Wyatt's New Do

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Care Package #2

Well, the families I know of that had court this week have been heard. One passed, two did not. Unfortunately, we still have not been heard yet. But, the good news is, we think we've got a package carrier to Gabe :)

Maybe, Just Maybe?

We learned a couple of weeks ago that we are what is considered an open court case. Therefore, we should not expect a court date, nor an update until our case has been heard in court. That will happen hopefully soon after all necessary documents are acquired. Of course, you know me, and you know I've been stalking the blogs. I know there are at least 2 families with our collaborating agency that have court dates this week. Maybe, just maybe, our paperwork will be done. Maybe, just maybe, our paperwork will accompany those families to court. Hey, a girl can hope, right?

Church Quote

This is the quote that struck me today in church:

"Sometimes your plans have to fail in order for God’s plan to succeed"

What quote is more applicable for the Schlafer Family?

Seriously?!

So, I'm driving today to go get Wyatt from school. I'm running a little behind, but realize I'm in good shape to get there just in the nick of time. Its 5:40, I have until 6:00 to get him and I'm only about 10 minutes away. Its raining, and my boss' last words before me leaving work were "go slow, don't hurry, the roads are wet." Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. So back to my journey. I approach the on ramp to New Circle road and hit the typical traffic. The truck in front of me is stopping, so I do so as well. Unfortunately, I did not stop quite as quickly as he did (back to the roads are wet comment) and boom, I smack into the back of his truck. No damage to his truck, but my hood is looking nice...in a ghetto kind of way. I didn't know exactly what to do. Do I call the cops? Just exchange info? What?! Jason was at a dinner for work, so I call my mom. Her and my dad recommend I call the cops in order to make an insurance claim. I agree, get out of the car to talk to the guy I hit and realize I just locked my keys in the car. Fantastic. I try frantically to call Wyatt's school to let them know I'm going to be late. I call 911 to get the cops there. I call Jason (okay stalk Jason) to get him to help me figure out what to do about the Wyatt situation. Jason calls back and gets Wyatt. After 30 minutes of waiting for the cops, Jason and I trump my parents' opinion and decide my car is isn't worth the cost of the insurance claim and rate increase. I call 911 back and tell them to cancel the cops and I exchange info with the guy in the truck. The guy was a trooper. He stayed with me until Jason could come and let me in my car. Jason shows up, lets me in my car and we decide to go to the next exit to get Wyatt from his car to mine.
We get off of the next exit at a Shell station. I get Wyatt in my car and head to the YMCA fall festival. I pull up to a stop light (to leave the parking lot) and I'm in the right turn lane. The light is red and I ease of the brakes to see if I can go. Being cautious (since I just wrecked and all) I decide not to go. However, the car behind me had a little different opinion. Oppsie poopsie, they bump into me. This time, no damage done to either car. In fact, they barely bumped me. Thank goodness.
So, my friends, try to top that. Two wrecks and locking your keys in your car...all between 5:40 and 6:40 on a Friday evening. Not quite my idea of Happy Hour.

We saw this video today in church. Very powerful. This family has unbelievable strength and faith. Watching this makes me realize its time to stop the whining and complaining about what is not happening and start being grateful for the amazing life we've been given.

Court Update

Nope, still no court date, but we've gotten some updates. The latest update is that dates are definitely being given. In fact, that agency that ours works with got 5 assigned yesterday. They check daily with the courts to see if new dates have been assigned. Unfortunately, the courts are not assigned according to the dates they were filed. Therefore, many families that have been waiting for a long time are still waiting. Many families that have been waiting much longer than us.
So, we're still being patient (well, kind of). Hopefully we'll hear something soon. Maybe I'll get a court date for my birthday!

Wyatt's First Field Trip

Today was Wyatt's first school field trip. Thankfully, it happened to be over my fall break so I could go with him. So off we went to Bi-Water Farm in Georgetown, KY. We had a great time! I'll save you the details and just the pictures tell the story.

Courts Open This Week

The Ethiopian courts open this week. Andrea (our awesome LMI coordinator) called me Friday and gave me the most recent update on Gabe. They are working on some paperwork that is required to pass court. They were asked to get additional documentation and the staff in Ethiopia, as well as the Ethiopian Family Services, are on the case to get everything complete. Their goal was to have it done prior to the courts reopening. I guess we'll find out this week if that happened or not. It is comforting to know they are going through the effort to call in additional support to get everything needed to declare him officially ours.
We'll obviously update as soon as we hear anything. I can tell you that we have a ton of pictures of the little guy. I cannot explain how huge his eyes are. He always appears happy. It is clear in the pictures that the baby house is a great place and the caregivers genuinely care about the children. That is one of the only things that keeps us sane through this process.

The Great Pumpkin

Wyatt has a new addiction..."Its the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown". If we've watched it once, we've watched it 1000 times. The kid has been bringing letters home from school for the Great Pumpkin. I can't work up the nerve to break the news that there is no Great Pumpkin. Only 20 more days until Halloween and we can move on to the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. I've never seen it and I don't know what it entails, but I'm ready for the departure of our pumpkin friend.
In honor of our new BFF, The Great Pumpkin, we got a pumpkin this week. We painted it first and kept it on our kitchen table for a few days. It got promoted to the front steps and within 24 hours a downpour of rain cleared away our painted masterpiece. We headed out to Target and got a pumpkin carving kit. The results are below.




On our way to Target, Wyatt had Jason and me cracking up. The conversation went as follows:
Wyatt: There are 5 people in our house
Us: Who are they? Name them.
Wyatt: Wyatt, Jason, Michelle, Heathrow (our cat) and Bob (Wyatt's fish)
Us: There are 5 living things, but only 3 people.
Wyatt: What are living things?
Us: Things that breathe.
Wyatt: Bob can breathe in water?
Us: Yep
Wyatt: (Without skipping a beat and completely amazed) Holy Smokes, how does he do that?

And Another One

Yep, another delay. The Ethiopian courts are now not scheduled to open until mid-October. I'm speechless. And if you know me, that's hard to accomplish. I wish I was confident this waiting would end soon. Unfortunately, I'm not.