We're still kickin'

 

I thought this picture was very cute and had to post it. David has been off of work for a couple of days and of course Nataga and I have loved every minute of it. We took Nataga for his 10 month checkup. He is still in the 10th percentile as far as size, weighing in at a whopping 18lbs. He has gained 2 lbs in 2 months. The doctor seemed to be pleased. He also was surprised where he was developmentally and said he is developmentally 12 months old! Exciting news! Besides that we've just been very busy.

 

 

 

Help for Haiti

CALL TO ACTION ~ Urgent Advocacy Needed On Proposed New Haitian Adoption Law ~ July, 2009

Contact your Congressional Representatives [click here for direct link and letter to your Representative] and urge their strong support of the new proposed adoption law in Haiti. There is a letter already ready to go on Holts site. All you have to do is type in your name and some other information. It takes minutes. Also feel fee to add a personal message.

Please read below for more details

SUMMARY:
Haiti is currently operating under an adoption law that was decreed in 1974 by Jean Claude Duvalier. The 1974 adoption law is outdated, has serious limitations that are not in the best interest of children and causes confusion in its application resulting in significant delays in legal processing of adoption cases.

Children in Haiti matched with adoptive families are waiting as long as 4 years to complete their adoption. Other children awaiting adoption will endure this same wait unless a law is passed now.

With the help of UNICEF and others, a new adoption law has been developed for both domestic and intercountry adoption in Haiti. The law clarifies adoption processing protocols and mandates clear government oversight responsibilities which will correct many of the problems with the present adoption system.

Many Haitian children are in desperate need of adoptive families and will benefit from this new law. This includes children who have been waiting in the adoption system (many up to three years) due to confusion and difficulties surrounding the outdated law.

URGENT ACTION NEEDED:
The Haitian Legislature will convene soon. It is URGENT that the new Haitian Adoption Law be included for approval in the agenda for the upcoming session.

Contact your Congressional Representatives [click here for direct link and letter to your Representative] and urge their strong support of the new proposed adoption law in Haiti. There is a letter already ready to go on Holts site. All you have to do is type in your name and some other information. It takes minutes. Also feel fee to add a personal message.

Please share this Call To Action with friends and family to join this effort. The children of Haiti need your help!!!

A visit from family!

We received word that my family is coming to visit! We are all REALLY excited as a lot of the family (on my side) have never got to meet Nataga (only my sister)! Unfortunately my dad won't be able to make the trip, he'll be at home working :(. Still we'll have grandparents, and my mom making the trip! I know Nataga can't wait!

Cute sayings

Yesterday we were in chruch service and were sitting directly behind a man that had the closing prayer. As he stood up to say the prayer, Nataga started babbeling LOUDLY. In an effort to make him stop I pulled out the Itsy Bitsy Spider song. It is his favorite and can usualy stop him mid-whatever. I was just doing hand motions and was so happy that he was watching quietly. All of the sudden I hear a quiet "Itsy Ditzy Spider" come from Nataga's mouth! It was so funny. When I got to the part where "out comes the sun and dries up all of the rain" he said "rain, out the sun" followed by some head shakes! It was REALLY cute. I wish I could have had that one on camera! Apparelty we have an "Itsy Ditzy Spider" that we sing about!

Have I mentioned how much I love my baby?

When it is time for bed Nataga doesn't sleep well w/out a blanket. He LOVES to snuggle and if you hand a blanket to him he will smile, snuggle into it, suck his thumb, and go to sleep quickly! A few weeks ago I stopped giving him blankets b/c there were two nights that scared me half to death. One night I woke up to REALLY upset sounding crying. He had been waking up for a bottle so I had been trying to "ignore" the crying as the books say so that he would sleep through the night. I usually didn't check on him when he woke up during these times b/c it seemed to upset him more. This night, in particular, I just had a hunch that I needed to check on him and I was glad I did. His blanket was wrapped around his face so tightly he couldn't get it off. I was glad he was crying so loudly. I pulled the blanket off of his face and left it out of his crib for the night. I had given him blankets since the day we received him and he had never had a problem. Needless to say he didn't sleep as well that night. The next night I put him to sleep with his blanket and a few minutes later checked on him scared about the blanket. Again I was glad that I did b/c this time he wasn't able to cry due to having the blanket wrapped around his head so tightly. I guess with him getting older he tossed and turned a lot more. So, I decided tough love was the answer. As much as he loves to sleep with a blanket I wasn't going to give him one! I had a very hard time with this concept and worked hard to find a solution to the problem. I went through his blankets (he has a lot of them) and didn't think I would find anything but, someone had knitted him a small blanket! The second I found it I knew it was perfect. Lots of holes for air and it was just his size. I gave it to him and he LOVED it. We have had no issues and have had several happy nights of sleep. He does end up getting his fingers and toes caught in the holes but nothing too major. Usually it just means lots of lint! When I went in to check on him tonight I couldn't help but take a picture! He is so cute!

