Sometimes life is HARD!

I am blogging today with a heavy heart. I have three hard things to talk about, to ask prayer for, to share with you dear friends.

The first has to deal with our amazing friends Sarah and Jack Keller. You may recognize their names from our referral story. If you don't go over to the side bar and click on "referral story" so you can be reminded of this AMAZING couple and the blessing that they have been to us. After that head over to their new website http://www.jackkeller.org and read "Jack's Story" then if you have time watch the video as well. Once you have learned all he has gone through head over to the blog. Only 2 entries will appear so you need to scroll back to get the full story. If you don't have time to do any of this, here is the short version. Jack is in deep need of your prayers as he is fighting as ugly cancer battle. This family is SO SPECIAL to us that my heart aches so deeply and I would ask you to commit to praying for great miracles for this family!

Whew... that was hard! Is there really more? Yes!

The second thing has to deal with adoptions in Ethiopia. If you are part of the adoption community this is no surprise to you, in fact, it is old news. Things in ET with adoptions are moving VERY slowly right now. Our hearts are sad as we think of people right behind us that are suddenly stuck and waiting. Our hearts break for the children waiting for their families. I could say a lot more about this, but it is better to read the blogs of those who are on the front lines, waiting for calls. Many of the families in my blog roll on the side fit into that category. They are so strong, so brave, so patient, and so tired and weary. Margaret, Heather, Tyra, Rebecca, Carrie, Kimberly, Kim, and Wendy are all bloggers I follow who are waiting. They represent just a small group of my waiting friends! My dear sisters and brothers, we are praying your children home every day! Please join me in praying for their sweet children to come home SOON!!!

I know... I should just stop here, but this one is personal and important!

Our sweet son has not been sleeping well lately. In fact the last 3 nights have been the WORST nights of sleep he has had. He is very clingy during the day and then wakes up about every 30 minutes at night with loud cries of fear and in deep need of comfort. Sometimes it takes him an hour to fall back to sleep and then he wakes up again minutes later. I am of course totally weary, but poor M is just so tired that he sometimes just throws himself on the ground (while playing) to cry. He has circles under his eyes. I know the families in the paragraph above would be hurt to think I was complaining about the blessing they long for. Honestly, it would be easy to do that as it is hard to do anything when my son is never sleeping and I am running on a few hours of sleep a night, but I am not writing this to vent or complain (must be because of my recent bean brownie and coffee consumption) but to ask you to pray for our dear son. He NEEDS sleep to function well from day to day, but more importantly to grow. He is sometimes getting half the recommended daily amount of sleep. I know that for a little one like him sleep is almost as important as food.

The CHANGE... Back into the cocoon we go!
We have been doing lots of playdates, taking M everywhere we go, trips to the store, church etc. Well, that is going to change. We think we may have over stimulated him in a huge way and are going to try to go back to the basics... LOTS of time at home with momma, and see if that can help him to feel more secure, to start sleeping for longer periods of time, to be more ready to come out of the cocoon a strong butterfly. My heart has just been so heavy as a mom as I think about what happens to actual butterflies who come out of the cocoon to early. I pray that this will not be the case for our son, but that we can redeem the time and learn from our mistakes.

I am so sorry for all those of you we REALLY WANT to have play dates with. I love play dates. I love seeing dear friends interact with my son (Just had to take a break to soothe my crying son...) but it can't happen for a while. You can ask me more personally, but basically the rules that were in place when we first came home are back into place for the most part. When we see signs of improvement we will let you all know. Again, it is very hard on me to do this, (in every way because socially it isn't fun to be cooped up alone either) but a hardship for a while is worth it for the attachment of my son! Please pray that God will give us His wisdom on this issue, and if our son's tears and fears are something else besides attachment that we will be wise to them quickly so that he will not have to endure un-needed pain of any sort.

Thank you dear friends for battling with us in these areas. We know the battle is real and we claim victory in Jesus' name!!!!