Spring is HERE!

Finally the grass is turning green and the flowers are blooming. (The pictures are from the magnolia tree in our front yard.) I love this time of year, before it becomes hot and sticky and the bugs arrive. It is a joy to be outside enjoying the crisp fresh air and comfortable temps. The sun seems so intense and bright and the sky so blue. Thank you, LORD, for spring and the changing of seasons.

As the seasons change, we also tick off one more month of waiting. April 23rd will end our third month and begin the fourth month in this time of "anticipation." So far the patience in the wait has been very tolerable, but that is probably due to the fact that we KNOW in advance that the end is not around the corner. However. . . . we are beginning to wonder: Has our precious one been born yet? If so, what is his/her life like? Are they with family or are they already at the orphanage? Has he/she been abandoned? Are they in good health?

So many "what if's" but one thing remains for sure, they are in the LORD's hands. And there is no safer place for us to put them.

A Few Up-dates

Here are a few things we know about our current "status" in the wait. . . according to my best sources (the Ethiopian Forum through Bethany).

There are 6 families waiting to travel: One family with travel dates for mid April.

• This means that they have passed their court date successfully (over in ET) and are now waiting for a US Embassy appointment.

There are 5 families waiting for a successful court date.

• This means that they have been "matched" or referred a child/ren and are waiting for their court date to come (and to pass with all the paperwork properly completed).

There are 26 families waiting (ahead of us) for a referral

• This means we have completed our dossier and it is now over in ET going from desk to desk so that we can be matched with a child God has picked for our family. Only there are 26 families to be matched first. :)

So we are two months into the waiting process and we have moved up the chain a few spots.

ALSO, I wanted to up-date on Eric's health. His "spots" and rash are nearly gone. He still has a few twinges of pain from time to time, but we are grateful to have the experience of shingles behind us. It is no longer known to us as "a strange and ambiguous disease that older people always seem to get." We are now in the "know."

Possible Set Backs - But probably NOT :)

We have been receiving some news of changes taking place in Ethiopia. The US government is requiring some further treatment of the children before being permitted their US visas, especially in the area of TB. Here is what we have been told:

The third item to be addressed is TB testing. Every child being adopted is now being required (by the CDC - US agency) to have a TB test before their visa can be issued. The testing is done by the IOM - the only clinic recognized by the US Embassy in Addis. After a child's court case, they will be taken to IOM for this testing.

For children under 2, panel pediatricians will review history and physical signs to determine if a gastric aspiration is needed to obtain a sputum sample. If the culture is positive, then TB treatment will be required.

For children 2-14 years, they will all undergo a skin test (TST). If the test shows TB exposure, then a chest x-ray will be done. If the chest x-ray indicates possible TB, then a smear culture will be required. The results of the culture will determine whether treatment is necessary. We (the Embassy) expect that many children may show exposure in the TST, but hopefully few will have an irregular chest x-ray. If a culture is taken, it will take a minimum of 8 weeks to confirm a negative. After 8 weeks, the IOM will write a report on a given form stating that the child does not have TB.

For a positive result, the IOM knows the positive result in three weeks. For those children who are found to be TB positive, they will undergo 6 months of Directly Observed Therapy at IOM’s clinic in Addis Ababa before an immigrant visa will be issued.

The Embassy noted the following as additional follow-up: "We will all be working through the new TB requirements together. Please have patience and know that we will be working hard to make everything as smooth as possible for the families. Keep in mind, the 8 week culture delay is only IF a child over 2 has an exposure reading on their TST and THEN has an abnormal chest x-ray. Otherwise those children will be fine with no delays. We expect delays only in a very few number of cases. Please refrain from worrying adoptive parents with talk of widespread delays."

I don't think that this will affect us directly, since we are adopting a child under 2 years of age. However, there are plenty of other adoptive parents out there that are adopting older children. Please pray that the wait would not be long and that they (and we) would "cast all of our cares upon Him", not wasting time worrying about it. :)

God is so Faithful

It has been awhile since we have posted any up-dates. That is due mostly to two reasons. The first is that there really aren’t any more up-dates concerning the adoption. The second is that the past two and a half weeks have been a whirlwind of family health concerns.

