Thursday, June 30, 2011

Adjustments

This blogpost is actually a plea for advice! Please comment here or on FB if you have any advice.

Waiting for the kids to come home I spent so much time reading, planning and seeking advice on how to make Micah coming into our family as easy as possible. We have had a really easy adjustment with him (so far) and I am very thankful for that. I really only thought of Sarah Faith as a baby to love and take care of. I have had three babies before..no problem, right?

Wrong.

For one she was afraid of every piece of baby equipment we have, except the bumbo seat because they have those in the TH. I have gradually worked her into the swing, playpen and exersaucer with 10 min increments daily. This morning she played in her playpen happy for 20 min. She still prefers me, but is getting better daily at being in the floor or swinging.

My issues now are with sleep. Naps, she wakes up 30 min in terrified. Screaming with huge tears rolling down her face. All I have to do is rub her back or head and she will fall asleep again, only to repeat this 30 min later. Her favorite way to sleep is on my chest with both of my arms wrapped tight around her.. so she cant hardly move. Her whole body will relax and she will fall asleep right away as long as I lay and hold her like that.

Night time is the same way. She sleeps about 4 hours ...8:00pm- midnight and then is into a 30 min crying out pattern the rest of the night.

Has anyone else had this problem? Tips on helping her get through it? How long will this last approximately? Any online articles I could research? I am sure there are but my sleep deprived brain isnt having a whole lot of luck researching this!
thanks.....
Jackie

** I wanted to add that it isnt that I mind holding her and rocking her! I LOVE doing that ( although I would enjoy a little more sleep at night). I waited 3 years for a baby to love on and I am enjoying it SOOOO MUCH! I am just trying to help her not be so afraid and terrified when she does wake up.**

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Micah and Sarah Faith's Adoption video


Here is a video of our adoption story. If you click on the white title on the video it will take you to the full screen version. :)

Monday, June 6, 2011

Embassy Date

We have an embassy date of June 16th! We will arrive June 14th and have our Gotcha Day. We will spend a few days enjoying Ethiopia with the kids, have our embassy day on the 16th, get their visas on the 17th and leave the evening of the 18th.
We will fly 17 hours and land in DC Sunday morning. We will be in NC around 6:00 pm

Sunday, June 5, 2011

how I am feeling...

I can't even begin to describe how I am feeling this week. I honestly cannot believe it is finally time to go back to Ethiopia and bring Micah and Sarah Faith home! The best way I can describe my feelings is similar to the week leading up to when I got married
( Which ironically is 16 years ago to the WEEK! Our anniversary is this coming Friday!)
I am terrified and worried something will go wrong one minute and giddy with excitement the next! When I lay down to go to sleep my mind is SPINNING with all I need to do! I have lists for my lists right now and only 7 days to get it all done.

I am so very thankful to everyone that has prayed for us and encouraged us and supported this adoption. I am very thankful to have been able to share so much through this blog and face book. Someone said to me the other day that they feel like they have experienced this with me (even though they live miles away) because of the Internet. It has truly been a journey.

We should find out tomorrow our exact embassy date, but is should be within the week we are there. I will try to post pictures of our Gotcha Day on here from Ethiopia, but sometimes blogger is funny over there and I can only post on FB.

Ahhhhh. .....Only 8 more sleeps till we leave!!!

Friday, June 3, 2011

What I know..

This post may a bit premature, but I am figuring after 27 hours of travel, a new baby, bonding, stretching from a 5 family household to a 7 family household. This may very well be the last time in a long while my thoughts are all clear and running in the same direction. :)

Adoption has taught me a lot over the last two years and I feel like there are some things I need to share.

1. You have to be called to do it. There are some people, even friends of mine, that believe all Christians are called to adopt. I disagree. I believe all Christians are to CARE for widows and orphans and that might mean praying for adoptions, giving to families trying to adopt, encouraging these families, but I think you have to feel that it is something God has called you to and on the darkest nights when you wish you had never even heard the word adoption, that is when His calling will get you through the valley.

2. Dont be afraid if your husband doesnt "get it". I have never ever (and I have heard alot) heard of an adoption story where the husband was on board first. I am sure there are some, but the majority is the wife is called first. I am not sure why...maybe the maternal instinct? The more I talked about it, the more Greg dismissed it, BUT the more I prayed about it, the more I saw the Lord use other people's testimony ( in real life, on the radio, in news articles) to speak to Greg and soften his heart. I did show him THIS video when I felt he was close and I am pretty sure that was what pushed him on over to the dark side :)

3 .The only expectation to have is the unexpected is going to happen! Oh my word is this true. We went in wanting a baby boy and to be home by the end of 2010 with him. Our Gotcha Day will be in JUNE 2011 for a 10 year old boy and a baby girl! We have hit every bump in the road! Referral loss, Ethiopia became a two trip country, court hold ups, embassy snafu's..you name it, it has happened. I kinda wish I would have NEVER set any type of timeline in my head and never been so age and gender specific. I think it would have saved me a lot of heart ache and a lot of questions. ( See tip #1)

4. If you feel called DONT let money stand in your way! There are so many resources out there and God has just amazed us with providing just what we needed when it was due. The Levites had to step in the water before the Lord rolled the sea back....sometime ya got step first and trust Him to provide it.

