Abraham dancing at orphanage circa 4/08

This was taken by a family that recently traveled to pick up their kids. Abraham is well known in the orphanage for his dancing. Another performer?????

Recent Liberian meetings

We're back home after attending Grandma's funeral last week. Thank you for the prayers and cards. Everything went well and we were blessed with nice weather and a wonderful message from the pastors.

The adoption seems to be moving forward again. We have letters granting permission to get our fingerprints renewed and the big meetings in Liberia have been positive. There was another meeting this past Wednesday where the Liberians decided against requiring an additional fee to the Ministry of Health. This was great news. They also decided to continue meeting in hopes of getting everything resolved before they go on their summer break. Hopefully we will have more news this next week specifically pertaining to our case.

In the meantime, this is opening weekend for Romeo & Juliet. Craig is running the lights this time and Erik is onstage. Thankfully he had an understudy so when we went to Wisconsin, his understudy got ready for opening night. The understudy gets two nights performances and then Erik starts his role of Benvolio on Sunday afternoon. The play runs for two more weekends.

Karl is starting his theatrical training also. He auditioned for a role in Treasure Island today with the same playhouse. This play will be specifically for youth age 8 to 18 this summer. He wants to play the pirate, Black Dog. Arghhh!!

Grandma's Gone

My cousin's wife announced Grandma Bahr's passing in a great way. She said that it was with great joy and much sadness that Grandma died last night. I think that's a wonderful way to phrase death for a Christian. We are confident where she has gone and we look forward to being reunited with her later. We're heading out for the funeral tomorrow. I spoke with our social worker friend about what to do with our fingerprint reprinting and she said we should be fine since I've been in contact with them for a month trying to get the paperwork done for the appointment. I hope so because we won't be back until Tuesday and our fingerprints expire on Monday.

Still waiting.... Big Liberian gov't meeting Weds.

This has been a challenging week for lots of reasons. Grandma is finishing her final walk here on earth before she goes to live with the Lord, Megan is still deciding if she wants to move back to WI this summer, we're waiting to receive our updated homestudy, we're waiting for the directive to go to Jacksonville for our fingerprints updates this week and we are still waiting on finalization for the adoption. Whew!
My grandma will be 96 years old June 10 and has been battling cancer for a year (or more). Although it would be cool to have her make it to her birthday, the cancer is winning and God has other plans, I think. This weekend the hospice nurse guessed she had 24 to 48 hours. I'll write more later but Grandma is more than ready to walk with the Lord.
As for Megan, she has given herself until Thursday (her birthday) to make her decision. Del and I, of course, don't want to see her go but ...... We'll see.
Our fingerprints expire on Monday, the 26th. We HAVE to get them redone this week. As for the finalization, on Wednesday the officials in Liberia are meeting to discuss the improvements they want to see in their adoption policies. I doubt any finalizations will be made this close to a big decision meeting. We should know more on Thursday about whether our case will be finalized or if we have to wait longer for the official decisions to be made. Who knows? Maybe this meeting on Wednesday is to decide they need to have a meeting to make a decision!
Now I need to get back to sewing costumes for Romeo & Juliet! At least I have something to keep my hands busy from snitching chocolate while I wait! I wish I'd inherited my grandma's take-it-or-leave-it attitude about chocolate!

Fencing is dangerous!

Erik has been learning fencing for his role in Romeo and Juliet. He is pretty good but he said he is hesitant because he's afraid he might hurt someone. I guess I'll have to call him my reformed daredevil now. Anyway, he fell wrong on Monday night at practice and was stiff and sore. Then, Tuesday night I got a call that he'd gotten stabbed in the lip but was okay! He said he didn't even realize he was hurt until he saw blood dripping from his lip. Fortunately, a former paramedic (aka Juliet's father) was there and took care of him pronto. So now he has a fat lip. Thankfully he didn't get stabbed in the eye. I told him that's why we don't play with pointy objects! :-)

You can see the 'C' shaped cut where the foil pierced his lip and the block spot on his lip is the bruising. His braces cut the inside of his lip a little bit, too. It is healing nicely now.

Real life happens...

We had a wonderful visit with Del's parents this past week. It was really nice to have company and we all needed the boost of seeing family. Also, my children were wonderful for remembering me with flowers, gifts and wonderful cards on Mother's day. However, we're saddened to hear that Grandma Bahr is failing. I've posted before that she is our family matriarch who will turn 96 in less than a month. I'm not sure she will make it to that milestone, though. I'm checking flights to see if I can get back to see her one more time. This is the real life I was speaking about. I'm sure if Grandma realized I was looking for flights she'd tell me not to bother, that she was okay and I had my life to take care of. She knows she is going to heaven and is waiting for the day when she is taken there. She's a remarkable woman! This time of year is bittersweet for me since it was Mother's Day in 2002 when we went with my mom (my Grandma's only daughter) to pick out her casket. My mom died the Saturday after that.

In the mean time we are finishing school for the year, sewing costumes for Romeo and Juliet, and going to doctors appointments. We have a call in to AOH to get more information about our case and finalization.

Another family got pictures at the orphanage while they were picking up their daughter. I found all three kids in those pictures. I'll post them soon.

Latest news

Still not much to report about the progress of the adoption. Our case is in front of a Liberian judge to have the adoption decree signed. However, there is some confusion if we will be considered a new case since AOH found the additional birth mom or if we will be considered an old case since we've been in process for so long. Since last fall when the new US consulate arrived adoption has been in upheaval in Liberia. The new consulate runs a tight ship and has forced the orphanages and the Liberian government to improve their procedures and policies as well. This is a good thing for the kids but slow for us. The issue of whether we're a new case or an old case stems from the fact that Liberia is revising their policies for adoption and it seems that new cases are on hold until about June or whenever they get their policy revision finished. So we wait in the Lord.

In the mean time we have company! Del's parents are here this week so that is a welcome break. Megan is still struggling with whether to move back to WI or not. Erik has lured Craig to the playhouse for the Romeo and Juliet production. Erik has learned theatrical fencing for his role and has assured me they are NOT to wear tights. Craig will be helping with the technical crew. I get to sew three doublets for the end of the month production. Erin is wrapping up school and researching dual enrollment for college and job hunting. Karl is busy riding his new bike. Del has been traveling and working long hours. Hopefully, this will diminish in the next month or so. I'm deciding when I can go back to WI to visit Grandma Bahr again. She is failing now, the cancer has progressed to where they are giving her higher doses of pain meds. Unfortunately, this confuses her and causes her to sleep more. I haven't been able to call her on the phone for a couple of weeks. That's it for us for now.