Well, as everyone probably knows by now our visa appointment went great! We were so nervous but everything went fine. The day didn't start out that great. First of all Martin tells me that morning that Michells mom said when they went to Michells medical appointment the doctor said that most kids have to have a DNA test done to get their visa approved. This is the last thing I wanted to hear. I was trying to avoid that because that would mean we would not get to bring her home. Our appointment was at 7 am. along with about 200 other people. We got to the US Embassy about 6:30 and people were already lined up. There were two lines and we didn't know which line we were suppose to be in. Martin started asking people and they told us we needed to be in the line on the left. Around 7 this girl from the embassy came out and started walking down the line to check our appointment letters. When she got to us she said you need to be in the other line. We went to the other line and asked if this was the line for the visas they said no, you need to be in the other line. Of course everyone is speaking Spanish so I'm just following Martin around. We go back to the other line and then someone says no you need to be in the other line....oh my goodness. I'm about to scream, Martin is beyond frustrated and at this point no matter what line we are in we are last!! So we go walking back to the other line when this very nice man who spoke English stopped me. He asked to see our interview letter. When I showed him he said this is the line you need to be in. Finally. On top of going back and forth this is a very scary place. It is the US Embassy but it is guarded by Honduran Police who were each carrying a huge gun around plus at least one on their hip. Walking back in forth talking in a language I don't understand. There were also people walking all around you begging for money or trying to sell you something. I just tried to stay against the wall and not make eye contact with anyone. Did I mention I was the only white person in the crowd so it's not like anyone noticed me.
Finally about 7:15 they started letting people in the Embassy but only a few at a time and of course we are at the back of the line. I didn't think we were ever going to make it to the door. When we finally did we had to go in through medal detectors and security. Once inside you take a seat and wait to be called. Luckily we brought things to entertain Michell because we knew it would be a long wait. When they finally called us to the window this really nice man started going through all of our paperwork and asking us questions. He asked me how many times have you been to visit since you and Martin were married. I told him this was the first time. He said OK well the only other thing I need I pictures of the baby with Martin and pictures of the two of you together. I handed him the album of pictures with me and Martin and the kids. Then I told him I didn't have any pictures of Martin and Michell together except screen shots from their Skype calls. He said how many times have you visited her. Martin told him he had not been here before. He said you've never been here. Martin said no. He looked at both of us took the album with the Skype photos and told us to have a seat and someone would be calling us for our interview shortly. We both walked away feeling completely defeated. I kept telling him don't worry if we have to do the DNA test it will be fine we will get it done as soon as possible. So a few minutes later we are the first ones called for our interview. We nervously walk into this little room where this lady is sitting behind glass with a microphone thing around her head to talk to us. She asked if we wanted her to speak to us in English or Spanish. We said English. She asked who Martin was and he told her he was Michell's dad. She said oh good they didn't tell me you were here for the interview. She asked Martin several questions about his relationship with Michells mom, when did you meet, how long were you together. He answered. The she asked him about us when we met, when we got married, what kind of wedding did we have. She the said it was so smart of us to take pictures of the Skype calls. She said everyone always says they Skype but we don't know if they really do. She asked us if we had a notarized letter from Michell's mom saying she could come live with us. Of course we did. I handed it to her and she said well basically your visa has been approved. Come back today and pick it up at 2:45. Then she said don't buy your plant tickets yet cause you never know what might happen just wait until you have the visa in your hand.
Well, we went back that afternoon and of course there was something wrong ours. They had Michell's marital status as Married. That is what stopped us from being able to come home and what kept us in Honduras now for another 4 days. We are so ready to get home. I cant wait until the kids get to meet her. She is excited too. Every time we see an airplane she wants to know when we are getting her ticket.
