Can it be 6 months already???

To our amazement, we just celebrated 6 months of Anna's time in our home on March 15th, 2007. It's incredible how quickly the time passes!

Here are some highlights of the past 6 months:

• March 15th, 2007 - enjoyed a special family meal out at a Lebanese restaurant to celebrate 6 months of Anna's being at home with us


• March 19, 2007 - we applied for a new birth certificate with our names as Anna's parents


• March 17, 2007 - dropped off the paperwork to classify Anna as an immediate relative so that she can immigrate to the USA with us


• February 27, 2007 - we went to court to finalize the adoption. The judge said "Yes!"


• February 17, 2007 - celebrated her 2nd birthday with friends at the Seminary


• December 25, 2006 - enjoyed our first Christmas together as a family and a visit from Nana and Paw Paw Thomas (Matt's parents)


• November 2006 - attended the TeachOverseas Thanksgiving Retreat together, her first Thanksgiving Dinner!


• October 2006 - dressed up as an adorable bumble bee for her first Halloween

It's such a delight to see all the ways that Anna is growing and changing. She's moved from size 12 month clothing to 18 month, size 3 to size 6 shoes, 75 to 80cm, and lots more...

She is able to walk, run, dance, climb up on chairs and up and down stairs, sing several songs (in her own baby language), speak tons of words and a few phrases, understand much of what we say, and carry on long phone "conversations"...

She loves music, food, taking a bath, everyone at the seminary, going for walks, wearing pretty clothes (she is very fashion conscious!), trying on Mom and Dad's shoes and gloves, swimming, and the Psalty videos...

We feel so fortunate that we get to be Anna's parents!

Addendum to First Christmas

I am happy to report that the Christmas mood has hit me at last. Interestingly, it came while sitting late at night under the lights of our tiny Christmas tree, which we finally put up on the day that I wrote my last post.

For some reason, Christmas trees really speak to me. I think it is the way they are a link to so many memories. Matt and I enjoyed recollecting the story of each little ornament--all of which we've bought on European travels or recieved as special gifts since we arrived here. This kind of story-telling is one of the reasons why ornaments are my favorite souvenir to buy while traveling. They have the advantage that they can be something a little kitsch while still be useful--and I'm guaranteed to actually get them out and look at them at least once a year.

Ever year in Advent I also try to think more deeply about the person of Jesus and let him meet me in a new way. Truthfully, that has been hard this year because I feel so distracted by all the things we've got to do in the course of a day. But I am trying to be open and have a posture of listening. I'm pleased because my book group which reads the works of Henri Nouwen (one of my favorite spiritual writers) may be reading a book about Jesus as our next text. It was written by Nouwen to his 19 year old nephew who was struggling with what it meant to follow Christ in a very secular world. I am looking forward to reading Nouwen's thoughts and discussing with this group of wonderful, reflective women. Monday nights are one of my favorite times of the week. :-)

Well, that's all for now...

First Christmas

I don't know about you, but everyone I've been talking to around here lately has felt that Christmas came way too early this year. Maybe global weather patterns are changing or there's some other good explanation, but somehow the holidays are just here sooner than they feel like they should be and it's kind of bumming me out.

We spent Thanksgiving, as we do every year in the Czech Republic, at the Thanksgiving Retreat put on by our missions organization, TeachOverseas. It was a strange experience in a lot of ways because it was our first time travelling with Anna so we were in very new territory. We ended up bringing our car just because of all the baby gear we needed to lug along so as not to disrupt Her Royal Highness's routine too much (thus leading to less sleep on the part of the lowly peon parents... our true motivations emerge. :-)

Although it was a good retreat, the Thanksgiving meal itself left a lot to be desired. It was prepared by the Czech hotel's restaurant staff and it just wasn't like mom would make (it was basically just turkey with mashed potatoes and gravy). So, we were relieved to learn that we were invited to a "round 2" Thanksgiving feast the following Saturday with several of the TeachOverseas folks. This time, it was exquisitely American and felt like a proper feast. Anna loved everything and fell asleep that night with a glowing, contented smile as if saying, "Something pleasant has just happened to me and I hope it happens again."

So, two Thanksgivings under our belt, you might expect it would feel like it's about time for Christmas. To be fair, it does feel more that way than after the first one (at which point I felt physically ill at the sight of the Tesco mega mall all dolled up for Christmas). The day after Thanksgiving #2, we headed to the home of some friends from church for a Christmas carol sing-a-long, complete with a wide variety of familiar cookies and a genuine, homemade cheeseball (yippeeee!!!) This put us in the holiday mood, though the strange lack of snow this December (Prague is generally very white in the winter) has left us wondering what to expect.

I still feel a lingering "let down" feeling about this Christmas season, though, and I'm not sure why. Somehow it just seems that it's not time yet and to have Christmas now is gratuitous and extravagant. Didn't we just do all this a few months ago?

One way I'm trying to recapture the joy of Christmas is looking at it through Anna's eyes. Though this is not her first Christmas, she is a lot more aware of her surroundings now than she was at 10 months of age. I had fun the other day buying her some musical instruments (her main present from us) and it's been great receiving gifts for her from friends and family around the world. I am excited to watch her soak up the beautiful Christmas hymns and read the tiny board book we have about the Baby Jesus. Though I know she doesn't completely understand about him yet, she has learned to recognize his name. (The other day I said, "Ani, let's read about Jesus." and she went to the bookshelf, scanned the books, picked out her Baby's First Bible and brought it back to me with a big smile. I also tell her about him every night and how much he loves her and she pleasantly agrees, "Yeah... Mm hmmm..." as if to say, "Of course he does, Mom, what's not to love?")

