We weren't home last night so I had to record the taping of the show. Looks like it went long and I missed the last few minutes. I should have missed Mariah Carey and the big finale so let me know if they showed anything else.

Did they air the messages from all the presidential candidates? I didn't see them. I wonder if John McCain never sent in a better tape so they decided not to show any of them? Hmm, interesting. Let me know if they put them at the end and I just missed it.

I loved all the footage from Africa and our own country about all the wonderful work that is being done to help others. Made me really proud to be an American. Even with all our faults we are a people that really do care about others.

When the Africa footage came on I had a powerful urge to just break down completely. So many children without a mother or father to love them. The footage of the four boys who had lost both of their parents to AIDS just broke my heart. I wanted to reach through the TV and pull them through into the warmth and love of our family. If only it was that easy.

We are making progress in our journey towards our children. USCIS has our home study and they are reviewing it (hopefully quickly) so we can receive the every important I171-H which is basically a little piece of paper saying we have our governments approval to bring an orphan into the country. A lot of paperwork and time for one little piece of paper that looks so insignificant next to all the other documents for our dossier, yet is the one last piece of the puzzle before we can send our dossier off for state certification.

Y'all know I am not a patient person. Last nights show with all those sweet little faces definitely did not make the wait any easier.

On a happier note our agency gave out referrals to five families yesterday. Yeah! At least five children who will now have a parent(s) to love and care for them. I look at every referral as a baby step in changing the word and lives of the children who have been so affected by events they have no control over. Perhaps each baby step will have a domino effect and in a few years the conditions for these children and their families will have changed for the better. We definitely, as a nation, need to be making sure more medicine is available (just the basics that we take for granted here in America) so people will not die from conditions such as malaria which is so preventable. The world will be a better place when mother's and father's are allowed to live and raise their children.

Unfortunately, it will take time to change the conditions in Africa, but I am encouraged by all the attention that is being given to the problems.

That being said I am so honored to be able to adopt one or two of the beautiful children from Ethiopia. I think part of my impatience at the slow paperwork crawl is that I dream about our children all the time. I can see them, we are hugging, and I feel such love towards them I think my heart might burst out of my chest.

We have asked for one or two children. My dreams always have two children in them. I'm not sure what that means.

Only time will tell I suppose. I am hoping and praying that the time starts to pick up the pace a little. My arms are aching to hold my children close to me for the first time and never let them go. What a wonderful day that will be!

Labels: Adoption