I was really worried about how she would adjust without her mom but she has been so good. The day we went for our interview and found out it was approved her mom, step dad and uncle left to go back home. She has talked to her mom everyday on the phone but she hasn't been upset or anything. The only time she has cried since she has been with us is when she bumped her mouth and busted her lip open a couple of days ago. She asked Martin one day if her mom was coming to get her and he told her no. Later that day she said "my mom is at home but she's not coming" She hasn't asked about it since. That makes me happy and sad all at the same time. I'm glad she is able to talk to her family and not be upset. She has talked to her mom, and both her grandparents and she was really happy to talk to them. I'm sure that her mom is glad that she doesn't cry too. Martin talked to Michell's grandmother the day after our interview. She said when Michell's mom got home she went straight to her room and cried a lot the rest of the day. That breaks my heart but I know that she feels like she made the right decision.
So we are pretty much held up in our apartment counting down the days until we come home. Please pray that we get that visa tomorrow!!!
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
8 hours and counting.........
I will start by apologizing for this post. I have so much to say that I can't possibly get it all out but I will try with this long, shortened version.
I promised I was going to keep up with this while I was gone but it has been a crazy two days. As of this moment we have about 8 hours until our interview. I know I should be sleeping but my brain wont shut off long enough for me to close my eyes. At least Martin is sleeping and he needs to rest, he will probably be the one answering all of the questions tomorrow.
So to catch everyone up on what's been going on. We had the kids for the weekend. I spent most of it trying to finish school work to end my quarter before we left. Got the kids home Monday and we stayed with friends in Dallas for the night. Of course I spent probably the first 2 or 3 hours held up in their bedroom trying to write a term paper that had to be finished before I left. Anyway, got that out of the way, didn't get any sleep and then left for the airport about 3:15 am to catch a 5:45 flight. Of course between me and my friend neither one of us could get to the airport (even with my gps on my phone) partly because of the road construction and partly because I have no sense of direction. Anyway, we make it to the airport around 4:15 or 4:30 and I'm feeling somewhat panicked. I hate flying out of DFW don't know my way around ugh just hate it. So we go in and find this really nice American Airlines employee who helps us get checked in with our passports, gets our bags checked and prints out our boarding tickets. I had looked online and it said our terminal was D gate D18. He carefully explains exactly how to get to the gate and we are on our way. We get there about 5:00 and nobody is there. Of course it's early in the morning so I'm just thinking we just got here before everyone else. I check the board and it shows our flight is on time; OK I can relax. Me and Martin are sitting there talking and nobody comes. Finally, I ask Martin, "What time is it?" He says 5:30.....WHAT??? My heart automatically starts pounding in my chest as the panic rises. He has never flown before so he didn't know what was suppose to be going on. I look at our boarding passes and it says Gate C17. OMG, we go running across the airport bags in hand. Have to go up a floor, take the shuttle bus to gate C, down a floor and get to the gate at about 5:40. Nobody is there except the people behind the counter. I show her our boarding pass because I cant speak I'm so out of breath, she says "oh, you made it! We just paged you over the intercom" The plane is waiting for you. Thank Goodness!! We board the completely full plane with everyone looking at us like YOU were the ones holding us up....great. We find our seats, find a place to store our bags and the pilot comes on to tell us they are working on some maintenance issues and we are going to have a slight delay...really? I'm a mess and we haven't gotten off the ground.
Fast forward to Miami, everything is fine with the flight except for I had this really nice man sitting next to me who spoke Spanish to me the entire flight even though I told him I don't speak Spanish. Finally after a half a day of flying and no food we reach Honduras. We get through immigration and customs fairly easy. We get out of the airport and there are seriously hundreds of people just standing there staring at you. Some want money, some want to carry your bags for money, some just want your bags. Luckily we had a shuttle service scheduled to pick us up and he had a huge sign with my name so he was easy to locate. We follow him to this beat up little car that doesn't look like it will make it down the road. Once on the road all became clear.....these people do not know how to drive! The streets are small and packed with cars. Two lane roads are barley big enough for two cars and motorcycles come speeding up between the cars going 50 mph. like nothing. Nobody stops for signs and everyone honks at everyone. There is no yielding they just creep into ongoing traffic until someone finally stops to avoid hitting you. So that was a lot of fun. Again luckily, our hotel was only about 10 mins from the airport.
