Nesting

I posted this on my blog, but thought since this blog is sort of journalling our journey to bringing our 2 kids in Uganda home, that I should post it here, so sorry for those who have already read it.  

Okay, so my wife has it BAD. She is nesting! For those of you who don't know what I am talking about, nesting is what expectant adoptive mothers (and maybe all mothers) do when they are preparing for a child.

I equate this to the closest I will get to a pregnant wife. She has cravings,

but in a different way. For example painting. She was stressing about and itching, no craving, to paint the baby room. This began in the summer, so I thought I did well and helped her paint two walls "Chocolate Fondue", as seen here. She was also craving "setting up", so I helped put up not one, but two cribs (also in pic), because we are

"expecting" 2 precious little ones.

Well the past week or so, her painting "craving" came back and she just did not feel like the room was right yet. So like a good, supportive husband, I went and got the paint, "Green Gable", seen here, and even started taping the walls for more paint (I also got 6, that's right 6, big rubbermaid bins FULL of clothes from my sister for Cher to look through that night). Today we painted and are just about done, only a few minor touch ups, a second coat on the dots and some words on the wall.

Here are some "in the process" and "completed" pics

First coat of "Green Gable"

The cribs moved away from the wall.

Cher painting the dots.

The finished product (almost).

Just need to write/paint the perfect phrase Cher thought of on the bare space on the green wall (I'm not going to tell you what it is yet - I believe I learned this from my bloggy friend, Linn - keeping you in suspense for a bit :P )

Notice the "cozies" waiting and ready for our 2 precious ones on the dresser. Just one more small part of the nesting going on here at the Schalk house. Now I must say, I kinda like it... don't completely understand it because I'm a man, but I like it and I am glad to be able to help in some small way with my nesting wife.

Love ya hun!

Teach

Riots in Kampala

We heard from the director of the orphanage where Kaysia and Ezekiel are, that there are riots in Kampala right now. The orphanage is a secured compound and right now the riots have not come to Sanyu. From someone who has been a bit blue this past week because I was pretty sure I would spend my birthday in Africa or at the very least packing to leave for Africa, I can see a bit of God's protection and plans for us. I am thankful that we are not landing in the midst of riots and trying to travel around Kampala to get to court and doctors appointments. However, I am hoping peace is returned very quickly and that the children at the Babies Home will be protected. Right now the boys at African Hearts are at more risk as they, from what I understand, are a lot closer to the actual fighting and are not able to leave the boys home for school. So please pray with us for safety for the children at Sanyu and African Hearts and that peace would be restored quickly.

On a slightly different note.... we left too early today that we did not get the mail, so maybe just maybe our homestudy will be waiting for us on Monday. I know it is highly unlikely and would be a miracle... but a girl can hope!

Waiting!

I keep thinking I should have a journal of this journey so I guess this blog will become that for me. It is nice to look back and see where we have come from and how God has provided for and sustained us through this journey. So this will be a bit of a way of "record keeping" for me.

First of all, I am not usually very open about personal things. My children are very precious to me and we get a lot of insensitive comments and invasive questions on a pretty regular basis. I try and keep a lot of details private and not put them out there for the world to know. That said, I sometimes think I may be too private (I am pretty sure James is nodding his head yes!). I am coming to realize that people don't know how they can help or how they can pray if I never share any of the details. So I am going to attempt to be a bit less cautious and a bit more open on this blog as well. Which may just mean that I may even allow a few more people to read it!

So where are we at right now? We are WAITING! Our homestudy was finished June 2 and we are still waiting to receive the signed and sealed copy from the Alberta government. It is extremely frustrating to know our babies are sitting in an orphanage waiting for us when our government keeps asking for just a bit more clarification on finances or insurance or whatever. Come on already!!! We are really hoping that within the next few weeks (hopefully next week but I know that that is probably not realistic) we will get our final approval and be able to get our 50 million documents notarized and sent off to Uganda. Just on a side note: if you need to make some extra cash you might want to look into becoming a Notary... good money to be had from people like us who need to have a million papers notarized.

We had hoped (which of course we knew was really just that... hoping) that we would be picking up our little ones in September. Now it feels as though before we know it October will be flying past us as well. I can't wait to have a date so that we can start preparing better. I think once we get our documents to Uganda we should get our court date fairly quickly and be given a couple of weeks notice to travel. But I don't know that for sure.

We are also working on immigration which is frustrating and we are preparing for a bit of a headache. Gotta love the Canadian government! We have heard there have been issues with immigration lately and we are hoping and praying to avoid any with our paperwork.

So, if you want to know what you can pray for: homestudy to be approved very quickly, immigration to go smoothly, a quick court date from Uganda, and of course health and comfort for Kaysia and Ezekiel as they wait for their mommy and daddy to get there. I could keep going but that is a good starting place.

I have not proven to be a faithful blogger in the past but this might prove to be therapeutic for me... I have a lot going through my head right now... but this has been long enough for one day!