Sunday, February 22

Today was yet another emotional day. I think I've cried every day since I've been here. There is so much that grabs your heart and you do your best to be strong throughout the day and when night comes you can't hold it in any longer. We said goodbye to our dear friends at the Monrovia United Christian Church today. I'll never forget my brothers and sisters here! Matt and I gave Tofi a bible today with a message and some scriptures to keep tucked away for him. He is such a joyful young man! What a great smile and heart of gold! I'll never forget the first time I saw him running along side our van beating that drum and excited to see us that first night we were there. He has a smile you could never erase from your memory! There were 348 chilren at church today! Normal attendance for children is about 50 Bee said. They were all blown away. They all sat so quietly because they had a switch looming above their heads if they so much as made a peep they knew they'd get it! We ate lunch with the church family: Some gross looking stew stuff, I think it had fish eggs in it or something like that???? I didn't try it. But I did try the peanut butter soup and rice. It wasn't bad but it wasn't great either! I ate alot of fruit :) After lunch we had a women's conference where I got to meet alot of wonderful sisters! I never knew how much the war had an effect on these people until talking and hearing their stories. In my small group alone 1/2 the women had lost their husbands in the war. Many were shot trying to run and flee Liberia. One woman has 13 children and is a single parent now. I can't imagine being a single parent to 13 children here in the US! They are struggling being a single parent in Liberia! I pray God watches over them and gives them strength and support! I pray he shows them He is their provider and their Heavenly Father! We talked with a man named Bob Z. I can't say his last name so I just call him Bob Z. He is a friend of Sam's from when Sam was in Liberia many years ago. He's a superintendant, equivalent to a govenor, in Liberia. We told him of our situation with the adoption. He said he wished he would have met us 3 days ago and he could have set up some meetings or something, but it was too late for that now. He asked us to give him all our contact information with our agency and he would see if he could help us out in any way. I don't know if he will or not, but it's worth trying???

Monday, Feb. 23rd

Monday: Feb. 23rd Today we left this beautiful place! I am on one of my many plane rides home and feeling very empty. I not only am leaving behind a people I fell in love with but my children that I fell in love with. No words can describe the emptiness I feel and the hurt that aches in my bones! I felt God carrying me through this week when I knew the inevitable was going to happen but now I am numb to it. I think I'm in that 'shock' stage. I just can't believe it didn't happen. We woke up early today to go to see the babies one last time before our flight left. We were supposed to leave at 7:30...Liberia time: they got there around 8:15. John and Larry were going to work at the church one last time so they dropped us off at the AFAA house. We were beginning to feel right at home in the AFAA house. We immediately walked back to get the babies and there was no crying today!!!! Onah was very curious about Matt and all his facial hair. You can tell they are really getting used to us! Marie was her usual snuggly self ;) We were feeding them a bottle when one of the house mom's came up to us and told us Oretha had gotten us a meeting iwth the minister of social welfare. (The case worker basically) and as soon as we were ready to leave we could. I of course was nervous because we had to take a taxi,...which took forever to get one, esp. on a Monday. I was worried we'd miss our flight and all that cause I know how Liberia time works! We got a taxi, headed out and met with the case worker who hasn't even looked at our children's paperwork by the way! She was no help. She showed no sign of compassion for any parent waiting on their children. One look at her and I basically tuned her out and let Matt do all the talking. I saw there was no use. She was kinda rude and acted like she didn't really want or have time to talk to us. I had to hold my tongue at one point because Matt was talking to her about the children we had seen over the past week, starving children who need help and can't get help because there's no where for them to go with children not being able to leave the country. I'll never forget this: She looked at him with a stone face, no emotions what so ever, and said, "I have a case of a boy who is dying on my desk, he has an adopted family ready to take him home, and he's ready to go home, but he's not going anywhere! Not until this ban is lifted. He'll probably die before he leaves." How can you say that with NO EMOTIONS! Their children are dying and they seem as if they don't care! I was able to not only hold my tongue, but the tears as well, but as soon as we walked out those doors I couldn't hold them back anymore! I made Oretha very uncomfortable because Liberians do not like crying I noticed. Whenever kids or adults cry they immediately tell them, "hush up! Quit crying!" I could tell me crying made her very uncomfortable but I couldn't help it! I couldn't stop! We made it back early enough to spend a few more minutes with the babies before our driver came to pick us up. Leaving was the hardest thing to do. I think it was the longest goodbye I've ever made. I couldn't put them down, and there was no stopping the tears. I miss them so much already and it hasn't even been a day. This is going to be SO HARD!!! We got back to the house and I just wanted to be alone but we had to pack up and head to the airport. No time to think things through. On the way to the airport our van overheated. David, our driver, took the cap off the radiator...bad mistake...it looked like 'ol faithful spewing out of our hood! Some boys from the village nearby saw a van of white people and came over. They took a can and ran to the nearest well to get us water, which you know by know, Liberia+village+well=long distance! So we gave them lots of treats and candy for helping us out :) They were so funny it was like gold. I think they'd do anything for more ;) So we made it to the airport and on the plane. We're headed home and this will probably be my last journal entry. I miss Liberia!

