Cluttered Christmas

I really like Christmas.

I am not one to decorate our house from ceiling to floor, inside and out. Heck, I haven't even made one Christmas cookie this year, but I still really like Christmas. The story of God becoming man, choosing and determining to wrap Himself in infant fraility thrills me to my core. Having a nativity set for Christmas seems so important to me. I want to look at it and remember what happened that day, and the implications it has for me in my everyday and ordinary life.

So, every year at Christmas time, I clean everything off of our entertainment center and put up our nativity. We don't have a mantle to display it on, and coffee tables are out of the question for the obvious reason that there are 3 children ages 5 and under living here. I love unwrapping every wiseman, shepherd, camel, and donkey and placing it carefully in position, and it only seems fitting that the simplicity of the nativity shouldn't have to compete with anything else. It should be the focal point, the attention-getter.

But, you know, the top of the entertainment center is such a convenient place to put things. It's close to the front door and high enough that the kids can't reach anything on it. Before you know it, life is crowding out my simple, beautiful nativity scene. This month's water bill, car keys, a movie we rented, a manual for Asia's new birthday bike, and on occasion, Trina's socks encroach on the sacred space meant only for Baby Jesus. In a matter of days, my Christmas scene becomes very...cluttered.

So many things are vying for our attention during the holidays. So many everyday life responsibilities threaten to make us forget the importance of our Emmanuel reaching through time to be with us. We have trouble keeping things in their proper place. The insignificant and temporal often overshadow the eternal and lasting.

Will you excuse me? I think I have some cleaning to do...

Moses the Marine

Last week, some wonderful friends from our church, David and Kisha, heard me mention that I needed to get Moses' hair cut again and kindly offered to do it for me. This is the end result, and I love it! Even though he'd already gotten one haircut, he still had several thin patches on the back of his head from laying down so much in his crib, and the hair on the top of his head was so thick I couldn't get it combed out. David took it down enough so that it will all grow back even. He looks like he just went to boot camp (I thought the camo shirt was a nice touch)! The first day or so, he kept rubbing the back of his head. So different! We also have to really make sure he wears his hat outside. Brrrr!

In other Moses news, he is picking up new words every day and he's starting singing songs. Today when we were in the Dollar Store, he was singing at the top of his lungs, "Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, bye bye!" One of his other favorites is "Today is the Day" by Lincoln Brewster. He is getting a mini-drum set for Christmas (shh, don't tell!) and I can't wait to see what he does with it.

To My Asia Renee...

Dear Asia,
It's hard to believe that you came into our lives 5 years ago yesterday. You were so tiny at 6 lbs. 2 oz., but you were such a fighter! While you were being born, you were having some trouble and the doctor was concerned that you might not be feeling very good when you were born. She told me that I might not get to hold you for awhile because they would need to help you breath, but you screamed so loudly that the doctor laughed and said, "There's nothing wrong with her!" You're still not afraid of making your opinions heard!

You cried when the nurses were cleaning and measuring you, so Daddy went over to the table to see if he could help. As soon as you heard his voice, you stopped crying. When he could pick you up, you reached for his face and felt his beard, like you were saying, "So this is who's been talking to me these past nine months!"

What a wonderful, amazing day December 7, 2004 was! You have changed my life forever, Asia Renee. I am so thankful that God has let me be your Mommy.

Have I told you all the things I love about you?
I love ...
- Your curiousity and sharp mind. I'm pretty sure you can learn anything!

- The way you say words like, hostibal (hospital), bisgetti (spaghetti), chapskips (chapstick), efelant (elephant), renember (remember), and batatoes (potatoes). The other day at dinner we were having something with potatoes in it, and your little sister Trina said, "I don't like tomatoes!" and you said, "Not tomatoes, BAtatoes!" So funny!

- Your love for your sister and brother. You are such a good helper! What I am I going to do when you go to kindergarten next year?

- Your laugh! It is so infectious! Nobody can stay serious when you are laughing!

- Your sense of fashion. I love the outfits that you come up with! Grandma Dixie would say that you come by it naturally, and would point out all the pictures of Mommy wearing skirts and moon boots. In my opinion, the Limmer girls are stylish people.

- Your heart of worship. Don't ever stop making up songs to Jesus. He loves it and so do I.

Daddy and I love you so much, and I know that this year is going to bring so many good things to your life. Happy Birthday, Love!

Readoption

One thing that was kind of foggy to me when we entered this adventure of international adoption was the readoption process. I knew that we needed to readopt Moses in the U.S. once we came home, but I didn't know what the steps were to do that, especially in the state of Wyoming (it's specific from state to state). Some friends of ours in Indiana who adopted two girls from Rwanda were able to do the paperwork themselves, so I was hopeful that we could do something similar. I made a few phone calls to our county government, and after being transferred from office to office, I was told, "Just call an adoption attorney." We called the state government offices, told the same thing. Then we called the Department of Family Services, thinking that they deal with adoption all the time, and they had told us the same thing. We got the hint and called an adoption attorney!

We brought Moses home on an IR-4 visa. This means that we were not present in Rwanda for the court hearing where we were made his permanent guardians, thus necessitating our need for readoption. All his Rwandan documents, including his passport, are all in his Rwandan name. Here in Wyoming, we have to wait for 6 months (since the time we gained custody of him) and go to a court hearing where he is officially adopted as a Limmer. One funny thing the attorney told me is that in Wyoming, it is required to publish a legal notice to the birth parents in the paper (the Casper paper, no less) since we don't have any document where they officially relinquished custody of him. That sounds logical, right? Some very, very pale friends of ours threatened to respond to the ad. Ha ha! I threatened her with her life if she did!

So now we have to wait until March for our court hearing, then we can obtain a Wyoming birth certificate and apply for U.S. citizenship. After that, we'll get his U.S. passport and everything should be squared away. It'll be nice to have almost all of the paperwork done!

November Ramblings

Here are some pictures of the Limmers from Halloween and the last few weeks. We did finally see some lovely fall weather and the kids had a blast jumping in leaves. Halloween brought the collection of massive loads of candy and a fun party at the church. Two of our friends came as hippies, and Moses stole his fro wig. Hilarious! We were also invited to speak at my mom's church on Orphan Sunday about adoption. Justin preached a message called "Room for the Lonely" (you can hear it on our church website, www.wyrchurch.com. He preached it here in Casper the week before so it got uploaded to our website). Moses was the charming celebrity, as always and won everyone's hearts.