 

Hope & Serve

Have you wanted to work in orphanages overseas? I have! I just watched a video on The House of Rainbow Bridge in Cambodia. I happened to come across it today while doing research. I also came across this organization that has several places for you to volunteer your time. Check out this link http://www.ifrevolunteers.org/index.php. As you can tell I don't know a lot about this group and am in NO way saying this is the/a group for you to go with! I know only what I read about on their web site and thought that it might be something neat to post. Likewise, it might something to get you started looking into volunteer work in orphanages! There are a lot of groups and a lot of them have fundraising ideas for airfare, housing, etc.

Also, I received an email today and it went so well with my last post. I think it is neat that people are starting to realize how many children- esp. older children- are waiting for a home. I know that adoption has increased significantly in the past few years. My only hope is that people are choosing to adopt to help children. I hate when things get popular and people do things for that reason! Also I hope the country they adopt from is based on a true desire and love for the children there. I hate it when I hear people say that they are going to adopt from a place b/c it is the easiest and cheapest. I heard that recently and really felt like telling the people not to adopt that they are doing it for the wrong reason. Actually, I really wanted to slap them! Deep Breath... but I know that God can work through those families and that He might be the one leading them in the direction they are going. Plus these kids need families. It's a double sided coin and sometimes I think in certain situations everyone still comes out a winner and people learn and gain so much.

Back to the older children. It breaks my heart to hear the stories and what all these children go through. How they end up in an orphanage, etc. May of them have lost their parents due to medical reasons, b/c a father was trying to provide for them and got killed on the job, the simple fact that a child cannot be cared for due to finances, someone getting injured and loosing finances due to that, famine, malaria, the inability to find a job, etc... One of my sisters friends started this organization. If the link doesn't work for you here is the site: www.ordinaryhero.org. Gladney also has a list of waiting children. This link takes you to some of Ethiopia's waiting children, but if you look on the left of the screen you can look at several different places that have waiting children! You never know what God has in store for you. Never say never. Older children, any children are a Gift from God! If you have faith as small as a mustard seed... God can move mountains! My sister-in-law adopted an older child from Ethiopia. He is amazing kid and I know their lives have been blessed by him and vise versa. I know it hasn't always been the easiest road (like any raod with ANY child is...) but I know that she only says good things about it. I admire her so much for adopting him and her heart for older children.

My last thought. I HATE that these parents have to give these kids up! Several of the kids are listed due to disease or money issues. I esp. hate the money issues. It makes me sick to know that they HAVE to give their child/children up b/c they can no longer support them. I know while we were in Ethiopia we heard about how hard jobs are to get. It is so sad that a parent can't get a job or that they can't get proper medical treatment so that they might be able to take care of their children. From what I have read AIDS/HIV is pretty "treatable" now. While we were in Ethiopia we met a wonderful lady named Julie who told us all sorts of information on AIDS/HIV. She said it is the "easiest/best" (I can't remember her exact words) special need to adopt because the medicine is so good. Due to all of the technology and advances the medicine pretty much gives them a long, normal, and healthy lifestyle.

Waiting Children

Waiting for our adoption to be completed was really hard for me. It felt like everything took so long. In the end, yes!, it was well worth it. However, we started the process when we were ready and only had to wait a couple of years. One of those years was us gathering together paperwork. I often look at the waiting children page just to see who they post. I can't imagine what THEY feel like- waiting and waiting for a family. I can't imagine knowing that there is a chance it could never happen for them and the pain of their wait! I love seeing them get matched to families and then be adopted. Last year one of the girls (in particular) from Ethiopia's waiting list got adopted. I was so excited to see her picture post to a families blog. I had seen several of the pictures go away so I knew those kids had been adopted but hers stayed up for a while. I thought was really neat that she was adopted. It was even better to see her her picture go away and then see her with her new family. She had always stood out, for some reason to me, on that list and I hoped and prayed she would get adopted (I pray that they all get adopted). This year I ran across this little girl on the China waiting children page. I think she is really pretty and really cool! You have to be 30 to adopt from China so that takes us out of the picture. I hope someone adopts her. I just had to post this b/c I know a lot of people read our blog. Maybe one of you are meant to adopt her!

Happy July 4th!