Although I am glad to be able to share this holiday with her and I know I can focus on God's coming in my life (in gratitude for his Son's birth and in openness to the new ways he wants to come into my life), can it be that I am already hitting that point where Christmas has lost its magic? I hope that this is primarily the result of the general slightly-overwhelmed-and-tired- most-of-the-time-ness of being a new parent. Maybe once our teaching is done at the end of next week (and we have several weeks of vacation to enjoy--my favorite perk of being a teacher!) I will feel different.

SparkPeople

A friend recently sent me a link to a really good website: www.sparkpeople.com.

It's a free site for supporting people in healthy lifestyle choices--not dieting but learning to be healthy. I'm excited about this because I want to exemplify a healthy lifestyle to Anna and I have been struggling with that for the past several months.

One thing I like about this site is that they encourage you to start slowly and have small, manageable goals. So, my three goals for getting started are:

1) eat oatmeal and plain yogurt for breakfast each day (that's actually a breakfast I really enjoy, believe it or not)

2) go to my aerobics class two nights a week and try to do 15 min. of stair climbing one other day

3) tell people about my goals and my progress (thus, this blog entry)

Some might say that the week before Thanksgiving is a strange time to be making these sorts of changes, but I have learned from past experience that I need to respond to motivators when they come and not put it off. So, thanks to my friend for sending this loving nudge and I hope to "spur others on" to taking some small steps toward wellness this week.

Blessings,
Jenny

Little Foo

I've been a mom now for about 7 weeks. Wow! I am having so much fun with it--which surprises me a bit because I had braced myself for it to be very stressful--and it's hard to remember what is was like before.

Anna is becoming a full-blown toddler. When we first met her, she still seemed more like a baby because she was only 17 months but looked about 12 months and was being fed in a high chair. Though we still feed her in her beloved high chair (we've taken to calling it her "throne"), she is much less baby-like in most other ways. She walks like a pro now and is mastering the stairs through daily practice up and down the many flights in the building where we live. She literally learns at least one new word per day. Some of her latest:
*weeeeee!
*apple (spoken and sign language)
*cracker (sign language and "kiki")
*meow (comes out like "naaaaah")
*hachi (this is Czech for sit down) and haji (Czech for lay down)
*shhhhhhhh! (accompanied by a finger to the lips)
*beeeeeeep (while pushing someone's nose--she learned this from grandpa Ron)

She has even said a few two-word sentences like:
*tay tay Mama (which means "Take this, Mama")
*Up Dada!
*Ne ne ham ("I don't want to eat that")
*All done! (comes out like "Allllllll duh")

Another thing she has discovered lately is her own reflection in the mirror. She is delighted by herself and loves to make funny faces and see if Mirror Anna will do the same. She seems to find herself very cute. The other day, she was looking at her reflection in a small mirror and she pushed the nose of her reflection and said, "Beeeeep!" Smart girl! :-)

We're also pleased that she has figured out the joy of reading books and often comes running up to us with one in hand saying emphatically: "A buh!", which translates to: "Look! I have a book that I want you to read to me." She spent ages this morning examining the last page of her Baby's First Bible in which little children of many ages and ethnicities are running up to Jesus ("let the little children come to me"...) We hope she comes to understand his love for her at a very early age.

One of the fun things about being a parent is making up nicknames for your child. We have many for her including:

(From the orphanage--her Czech nicknames, I'll spell them how they are pronounced):
*Ani (this is what we call her most often--it's equivalent to Annie but pronounced with a long "a")
*Ancho (another short form of Anna)
*Anichko (Aneechko)--means "little Anna"
*Andulko--similar to the word for "little Angel"
*Yablichko (Yahbleechko)--means "little Apple"

Random things we call her:
*Foo (don't ask where it came from but it has become our main silly name for her)
*the Foo
*the Foofer
*Foofy
*________ Mc Foo (as in: Cutie Mc Foo, Screamy Mc Foo... or whatever adjective seems to suit at the moment)
*Stinky Foo (when she's being naughty)
*You Fooligan! (when she's being REALLY naughty! :-)
*the Bug (Matt's favorite)
*Ani-Boo
*Anchi (my own permutation of her Czech nickname)
*Her Royal Highness when she's being bossy or vetoing our food suggestions :-)
*Little Freddie (if you have known Matt and I for very long, this probably doesn't need any explaining, however Freddy/Freddie has been our nickname for each other since before we were married. It's a long story, but we call each other that so thoroughly now that it feels really weird to use our given names with each other...)

So, there are lots of fun things about life lately. It's certainly challenging at times parenting a 20 month old who was basically parented by someone else during one of the most critical phases of development, but we've actually been amazed at how well we fit together as a family.

On another note, I have been wanting to reaffirm that motherhood is not the only facet of my life these days and I have really been enjoying teaching a few hours a week in the Certificate in Applied Theology program at the Seminary. I teach intensive English and it has been a great outlet for all the stuff I learned in my master's program. Praise God for bringing us to a place this year where both Matt and I can live out our call to teaching as well as welcome Anna into the family. We feel so blessed to be here at the Seminary.

