What's more loving than earth worms?

Well, my poor hubby has been sick this weekend, but he was immensely blessed by 1/2 a pint of earthworms! Can you imagine anything so sweet??? :)

To make a short story longer....some of you know I've been trying to cut back on eating out. It's been a challenge, but also fun to see how many days I can go. I am happy to report that I've only eaten out 3 times in the past 37 days! Friday I had a hankerin' for some mexican at my favorite cheapo restaurant so I talked Mike into going..."honey, do you realize that we have not gone out to eat together in 35 days??" Poor guy, he gave in ...and for what? Well, I'll spare you the details but he has not had a fun weekend and has let me know he thinks he would rather have PB and J sandwiches next time. :) It was especially distressing to me since I *LOVE* this mexi place and have eaten there for over 10 years and never gotten sick! :(

Oh, so back to the worms, no there weren't worms in the food, no Mike doesn't have....okay so anyway, Mike has searched high and low on the internet and around town for some good ol' earth worms to put in our garden. Their uh....residue....shall we say --trying to be a lady here-- apparently provides great fertilization for plants. So today while Mike was at home sick, dear sweet Dad ran down to the bait shop near his house and bought Mike a few! Needless to say, Mike felt very loved by this great act of kindness! (Did I mention that Mike is working REALLY hard on his thesis and probably needs to get out more??) He can't wait to put the worms in the pots and let them uh...do what they do... :)

But wait! There's more...before we get away from the topic of my Dad, I have to show you this picture he took last week. He FINALLY found a motorcycle built for the "big and tall" man!!!

I'm not sure how good the gas mileage is on this puppy, but Dad is retired so he can avoid the traffic/gas guzzling times of the day. :)

The only adoption news I have to report is that we got a video of Kaden on Friday (Yay!)...but then we opened the package and the cassette was broken (Boo!). We thought about trying to hold the tape part up to the light and rotating the wheel as fast as we could (Yay!) but that didn't quite work. (Boo!) I put in a call to our agency so hopefully we can get a replacement.

We had some crazy storms this weekend...lots of thunder, lightning, wind blowing etc...but thankfully our power only went out a few times and never for very long. We are very thankful for the MUCH needed ran in Hot-lanta! Thank you Lord!

The devil went down to Georgia!

Today is another hot day in Georgia. :-\ It's crazy how there have been horrible, damaging floods across the midwest and yet here we sit in Georgia, desperately in need of rainfall. So while your praying for rain to STOP in the midwest and praying for those poor people in the path of hurricane Dean, maybe send up a prayer for rain in the South too. :)

I have a few updates for you. First of all, I met up with some Guate Mommies** on Saturday night to see the laser show at Stone Mountain. ("...the devil went down to Georgia...he was lookin for a soul to steal...") It was a lot of fun to hang out, talk about adoption, watch the show, talk about adoption more, eat our picnic lunches, oh, and talk about adoption. :) I think Mike appreciated that I had an outlet other than him. :) My friend Becky drove us and she has a mega-cool Nissan minivan. Who knew that all 8 passengers needed their own individual sun roofs? Who knew how much fun it would be to tease Becky about all the lights and gadgets and knobs while she's driving?....yea, guess I need to get out more. ;-)

**A Guate Mommy is defined as a female who is in the process of adopting or has already adopted a precious little one from Guatemala.

Secondly, my friend who is going through the nightmare with that orphanage that was raided in Guatemala (she is adopting twins) was interviewed by the BBC. If you have 15 minutes, please listen to the interview and the Guatemalan reporter afterwards. The only point I differ on is the "transactional" perception of adoptions down there. I know there are unethical lawyers down there trying to make lots of money, but I have a lot of faith in the adoption agencies most adoptive parents are going through. My point is although that may be the perception, it is NOT the reality in most cases. Most parents and agencies go through painstaking steps and processes to insure the legality of the whole adoption. As you listen you may be surprised at the mis-perceptions of some Guatemalans about the whole process and the resulting actions they take. Please continue to pray for this orphanage and these little ones.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/outlook.shtml#Mon

On a lighter note, I saw some funny posts the other day about adoption and adoption agencies. My and Mike's eyes have truly been opened to the realities of adoption procedures, interacting with people who consider you just another number, etc... I don't think you have to go through what we've been through to enjoy these, however. If you've ever dealt with any bureacracy, surely you'll appreciate these. :)

• You don't have to be crazy to adopt - but you will be before it's over!
• Bringing Families Together......Eventually...
• International Adoption....bringing children and their families together before either draws social security...And that is our commitment to you.
• When it absolutely, positively has to happen in this century.
• Adoption: Not for the faint of heart, or the sound of mind.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Mike is working on chapter 5! (woohoo!!!) of his thesis. Also, we got our first 'maters from the garden! They are a bit smaller than we anticipated but quite tasty! I plan to cook up our green beans once we harvest just a few more from the vine.

And for those who skimmed down this whole blog just to see if there were any pictures, here you go. :)

Mike and I with our nephew Scott and one of their cocker spaniels --Rusty, this past spring.