I have been duly reprimanded by my mother for not posting anything whatsoever in the month of November on my blog. I must admit that the entire world of blogging still seems strange to me, mostly because it's hard to imagine anybody being all that interested in my life. And then there's the dilema of what to say; should I write about all the funny things that happen with my three kids or stick strictly to adoption stuff since the majority of my "followers" are fellow adoptive families (although I don't know about all you "blog lurkers" who are sitting off in the shadows of the internet)? What I have noticed about blogging is that there is a certain sense of surrealness to it. People can present life in whatever way they want and no one would know any better. For all you know, I have an absolutely idyllic life, complete with "happily ever after" endings every day. 'Tis not always so. Even with adoption, I often get the feeling that others look at us and expect everything to have magically fallen into place now that we have Mr. Moses here with us. What they don't see is disaster moments when Moses throws up at dinner (a fairly regular occurence. He has the fastest gag reflex in the West!), Trina throws a huge wad of toilet paper in a full bathtub and effectively plugs the drain, Asia has a bloody nose, and Moses pees on the floor, all in the span of 1/2 an hour (yes, that really was our night on Monday. Oh, I forgot the part about the blow-out diaper. That was in there too. I'm not sure I've ever seen so many bodily fluids in such a short span of time). Life is not always a fairytale. My son bites people, my daughter screams and throws fits when I tell her she can't have candy for the fifteenth time today, and I sometimes get frustrated and want to turn in my resignation and sign myself up for mommy rehab. So much for blogs being idealistic and one-sided! :) Now you know all my secrets!

The other side to all of this is that I have a really swell husband (who knows all my quirks and loves me in spite, and maybe even because of them) and three terrific, heart-stoppingly beautiful children that I would not trade the world for. How can you compare any trauma of parenthood to those moments when my 17 month old son, who I have only known for two months, grabs my face and kisses me over and over? Or when my 2 year tells me every time I give her any kind of meal, "Thank you for this dinner, Mom" without ever being prompted? Or when my almost 5 year old tells me that she "loves me in the whole wide world?" I am overwhelmed with emotion even as I write this. I am such a lucky gal! Who'd a thunk I'd ever be so privileged?

The other day we were driving in our van, listening to the radio and the Newsboys song "Wherever we go, that's where the party's at" came on. Keep in mind that the Newsboys are from Australia. From the back seat, I hear Asia say, "Why are they singing about a potty, Mom? That's gross!" and she proceeded to laugh hysterically and say "Gross!" every time they sang the chorus. What a treasure! Yesterday, Trina wanted to go outside after lunch but couldn't find her sock. She discards them in very random places throughout the house, and I thought I'd try the Love and Logic approach. I said, "Trina, you need to find your sock to go outside, or if you don't want to find it, you can just go take a nap." She half-heartedly looked for it for a few minutes and then looked at me in all seriousness and said, "Swiper took my sock, Mom. He's playing with it at Dora's house." Since the offensive Swiper would not return her sock, Miss Trina took a nap (Asia later found it stuffed between the couch cushions. Big sister to the rescue!). What a nut! Moses is not to be outdone by his sisters. He is rapidly learning the art of comic relief. He recently figured out how to blow "raspberries" and will rush to do so on anyone who is laying down and will hold still long enough for him to get his lips on their tummy. So funny!

Thanks for listening to my ramblings and sharing all my "treasures" with me. I plan to write my next post on readoption, so all you adoption people stay tuned. Best wishes from this slightly off-kilter home to yours!

Adopted for Life by Russell Moore

I had to take a moment and let you all know about this wonderful book! It is probably the best book I have read concerning adoption (and I've read a lot!). It is applicable to those who are mildly interested in adoption, to those who have been adopted or completed an adoption. Russell Moore is a Baptist theologian and he and his wife adopted two boys from Russia 5-6 years ago. They later had two boys biologically. He makes some incredible spiritual comparisons about adoption, as well as some very, very practical advice. I think I paid about $11 on Amazon for it, and it was well worth every penny.

Three Kids...and Adjusting

This past week, Justin was out of town for the whole week on a hunting trip, and it was my first experience as a "single" mom of three children (Just for the record, I am all for my husband taking time to do "manly" things with his guy friends. I think it's very healthy and good for him to have that time away every year, and usually there's the payoff of a full freezer! Not the case this year, but still...). Many of my friends and family called to see how I was doing throughout the week.

Do you need anything? Overwhelmed? Stressed?

And I could honestly answer all those questions no...most of the time. However, as my beloved friend Becca found out on Wednesday, I answered YES to all of them! I really was doing great with my kiddos, until I went to the grocery store. Keep in mind, this is not the first time I've hazarded a trip there with all three Limmer kids. We have been successful on two other occasions. But it seems that there has to be at least one horrendous shopping trip every time we add a child to our family.

I should back up. When we had our second child, Trinity, our oldest, Asia was 2 1/2 years old. I could not fathom going to the store with both of them. How in the world did my mom ever do it with four? Eventually, we had to eat, so off we went. The trip went great at first. Asia decided she was now a big girl and didn't need to ride in the cart. Fabulous! I needed to fill it up with food anyway! I'm thinking, "Wow, maybe this isn't so bad! This is no problem!" We got down to the final three aisles of shopping, and my big girl adamantly insists that she needs to get back in the cart. She's tired, she's hungry, and there is no way she is going to walk anymore. Small problem - there's no where for her to sit. Her space in the cart is occupied with cans of vegetables and jugs of milk. While she is rather loudly voicing her desires (if you've ever heard Asia cry then you know what I mean), my darling sweet baby who has been so contendedly sleeping this entire time decides Mommy's allotted grocery shopping time has expired and it is now time to nurse. Immediately. In response to my baby's urgent demands, my milk let down and my face instantly turned the color of a tomato. At that moment, I had two thoughts. I could either abandon my overflowing cart and run for my car with screaming kids in tow, or I could sit down on the floor in the frozen food section and have a good cry right along with them. I actually did neither of those things and somehow managed to get through the checkout and back home (I can't really remember how, though). Eventually we got our system down and never quite had a mishap like that again.

