I'm so ready to be done...no more paperwork..no more worrying that other people aren't doing their jobs properly and quickly!! I just want my girls visa/passports and I'm ready to go home to Canada!! I have been preparing the packet of documents that we have to send to Pretoria, South Africa...hopefully this week...and gathering any last minute ones that I don't have yet. Sidney has to drive tomorrow to Lusaka, to get the adoption certificate and the revised birth certificates...now I don't quite understand why they are giving them new birth certificates...I mean yes, we did change their names...but can't you just give us a name change document instead of a new birth certificate! I don't know, nothing here in Zambia is particularly logical!
I believe that I have one more paper for the head of Social Welfare to sign and then we are done with them!! No more having to pretend to be really nice...lol....My only worry is that I have forgotten something, and that everything will be delayed because of it, and then we won't be able to come home for Christmas. Well, I also worry that Pretoria is going to take their sweet time issuing the citizenship, and again, we won't be able to go home by Christmas. These last few weeks I've been really feeling ready to go home...Fall is probably my favorite season and I'm missing it...Its quite warm here now...which I've never truly enjoyed like some people I know...and would rather be cuddled up listing to the rain and baking cookies. The problem with that is that I have to leave all the kids here and I'm going to miss them so much...I've been really enjoying getting to know all of them..some of them really well...and its going to be hard not seeing them for a long time!!
Prudence (the little girl dying of cancer) seem to be doing a little better now that she is receiving really good care. She is no longer vomiting and isn't in any pain. The team bought her a beautiful baby doll and she just loves it...she keeps telling her nurse not to take it away while she sleeps...she's not allowed to move it...and whenever she wakes up the first thing she does is look or feel around for the baby doll!!! I can't imagine never having a toy before...Just another insight into how very spoiled we are in Canada!! My girls are only 1 and have several toys that they are already bored of and don't want to play with...Cause you know...the box that it came in is much more interesting!! Please pray for Prudence's mother as well, she has been with Prudence the whole time that she was in the hospital and is here staying with her now, but she has 3 other children at home younger than Prudence with the youngest being 2. The other kids are being cared for by their grandmother but they haven't seen their mother, or her them in almost 4 months!!!
God Bless
9.24.2010
Off to Lusaka!!
Tomorrow we are off to Lusaka again!! We have to take the twins to have their picture taken for their Canadian passports!! The photo store in Mandahill is the only photo store that Canada will accept the photos from!....So...we get to drive for 4 hours with two 1 year olds...lol...won't that be fun!! but we are also going to go to the huge craft fair again so that will be exciting!!
The team has gone home now, but mom will be here for 2 more weeks!! YAY....We've been having some trouble getting our Letter of No Objection from the Canadian government...Mostly because our adoption agency hasn't been very helpful, and told me that I had everything I needed...and then at the very last minute said that I still needed to do a whole bunch of things!! It was very frustrating, I think I have completed everything they asked for now...although it took me 3 very stressful days of attempting to download and scan things that the internet here is too slow to handle...It took me 3 hours to download the adoption orders to an e-mail and send them!!!AHHH..sure teaches you some patience!!
The team found in the hospital a little 10 year old girl who is dying of cancer...the hospital couldn't do anything more for her, and had decided to release her to the compounds...Not a very nice place to spend your last days..no food..and no comfortable place to sleep!! She had bed sores down to the bone from the poor care that she was receiving at the hospital!! The hospital is a place that I don't even like to visit and she had been their for 3 months and 3 weeks! She has such a pretty smile and was just thrilled when we set up a tv in her room to watch cartoons!! I don't think she has ever seen a cartoon in her life, and when we asked her what her favorite toy from home was she said " I've never had a toy". So Susan asked her if she could have any toy she wanted what would it be, and she wanted a baby doll. So the team went a bought her a beautiful baby doll..Its so sad..she's such a beautiful little girl!! My heart just breaks to think what she has had to go through at only 10 years old...but soon she will be with the Lord in an amazing place without pain!!
The team also found at the hospital a 6 year old boy in serious need of antibiotics, and when Susan offered to pay for them...the doctor got very upset with her and refused to let her pay...Their was also a 2 year old little boy that was skin and bones...he didn't weigh more than 8-10 pounds and the hospital wouldn't let Susan help him either...It's so frustrating...I hate going to that hospital cause you see so much suffering and they won't let you help...you just have to leave and pray that the Lord takes these children home quickly....Their is also a set of 2 day old twin girls whose mother died in childbirth, and the father isn't around that are living with their grandmother who isn't able to care for them!! I so wish we could adopt them too...but I think 4 kids all within one year is more than I can handle...I just pray that somehow they go to a good home and get out of the compound!!
Well...this has been a long post...and some of it very sad..If you can all pray for these kids, for comfort and peace!!
May the Lord bless you all!!
The team has gone home now, but mom will be here for 2 more weeks!! YAY....We've been having some trouble getting our Letter of No Objection from the Canadian government...Mostly because our adoption agency hasn't been very helpful, and told me that I had everything I needed...and then at the very last minute said that I still needed to do a whole bunch of things!! It was very frustrating, I think I have completed everything they asked for now...although it took me 3 very stressful days of attempting to download and scan things that the internet here is too slow to handle...It took me 3 hours to download the adoption orders to an e-mail and send them!!!AHHH..sure teaches you some patience!!
