When our house was built, in the early 1950’s, it was average-sized. In fact, in 1950, the average size house was 983 square feet. Over the next 50 years, the size of the average American house grew by 140% to over 2300 square feet.

What happened?

Families got smaller. Houses got bigger. Why?

We love our 1950’s house. Sure, it’s smaller than average, but we have fantastic neighbors and a nice-sized backyard. We have an unfinished basement for storage, laundry, and the ever-important tornado shelter.

Still, the upstairs of our house is small. Three small bedrooms. We’re going to add 2 kids’ toys, bikes, stuffed animals, and blankies. We’re going to double the number of people in the same-sized house.  But my biggest concern is that we have only one bathroom. And we’re about to add 2 more little people to the bathroom schedule. I know it must be possible.

After all, that’s what life was like in the 1950’s . . . I think.

So, did you ever live in a small house? What suggestions do you have for a growing family in a small house?

Today, we were able to finish up everything we needed for our dossier, and we mailed it off to our agency. Compared to most countries, the dossier for the DR Congo is pretty straightforward, and we had almost everything on hand. We did have to get a couple of documents notarized (Thanks Willard!), and thanks to our post office’s extended hours, we were able to mail it off this evening.

So, what does this mean? The dossier is the pile of paperwork that begins the adoption process in the DR Congo. From here:

• Our paperwork will be translated into French by people who know the language, and know the laws of adoption.
• Our paperwork will be sent to court in the DRC for approval, which can take 2-4+ months. This is one of the places where there’s a big delay right now because of a new judge. Hopefully, things will start picking up soon but with upcoming elections in November, there may be additional delays. I don’t pretend to understand what is going on politically, but there is significant tension about the elections. One agency employee indicated that it’s not uncommon for federal employees to stop working during the time surrounding elections, and there has already been some rioting. Thus, court approval is a big variable.
• After court approval, there is a 30 day appeal period.
• The approval is then sent to the Ministry for approval.
• Once approval is received, we then file again with US Immigration, which takes one to three months.
• We then request an appointment with the Embassy in the DR Congo for visa processing for the children, which typically takes less than two months.
• Obtain a letter from Congolese immigration for the children to leave the country, which typically takes less than three weeks.
• THEN we get to go get the children to bring them home. The trip is usually between 7-14 days. It’s now looking like this will be in the spring, if there aren’t any further delays.

Basically our paperwork is going to ping-pong between DRC and the US, with not much involvement from us. At this point, we’re just in waiting mode. But really, the whole situation has never really been in our hands, but in God’s hands. He knows the process, the judge of our case, the elections coming up, and all of those things that could cause us to worry. We trust God’s timing in all of this, and will look forward to each new step as it comes!

We found out yesterday that there have been some delays in the processing of adoptions in the Democratic Republic of Congo. One problem is that some personnel have changed, including a judge who is very new at processing adoptions. Fortunately, he’s willing to learn and has a favorable attitude toward adoption, which is very good news. The other problem with our timeline is likely going to change with the elections in November. The US Embassy has indicated that they expect adoption travel delays, but aren’t sure how long the delays may be. So while we were originally planning to travel by the end of the year, now we’re expected to travel before April. We hope.

The good news is that we received our “Notice of Favorable Determination Concerning Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition.” This is the last piece of documentation we need before sending our paperwork to the Democratic Republic of Congo to begin going through their process — the one that’s currently delayed.  We hope to put our dossier together and mail it off by tomorrow!

And by “you,” I mean moms who work full-time outside the home, manage a family, volunteer for ministry opportunities, and still keep your sanity.

It’s something that I’m thinking a lot about these days, because I know my days are about to change.

My work plate is filled and spilling over. I love what I do, and I love my students, and this is all fortunate because we can’t afford for me to quit! At the same time, by the time 5:30 rolls around and it’s time for me to head home, I am tired!

Make and dinner, walk the dogs, daily housework chores, find a few moments to read and reflect, work on projects for church and/or our adoption, find a few words to write, and the day is done.

How do I add in two children to the mix? Sports practice, music lessons, homework projects, church activities, creating special memories. My head is spinning with just the thoughts.

So, moms of the world, help me. Okay, even dads too. Give me some words of wisdom.

As a family, how do you balance family with two full-time jobs and church activities?

Today, Ken and I went for our second round of vaccines. We each received three vaccines, one of which was the dreaded yellow fever vaccine. You know it’s going to hurt when the nurse specifically told each of us before she even started to give it to us that we must not pull away while receiving the vaccine. Funny, she had never mentioned that with the others. But there was good reason for the instructions for the yellow fever vaccine, although the others weren’t spectacular either.