Fast forward to our first meeting with Michell......when we get to the hotel they tell us that they are already checked into their room so we get settled and Martin calls their room. Michell answers, she is so excited, they are on their way to our room. Me and Martin are both pacing the floor and he says I don't know what to do, I just want to grab her and hug her. I tell him don't do that or you will scare her. He says my heart will break if something goes wrong and she cant come home with us. At this point I am fighting back tears and then we hear her coming. She is laughing and happy and excited.....we open the door and as soon as she sees us she starts crying hysterically and runs to her mother screaming lets go mommy, get me out of here. This continues for about 15 minutes or so. Martin tries to talk to her but she is crying so hard. I'm just standing there not knowing what to do. She was with her mom, her step dad and her uncle. All of them are trying to calm her down and get her to talk to Martin. He brings out the baby doll we brought for her and she starts smiling through her tears. She takes the baby but still wont get close to Martin. Another 10 minutes go by and she is talking to him but she still wont get near either one of us. Martin looks at me with the saddest eyes ever and says I just want to touch her hand. I told him to wait until she was ready. We go get the pictures of the two of them from their Skype calls. She points at herself and says "Michell" then she points and Martin and says "Mi Poppy" That was it, she finally figured it out and they have been stuck like glue since :-) You would never know looking at them that they just met in person for the first time yesterday. He is such a good daddy, and her mom has really been good with all of this. Once Michell was fine with Martin she has just kind of stepped back and let us take care of her. She is just kind of watching from the sidelines and I know this is hard for her, but she is just letting us get to know Michell and vice versa. We spent the rest of the day with all of them and things were great. That night when they got ready to go back to their room. Her mom asked if she wanted to go with them or stay and she wanted to stay with us. We kept her for another 45 mins or so and just talked to her and colored with her and got her ready for bed before taking her back to her mom.
This morning we were up at six, got dressed and called their room to see if she was up. Her mom said yes, she is waiting for you. We went over to get her and she was waiting at the door. She is so cute I cant even explain it. We spent all day today with her and now the thought of leaving her here is what keeps me from sleeping tonight. I don't know what we will do.
Here is this child that until yesterday we didn't even know and now we cant imagine not having her. How does that even happen? She cant understand me and I don't understand her but I love her so much already. I just want to take her home. I want to let her soak in a bath tub and wash her hair. I want to wash away the dirt that looks like it's tattooed on her skin. I want to clean her fingernails so you can actually see the pink we painted them today instead of the dirt that shows thru. Don't get me wrong. She is a very loved little girl by her mom and she does the best she can but things are different here, much different and we all want her to have a better life.
I've had conversations (with Martin translating) with her mom. She LOVES this little girl and she is so brave to be doing this. I have so much respect for her. She said that people keep asking her why she is doing this. Why she is letting her go. I told her I understand. I told her that I know that there are people that think bad of me because I let my kids go live with their dad but I didn't do it because I didn't love them. I did it because I loved them enough to put what they needed and what was best for them above what I wanted and needed.
This is not easy.........and now we have 7 hours.
I promised I was going to keep up with this while I was gone but it has been a crazy two days. As of this moment we have about 8 hours until our interview. I know I should be sleeping but my brain wont shut off long enough for me to close my eyes. At least Martin is sleeping and he needs to rest, he will probably be the one answering all of the questions tomorrow.
