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!

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.

Renewing fingerprints & Grandma's car

I was talking with the yahoo group about the progress with the adoption and was reminded that we should renew our fingerprints. Fingerprints are good for 15 months and ours expire the end of May. Since time is getting close and it takes some time to get appointments to have it done, I guess we'll go ahead and renew our fingerprints before they expire (a BIG no-no). We're also waiting on our homestudy update to be completed. Our social worker is writing it up now.

Some of you may remember my earlier posts about my Grandma. She's a terrific woman of God and I'm very proud of her. Rachel and Steve compiled a bunch of family pictures onto a digital frame and gave it to her this weekend. We had one photo of my mom and her brothers as kids in a one-room schoolhouse. Grandma really loved this one since my mom died eight years ago. If anyone has an elderly relative or someone in a small home, digital frames are great ideas. We put pictures of flowers (my Grandma has a green arm), places she'd like to see, and of course, family on it. I'm working at taking older, non-digital pictures and scanning them into the 'puter to make them digital to be added to the frame.

We bought a 'new' car. Grandma drove until last fall when she went into the nursing home for rehab. When it became obvious she wouldn't be driving again, she decided to sell her car. We bought it for a teen car for Erin and Erik and as a backup for Megan's old car. Now we have to figure out how we're going to get it from WI to FL.

Grandma fell but she's okay

My 95 yo Grandma fell last Wednesday night. Thankfully she didn't break any bones but she did have a slight fracture to her spine. It was so slight that the doctors aren't doing anything for it. However, she did move to a nursing home on Monday. Grandma never wanted to go to a nursing home but she decided that she would since it would be a temporary rehabilitation. :-)
The nursing home is more of a group home where the residents can help with meals, etc., if they can. I think Grandma will do okay if she can help "take care of the old people" like she says. Grandma has been a great example of a Christian woman her whole life and she is still teaching us how to be faithful while growing older.

Grandma's Teachings

This has been a busy week. The family is scattered across states for work and visiting. We got our oldest at-home daughter's passport as a backup in case we get the call to pickup the kids when we're trying to move. AND we got an offer on the farm last night. I wish I could say 'whoo-hoo' about the offer. It isn't what we were hoping for but then, does anyone get what they want in today's real estate market? So we countered. I'll let you know how that goes.

Most of the kids-at-home and I went to visit my dad, my sister and my Grandma B. at the beginning of the week. It was great. We stopped by to see my daughter and son-in-law and granddaughter Mattea on the way. Mattea is learning the army crawl. Lots of fun to watch her. My uncle from AZ was visiting Grandma so I got to see him, too. In fact, we took him to the airport on our way home.

My Grandma is 95, still lives at home, still drives to the Sr. Center and helps to take care of the "old people". However, her knees are bad and we found out in June that she has cancer. Grandma is a pillar of faith and makes sure to tell everyone often that she is so thankful for all the blessings in her life. Her daughter, my mom, died of cancer five years ago and was the same way. So it is easy to see where Mom got her great attitude. We were looking at old pictures and films with Grandma. What a treat to see all our relatives again. The other saying that Grandma uses is that 'each day is the Lord's day'. She says she wakes up and asks God what he has in store for her that day. I was wondering what to name this blog and I think I'll name it after Grandma.

With this in mind regarding what God has planned, I called Donna at AOH to see if she had any ideas where we were on the adoption schedule. Because of the difficulties a few families had with their adoption and because of the new US consular in Liberia all the adoptions have been pushed back about a month. So it looks like we won't have the kids home until January. We are on the October list for finalization, then it is about 6 weeks for a passport, and another 6-8 weeks for visa and traveling. Althought it seems like forever, we got our first referral in April so mid-April to January is not bad at all. Of course, we'll see what the Lord has in store for us all! I do hope Grandma B. will meet the kids. She was already passing around the pictures I had given her. Grandma has 21 grandchildren, 43 greats and 9 great great grandchildren, if I counted right! Our new three will make that 46 great grandchildren!