Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Feliz Navidad Kai!!

 Christmas surprise! Photos of our little man on Christmas Eve AND Christmas day!!!!! whoa!! 


Christmas Eve in Kinshasa!!

We saw the break was his right arm. Another mama that was there said it didn't seem to bother him but he would sit down to rest when he got tired.
Merry Christmas Kai! Looking all handsome and in an outfit and shoes that we sent!! They dressed all the kids up in their Christmas outfits for the party.

The transition home all decorated for a Christmas celebration.
It was so wonderful to see that the children at the TH had a Christmas party! It looks like they all had a lot of fun! There was also a photo of the food table and it looks like there were some plantains and yucca. We call plantains "amarillos" or another kind "tostones" in Puerto Rico and that was what we made on Christmas Eve with a traditional PR meal...rice, pink beans, pollo..yum! A lot of the PR receipies have African roots so it was neat to see some of the same foods that they were eating at their Christmas party. 

We are really counting down the days now!!!  

Friday, December 21, 2012

To the hospital and back

A day after the last post I wrote (on December 15th) we thought that Kai would have been well enough after the one night hospital stay to go home the next morning. Turns out he had to stay a second night and he received a blood transfusion.  There were two amazing women who stayed with him all day and donated blood for him, C & J. For them I will forever be grateful they did this for my son. There is no blood bank in DRC so in order for Kai to receive the blood transfusion, blood had to come from somewhere.  They are also ran some blood tests on Kai. As of an update yesterday we are still waiting to receive those results from the hospital in Kinshasa. Kai was feeling great after the blood transfusion and he was able to go back to the transition home that night. So thankful. We cried, prayed, and worried so much over this little boy. So many people were praying for him. We were so glad to hear that he was doing well and out of the hospital!

 
  
We received another email last night from our caseworker. First line, "well....I don't know why this always happens with your family."......that worried me to read....then it went on to say that Kai is feeling SO GOOD that for the past 36 hours he has been running around like crazy at the transition home with all of the other kids laughing and having a good time. He decided to climb up on a chair and jump off. In doing so he landed on his arm on the hard tile floor and fractured it. Our poor little guy! Back to the hospital for Kai. They were waiting for the swelling to go down so they could cast it. Our case worker said, "I want you to be prepared for two things..he's coming home in a cast, and he's all boy!" She also wrote that the nannies said ever since his blood transfusion he is like a completely different child! Scott and I can't help but find this situation slightly comical. Only slightly because I do feel so bad that he broke his arm, but he just got out of the hospital, was having a good time, and found himself back at the same place again! He's also the first out of all four boys to break a bone, and he's two yrs. old. I think when he gets home him and Keane are going to be good buddies. 
We can't wait to get him home and we will be flying very soon. His embassy appointment was Tuesday this past week. We sent off our visas last week. We should be getting ready to fly about a week or so after Christmas. We wish he was already home and our family was all together on Christmas day, but we are leaving the tree up and all of his presents will be waiting for him to open when he gets home!! I can't tell you how much I LOVE this little guy already!!! Can't wait to watch him jumping around and wrestling with his three older brothers. We love you Kai, and we wish you a Merry Christmas!!!

Friday, December 14, 2012

Nets For Christmas

Yesterday we got news that I dreaded. Our caseworker called us around 3:00pm telling us it was nothing to worry about but they had to take Kai to the hospital because he had a fever and flu like symptoms. No wonder the nanny said he was feeling so weak in his update a couple days ago. She told us that he most likely had a relapse of malaria. I had that devastating sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. I wanted to go be with my son. To have a child an ocean away in a hospital and not be there with him. I did what I could only do. Something much more powerful then any medicine. We prayed. Our family stood in the kitchen held hands and we prayed for Kai. The sweetest most faithful words came out of my 3, 5, and 7 yr. old. They know what malaria is. They walked this road before with baby Kembe Marc. They prayed for the bad mosquitos to go away from Kai and that God would make him feel better. The simplicity of a child's prayer. We also had a lot of other families from our agency praying for Kai yesterday. God heard our prayers and he answered them. At 7:00pm we got a phone call that he was doing better. They wanted to keep him overnight, but he should be feeling much better by the morning!! Right now at this time, he should be out of the hospital and back at the transition home. I'm so thankful he had access to a good hospital in Kinshasa. 