Grandma and Grandpa

My mom and dad are in Prague this week and loving their first visit with new granddaughter, Anna. It's fun to see them in that role and see the changes in my own role through their eyes.

Anna had such a good day yesterday--from the moment she woke up to the moment she went to sleep, smiling, in my arms. God has really been gracious to us and she is such a joy.

Yesterday afternoon we had a service of welcome and blessing for Anna. Several of our friends from church and TeachOverseas came and we celebrated together. People prayed beautiful prayers for her and we sang some of her favorite bedtime songs (like Alleluia and O Give Thanks, which we also sung at our wedding.) The service was almost like a wedding in that we affirmed our committment to her. We even used similar wording to our wedding vows: We will serve you with tenderness and respect and help her to become the person that God created her to be...

I hope to post pictures soon from the service. She wore a beautiful little coat dress from our family friend, Donna Clarke. Everyone commented on how cute and happy she was!

Grief and kisses

I just got an email from a friend asking how the transition to motherhood is going, so here is some more reflection on that theme...

I am enjoying motherhood very much--in a lot of ways it feels more natural than I expected. I've seen some cool things come out in me that I didn't know were there...a lot of compassion and patience that is surprising at times.

The transition has been monumental but it already feels normal. She is so precious. Lately she's moved into a phase of grieving all the changes. This manifests as disproportionate frustration and irritability (more than is normal for her age) and a lot of tears around naps and going to bed at night. Last night we had to hold her while she cried for more than an hour. It's hard, but it brings out a tenderness in us that helps us get through it. It's very healthy for her to be doing this grieving, so we want to support her through it in any way we can.

We've also learned to be flexible about a lot of things, for example (in case I haven't mentioned it before), we have mastered the art of the standing diaper change because she throws such a fit if we try to lay her down on the changing table. In the end, what does it really matter, right? We know that kids are going to be distressed some of the times, but we'd rather save the tears for the really important stuff, like grieving.

She's not sad all the time, though. There are many happy moments. She's been into kissing lately and loves to plant wet, drooly, snotty kisses on our lips! :-) It's very sweet, if slightly gross. She also loves music and dancing. In church on Sunday a group of Russian students were singing a special song and right in the middle the Spirit hit her and she decided to sing along. Everybody turned around and smiled at her. She was a hit!

Her walking is getting better and better every day (she's been walking for about 4 weeks--several months behind her chronological age, but on target with her physical size, since she is about the size of a 12 month old.)

We've been pleased that she has been able to go on little outings many times a week, taking the bus to the grocery store or a park to hang out with my friend Amy and her new baby. She's even been to McDonald's a few times and loves chicken nuggets. Last night she was there with Matt and he didn't have any sippy cup for her, so he got an apple juice drink box. He didn't want to give her straight juice because we always dilute it, so he mixed it with bubbly water. They ended up playing this funny game with her making "blech!" faces every time she would take a sip. She hated the bubbles, but she loved the attention she got from her reaction. :-)

We've had an overwhelmingly loving response from people here at the Seminary and our TeachOverseas community. People have brought us food, loaned us digital camers (ours broke but we have a new one on the way with my parents in a few weeks), and showered her with love every time we're out with her. She is the darling of the Seminary these days, which is nice.
Overall, I just feel deeply blessed, despite the tiredness and the lack of time to do the things that used to be so important to me. I usually get an episode of Gilmore Girls in each day during her nap and that tides me over till the next day. :-)

Well, it's time to go start making lunch. My life has become so predictable... :-)

Mother's Dictionary

Every once in a while I type in random URLs of websites that I think ought to exist just to see if they do. Tonight I tried www.jokeoftheday.com and found this:

A New Mother's Dictionary

Bottle feeding: An opportunity for Daddy to get up at 2 am too.

Drooling: How teething babies wash their chins.

Dumbwaiter: One who asks if the kids would care to order dessert.

Feedback: The inevitable result when the baby doesn't appreciate the strained carrots.

Full name: What you call your child when you're mad at him.

Grandparents: The people who think your children are wonderful even though they're sure you're not raising them right.

Hearsay: What toddlers do when anyone mutters a dirty word.

Independent: How we want our children to be as long as they do everything we say.

Look out: What it's too late for your child to do by the time you scream it.

Prenatal: When your life was still somewhat your own.

Puddle: A small body of water that draws other small bodies wearing dry shoes into it.

Sterilize: What you do to your first baby's pacifier by boiling it and to your last baby's pacifier by blowing on it.

Storeroom: The distance required between the supermarket aisles so that children in shopping carts can't quite reach anything.

Temper tantrums: What you should keep to a minimum so as to not upset the children.

Top bunk: Where you should never put a child wearing Superman jammies.

Verbal: Able to whine in words

Whoops: An exclamation that translates roughly into "get a sponge."

:-)

On being well in a house full of sick ones...

This has been a busy week as I have been the healthy one at home. Anna has a little cold (which makes for impressive snot bubbles, battles over tissue, even-louder-than-normal snoring :-) and a darling scratchy baby voice) and Matt seems to have come down with the same, so I am trying to keep everything running smoothly.

