It’s been a while since I posted so I guess it’s a good time for an update (though not much to report).

Recovery was...well, not fun and very difficult. I spent a lot of time in bed. I had a ton of problems with eating and discomfort. Then at about 5 weeks post surgery I was back in the hospital again for a 4-day stay. I had been non-stop nausea with vomiting for 3-days and down to just 1 lb shy of only double-digits.

In the hospital they thought I had a partial blockage and assigned a surgeon to my case with the possibility of a second surgery for correction. It was not fun, to say the least. I certainly didn’t see how I could feel normal or even close to normal anytime in my near future. Everyone I have talked to or read about that had this surgery was talking about MONTHS of recovery and at least a year of fatigue. I was just so tired of being sick and missing life. I truly feel like I missed all of February, kind of a weird feeling.

Anyway, miraculously (and I truly do mean miraculously), I left and the next day felt closest to normal as I had since surgery. Since then my healing and recovery has progressed without problems! I can eat pretty much anything, I don’t need naps and I am doing all things that I desire or need to do (except maybe jumping on the trampoline with the kiddos) without a problem. Praise be to the Lord! Okay, so I do feel like I am ripping a stitch now and then but aside from that, I’m good

On the adoption front, our updated dossier is just about complete. Our I-171 Reaffirmation has been mailed out to us from INS but has not arrived in our mailbox yet. The homestudy agency from prior to our move sent us their agency license but it hasn’t arrived yet either (I’m thinking maybe they mailed it to the old address). Some of our dossier has been sent for translation but I am waiting on these 2 last pieces of paper to arrive so we can get things apostilled and sent for translation too.

I am a little frustrated that I feel like someone I rely on heavily through this adoption does not sound very motivated about moving our dossier along, completed, into the hands of our facilitator. I know things LOOK grim right now as we do not have a spot in line to submit to the SDA but come on! God is bigger than that, first of all and second of all, as I have heard it said (and have said myself MANY times), the only thing predictable about Ukrainian adoptions is that it is unpredictable.

The truth is anything can change, anything can happen. Even a small window of opportunity may present itself and if our dossier is in our facilitator’s hands, ready and waiting, perhaps it can get submitted. I have no idea what the future holds, but God does and I can tell you He has not told us to slow down, stop or anything of the sort. We are moving forward in the faith and I sure would like it if our support team would...well, support us.

Anyway, in the meantime we have applied to host “Flower” again this summer. How devastating it would be to not get there to adopt this year AND not be able to host her. Her foster mom says that “Flower” is already here with us in her heart and in her thoughts; she talks about her home in America everyday.