Prayers please

Hi all,
It's been a week full of baby updates, though not all have been great. Yesterday we heard that the lawyer was very impressed w/ our paperwork and that we had completed everything we needed to for her. (sigh of relief) She had taken it to the first of 3 agencies and will be picking it up from there next Wednesday so that she can then take it to the next agency. This second agency is apparently the one that takes the longest. It was wonderful to have an update of progress and to know that things are moving along.

When asked how much longer, the lawyer said that she doesn't want to tell us a short time and then have us get mad if it takes longer. So, she said that the longest it should take is 4 months from now. That wasn't what we wanted to hear, but are trying to remind ourselves that that's the LONGEST. We're trying to pep each other up by saying, "She'll be here by Thanksgiving! By Sean's birthday! By Christmas!" It still could happen much faster than 4 mos, but not longer...we hope.

Adam got his fingerprint notice in the mail yesterday and as we'd feared it's not until July 20. Nothing we can do about that. We hate that it's so far from now but are relieved that it's scheduled.

Today we found out that the baby has been sick. She's had a fever, hasn't been eating, and has been crying a lot. She went to the hospital for 3 days and they were unable to find the problem. She got a prescription yesterday and got to leave the hospital then. Today she's doing much better, fever's down, crying less. She's still going to have X-rays tomorrow and there's another prescription that they're getting for her. It's very hard to hear that she's sick, but it sounds like she's getting good care. She's been tested for HIV, TB, and Sickle cell anemia, so it's a relief to know that those aren't the causes.

Needless to say it's been a roller coaster of a week taking in this information. Please pray for the baby's health, for the agencies to move with lightning speed, and for our patience. Thank you!

Haiti Fundrasier Date Change!

I posted a while back that we'd be having a fundrasier for Haiti on August 4. Since then we've changed the date to August 11. Many of you should have received an Evite. If you haven't, that means I don't have your email address. Please send me your email address and I'll send you the Evite! We'd love to see all of you there!

Did you miss our first TV appearance?

Landscape Smart episode 1812 will re-air on Sunday, July 1 at 8:30 AM ET/PT. If you don't have cable or plan on getting up that early, there are before and after pictures and commentary on the HGTV website. I'll try to post the link to it on the blog.

There are no baby updates to report. We did get immigration to say that Adam can be fingerprinted. They said that "as soon as an appointment is available" they'll send him his notice to go get them done. Unfortunately we haven't gotten that notice in the mail yet.

Thanks to those of you who sent ideas about what to do during our waiting time. This week we took advantage of just some of the cool things that the Twin Cities has to offer, going to a free show in the park and a cabaret show. Tonight we're going to a free jazz festival. I also gave in to a friend's pleadings this week and agreed to take Improv classes! I had signed Adam and Sean up for the same classes last fall and this friend who's the instructor had been begging me to join as well. I start next week. Look forward to much wittier posts that are written much more quickly.

That's about all we've got for now. Thanks to all of you who continue to gush over pictures of baby Bedeline. We love that already she is so loved by so many people. Keep praying for the paperwork to move quickly through all the appropriate channels so that you can all meet her soon!

A week in the life of a Breininger

Nothing is ever easy in Breininger land these days. What we thought would be a simple visit to the Fancy Fingerprint Office turned into a bit of a mini-crisis (which felt, at the time, like a major crisis). Short version is: Adam (sean's brother who lives w/ us) needed to be fingerprinted as well because he's an adult in the household. However, he was not sent the form that was necessary to make that happen. So, all 3 of us showed up for that appointment and he was unable to be fingerprinted. We called in our agency for help and they came to our rescue. We hope to have a fingerprint appointment for him very soon. And we pray that it's not 4 weeks out like ours were.

We're trying hard to live calmly in this life of limbo, not knowing when we may be called to fly off to Haiti at a moments notice to become parents overnight. Not an easy way to live. I'm feeling the pressure to do lots of fun crazy things in the upcoming months, knowing that soon (hopefully) we won't be able to do those things. However, we're trying to save every vacation day for our maternity/paternity leave and every dollar for adoption expenses. That leaves us trying to think of fun things to do that require no time or money! I've been reading a ton and am thinking about re-learning French this summer. I know that sounds totally nerdy, but we're hoping to put Bedeline in a French Immersion child care so that she'll be able to learn Creole more easily if she chooses to later. I'm thinking it would be nice to be able to speak French w/ her and it would help w/ my Creole as well. If you have any suggestions about what we should be doing in these final weeks/months, send them our way.

One thing we're doing is having a Big Ol' Party to raise money for Haiti. We have a few causes that we made personal connections with on our trip and would love to raise as much money for them as we can. August 4 at 6:30 pm. Our backyard. Put it on your calendars! I'll be sending an Evite out soon.

Tomorrow, June 15, is our 5 year anniversary! Crazy to think that it's already been five whole years! We feel very blessed to have found each other at the tender age of sixteeen and are grateful every day for each other.

How about another picture??? I wish we could add video to our blog so you could hear this baby's giggles and babbles. You think she's cute in a stillframe shot? You ain't seen nothin yet! Can't wait for you all to meet her!

We Love DHL

The other night, after celebrating the shipment of our paperwork, we realized that we'd forgotten to send photos of us with the paperwork, a requirement. So, yesterday we went to CVS, got passport photos taken, drove (again) to the DHL office by the airport, and for $40 more dollars shipped 8 passport pictures of us off to Port au Prince. The cost and annoyance of this extra trip is made fine by the fact that I just checked the tracking numbers and as of 4:45 pm today, the lawyer has both the paperwork AND the photos in her hands! So the pics took less than 24 hours to get from MN to PAP! Amazing. NOW we wait.

Suddenly it's starting to feel quite real. We're realizing that the crib we bought months ago has no matress, that the dresser is full of infant clothing (not 30 lb baby clothing!), that the many gadgets that friends have given us, like swings and chairs and bouncy seats are much too small, that we've mostly read books about how to care for infants. Yikes. We've got lots of shopping and reading to do! If any of you have had 7, 8, 9 month olds lately and would like to give us a tutorial, especially if you've had one who's twice the typical size, has only eaten breast milk, and who will be new to the country, please let us know. :)

Amidst this bit of panic, we are absolutely thrilled! Keep watching for updates. We hope to have some soon?!?! How about a new photo to celebrate the end of paperwork? I'll post one for your enjoyment.

Whooohooooo!!

Good news! Our paperwork arrived from Chicago today via FedEx with the stamp of the Haitian Consulate on it (the stamps are in the shape of palm trees!)! We took it immediately to DHL who said that it would arrive in Haiti in two business days! It feels wonderful to have the paperwork out of our hands. Now we wait. Next Wednesday is our fingerprint appointment. That's our last step...we think. Keep watching the blog for more news! :)