Feeling Better

The past couple of days have been better. Thank goodness. I think it was a combination of: 1) the skeletons-in-the-closet, but quite cathartic blog posting that I finally brought myself to do a few days ago, 2) the fact that Ella's birthday was yesterday and it was impossible to not be smitten with her all day, 3) a good conf call our agency had with us on Wed about hanging tight and staying optimistic, 4) a rumor that yesterday the court ban was lifted on one of the orphanages which means progress is being made, 5) officially cancelling our air and hotel reservations this week which was devastating at the time but also cleansing to a certain degree bc being in limbo is worse than just cancelling and rebooking, and 6) the fact that a sunny long weekend is in store.

Ella's birthday was amazing, and we are so proud of her. She's such an amazing little girl, now 5, and now complete with one missing tooth! We had a full-scale blowout for her on Sunday and then yesterday (her real b-day), we went to her school where we pretended to be parents of the year by reading to the class (well, actually Ella read while she sat on my lap and Radames played photographer), organizing a treasure hunt for gold coins that you would have thought were real, setting up a sack race, and bringing in cupcakes. It was s lot of fun. She also lost her tooth during lunch. Either she ate it or I ate it as I polished off her school chicken patty. Yikes! It was no where to be found after her plate was clean!

On Monday, she has her "placement test" for kindergarten. That's code word around these parts for checking to see how much of an idiot your kid is so that all the bobos don't get placed with the same teacher who wants to kill herself before the year is over. They want to evenly distribute the geniuses and problem children. :) Hopefully, Ella will be part of the former group.

On the adoption front, we have no real news. It's officially been two weeks now, and all we know is that the investigation (not into our specific cases) is still going on, they are anticipating it won't drag out for "that long", and that all we have to do is hang tight and let it be. That's been hard for me, as you know, but Radames is doing pretty well these days. He's rubbing off on me now, though. I'm getting to be more at peace with the situation...and hopefully we'll just look back one day and say, "oh yeah, remember that little blip in the process we had that time..." The reality is that there's nothing I can do and we'll get him when he's ready. I've gotta stop thinking about the coulda, woulda, shoulda, and just enjoy all the blessings that are right under my nose.

Thank you, again, everyone for all of your sweet wishes and email and cards. You have NO idea how much they've meant as we've waded through our darkest hours. We love you guys!