearing anything new so to get 2 pieces of information in one day was huge.

Last Friday we had to drive up to Yakima to get our Fingerprints done for immigration. When we adopted the girls, we had all kinds of troubles with scheduling and grumpy government workers. This time was difficult getting a computer generated appointment that we could attend. Finally after speaking with a live human being we were told to just walk in. Seriously? After our previous experiences I doubted that this would be anything short of a nightmare. We were all prepared as we drove to fight the battle. Well, when we arrived we were welcomed in and ushered directly to the fingerprint window. No questions asked. In and out in 15 minutes. We were even given an evaluation form to fill out. Seriously?! Wow, what a change. I should have known then that good things were going to happen this week.

The more I think about this little guy, the more I wonder if he isn't just meant for us. He appears so gentle and sweet in the video. It that's so, he would be such a balm for my heart after the struggles we've gone through with Twiggy Two and Three. Life has given them each challenges that we've had to put in a lot of energy figuring out and dealing with. It's not that our Twiggys aren't sweet, I love each of my children dearly and I can't breathe when I think about one of them getting hurt. It's just that the last few years have been really hard. Now that we have some answers, life feels much more positive. A sweet little guy would be the frosting on the already scrumpscious cake (is that spelled right?!).

We're very busy with fun, summer activities. Free lunches in town, free movies, swim lessons, piano practice, spring cleaning chores for pay, and a little bit of homeschooling keeps us all busy and tuckered out at night. I collected several projects to keep interest, so I haven't heard the "b" word yet.

Twiggy One got registered this morning to take Algebra I this summer. The school was slow in getting it all set up...I've been asking about it for 3 months now. She'll have to hustle, but she says she's ready to do it. I think she'll do fine since she got an A in Algebra 1/2 last year. It's just that she's a year younger than her classmates and here she is taking a 9th grade class at age 12. It's fun to get ahead, we'll just keep a close eye on her. Any sign of it being too much and we'll take a break.

Twiggy Three has overcome his very large fear of putting his face in water. A special swim teacher has worked her magic the last three weeks and he now wants to have a competition to see who can pop up out of the water first. After lesson this morning he got some noodles and wanted to float around the pool. Amazing!!! Last summer he would scream if a drop of water was splashed on his face and would claw my arms as I held him and walked around the pool. I cried on Monday when he dunked for the first time all by himself. I love these moments as a mother...seeing your child accomplish a task that was difficult.

My sister and her family are here with us this week then on Sunday we'll head to Family Camp. Our favorite event of the year. Well, it was our favorite event last year and I'm just positive we'll come home ready to start planning for next year. I always wanted to take my family to Family Camp so last year we felt we were ready to tackle it. It was such a huge success. Can you tell I like Family Camp?! It's just so fun having the kids get to extend their freedom a bit and for us parents to set aside our responsibilities. Also, I don't have to even think about cooking for 6 whole days!!! I take limited snacks and tell the twigs that they better eat when the dinner bell rings. I am not in charge of their tummies. I can't do laundry so they just run around dirty. And the cabin doesn't get too messy since we're busy playing all the time. Wow! Can't get much better than that.

Mama Branch