Malaria....this is also how baby Kembe Marc left us to go be with Jesus. Sadly I've known too many kids that have died from malaria this year alone. We've decided to donate to Nets for Life Africa every year to help fight malaria in memory of our son, Kembe Marc. This Christmas would you be interested in purchasing a net for a child in Africa as well? For just $10.00 you can give one net through Nets For Life Africa
  • Over half a million (655, 000) people die from malaria each year, mostly children younger than five years old.
  • There are an estimated 216 million cases of malaria each year.
  • Although the vast majority of malaria cases occur in sub-Saharan Africa, the disease is a public-health problem in more than 109 countries in the world, 45 of which are in Africa.
  • Approximately 3.3 billion people live in areas where malaria is a constant threat.
  • 90% of all malaria deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa.
  • Malaria costs an estimated $12 billion in lost productivity in Africa.
  • When insecticide-treated nets are used properly by three-quarters of the people in a community, malaria transmission is cut by 50%, child deaths are cut by 20%, and the mosquito population drops by as much as 90%.
  • It is estimated that less than 5% of children in sub-Saharan Africa currently sleep under any type of insecticide-treated net.  
              This Christmas give a net!!!!



 

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

1600 approved!!

           We received a small update and a couple of photos yesterday of Kai. He is beautiful and the boys thought it was great he was in a blue clues shirt. In the small update we received the nanny said that he is very very weak. He came in to the TH with a protein malnourishment. I was told the doctor said he is getting stronger and happy with his development though. The nanny said that he is a crier at the transition home. He will be fine laughing and playing with his friends but as soon as she walks by him she said he starts crying for no reason. Well there is a reason. He wants to feel loved, he wants to be held, he needs that kind of love in his life. He's so small, two years old....he's still a mere babe. I can't imagine being two and not having an adult source where you could find love, comfort, security. He needs his mommy and daddy. And we are coming for you Kai! We will be there soooooo soon. I know the days left from today until we travel next month is not soon enough. I wish it could be today.  We had all of that paperwork to do which takes so ridiculously long. Thankfully we received our i600 approval last Friday. Our caseworker is setting our Embassy appointment, a couple weeks after that we get our visas, and then we can fly off this island, back to the states, then to Africa...I hate that we have to backtrack...we are closer to you in Puerto Rico!!! :) 
We are coming for you little love!!
We along with a big group of other parents are expecting to travel in January. So I can't can't wait, and can't believe that is only next month!! Now I'm going into extreme clean everything in sight and start packing the right way mode. Scott's sister will be flying out here all the way from Oregon to stay with the boys. They are super excited about spending a week with their Aunt Jenny. Especially because she loves to do art and craft and that is right up the boys alley.  
 

Friday, December 7, 2012

One Night

Two years ago we started our adoption journey to bring home a child from Africa. 

Two years ago we lived in a small coastal town in New Jersey. 

Two years ago on one special night we gathered with our church family, our family family who drove all the way from Michigan to be with us, many faces we've never seen before, and our good friends who are like family who also were on this journey with us to bring home their child from Africa. 
Two families, Two less orphans....

We worshiped and gave thanks to God.

We prayed for our sons and daughters.

We shared our adoption story. God's adoption story.

We fought for orphans that night.

We sang some more.

My father in law made us laugh with his comedy routine. Thank you Mike, I love your humor:)

I made these "Africa bags" to raise funds for fees. We had a silent auction..many items were donated from business throughout Cape May County. Feeling blessed...so much support from everywhere.

My mother in law and sister in law made these really stinkin cute sock monkeys. Complete with names and personalities. There were none left at the end of the night. They all went to good homes with tiny little owners carrying them around all night. Made me smile:)

People came from everywhere throughout the night. So blessed for the support, the prayers, the encouragement, the questions asked, the stories exchanged, we were all there fighting for these these two precious little ones who were far far away in Africa. We were all praying you home that night.

Family.

Love.
cousin Liam all the way from Michigan came to show his support.


                    One Night...To make a difference

Monday, November 12, 2012

What's In A Name?

As many of you know we are giving our son the name "Kai". I wanted to tell you all a little bit about why we are choosing to give him this name and the meaning. First of all Kai was given the birth name of Seraphin. Which is a beautiful name. We would love to keep it his first name, but we have a slight situation in our children's names in the fact that they ALL start with K's. From Kaiden, Keegan, Keane, to Kai. We HAD to give him a K name, because after all he is a boy in the Cameron family. Maybe we can mix it up a little with any sisters in the future. 

  • We are keeping "Seraphin" for his middle name. The meaning of Seraphin in Hebrew is "burning ones, angels". In Jewish scripture, the seraphim are the highest ranking angels of God (above angels, archangels, cherubim, etc.) They have six wings and are noted for their zealous love. I love that. What a powerful name to have and to live up to. May he one day have a zealous love for God!! 

