Waiting...

Every adoptive parent knows this word all too well. And now is our chance to experience it, firsthand. We worked so hard to collect all the documents we needed for our home study, got our physicals, got our two sets of fingerprints done, attended classes, had visits with a social worker, and now are WAITING! We are waiting on the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI). We had been told they were taking about 10 weeks to process background checks. On Friday I called Adoption Alliance since it had been over 11 weeks. We were told that more recently it's been taking about 3 months. So, Becky, (Jay's cousin), said that if we don't hear anything we could call again next Friday. That would be Good Friday. We are really hoping that it will be a Good Friday! Once that comes through we can finally move forward to the next stage of officially entering the Thailand program through W.A.C.A.P.

This week I've been thinking a lot about waiting. I thought about it as I walked by a robin perched in an apple tree, which had buds just waiting to burst open in blossom. I wondered if that could be a good metaphor for Penny's life. The robin looked shy and scared as I walked by. But, he didn't fly away even though I was close. He was hiding amongst the buds, just about ready to open up. I wonder if she will feel timid and fearful when she first joins our family. But, soon she'll find herself surrounded by newly blossoming beauty all around her. I hope her new life in America will be full of new life and promise. Especially I pray that she will discover the eternal life of Jesus welling up in her heart.

I've also been thinking about waiting since I've been waiting so long to get well. I've had what seems to be a case of acute bronchitis ever since Mar. 1st. I can never remember being sick this long. I'm now taking countless vitamins and herbs and my second round of antibiotics. Perhaps this is the season in our lives where God wants to teach us more patience in trials and waiting on Him.

Stories

When we were children we loved to listen to stories. I think as adults we also love stories. Today I get to tell the story of how God has been leading us to try to adopt a waiting girl in an orphanage in Thailand. I'll be speaking at the little Japanese church that meets here in Fort Collins. Someday I look forward to telling our daughter the story of how she came to our family. That's why I'm creating a Life Book now before she arrives home. Since all you can buy in the stores are Baby Books and our daughter won't have a lot of pictures and stories about her physical birth I decided to create her own, unique Life Book on our computer.

Speaking of stories, I have a happy story to tell. We had a good response since last week with recipes coming in for our fundraiser cookbook. Last weekend we had 60 recipes. By this weekend we're up to 87 recipes! Thanks, everyone! Keep them coming in. We're hoping to have at least 100 or more by May 1st.

The latest news on the adoption story is that Marcia, at Adoption Alliance, said that other families who turned in their request to have their background check done by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation back in Januaray have started getting those clearanances back. So, hopefully we'll get a call next week. Also, our last letter of reference should be arriving at their office this next week. And, hopefully, by that time, I'll be completely over this virus that is still hanging on after more than 3 weeks.

Well, I'll leave you with a few more pictures of Udon Thani, as we hope to be reporting from there sometime in the next year. Preferably, we'd rather not travel there at this time of the year, since it's the hottest time of the year. If you check out the weather link, (lower right column), you'll see that the temperatures now are usually in the 90's to 100's.

International Adoption Cookbook

If you haven't already heard, we are doing a fundraiser to help bring Penny home from the orphanage. I was hoping that we could get at least 100 recipes gathered to go into this cookbook. The deadline is May 1st and we already have about 60 recipes, so far! Yeah! Thanks for all of your help! We're also hoping that the students at Liberty Common School, where Jay teaches, might contribute art work for the project. After all of the recipes are contributed, we'll put our order in to Morris Press in Kearney, Nebrasksa. Depending on the number of recipes, the cost will vary. But, I'm guessing that the selling cost of our cookbooks will go from between $7-$10. Please let us know if you'd still like to contribute recipes and if you might be interested in purchasing one of the cookbooks. If we end up getting more money than we need for adopting Penny then we will give all the remaining funds directly to our adoption agency. They do a wonderful job of not only placing children in forever families, but they also give tons of aid to orphans who are still waiting. In fact, they're such a reputable agency in Seattle that Bill Gates has contributed lots of money to them. If you'd like to read more about our agency check out the link in the lower right hand column of this blog.

My awesome new bike!

