First days of school

I've been meaning to update this for days. Life has been absolutely crazy since I got back from the DR. Our sweet kitty went through two surgeries and a pretty long recovery. Thankfully he's going to be ok. It's hard to understand the love of an animal until you watch how your children love them. When I brought him in for what I thought was a really bad seizure and stroke, I wasn't prepared for my daughter's emotions and making a tough decision. Weepy blue/green hazel eyes will always win the fight to save a pet. I'm happy to report that Squeaks has made a miraculous recovery. Even the vet team that worked on him thinks so.

Here's a picture of him from last winter.

How could I not fight for a little kitty who cuddles with Sofia's tush?

Last Thursday was the first day of 4th grade for my sweet daughter. She was fortunate enough to get her braces off right before school started. I can't believe this is my daughter.

It was a very big day for this household on Wednesday. Henry started preschool! He's been talking about it for weeks and was very excited to go. Here's my little man walking in on his first day. He's such a big boy.

Just last night I received another wonderful gift. A friend who recently brought her daughter home send me more pictures of our daughter. While we still aren't far enough in the process to be comfortable with revealing who she is, I will share one of the pictures.

Isn't she beautiful? Even the back of her head. I'm not sure what they were doing this day, but all the little girls were dressed up.

Have I said before how much I can't wait to bring her home? We're 3 months and 1 week post referral. We're nearly at the year mark since we started this process. To say that I'm impatient, frustrated, hopeful, detached, and in love would be the mixed bag that's Karen. We did receive a short update on how she's doing. She hangs out with the boys and gets into trouble. It seems she rallies them together and plots how to break out of the baby house. I can only imagine what she'll do with Henry!

One thing about adopting parents is that we're hungry for information. ANY kind of information. We spend hours surfing the Internet, reading blogs, pushing the F9 button just hoping an update email will come in. The Haiti blogs I've been reading indicate that it's taking 7-8 months in the process before the Visa gets issued. If we work a best-case scenario, that means she could be home in February. Mostly likely won't be, but she could be. When adopting parents don't get information, we make up our own. February.

 Will you please pray for that?