  • And the meaning of his first name Kai. There are so many meanings. It's a very multicultural name. And we love ALL the meanings! In Hebrew Kai has two meanings (also spelled Chai) means "full of life" and "angel or messenger of God". Kai may you be full of life in our family. Your first name also is the meaning for your middle name. Perfect. 
  •  In Hawaiian Kai means "ocean or ocean water". Yes Kai you are joining a family that loves the water, the beach, waves, salt, surfing. We love enjoying God's creation in this way. 

  • In Navajo Kai means "willow tree". You will forever be firmly planted into our family. (And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper. -Psalm 1:3) 

  •  In Swahili Kai means "loveable". You are already so loveable to us all already! What's not to love about you Kai?! 

So if you ever thought..why Kai? That's why! Oh and we think it's a pretty cool name;)

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

More photos and updates!!

We've received so many new pictures of Kai in the last couple of days that my heart could burst!!! I just keep staring at his beautiful big brown eyes all day! So thankful for this adoption mama who is sending all of us waiting families tons of photos and updates. These updates are so so precious to me and I'm holding on to every photo and description we have of our little man. Mostly it makes my heart ache to have him home....TODAY would be good;) Actually back it up to July 4th when we received his referral...I would have hopped on a plane that day too! But instead I'm waiting patiently and trusting God and putting my faith and hope in Him that every single day that passes is one day closer that we get to meeting our boy. 6-8 weeks isn't too far away really? Here is a little piece of information we got today: Seraphin--2T. He slept a loooong time! He got up after everyone had already eaten, so he sat down by himself---so quietly and took a good 45 minutes to eat! He was very playful outside--loved chasing bobby around playing tag.
Also, our 30 day wait is done TODAY!!!!

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Happy Birthday, you are 2!

We received a surprise today in our email. Kai's corrected updated information for our I600. I glanced over the info and everything was the same except for his birth date which read October 23, 2010. It took me a moment to realize "oh wait that's TODAY!" Not only is it today, but it's the 23rd! (We originally thought it was Oct 25th). Let me tell you...he couldn't have a more PERFECT birth date. Let's start off with the first birthday in this family...Keegan September 23rd, Kaiden October 3rd, Keane October 13th, Kai October 23rd. Are you catching on? Somehow our kids all have birthdays that fall exactly ten days apart and all have the number 3 on their birth date. How amazing is it that God would place Kai in our family knowing that he would fit perfect?! I'm in awe...total awe. I know it may seem silly to some people, but that's confirmation to me that God is in total control of bringing Kai into our family. I just love this! Not only did we find out today was his birthday but we also received a sweet picture of our Kai that was taken today. It was the first time we saw his smile and my heart melted. His eyes light up when we smiles. He is beautiful.
We also finished filling out the I600 tonight. We are filing stateside and that is the LAST of the paperwork and one of the major final steps before we can travel to bring him home!! A LOT of good news today. Feeling the anticipation of being so close to bringing Kai home!! Many, Lord my God,are the wonders you have done, the things you planned for us. None can compare with you; were I to speak and tell of your deeds, they would be too many to declare. Psalm 40:5

Monday, October 22, 2012

As we wait....

As we wait...this is the hardest part. Our son is at the transition home in Kinshasa waiting for us to come and bring him home. We are getting updated pictures from families traveling but my heart aches to hold my son and bring him home to his family. Our life goes on here but Kai is missing. The empty chair at the dinner table, the second toddler bed that sits empty in Keane and Kai's room, three little boys wrestling on the beach instead of four....he needs to be here. We need him to be here with us. Praying that all of our paperwork gets back to our agency soon so we can go ahead and file our 1600. Praying I can stay sane these next few weeks.

Friday, October 5, 2012

Kai took his first plane ride today.

