Another Day, Another New Behaviour

Well it seems that pooping in the pull-up while in bed (night time and nap time) is the new fad these days.  It’s hard, realizing that up until a few days ago, he just had pee problems at night time and occasionally during nap time.  Now, even if he’s awake during the entire nap, he will pee in his pull up (and yes, we do take him to the bathroom before bed and nap times). 

So, needless to say, I can’t get the smell of poop out of my nose and we’ve had the appropriate poop place discussion already this morning.  All this is not a surprise, but we were hopeful that it wouldn’t be a problem.

"It's a sad day when poop just isn't funny anymore"

Julian Davies

Enough poop talk...
This week has been so busy--busy, but good.  Liam has started a new summer chore schedule with daily responsiblilities (reading, devotions, empty dishwasher, tidy toys, practice multiplication facts)

as well as once a week responsibilities (vacuum main floor, clean the bathroom, make dinner with mom, pull weeds). 
For dinner making with mom, Liam can choose what to make as long as he tells me at the beginning of the week so that I can have the groceries on hand.  This week he chose fettucini from scratch--yup, even the noodles.

It took SO long, but was great Mommy/Liam time, which is the point.  I want to find intentional time with Liam and making dinner during nap time works well, I think.

And now for the youngest Robinson... man, the faces that boy makes. 

... we'll see what tomorrow brings :)

Splish Splash

Who doesn't love babies in the bathtub??!?

He loves the bubbles.

I took Ezra and Liam to the community centre pool today for the first time since we've been home.  Ezra had no clue how to act in the water.  At first he couldn't even figure out how to walk in the shallow end (water up to his neck).  Then, he had no concept that he would drown if I wasn't holding him--how do you explain that to a three year old who doesn't speak English??

Finally after a few uncontrolled flailing dunks, he started to figure out that working against mom usually resulted in water up the nose... not a good feeling.

One of Liam's responsibilities is to spend 15 minutes a day reading.  The past 2 days, he has chosen to read to Ezra (which elates this mom!)  He is such a good reader with such expression.  Ezra's attention has now stretched to being able to listen to a full book--sometimes.

Life is good.  Every day changes--keeps me on my toes.

A Good Week

This has been an interesting week.
At the end of the season last summer we got this inflatable little double pool (knowing full well that Liam was too big for it).  But it has gotten SO much use in the first week of inflation.

We had Liam's best friend over (with his brother and mom) and they played in this for about 2 hours.  Their favourite thing to do was cannon balls and diving--no, this is NOT deeper than it looks.  I am considering posting a 'no diving' sign.  This has been a great way for Liam to interact and have fun with Ezra.  This pool is so worth the dead grass! 

And, of course, snack time... every time seems to be snack time.  I'm so grateful that this is a good season for fresh fruit.

Liam is so good at pulling Ezra in the wagon--there's not calm wagon rides with these boys though.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I know Ezra is so new to our family, but teaching boundaries is always important.  Some sitting time is always a wonderful opportunity to take a break from destruction and think about listening.  Destructive at times, but still adorable!

Daddy and Ezra watching Baby Einstein's MacDonald's Farm... the only show that seems to hold his attention.  I know TV isn't the best, but man, do we ever need some non-active time in this house and I'm guessing that 20 minutes of TV won't ruin him :)

Play Dough

So today was play dough day... well maybe not 'day' but we did spend a good amount of time playing with it.  Ezra has a very short attention span, so the fact that we played for nearly 1 hour with the play dough is pretty great. 

Things are a bit more difficult here than we thought.  Don't get me wrong, we didn't have any Disney ideas with adoption, but I guess it's difficult in different ways.  Liam is having a hard time with the addition of a sibling.  We prepared him, but it's still hard going from being an only child for 8 years, to instantly having a 3 year old around... all. the. time.

I have to be honest that I can relate to Liam more than I'd like to admit.  It's hard and I don't have all the answers.  I have tossed out a few adoption parenting books that seemed good at the time.  I felt like I'm finding more answers and encouragement from reading blogs about other families who have dealt with adoption as well as just being loved and encouraged by friends (and I have to say I am SO blessed to have the friends that I do!)