So to catch everyone up on what's been going on. We had the kids for the weekend. I spent most of it trying to finish school work to end my quarter before we left. Got the kids home Monday and we stayed with friends in Dallas for the night. Of course I spent probably the first 2 or 3 hours held up in their bedroom trying to write a term paper that had to be finished before I left. Anyway, got that out of the way, didn't get any sleep and then left for the airport about 3:15 am to catch a 5:45 flight. Of course between me and my friend neither one of us could get to the airport (even with my gps on my phone) partly because of the road construction and partly because I have no sense of direction. Anyway, we make it to the airport around 4:15 or 4:30 and I'm feeling somewhat panicked. I hate flying out of DFW don't know my way around ugh just hate it. So we go in and find this really nice American Airlines employee who helps us get checked in with our passports, gets our bags checked and prints out our boarding tickets. I had looked online and it said our terminal was D gate D18. He carefully explains exactly how to get to the gate and we are on our way. We get there about 5:00 and nobody is there. Of course it's early in the morning so I'm just thinking we just got here before everyone else. I check the board and it shows our flight is on time; OK I can relax. Me and Martin are sitting there talking and nobody comes. Finally, I ask Martin, "What time is it?" He says 5:30.....WHAT??? My heart automatically starts pounding in my chest as the panic rises. He has never flown before so he didn't know what was suppose to be going on. I look at our boarding passes and it says Gate C17. OMG, we go running across the airport bags in hand. Have to go up a floor, take the shuttle bus to gate C, down a floor and get to the gate at about 5:40. Nobody is there except the people behind the counter. I show her our boarding pass because I cant speak I'm so out of breath, she says "oh, you made it! We just paged you over the intercom" The plane is waiting for you. Thank Goodness!! We board the completely full plane with everyone looking at us like YOU were the ones holding us up....great. We find our seats, find a place to store our bags and the pilot comes on to tell us they are working on some maintenance issues and we are going to have a slight delay...really? I'm a mess and we haven't gotten off the ground.
Fast forward to Miami, everything is fine with the flight except for I had this really nice man sitting next to me who spoke Spanish to me the entire flight even though I told him I don't speak Spanish. Finally after a half a day of flying and no food we reach Honduras. We get through immigration and customs fairly easy. We get out of the airport and there are seriously hundreds of people just standing there staring at you. Some want money, some want to carry your bags for money, some just want your bags. Luckily we had a shuttle service scheduled to pick us up and he had a huge sign with my name so he was easy to locate. We follow him to this beat up little car that doesn't look like it will make it down the road. Once on the road all became clear.....these people do not know how to drive! The streets are small and packed with cars. Two lane roads are barley big enough for two cars and motorcycles come speeding up between the cars going 50 mph. like nothing. Nobody stops for signs and everyone honks at everyone. There is no yielding they just creep into ongoing traffic until someone finally stops to avoid hitting you. So that was a lot of fun. Again luckily, our hotel was only about 10 mins from the airport.
Fast forward to our first meeting with Michell......when we get to the hotel they tell us that they are already checked into their room so we get settled and Martin calls their room. Michell answers, she is so excited, they are on their way to our room. Me and Martin are both pacing the floor and he says I don't know what to do, I just want to grab her and hug her. I tell him don't do that or you will scare her. He says my heart will break if something goes wrong and she cant come home with us. At this point I am fighting back tears and then we hear her coming. She is laughing and happy and excited.....we open the door and as soon as she sees us she starts crying hysterically and runs to her mother screaming lets go mommy, get me out of here. This continues for about 15 minutes or so. Martin tries to talk to her but she is crying so hard. I'm just standing there not knowing what to do. She was with her mom, her step dad and her uncle. All of them are trying to calm her down and get her to talk to Martin. He brings out the baby doll we brought for her and she starts smiling through her tears. She takes the baby but still wont get close to Martin. Another 10 minutes go by and she is talking to him but she still wont get near either one of us. Martin looks at me with the saddest eyes ever and says I just want to touch her hand. I told him to wait until she was ready. We go get the pictures of the two of them from their Skype calls. She points at herself and says "Michell" then she points and Martin and says "Mi Poppy" That was it, she finally figured it out and they have been stuck like glue since :-) You would never know looking at them that they just met in person for the first time yesterday. He is such a good daddy, and her mom has really been good with all of this. Once Michell was fine with Martin she has just kind of stepped back and let us take care of her. She is just kind of watching from the sidelines and I know this is hard for her, but she is just letting us get to know Michell and vice versa. We spent the rest of the day with all of them and things were great. That night when they got ready to go back to their room. Her mom asked if she wanted to go with them or stay and she wanted to stay with us. We kept her for another 45 mins or so and just talked to her and colored with her and got her ready for bed before taking her back to her mom.