Kai took his very first plane ride today. We received an email from our caseworker that he arrived safely in Kinshasa. He is now out of the orphanage in our agency's transition home!! When I read the email I just cried. Out of mixed emotions of happiness that we are that much closer to bringing him home and I felt a sadness for him. Everything he has ever known for the last two years of has been the orphanage. I felt sad for him that he is probably scared and confused and has no idea what is going on. He did travel with a few other children so I hope that was comforting to him and that he will have a couple familier faces with him at the transition home. The really good things is he is safe, he is secure, he is getting three meals a day, medical care and love from the nannies that are there. We've seen pictures from the children that are there. They are all smiling. Another adoptive mom referred to the transition home as a "summer camp" before we go to pick up our kids. I pray that Kai will have fun with the other kids, I hope to see a smile on his face. I'm thankful that he is now somewhere safe. The other really awesome thing is while we wait families who are traveling ahead of us to pick up their children have offered to take pictures of all the kids who are waiting for their families!! I'm so excited we will get to see more pictures of our handsome boy (I hope to get a shoe size) and when we travel we will be returning the favor for other families! Where does this put us on the timeline for bringing him home now? I'm estimating 2-3 months...but I really can't say for sure. We are filing our 1600 stateside and we still have to pray the birth parent interview goes smoothly (as in arranging flights, etc). The embassy is requiring all birth parents to fly to Kinshasa for a face to face interview. I understand why. They want to make sure the adoption has been done in an ethical way. Tonight we went out and bought Kai a couple more outfits to send to him in the transition home. I've only ever seen him in 1 outfit at the orphanage which was all pink (shorts, shirt) and red shoes. We went out and got him some plaid:) Also some cars and suckers to share with the other kiddos. The Elmo birthday card...he turns 2 on October 25th!! Happy Birthday to our son..we love you so much and are counting down the days till we get that call that says, "you can book your plane tickets."

Sunday, September 23, 2012

The judge signed...it's official...he's ours!

Today we woke up to celebrate my 2nd oldest sons birthday. Keegan turned 5 today!! He requested Krispy Kream doughnuts and we had a great breakfast:) I checked my email while eating and WHAM subject line "Judgment Update"!! We have the judge's signed approval that Kai is our son!!! We are in our 30 day wait, and during this time the typed adoption documents will be gathered (the original judgment is handwritten). I believe he will be able to move to our agency's transition home, out of the orphanage, after the 30 day wait. We were so very excited to receive this news. Within the past week a few other families have received the judges written approval as well, and a few families went to pick up their children in DRCongo. It has been a great week for good news! We are one step closer to having our son home forever. My heart aches to hold that little guy. Every night at the dinner table Keane (3) prays for Daddy, Mommy, Kaiden, Keegan, and to bring Malakai home at the airport. He also reminds me daily that Kai is his brother...."He's my brother mom, Kai is my brother..."

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Updated photos of our son!

We received some updated photos of Kai last night!!! We were informed last Friday by our case worker that all of the families would be getting new photos of all the children that are in Kai's region. I opened that email to three pictures and the most beautiful almond shaped big brown eyes staring at me. My son..I have so much love for this child already. He looks so beautiful and he looks two! Our referral photos were of him much younger. I'm so glad that I have photos from him 12-20months of age. Those are so special to me to have. He is in the same pink outfit that he was in a few months ago in his referral photos and no smile as of yet. He looks sad and maybe scared that somebody is in his face with a camera. I just want to hold that boy and tell him everything is going to be okay. I can't wait to see his smile for the first time ever. I imagine him sometimes smiling, laughing and chasing his three brothers at the playground, just having fun being a kid. Having no cares in the world but legos and Lightning Mcqueen, bedtime prayers, and chocolate chip/banana waffles on Saturday mornings with daddy. It's getting so close until we have Kai home forever in our family, but it is still so far away. Right now we have no new updates. We are waiting for our court date and praying it comes soon. Our dossier has been in the DRC since July. After the judge signs, we go through the 30 days wait, Kai will officially become a Cameron! Then he will be moved to our agencies beautiful transition home where he will be very well cared for while we are awaiting his birth certificate, passport, and embassy date, and we will get loads of pictures of him while he is there. We are praying for a December travel date. Please be December...if not then I need you all to pray harder for God to give me patience. I would hop on a plane right now if I could!! Here are the photos of our beautiful Kai. I will be be able to post full pictures of him after we officially pass court.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Give1Save1 Africa family of the week!

Hola! We are the Give1Save1 Africa family of the week! We couldn't be more then excited and I'm praying God blesses this in a big way and we can get some funds to bring home our son. We are currently in need of raising funds for our travel to the DRC this December. How this works is we made a video below about our adoption journey to Kai. We posted it to face book, and on here, and we ask that people will share share share our video and donate a dollar or more to our travel fund. We thank you so much and we are so much closer to having Kai in our arms forever. blessings, Scott, Brittany, Kaiden, Keegan, Keane, & Kai :)

Monday, July 16, 2012

Sending some goodies to Africa!

