My poor boy and other ramblings about my boy

Poor Kai is having a hard time these days. He is getting ALL four of his 2 year molars at once and is in so much pain. He is cranky and whiney all day long and cries while he eats if he tries to chew wrong. Of course with one coming in on each side there really is no good spot to chew.
The one thing that is becoming severely obvious is that Kai is ALL boy. We have seen this for a while but each day he does something new that makes us say wow, he's a boys boy for sure. While the kids were with my mom she had to get tires put on her car and so they sat and watched because it wasn't going to take too long I guess. Well the girls were whining and complaining they were bored and Kai sat and stared the whole time. My mom said he would turn to her and point telling her what the guy was doing. Of course he can't talk to well still and so it was a lot of excited mumbo jumbo. Who knew watching a guy change tires could be fun?
Raising a boy is so much fun, and SO different from raising girls. No one can tell me that we have conditioned Kai to be boy like and the girls to act like girls. Kai doesn't have many boy toys and though he plays dress up with the girls and is sometimes the Mommy we never had to teach him to love fire engines, trains, trucks, tractors, and airplanes. It is amazing how different boys are! I can't wait to have more! Of course I have been waiting a long time for my girl straight from the hospital too. I don't think we will be done with 6, I really don't. I think after the 6 are older God is going to direct us to have some more. Isn't it exciting not knowing what God has planned? Well, sometimes that can be very frustrating too...

Oh the drama...

What can I say? Things in the adoption department have not gone well this week. We had a meeting with a birthmom but she did not choose us, always exciting but disappointing when you aren't chosen. Actually disappointing isn't a strong enough word but I'll leave it at that. After coming home after a weeks vacation our homestudy was in the mail (which it was supposed to be sent straight to immigration) and so I rushed out in between loads of laundry to send it out to immigration. Then we leave for another week with the kids to stay with Jonah's parents only to return to a big envelope from immigration saying we needed an "A" number. We do not need one to find our file and I am thinking that because of some confusion with my maiden and married name during fingerprinting they may be confused too. I have been praying about this ALOT and have come to a sense of peace about all of these delays. Truly, I have. I just know that God is in all of it and that there is a reason why. Our boy isn't born yet, or relinquished yet, or in the orphanage yet, whatever it might be, there is a reason and so we have to hold off and deal with a few more delays until the timing is right. Just my $.02
On top of all that Jonah got REALLY sick and came home from work after just 6 hours and has literally been in bed since then with a HIGH fever. He has never had a fever while sick since we have been married and so I worried about him and babied him. Today is the first day he got out of bed to go to the doctors and did some very low key things. The rest of us aren't feeling up to par either.

Our homestudy is in, finally

Jonah and I just got back today from Virginia without the kids. It was a wonderful time but I will only say one thing. We will never take Southwest again and I advise you not to as well. Let's just say that our luggage was lost BOTH ways and we were lied to and misdirected over and over again. Not the best way to start or end what was othewise a great vacation.
Besides that our homestudy was in the mail when we got home. Of course it was supposed to be sent to Immigration directly, not to us, but I got it out today and it should be to immigration tomorrow. Now the waiting really begins. We wait for immigration to say that we are OK to adopt a foreign orphan (which is the I-171H form) then send that to Acres of Hope and start the wait for our referral. With the way things have been looking in Liberia I am not too hopeful that this all will happen as soon as we thought when we started. The new president is instituting new rules that are still being tested and not perfected and so things are very unorganized and no one is in any kind of rush. From what I am told, that is just Africa in general. And I thought our government offices were bad, they say Africa is about 20 times worse. Right now passports are what are holding up the adoptions. I really hope they get it ironed out by the time comes for us to travel so that we won't be waiting 3 months for a signature like some of the families are right now.
We leave tomorrow early to go to Jonah's parents and are staying with them for a week. It will be a nice time of relaxation and good fellowship with the other Winger's. The kids are really looking forward to it and so are we. It will also be great to see our friends that we haven't seen since we moved. We miss it up there, a lot.

Oh my Alana, too big for her britches

Alana sometimes just amazes me with her insightfulness and ability to know things most other 3 year olds don't know. Today I heard her and Kai playing in the play room and she is saying, "Ok Malakai, this is my dopter (doctor) form to give the the social worker and here are my fingerprints. We willy (really) need to get them in. I need to go to the shewiff's(sheriff) and have this notewized (notarized) and I will talk to the powees (police) man. Here I am going to do my e-mail and see what the social worker has to say. Please don't loose these, they are portant (important)." This is literally was she said, I was typing as I was listening. And we wonder how much our kids understand? Well, I can say now that Alana understands a fair amount of the international adoption process. :) That's my girl!

Homestudy update

Well, today we got our homestudy on our e-mail to proof-read. It didn't take but 15 minutes and I sent it back asking when we will have the final copies by. I pray it will be by Saturday as we leave for vacation on Sunday. If not we will have to wait until the 16th when we return (it had better be here by then) and send it out before we leave the next day for another week long trip to see Jonah's parents and other friends in Nor Cal. The sooner we can get this thing in to immigration the sooner we can get the referral of our son and the sooner we can pick him up!