"There's a Space for Your Daughter!"

Those were the words of the secretary at Linton Elementary this morning when she called me at school. I was so excited to hear that the school that I liked best was the first to contact us and tell us that they would save a space for Penny no matter how long it takes for her to come home. They said even if it takes 12 or 18 months they'll continue to save a space for her. They are being so understanding of our unique situation of having no concrete time line to work with. On the other hand, I've been a little discouraged that so far it doesn't seem like many people are jumping on the bandwagon to contribute recipes for an international cookbook that we were thinking of publishing as a fundraiser. Perhaps it's because I gave a deadline of May 1st. I'm still hopeful that eventually people may join the cookbook campaign. Looking forward to all of those delicious recipes! Let us know if you have any you'd like to share.

As far as the latest adoption news, we're still waiting for those background checks to clear. We completed the parent resource plan forms and sent them off to our agency in Seattle. And we signed up for the first of three international adoption classes we need to take in Denver. That class will take place the evening of Wed., Mar. 14th. I'm hoping to go out to a Thai restaurant for my upcoming birthday. It may be the last birthday before I become a mother! I've been checking the weather conditions in Udon Thani and the highs have been between 90 and 100 there every day. The poor girl is in for a big shock in coming to Colorado. I pray that she'll be able to acclimate rather quickly. At the same time, I believe that she'll have a better hope for a future here. I've been reading more and more stories from World Vision about the grave situation in Penny's part of the world. So many girls there are being lured into sex trafficking, never to be heard from again. We hope that Penny will feel safe and loved in our family, if she is the child God has planned for us.

Oh, yeah!

Oops! In the last blog entry I said that there was just one more step left for getting the home study completed. I was wrong. I had forgotten that we are waiting for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to return our background clearances. That is taking them up to 10 weeks. And our request was sent to them on Jan. 8th. So, once Adoption Alliance receives those then our social worker, Donna, can actually type up our home study assessment. Then we'll review it for any possible need of corrections and a copy will be sent to our agency in Seattle. Donna said she hopes it'll be done by late March. So, we're hoping that no one else will register interest in Penny during the month of March. Well, God knows which child is meant to be in our family. So, we will trust Him to guide us to just the right one.

Also, we've decided to start a fundraising project to help bring Penny home from Thailand. We're asking friends and family if they'd like to help by contributing recipes for an international cookbook, which we will be offering to sell. The proceeds will go towards our adoption fund. If the proceeds exceed the amount needed to help fund the adoption all the remaining funds will be given to our adoption agency, WACAP to help other waiting children. If you would like to contribute a recipe to the cookbook please go onto www.typensave.com You will need the group login name, which is: adoptpenny and you will also need the contributor password, which is: ffph3 Each person can contribute up to 6 recipes. The deadline for entries is May 1st. Thanks so much for considering this project!

One More Step

Well, folks, we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel as far as the home study goes. That's the first important piece of the puzzle that needs to be completed in order to get the ball rolling for our adoption. It has included about 80 pages worth of paperwork, our autobiographies, two sets of fingerprints done for each of us, lots of money, three interviews with social workers and 12 hours worth of adoption/parenting classes in Denver. The only part left now is the last meeting with our social worker. That will be a week from tomorrow, the morning of the 17th. Once that's done she'll be able to write up our home study assessment up and send it all in to our adoption placement agency based out of Seattle. After they've processed it we should be hearing from their Thailand coordinator. She'll tell us all of the documents that we need to collect for the Thailand government, specifically. So, I'm hoping that we can get all of that together quickly and perhaps they'll send our whole dossier to Thailand around late Spring. The waiting part is hard knowing that it means more time lost between us and our daughter. However, God knows the best timing. Perhaps the waiting is best so that we can begin to learn more Thai. In fact, a Thai CSU student has offered to give us free Thai lessons. We, unfortunately, were unable to visit the Thai lady and her husband in Denver last Sunday, since Jay's cold was getting progressively worse. But, we did manage to stop at a Lao market and buy some items necessary for making the kind of sticky rice that Penny would be accustomed to eating in northeastern Thailand. The people living there are actually ehnically and culturally Lao, but use Thai at school. So, we might try to learn a few Lao words along with Thai.

Those cruddy old colds!

Well, here is a quick note from Jay at Liberty Common School trying to make it through the day with a cold and sore throat. The various stressors of my day seem to pile up and eventually bring another illness. I had been doing pretty well this year until this past weekend. As Chandra said in the last entry, I caught a cold this past weekend during our training. Unfortunately, it became worse on Sunday and instead of passing on any germs to the Cefkins, we decided to postpone our meeting to another date. Today I feel even worse! I just finished a long day, including my first extra rehearsal of the year for our musical, Aladdin Jr. We had our rehearsal after school today for 90 minutes. I've tried to get a sub for tomorrow, as my throat is quite sore. However, as is often the case for music teachers, I can't find a sub. I've called all sorts of people and nobody is available. Sooooooo, I'll just come to work on Tuesday, grin and bear it, and hopefully not lose my voice.

