Thank you, Thank you, Thank you

I think this is the beginning of many thank you from my family. First, thank you for reading this blog-- however shoddy and sporatic I am about posting; I know there are many faithful readers, still. Thank you for reading about babies who need formula, thank you for being a part of our efforts to raise money and meet the goal of $12,500 worth of formula to feed our malnourished babies at AWAA's Transition Home!!!!!

Thank you for praying our family through the past 6+ months of deployment. By grace alone, we have come to the other side of this journey-- he isn't home yet, but he is in the country and working hard to make it back to us!!

Thank you for praying over our adoption process. As with any adoption, there are twists, turns and unexpected hiccups along the way. Of course, we aren't "there" yet; but getting closer every day. I still covet your prayers for our upcoming court date on May 20th, and prayers that we will be able to still travel on June 6th. I stand in awe when I look back upon God's goodness and mercy to our family. From the very beginning, He has caused all things to work for His Glory-- whether it has been providing a much needed document at the right time, causing Tony to come home early for travel, answering prayers on behalf of ALL families in AWAA to pass court, bring home children sooner and cause government systems to work for the benefit of children and families.... He is so good.

The next two weeks are huge for our family. Reunion with our Daddy, wrapping up another year of teaching my boys, experiencing the court system of Ethiopia and by God's grace, legally adding two more children to Team Dragovich. The anticipation is rising... and where there is great good to come, there is also great opposition from the enemy. Please continue to pray for us-- I do not know what to expect. I cannot even fathom. But one thing I DO know...

"I am still confident of this; I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Be STRONG and TAKE HEART and WAIT FOR THE LORD"!!! (Psalm 27:13-14)

Grace and Peace,
Shari

Hmmmm... Time flies when your...

...being silly with Sam at the park by Grandpa's lake

... Taking in all of Charleston, NC

... Building sandcastles at the beach

... getting shots to travel to Ethiopia

... living at the soccer fields!!

Okay, so that is only MOST of the reason why I haven't posted in such a long time. The other part of the equation is that I don't really know what to say. Who wants to hear about a family in constant motion right now? And, when there is facebook to distract me and not make me think in complete sentences... well... it wins. :)

But, here is a synopsis of where we are at adoption wise: our court date is May 20th. If we pass court on this day, we will travel to Ethiopia on June 6th. Yes... I said WE. Tony is COMING HOME!!!!!!!! So that is good news :) He will actually be home somewhere around the 15th of May, so Team Dragovich will have a few weeks together before we dive into expanded family life-- hooray!!! I feel so spoiled :)

But Shari, you say, you said 'if' you pass court... is it possible that you wouldn't pass court the first time round??? Why yes, it is very possible. In fact, today the Semlow family finally passed court after 7 MONTHS of paperwork, red tape and all sorts of problems keeping them from a positive court turnout. BUT... I am here to PRAISE GOD with them and tons of other families who have been diligently praying these beautiful children into their arms. In two weeks, they will be in Ethiopia to finally unite with their three new kiddos and BRING THEM HOME!!! Go check out their blog. There are some happy people over there :)

So, other than just trying to keep up with daily life, I have been trying to pull bedrooms together for J.B. and R.S. (did you notice I didn't say their full names? That is because they aren't legally my kids yet. It is a secret until then :)). I managed to move furniture around and even take apart a bed and put it back together again in another room. I have one room ready for a set of bunk beds and now our little girl's room is screaming for some attention. Funny, that is the room I am most excited to do and it is the last to be done. Oh well. Maybe part of the problem is I haven't settled on a color for the wall-- what shade of green??? Or pink? Or turquoise?? Probably not turquoise. Or should I pick out a bedding set first and be inspired by that? And, WHY is Pottery Barn calling my name so often??? I mean, have you SEEN the little girl bedding from there? Why can't I find something I like as much for cheaper?? Ugh.

So, you see... R.S.'s room sits and waits. But, in the meantime, I really had to put in the garden-- I tilled it myself. Not pretty. You would have laughed outloud if you saw me do it. But, it is done and the garden is in, and now I have to keep it watered. And, I've been trying to make the yard look more presentable. It is weedy. And dead in spots. I just HATE for my husband to come home to a bad yard. That is the ONE thing he cares about. I could have all the bedrooms completely done, planted the garden and even do some lovely landscaping... but he would have been most happy about a healthy yard. Not that it is really my fault-- it is the way water sits in low spots. And other things that we inherited from the builder's "landscaper"... but I digress.

Okay, so now you know the randomness of my thoughts-- especially right before bed. You should be glad I haven't posted more often during this deployment :D!!