Now that we have received our official referral for "K" we can send him a care package once a month! It's very exciting to pick out some goodies that we can squeeze into a gallon size zip lock baggie to send to him once a month. Hopefully we don't have to send him too many of these. We'd much rather have him home in our arms and we are praying and hopeful that it won't be much longer.
These are all of the goodies that we fit into the gallon sized ziplock bag. Two outfits,flip flops, gummy vitamins, family photo book, elmo, squeezable fruit, gummy bear packs.
Of course Keane picked out this Elmo for his baby brother tonight. They will be exactly one year apart..they both have birthdays in October....they are sharing a room...Keane carries around "K's" picture a lot. They are not only going to be brothers but good friends:)
And we made it happen!!! Everything fit! Now it's off to the post office tomorrow to send off to our agency who will then send it on to the Congo...which will then be taken to the orphanage where our son is currently staying. I told my husband tonight...this is probably the first material possessions "K" has ever owned/received. He is almost two year's old. And what will most likely happen to the items we are sending him is they will be shared throughout the whole orphanage...which is great. I remember when all my boys had their first and 2nd birthdays and we had celebrations for them and they received so many gifts just for their birthdays from family and friends...too many gifts... It's hard to think about. I think we should start giving less for birthday's and Christmas and start giving more to others that have literally nothing at no fault of their own....just the fact that they were born on a different continent where it's hard to survive. Our over abundance of material possessions is not so great when their are families who can't feed their own children. So until we can actually book our tickets and fly to Africa to bring home "K"...this is as close as we can get to him right now. Through our once a month care package and we are squeezing all the love in that we can.

Monday, July 9, 2012

July 4th..Happy Referral Day!!!

July 4th.....we weren't going to spend this one with fire works and a cookout with good friends and family. Not here in Puerto Rico anyways. I was feeling a little down that day. Just being away from the States. Holidays feel different here and well independence day is not celebrated here the same as we celebrate it in the states. We went to the rainforest.
We got home around 8:30pm....I didn't think to check my email all day. I wasn't expecting to hear anything from our agency on the 4th of July. At 11:30pm I just happened to check my email on my phone real quick and there I see it...Your Referral of Seraphin!!!! My heart skipped a beat and I did a double take...what?! really?! This is really it?! I called to my husband to grab the laptop so we could open the referral and see a very beautiful almost two year old boy staring back at us with big brown eyes and sporting an all pink outfit! Oh how our boy has grown! He is a handsome little toddler now and no longer the one year old boy we had been staring at for the past couple of months. We love him so much already and we really would love to travel to Africa TOMORROW to bring him home. Until we can go get him our dossier will be sent to the Congo and we will wait patiently for a court date. Until then we will be able to send a monthly care package to him. We will try to squeeze in all the love we can manage to fit into that care package until we can actually hop on a plane and go and bring him home. Our adoption fees are paid in full. We sent the remainder of the agency fee's today!! The only amount we need to raise is for our travel. We will be having another fundraiser...more to come about this in another post! We also have a name for our little guy. We are naming him Malakai and I'm sure he will have a nick named shortened to Kai (as his older brothers are already calling him this). Malakai means angel of God in Hebrew. This is the name that we wanted to name our next child if we were to have a boy. Turns out God knew who our little angel was by sending us Seraphin. Which is also a name that means angel. His birthday is also right after Keane's...another October baby. Some of you know all of our boys birthdays are ten days apart. Kai's is twelve days after Keane's. So we will be having one big fall birthday celebration for all the boys. We hope to actually be able to travel to the Congo by Christmas to bring him home. Keep reading our blog and I will update you along the way. Thank you to all of our friends and family who have been so supportive!!!! We are so so blessed, and please keep praying for Malakai.

Friday, June 22, 2012

To our son.

It has been about three weeks since we heard the news of being matched to our sweet son. Even though we haven't met him we already have so much love for him. He is constantly in our thoughts and prayers. Currently we are waiting on a document to come back from the DRC before we can receive his official referral. The waiting has been so hard but we are putting our faith in God and trusting in His perfect timing until we can bring our son home. Our 4 year old son, Keegan, memorized this verse during Sunday school. He learned it as a song and he sings this daily reminder to us. This is our prayer for you Malakai. " The Lord your God is with you. He is mighty enough to save you. He will take great delight in you. The quietness of his love will calm you down. He will sing with joy because of you." Zephaniah 3:17

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

waiting...