April’s father, Glenn Martin, traveled with a mission team to Guatemala March 2nd to the 14th. However, due to a snowy runway and weather, most of the passengers’ luggage was removed and left to be sent on a plane the next day or so. This included Dad’s suitcase and medicines for blood thinner. The team waited for their bags and then headed to their work sight a day and a half behind. Working hard to make up time, Dad and several others were cutting up trusses from the old roof that they were sent to replace. Dad suddenly felt tingling in his left side and sat down. It quickly became apparent that he had suffered a stroke at the young age of 56. He was flown on an emergency small 10 passenger plane back to Guatemala City hospital. He miraculously arrived at the hospital within seven hours to receive further emergency treatment. The doctors soon reported that his clot must have begun dissolving before he had received any treatment for it. Praise our awesome God!

It was a long series of events that got him to the hospital and also a long series of phone calls and plans to get him home to PA. But he is now home, home. He went through one week of in home physical therapy and has now begun out patient therapy at a local PT center. He has gone from not being able to sit up on his own, to now walking without a cane – even up a short flight of stairs. He still struggles with his ability to focus and concentrate on numbers and words and is “edgy” – best way to describe it. He feels that after sitting 10 minutes or so he needs to get up and walk around or move around. This makes sleeping difficult. But I am amazed at how he has improved in this short amount of time.

To top this off my mom ended up in the ER for what we thought was appendicitis, the day after Dad was discharged from the hospital. After four hours of testing they found that it was a kidney stone that was causing all of the trouble and her discomfort and pain quickly passed, leaving her just exhausted. She also has made a quick recovery.

And just to add a twist on everything, Eric was diagnosed with Shingles this past week. So he is dealing with quite a bit of biting and stinging pain while continuing to work. But this too seems to be coming to an end. Today he finally feels that the pain is de-escalating instead of increasing day after day. Also all of the poison looking bubbled rashes have now stopped oozing and are scabbing over.

Thanks for your thoughts, prayers and concerns for our family, immediate and extended. We are so blessed by those who walk with us.

No News is Good News

"Let me catch you up to speed. We know nothing. You are now up to speed."

This is a quote from the movie The Pink Panther. I haven't seen the movie and I don't really have plans to go see it, but I'm thinking of having this quote printed on a tee shirt. At any given moment this will probably be our response to the question "How is the adoption going?"

Actually, that is not entirely true. We recently were told about a website where families adopting from Ethiopia can introduce themselves and identify where they are in the process. This website not only allows us to get to know other families, we can also watch the line in front of us slowly grow smaller. Not every family chooses to identify themselves, so the line is most likely much longer than we are aware of. Currently there are at least 24 families ahead of us waiting to be matched with children. There are at least 12 families that have been matched with children and are waiting for permission to fly.

Another milestone...

The Lehman family has another small reason to celebrate. We just received an e-mail stating that our "dossier" (our official government sealed paper work) was mailed to Ethiopia on January 23. Hopefully, by now the papers have landed on the first of many desks in Ethiopia. The road ahead of us is still very long, but it is always exciting to see some progress.

Positive Adoption Language

I was never one that was real uptight about others speaking Politically Correct (PC). Although I didn't make a habit of using words to purposely hurt or discriminate against others.

However, since crossing over into the adoption world, I realize how harmful words can be. Even ones that are well meant or spoken very innocently can cause hurt toward my family or more importantly our son/daughter.

So now I find myself advocating what is known as "Positive Adoption Language". For example:

Instead of using : ---------------Use this:
Real parent ---------------------Birthparent
Natural parent -----------------Biological parent
Own child ----------------------My child/biological child/birthchild
Foreign child -------------------Child from abroad/international
Adoptive parent ----------------Parent
Give up ------------------------Make an adoption plan
Foreign Adoption ---------------Internation adoption

If someone asks: Do you have any children of your own? And our child overhears the conversation, I don't want our child to think that because he/she was adopted that "he/she is not ours". It is just a matter of thinking of what the words mean to everyone. . . especially little ones. :)