When a Happy Meal Makes You Sad

Every Sunday we call Israel on the phone. We always call at dinnertime since the phone is near room where the kids eat. Every Sunday, I ask what Israel is eating, and it's usually either "frijoles & crema" (beans & sour cream) or "sopa" (soup).

Remember, now, that he knows maybe a dozen words in English and my Spanish isn't great, so there's not a ton of variety in our Sunday conversations. I always ask him what he's doing, to which the answer is almost always "eating." Then I ask what he's eating.

This past Sunday, though, when I asked what he was doing, he said he was watching a movie. So I asked, "What did you eat for dinner?" He said, "leche" (milk). I asked if he was hungry, and he said no, but my mommy heart was having a hard time with the idea that we were getting ready to sit down to eat a hot, nutritious dinner here while he was having milk.

Then I asked, "What did you eat for breakfast today?"

And Israel said, "cajita feliz" (A Happy Meal)

I said, "A hamburger?"

"Yes"

"For breakfast?!"

"Yes"

(Sigh)

We went on to talk about other things, like his favorite thing to eat for breakfast, and then he talked to Jeremy and the girls as usual. But the conversation was another reminder to me of something I so want to be able to do for him and can't. It breaks my heart!

It is important that I do say that the nuns at the orphanage are incredibly sweet, kind women who genuinely love the kids they diligently care for. They are doing the very best they can with the resources that they have, and I have no doubt that their care has made a tremendous difference in Israel's life.

But Israel is still in an orphanage.

And it's easy for me to forget just what that means.

But on Sunday, I remembered.

With my girls, I am extremely choosy about what they eat and what they don't. Which granola bar has the most fiber and the least sugar? Are they eating plenty of fruits and vegetables every day? Does breakfast include some form of dairy or protein? Halloween candy is rationed out (except to me, of course!). Soda? Rarely. Sugar cereal? Almost never!

How fortunate we are that these things are choices! I am thankful for my conversation with Israel in that it was a reminder to me that the Lord has provided abundantly for us and I must be careful not to take it for granted or abuse the privilege.

It was also a reminder to me to pray all the more for Israel's health, knowing that his nutrition is less than ideal. And for his heart and mind as he will have to adjust to big changes in areas we hadn't given much consideration before.

And mostly, that he will be home soon, so his mama can make him a healthy breakfast!

Try these!

I've made a few discoveries in the past few weeks that have added a little extra delicious-ness to my every-day. So I decided to post them here...for your cooking, cleaning, and internet surfing pleasure.

A few of my (new) favorite things:

My new favorite website to wander:

Call it the ebay of things vintage and homemade...I've wasted a fair amount of valuable time browsing around there lately, but since I'm just browsing, I've wasted no actual money. Who can resist "window-shopping" things like vintage cookbooks and cute crafty stuff?

My new favorite household product:


Courtesy of Costco, my new laundry detergent is environmentally friendly, cheaper than the brand I usually buy, doesn't give my sensitive-skinned daughter a rash, and it smells absolutely lovely. I'm sorry but, in my world, that's a miracle product. I rate it right up there with the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser!

And finally, my new favorite dinner recipe:

Chicken with Green Peppercorn Sauce
(Courtesy of an old copy of Cooking Light magazine from my neighbor)

I'd have posted a picture here, but we ate it too fast for me to take a picture!

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1 1/2 lbs chicken breasts, 4 at 6 ounces each
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 cup shallot, finely chopped
• 2/3 cup dry white wine
• 1/2 cup reduced-sodium fat-free chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon green peppercorn, crushed
• 1 tablespoon butter

Directions

1. Combine flour and paprika in shallow dish. Sprinkle chicken with salt, dredge in flour mixture.
2. Heat oil in large non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add chicken to pan, cook 5 minutes each side until done. Remove chicken from pan, keep warm.
   
3. Increase heat to medium/high. Add shallots to pan, saute 1 minute.
4. Stir in wine, broth and peppercorns. Bring to a boil. Cook until reduced to 1/4 cup, about 7 minutes.
5. Remove from heat. Stir in butter. Serve over chicken.
   

So, there you have it. I hope you give at least one of these a try, and let me know if you love them as much as I do!

No News...

It's been two weeks since we heard that our case had entered PGN, and the news from our agency this week is that there is no news.

Sigh.

Unfortunately, there is just no time line to use to begin to guess how long we may wait before we hear something, either good or bad.

I read a quote somewhere that said international adoption is like pushing a semi truck from Cleveland to San Francisco...on roller skates. I love it! So true! But when I start to feel discouraged about that image of us on roller skates, trying to push that semi-truck along, I remember the long line of people like you, lined up behind us, pushing and praying us along. And of course, we've got God, always before us, paving the road.

The child in me has just one question: Are we there yet?

Confessions

It's time for me to come clean with the truth. This won't be easy, and you make think less of me afterwards, but I can't keep pretending to be someone I'm not...

