Adoption news and Benjamin

We got news that the Ministry of Health in Liberia is going to do our case history! So we will see! Also we heard from the man in charge of adoptions at the US Embassy in Liberia that he is willing to work on our case all the way through issuing our children's visas. He told us to provide the documents and we would get started! We didn't realize that the children's visas are going to cost over 3,000 dollars! That is all we have left in our adoption budget! We have spent all of our "travel" money on Steve's trip to Liberia in February, and thousands of dollars have gone towards feeding the children in the orphanage and other Addy's Hope needs. (The agency hasn't had any money during this time that adoption's are shutdown due to no fees being paid by adoptive families, as well as they only built in 6-9 months worth of care for the children into the fees we initially paid----that is how long adoptions were taking when we first began this process over 2 years ago!) The "travel" money was donated by countless friends and family members as well as through garage sales and other fund-raising efforts. We trust that God will provide what is necessary to get them!!! This is HIS work and I know if it is his will that these children come home, they will!!!

Based on this news we are definitely going to be reading up and preparing our home and our hearts to receive these children. We got a great book written by Angel Rutledge on Liberian adoption and how to prepare for our children's homecoming. I'm almost finished reading it and it is going to be a HUGE help! I'm so thankful to Angel for writing it.

Benjamin is almost 5 months old now and I forgot how much babies change in the first 12 months. Once we get into a routine it changes! In the first 2 months or so I rocked Benjamin to sleep, sometimes nursed him to sleep but not often. The next 2 months or so I would either nurse him to sleep or put him in one of my carrier's until he fell asleep and only occasionally put him down sleepy but not asleep yet and he would fall asleep on his own. Now we have morphed to me putting him down sleepy but awake most of the time. It is either he fusses with me until he falls asleep or he fusses in his bed for a few minutes and then falls asleep. Bottom line it seems, is that when Benjamin is sleepy, he needs to go to sleep. He gets lots of cuddles all the time but when he is sleepy I put him to bed and he may fuss for a few minutes and then he goes to sleep. It seems to be what he needs. If I try and rock him he fusses for longer. The crying he does when I put him down is very low-toned and cranky. Not high-pitched wailing for me to get him. If it ever is, I go and get him. I never let him fuss more than a few minutes. I can kind of tell what he needs by the way he sounds. It's pretty neat.

So all that to say, it is getting easier. 5 months later. This has been a really hard adjustment for me! Every month it gets easier! I hate it that it is so hard and that I look forward to him getting older because I want to just relax and enjoy his babyhood because I know it goes by so fast. But the reality is, the second I relax, everything falls apart. I have so many balls to juggle. So I have to learn to enjoy him as a baby at the same time that I am managing my other three boys, homeschooling, cooking and managing all that goes into keeping up with the house. It is really a lot but lots of other mamma's do it, so I can figure out how to do it too!

Hopefully I can post pictures later!