Fast forward to last Wednesday. Foolishly thinking that I'd already figured out grocery shopping with THREE kids, I am sure that we are capable of handling a rather long shopping list that day. Moses sits in the front of the cart, Asia walks, and Trina sits in the big basket until either I bury her with groceries or she can no longer stand being "little" and wants to walk like her sister. Again, we have successfully navigated the entire store and only have the frozen food section and produce to get through. Everyone is tired and hungry and ready to be done. Trina decided she needed to walk directly in front of the cart. Only problem is that I cannot see her when she walks there and promptly ran her over. Screaming child number 1. While I'm trying to console Trina, Asia tries to stuff herself on the bottom rack of the cart, right where Moses is sitting. Never mind that I had repeatedly told her not to do this because her brother has dangerous feet. In a matter of seconds, Moses had kicked her in the eye. Screaming child number 2 (and yes, she still screams really, really loud). Just for good measure, Moses decides he's frustrated being in the cart and lets his opinion be heard. Screaming child number 3. Again, we somehow made it through the checkout, out to the car, and back to our house. Now everyone is REALLY tired and hungry! So being the wonderful mother that I am, I sat them all at the table, gave each one a big pile of Cheetos and put away the ice cream, juice, and milk. After making them eat their real lunch (I had to make them of course, because they were no longer hungry after Cheetos), and getting them all to their beds for a nap, I laid on the couch thankful that we had all survived.

So here's to all you mothers out there! You're amazing people and don't ever forget it!

From the Equator to Snow!

We had our first big snowstorm this past Friday! Wow! It felt a lot like Christmas... except all the green leaves are still on the trees :). The girls couldn't wait to go outside and play in our winter wonderland, and thankfully, I had gone shopping for any snow clothes we needed just the day before. So, three Limmer children bundled up and headed outside. This, of course, was Moses' first experience with snow. He was so funny! Besides looking like the Michelin tire man in all his snow paraphanelia, he didn't quite know what to make of his mittens. He stared at them for a long time and then tried to shake them off his hands for several minutes. He didn't seem to mind the snow too much, although he made some interesting faces when I put some in his mouth. So cold! He also did several face plants (as you can see in the picture), but didn't get upset until he realized he couldn't get himself back up! I felt a little bit mean for laughing so much at him, but he was just too cute! Hope he gets used to the cold because it looks like winter came a little early this year. I'm wondering if he'll even get to experience all the fun fall activities, like jumping in leaves?

We went back to the doctor for a check-up today, and he was very impressed. Moses has gained almost two pounds in two weeks. I knew he was feeling heavier! His giardia is cleared up (yeah! No more diapers that require a gas mask to change!), and he started getting the vaccinations that he didn't get in Rwanda (we had his bloodwork checked to see which vaccines were good from Rwanda). We are actually starting to see Moses be a little more naughty than before. He is definitely starting to test boundaries, and that's a good thing! I think he's feeling comfortable enough to do that. He already knows how to get a good rise out of his sisters and pushes their buttons whenever the occasion presents itself :). He's also starting to display more affection with them as well, like spontaneously giving hugs and wanting to dance with them when music is playing.

First Haircut

Earlier this week, Moses got his first haircut. Because of laying down in his crib so much, or maybe it's just the way he sleeps, but his hair was very patchy. The top was quite long and I loved it, but the thin spots in the back just drove me crazy. I tried to cut his hair myself but it was unsuccessful (note to self: get sharp clippers!), so we went to a friend of ours who is a hair stylist and the results were much better. :) He looks like such a little man! The same day we also had to clip off the necklace that he had been wearing. It was a medallion of Saint Mary that had been put on him in one of the orphanages, and I had waited as long as possible to cut it off. He played with it when he was scared or nervous, and I didn't want to take away his only "security blanket". Unfortunately, it just got too tight, and needed to come off. It made me emotional to think that it is the only thing that we have from the first 16 months of his life. I have noticed him still finger his neck from time to time, but he seems to be doing ok without it.

All his medical tests came back good, with the exception of his lead levels. They are slightly elevated but not enough to cause anemia, so the doctor will just retest him in three months to make sure they are dropping. It wasn't a big surprise as many developing countries still use lead-based paint and the cribs at the orphanage are all painted heavily.

He is picking up new words every day, like "uh-oh", and big sister Trina taught him to run through the house with his arms up saying "Yeah!" I taught him a couple of signs for things, like "please" and "more" and "all done" so there isn't as much grunting at the dinner table, and he has caught on quickly to that as well. He also loves to dance (the more bass the better!) and play drums. If you can't tell, our little man has stolen our hearts, and we couldn't be happier about it!

Rwanda in Pictures

Thought I'd take a minute to post some pictures from our trip. Due to the technological unsaaviness that plagues me, I have no idea how to do captions for the individual photos! Sigh. So, unfortunately for you, I have listed them all below.
1) "The Blue Gate" - sounds very "Lord of the Rings-ish", doesn't it? This is the gate to the entrance of the orphanage. Actually, there are a lot of blue gates in Kigali, but this one is very special!

2) Sugarcane field outside of Kigali

3) Rwandan boys posing for camera. We had pulled off the road to take some scenery pictures when we heard this group of boys yelling, "Muzungus!", which means white person in Kinyarwandan. They came down to the car and wanted to practice their English with us. They were more than happy to ham it up for a good picture!

4) Cheesy grin!

5)First experience with bubbles

6)More sugarcane on the way to Lake Rwesero

7)This monkey was the full extent of our "wildlife" experience in Rwanda. He was at Lake Rwesero and was quite the character. Molly found that out when she stood just a tiny bit too close to the cage and he pulled her braid!

8) Moses trying out his sea legs on the dock

9)Lake Rwesero

10) All 5 adopted children with Nyanja.

11) Sister Katherine and Moses. Sister Katherine is from France and she is the one who came to Nyanja shortly after Moses was transferred to Home of Hope and asked her to find him a family specifically.

12) Traditional Ethiopian food. This was a really fun experience. You tear off pieces of the bread, called injera, and scoop up the food with it. Everyone uses their hands and sits around the platter. A very nice custom that accompanies this is a handwashing before and after the meal.