5. Select your agency careful and pray about it. Alot. I didn't do this and God blessed us with an amazing agency and when I think of how little research I really did on them, I shudder at what could have been. I have heard stories and we watched in Ethiopia other agencies handle families and America World is top notch. Not only that, the families that are with AWAA are amazing. There are at least 10 woman, some I have never met, that I could call any time, day or night and they would pray and cry with me over our children. We have stayed up all night praying, we have rejoiced at kids coming home, at referrals, at court success. AWAA is a family and I am so proud and so glad to belong with them.

6. Dont let all the adoption literature scare you. If you get into this paperchase and start reading books and cases..it can scare your socks off! I agree there needs to be some preparation, BUT you also have to A) use common sense. B) trust the Lord for guidance with the children He has given you. If I took every possible symptom of a institutionalized child and compared it to my three home grown, well balanced, much loved children...they would have some of the symptoms! Wanna know why? Because they are kids and kids act like kids..and act out. and explore. and push boundaries. I am by no means saying throw out all the valuable resources, but don't let it terrify you either. There are a lot of worse case scenarios in those books.

7. Be ready to be changed. You wont see people the same any more. Or Race. Or social standings. You wont laugh at racial remarks..in fact they might even offend you. You wont look at materialism the same way. America drama isn't exactly entertaining after you witness extreme poverty first hand. You will cry more, you will pray more, you will sleep less and hopefully think about yourself less. God becomes closer and the world becomes smaller.

I have asked myself now that I have been through one of the more difficult adoptions our agency has seen, would I do it again if I knew how much it would hurt and how much it would consume our lives??

The answer is yes. One hundred times over yes.

We are CLEARED FOR TRAVEL!!!!!


We got the call this morning that we are cleared for Embassy! Less than 24 hours after we stepped out on faith and bought our plane tickets He opened the door and cleared us! Praise God! He really is amazing!

We leave on June 13 and our embassy appointment will be that week ( we should find out Monday what the actual date is.)

We will be back in Greensboro at 5:55 on Sunday June 19th. ( united flight 5690)... Father's Day. :) Anyone close by that would like to meet us at the airport is more than welcome to come meet the newest Mullis kids! :)

Isaiah 43: 1-2

Fear not, for I have redeemed you,

I have summoned you by name; you are mine.

When you pass through the waters,

I will be with you ;

And when you pass through the rivers,

They will not sweep over you.

When you walk through the fire,

You will not be burned;

The flames will not set you ablaze.

For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel , your Saviour.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Stepping out of the boat


After finding out that we needed more paperwork for embassy on Friday and pretty much reeling with the news all weekend ( seriously, Lord? Can't at least one part of this go smooth?) We made the decision to go ahead and make our plane reservations for June 12th -19th. We decided that it was time. Our kids have been over there waiting since meeting us in January and its just time. We decided that we would go on faith that God would provide the embassy appointment we need, when we need it.

Greg will fly home on June 19th and hopefully we will all be with him, but if the kids have not gotten their Visas, I will stay with them until they are cleared for travel. It may be another week or just a few days, but regardless they will have their mommy and daddy there in Ethiopia on June 14th for Gotcha Day.
I have had total peace about this... in spite of our agency giving us a worse case scenario ( stuck in country for longer) I still think we need to go. Greg does too and last night I began preparing a list of items needed for additional time in ET, thinking of ways to keep the kids entertained as we wait on embassy, imagining in my mind getting through a 17 hour flight and customs alone. I woke up feeling like, with God's help I can be brave and for the kids, I can do this. We called grandparents and airlines this morning and began planning to leave the 12th.

My phone rings around 11 and it is AWAA and I am thinking to myself they have gotten the email telling them we are going no matter what and here comes round 2 of worse case trying to talk me out of it. Instead she says, "Your family must have been praying hard last night because the document that should have taken until June 8th to be submitted was actually submitted last night!"

It is a faxed copy of it, but the original is on its way back to the city . Hopefully embassy will take the faxed copy and clear us tonight (PLEASE PRAY THEY DO!!) but either way the document is found and on its way to Addis so they can submit the original if need be! Please pray it is also what embassy needs to clear Micah. Sarah Faith is good it is just one document for Micah they are requesting.

Now, we still haven't cleared and we still don't have an embassy date, but the fact that the Lord allowed the document to be submitted a full week ahead of time is a big deal to me! We are still leaving on the 12th cleared or not, embassy date or not, but I am hoping and praying the Lord will allow us ( and our kids) to know we are cleared and with a solid date by the time we leave on 6/12/11.
If so, we will arrive home on June 19th on Father's Day. How cool is that!? Greg would have all 5 of his kids together for Father's Day and my dad and his dad will be at the airport to meet us. The first time we have all ever been together on Father's Day.

Stepping out of the boat is not an easy thing for me to do, but with God in charge we feel like it is the right thing to do.

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