Waiting...

I should be used to this by now - it is a major part of adopting, but it doesn't really get easy.  It has gotten easier, if you can call it that.  God has been teaching me a LOT about patience and waiting on HIS timing throughout this adoption and throughout this past year as well.  Adoption is a growing experience in and of itself but couple it with giving birth to a child who decided to be 13 days late and there is one more element in the mix.

That all being said, God has been helping me to trust Him and His timing.  I have already seen how his timing with Myla coming first has been good for us.  It has allowed me a precious 2.5 months to bond with and love on the easiest baby EVER.  She is so very precious and I have been loving the uninterrupted time with her (if you can call baby of four uninterrupted...)

God knew better than we did what was best and I am trusting that He still knows that now while we are waiting to hear from immigration.  I am not stressing about how long it is taking, but I am excited to have it so close to being done.  I just can't wait to bring Liliana home!  Getting to shop for a few items for her has made it even more 'real' than before and we are all getting really excited.

That being said, I am also sad for Liliana.  This may sound strange, but hear me out.  Liliana will be leaving everything she has ever known - and not just for a new caregiver (she's done that plenty of times) but a completely foreign land, language, food, family, and experience - even the air will be different.  Everything she has ever known will disappear for her and that would be hard at any age but it is especially hard for a toddler/almost-preschooler.  My heart aches for her.  I know that it is for the best - a forever family is way better than an institution - no matter how wonderful that institution may be.  She will be loved and accepted and have opportunities here that she would never have in China.  But none of that softens the blow for her.  Please pray for her in the coming days that she would be ready as she can be for the huge transitions coming up and also that she will bond well.  She has had so many placement changes and is naturally shy and honestly, she is at a huge risk for significant attachment issues.

We will be doing things that we have learned are helpful to attaching (like not passing her around, limiting her world like a newborn for a while, keeping her with us exclusively for a while, purposely working to build attachment, etc.) but it is up to God to help to heal her heart.  Please pray for her and for us in this transition.

And, while you're praying, if you want to pray for speedy news from immigration as well as an opening for the consulate appointment, that would be more than welcomed.....

Thank you for walking through this journey with us and for your prayers and support.  We have been so blessed in this adoption and God has provided over and over for every need we have had with this whole thing.  To God be the glory!

Merry Christmas

I have been working with the kids all month in an effort to learn Luke 2:1-20 this December.  We got pretty close to learning it all.  Simeon has learned it too but wasn't too cooperative with the video.  We decided to give this as a gift for Grammy for Christmas.  She loved it.  Enjoy!

WALKING!!!!!!!!!!!!

No, not me :)  Liliana is walking!  We just got an update from her foster home that says that she is "walking much better".  It also said she has a new caregiver in the afternoons - Anglea is a grandmother who loves on the kids really well.  I am so relieved.  Not that I doubted her care for an instant, but I am so glad to hear that she is being loved on and making such good progress.  Her weight is still holding steady, but her face looks a little more full :)

Also, she loves books.  Is that a Meurer trait or what?  She will fit right in here and I can't wait to get her home.

Serving Daddy

Today, I decided to be ambitious and took the kids outside to help clean up leaves.  I'll admit they had the added motivation of having to have the leaves cleaned up before Daddy could decorate for Christmas, but regardless, they worked really well.  I was surprised at how helpful they actually were.  Myla hung out in the Mei Tai I made and Simeon alternated between helping and kicking through the leaf pile.  Both Elianna and Janaya loaded the 6 total leaf bags pretty much on their own while I did the raking and held the bags for them.  Below are a few pictures.  Ignore my undone hair and 5 year-old-angled shot of me, but I wanted to capture how Myla participated.

Time to update...

I  have been ridiculously quiet around here lately and most of that is because.... well honestly, I don't really know why :)  I can't blame it on a newborn because to be perfectly honest, Myla is a sweetheart and has been such an easy baby so far.  I can't blame it on postpartum recovery because thanks to a hurricane, B.J. got an extra week off that didn't cost him any vacation days and allowed me an extra week to recuperate.  I don't usually get that much time :)

God has been good to us.  Myla's birth, though very intense, was also mercifully quick and recovery hasn't been too bad at all.  The kiddos have adjusted well too and are loving having Myla around.  The biggest problem with Janaya and Elianna is them arguing about who gets to hold her.  It is also cute to see Simeon, every time Myla is nursing, come running over to her pointing saying "Myla, muk!"  It makes me smile every time.  He loves when she hiccups or sneezes and giggles like crazy.  He also likes to poke her foot and make it move :)  There have been some moments of testing with each of them to make sure that the boundaries are still in place but overall, the transition has been really smooth.

My MOPS table members all signed up to bring us a meal and most of them made enough to get us two meals out of each one.  What a blessing it was to have dinner taken care of for that whole time!  It was also nice to try some new recipes too.  We have had several offers from random places to bring by meals and it has meant so much to us.  It is so encouraging to see and feel the support of friends, family, and other believers.

We have started back up with school after about two and a half weeks off (counting before Myla's birth too).  It is nice to get back into a routine, though I am not stressing about getting fully up and running on schoolwork.  We are working our way back slowly and giving grace for the days when we might miss a subject.

As far as the adoption goes, we have ordered all of the 'official' paperwork (child abuse clearances, criminal checks, fingerprints, etc.) and received all of those.  Now we are working on references, health letters, employment letters, and a few other random bits of paperwork.  We'll be scheduling to meet with our social worker hopefully sometime this month.  I am really appreciating God's timing in all of this because it would have been very difficult to transition two kids into our family simultaneously as the original timing was pointing towards.  Once again, I am reminded that He is in control and knows the best time to bring Liliana home to us.  It is nice to be moving forward on her adoption again though!  Below is the most recent picture we have of her.  She is still about 19lbs and a few inches shorter than Simeon.  Her head is only four inches bigger than Myla's (clearly not major hydrocephalus....).

I promise more pictures whenever I get around to uploading the camera.  There are way too many cute ones to miss that opportunity....  right now I have a baby to feed :)

Adoption Update

Unfortunately, there isn't much to post here :(  Everything is on a literal 'pause' until after this little one arrives.  Which has made me more frustrated than ever that I ALWAYS go past my due date.  Normally, I know that my due date means nothing and I don't really care that I go past it.  This time, I have been really struggling with wanting Pelah to arrive YESTERDAY - not only so I can meet him/her but also so we can get things going with Liliana again.

Knowing that our daughter is sitting overseas waiting for us and we can't do anything is really frustrating.  Talk about an exercise in faith.  God has been really driving home to me that He knows the right timing to bring Liliana home - regardless of when I think is the ideal time.  That is HARD.  I want to trust that His timing is perfect, and I know that it is, but my heart wants to push (no pun intended) things forward FASTER.

Waiting is hard.  Being patient is hard.  Having to wait for two children whose arrivals are linked in some way is hard.  However, I am being reminded that just because it is hard doesn't mean it is wrong.  God wants me to learn and grow through this process and while I am not sure the exact lesson He wants me to learn, I want to learn it.  So, I get to be patient - waiting for Pelah and waiting for Liliana and hopefully learning whatever lesson it is that God has for me.

Worship

I was so blessed by this as a way to start the day.  I am loving how many songs Simeon knows too!