Moses Update:
We have been busy this last week. Because there is no guarantee of the conditions in Rwanda and Ethiopia, our pediatrician recommended that we retest Moses for everything (HIV, Hepatitis, syphillis, lead poisoning, rickets, etc.), as well as determine how well he was vaccinated. We also needed to get him tested for parasites (his diapers are horrendously stinky! So much so that the diaper pail is in the garage!). First time we went to get his blood drawn, they stuck him five times with no success. Ugh. We waited a day and went back, crossing our fingers that a very experienced phlebotomist would be there. First time was a charm and we got all the blood needed. Stool sample came back positive for giardia, but negative for any other parasites. The rest of his bloodwork isn't back yet, but we are believing for a good report.

Moses' sleep schedule is finally starting to even out as well. For a while, he was waking up at 4:00, wanting to play a few hours, and then take a leisurely morning nap. Mommy wised up after a couple of days of that, and I kept him up until his regular naptime. What a crabface that morning, but he has slept great ever since!

We're Home!

Thank you all for praying! The U.S. Embassy did give us appointments for the kids' visa interviews at 1:00 on Thursday. The consular told us to come back at 10:00 Friday morning to pick up the visas, but after some fast talking on our guide's part, her staff agreed to process them that afternoon so we could still catch our 10:00 p.m. flight. Yeah! We were all so excited to come home!

Moses again did great through the 30 hours of traveling. He slept quite a bit, but when he wasn't sleeping, he was fairly content to play with toys or the leftover spoons from the airline meals. We got into Casper at 4:15 p.m. yesterday. It was so good to see our girls! Trina finally got to "hold" Moses, and Asia was the ever-conscientious big sister. I was wondering how well Moses would do last night since we had just made a 9 hour time switch. He woke up once for about 1 1/2 hours but sang himself back to sleep and slept until 9:00. What a great kid!

Thank you all so much for all your thoughts, prayers, and support while we were gone. It meant so much to know that we have such amazing family and friends backing us up. You are all welcome to stop by and meet our beautiful son! When things get back to normal, I will try and post some more pics of our trip.

September 16, 2009

I haven’t really told many of the details surrounding our trip here in Ethiopia , because of spotty internet, but I’m going to attempt to do so now. When we left Rwanda , we felt like the hardest part of the trip was behind us; our paperwork was done and all we had to do was medical tests and an interview at the US Embassy here in Addis. Wrong. When we flew into Ethiopia , we went to the visa office because we needed to buy visas on arrival. No problem for me and Justin; big problem for Moses and all the other kids. Ethiopia does not allow visas on arrival for Africans and Moses has a Rwandan passport. Somehow, we never got that memo; I really could play the ignorance card because I had never heard that before. We had a letter from the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion of Rwanda stating that we were approved to adopt Moses and allowed to travel with him, but it still took a lot of waiting and talking to get Ethiopian customs to let him and the other 4 kids through. One customs officer told me that he wanted to send Moses back to Kigali , but he couldn’t because he was a baby. Our AWAA guide here in Ethiopia was very surprised when we told him what happened and said that’d never been an issue before.

The next hurdle we faced was getting our kids’ vaccination records translated. They are in Kinyarwardan, and none of the translators in Addis know that language. We even took them to the Rwandan Embassy and they wouldn’t touch it because it had the Ministry of Health’s seal on it. Miraculously, the doctor who is doing their medical exams figured out which vaccines they had by the series of shots and length of time between shots and signed the vaccination form for us. Our guide, T, said this was a big deal.

Now, we are being told by the Embassy that they may not let us do our interviews tomorrow. Only problem is that we are supposed to board our plane to come home tomorrow night. All the kids’ medical results will be at the Embassy by 1:00; please pray that they will see us for interviews sometime in the afternoon. We have seen impossible things happen on this trip and know that it can happen again.

Today we got to do a little shopping and then went to a traditional Ethiopian restaurant for dinner. There was traditional food, music, and Ethiopian dancing. So much fun! Moses loved it and was mesmerized by the music. I still can’t believe how easy-going he is; he eats anything we give him (except baby food, he is on strike against that! He hadn’t ever had table food at the orphanage, so I thought he may struggle eating regular food. Evidently not an issue!), and sleeps wonderfully.

September 15, 2009

Ethiopia has been a whirlwind! Medical tests, translating documents, embassy appointments…and lots of driving around. We have seen God’s hand working in so many ways on our behalf. Tomorrow is a free day; we can’t do any paperwork or government appointments because we are waiting for results from the medical tests, so our interview at the U.S. Embassy is on Thursday afternoon. If all goes well, we plan on flying out on Thursday night. Keep praying for us!
Moses is as wonderful as ever and quite the entertainer. Justin took him for a walk this afternoon, and he was waving at everyone. Justin said that many of the people would grab his hand and kiss it, so now he sticks his hand out to everyone passing by. We are finding out that he has a stubborn streak as well, but his two big sisters have already broken us in for that so we are ready!
Sorry that we have not posted in a few days. We’re having trouble with the internet connection here, but we’ll try to post at least one more time before we come home. Asia and Trina, we love you like crazy! We will be home in just a few days and can’t wait to hug and kiss you! Be good for Grandma and Papa, and remember that Jesus loves you most of all!

September 13, 2009

Today was our last day in Kigali. Sigh. We have fallen in love with Rwanda and its people. This morning we went back to the orphanage to say goodbye and to take them a large truckload of staple food items that we purchased with donations from people back in the States (Thanks Cory and Kelly and everyone at RC!). After lunch we headed to the airport, 10 adults, 7 children, and massive amounts of luggage, all of which made it here to Addis Ababa. We haven’t gotten to see much of Ethiopia, but what we have seen is a big contrast to Kigali. Some of you may be asking, why do you have to go to Ethiopia anyway? The U.S. Embassy in Rwanda is a massive, fortress-like facility in Kigali…that only has one consular on staff. Because of that, they do not issue the visas we need to bring our kids back to the U.S., and we have to get that done at the U.S. Embassy in Addis or in Nairobi, Kenya. Since America World already has staff in Addis, it makes it the obvious choice. However, it would be so nice if the U.S. Embassy in Rwanda would just hire the necessary staff to issue visas. I’ll be writing them when we get home to petition them to do this. If you’re an up and coming adoptive parent in the Rwanda program, you should do the same! It will make your trip much smoother and less expensive.
Moses is doing great! He was fabulous on the plane, and entertained himself with two plastic spoons and a cup for most of the flight. He likes to "sing" to himself all the time and he thinks that peek-a-boo is the funniest game ever. Oh…and his infatuation with balls is stronger than I realized. He saw a little boy in the airport with a ball and wouldn’t leave him alone until he threw it to him. Such a boy!

