Summer Fun

     Several people have asked me recently how things are going with our adoption, which says to me two things: 1) some sweet people actually read this crazy thing; and 2) I really should get around to updating it!

     Truth be told, not a lot of movement has happened in the Shelton adoption saga – at least not insofar as the official paperwork and referral process are concerned.  Due to a long and complicated legal reason (which I’ll be happy to tell you sometime if you actually want to know) there is a rather large log jam in the Haiti adoption world.  Wait times are seemingly ever increasing and families are waiting a long, long time to meet and ultimately bring home their children.  In all seriousness, I expect our daughter to come home in 2020, or later.  We are still waiting for our dossier to be officially submitted to the Haitian government, having now completed two home studies, and a ton of other paperwork.  The journey we expected could take three years has taken more than four, and could drag on for another four.  I “hope” we’re more than halfway through it now.

     So what’s a high-strung, not very patient, mom with heart pangs for a child she doesn’t know yet supposed to do with herself in all this waiting!  If you think I’m a master of tranquility, or that I’m sitting around moping, or even planning our next fundraiser, you’d be wrong.  God just didn’t make me the kind of person who could sit still!  And it just so happens that there is a lot of work to be done and a lot of opportunity to serve between now and….well…whenever this comes to an end.  I am deliberately not going to complain or cry in this post, and I am also not going to fret over money! I’m just going to give you a glimpse of what life is like around here during the long wait.

     Summer is upon us.  This means that my turn to grow gracefully older rolled around again.  When we woke up that morning, we discovered that our refrigerator was leaking all over the new hard wood floor.  This was an especially curious situation as the water line had been disconnected for over a month.  Ultimately, between that issue, and several others, we determined it was indeed time to replace the fridge.  So sad. 

     You see, our house is at that age where everything that was new at the same time is wearing out at the same time.  We replaced the water heater in April, our washer and dryer in May, put in the new, now wet floor in May, and now had a refrigerator problem to deal with.  This meant that we would now ignore the grill that was rusting out, and rethink replacing the vacuum whose cord is electrical taped together because some loser (me) kept running over it, to the point that sparks shot out of it once when it wasn’t even turned on.  And we won’t talk about the hole our puppy made in the carpet!  But the kicker, the part that caused tears to stream down my face amid peels of laughter, was when Steve went to cut my birthday cake and the knife broke in his hand!  It was the perfect ending to a ridiculous day!  And though all of this was annoying, it’s nothing compared to the stress of adopting! The cake still tasted good, even if it was hard to cut.

     This year has been about pushing boundaries, overcoming fears, and doing things that take me WAY out of my comfort zone.  For instance, we went to Haiti, remember that?  I might have mentioned it a couple of hundred times.  On top of that, I initiated launching a new ministry in my County, forcing me to meet a lot of amazing people, and face a lot of real needs and hurts.  I have learned to pray in faith believing that God will do great things, and I have been blessed to see them happen again and again!  Perhaps this newfound courage to do new things and take risks explains my boys’ new favorite hobby……”blind basketball with Mom!”

 

     Yep, that’s right.  My big boys are obsessed with basketball.  They play all the time, and often tussle because of it.  So one night, mostly to break up what was about to be a fight, I took the ball and announced I was going to play. The shock value of this caught my now fourth grader off-guard, but then sparked something in him.  He began coaching me, standing under the basket, tapping the pole, and giving me tips and pointers until I made my first shot.  (Incidentally, my form is terrible, but he’s working on it.)  I told him that when he someday wins an award as most outstanding rebounder on his team, he can thank his blind mother for all of the extra practice!

     Soon, making one shot wasn’t good enough for him.  He wanted five, or ten, or twenty in one day, and we got there.  Now mind you, this is all taking place in the street in front of my house, in plain view of my neighbors.  Sometimes I get so tickled at how ridiculous we must look with the boys standing under the basket yelling, “whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop,” and tapping the pole that I burst into laughter and can barely even shoot the ball at all!

     Soon, even this became a matter of competition as the boys both wanted to coach me, at the exclusion of the other.  (Somehow the four year old hasn’t figured out any of this is odd yet, by the way.)  So, I announced that we were going to play a game of HORSE – BLIND HORSE to be exact.  The sighted boys would close their eyes, take their shots, and find out if they were as bad as their mother without sight.  Turns out, they’re not.  They still beat me every time, but we laugh a whole lot at ourselves as we’re out there and you should see the celebrations when I actually make one!

     My favorite moment so far was a week or so ago.  We were taking our turns shooting and a lady was walking her dog through our neighborhood.  Just as she came by, I took my shot, from the left side, and managed to get the ball stuck between the rim and the backboard.  As one boy started rocking the pole to dislodge it, and the other went for a broom, the first muttered, “blind basketball problems.”  The dog walker, who we do not know, was walking right beneath the hoop by now, and laughed out loud as she passed.  Talk about awkward!  I couldn’t have laughed harder at this conundrum.  This either means that I’m an awesome mom who doesn’t take myself very seriously, or that the adoption stress has finally gotten to me and I’ve officially lost it.  Either one, maybe both, could be true, but God knew what he was doing when he created us with sarcastic genes, and we’re okay with it!

     To anyone who is still following our journey, thank you.  We appreciate your encouragement, your words of support, and your prayers more than we can say.  We really do look forward to the day we can post pictures of our daughter, and tell you her name.  For now, we’re not fundraising at all.  We’re moving forward a day at a time, and some are better than others, but we are never bored!

     Our family motto hangs over our kitchen table in the form of a metal art sign we found at Papillion Enterprise in Haiti. 

                      “Wait for the Lord.  Be strong and take heart.” (taken from Psalm 27:14)

     We’re waiting, strengthened by God’s grace, and doing our best to take heart.  And I think we might even be growing a little too.  (That’s a good thing as just as I finished typing this my Seeing Eye dog just ran through our screen door, and you guess it, Steve is doubled over in laughter.  Yay summer!) J

                                        “Give thanks to the Lord.  His love endures forever.”