I must take a moment to lament the death or coming demise of an astounding number of electronic items in our household, namely:
*our computer (completely gone)
*our digital camera (the second one this year completely gone)
*Matt's electric razor (completely gone)
*Matt's cell phone (on it's way out)
*Matt's beard trimmer (potentially dying, not sure yet...have to wait until the battery fully dies to see if it will recharge, but we're not holding out hope)
*my watch battery (died this morning, fortunately easy to replace)

All this sickness on top of the demise of so many items that we rely on for the smooth running of our lives has left us feeling like we need prayer for God's protection from spiritual attack! So, if you think of it, we'd appreciate your prayers for our family in this very full time, especially for peace, wellness, and protection.

Okay, so I need to head home and take care of my sick ones.

Love (and still in good spirits), Jenny

Sleepover at the orphanage (PHOTOS)

At the orphanage in the little flat for families... Mom and Dad had to feed me in a carseat because there was no high chair. The place was fine but not really stocked with the necessities, which made for some funny stories. For example, I was in the bath, soaking wet with soapy hair before IMom realized that we had no towel and Dad was out getting dinner! So, Mommy carried a wet baby around while searching in all the cabinets and eventually finding an old tshirt to dry off with. :-)

We also had no sheets on the bed, just this wild, Hawaiian-print-esque duvets. But she did pretty well with the sleeping arrangements for the two nights that we were there. She was delighted to wake up and see our faces in the morning. "Oh! It's you!!!" :-)

My first encounter with a toothbrush was loads of fun. I brushed the floor, I brushed my hair, I brushed Daddy's leg... Of course, I haven't quite figured out brushing my teeth yet, but I'll learn one of these days!

Some of my favorite new toys and things are my Old MacDonald hand puppet book and my yellow ducky blankie (thanks Grandma Thomas!). I also love my Lamby (from my Great Grandma Joyce who bought it for me in Italy even before she had any idea I would be coming on the scene.) You can see my snuggling with Lamby my first night.

Welcome home, Anna!

She's finally home!!! :-)

We brought her home yesterday amidst a shower of tears (her caretakers and her own at being in a car seat for the first time), but she is happy now and getting used to her new place. She's been soliciting a lot more cuddling and holding, which I really enjoy and am glad to give her as she gets used to everything. We have both noticed her just soaking up the extra, dedicated attention after being in an environment with 5 kids to 1 adult.

The hardest thing has been that she doesn't want to be put down to sleep (nap or at night) and just sobs and sobs, even if we lay down with her. I'm not sure if that's normal behavior for her or just a result of all the changes (since we were never at the orphanage as she was actually going to sleep.) She's also very shy with new people, but I take that as a healthy developmental sign and it seems to encourage her attachment to us.

It's been fun putting her in all the little clothes we've been gathering, although I amazed that at 18 months she can actually fit into some 6-9 month clothes. She is so tiny! One weird thing I've noticed in myself is that I am having to come to terms with the fact that she's actually going to WEAR the cute clothes and even get them dirty! :-) Evidently, that's what kids do...

She seems to be liking the cloth diapers (we got fuzzi bunz) which makes me happy. There's just a great pleasure in finally having charge of her and being able to dress her, feed her what we want (though she's pretty picky!), and be responsible for everything ourselves. It's a big responsibility, but it feels like the time has come and we're jumping in with both feet.

Matt's out doing some grocery shopping to get some foods that she will eat (she can't have milk products and doesn't like fruit, so we're kind of limited). That's another hard thing. She has been "trained" into a lot of habits (and not trained into others) that are different from how we would have raised her, so we just kind of have to take her as she is and hope that gradually we can introduce some new tastes, behaviors, and routines. This will take a lot of grace but we are enjoying the payoff with every little smile, giggle, and cuddle.

She's a precious little girl and we are so happy!

(By the way, we have lots of pictures to post soon, but a few technical difficulties as our digital camera just died, as well as our computer... :-( We're trying to line up new equipment, but it is taking some time. The timing is a real bummer! That's why our website hasn't been updated in a while...)

Visa is finally ready!

Yipppeeeee!!!!

After months of waiting, I got the call today that my visa and residency permit is finally ready.

This has been the one thing holding up our bringing Anna home, so now things can finally get going. We've been so looking forward to being "real" parents and having full responsibility for our daughter, rather than just popping in for a visit in the afternoon. Plus, now that she is walking and developing in so many other wonderful ways, we don't want to miss a minute of it!

Many thanks to everyone who has been praying with us through this long ordeal. There's still bureaucratic stuff ahead (the actual court date to finalize the adoption should be in about 3-5 months) but we're through the hardest part. PRAISE GOD!!!!

P.S. In case you've noticed and been wondering, our website has not been updated in a while. This is because our beloved laptop finally bit the dust and we don't have access to the website software on our work computers. We're hoping to get that rectified soon, but in the meantime we have to wait till we can get a new computer. So, my blog will have the most updated info.

Welcome to the family, Anna!!!!

It's official...

We have been fully approved to become "mom" and "dad" to our precious Anna, thanks to the favorable decision of the adoption committee connected with the Czech Ministry of Social Affairs!