The team found in the hospital a little 10 year old girl who is dying of cancer...the hospital couldn't do anything more for her, and had decided to release her to the compounds...Not a very nice place to spend your last days..no food..and no comfortable place to sleep!! She had bed sores down to the bone from the poor care that she was receiving at the hospital!! The hospital is a place that I don't even like to visit and she had been their for 3 months and 3 weeks! She has such a pretty smile and was just thrilled when we set up a tv in her room to watch cartoons!! I don't think she has ever seen a cartoon in her life, and when we asked her what her favorite toy from home was she said " I've never had a toy". So Susan asked her if she could have any toy she wanted what would it be, and she wanted a baby doll. So the team went a bought her a beautiful baby doll..Its so sad..she's such a beautiful little girl!! My heart just breaks to think what she has had to go through at only 10 years old...but soon she will be with the Lord in an amazing place without pain!!
The team also found at the hospital a 6 year old boy in serious need of antibiotics, and when Susan offered to pay for them...the doctor got very upset with her and refused to let her pay...Their was also a 2 year old little boy that was skin and bones...he didn't weigh more than 8-10 pounds and the hospital wouldn't let Susan help him either...It's so frustrating...I hate going to that hospital cause you see so much suffering and they won't let you help...you just have to leave and pray that the Lord takes these children home quickly....Their is also a set of 2 day old twin girls whose mother died in childbirth, and the father isn't around that are living with their grandmother who isn't able to care for them!! I so wish we could adopt them too...but I think 4 kids all within one year is more than I can handle...I just pray that somehow they go to a good home and get out of the compound!!
Well...this has been a long post...and some of it very sad..If you can all pray for these kids, for comfort and peace!!
May the Lord bless you all!!
9.20.2010
They are official Braaksma's!!
The judge has finally signed Cassidy's adoption order!!! It is official...both of my girls are official Braaksma's!! No one can take these girls away from us now...the Zambian side of this adoption is finished! I am so thankful for my girls..every day I enjoy them even more!! Now we just have to get their Canadian visa's and take them home!! In 8 weeks and 1 day we will be flying home with our girls!! This day seemed so far away when our journey began and yet it is almost here!
My mom is here now!!! The girls love her and she's having lots of fun getting to know them!! On Sunday we had a little birthday party for them with Oma!! They were the most serious birthday girls I've every seen!! We could hardly get them to smile while eating their cake!! Oma bought them a little toy phone and camera and they love them!! It's so cute watching them play with them!! Eden now has both bottom and top teeth!! and Cassidy has her bottom and one top tooth!! They are too cute!!
Here's some pics of their teeth!!
9.16.2010
She's almost here!!
My mom will be arriving in Lusaka, Zambia tomorrow at 11:30ish...I'm so excited!! I'm leaving the twins with daddy and going with Kerry to pick them up from the airport!! The team that she is traveling with have already been to Myanmar for 1 week and now they are coming here for 1 week...but mom is staying on without them for an extra 2 weeks!!! So she will be here for 3 whole weeks!!!
Not much has been going on here!! Definitely feeling the need for some adult interaction!! I love the people here, but the cultural differences and language make it hard to interact on the same level that I am used too!...although most of them speak very good English they still have a strong accent that I find hard to understand!! I feel bad when they have to repeat themselves 3 times for me to understand!!
The twins turned 1 on Sept 7th!! We just did a few balloons and I made a cake...We are doing their big birthday when Oma gets here (TOMORROW)...Yay...I think we will do a BBQ next week sometime..with cake and balloons... I'll post some pics for sure! We are still waiting for the Judge to sign Cassidy's adoption order and I'm also gathering all the paperwork so that we can send it to Pretoria! Eden took her first step on Sept 9th...She will stand by herself for quite a while and when I put out my hands to her she stepped once before falling!! She is so cute!! She will actually try it where Cassidy won't!! She won't even try standing by herself!! They both have both bottom teeth and Eden has one top one!! and more are coming!! I love their little personality's and I'm so enjoying them every day!! I can't wait to bring them home!!
Not much has been going on here!! Definitely feeling the need for some adult interaction!! I love the people here, but the cultural differences and language make it hard to interact on the same level that I am used too!...although most of them speak very good English they still have a strong accent that I find hard to understand!! I feel bad when they have to repeat themselves 3 times for me to understand!!
The twins turned 1 on Sept 7th!! We just did a few balloons and I made a cake...We are doing their big birthday when Oma gets here (TOMORROW)...Yay...I think we will do a BBQ next week sometime..with cake and balloons... I'll post some pics for sure! We are still waiting for the Judge to sign Cassidy's adoption order and I'm also gathering all the paperwork so that we can send it to Pretoria! Eden took her first step on Sept 9th...She will stand by herself for quite a while and when I put out my hands to her she stepped once before falling!! She is so cute!! She will actually try it where Cassidy won't!! She won't even try standing by herself!! They both have both bottom teeth and Eden has one top one!! and more are coming!! I love their little personality's and I'm so enjoying them every day!! I can't wait to bring them home!!
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