I am a blog lurker.

There. I said it.

My name is Kristy, and I'm addicted to reading other people's blogs.

I like to think that it's because I care about the people we know and love, and I'm interested in the lives of other human beings. But I'm also just plain old, flat out curious!

I started out following along with the blogs of just a few friends and family...seeing what's new, looking at pictures of kids I don't get to see very often, the usual. But then, I started following links from those blogs to other blogs, and then from those to other blogs. Then my sister unwittingly contributed to my problem by sending me links to blogs of other adoptive families. Of course, I read them, and then followed the link trail to even more adoptive families! Before I knew it, I was hooked on some people's stories. Adoption highs and lows, funny things kids and husbands do, the ordinary stuff of stay-at-home moms...the good, the bad, and the every day.

Now my list of blogs that I check regularly is growing. Most of them are still people I know, but there is an increasing number of people that I've never actually met. And yet, I feel like I know them because they share their lives in every post.

How is this possible? Why is the blog world so very fascinating? Why do I read blogs, and why do I post stuff for other people to read on mine?

I have to think it's that God-given part of us that seeks out fellowship with other people. There is something in us that seeks out and recognizes other people with whom we share something in common. When I think over the many different blogs I've seen, the ones I go back to often belong to moms, usually stay-at-home moms, many of them adopting or adoptive moms, and all of them Christians. I didn't do that intentionally. Those are just the ones I'm drawn to the most because I can relate.

When another mom shares something sweet and adorable...or heinous...that one of her children has done, I can laugh, or cry, having been there myself. When someone else wonders if it's too early to pack their suitcase to go get the child that doesn't belong to them yet, I can say I've been there. When I see a family trusting in God even when circumstances don't make much sense, or praising God for His indescribable faithfulness that is beyond comprehension, my own heart resonates with understanding.

I have a genuine appreciation for many of the people who have unknowingly encouraged me by sharing their lives on their blogs, and I can only hope that I may be unknowingly doing the same for someone else.

But do me a favor will you...don't be a lurker like me. Leave a comment and let me know who you are. Because if you do, I'll have another person's blog to follow!

Changes

I'm experimenting with changing the blog design...I felt like it needed some color! Since I can be annoyingly indecisive, it might change a few times before I settle on something, so keep checking back to see what we end up with. Feel free to leave comments with your input!

An Update!

We got an update from our agency yesterday evening that confirmed that our case entered PGN last week. PGN is the place where all of our documents and paperwork will be reviewed and, if everything is in order, a decree of adoption will be issued. So, in a nutshell, PGN approval makes us Israel's legal guardians! (For those of you keeping track of what's next...after PGN approval, we wait for the documents to be filed, we wait for a new birth certificate to be issued, Israel must get a new passport, and then the US Embassy will review all of the final documents and send us a date for our Visa appointment. That's when we finally, and ecstatically, will buy some airplane tickets!!)

We are praying very specifically that there will be no problems found in our paperwork and that we will have approval in record time. Something as simple as an expired notary seal or signatures that don't match exactly can mean that we have to re-do documents. It sounds simple enough, but every document that we submit has to have a notary seal, a verification of the notary from the county, an apostille from the Secretary of State's office, an authentication seal from the Guatemalan Consulate in Los Angeles, and translation. And it has to be sent to Guatemala via DHL. It's quite a process, and each level of verification, of course, has a fee.

So please, please, please pray that there are no problems!

A Little Discouraged

Every Sunday night, we talk to Israel on the phone. When we talked to him tonight, he sounded upbeat at first, but by the end of the conversation he was pretty quiet and sounded a little discouraged. Of course, our Spanish is not good enough to be able to really find out what's going on...and when something's bothering him, he doesn't want to say what it is anyway. By the time we hung up the phone tonight, Jeremy & I were both feeling pretty discouraged and battle-weary.

Kaylee asked me today, "Mom, how many years have we been waiting for Israel to come home?" I told her that it has only been about a year and a half, but the truth is, it feels like years sometimes! The last three weeks have felt especially long since, after making progress with the US Embassy, we haven't heard any updates on what's going on with our case. In the last few weeks, we've also seen other families who are adopting from other countries get very close to completing their adoptions, which they began after we were already months into our process. Even though we're ecstatic for them, and encouraged by the reminder that adoptions really do "come true", we can't help but wonder when it will be our turn.

So we find ourselves again at a point in our journey where we feel like we have just about run out of strength to keep going. Of course, we know that our own strength was never enough to begin with, but that we have been dependent all along on the grace and strength the Lord has given us. And we know that His supply never runs out!

Tonight, we are discouraged and sad, and we have many questions, but we are so thankful for the truth of Psalm 86: 15..."But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness." So we will take our discouragement, our sadness, and our questions to Him and we know that, in His amazing loving-kindness, He will stand us up, dust us off, and carry us a little further along this path.

We continue to rely on your prayers...