We're trembling with joy and nerves and so excited to see our baby girl again after two and a half weeks of not being allowed to visit (while we waited for the decision). We've missed her terribly, but wanted to heed the wisdom of the Ministry officials that we should keep a little space until everything was decided for sure. In the meantime, we've been praying steadily and hoping, hoping, hoping for God's favor with the committee. Praise God, they agreed with us that joining our family is in her best interest!

So, what happens next?

Because my visa/residency permit is still not ready (Matt got his back in late June, but mine is still within the expected time range), we can't bring her home yet. But we are now allowed to spend as much time with her at the orphanage as we want until the visa comes, at which point, she is ours completely. :-) We don't have enough time to visit today before her bedtime, but we will rush over tomorrow right after our teaching is completed.

It may take a little time for Anna to warm up to us again since we haven't seen her in a while, but we are ready to patiently recapture her trust and love. It's an awesome and sombering responsibility, but we can't wait to begin our journey together as a family!

Thank you SO MUCH for all your prayers!!!!!

Shift in perspective

A lot of people have been asking lately, "So, how are things going with the adoption?"

The short answer is that things are going "slowly".

When our translator called the Ministry of Social Affairs (the agency that has chare of Anna) on Monday, she spoke to someone else who explained that Mrs. Tobichikova is still on vacation (there isn't great communication between the Magistrate, who told us to call her Monday, and the Ministry of Social Affairs, we are learning) but that they would be happy to meet with us and answer our questions next week on Tuesday (the 22nd of August). In the meantime, the Ministry is going to send out a psychologist to evaluate Anna and make some recommendations (I assume about her readiness to be in a family setting rather than an institution).

The hard thing is that the Ministry, as is typical of all bureacracies, can't make a decision quickly; however, they did say that they will have a big department meeting on Sept. 5th (they have these regularly) and that should be when they decide for sure whether we can adopt her. On a certain level, we're holding loosely to that date because a lot of what we have been told thus far in terms of timing has proved to not be the case when the day rolls around.

The good news in all of this is that they haven't said "no" and they still seem generally positive toward the idea, though cautious about making any promises. We have continued to receive "maybe"s all the way, which is hard but leaves room for hope and trust that if God is in this, it will work out. My visa not being in yet is also a major problem as far as things moving ahead, so this actually gives us a little extra time for the visa to arrive before it is urgently needed.

Last night we were talking with a friend who, along with his wife, has adopted two children. They had 7 potential adoptions fall through (back in Canada) before one was completed. Our conversation reminded me that we have to think about this in a different way:

The ultimate goal is adoption of a baby whom God knows will be a perfect match for our family. Although we have come to love Anna and she would be our first choice, if for some reason God knows that someone else would be better for us (or us for her), then we can trust that this door closing will mean that God, in His wisdom, was guiding us to a different child. If God wants us to have Anna, then no earthly power--even bureaucracy--can stand in the way!

It helped me to think of that way, even though I would feel deeply sad if we are not able to adopt Anna. God is really trustworthy and I am already praying for protection from despair or depression if we hear some hard news in the future. The end of this story will be a wonderful child whom we have the privilege of loving forever.

So, thanks again for your prayers. Please do continue to lift up Mrs. Tobichikova at the Ministry of Social Affairs, who will be hearing about all this next week for the first time, and also pray for the psychologist's time with Anna (especially her conversations with the caretakers, who are very favorable toward us), and for our meeting with the Ministry which will hopefully happen next week to ask questions and give them the chance to see our hearts for Anna.

Please also pray for protection from depression or despair. As you may know, I struggle with seasonal depression, connected with the dark weather in the winter. The last few days have been cloudy and grey, and when the weather is like that, it becomes harder for me to keep a positive outlook. But God has been faithful and I feel like He--because of everyone's prayers--is carrying us through this time.

Visits

Now that I have finally updated everyone about the legal side of what's happening, I would like to share more about the human side... :-)

When we first met Anna and decided that we wanted to adopt her, we were told that it was okay for us to visit her at the orphanage to begin getting to know her. (This is part of what gives us hope that things are going to work out because they were initially unsure and then said it would be okay to visit.)

Since we're still not 100% sure if they will allow us to adopt Anna, we haven't been visiting every day or taking advantage yet of the opportunity to stay overnight with her in the adoptive family flats (apartments) that they have at the orphanage, but we have been going about 3 times per week to play with her, get to know her environment and routine, and help her become more comfortable with us.

You may be wondering if this is wise, given that it might not be possible to adopt her. Well, here is the reasoning behind our decision. To begin, when we first were told we could visit her, we were also told that there was a good chance we would be able to take her home about a week later (things have changed a bit since then, for various reasons...) So, our initial thinking was that we should take advantage of that time for us and for her to become more comfortable with each other before we spent some intensive time together and brought her home.

Once we were told that things were going to be more complicated and would take longer, we debated whether to keep visiting. Through lots of prayer and discussion, we realized that pretty much from the moment we decided to adopt her, the day after we met her, our hearts were already "hooked". So, if they said "no" in the end, we would grieve whether or not we visited her in the meantime. Additionally, from Anna's perspective, there is a volunteer who comes regularly to spend time with her, so we thought we could sort of think of ourselves as in the same category as that volunteer: caring people who come to see her on a regular basis.