Crazy Day

Whew! Today was a crazy, stressful, glad it’s over kind of day! We did get passports; huge deal because they don’t hardly ever expedite them. We first went to the U.S. Embassy to fill out some paperwork that will be forwarded to the embassy in Addis Ababa where they will issue American visas for the kids. A new consular has come to the embassy since the last group of adoptive families were here, and she does everything by the book (Sidenote to AWAA families: make sure you bring your receipt from filing your I-600A. If you don’t have that tiny piece of paper, you’ll have to repay that fee. So literally, that receipt is worth $670! Thankfully, I saved every adoption related receipt, but I would have never thought that was something we would need). She wanted to see all the kids’ passports, which we couldn’t pick up until 1:00 p.m. … the same time that the Embassy closes for the day. She agreed to stay until 1:30 for us. We hurried over to the Immigration office to wait for the much desired passports. Right at 1:30, we got them and made a mad dash back to the consulate. I got there first, sat down to wait for the consular and starting looking through Moses’ passport … only to realize that his date of birth was wrong! Aaack! My heart fell to the pit of my stomach! We talked to the consular about it, and she said we had to get the passport reissued. No way! There was no way we thought we’d get another passport by the end of day, and it was Friday. I didn’t see any way that we were going to be able to get on the plane to Addis Ababa on Sunday. Justin ran back over to Immigration to see what they could do. Moses and I waited at the consulate. By this time, the consular had also agreed to stay until 3:00 and finish processing everyone else’s paperwork for them to hand carry to Addis. Miraculously, Immigration agreed to make a new passport that afternoon, and just as miraculously, it got done before the consular had to leave. She was able to process our paperwork and everything turned out ok. Oh my! We all feel emotionally wrung out tonight, but we’re all so grateful that it’s over. And we even got to spend Sept. 11 on American soil (even though we would have rather only been there 1 hour instead of 5).

The picture that I posted is of our guide Nyanja and her 3 year old son Solomon. She is amazing and we love her!

Passports

Today we have been working on getting Rwandan passports for all our kids to travel home (they get their U.S. passport after we do re-adoption in the States). Normally, the passport office requires 5-10 days to process a passport, but because we didn’t get our travel document from MIGEPROF until yesterday, that timeline is impossible. We all wrote letters asking for the passports to be expedited, but it really is up to them if they want to accommodate us or not. We have to be in Addis Ababa for our visa appointments on Wednesday since our agency only gets appointments every other week on Wed. Needless to say, we were all praying they would be favorable to us (Kara was working on the tears if they needed more convincing!  ). After we explained, the lovely woman at the passport office told us to come back tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. Nyanja said that is the time that they give out passports. Though we weren’t guaranteed anything, we are all very happy that we’ll most likely get passports tomorrow.

We are discovering more and more of Moses’ personality! What a character! He is a very, very busy boy and loves to drum, sing, dance, and play with cars. We’re having to lay down some boundaries already and that makes him unhappy (like, you can’t hit your friends with a toy! What a bummer!), but for the most part he is an entertaining, sweet, and silly little boy. His favorite word is “Doh!”, which means “look” in Kinyarwandan. He points and says that a lot. He is saying mama and dada, mostly in the right context. We can’t wait for you all to meet him!

P.S. Happy 93rd birthday to Grandma Great Limmer! We love you and hope you have a very special day!

Gotcha Day

Our official, never have to stay at the orphanage again, gotcha date is 09/09/09. We were FINALLY able to get his travel document from the Ministry today. Whew! Last night when we took him back to the orphanage, he was very distraught that we were leaving. I told Justin I didn’t think that I could do that again. We gave him his first bath after we got back to the hotel, and it was a little bit of a rodeo! The water scared him. In the end, he got sufficiently clean without too much trauma.

Enjoy the random pictures from the last few days! The group picture is all of us with Veronique, the woman at the minister’s office who processes all our paperwork. She is a very important person!

Please pray for us that we can get his passport expedited and still leave for Ethiopia on time.

So … I lied. In my last post, I said that we would be able to keep Moses tonight, but it didn’t work out. The other families that arrived today were delayed by a few hours and by the time everyone got back to the hotel, the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion was closed for the day. We have to pick up Moses’ travel document from them, take a copy to the orphanage and check out, and then take the original up to the U.S. Embassy so they can process his passport. Tomorrow, we will be doing all that, and all the families will go together. We did pick Moses up around 11:00 today and took him back to the hotel for his nap. He wanted both of us laying down right by him, and he fell asleep with his hands on my neck and his face about 3 inches away. So sweet! He is getting more and more playful each day. Lots of smiles! It was definitely harder to leave him tonight, but soon, very soon that will not be the case!

This morning Nyanja took us to the genocide memorial here in Kigali. It’s hard to even express the depth and range of emotion that I felt. I have studied Rwandan history and know all the facts about the genocide, but … well, there are some things that books and movies can never convey. One of the last exhibits is dedicated to the children who were killed. I had made it through the museum up until that point, but as we walked out of there into the gardens, I couldn’t help but weep. Not just a few tears … I was sobbing. I surprised several gardeners with my blotchy, wet face. The garden area is very beautiful and peaceful with neatly groomed hedges, flowers, and pathways. They have 258,000 victims buried there in mass graves. There are still fresh flowers being placed on the graves and signs that say, “Never forget. Never again.” Nyanja said that before the genocide, there were only 3 orphanages in Rwanda. Now there are 300. Only 29 of these are registered, and only 1 has all the proper paperwork in place (hence the reason all the referrals are coming out of Home of Hope). Now, those children who were orphaned during the genocide are having babies that they can’t take care of and creating more orphans. Nyanja did tell us that Rwanda is a much better country after the genocide than it was before. People here have had to learn how to reconcile and move on. They are committed to healing and improving their nation.

