War and Peace, mold and AWAA adoption news....

I would like to give props to my dear husband who finished War and Peace this week!! I'm not sure I want to tackle War and Peace but I'm so glad Rob is reading Russian classics. Maybe some day he and Igor will read the book together.

Now it's on to mold.....

A few days ago we smelled something "weird" but couldn't find the cause until we looked up. Mold is growing on the hallway ceiling. UGH! The mold is growing directly under the recently replaced air conditioning coil in the attic! So a long story short- the coil was improperly installed. Tomorrow, I'm meeting with a supervisor of the HVAC company. It should be fun!

On the adoption front, more AWAA referrals have been issued! Finally, a little girl was referred this week after a long string of boy referrals. Several families will be traveling to Ethiopia in a week to pick up their little ones. Four families have court dates scheduled for August 6! It's their last chance to have their cases heard before court close for two months. Please pray their adoptions will be granted. I'll post links to the traveling families soon so you may follow their journey to Ethiopia.

Frogs, camp and more on the loss of our referral

Swim lesson update: Igor's swim lessons are at the outdoor pool now. The water temperature of the indoor pool was too cold and he was miserable the entire swim lesson. Today's lesson was awesome. The water temperature of the pool was a warm 86 degrees! I wish I had brought my camera. Igor learned how to dive today! I was so proud of him.

The frogs are still here and alive. Igor feeds them and helps me change the water. The frog owners said to change the water every two or three days but after 36 hours the water is so cloudy we cannot see the frogs. Igor holds his nose when he feeds them! We are going to change the water daily because the water is so very stinky and cloudy. I don't think that's good for the frogs. We'll see if changing the water more often helps with the smell. I am so glad that we have a sink in the garage so we don't stink up the house when we change the water. Igor took these pictures while I cleaned the tank.

Igor went to camp for three days this week. He made this pond and duckling. It is proudly displayed on our kitchen table.

For those of you who have prayed for us these last few weeks, thank you. We are at peace with the loss of our referral. We are no longer anxious about the adoption timeline. We know we will receive a referral some day. We are okay with not knowing when we will hear something. When the phone rings I don't think it's AWAA calling. We are living life knowing we will receive a referral at the perfect time. For us, it's very freeing to let go of our preconceived thoughts on when it will all happen. Don't get me wrong, we long to know who our little boy is! We cannot wait to see his picture, to have a court date, to meet and hold him! However, we know there is a plan that is perfect for our family... so we wait knowing the best is yet to come.

Jigsaw puzzles, picture frames, bird house repair and frogs

My parents sent us a jigsaw puzzle they recently finished. Rob and I enjoy the working on the puzzles together. I did the sky and the water while Rob put together the buildings. This puzzle was a lot of fun.

Igor loves jigsaw puzzles too so he put his puzzles together next to our puzzle.

We decided take a jigsaw puzzle to the beach. The thrift store sells 1,000 piece puzzles for $1! I bought two. While I was there I saw some huge frames. They were all under $20. I really wanted to frame Igor's painting but professional framing is sooo expensive. I don't know a thing about framing painting so I went on the internet and found a video which explained how to frame a painting on canvas. It looks simple enough so I bought this frame!

The frame had a small crack in the wood so I glued it back together. Igor needs to sign the painting and I need to buy a fastener for the back. Once that's done I will hang the painting over the mantel!

While I had the wood glue out I decided to fix my birdhouse. I don't own any clamps so my friend Holly said to put a bag of rice on top for 24 hours. I decided to use an open bag of rice. Obviously this was a BAD idea.... ugh!

We are currently pet sitting two frogs. I will post pictures of the frogs as soon as I clean their aquarium. I don't know why I but thought we would like taking care of the frogs. I was soooo wrong. The frogs are water frogs so we cannot hold them. If you cannot hold them are they a pet?? The food is very smelly and I have to change their water every other day. We have scratched off frogs as a potential pet.

Life in pictures

We found a place at the beach! We are so excited. We will be on vacation in 3 weeks. My sister and Rob's parents will join us! We found a great place with a pool one block from the ocean. It's located on a small island so it should be very calm and peaceful. We are all looking forward to some R&R.

This week Igor and I have spent a lot of time outdoors. We've been taking pictures of the birds/animals that visit our yard.

There is something about the American Goldfinch that makes me smile. This little bird seems to dance while feeding. Can you see the American Goldfinch in this photo? He's so tiny.

Here is Igor's favorite bunny- McQueen and Eastern Box Turtle- Sally

Igor and I made garden stepping stones this week. We bought colored ceramic plates at the thrift store. Igor smashed the plates with a hammer while I mixed the concrete.

I poured the concrete into molds. Igor arranged the broken pieces in the wet concrete. I had some concrete left over so I poured it into egg cartons. Maybe Igor can make cities with the little egg domes?



Here are two of my planter boxes. The deer haven't eaten these flowers yet...
My sunflower refuses to give up! Even though the deer have eaten it down to 8" it continues to bloom.

