How Does It Feel?

More than one person has asked me this weekend and over the past few days, "How do you feel after seeing these photos? What emotions are you having?"

Well, the only thing I can say is that I'm completely and utterly in love! I can now study his face...his well defined eyebrows, and those oh-so-kissable pouty lips, his beautiful skin, and his curly hair growing back, his tiny hand grabbing Angela's in the video, the way he rocked back and forth to get to our picture.....I love him. So very much. This love has landed me right back at the foot of my Father's throne, praying His promises over this little one, and that is my hope and comfort. God loves to hear His promises and He loves to fulfill His promises.

With the Spirit's help, I'm able to guard myself from dwelling on the negative and really focus in on the postive. I'm happy that he's in a top crib. I'm happy that he has a nanny that can make him smile. I'm happy that he's so inquisitive and boyish already!

After receiving my pictures from Angela, and watching the video several times, I decided to go back and examine another mother's very recent journey to pick up her little one. She had visited the orphanage and taken pictures. At the time, just a few days before Angela returned, I could not pick him out. I had two pictures to go by and each of them were so very different! One with lots of hair, one without....it was hard and I was feeling like a bad mom. But, once I had examined my new pictures, I thought I would try again, and this time he popped out of the pictures quickly! It's bathtime for the babies! I've heard through the grapevine that the children receive more than one bath a day, to help keep cool. Not sure if this is the case with our particular orphanage, but I hope so for his sake. It's HOT in Haiti!

I'm just really thankful for God's sustaining love over my son all the way in Haiti.

I've also had people ask: What is IBESR, and what does that mean? Here's a definition I found online for you...

Your child's paperwork is put together with your documents and the file is then presented to IBESR (Haiti's Social Service Department) where a social worker will look over all of your documents and decide whether to approve your adoption request.The director of IBESR, the IBESR lawyer, the head of adoption services at IBESR, and the IBESR social worker must all sign off on your dossier. This is four stages of approval.

This can take anywhere from 2-6 months or longer. I hope to stay within the given time frame. Yes, there are more stages after that, but we'll just take it a step at a time, so as not to confuse. But, so you can really be specific in your prayers now, please pray that IBESR will see no reason under the sun to disapprove of our adopting Joshua. May they quickly sign off on our match, to the praise of wonderful God!

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As for the rest of our house....we're enjoying the last dog days of our official summer break. School begins a week from today. I'm opting to stick with the county schedule this year, as a lot of our friends take off on certain days, and it makes it very convenient to be able to take off with them. We were blessed with a free table & 2 chairs, so my school room is almost complete. I still need to purchase the very large whiteboard I have my eye on at Office Depot. Daniel began "Fall Ball" last night. He's on a team with all of his good friends. They play twice a week, and he really enjoyed it last night. Won, 12-0. Our alternator on the van went out, but we had replaced it back when we purchased the van, so it had a lifetime warranty :~) So, we got a 200 dollar alternator for free! Another blessing. I'm ready for it too cool down. August is SOOOO hot & humid! So, this week, we're being quite the lazies. Swimming, sleeping in, ignoring messes all around us, sleeping over with friends, hanging out with friends. It's all good. :~)