We have lots of wonderful nephews and nieces so I'll try to find more pictures to post!

We're still in PGN, (the Guatemala Attorney General's office), as far as we know....I'm hoping/praying we'll get out around August 30th, so please mark your calendars and lift up the prayers! We want out boy home!! And speaking of the cute little chunk..... :)

Lastly, we would like to mention our friends Josh and Jessica who are bringing their Guate baby home for good tomorrow!! Congratulations to the new parents and ,Jadon, we can't wait to meet you!! :)

Kaden is 8 months old!

Greetings friends and family. I have several updates for you but first lets look at some pictures of the sweetest little Guate baby!



We received these pictures last week. Kaden turned 8 months old on August 8th and he's close to 20 lbs now! I guess I better get crackin' with those pushups and arm curls! :)

Kaden is doing great. He's very healthy, and continues to receive great care. For that we are VERY thankful.

On the agenda for today are:

• 8 + 3 = 6 ???
• The parallel Wiener section
• Our Ultrasound

8 + 3 = 6 ???
Today marks week 6 in PGN. What's that you say?? Week 8 was 3 weeks go so how can we be at week 6 now? Very simple, my dear Watson....we were kicked out back in June and were resubmitted to PGN on 07/05/07. We only found this out in the last week or so. When your docs are submitted to PGN, (the Guatemalan Attorney General for those who don't recall ) , they are reviewed by 2-3 reviewers over several weeks. If any of the reviewers find something they don't like, then your docs will be kicked out. We had been told for the past several weeks that we were "still in PGN" but that was not the case. Apparently there was some miscommunication with the "powers that be" in Guatemala. It was disappointing and depressing to find this out, but we were also relieved to have an answer as to why it was taking so long.

So, it is what it is....(or as my Uncle Rick says "things are more like they are today than they ever were before!"). Now we're looking ahead and hoping for the best. Today marks week 6 since being resubmitted. So we're praying and hoping that we'll be out in about 2 weeks. We would appreciate your prayers for the same. After that, are we done? Of course not!! More details to come...

Meanwhile we are continuing to progress with the nursery. We've made quite a few trips to goodwill to get rid of clutter and my kind brother has offered to store some stuff we don't have room for (uh oh...does he realize what he's done??). And the BEST news is that the fall season consignment sales have started ! I'm hitting the Cobb Civic Center Saturday and will definitely cruise 3-4 other baby consigment sales over the next month. (Who says shopping isn't therapeutic??) :)

The parallel Wiener section
This, of course, refers to part of Mike's dissertation work. He is now working day and night when he's not at his part time job. I'm amazed at how he keeps up the perserverance...meanwhile listening to my rants and ravings about the slow adoption process and still having time to walk the dog! We thank GOD that he finished chapter 2 Monday night. Now he is working on the LAST chapter. Please pray he will continue to be motivated and have good, clear thinking as he finishes this last chapter.

I told Mike on Wednesday that when he finishes this last chapter, we're taking a mental health break! We have some friends in north Florida who have offered up their sofa bed and we can even bring the dog! So we're going to take a long weekend (hopefully late next month) to go veg a bit, breathe some sea air, take a walk...and not worry about the thesis or adoption details or Atlanta traffic for a few days. :-0

Our Ultrasound
I saw this on another site and thought it was great. This is the latest ultrasound of our son and how he's progressing. :-) I know that being truly physically pregnant is a very different thing, but I tell ya, I've definitely felt a lot of labor pains over the last few months!

We hope you are all doing well and would love to hear from you.

Last but not least, keep your calendars marked for December 14th. Mike IS graduating from Georgia Tech at 7:00 PM on this day! :)

Week 8 has started...

Today we start week 8 of waiting to hear from PGN (Guatemalan Attorney General's office). The good news is that we have not been kicked out....although that could still happen. We received word earlier this week that we are "still in PGN"...so that's good, I think. :)

In other news, Mike's garden has been growing well. And considering that we live on the third floor of a condominium and have no yard, that's quite a feat! We have already enjoyed a good bit of salad and saw that our first bean came up this week! I also saw our first little tomato this morning (planted a little late). We're excited to enjoy some fresh veggies before too long!


This picture was taken a few weeks ago, before Mike's haircut. (If you think he looks cute here, you should see him now! )


The second picture was taken a few days ago. Is this an engineering marvel or what?? :)














I do have some good news. I am seeing a good number of people get out of PGN, so that encourages us that *maybe* we'll get out soon too. Once out of PGN, then they say it can take another 4-8 weeks before you can pick your child up. The past few weeks have been tough, but we are very thankful that we are finally looking at that light at the end of the tunnel. And as I mentioned in a previous email, we will praise God on the good days and on the bad. We know He is in control and He is mighty and faithful. :)

The nursery is getting closer and closer to being ready every day as is Mike's thesis. He's made great progress in the past few weeks and is hoping to have his rough draft done by end of August.

As always, please pray for our son Kaden, his paperwork to make it through and out soon, and for Mike's thesis to get finished. We can almost taste it!!

Blessings and best wishes to all of you.
Love,
Mike and Susan