Our New World

The phone rang this morning:

"Hey, Marty..." says our adoption agency. "We were just wondering if you might want to go to Ethiopia on the 25th."

"Oh, well, I was kind of looking forward to going for the March 11th embassy date but it's ok." And in the meantime I wondering what on earth I am going to do with myself for 6 more weeks.

There was a long pause on the other end of the phone. "I'm actually asking you if you want to go in February."

There was nothing flattering in my response. I was shrieking. I was scaring my children. I was back pedaling so quickly, I couldn't even form a thought. "Really? You want me to go then?"

And on and on it went with me making phone calls to my husband, the travel agency, the adoption agency (again); snapping my fingers at my children to make simultaneous phone calls to friends on another phone because I couldn't bear for them to not know and yet airplane tickets seemed a bit more crucial. (Note to self: just because you've sent a lot of emails to a man named Trent in Utah who works for a travel agency, doesn't mean he is your b.f.f.)

My fight or flight response is amazing. The first thing I did was read a missionary story to Levi. It was about a Canadian missionary who was driving a tractor across a frozen river. In Ontario. In -35 degree weather. He fell through the ice that was really safe and really thick. So did his tractor. I stopped reading the story.

The next thing I did was take Emma to the doctor so he could diagnose not an allergic reaction to her malaria meds but scabies.

The next thing I did was itch.

Then I bought funky rotisserie hotdogs from Target for lunch because I couldn't think of what else to feed my children.

Fiddle lessons followed as did a run 2 times around the block and the boiling of 8 eggs.

It was a very random day and I'm exhausted. It's not really hitting me at all that 2 weeks from today I will be at the JFK Airport. Because it's February 25th. Not March.

Ethiopia Sidamo, by Starbucks

I decided to do a little reading today. I had time to read the back of my pound of coffee. Fortunately, there was something interesting:

"There isn't a culture on earth that appreciates the coffee it grows more than the people of Ethiopia. Making coffee is a spiritual experience that begins with roasting beans over an open flame, grinding with mortar and pestle, brewing in a long-necked pot and then pouring the aromatic brew for all gathered. It's a ceremony that recalls the splendor of a regal people..."

A couple observations:

I've had the "spiritual experience" of having beans roasted over an open...burner. The spiritual part of it happened for me as the house filled with smoke and I prayed it wouldn't burn to the ground.

The Starbucks people astutely left out two other components that take some getting used to: popcorn, served with the coffee and incense that is burned along with the coffee. The back of my pound of coffee recommends instead "lemon bars and a seat drenched in sunlight."

So soon I go to "regal people" with "reverence for the bean." I would absolutely love to meet a Starbucks marketing person there. I might ask them, through the haze of incense and coffee bean smoke, if they happened to bring lemon bars.

Two Fewer Orphans

As of Friday morning, there are 2 fewer orphans in the world. We passed court. Our leading up to passing court went something like this:

1. January 12--not our actual court date

2. January 20--were approved for adoption but didn't pass officially because of an amendment needed in the girls' history

3. February 8--the date given for our next court time

4. January 25--an email arrived that said we passed

5. January 25--another email arrived that said we were expected to pass but hadn't officially

6. January 26--our documents were resubmitted

7. January 28--our documents were not all in order and more needed to be sent from the girls' birth region

8. January 29, 6:30 a.m.--I give up on our adoption and tell God that I'm just not going to think about it anymore and He can let me know when anything is actually going to happen.

9. January 29, 11:00 a.m.--We pass court. The girls are ours. They have our last name. They are no longer orphans.

I have now packed their suitcase. I began to pack mine until Joel begged me not to make him help me during the same time he was also planning a run down the St. Croix.

I am emailing my new friend Trent at Velocity Tours in Utah for flight information.

We can call the girls by their American names but we find ourselves unable to. I think we have grown rather fond of their Ethiopian names even though we don't plan to keep them.

Ever since we passed court, I have had a cheesy 1980 something love song stuck in my head. It's not even grammatically correct.

"Two less lonely people in the world, and it's going to be fine.

Out of all the people in the world, I just can't believe you're mine.

In my life where everything was wrong, something finally went right.

Now there's two less lonely people in the world tonight."

Unbelievable. I have not heard this song since I was in high school? Junior high? It's on a loop in my head, just this verse. Every time it loops back, I wish they sang "fewer" even though it doesn't sound as good. Everything in my life was not wrong either. Apparently when I get a verse stuck, I don't get to edit out the parts with which I do not agree.

This week I should be able to know my embassy date. It will likely be about 4-6 weeks from now; I will travel in 3-5 weeks.

God is good.

More Waiting and Random Thoughts

We're still waiting, hoping to hear soon that our court documents have been amended, we can pass court and get an embassy date. I'm wondering if an email to adoption agency that pleads for the March 11th date would work when I explain that I will miss my daughter's 16th birthday if I have to go for the March 25th date.

Emma has a couple life changing plans due to come true on her 16th birthday: pick up job applications, paint her room and get her ears pierced.

Levi's plans are not quite as lofty, and, by the way, there are no blueberries nor Atomic Fireballs at Walmart, Target nor Cub. He got a big Hershey bar, 2 packages of gum, 3 bottles of Gatorade (blue, to simulate the absent berries), 2 soccer shirts and a used desk chair from Ikea that is bright red. It can simulate the absent fireballs.

I'm bad at waiting. Gaining endurance (from my self induced suffering) is not all that attractive to me. I am not all that attractive to me. Good thing there's the book of Isaiah. I'm reading through all the chapters that have headings like: "God Restores Israel;" "God Redeems His People;" "God Shows Mercy." It gets me out of the "Bitterness and Gall in Which Marty Tends to Wallow." Please pray for my patience. For my trust. For my hope. For my desire to continue. For my belief in His promises and perfect timing and perfect love that triumph over everything. Thank you.

Observations from Today

1. I am really glad my daughter is home.

2. I am really glad my daughter went to Ethiopia.

3. I have really, really cute girls in Ethiopia.

4. I really want to go to Ethiopia.

Finally, my coffee thermos was right in front of me... until I started looking for it.

Some Things I Wish I Could Do

1. Knit

2. Learn Swedish by reading an Ikea catalog

3. Construct a mudroom

4. Build a shower

5. Decorate rooms that would say to someone: Pottery Barn meets Frank Lloyd Wright meets Restoration Hardware.

6. Mimic wildlife noises so that, at any given time, I could call a fox, deer, turkey or owl to my kitchen window.

7. Transport myself to Ethiopia

8. Be married to the Embassy Official who gives out visas. (unless it's a woman)

There is a lot of wishing and waiting with an international adoption. It can and has made me crazy. Here, though, is a great anchor for my soul that I found today:

"But there the Lord in majesty will be for us a place of broad rivers and streams...For the Lord is our judge; the Lord is our lawgiver; the Lord is our king; He will save us." Is. 33:21-22

Post Christmas Birthday

Levi's birthday is in January. Unfortunately, I usually still feel a little "presented-out" even though it's been a month. This year I decided that I would be intentionally alert for gifts, big or small, that seemed like something Levi would enjoy.

I have not had much success. Now I know why.

The other morning at breakfast, we were having blueberries. Actually, I was having blueberry; Levi was eating them almost by the handfuls.

"You really like these, don't you?" I asked astutely, not even with my Birthday Radar on.

"It would be so fun to have my own package of these for my birthday," Levi replied. "I'd also like my own Atomic Fireballs."

No wonder the Target toy aisle seemed so pointless.