Thank you to all of you for your prayers and support for our adoption endeavors. It's hard to believe that things are moving forward already, and perhaps quicker than we expected. I can't believe that I could perhaps be a father by this time next year!!

Jay

Now We Know All We Need to Know, (Not!)

Today we completed our first required 12 hours of adoption classes in Denver. We drove down on Friday after Jay got off from work. I (Chandra) decided to just take Friday off. Friday night our classes lasted from 4 p.m. until 9 p.m. with an hour and 15 minute dinner (supper for you Midwesterners) break. This morning we travelled to the Immigration and Naturalization Services office in Denver to get fingerprinted. It was so strange how the government disguises it. It was hidden away in this strip mall behind a bar with reflective windows so you can't look in. There's no sign indicating that it has anything to do with the federal government. It just said something like "application service center" on the door. And when you opened the door it was like you're opening up a window to the world with people of every ethnic background sitting around filling out paperwork. We arrived right at 8 a.m. when they open and already we saw a mass of human beings waiting. We thought, "Oh great! How will we ever make it in time to go to our adoption classes starting up at 9 a.m.?" But, since we had already filled out our paperwork and mailed it in we got whisked right past all of the waiting people. The fingerprinting, itself, probably only took about 5 minutes. I bet we were in there only a total of 10-15 minutes max. It was kind of interesting how they had to scrape a couple of our dry fingers to make the ridges stand out more. The guy fingerprinting me used the lid of a pen. Jay's gal used an old credit card. They didn't mess our fingers up with ink. Instead, they'd wipe your fingers with a wet rag, spray water on the plate and use this electronic biometric fingerprint scanner. It was neat how you instantly see your own fingerprint magically appear enlarged on the computer screen in front of you. Since we went through so fast we had time to stop at Starbucks to use up some of Jay's gift cards he had received at Christmas time from his students. I had a green tea frappacino and Jay's was a strawberry frappachino. Next we were off to more classes, which were supposed to last until 5 p.m. However, our teacher seemed to think that we had adequately learned all we were supposed to have learned by about 3:30 p.m. So, we had a little extra time to return to our hotel and "veg" (which means to just relax for those of you for whom English is not your first language).

Jay started catching a cold today while mine is getting better. But, we're enjoying our free upgrade at our hotel. We're staying at the Wingate Inn in Greenwood Village (a suburb of Denver). We highly recommed it as a very nice place to stay on the weekend if you're visiting Denver. That's because it's a business class hotel which is normally MUCH more expensive on the weekdays. But, on the weekend you get all of the amenities, including this free ethernet connection, a full breakfast, huge beautiful rooms, pool and whirlpool, etc. for the price you'd pay at a Super 8.

Tonight we met Jay's best man from our wedding, Nathan. We're praying for him about a potential life change which may be in the very near future. We enjoyed eating out with him at a Thai restaurant. Our beautiful young Thai waitress worked so hard all by herself, serving everyone in the entire restaurant and always with a smile on her face. I learned the word for delicious which sounded something like "alloi ma". When we told her we are planning to adopt a girl from Thailand she said, "Oh, you can adopt me." Later we talked about that perhaps she said this wishing she didn't have to work so hard in the family restaurant. These kids do work so hard and it just impresses me at what they all have to sacrifice to make it in this country. I cannot imagine going to a foreign country, starting out from scratch, not knowing the language and going on to be able to own and operate your own successful business. But, it must be hard for the kids who are wishing they could have more freedom and be able to assimilate more into the American lifestyle.

Well, we learned all kinds of things in our classes about things like bonding and attachment issues that the adopted kids will have to work through. Also, how the racial difference will affect the family and other physical and emotional effects there can be due to things like abuse and neglect. Sometimes it was a bit overwhelming. But, it's still a wonderful choice that we know we want to make to provide a loving family to a child who needs one. Right now we hope that child is Penny. God will continue to reveal His plan to us one step at a time.

Tomorrow we will report to you about our time with Eed and Jon Cefkin. We look forward to meeting this couple for lunch at their home. I hope that Eed can teach us much about the Thai community at least in Denver. And it will be fun to visit with her husband, Jon who remembers Jay's sister from the Rocky Mountain H.S. marching band in Fort Collins. What a small world!