This morning we were up at six, got dressed and called their room to see if she was up. Her mom said yes, she is waiting for you. We went over to get her and she was waiting at the door. She is so cute I cant even explain it. We spent all day today with her and now the thought of leaving her here is what keeps me from sleeping tonight. I don't know what we will do.
Here is this child that until yesterday we didn't even know and now we cant imagine not having her. How does that even happen? She cant understand me and I don't understand her but I love her so much already. I just want to take her home. I want to let her soak in a bath tub and wash her hair. I want to wash away the dirt that looks like it's tattooed on her skin. I want to clean her fingernails so you can actually see the pink we painted them today instead of the dirt that shows thru. Don't get me wrong. She is a very loved little girl by her mom and she does the best she can but things are different here, much different and we all want her to have a better life.
I've had conversations (with Martin translating) with her mom. She LOVES this little girl and she is so brave to be doing this. I have so much respect for her. She said that people keep asking her why she is doing this. Why she is letting her go. I told her I understand. I told her that I know that there are people that think bad of me because I let my kids go live with their dad but I didn't do it because I didn't love them. I did it because I loved them enough to put what they needed and what was best for them above what I wanted and needed.
This is not easy.........and now we have 7 hours.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Here We Go..........
Can't believe in a few short hours we will finally be boarding a plane headed to Honduras. It is so exciting and yet I'm nervous, scared, worried and just praying and hoping for the best. I can't believe after three years we are finally going to get to meet her. After 7 months of working on this we are finally going to see her face to face. We are so excited.
It has been a busy week trying to get ready to leave. So many things to do. The kids were with us all weekend but unfortunately most of my weekend was spent trying to finish up school work. It seems like it went by in the blink of an eye.
We bought Michell a Innotab which is kind of like a kids version of an I Pad. It has games and movies on it. (Things to keep a 3 yr old entertained while being held up in a hotel for a week) Anyway, the kids recorded a video for Michell in Spanish saying hello to her and telling her their names and that they loved her. It was so cute. It makes me very emotional to see how loving my kids are. I didn't know how they would accept all of this with Michell. They absolutely adore Micah but I was worried it might be different with Michell but it's not. They are excited about her coming. The girls are excited about having a "little sister" and Mason is just excited about having another little person to play with. The girls went shopping this weekend and came back with a pair of shoes for her. It just makes my heart smile to see that they love her too.
We dropped the kids off this evening with their dad and we are staying with a friend in Dallas. She is taking us to the airport in the morning. I will try to keep everyone updated the best I can and hopefully we will have good news to share very soon.
Until then, we have a very specific prayer request......please pray for a safe trip for us and please pray that her Visa is approved and that we get it Thursday.
Thank you again to everyone who has following our story. I will be blogging from Honduras for those who want to keep up with us.
Good Night, hope I can sleep :)
It has been a busy week trying to get ready to leave. So many things to do. The kids were with us all weekend but unfortunately most of my weekend was spent trying to finish up school work. It seems like it went by in the blink of an eye.
We bought Michell a Innotab which is kind of like a kids version of an I Pad. It has games and movies on it. (Things to keep a 3 yr old entertained while being held up in a hotel for a week) Anyway, the kids recorded a video for Michell in Spanish saying hello to her and telling her their names and that they loved her. It was so cute. It makes me very emotional to see how loving my kids are. I didn't know how they would accept all of this with Michell. They absolutely adore Micah but I was worried it might be different with Michell but it's not. They are excited about her coming. The girls are excited about having a "little sister" and Mason is just excited about having another little person to play with. The girls went shopping this weekend and came back with a pair of shoes for her. It just makes my heart smile to see that they love her too.
We dropped the kids off this evening with their dad and we are staying with a friend in Dallas. She is taking us to the airport in the morning. I will try to keep everyone updated the best I can and hopefully we will have good news to share very soon.
Until then, we have a very specific prayer request......please pray for a safe trip for us and please pray that her Visa is approved and that we get it Thursday.