Wow! It was quite warm today and a wonderful day to ride a bike. I haven't been riding my older 10-speed on a regular basis for many years. After Chandra surprised me on my birthday with a wonderful new Schwinn mountain bike, I became inspired to try harder to ride. This week during Spring Break I donated my 22-year old Panasonic 10-speed to the Open Door Mission in Fort Collins. Strangely enough, even though it was 22-years old I doubt that it even had 150 miles on it, if even that many. I just rarely ever rode it. Well, Chandra and I took a bike ride this afternoon and had a great time. I thoroughly love this new bike and it is very comfortable to ride. Who knows, maybe I've now found a regular way to exercise. The attached picture was taken on my birthday on January 13th at my parent's house in Fort Collins. I didn't know that Chandra had very sneakily taken the new bike to my parents house and stored it on their porch. Note the ice on the windows of the porch. It was quite cold on the porch when this picture was taken and the porch doesn't have heat. Also, we still had over two feet of snow outside so today, March 17th, was the first day that I could actually get myself to ride.

Having Fun!

Jay and I are enjoying the 75 degree weather this Saturday. We rode our bikes over to his school to watch the last episode of "Lost" which we missed on Wednesday when we were in Denver. It's much faster on the T1 line here at his school. So, I've also been playing around with this blog site. I can actually download pictures using this! Yeah! I added the map of where our hopeful future daughter resides. I'll try including a picture of the area in this entry. More later!

Hoping for Spring Again!

Although the weather is beginning to feel more like Spring here in Colorado it still feels like winter regarding the Regans' health. Jay is gradually getting better. But Chandra is still battling this awful virus after more than two weeks. On a more positive note, there have been some exciting moments as well. On Monday we received a Thai bible and kids' tract for free in the mail. I had inquired online about a ministry to kids in Thailand asking if I could obtain some materials from them to introduce our daughter to Jesus. And someone from their home office in Hoffman Estates, IL decided to send us a brand new Thai/English New Testament for free. Also, I got a phone call from the new friend, Rain, who lives nearby with her family, including her 16 yr. old adopted girl from Thailand. We haven't set a time up to actually meet, yet, partially because I'm still waiting to get well. Even though I wasn't feeling the best I enjoyed celebrating my birthday last Friday at a Thai restaurant with Jay and his parents. We met a Thai woman there who said we could always give her a call if we needed help with translation someday.

On Wednesday (when I was feeling relatively healthy) I (Chandra) took the day off. Jay had this whole week off, thanks to Spring breal. So, we went down to Denver on Wed. for our international Adoption meeting through Adoption Alliance. We decided to go a little early and take in a museum and dinner before the meeting. We both really enjoyed the Colorado History Museum. And we found an Asian grill restaurant near our adoption agency that we both really loved! We met Jay's friend and bestman from the wedding there. Nathan shared really great news that he got a job which will enable him to live anywhere he likes (as long as it is near an airport). For his new job will require a lot of cross-country travelling. So, who knows where we might end up visiting him! There were mixed emotions of both sorrow and joy, as I heard news of a friend of mine who miscarried her baby in the same week that I found out a co-worker is expecting her first baby.

We enjoyed the class on Wednesday. We especially enjoyed hearing the stories of a couple who had recently adopted a 7 year old girl from Ethiopia. Also, we're getting more recipes in for our fundraiser cookbook. We're now up to 50 recipes! I'm hoping to get to at least 100 by May 1st. If you want to contribute please let us know! Here's hoping that Spring will come to you and yours, as well!

God is so good!

Not flesh of my flesh
Nor bone of my bone,
But still miraculously my own.
Never think for a single minute
You didn't grow under my heart -
But in it!

This is a very touching poem that a newfound friend on the web shared with me. I met Rain Rice this past week on that Yahoo group site that I mentioned I had found on the internet. There are 34 members in the group. And all of the members have adopted older children from Thailand. Now, get a load of this! I was looking at the members' profiles and discovered that one of the members I had been e-mailing with this past week is from Colorado. She and her husband adopted a 16 year old girl from Thailand. So, I e-mailed her and asked her where in Colorado she lives. I mentioned that even if it's far we'd like to possibly meet someday. So, I told her we're in Fort Collins. She wrote back saying, "NO WAY!!!!!!!!" She went on to tell me that they live between Loveland and Greeley! (About 20 miles from our house, I'd guess.) Not only that, but she's a Christian! AND she works for a Christian photograher here in Fort Collins, which I "just happened" to notice again on my way home from Walmart this past week. And this time when I saw the sign, "Agape Photography", I thought to myself, "Since 'agape' is the Greek word for God's love in the bible, the owner must be a Christian. Perhaps I should check out this photographer in the future for a family portrait once Penny comes home." Little did I know that one of the Yahoo group members I had been e-mailing with all week works for this man. This is almost getting eerie! But, no! Of course, God likes doing these little mysterious things for His children. Well, I can't wait to meet my newfound friend who lives closeby and has an adopted 16 yr. old Thai daughter. I'm sure Penny will be excited about that, too!