Losing our referral and moving on...

I've started several blog entries but none of them "feel" right... I really don't know what to say.

Thanks to all who have e-mailed, called or posted a note on our blog. We haven't been able to get back to everyone but we appreciate you all! On Friday and Saturday we needed some time to process everything. We are over the shock and are moving on. We've changed our computer wallpaper back to Igor's picture. We haven't decided what to do with the child's pictures. Keeping the pictures doesn't feel right but deleting them feels wrong. For now we are keeping the pictures and video.

We shared the news with Igor who kept asking "why" but accepted the news. Now he tells people that he is getting a different brother.

I bought a couple outfits for the child we were referred. I haven't decided if I should return the clothes or if I should keep them. I don't know what the odds are of receiving another 2 year old is.....

Saturday morning we went blueberry picking. Rob, Igor and I pick 8 pounds of blueberries! I froze several quarts then I canned blueberry syrup. Rob and I tried some syrup tonight on ice cream. We both were disappointed, it didn't have enough blueberry flavor! I know it's not the blueberries because they are delicious raw. I think I will try a different recipe next time.

Yesterday Igor and I picked our first zucchini! We defied the wildlife! We are growing zucchini in planter boxes.

Since we probably won't be going to Ethiopia this year we have decided to go on vacation in August. We need to get away. I'm trying to find a beach house or condo at one of the Carolina beaches. Since it is so late in the season I haven't been able to find a place in the right location for the right price. This week, I hope to find the perfect place in our price range!

Igor and I have been spending a lot of time listening to music. Since learning the sad news about our referral Igor has been listening to:



and somedays I listen to this.... WARNING... this song is raw, edgy, heavy and a little disturbing. Which could describe some of my feelings (occasionally). Well except the disturbing part. The song is sung by a Christian band. I promise I am okay. Sometimes I feel like I need new breath breathed into me... have you ever felt that way too?

Sad news.....

We are sad to report that we lost our referral. This occurred due to circumstances beyond our control and beyond the control of AWAA. We continue to trust that God's hand is on us through this process and that we will be matched with our son soon. We pray for the child that we thought we'd be adopting. We pray that he is in the best possible situation and we continue to prayerfully wait on God's perfect timing for our family.
We want to reassure families with referrals that our situation is highly unusual and not likely happen to other families.
We were told that there aren't any toddler boys currently available for adoption so we wait.......

Update on life

It's been a busy week and a half. I think the next few weeks will be more "routine".

Here are some random highlights on life:
There are three families in Ethiopia this week picking up their children. The Gibsons, Raymers and the Ords. The Gibsons are in need of prayer as the court documents are not correct. Check out their blog for updated information. In the midst of the bad news Kari gave us an quick update on BOC. Kari said, "Your son is soooo PRECIOUS!!" The Ords sent us some pictures of BOC today! They also sent an update. I won't bore you with all the details so here's just one sentence from the e-mail: "... he has settled in and is a very good and sweet boy - she (the director of the Transitional Home) says she sees more and more smiles as the days go by."
We don't know if we'll make it to court by the August. As soon as we hear I will post something.

Igor's love for wearing PJ's outside the home continues (he loves wearing PJ tops AND shorts). When he wanted to wear his PJ top to church Rob and I agreed that was a bad idea. Our little negotiator worked on us until we agreed to let him wear his PJ top UNDER his church shirt. Some how he convinced the Sunday School teacher it was okay for him to take off his church shirt... our boy is very clever!

Our backyard wild life continues to vex and amaze me. I had two remaining tomatoes in pots, on chairs, next to the house to keep them safe from the deer. Well, my strategy worked until this morning. The deer ate every tomato on the vine and ate a majority of the tomato plant. I have officially given up on tomatoes this year. The deer also enjoyed ate most of my sunflower.
I have a new strategy with flowers- I have moved them to hanging baskets and flower boxes to keep the animals out. So far, so good.
This weekend I caught a Eastern Box Turtle trying to break into my Blackberry netting! I will post pictures soon. Igor wanted to keep the turtle but it's going to be a backyard turtle.

The bunny rabbits now have names- Mater, Sally & McQueen. They don't fear us any longer. When I am outside they don't even flinch! Unless I get within one foot of them they ignore me. I am pretty sure the squirrels and rabbits are in cahoots. I noticed several squirrels picking our pears and dropping them down for the rabbits to eat. Next year we should net the trees if we have any hope of eating some of our pears.

I bought 17 more bags of mulch (for 99 cents!!!). Rob and I spread it this week. My legs are still sore. It's great exercise though and the yard looks great.

I have eaten almost an entire jar of blackberry jam. Clearly my will power has gone on vacation! I will be canning more jars this week. They are suppose to be Christmas stocking stuffers! I think I will mail them out next week. (I am serious) There won't be any chance of eating them if they aren't here!

Igor's swim lessons continue on Friday. I haven't told him yet. I know he won't be pleased so I think I will wait until Friday. It's a dangerous strategy but I think it is the best one.