And, as usual, I feel crummy after the vaccinations. The wheezing started while I was still in the office, and now my throat is raw, my head feels like it’s going to explode, and I feel generally yucky. I’m know I’m mildly allergic to some preservatives in injections, but we’ve never isolated which ones because I’ve never had a full-blown anaphylactic reaction. An allergic reaction is definitely better than yellow fever. Or polio. Or meningitis. Or hepatitis. Or typhoid. So it’s worth the risk, as long as my epi-pen is handy.

But now the worst of the shots is over, and I just have to go back for one booster in February, to confer lifetime immunity. There’s a good chance we’ll even travel before then. We actually have been so thoroughly vaccinated now, we are good to travel just about anywhere, except rural areas of Asia during Japanese encephalitis transmission season.

But our hearts are set on Kinshasa, and every needle stick, aching arm, low-grade fever is worth it to bring our kids home!

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What in the world should we name our children? Or should we name them at all? That is the great name debate in our household.

When we received our referral information in August, we received not only pictures, but names and medical information on the children. They had both African names, and English names: Rose and Emmanuel. Of course, we’re a bit confused. Are they called by their African names (which we don’t know how to pronounce) or by their English names? Have they just begun to be called by their English names, or are the names a sort of pseudonym for us to use when we communicate about them with our agency?

So, we’ve faced a quandary. What should we call them? What will we call them?

We could keep “Rose” and “Emmanuel” as their names. They are perfectly fine names, and they may be already answering to those names even as we speak. They are easy to spell and pronounce, and will fit in with American culture.

We could keep their African names. Although we don’t know how to pronounce them — or even what language they are in, it’s something we could quickly catch on to. If I have indeed figured out how to pronounce Rose’s African name, I actually think it’s kind of cute. And with all of the change that the children are about to go through, keeping their name the same might be one less change. But still, their names will always be difficult to pronounce to Americans, and they won’t know anyone else with similar names.

We could reuse the names that we had intended to use for the twins, who indeed never existed, so the names have never been used. In fact, we were seriously considering this option before we lost the three- and six-year-olds who were originally referred to us. But in all honesty, to attempt to name a third pair of siblings “Palmer” and “Emelia” has lost its appeal, at least for now.

We could rename them entirely. After all, they will be our children, and we have that right. To be honest, I would really love to name our children ourselves. I’ve always loved choosing names, but other than naming our dogs, Buddy and Holly, I’ve not had the chance to choose many names. Oh sure, I’ve made suggestions for names, like when I suggested that my chemistry-teacher friend name her daughter Ethyl Methyl Polly Ester. Somehow, she didn’t go for it. 😉

Why all the name debate? If the children were younger, it wouldn’t be such a quandary. But three and four year olds are old enough to know their names. Orphans have so little to call their own. Quite possibly, the only thing they will come to us with is the clothes on their backs, and their names. To thoughtlessly take away what little they have doesn’t seem right.

So we have decided  . . . not to decide, at least for now. We probably won’t decide until we get to the Democratic Republic of Congo and find out a little bit more about their names and their significance. We’ll probably tuck a naming book into our luggage as we travel. For now, we’ll probably still refer to them as “Rose” and “Emmanuel,” since that seems a bit more personal than “the boy” and “the girl,” even though I really don’t necessarily want those names to “stick.”

So at least the foreseeable future, the great name debate will continue. What in the world should we name our children? Or should we name them at all? Only time will tell.

Six weeks ago, we needed a miracle. We needed $13,000 within 90 days for our referral for a sibling pair from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and we didn’t have it. We also needed approximately an additional $4000 for other fees as well. We needed money to rain from heaven, and in fact, it did.

We began to hear from many who told me that God had told them to donate a specific amount to our adoption, and they were doing so out of obedience, out of love for us, and for the plight of these precious children.

As we’ve crunched the numbers, gathered checks, calculated amounts we have received, and funds that our agency received directly, I am excited to announce that our miracle has arrived.

We are paying off our $13,000 referral fee and our $1000 post-placement deposit fee  TOMORROW.  God didn’t even need 90 days. In half that time, through the generosity of His saints, we are paying the fees to be able to rescue this 3-year-old girl and 4-year-old boy. We stepped out in faith, not knowing how the miracle would happen, but many of you stepped out in faith right along side us.

Thank you for travelling this journey with us. Thank you for your generosity. Thank you for your prayers and kind words.

And thank you sweet Lord for our miracle!

We hope to be able to pay off the final $2300 agency fee within the next couple of weeks, and the remainder of our vaccinations when we get them next week. We will then be transitioning to raising funds for travel expenses. We’re estimating at least $6000 for flights alone for all four of us, but it is difficult to predict airline fares, especially if we need to travel with little notice. We are planning on saving money by staying at a convent in Kinshasa, rather than a hotel, which will also provide us with economical meals as well. We’ve already paid over $21,000 of the expected $28,000 total, and it looks like total expenses will be closer to $30,000.

We know that we still have a way to go to raise the funds that we need by the time we travel, but it seems small in comparison to $13,000 in 90 days! The bulk of the “ransom” has been paid!