Fun, Full Weekend Part 1

After such a sad (for me) week, I was quite relieved and excited for our fun weekend plans. It certainly helped keep me going.

After the boys' half day we headed to the Cassada's for a quick visit. Courtney knows what this wait is like and I am so blessed by her prayers and our conversations. It was just what my heart needed.

It was a beautiful weekend and there was lots of time spent outdoors.

 Levi and Ryan are still quite the pair.

I didn't get pics of Owen and Joshua but they picked up right where they left off. Played catch almost the entire weekend ;)

 Today is Levi's bday :) 

SO fun to sing to him and remember back 2 years ago when he first met his forever family.

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We also got to see the Youngs. But I didn't get any pictures :( The Cassada's graciously babysat our 3 on Sat. night while EJ and I attended a wedding. Then we spent 1 more night and left fairly early this morning. It was short, but sweet and hopefully next time we see them will be at the airport with Avery which won't be long now :)

Last Day of School

Just a tad excited and silly about the last (half) day of school. Hair flicking and silly faces ;)

Really ?!?! I swear he is not actually 13 now. It's only been 9 months, right?

Oh my heart.

He is thrilled be done. Curious what this next week holds ;)

I feel a little like how Ryan looks in this picture ;)

Waiting at the bus stop for brothers.

A little something waiting for them when they got home.

Kicking our summer off with a bang :)

And super excited to be heading to the Cassada's house for the weekend.

In Two Places At Once

I am here, but just barely. I want to curl up in a ball and cry, but there isn't time at least not without 6 eyes staring at me and getting worried. We have heard nothing from China in 3 long weeks and no news isn't good news in this case. We are in a time crunch that we didn't expect and the waiting feels awful. Our agency doesn't know anything, yet. 

For the past 2 weeks C(CWA has been experiencing glitches in their new computer system and those glitches are prohibiting them from issuing TAs. We still do not know if the glitches have been worked out, and we do not know if TAs are being issued again. Plus, this week started with a 3 day holiday. 

Normally this wouldn't be such a big deal. Just a delay by a week or two. BUT last week we learned that US Consulate in Guangzhou will be closing to move to a new location on July 15th. They will suspend all operations from July 15-July 24 (all adoptive families must go through the consulate at the end of their adoption trip to finalize their adoptions). These are the weeks we had assumed we'd be there or already back home! This means is that if we can't get our Consulate Appointment (CA) for July 11 or earlier, then we will have to wait to travel to China until sometime after July 24th. I am fairly certain our deadline for TA is tomorrow, but we have not be officially told.

I am trying to be "here" with my boys, with their last week of school, with thoughts of summer plans (that I didn't make b/c we were going to be gone). But honestly, I am worthless. Unless I am in His word or listening to praise music, my thoughts spiral into a terrible mess.
God has been so faithful to draw me nearer to Him. As hard as this is, I have not felt alone, I have become even more convinced of His love for me (thanks to some prayer warriors) One minute it is "well with my soul" for us to be held back and the next minute I am running back to His word for reassurance, b/c I have already forgotten.

I will treasure these lessons in my heart b/c I know I will need them even more in the next few months. Not only is He asking me to trust him, I feel He is challenging me to be thankful in the midst. I am resisting this b/c it doesn't come natural, I'd rather have a pity party, but He is showing me that is the next step to grow in my faith. His grace covers me, I do not doubt that He will give me the faith to thank Him.

It could be far worse than a small delay. I do have so much to be thankful. And one of those is this sweet precious boy who I adore. He played at this water table for a very very long time. Time I just needed to sit and read and pray. Trying to Count My Blessings. No one said this would be easy ;)

End of Kindergarten

I can't not say enough good things about Mason's sweet teacher. She is a blessing!

Today, she organized a small celebration for her class with "paper plate" awards, a slideshow of pics from the whole year plus donuts and fruit.

The awards were based on a characteristic she saw in them that she would love them to continue to be in the future.

"Mr. Cooperative"

Ryan loves being at school and he is well received and cared for by Mason's friends. We went back a couple hours later for a pizza party. This week is crazy! He gets another award tomorrow morning ;)

Boyz!

Apparently Owen and EJ missed baseball so much that we went to the batting cages this weekend!

   Daddy even had a turn :)

Then it was on to the go-carts.

Thankfully the boys have no clue what my heart is going through as I wait word on our travels. EJ was sweet to let me work on a house project this weekend. I just needed to do something! He knows me well. It was good to be by myself, be productive and it wasn't related to traveling or the adoption at all!
Please pray we get TA this week. It's a long story, but if we don't, we will likely not travel until the end of July. (we were assuming end of June) SADNESS!