Grace and Peace,
Shari

Yea!!!! We're HOME!

We made it through all our travel adventures-- I feel so brave and all grown up :). The boys and I had a great time on the farm in IL... boy, it is COLD there! I am spoiled in sweet NC! And, of course, we were welcomed just perfectly to a cold arctic blast as we pulled into the driveway of my parent's farm-- negative temps and 30mph winds for the first 3 days we were there. I opted for being a yogi instead of a runner for those days :). But, it warmed up to tolerable, and even veered into mild for a couple of days! We all managed to catch the flu bug in between Christmas and New Years-- I have become good friends with Clorox and Lysol.

Boys with their favorite new toy--funny, where's the Wii?
Oh wait, that's Mommy's favorite new toy!

Santa brought a Wii this year-- they must have been making an overload supply this year at the North Pole. It seemed to be the gift of choice. Funny, the boys didn't even really recognize that they got the Wii when they were frantically looking at all their treasures! They noticed all sorts of other things and even a couple things they DIDN'T get, but the Wii elluded their attention for quite some time. It was Aunt Emily and Mommy who went wild about it, and then they recognized its existence. BTW, Aunt Emily and I LOVE Guitar Hero :) I'm really bad at it, but it is still fun. I think I can still hear "Slow Ride" in my sleep and sadly, "Baracudda" still has the best of me... but not for long-- I SHALL prevail!!

My gladiator and God-warrior... forces to be reckoned with!

Tony is doing well on the other side of the globe. He is in a good routine, getting to do some pain medicine stuff and seems to have plenty of time to eat healthy, workout a lot and read a lot. He begins every conversation with, "I'm so huge, you should see my _______ (arms, shoulders, traps, abs, etc)!" I'm happy for him. And once I can run more than 2-3 sporatic days a week, finish any one of the books I started three months ago and lose my new and ever so lovely hive rash all over my torso, neck and arms, I'll be even THRILLED for him. Until then, happy is good enough :)

Creation Museum in OH with the Harbaughs on the way back to NC-- VERY FUN!!

Last, but not least... adoption news. There is none. But this is not to be un-expected. We have been waiting 7 1/2 months now and are in a line that is a bit sporatic. The sibling group line. Right now, I am starting the process to have our USCIS approval broadened a bit to include any sibling group or two children ages 0-6 years with one or both of them being a girl. We have always been happy to be this broad, but somehow during the paper chase process, we let the wording be too narrow-- I don't know why-- it is all so confusing when your going through it. Anyway, our fingerprints expire in April and there is not a chance that we will get a referral, go to ET and get back with our kids before then. So, I have to do this whole hoop jumping thing again anyway-- might as well get the age range right this time :).

Even though there is no DIRECT news for us, there has been a lot happening in our agency's program. Ten referrals for the month of January have already been given and this is unheard of for so early in the month. That is very exciting! There is fear on the YG that this is it for the month. I don't think so. I won't believe it. I believe that more children are going to be referred to their forever families this month and I even believe that the wait times for court and travel are going to start to shrink. Why do I believe that? Why NOT? :)

Well, Happy New Year to you all!!! Thank you so much for praying for our family during this deployment and adoption time!! Thank you for leaving posts and comments on our blog and thanks for faithfully checking in, even though I am the sporatic blogger :) My love to you all!

Grace and Peace,
Shari

Milkshakes make everything better!!

Well, we got our Daddy off to the airport on Tuesday. He made it to his training destination-- of course not without incident-- we are talking about the Army here, folks! Apparently, they never paid his tickets. So, when he got to the counter, there was no ticket-- ha!! Of course, he missed that flight and after hours of waiting and missing connecting flights, he finally made it. Ugh. Poor guy!!

Meanwhile, back at Team D. headquarters, we needed a pick-me-up. So... milkshakes all around!! The boys did a "CHEERS" for Daddy and all has been well-- 2 days in ;)!

Grace and Peace,
Shari

Feel the Love

I'm not sure what is going on in my home exactly... a work of the Lord is all I can guess. My boys have been SO very compassionate and kind to one another over the last several weeks. I mean, don't get me wrong; they are pretty civil to each other on a regular basis. I mean, we have our days, but overall, they get along. But, lately.... well... there is just so much love to go around! This afternoon, Wyatt looked at Sam and said, "Sam, I just love you. You are the best brother ever. Isaac, so are you!" What?? What was that I heard? Oh my. I think that was a "no strings attached" compliment! And such a rich one at that! Hmmm... like I said. God giving us a sweet gift in these last days until Daddy leaves for the big "D".

