Adoption changes everything...

Adoption is hard.

This is a little of what I have been learning in the last 3 months since bringing Canaan and Eden home...

It is also really good. Challenging. Full. Amazing.

We are still working on our initial bonding issues...tough stuff. More on that later probably.

On top of the challenges of adoption, our family has gone through so much bureaucratic hokey, misinformation from those supposedly in-the-know, and a whole slew of bad advice to last us for a LONG time. So, on top of the transitions that come with adoption, we have also been displaced from our home in Italy and relocated back to the States...for good.

In a nutshell, we cannot get the documents that Italy wants to grant our children long term visas, making our living in Rome (and probably any other country besides the US) no longer possible. The Italian-Ethiopian embassy will not translate the necessary documents into italian because we are not italian citizens and we are no longer in country (Addis) to plead our case. We did not know of these requirements before we left Rome. When we came back to the States, we tried to line up documentation as best we could, but roadblocks always appeared. As the months passed, we could not rely on our company to support us any longer during a wait that was indefinite, and they do not grant transfers to those in their first term (not that any country would most likely take us) so we made the difficult, but very clear decision to resign.

I could tell our story with bitterness, blaming individuals for their bad advice and attitudes that seemingly lead to where we are right now--but that would be unfair and untrue...the fact of the matter is, God was, and continues to be, guiding all of our circumstances, bringing us to the place where He wants us to be. It is His 'fault' that all this has happened. And THIS is where our peace comes from. He is showing Himself faithful to our family and we are blessed.

We are blessed to be together as family. Together with Canaan and Eden.

We prayed and waited for so long to be here, at this point, that we can't dwell on everything that we've lost. We have to focus on all that we have been blessed with. Our children are all healthy and happy. They are all getting used to this new family amazingly well. Canaan and Eden are growing and blossoming...they look healthier since we first brought them home...they've each gained almost 10 pounds and a couple of inches each and Eden is about to celebrate her 2nd birthday on Saturday!!

God has provided a car, a job, and hopefully this week we will close on a house for our family. Then we, along with our suitcases of things, can move in! We hope that our things in Rome will be crated and sent to us soon--we have many things for Canaan and Eden there, along with all of our supplies and things we'd been saving up for the baby coming in June. We've transitioned this far...it will be interesting to see how things change as we move from living with grandparents to living on our own. We'll have a whole new bunch of changes to sort through :-)

I know this is a little scattered...I'm not very good with words at the moment...I'll stop trying to type and just close with a few pictures...