Thank you again to everyone who has following our story. I will be blogging from Honduras for those who want to keep up with us.
Good Night, hope I can sleep :)
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Emotional Doesnt Begin to Explain This........
Today has been a very emotional day for me. Through out this whole process it has been a very weird, emotional, spiritual journey. The closer we get to the end of this the more emotional I get about the entire process. Although, we have dreamed and talked about his day for the last three years it stills seems almost unreal that it is coming to an end and that she will hopefully be here with us very soon. The thought that something could go wrong and she wouldn't come back with us is almost more than I can think about.
Since the purpose of this blog is to someday share with Michell the journey we went through to bring her to our family it cant go unmentioned the greatest sacrifice of all to make that happen and that is her mother giving us this gift. Not a day goes by that I don't think about what she is going through and what she is giving up. I have cried many tears thinking about how her heart must be breaking. As happy as we are that she is coming into our family, I know that she is also leaving behind a family that loves her very much and will miss her.
This is very hard for me. My big kids don't live with me and I know what a heart wrenching decision that was for me and I knew I was going to get to see them and that they would still be part of my life. I cant imagine having to make that decision and not knowing if I would ever see my child again.
I go between emotions of thinking about how devastated I would be at this point if she changes her mind to thinking about how devastating this is to her and how she will be able to let her go when the time comes. All I know is that I'm sure there will be many more tears cried over the next week or so. I just hope I can hold it together so that we can get through this.
The most important thing I want Michell to know about all of this is that her mother loved her very much and made many sacrifices for all of this to happen. As we are planning a new life with a new family member, she is planning a life without her little girl. I know things will be hard for her and that makes me very sad. I pray that God will give us all the strength we need to get through the next week and beyond.....
Since the purpose of this blog is to someday share with Michell the journey we went through to bring her to our family it cant go unmentioned the greatest sacrifice of all to make that happen and that is her mother giving us this gift. Not a day goes by that I don't think about what she is going through and what she is giving up. I have cried many tears thinking about how her heart must be breaking. As happy as we are that she is coming into our family, I know that she is also leaving behind a family that loves her very much and will miss her.
This is very hard for me. My big kids don't live with me and I know what a heart wrenching decision that was for me and I knew I was going to get to see them and that they would still be part of my life. I cant imagine having to make that decision and not knowing if I would ever see my child again.
I go between emotions of thinking about how devastated I would be at this point if she changes her mind to thinking about how devastating this is to her and how she will be able to let her go when the time comes. All I know is that I'm sure there will be many more tears cried over the next week or so. I just hope I can hold it together so that we can get through this.
The most important thing I want Michell to know about all of this is that her mother loved her very much and made many sacrifices for all of this to happen. As we are planning a new life with a new family member, she is planning a life without her little girl. I know things will be hard for her and that makes me very sad. I pray that God will give us all the strength we need to get through the next week and beyond.....
Thursday, February 7, 2013
12 Days and Counting......
Oh my goodness, I cant believe we have less than two weeks before we will be on a plane headed for Honduras to FINALLY meet her. I don't know if we are more excited or if she is.
It's hard when Martin calls because we are so excited and her mom is trying to be really brave through this whole process but you can hear her sadness coming through the phone. She finally has the medical appointment set up. She will travel to Tegucigalpa (about 4 1/2 hrs away from her home) on Thursday the 14th for her appointment on the 15th. She will have to go back on Sunday so she can take her back Monday for the reading of her TB test and to get the medical results for us to take along to the interview. They will just stay in town because we will be there Tuesday afternoon.
I have been consumed with school for the past several days and don't see an end to it until next weekend. It has been really stressful trying to finish two weeks ahead of schedule but I know it will be worth it when i can leave town and know I don't have to come back and try to get my head back in the books to take finals. I'm glad all of my teachers were understanding. I still have a term paper to write, two more tests, three finals, one big project and several small ones left to complete in the next 10 days......I'm tired just thinking about that.