Imagination...What a Great Thing

As you know we are still in the process of adopting. We have two babies waiting for us in Liberia. Since we have gotten their room all set up and ready for them to come home and Colten just can't wait! He so badly wants a brother or sister to play with! One day his blanket was in the wash and not dry by the time his nap came. I told him he could choose another blanket to sleep with and he wanted to pick one out of Marie's bed. So I covered him up with her blanket and he took a good nap. When he woke up he came down the stairs and told me, "mommy I slept with Marie! I snuggled her the whole time and she didn't even cry!" It was so cute. Later that night he asked if he could snuggle Marie again. I remembered that we had gotten a baby doll from Sam and asked him if he wanted to sleep with it and pretend it was Marie. Of course he was all giggly and excited about it. So we put her in bed with him and covered them both up with her blanket...since then he has informed me that now he sleeps with Marie, Onah, and God! That's quite the crowded bed! I had to snap a pic of him snuggling his sister...

Monkey!!!!!

Colten has figured out how to climb to the top of our cabinets in the bathroom. He knew he was big enough to fit in them cause he would hide from daddy in the bottom one. But he learned that if you open all the cabinets you can use them as a jungle gym and climb from one to another all the way to the top. Then he's stuck up there cause he is too scared to get down :) Here's the little monkey making faces at me showing off his new trick. He was pretty proud of himself. Which is what we have found with him. Even if it's something we want to scream at him for like throwing water all over the bathroom floor, he's so proud of what he has done that he just wants you to acknowledge his accomplishments. That's a boy for you I guess!

Christmas '08

I've finally got all my pics organized and put on the computer to be able to update my blog! We had a great Christmas! We did alot of driving but it was nice to get to see family and spend some time with everyone...esp. those who have lived on an island for the past 2 years and are back now!!! :) After the Christmas program Santa came to Harvest and Colten got to sit on his lap and tell him what he wanted..."Fire Cars!!! (cause they go faster!)" He was so excited he was literally jumping up and down screaming..."IT'S SANTA! IT'S SANTA!" I knew this year was going to be fun! Our little elf! Just like his daddy! I couldn't get him to take off the costume to take a "serious" photo! We had some nice cold weather that froze our pool over. Colten and Matt love to ice skate together on the ice. Here's Colten going on a little "date" with Violet on the ice! What a smooth talker! Christmas morning Colten woke up and checked out his goods and we were oblivious! We were passed out in the other room. He didn't even bother coming and waking us up! He ran in the room with his stocking and said, "look what Santa got me!" Santa had brought him a colts uniform with a helmet, but he forgot all the pads to go with it and Colten noticed!!! He searched the house from top to bottom for the first 20 minutes saying, "maybe he left them upstairs in my room?" We had to break it to him that Santa knew he was too little for shoulder pads. Then off he was to opening presents. Here he is with his 'fire cars'. He loves hotwheels cars! He has a collection going. He got a big rig truck that holds them all from his grandma but they don't all fit (and it holds 60 some)! Matt made Colten a marble track for Christmas out of PVC pipe. That has been great entertainment for the two of them. They have taken that thing apart and recreated so many different designs. I woke up one morning to some clanking noise and walked out of my bedroom to find it winding from the bottom of the steps to the upstairs railing straight up to the ceiling! It's a good bonding time for them :) At grandma Lee's Colten dressed up with his daddy to play Santa and his little helper for his little cousin Landon. Colten thought he was pretty special to be able to dress up and help his daddy pretend to be Santa! Uncle Bill and Aunt Christie had planned a fun treasure hunt for the boys to get their Christmas presents! It was really cute! They made a treasure map of the farm and had clues to find the next spot that had the next clue. Here is Uncle Bill sitting in the outhouse where the boys found the last clue. Funny though I think the boys were so consumed with finding their treasure and the clue that they didn't find the humor in Uncle Bill sitting on a toilet outside in freezing weather! The boys found their treasure buried in the hole of this tree! Colten had a blast and loved the hunt. He loves his box, it sits on his dresser and he loves it when I put stuff in there that he doesn't know about. It's like a treasure every time he opens it. Here are the three boys with their treasure. Tivon, Colten, and Landon. From there we headed to my family's for Christmas evening. Unfortunately I forgot our camera and couldn't take any pics. :( Colten got a cool race car...imagine that??? Colten liking race cars. This one was remote controlled which he thought was cool. We soon found out that all the remotes for all the boys cars work for each other so you never knew who was controlling who's car! :) It was like they were all possessed :) Matt and I got the dvd game Deal or No Deal. The first time we played it wouldn't you know Matt won the million!!!! I think I got a good deal, but compared to the million it wasn't. Wish it was real! Mom and dad got all the kids games this year which was a lot of fun cause we all got to try out each other's games and had some fun as a family playing together. It was a great Christmas. I love the time seeing family and celebrating the birth of a Savior!