The Illness Gauntlet

Hi everyone,

Well, since I've lost my voice today and I'm trying to recover after stressing my vocal cords for my Liberty Common School students today, I thought this would be a good time to add to the blog. In seven years of teaching I think this is the first time that I've actually lost my voice. Chandra and I have been very sick off and on for the past few weeks. I feel like I keep running through a gauntlet of new viruses, bacteria, and miscellaneous aches and pains each day; I don't know how much more of this that I can stand. Five straight days of heavy, hacking coughs is more than enough for me. Chandra has been coughing so hard lately that it sounds like she is choking. My protective nature makes me scared every time that I hear it.

Thankfully, I have Spring Break next week. I'm hoping to recover somewhat. It seems that we're meant to experience several trials during this adoption adventure pursuit. I'm hoping that my health doesn't take a nosedive with all of the obligations at school, as well as the hurdles that we must keep jumping on our way to Thailand. Chandra has a birthday tomorrow, the 9th, and I want to take her to a nice Thai restaurant in Fort Collins. I pray that we will both be healthy enough to do so. Well, it's time to head off to give a piano lesson and later a voice lesson. My voice student will do all of the singing today! :)

Jay

Thanks for your prayers!

Jay and I are slowly recovering at home this weekend. We're going to listen to our church's sermon over the internet. I've been listening to some inspiring Christian music from Hillsong this morning. The words to the song that especially touched me are as follows:

I will bless the Lord forever
I will trust Him at all times
He has delivered me from all fear
He has set my feet upon a rock
I will not be moved
And I'll say of the Lord
You are my shield, My strength, My portion, deliverer, My shelter, Strong tower
My very present help in time of need
Whom have I in heaven but You
There's none I desire besides You
You have made me glad

I'm also so thankful to God for leading me to a Yahoo group online who've all adopted older children from Thailand. Several have also adopted through our adoption agency, WACAP. And many of them also love the Lord Jesus! What a blessing to be surrounded by the family of God who've gone through what we are going through now. One of the moms in the group wrote in her online journal about the sad reality that many of the kids in the Thailand orphanages are abused. For example, her son used to have his head forced underwater until he'd almost start drowning. I praised God for his justice as I was reminded of His promise: "You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; You encourage them, and You listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify them no more."

Psalms 10:17-18

Peaks and Valleys

This has been a week of ups and downs. On Monday I came home finding myself feeling rather worn out and irritated. I guess the kids had taken it out of me. But, then Jay shared some news to cheer me up. We had received a letter in the mail addressed: to the Parents of "Penny" Regan. (Again I won't write her real name for confidentiality purposes). They were officially inviting us to come down to their office and fill out the registration form for her to attend Linton Elementary for the next '07-'08 school year. It seemed kind of strange filling out her "legal" name as Regan, since of course, it's not legal, yet. The school secretary reiterated that they will save her a spot no matter how long it takes. And she mentioned various names of counselors, teachers, the principal, etc. who will sit down together with us and Penny when she gets here. She promised that we would all work together as a community to make sure that our daughter has the support she needs as well as providing support for us as her parents. What a far cry from the other school principal who called me and told me that she was really sorry but they couldn't guarantee anything unless she is here.

The low for us has been our health. Jay had a nasty illness that seemed like strep throat over the weekend. I'm sure it must have been prayers that enabled him to somehow sing in a concert on Sunday night. Now his has turned into coughing bouts. I came down with something like Jay's illness on Thursday night. So, once again, I had to cancel the bible study I had planned for Friday. I went in to the doctor on Friday and my test came back negative for strep. But, I'm still battling a sore throat. While there I went ahead and had a tetanus shot, which I was overdue for. But, I seemed to have a bit of a reaction to it. Fortunately, our doctor said that he has taken some seminars on caring for children adopted from overseas. He said he'll be glad to sit down with us for a preadoption meeting to look over Penny's medical papers. And he reassured me that we have wonderful help in the community for any possible health or developmental problem that she might have.

Another high point was when an Indian woman at my school approached me with a suggestion of something she could do to help us further with fundraising for our adoption. She said that of course, she would love to contribute recipes for our cookbook. But, she would also like to host a cooking class which we could invite people to. Another teacher at our school told me that one of the parents at our school is in charge of the HOA which takes care of the housing developement in which our school is located. The housing development has a community building which can be rented by people in the development for a low fee of $20. When our teacher talked to the parent, she said they would love to let us rent the building for such a class and would happily waive the fee as their contribution to our cause. I feel very blessed to sense so much support in our effort to start our family through international adoption.