Visiting has been a blessing for us and, we hope, for Anna too. The first time we came, she seemed to sense the high expectations in the room (the caretakers were coaxing her to come to us) and it was all a little overwhelming. She cried for the first 10 minutes or so and was clingy to the caretaker, but then she began warming up to us as we took it slowly. We were able to take her out for a trip around the grounds in her stroller and by the end of the afternoon, she was happily playing with us and even cried when we went home.

As a sidenote, the uncertainty and shyness that Anna felt towards us the first time is actually a very developmentally-appropriate and healthy sign. If she didn't distinguish between known, safe people and strangers, that would be something to be concerned about because it would mean that she doesn't have a strong attachment to her caretakers. So, the fact that she took some time to warm up bodes well for her ability to attach to us securely as her parents in the future.

On each subsequent visit, Anna cried a little less until by the third or fourth time, she greeted us with a delighted smile of recognition. She has warmed up to us beautifully and seems to soak up the one-on-one attention she gets when we are around (that is a big part of why the orphanage encourages special volunteers for each of the children.) The orphanage workers have let us be involved in feeding her dinner (which she LOVES! she is big into eating... :-), giving her a bath (another highlight of her day), and putting her to bed at night (which means about 6pm :-).

Anna has a precious, sweet disposition and in not easily phased by the dynamics of living with 4 other toddlers who often grab and push. We've been amused several times to watch her mimic the caretakers and wag her tiny finger at the other babies saying "Ti, ti, ti!" (the equivalent of "You naughty child!") But then she smiles and goes on with her playing.

One fun thing is that she is just on the verge of walking on her own. She can toddle around the room while holding on to furniture and wobbles about with an adult finger to support her. If I sit on the ground and hold out my arms to her, she will let go of the furniture and rush whole-heartedly into my arms (taking a few wobbly steps on her own on the way) with a sweet grunt of delight. :-) It's one of her favorite games and she will do it again and again.

The other day I was able to spend some time visiting on my own (while Matt got some work done.) This was a special time because the dynamic was quite different. Not only was it just me with Anna, but the caretaker took the other four kids from Anna's group to another room to watch a tv show and let us spend some time just the two of us. It was fascinating to see how different she was without the wild atmosphere of lots of kids around. She was a lot more calm and willing to sit on my lap, be held as we walked around the room, and just be quiet together and take each other in. I really enjoyed that time and was touched by how much these kids seem to long for special attention.

Matt put it well as we reflected on that time... It's as though these kids live in perpetual day care. Even though its generally a very good day care (except for the food they feed them.. i.e. jelly donuts for dinner!), it's still not a family where each kid gets extensive one-on-one attention. We wish we could help ALL of these kids find homes! But most of all, we hope that we can provide a lovingly family for Anna. We are falling in love with her--plain and simple--and we just long for the news that she can be ours forever.

Waiting and trusting

First, my apologies that it has been a while since I last wrote. We have been in work mode this week, trying to bank up some hours at the seminary so that if we have to work a little less around the time the baby comes home we'll have a good foundation of work done in advance. (At the moment, work is mostly editing articles and a book that the seminary hopes to publish this year, plus getting our offices set up and beginning to plan lessons for the English program, which begins in early September.)

So, what is happening with the baby?

The short answer: We are still waiting for a 100% yes from the state to say that we can adopt Anna. We are hoping and praying hard that that answer will come early next week. Last Tuesday, our translator (Mirka) called the Magistrate and was able to speak with Mrs. Hessova--the head hauncho as far as our case goes. She was just back from vacation and getting all the news of what had been happening while she was gone. This was the woman we had been told we would have to convince that our adopting Anna was the best scenario. She seemed to still be trying to get her head around it (Anna is older than what we had told them we wanted and has Turner's Syndrome, which seems to baffle them because most Czech families are not interested in adopting babies with health conditions like hers. Also, we had said that we wanted a generally healthy baby--because were envisioning emergency or dangerous conditions like AIDS, severe drug addiction etc.)

Anyway, in the end she agreed to forward our file on to the Ministry (of Social Affairs? we think...) which has direct authority over Anna's case because Anna had been moved to the status of being available for international adoption. What we have been told (though things change frequently...) is that if Mrs. Tobichikova at the Ministry agrees that we are suitable parents for Anna, Anna will be moved back to domestic adoption status--in other words, the responsibility for her will be returned to Mrs. Hessova at the Magistrate. This is good because it means we can adopt her through the original process we have been working through (as legal Czech residents.)

One urgent prayer request in the meantime is this:

• I (Jenny) need to receive my visa/residency permit for this year in the VERY NEAR FUTURE because everything will be on hold in terms of brining her home if I don't have it in hand. Please pray that it comes through ASAP (like, Monday, August 13th, would be fantastic!) but any time soon would be great.
  
• Once the visa is ready, I will hop on a train for a quick day trip to Dresden, Germany, to pick it up (I love Dresden, so this is something I'm looking forward to... :-)

We are supposed to call Mrs. Tobichikova at the Ministry on Monday, at which point she should have had time to receive and look over our file. Please pray for that phone call and the in person meeting which we are hoping will ensue from it:

• Pray that if this is God's will, she will see our committment and love for Anna and want to do everything in her power to help Anna become part of our family.
• Pray that the visa will not be an issue in terms of things moving ahead in our being approved (we really should only need the visa in hand at the point that we take Anna home from the orphanage--pray that they don't make an issue of it before that point and can do the other paperwork that needs to happen in the meantime)
• Pray that we have patience and grace as we are waiting--please pray against frustration and despair and for God's deep peace

In the last week, we have been actively seeking God about this because it is a difficult time--the waiting, the uncertainty, the challenge of getting acurate information about what's happening. Although we know there is still a chance that the authorities will decide we are not the right parents for Anna or there is some legal barrier to us adopting her, we are waiting with faith on God in trust that if this is right (which we believe it is), He can bring it all together. Our sense from God has been that He is in this and is going to bring it about. We have felt a surprising and encouraging peace in the midst of this time--a truly supernatural gift from God!

