Cake overload!

This afternoon was a fully-booked one for us! After school, I picked up Daniel and we headed to the pool, where Daniel swam up a storm for a good 30 minutes. Upon getting dressed, we headed down the hill for a birthday party for a cute little three-year old friend. The next two hours were spent (by Daniel) running, climbing, jumping, chasing...all with some watermelon, hotdogs and cake thrown in. At the conclusion of that fun event, we then made our way across campus for another friend's party (an adult this time), where there was more great food and...balloons which could NOT be resisted. My little guy spent another hour leaping, chasing, throwing and catching aforementioned air-filled objects, much to his great delight.

Until it turned on him.

Tripped him.

And threw him on his head.

And thus began one of those breathless-type wails.

Which quickly downgraded to an annoying whingy-I'm-tired-and-shouldn't-be-awake-and-I-hate-the-world cries.

At which point, the party was over for us.


p.s. - I'm really stuffed full of far too much party food and probably shouldn't eat for another week. Or two.

So I've been thinking...

...what if I didn't wait for epic adventures or world-changing events before I added another blog post? What if, instead, I do what other bloggers that I follow do: blog everyday about the everyday things, thoughts, adventures? So I decided I should give it a go, and while it would be nice to know someone out there is reading, I guess that even if no one does, its a good record of what's been happening in my life.

Fresh buko (young coconut) juice - yum!

Lately I've been reflecting on my dreams of what motherhood would look like and realizing that I'm pretty happy with the way things have turned out so far. A few of the things I envisioned were:

• Having a child who likes to read & care about books - Daniel LOVES books, and has yet to tear a page purposely (although there was an accidental tear when he was over-exuberantly turning pages). 
• Potty-training early - While I definitely didn't expect it to happen with a boy, here he is at nearly 2 1/2 with rare accidents and only using a diaper while sleeping. Awesome!
• Being polite - Daniel knows when to say "please" and "thank you", usually without any prompting. He'll even prompt someone else to say thank you by saying "welcome" if he does something nice =). The funniest thing to me is that he even excuses himself when he burps (or other, em, bodily noises).

Of course, there are lots and lots of things I didn't quite plan on (like sleepless nights ALL THE TIME), but I think this mommying thing is pretty cool. Its so bizarre yet awesome to realize how much I'm shaping this little life - so much more so than the little ones in my classroom. And while there are always daily challenges, ranging from eating to sickness, to discipline, who knew I would like being a parent quite so much?

Lunch in the waterfall at Villa Escuedero

This just in...

I may have just learned something new - how to get my pdf newsletter online! 

If you would like to know more about what's happening in my life (ministry, adoption updates, prayer requests & praises) than you can get in short fb status updates, you can click this APRIL NEWSLETTER link.

Are YOU his family?

No, not Daniel. He's mine. But there's an awesome little nine year-old boy at Gentle Hands who needs a family RIGHT NOW! He needs to be matched with an American christian family within the next 3 days or he will be matched at random to any current applicants throughout the world.

If you have been thinking about adoption or have already taken steps in that direction, or feel that this is God's call to be obedient to Him in this moment having never thought about adoption before, or WHATEVER your current situation...if you think he could be your newest family member, PLEASE contact me for more information. Pass this on to any friends and your pastors too if you are not able to do this.

And whatever your response, please pray for this little boy, that God would provide his family today!

A Long Time Since...

Wow, I'm really bad at this whole blogging thing. I suppose I can claim the excuse that the initial purpose of this blog was to share updates about the adoption process, and pretty much nothing has happened on that front. However, mostly I'm just bad at actually getting the updates on here. So, here's a peek at what's happened since October...

November brought Daniel's birthday with a little celebration at home and church on the actual day, and a party with friends a week later. He is loving being two, and seems to have changed and grown a lot since that magical day!

Playing with his birthday balloons in his birthday tent.

Bubbles galore - birthday party entertainment!

Blowing out his 2 year old candle on his Elmo cupcake!

In mid-December, my mom came for a visit, to see ME after 2 1/2 years and to meet her new (and only) grandson. It was a fun month, especially since I was on school break for most of it. We spent a week at my favorite beach, where Daniel romped in the sand and sea to his little heart's delight. I'm so glad he's a beach-lovin' baby! Aside from the beach, we had a super fun time with Nonnie and were very sad when we had to drop her off at the airport. Skyping is just not the same as having her here!

"Digging" the beach

Chillin' with his best bud, Ezra

We LOVE the beach!

School started up again mid-January, so we got back into our regular weekly routine. However, we welcomed some new friends into our house - Liz, just for a week, and Madison, who is here to stay for a while (well, 4 months, anyway). Madison has quickly made her way into Daniel's heart and is one of his favorite friends. Its been fun to have someone else around to talk and do things with (someone over the age of 2. I mean!), and we get along quite well. I'm already sad that she has to leave in May. Waaaah!