We are waiting for some good news and our official referral! Received an email from our agency about a child who is on the waiting child list. Needless to say we are already in love with this beautiful child and in awe of how God arranged this whole story. I can't wait to share how God worked in bringing this child into our family. Do you ever have a moment where you can actually see God's plan coming together?! I had an ooooohhhh that's why..moment!!!! We thought we would be getting a baby but this child is one year younger then Keane! We couldn't be more excited! Waiting for the official referral so I can actually say more about it. These boys can't wait to have "K" home!!

Friday, May 18, 2012

Faith of a Child

Keegan kept talking to me last night for 4 hours about heaven and when you die. Some very serious questions for a 4 yr old. This has always been Keegan though, he's the deep thinker. I also think what sparked this conversation about death and heaven is that our family has said goodbye to loved ones recently. In March we got the most horrible phone call that our son, Marc, had died of malaria in the Congo. Our hearts were broken and Scott and I both cried and cried. Scott cried like I've never seen before. I went for a run a couple hours after I heard the news because that's what I needed to be by myself to think and pray. I couldn't help but think of Marc at 9 months old in an African hospital as an orphan with no mommy of daddy to comfort him through his pain and sickness. Then I remembered that Marc was with a foster family. I was comforted that his foster mom was most likely with him, and my heart ached for her loss of Marc as well. That night as I was doing my bible study it talked about how God, our Father, has ADOPTED us as his sons and daughters. Therefore we are His heirs. I knew God was with me that night comforting me and I felt such a peace about Marc going home to be with Jesus and maybe he was now even with his birth mom and dad. What a great reuniting party that must have been! For my birthday a few days later after we heard he went home, my husband hand made this beautiful wooden teak frame with an 8x10 picture of Marc in it. It was the most beautiful present I have ever received. We hung his picture in our home next to pictures of his brothers. We will always remember our sweet little Marc and he will always be in our hearts. I can say with 100% truth and joy that Marc is finally at home. Our true home where we were all destined to be. Living with God our Father. Before Keegan fell asleep last night he told me when you get to heaven you're alive. Keegan has never been more then right about that! The scripture I read during my bible study that night: So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead you received God's spirit as He adopted you as His own children. Now we call Him "Abba, Father." For His spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children. And since we are His children, we are His heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God's glory. But if we are to share His glory, we must also share His suffering. Romans 8:15-17

Monday, May 7, 2012

Dossier sent!!!!

We sent our dossier off to our adoption agency tonight! Very exciting! We are officially done with all the paperwork that will be presented to the courts in the Congo. It was a very exciting, happy moment for us. Relief that we are done with the paper chase of our home study/dossier and moving forward. Since we were stationed overseas, we literally had two home studies done. Our first in New Jersey (which was so easy peasy compared to being overseas)..and then our home study "update" took 6 months to complete here in PR. I hope you can see why I'm so happy to be done with everything home study! haha! I feel like that's all that was going through my head for the past year and I felt like we were stuck in that spot for the past year. We started on our adoption journey a year ago! I feel so close now to having our son or daughter home. Now it's just the waiting for our referral that I'm being oh so impatient...wait, I mean...patient about :) The only thing missing from our dossier paperwork is our child's name and information. So once we get our referral for our child our agency will add that to the paperwork and it will be sent to the Congo. Then we will wait for a court date and our case will go before a judge in the DRC. Very exciting news going on in the Cameron family :)

Thursday, May 3, 2012

I decided it's time to start blogging again. I took a good break from it for a while. This blog is dedicated to our to our son or daughter who is in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). For all of our family and friends who live so far away...and also those friends that are near. This is a way for you to follow along and see where we are in the process of bringing our baby home from the DRC. It's been a long and crazy journey so far! One that is so so worth it! To update you all...we have received our home study completed, notarized, certified in hand today!!!! Scott and I still couldn't believe it was done. After 6 months of frustration, confusion, impatience, lot's of prayer, and crying phone calls to friends and family (sorry!) we are finished with that home study...phew...did I mention adopting from Puerto Rico makes things slightly more difficult? :) Our home study went from being translated in Spanish, to English, and now to French as soon as we send it off to our adoption agency (A Love Beyond Borders). We also have every item completed for our dossier! Off to the military lawyer tomorrow to get those last 3 items notarized and then (since we are military it is already state certified through notarization) we are sending everything to our agency in a big envelope and celebrating the send off! We were told we will be receiving a referral for our child in 2 weeks...4 at max. Our child is already identified for us but the initial paperwork on the Congo side is being done. We are so very excited to receive that email or phone call so we can finally see a photo and know who are child is! We don't have any idea if it's a boy or a girl but I can assure you we have a K name picked out for either :)