We went to pick up Moses right after that. I’m sure he wondered why I held him so tight! While we were there, the police brought in a baby that had been found just hours earlier, abandoned on the side of the road. He was days old. This is the second baby that’s been brought to the orphanage just in the three days since we’ve been here. The sisters told me this afternoon that they decided to name him Moses, too.

We are glad that the Himes and Higgins families made it safe today! It was wonderful watching them meet their children for the first time. It’ll be fun to watch all the kids interact and play together in the days ahead.

Here are some pictures from our first meeting. It takes forever to upload pictures with this connection, but I’ll do my best to keep doing it!

Today we went back to the orphanage first thing and picked up Moses for the day. His eyes got big when we walked in the room and he kept pointing at us. Good sign! He came to me without crying today and didn’t protest when we left the orphanage. We headed to Bourbon Street Coffee (it’s like a Starbucks, except they serve meals as well) to hang out with our guide, Nyanja and some friends, Torri, David, and their 9 month old daughter Ineza (she was adopted from Home of Hope also). It was so nice! So laid back! We spent the whole morning just chatting and letting the babies play. Moses was very reserved at first, but by the end of the morning he was playing with us, smiling (we didn’t get to see any smiles yesterday), and Daddy even got him to laugh a few times. He loves to throw things, balls preferably but any toy will do. We did a little more sight-seeing, fed Moses dinner and then took him back to the orphanage. He is so much fun and is such a lover! He interacted so much and it seemed he was much more comfortable today. When the sister took him from me to take him back to the toddler room, he reached back for me. Another good sign! He really loves the sisters and the nannies at the orphanage, and it is very evident that they love him just as much. One of the sisters teased me about Moses being spoiled in our family, but later I overheard her telling Nyanja to please bring more families to adopt children. They know that adoption is the best option for these kids, and we have been received very warmly by them. We weren’t sure how we would feel about spending time with him and then leaving him at the orphanage for a few days, but now I am so glad that this is how it has worked out. An orphanage is all he has ever known, and he truly loves his caregivers. This has been a lot less traumatic for him, as he’s gotten to know us over the last couple of days. Tomorrow, we will be able to take him for good, no more nights as the orphanage.

Tomorrow morning we plan on going to the genocide memorial, and then we’ll go back to the orphanage to get Mr. Moses. The other two families will come in tomorrow afternoon also.

Meeting Moses

We made it to Rwanda! The plan was that we would fly from D.C. to Ethiopia then hop on a flight to Kigali, but right before we boarded in D.C., we realized that our ticket to Rwanda was issued incorrectly. We couldn’t get a hold of our travel agent and hoped that we could change the ticket in Ethiopia. When we got to Addis Ababa, Ethiopian Airlines were extremely helpful and changed the ticket right away without charging us any fees (they are sticklers about baggage though!). Fortunately, our contact Nyanja was waiting at the airport for us in Kigali and everything worked out.

We were also able to go meet Moses for the first time, he was a little unsure of what was happening. Having toys to play with helped a lot, and he loved the truck and the ball. He would cry or start to get upset every time one of the sisters would come in the room, but always wanted me to pick him back up if I set him down. He even let Daddy hold him a little bit and threw the ball back and forth with him. Today we get to keep him for the day, and Monday we will meet up with the Higgins and Himes families and start processing his passport paperwork.

Washington D.C.

Well, the first leg of our trip is over. We made it to Washington D.C. today and even had a little time to do some sightseeing. After a few missed attempts, we mastered the bus system and walked all over downtown. We got to the Washington Monument right at sunset. Wow! Then we got to see the Lincoln Memorial. The moon was full tonight and the reflection of it off the water and all the white marble was stunning.
God has already been so faithful! Because we had such an outpouring of donations for the orphanage, we decided to go ahead and try to check extra bags, hoping that the airlines would waive the fees. United Airlines did for our state-side flight, and now we have to make the same appeal to Ethiopian Airlines. Pray that God gives us favor. Also pray that I handle the overseas flight a little better than I did today; had some moments of motion sickness, which is a very rare thing for me (except for that time in Provo, UT. Remember that, Dad? Yikes!). We were also able to test out Skype with our girls and it worked great. I think that will be a great way to stay connected with them. We love you all and are praying for you, Himes and Higgins families! We'll see you on Monday!

Away We Go!

We board a plane at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow (hope they serve coffee!) to begin the two-day journey to Rwanda. Even though it's a long trip, we do get to stop at several interesting places; Washington D.C. for an overnight stay and even a layover in Rome. We should arrive in Kigali, Rwanda at about noon on Saturday (Rwanda is 9 hours ahead of MST). Stay tuned for updates and pictures (as internet connections allow)....

Launch Date - Sept. 3rd

We are leaving for Rwanda on Sept. 3rd! One week from today! Oh my...I'm dreading that this week might be the slowest of my life. All the suitcases for the orphanage are packed. I could not believe how much stuff we were able to fit in! Thank you, everyone for the abundance of donations! If you'd still like to contribute, we'll be taking a money donation to buy some much needed items in-country.

We are traveling with the Higgins family and the Himes family who are adopting from our agency, both of whom are adopting two children each. (Check out their blogs at http://higginsadoption.blogspot.com and http://lifechange.typepad.com/lifechange/). I'm so glad we get to travel as a group. Not only does it help defray some of the costs, but we get to be support for one another as well. We are actually leaving a few days earlier than the rest of the group, for no particular reason, mostly just because we could. :) We will arrive in Kigali on the 5th, with the rest of the group arriving on the 7th. We can't go to the orphanage any sooner but are looking forward to spending a little extra time in Rwanda (I mean really, how often do we go to Africa?).

Please pray for us that everything will continue to fall into place and that this week will go by fast!

Baby Showers of Blessings

This past Monday night some friends from our church (check it out at www.wyrchurch.com) gave us a baby shower! We also combined it as a benefit for Home of Hope, the orphanage where Moses lives. What a blessing! Not only did Moses get some very cute clothes (I love boy clothes!), but we were overwhelmed with everyone's generousity towards the orphanage. We got lots of blankets, clothes, shoes, and a few toys to bring with us. Some of our friends chipped in money to help us buy a video camera, since our old one was stolen on a missions trip to the Ukraine. We found the neatest little camera made by Kodak. It's about the size of a Blackberry phone and it's so inexpensive and simple to use. I really wanted to be able to capture as much as we can of Rwanda for Moses, and thanks to our dear friends, that is possible.