Madison and her chalk art

A few updates on the little guy:

• Although he can't sing the song yet, he can now identify nearly all the letters of the alphabet! This is partially attributed to the cool "Alphabet Town" toy that Nonnie bought when she was here. My favorite part is that it's a British company (or at least the voice is), and Daniel has picked up a bit of the accent on certain words. Like "smol", aka, "small". Oh, and its "x-y-ZED" not "z". Oh, my little international MK child!
• He now counts to 10 regularly and repeatedly - its one of his favorite things to do, actually. He's got the number "one" in his repertoire now, but often skips "eight". We're working on being able to count objects now, instead of just counting at random.
• He can dribble a basketball...mostly
• He somersaults - however, making sure doesn't do so OFF of surfaces like the bed or couch is a current priority!
• Jumping is still a very favorite activity. Now he jumps off of objects at heights of about 2 feet without holding my hand, and lands most of his jumps. 
• The BIGGEST latest news is that he is ROCKIN' the potty-training!!! Day 3 with zero accidents was today, and those days included being out at church, the mall, and even through a movie in the theater (which, in itself, was a big deal)! We haven't made any attempts at it for naptime/bedtime, but he's doing so awesome at the day-time stuff. I wasn't really planning to start this process until he was at least 2 1/2, (he's 27 months now), but he was showing signs of readiness, so we gave it a shot. 

On the adoption front, I went to the DSWD office yesterday to submit my paperwork to get our case started. However, since I am applying with a different address than I did with my foster care, my case will actually be filed through a different branch of the office. SO, my file will be submitted tomorrow (Feb 16) to the Region 4 office, which will be the real start to my adoption process! Then I'll wait to hear from a new social worker who will update my homestudy and then submit my file for the next step. I'm still not totally clear on the steps nor the timeline, but at least something is happening now. Please continue to pray for the process and that, if possible, it all might possibly be finalized before the start of the next school year. It'll take a miracle, but if it doesn't happen by then, I'm not too worried. It just means my plans for a furlough in July will be on hold for a while. =)

 If you want to learn more about adoption, fostering (in the Philippines) or Gentle Hands Children's Home, you can start by reading Charity's latest update, then checking out the website. If you're interested in giving to support my ministry or Gentle Hands, please see the sidebar or ask me for more information.

Finally, I just wanted to thank everyone for sharing this journey with us. Thank you for praying, for giving, and for sharing our story.

A proud mommy

So I think its very possible that I get more joy out of teaching my two year old son something and seeing him demonstrate that he has grasped new knowledge than I do teaching a classroom full of elementary students. I mean, I love teaching in general and having that connection with kids and seeing them learn, but its really different when its my own [almost] kid. 

Within the last two weeks, Daniel learned to say most of the letters of the ABCs. But today as we were saying them, I realized that he now knows what letter comes NEXT and says that one, instead of repeating what letter I've just said. Not for all the letters, but there are about 10 that he knows are next.

With about 80% accuraccy (yep, there's the teacher-training in me), Daniel is identifying capital O, E, and A in print. Seriously, I didn't mean for him to do that yet!

Today he counted to 6, without repeating after me. Except that he hates the number 1, so I have to force him to start with it by repeating it over and over. He loves 2...its his favorite number. He can repeat count up to 10.

He can now respond properly to the questions, "What's your name?" (Dan dal) and "How old are you?"  (Twoooo). I know, he's not quite two yet, so its not entirely true, but I think we're close enough and, well, see the above paragraph about the number 1.

Well, that's the latest on my side of the ocean. Its school break for the next week, so instead of going to the beach as I have for every other break since I've lived in the Philippines, we're checking out some local stuff, like the aquarium and the zoo. Pre-birthday presents, I'll call them!

Don't Tagalog me; I'm nosebleed!!!

I know that for most of you, the title of this post makes no sense. But, if by chance you are Filipino, you are probably laughing outloud. It's a common phrase (substitute "English" for "Tagalog") around here when a Filipino has to engage in too much English conversation. It might also go something like, "Don't English me; I'm panic!"

But in real news (and the reason for the title), I attended a pre-adoption seminar on Sept 24 (or somewhere around that date), a requirement for anyone going through domestic adoption in the Philippines. The seminar was held in a tiny little room, maybe 7x12 feet, with a large table in the center, and about 25 attendees. Unfortunately for me, the majority of the seminar was conducted in Tagalog...I don't really speak or understand much, even after living here for 9 years. Fortunately, I know enough plus the bits that were in English to have come out of the seminar with a bit of understanding of what's to come.

The good news:

• One requirement in the process is a six month "pre-trial placement", when the child is placed in the prospective parent's home and monitored by supervised visits from the social worker. I found out that my foster placement with Daniel counts as that placement, knocking off 6 months of the process in the future.
• My primary social worker through this will continue to be the one I've already been working with through Gentle Hands. Hurray!
• My government-assigned social worker was one of two conducting the seminar. Fortunately, she was the nice one that smiled and me and spoke to me in English (the other lady would make a point to speak to me in Tagalog, then turn to someone else and speak in English. Grrr.)
• There were at least 3 other single women in the room, and we were assured that there was no bias against singles adopting.

The bad news:

• I still have no idea on timing of the whole process. In theory (and with LOTS of prayer), its possible it could be completed by the end of the school year or summer, which would be ideal, as I'd like to furlough. However, I'm not putting any bets on that timing.
• I was told not to even start the application process until six months of fostering is completed. It will officially be 6 months in December. Which means, of course, that nothing will happen until at least mid-January with the Christmas holidays.
• We still have not been officially matched. I supposed this isn't really bad news, but it isn't good news yet either. Daniel's paperwork was finally submitted last week, and matching should happen within the month. Actually, the fact that its been this long before his paperwork was sent in goes in my favor, as we've had longer to bond and demonstrate results of the bond and his thriving in my care.

So that's the "where we are in the process" update. Sorry its been so terribly long since the last post. I'm sure you were all on pins and needles waiting to hear what was happening. ;-)

Thanks for praying!