Updates and Daydreams

I'm just gonna come out and say it. This is how the adoption process is starting to make me feel....

Yep.....beat!!! I felt like I had been doing a pretty good job of just rolling with the punches. I'm an impatient perfectionist by nature (I know...not the best characteristics of someone who has to weather years..yep, years..of the roller coaster that is international adoption) so I knew this would be very challenging for me. I had actually been really calm about the whole thing up until the last few weeks when Nepal announced that it would only be placing 10 children per agency for the year 2009......yes, 10.
Well, thank God our agency only took 28 applications and stopped because as it stands now we will NOT be included in the 2009 group and maybe not even in the 2010 group (it all depends on when we get our dossier done). The worst case scenario is that we will be in the 2011 group, which would mean we would probably have our child home sometime in 2012. I know, it's enough to make a person scream and believe me, I have.
This is basically the universal state of international adoption right now. Lots of unknowns and extremely lengthly wait times. There is only one thing that keeps me sane in this process and that is knowing that this is in God's hands. He is orchestrating this whole thing so we are joined with the child that He has chosen for us. That child may or may not be in Nepal. We just don't know. We just have to trust Him and let Him work it all out. In the words of a Steven Curtis Chapman song..."to Him the future is history". He already knows how this will play out and that is truly a comfort because like it says in Romans 8:28 "All things work together for good to those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose". It doesn't get any better than that :-)
At this point, we are very close to having our dossier done which is a HUGE relief!! Even though we'll likely have to re-do most of it (because it all has to be renewed after a year), it will be one enormous hurdle behind us! Yipppeeee!!!

So there ya go...the first big adoption update in awhile!

As you've probably already figured out, I LOVE to include photos in my posts. Since we don't have any interesting ones that are recent, and since it has been sooo ridiculously cold over the last few days, I thought it would be fun to share some sunny photos from one of the best vacations we have ever been on.

These were taken 2 summers ago when Greg's Aunt Debbie and Uncle Claude graciously invited us to join them on their GORGEOUS yacht for a week long trip to the Bahamas. We're not talkin' the "touristy" part of the Bahamas, we're talkin' the parts that pretty much only people with yachts get to see. So kick back, relax, and soak up some sunshiny goodness..........

Above: Uncle Claude, me, Aunt Debbie, Greg enjoying a beautiful sunset at one of the marinas.

Doesn't this pic just make you sigh? Good gracious it's gorgeous there.

That beautiful blue water.

My very favorite island....Harbor Island. There are no cars on the island (only golf carts) and to get there you have to fly into the tiny airport and then take a taxi to get to the place where you have to take a water taxi to get there. You can't tell in this pic, but the sand there is light pink because of a certain kind of coral that lives off the shore. And notice how empty the beach is? It's a hidden treasure. Paradise people, pure paradise!!!!!

Dinner on the balcony of the Rock House on Harbor Island. Rock House is a boutique hotel with only like 10 rooms. They also have an amazing restaurant with a beautiful view of the ocean. Food was to die for!!! I would love to go back someday and stay in the hotel.

Sunset on the balcony of Rock House.

Hope these pics left you feeling all warm and fuzzy inside.

Love to all,

Brooke