We also found out on Monday that we'll travel the first week of September and come home about two weeks later. AWAA referred us to an excellent travel agent who's doing a fantastic job finding us reasonably priced tickets. So now the excitement really begins! I've started packing bags for the orphanage (mostly because all the donations were overwhelming my couch and they needed to go somewhere else). All that's left to do is malaria medication and last minute paperwork.

Evey morning when I turn the computer on, sweet Moses' face pops up on my screen. Our girls run over to the computer shouting, "Hi Moses! Good morning Moses! We love you Moses! You're coming home soon!" and that is quickly followed by Trina (the 2 year old) saying, "Me hold him. Me hold him." She is so excited to hold her little brother! I don't have the heart to tell her that he is nearly as big as she is, and I'm sure he will pass her up in a year or so. We are continuing to pray for the transition from being a 2 to 3 children family. The girls get to stay with Papa and Grandma (Grandma is unequivocally at the top of Trina's favorite person list) while we're away. A fellow adoptive friend of mine gave me the suggestion to leave small presents (like from the Dollar Store) for our kids at home to open every few days while we are away. I think it's a great idea and have stocked up on new coloring books, pretty hair ties, and fingernail polish. Girly heaven!

Rwanda or bust!

Forever Ours

We got our court ruling today, and we passed! That means that Moses David Ishimwe Limmer is legally, completely, forever our son! Since we are 100% his parents in every way, we can now post pictures of him for the whole world to see. This picture is about a month old, and he looks very, very serious. I have since heard that he is really a very outgoing, jabbering, loving child. We can't wait to be the ones to hug and kiss him, feed him meals, give him baths, kiss his owies, tuck him into bed and be the first ones he sees when he wakes up. Wow, is this little boy in for a world change!

The big question now is, when do we leave to get him? We have to wait on a travel document for Moses to be processed so that he can leave the country with us, and as soon as that is in order travel dates will be set. Rwanda, here we come!

Court Date

This morning we got a surprise phone call; evidently there was a last-minute opening in Rwanda's court schedule and they went ahead and held our court hearing. This is the hearing where the judge will officially rule that we are Moses' parents. Even though they held the hearing today, we won't find out the ruling for several days. Once we have the ruling, they can start processing the necessary documents that Moses needs to leave the country and we can start making travel plans. So it's looking like we'll be able to travel in August!

God is in Africa

Every night when we put our two daughters to bed, they each take a turn praying and usually, they mention Baby Brother Moses in Africa. This particular night, Asia (the 4 year old) said, "Thank you Jesus, that God is in Africa." I felt the Lord nudge my heart and ask, "Did you hear that?" God has been using Asia through this entire adoption process to remind me of His plan and provision, from being so insistent about Moses' name to helping me remember that Jesus is cradling my sweet, baby boy so many thousands of miles away. Thank you, Lord, for all of my kids, the ones who I can hold and the one I cannot.

Officially Moses

It's official; his name is Moses David Ishimwe Limmer. We feel like God Himself picked out his name and who are we to change it? (If you haven't heard the story, see the post below) God has shown us His faithfulness over and over, and Moses' name is one more reminder of the destiny and purpose He has in store for our son. We added the name David, after Justin's father, and it means "Beloved". Very fitting for our little guy! He has been loved in our hearts for such a long time, and we can't wait to love him in person! "Ishimwe" means "Give thanks to God" in Kinyarwandan, the language spoken in Rwanda. We can't stop giving thanks! What a precious gift our little Moses is!

I've been thinking a lot about Moses' birth mother, and how his story has so many parallels to the story of Moses in the Bible. I have been praying for her and envisioning what she must have felt the day she gave up her precious son. I'm certain that she felt that there was nothing she could offer him and praying for life for her baby. A hope. A future. God knew and saw her heartache. He moved on the hearts of ordinary people, thousands of miles away to act in obedience, even when we had questions and doubts. Little did we know the blessing in store for us, and ironically enough, we started the adoption process just weeks after Moses was born! So many emotions! So much reassurance that God is moving on our behalf and has ordained this adoption!

Please pray with us that we'll get a court date soon so that he can be ours in every way. As soon as we pass court and we are his mommy and daddy on paper, we can post a picture.

Referral!

Finally! The day we've been waiting for is here! Our agency, America World called this afternoon to tell us that we have a beautiful, 13 month old little boy (and he is beautiful! I'm telling you, you could get lost in those big, brown eyes.) He is gorgeous! I'm really at a loss for words right now, and wish I could just show you a picture. Unfortunately, we're not allowed to post pictures on public forums (like blogs) until he's legally ours.

Along this whole road, I've seen God's hand move in tremendous ways, but I've also experienced incredible worries and doubts. When we very first started adopting, Asia, our oldest daughter who is 4, told us, very emphatically that her baby brother's name was Moses. So you can imagine my surprise when Terra, our coordinator, told me that they had a precious little boy for our family, and ... you guessed it ... his name is Moses! I cannot doubt the hand of God! He knew all along the perfect child for our family! We're not sure right now if we'll keep Moses as his first name, but it will definitely be in there somewhere.

Now we wait for a court hearing to legally make us his parents. We so appreciate your prayers as we get closer and closer to bringing Moses home.

Change in Plans

Flexible...be flexible. That should be a mantra for any parent who is adopting. This morning we received a call from our agency asking again about our willingness to change what we had requested. Because of various circumstances that have recently occurred in Rwanda with international adoptions, the government is becoming very hesitant to refer children that are under 1 year of age. International adoption, as a whole, is very new to this country, and the agency we're working with, America World, is also in the pioneering stages of developing their adoption program with Rwanda. Needless to say, there is a lot of learning and changing things on everyone's part, and rightly so. We're so grateful that the Rwandan government, the US government, and AWAA have the best interest of the children and us in mind.

