Here’s the deal…the last few days have flown by! I am not wasting any time and trying to get as much adoption related things done as quickly and as thoroughly as I can. I figure my end of the paperwork is the only thing I CAN actually control so I choose to get it done in record time! Booya!
On Monday of this week I went and dropped off our Home Study application and picked up the Home Study packet. It didn’t seem gigantic until I read the check list…its GIGANTIC. So in Heather fashion (i’ll leave that to your imagination) I asked Jay to go through the list with me. 🙂 We spent the whole evening going over the list and getting done whatever we could. I’m pretty sure our little boys didn’t go to bed before 9:30 that night cause they were clearly being neglected. It probably wont be the last time.
So after we completed all the tasks we could and finished making our to do list for the next day we decided to watch the movie Hotel Rwanda before hittin’ the hay. Yeah, so……..It was difficult…no devastating really. I wish we would have watched it during the day so that I could have distracted myself afterwards with meaningless tasks but instead I cried myself to sleep. And prayed. I prayed desperately for our children to know the presence of Jesus now, that they would live with hope, that they would be fed, and cared for, free from disease and harm from others. Then I cried some more…I just felt so helpless…and its such a LONG before we actually get to help them.
Genocide is an evil & heinous act. Burundi (the country we are adopting from) experienced the same massacre that Rwanda did. The civil war was between the Hutu people and the Tutsi people. These people make up 95% of Rwanda & Burundi. So here we are watching this awful recreation of history and we realize we will have Hutu or Tutsi children. Our love grew deeper in just a short moment. Our children will be the children of Burundi people who lived through this awful slaughter. How will we ever share this with them? I’m thinking we will wait till they are 30.
On our Home Study Parenting questions it asks: How will you incorporate your child’s culture into your home?
I have to tell you, I’m struggling with this. Their culture is poverty, hunger & disease. They are still trying to pull themselves out of the hole this civil war left them in. So today, I want them to forget this pain and be healed by the blood of Jesus. I’m happy to play Burundi drum music (which is just seriously awesome!) take a quick look! And they seem to have a lot of dancing in their culture which you KNOW I can get down with!
While the kids were at school the next morning I plugged away at more paper work, we had a conference call with our adoption agency, we received a very generous adoption gift in the mail from someone special and I managed to do something fun…finish a project! It was a great day!
Now about my project! If you know me at all, you know I love to decorate. So naturally I would like to add something to our home that represents the journey we are on. I visited pinterest and etsy and with the help of our good friend Ben Tyson, the amazing wood worker dude, we came up with this!
Don’t you just love it!!! It doesn’t matter…I LOVE IT! This is just FREE pallet wood & Ben’s wood working magic. A little stain, paint and burlap cuteness to make it fit with our home decor and PRESTO! Absolute adorableness & awesomeness! The heart is strategically placed right over Burundi cause seriously people, we fall in love with this place more and more each day. It will eventually have Micah 6:8 written on it but I’m waiting for someone with immaculate handwriting to come write it for me. I do not trust myself!
To wrap things up we had all 120 pages of our adoption contract signed, notarized and shipped out in the mail today. It felt good to get some paper off my desk so that I can make room for the dossier which should be in our hands next week. If you don’t know (cause I certainly didn’t) a dossier is just a collection of documents about a particular person, event or subject(Websters Def). *I looked this one up for you, Chad 🙂
I have to say, I’m diggin’ the paper work. Its like before I had kids when I worked in an office and had big people responsibilities…maybe I should start wearing heals and business clothes down stairs each morning. Or maybe not.
I already shared a picture of our family journal on Facebook but its so special it deserves to be seen again! Here it is! I’m sure you wont be surprised when you see me sporting a Burundi shirt soon.
This sits on the coffee table for any Hughes family member’s to write in. So far its mostly the journey of how we got to this place of adoption, recordings of the great things we have seen God do and prayer request. Its a treasure!
Tyson was the first kid to write in it and he wrote in his 3rd grade handwriting: “Help me to not be bummed about not being the youngest”.
Ahhhh! Love that kid. He is battling the loss of the baby status but I think over time he will move past it because he is also the child who passionately prays for his African siblings EVERY. SINGLE. NIGHT. The truth is we are all going to battle losing something…this is what sacrifice is. Its giving of yourself something that is important to you otherwise its not a sacrifice. Its actually beautiful to see my son struggle and then let go, cause God answers prayers and Ty is taking his requests before the King who changes our affections. I know wholeheartedly God will answer his prayers. And when He does I will write it in the journal and Ty will see the power of Jesus! Can I get an AMEN!!!
This journey is going to be grand. Thanks for following along!
XOXO
Heather
AMEN! This is all so wonderful!