With school it has been hard for me to concentrate on anything else. I miss my big kids horribly. Madeline has been busy with school and Mackenzie just finished up her last basketball game for the season this week and has been busy too. I never know what I'm going to get with Mason. Sometimes he talks my ear off and other times I cant get him to concentrate on our conversation because he is too busy playing some game while we are on the phone. Our schedules haven't given us much time to talk lately so I cant wait to see them all next weekend.
Micah is great. Getting bigger everyday and doing more. He is running all over the house and into everything. He loves being outside and gets really mad when we try to get him to come in after playing. I hope Michell likes being outside too because that is where we spend a lot of time. I'm getting sad thinking about leaving Micah for the first time when we are gone but i know he will be in good hands and i know he will be fine. Hopefully we will be ably to skype with him while we are gone so we will get to see him.
I'm getting more nervous the closer it gets. I've felt so confident in this whole process until now and now I'm kind of freaking out. I told Martin the other day that I know, and have always known, that there is a possibility that she wont be coming home with us this time but I haven't really let my mind entertain that thought. I can't even imagine what that is going to be like if it happens. It will be so hard to leave her there after getting to finally spend a few days with her. So with that being said I have a few very specific prayer request for those of you who have been praying with us: 1) Please pray for a safe trip for us there and back. 2) Please pray that they approve her visa and she gets to come back with us this time. and 3) Our interview is Thursday so IF its approved they could issue the visa that afternoon or it could be Monday of the next week (they don't issue them on Friday) So our last prayer request is that they issue the visa on Thursday so we can be back in the United States on Friday.
Thank you again for everyone who has been keeping up with our story and praying for us. We really appreciate it.
It's hard when Martin calls because we are so excited and her mom is trying to be really brave through this whole process but you can hear her sadness coming through the phone. She finally has the medical appointment set up. She will travel to Tegucigalpa (about 4 1/2 hrs away from her home) on Thursday the 14th for her appointment on the 15th. She will have to go back on Sunday so she can take her back Monday for the reading of her TB test and to get the medical results for us to take along to the interview. They will just stay in town because we will be there Tuesday afternoon.
I have been consumed with school for the past several days and don't see an end to it until next weekend. It has been really stressful trying to finish two weeks ahead of schedule but I know it will be worth it when i can leave town and know I don't have to come back and try to get my head back in the books to take finals. I'm glad all of my teachers were understanding. I still have a term paper to write, two more tests, three finals, one big project and several small ones left to complete in the next 10 days......I'm tired just thinking about that.
With school it has been hard for me to concentrate on anything else. I miss my big kids horribly. Madeline has been busy with school and Mackenzie just finished up her last basketball game for the season this week and has been busy too. I never know what I'm going to get with Mason. Sometimes he talks my ear off and other times I cant get him to concentrate on our conversation because he is too busy playing some game while we are on the phone. Our schedules haven't given us much time to talk lately so I cant wait to see them all next weekend.
Micah is great. Getting bigger everyday and doing more. He is running all over the house and into everything. He loves being outside and gets really mad when we try to get him to come in after playing. I hope Michell likes being outside too because that is where we spend a lot of time. I'm getting sad thinking about leaving Micah for the first time when we are gone but i know he will be in good hands and i know he will be fine. Hopefully we will be ably to skype with him while we are gone so we will get to see him.
I'm getting more nervous the closer it gets. I've felt so confident in this whole process until now and now I'm kind of freaking out. I told Martin the other day that I know, and have always known, that there is a possibility that she wont be coming home with us this time but I haven't really let my mind entertain that thought. I can't even imagine what that is going to be like if it happens. It will be so hard to leave her there after getting to finally spend a few days with her. So with that being said I have a few very specific prayer request for those of you who have been praying with us: 1) Please pray for a safe trip for us there and back. 2) Please pray that they approve her visa and she gets to come back with us this time. and 3) Our interview is Thursday so IF its approved they could issue the visa that afternoon or it could be Monday of the next week (they don't issue them on Friday) So our last prayer request is that they issue the visa on Thursday so we can be back in the United States on Friday.
Thank you again for everyone who has been keeping up with our story and praying for us. We really appreciate it.
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