Please join us in our prayer of faith that God is able to do even more than we could ever ask or imagine!

Holding Pattern

First, although I risk you not coming back here to actually read this update, I have to direct you to our recently-added online photo album of our first real visit with Anna. (You can always find pictures, news, etc. at our website: www.thomasfamilyweb.net.)

For the past week, we have had the pleasure and delight of visiting Anna several times to get to know her better. At the moment, the status of things is that we have been given permission to visit, but have not been given the final 100% yes about adopting her. As best we can tell (information is limited and received via translators), this is because there are one or maybe two(?) people who have direct responsibility over her case who are on vacation and won't be back until August 7th or 8th. So, we are waiting to talk with them and hopefully to convince them that joining our family is in her best interest. The normal process is that the adoption officials would find a child for us and present her to us, but the way it happened with Anna was a happy accident. We met her by chance while visiting the orphanage and fell in love immediately. So, we're ruffling a few feathers by taking this unusual route...

The bureaucratic hurdles and lack of complete certaintly have made it hard to simply enjoy our time together with her, yet we wait with trust in God's wisdom and power to bring about whatever He knows is best. We feel on a very deep level that this is right and are praying daily that God would bring everything together so that she can join our family forever. Despite the difficulties, we are finding moments of great joy because of the delightful little person that Anna is. This past week we have enjoyed:

• seeing her warm up to us (the first few times she cried when we arrived--a healthy sign because it shows she can distinguish between known and unknown people, some kids in orphanages exhibit "indiscriminate friendliness" which is actually a dangerous trait because it shows a lack of ability to attach to close caregivers above others)
• no tears today when we arrived--just a big smile, obvious pleasure at our presence, and cooes of recognition :-)
  
• taking her on walks around the grounds of the orphanage
• playing on the swing together and singing "Rain, Rain, Go Away..." (she started mimicking the tune and trying to sing along with us :-)
• watching her try to take her first wobbly steps
• the immense pleasure she gets out of eating dinner--which we have been feeding her (as part of helping her get more used to us taking care of her)
• learning her bath time routines (how many grown adults does it take to get footy pajamas on a baby? :-)
• her adorable gestures like great big laughing smiles, blowing kisses, nodding her head while saying, "Yo, yo, yo!" (something like, "Uh huh, uh huh, uh huh" in Czech), and scolding the other babies when they do something naughty (she mimicks the caretakers and shakes her finger at them :-)
• her precious intermittent thumb-sucking
  
• her beautiful, curly brown hair and pretty brown eyes
• the endearing raspiness of her little voice (the kids seem to pass colds around to each other constantly)

So, while we feel like we are in a holding pattern on the bureaucratic side of things, we feel very, very blessed to be spending time with her and pray that God will allow us the privilege of being her family forever.

Right now, there are some major things that need prayer:

• for my (Jenny's) visa to come through THIS WEEK--without it, everything is on hold because we need to have legal status in the Czech Republic to complete the adoption (praise God, Matt's visa came through back in late June--a real miracle!)
• for favor with a woman named Mrs. Hessova, whom we need to convince that our adopting Anna is the best thing for her and that we are ready to face her special medical needs
• for the meeting that we hope to have this week with Mrs. Hessova and whomever else will need to sign off on the adoption
• for peace and trust as we wait through the uncertainty (this is really hard...)
• for our time with Anna in the coming days and weeks, for growing trust, love, and tender hearts toward each other--that she would feel deeply loved and honored
  

Thank you everyone who has been praying and sending words of encouragement. We really feel it!

First Meeting Today

Today we are going for our first real meeting with Anna.

We are scheduled to meet our translator at the orphanage at 2 pm. She needs to be with us this time so that they can tell us about the protocol for spending time with the baby (they have ways of helping to aid the bonding process and also training us in her care.)

We are excited and nervous and already exhausted! It's been hard to sleep (especially for me) with everything that is going on.

Last night we had a fun little adventure. We borrowed a friend's car (our first time driving in Prague) and trekked out to Ikea and a Czech furniture store called Sconto (basically the Czech version of Ikea.) We bought a little rocking chair and a 3 drawer dresser, which will double as a changing table. It was fun because the Czech saleswoman at Sconto didn't speak any English, so we ended up communicating in broken German. :-) Not exactly part of my dream of how setting up our first baby room would come together...

Since we had the car, we also stopped at Tesco (huge, British mega store which we love) to buy groceries in bulk (definitely a first!) We have 24 boxes of milk in the cupboard now, which makes Matt tremendously happy. He's really into that kind of thing.