Because of all this, our agency coordinator said that the orphanage would now like to refer a healthy, 12 1/2 month boy to our family. Would we be willing to think about it? To heck with thinking about it... yes!! It was pretty funny because she had both Justin and I on a conference call, since he and I were in different locations at the time. I asked Justin during the call what he thought about it, and he just laughed. "I know exactly what you want to do," he said. What a great guy! Terra (our agency coordinator) said that hopefully (keep our fingers crossed) she really would have all the paperwork for our referral together and to us by the end of the week. Thank you Jesus!

600 Dozen

A milestone in history has been reached ... this week I made my 600th dozen of cinnamon rolls (is that the right way to say that?). Wow! Who'd have thunk it?!

All in Good Time

So, for those of you who are keeping track, it's already been over a week since my last post, and still no referral. I decided to go ahead and call the agency yesterday and found out that our coordinator had been out of town since last Tuesday and would not be back until Tuesday, today. I so wish I would have called sooner and found that out! It would have alleviated a lot of wondering about whether or not the agency was going to call with news. Since I couldn't talk with our coordinator yesterday, I called her today, knowing full well that she wouldn't have news for us, because if she did, she would've called first thing. Talking with Terra was good, even though it didn't give me any answers. She assured me that we would be her first priority when our referral did come, and as soon as all the loose ends were tied up in Rwanda, she would be able to give us the much anticipated call.

That got me to thinking about a cross-cultural communications class I took several semesters ago. Most African cultures are polychromic, time is relative. Deadlines don't mean much and relationship is valued above accomplishing a task. So different for our Western monochromic thinking! We like things done on time and in the order it should be done! Needless to say, I'm chilling out and going to just try and enjoy the wait time. God knows what is best, and He will bring our son to us in His good time.

He is 10 months!

This morning when I saw our adoption agency's number pop up on my call ID, I was hoping to hear the words, "Congratulations! We have a referral for you!" I didn't hear those words, but we did get good news. Our agency coordinator called to tell us that the orphanage would like to refer a healthy, 10 month old boy to our family for adoption. She needed to ask if we were ok with this because in our paperwork, we had requested an infant male who was 0-9 months old. I told her immediately that him being 10 months old was no problem. She said that she should have all the details for the referral worked out within a week! Hooray! For some reason, I didn't even think to ask anything else about him!? I know that women tend to get forgetful during pregnancy, but maybe during a "paper pregnancy" too? :)

Waiting...and waiting...and waiting...

I used to think that I was a somewhat patient person...that is, until now. It feels like we have been waiting forever (5 weeks equals forever, right?) to find out who our son is! Last Friday when I knew that I wouldn't hear any news that day or into the weekend, I felt just like I did waiting for our first daughter, Asia to be born; despondent and discouraged, convinced that this baby in NEVER coming! I was so antsy waiting for her to come those last two weeks that it really did seem that I might be pregnant forever (Trina was a different story and decided to come three weeks early. Didn't even have any of the baby stuff out of the attic when I went to the hospital!). Similarly, right now it feels like we might be in the process of adoption forever and never be able to hold our precious little boy in our arms. I know in reality that it will only be a matter of days until I'm able to post that we have our referral and will be traveling to get him soon! With my pregnancies, I had all those comforting little reminders, like feet kicking me in the ribs to remind me that my baby was indeed well and on her way. With adoption, I can only wonder about my child. What does he look like? Is he getting the food he needs? Is someone going to hold and cuddle him today, or will he have to stay in his crib without affectionate touch? Everything is out of our control; we can only wait and pray and pray and pray.
I've also been thinking and praying a lot for his birth parents. In Rwanda, it is illegal for a mother to relinquish her child, so oftentimes children are abandoned in public places. If they are still living, I am praying that God would reveal Himself to them, that they would realize that He has a tremendous plan for the son that they brought into the world and that we will now raise, and that the God's comfort would be very close to their hearts. I don't ever want to forget that our gain is someone else's loss.

Video

The Story Thus Far...

After promising an adoption blog for many, many months, I am finally doing it! Many of you reading this have never heard how we got into the grand adventure of adoption, and hopefully this answers questions many of you have had about our process.

How did this all begin anyway? When I was pregnant with our second child, Trinity (aka Trina), I kept having very vivid dreams of an African-American baby boy, and each time I dreamt about him, I knew he was my son. Also during this time, I heard several radio broadcasts about adoption and caring for orphans. One of the broadcasts was an interview with a Christian singer named Sarah Groves. She said, "If God said in the Bible in the book of James that pure religion is to care for widows and orphans, I really think He means for us to actually do that." (Ironically enough, she later traveled to Rwanda and did some work there.) Those words struck me like an arrow. Adoption wasn't some abstract ideal that I should dream about someday doing. The seed was planted. Since we had just had a new baby, we were in no position to even think about adopting. I put it back on the "prayer shelf" and left it there for one year. Lots of things needed to come into place if we were going to pursue this dream.

Fast forward to July 2008. Have you ever felt like God's hand was in your back, pushing you forward? We were feeling it, but so uncertain of whether we should move forward in this monumental process. Both Justin and I knew that our next child should be brought into our family through adoption, but it seemed so expensive and so laborious. We had found the agency we wanted to work with, America World Adoption Association (AWAA; check them out at www.awaa.org) but didn't know where the money was going to come from. As I was praying about it, I felt like God told me that the money was the easiest part. He has unlimited resources! I had an idea to do a fundraiser that my mom and I had used when I was in junior high; cinnamon rolls. I started putting the word out that I was taking orders for cinnamon rolls. We said that we would start the process when we had raised $3,000, figuring that might take awhile! Two weeks later (yes, two weeks!) we had $3,000 in hand and were sending off the initial paperwork to the agency. Amazing! Since July, I have made almost 600 dozen cinnamon rolls (I'm still taking orders! :) ), we held a dinner and silent auction with our friends, the Lockwoods who recently adopted from China, and received a few large monetary donations from several individuals. God has provided so much!

Where are we in the process now? We have gone through the paperchase process, submitted our dossier (all the official adoption paperwork) to the Rwandan government, and been approved by them to adopt from the Home of Hope orphanage in Kigali, Rwanda. We are anxiously awaiting our referral any day. A referral is where we are matched with a child from that orphanage and receive a picture and information about him. We are requesting a boy, under one year of age. Hopefully, we'll be able to travel to Rwanda in July to bring him home!