Speaking of the big "D", this gear up for it is getting, well... exhausting. And the thing is, I don't know how to not have it be exhausting, either. We stay positive, and certainly there is never a shortage of things to do, places to go, games to make, etc. But, no matter what we do or how we spend our time together, there it is. Getting closer. Waiting to happen. I have talked to several friends who have "gone before me" so to speak, and they all say the same thing... getting ready to deploy is the worst part. Once he goes, we can get into a routine and establish some normalcy. Although, in our case, Tony will be gone for almost three weeks, then home for Thanksgiving, then gone for the long haul. Then, of course, we enter into the Holiday season and that is usually void of normalcy. So... maybe come January, I can think about a routine. But...why think that far in advance? What a waste of time :)... I'd rather just enjoy today even if it is a little tiring!

Oh... here is something cool-- The boys and I went to see High School Musical 3 today! Yes. On opening day. I feel so hip. One of their fellow homeschool friends had a birthday and rather than have a party, she opted for us all to go see High School Musical together. It was fun! I have to confess that I never saw the first High School Musical until it was out on video-- for a LONG time; and I have never seen all of High School Musical 2. I have boys. They don't dance around the house to "We're Better Together" (I think that is the name of one of the songs!). But, I'm SOOOO glad that we have friends with girls!! And here is my sad confession. As HUGE CHEESE as it was; I found myself ferclempt more than once. Yes, people. I teared up. I mean, Tony and I are High School Sweethearts, okay! So, stay off my case!! :)

Finally, there are several families traveling this week to pick up their children from Ethiopia. I am going to attempt to link you to them here:

Schmidt Family
Van Wetten Family
Redfern Family

There are others, however, these are the blogs I could find links for. Hopefully they will update their blogs throughout the week.

Take care and have a great weekend, everyone!
Grace and Peace,
Shari

Not for the Faint of Heart

I cannot even begin to tell you what we have been doing the past week or two. Really. It's all a blur. All I know is Time is cruelly racing ahead and somewhere deep inside me I keep screaming, "STOP!!!!!" Tony's work schedule has been so erratic. He is home on weird days and then he is gone for what seems like days at a time; then all the sudden he is home again. But unavailable to go with us to practices or games because he is on-call and must stay within 30 minutes of the hospital. Now he is gone again for the weekend and all the while there is this deep down urge within me to just drop it all and run away. Fast. That sounds so very mature and logical, doesn't it :)?

Two days ago, I learned that another family's baby died of pnemonia in Ethiopia. This is a family whom I was particularly cheering for, since they were holding out so long for a referral for two children under the age of two. With our agency's policy of only adopting sibling groups to families requesting multiples, this referral seemed extremely sweet to me and I was simply thrilled for them. Then, the baby girl got sick and she never recovered. My sorrow over this loss for them is just so raw. And it seems that there is no where to go with this bag of emotion and thoughts. I believe that our agency is doing the best they can to get families moved through court in a timely fashion and limit the amount of time between referral and uniting children with families. The adoption process in Ethiopia is still relatively new (compared to other nations) and more importantly, the number of people adopting from this beautiful country has more than tripled in the past several years. The courts can't keep up. They lack staff and equippment and technology and all the other things that go along with a smooth operating procedure. What am I going to do, shake my fist at them and say, "Shame on you! Pull it together!" No. That will not do. Sadly, the one thing I know to do, I have been finding hard to find the words for... Pray. I know this is my strongest weapon to wield and yet, I seem to just face every time of prayer with this sort of numb, "struck dumb" feeling. I'm counting on that passage of Scripture that says the Holy Spirit will intercede for me when all that comes out are groans not understood by human ears.

There is a conference call this afternoon with our agency. It happens once a month and it is a chance for all of the "waiting families" (those of us done with paper work and waiting for a referral) to ask questions to program director that they may be pondering. I was going to make time to listen in today. Back when I thought maybe we were further up on the list. But, after a little research (which wasn't hard) I saw how far down we really are and now I am over my wondering if we will get a referral in the next couple of months. Besides, the questions I want to ask, she can't answer... "Will this all happen while my husband is gone?", "Is there going to be two children for us?", "Can you please do something about getting our babies home faster before they get too sick and it is too late?"

My apologies if what I just shared was too much. This journey we are on seems to be quite dangerous just at the moment. At least that is how it feels. A dear friend of mine emailed me several months ago and in sharing some of her struggles she said, "Oh, Shari, this thing we call mothering is not for the faint of heart". How poignant. It is a good thing that I was blissfully ignorant back when I began on this path of being a military wife, mother, passionate follower of Christ, etc. I would have certainly known how "faint of heart" I can become, then turned and ran the other way! :)

Grace and Peace,
Shari