When we got home, Matt set up the rocking chair and we began with the dresser, but it was pretty complicated so we decided to wait unitl morning and try to borrow some tools from a friend (especially a power drill!) It was really fun to sit on the floor of the "Baby Office" and look around and realize "This is it!" This is the final push preparation that we have been building toward for so long. The circumstances are so different than what I ever would have though, yet it just feels beautifully right.

Praise God!

Baby Update

Well, the last few days have certainly been a roller coaster!

Here's a simplified update on what's happening:

• Because Anna had been made eligible for international adoption, the process is more complicated than we had initially thought.
• Since we have legal visa and residency status in the Czech Republic, they can move her back to domestic adoption status and allow us to adopt her, but this will take a little time and needs to be approved by a new person (from a different government ministry) who is currently out of town.
• We have a meeting with that woman on August 8th.
• In the meantime, we have been given the go-ahead to begin visiting her at the orphanage.
• We will be spending the afternoons (and perhaps evenings) this week over there, getting to know her and observing (and eventually participating in) her routine, in order to prepare us and her for the transition to our home.
• We may be able to bring her home as early as next week, although that may take longer.

At the moment, we're trying to find access to a vehicle so that we can use the time we have this weekend to buy some last few things we need for the baby room (a dresser, which will serve as a changing table, and a rocking chair.) We hope to get the room all set up this coming week.

We received a long-awaited package in the mail today of baby clothes that I ordered on ebay in mid-May. We thought it was a lost cause, but it's finally here and actually has a lot of little outfits that should work for her. So, we don't have as much of a need for older toddler baby clothes (which I had listed on our website.) That was a good thing. (I love all the tiny clothes! :-)

Well, enough updating for now. Please be praying for us. This has been an emotionally intense time (with less sleep than we would prefer!) and we're feeling pretty tired. But also deeply happy and hopeful. Praise God for this unexpected blessing!

Is it you, Little One?

Yesterday, on Matt's 36th birthday, we met a little girl whom we think just might be our daughter. :-)

We made our second visit to the baby orphanage in Prague on July 27, 2006. Not sure of what exactly we would do or find on that visit, we set up a time with our translator and the orphanage staff, mainly because the first time we came, it was late in the day and most of the babies were already sleeping. We arrived at 10 in the morning--a safe bet for finding them awake this time. :-)

On our previous visit, we had felt drawn to a little girl, Sara, who turned out to be unavailable for adoption because she is Slovak and needs to be returned to Slovakia. However, Sara touched our hearts and her age--15 months--led us to be a little bit more open than before to an older baby (we had been saying up to 6 months, maybe 1 year.)

This time, the orphanage staff informed us that there were really no small girls who were eligible for adoption, but they did have two older girls (about 2 years old.) We felt unsure, but agree to meet them and keep an open mind. We met the first little girl, Lenka, who was a precious 2 year old who lovingly cares for the smaller babies in her group (like a little "mommy.") Although our hearts went out to her, we didn't feel a peace about it.

After some more discussion, they brought us to meet another 2 year old--Monika. From the moment we walked in the room, it was as though Monika could sense that we were there to see her--and she didn't like it! Her body language was sending very strong signals of discomfort, even fear, and we quickly realized it didn't feel right to us either. However, there was another little one in the room who grabbed our attention immediately. Smiling and babbling in the high chair as her caretaker fed her vegetable soup, this darling little baby looked a bit younger than the other toddlers at the table. She was also one of the only ones in the room who made eye contact and even responded to our "ahoj" (hi!) greetings. She had real spunk and both of us felt a connection immediately. So, we decided to ask (assuming she must not be legally available or they would have mentioned her to us.)

To our amazement, we found out two very exciting things:

1. She was 100% available for adoption (even international adoption--which is rare for Czech kids because it means no suitable family could be found here in the Czech Republic)

2. Her name is Anna! (this is the name that we have been hoping since last summer to give to this baby :-)

Anna, who is 17 months old, has not been adopted for two main reasons. First, she is Roma, which means that most Czech families are not interested. (The Roma are a prominent minority in the Czech Republic who experience a great deal of prejudice and discrimination.) Second, she has something called Turner's Syndrome, a chromosomal condition which, while not as serious as many problems a child could have, requires parents who are committed to facing medical issues with her for the long haul. The orphanage workers had assumed we would not be interested because of these problems, however, we found ourselves drawn to her and surprisingly undaunted.

It was important to us to learn more about her condition and the prognosis before making any decision, so we sat down for a long talk with her doctor (who happens to be the mother of one of Jenny's former students, who was there that day too! Go figure!) and her social worker. Her life story is not easy, but we found nothing there that we felt unable to face, with God's grace.

So, after a lot of information gathering, we headed home to study more about Turner's Syndrome on the internet, call our families, and do a lot of praying. That's the phase we're still in as a write. We will have a meeting this morning with the Magistrate (hopefully) to talk more and there is a good chance that we will go back to the orphanage this weekend to spend more time with her--hopefully to bring her home some time next week, if everything goes well.

Please be praying for us during this time of major excitement, nerves, joy, lack of sleep, and the beginnings of bonding with this precious little person who we hope might be with us for the rest of our lives. As soon as possible, we will put up some photos on the website so that you all can get to know her a bit, too!

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Read more about our adoption story on our online adoption journal here.

Or find our new contact info and Baby Wish List (with an older baby, there are some different needs from what we had initially been preparing for) at the Keeping in Touch page of our website.