Liam made me a play dough chicken

Oh, and I've decided to become and extrovert.  We'll see how that goes!

A couple of times Ezra has been teary and weepy.  This is so hard because of the language difference I don't exactly know what's wrong.  I know once it was because he didn't get his way.  Another was because he wanted more food and he just looked blank and sad and cuddled with me (Shawn actually figured out that it was because he saw there was no food left for him to have more--easily solved with a yogurt).  Then at nap time when I closed the window near his bed I looked at him and he had a tear rolling down his cheek and his bottom lip sticking out.  He can't always have his own way, but it's hard to see him being quietly sad and not to know what exactly is wrong or how to deal with it. 

We made it home

We rolled into Toronto, Canada on Saturday afternoon and finally got to see our 8 year old son, Liam and our parents.  I cried... a lot (no beautiful movie cry here... full on sobbing with messed up scrunchy face and everything).  What a wonderful homecoming!  So good to be back home.  I never want to go away again--not on vacation, not even to the grocery store!!!

We got to go to our home church on Sunday and they welcomed us back and it was SO good to see all of them again.  Worship was wonderful and in English.  Church in Africa was really neat, but I haven't been able to sing to my Saviour in my own language for a month now, and so it was just precious to me to come home to a worship service with so much music.  Ezra, wasn't shy at all.  He randomly ran up to people and hugged them (great for fellowship, not so great for attachment--oh well).

We decided to go to the splash pad on Sunday afternoon to try to use up the time (the boy continues to wake up between 3:30 and 4:30 am, so we were so tired but needed to stay awake to amuse the Ezra and to spend some much needed time with Liam).  Fortunately our good friends were able to drive in to hang with us at the splash pad and help keep us awake.  It was so nice to go from feeling icky, to enjoying time with friends again.

Ezra was so timid at the splash pad and then SO cold.  We had to put a toddler onsie on him because he's so skinny, no shorts/bathing suits will stay up when water weighs them down.  I'm hoping that when it's warmer out with no breeze he'll enjoy the water a bit more.

The Jensens

Emma and Liam

I have to say that I'm loving having 'normal' speed Internet because posting pictures only take about 8 seconds now, when they took between 5 and 15 minutes each in Africa!

Introducing....

Well, we have his visa and the plane tickets are purchased/changed so I think a formal introduction is in order...

Ezra Muhire Innocent Robinson

It's funny because when our adoption practitioner saw the original pictures, she sadly told us,

"there's no sparkle in his eyes".  We also feared the same.

(I cannot seem to figure out how to rotate this picture... you get the drift though)

Well, I think we've found some sparkle!

He was born on February 16, 2009 and was named Muhire Innocent (here in Rwanda, the second name, Innocent, is the name he would go by).  On our last day in Rwanda, one of the nuns told us that Muhire means Blessed.  We were hoping to keep the name of our given child, however in Canada we didn't think the name Innocent would go over very well, so we chose the name Ezra and will keep his other names as middle names. 

Some of the ways the nuns at the orphanage describe Innocent are:

~ Very Smart ~

~ Naughty (said with eastern European/African accent) ~

~ Very Happy ~

~ A Leader Amongst the Other Children ~

Without a doubt, we can tell how much the Sisters have loved and cared for him.  Every worker and helper knows his name and always takes time to say hello to him.  We are so fortunate that he has been well loved!

This was Innocent's bed.

This is the play equipment

This is where he used to eat

In our hotel room this is how he sleeps

(we're sharing a king sized bed)

Thanks and praise go to our Lord and Saviour.  He has done great things... this child is such a gift

"I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of Him."

1 Samuel 1:27

We got his visa!!!

We got it!  We got it!  We Got it!  Innocent/Ezra's emergency visa has been approved and we picked it up after lunch.  We contacted our travel agent and just said... get us home.  We don't know if she'll be able to change our tickets or if there is any room on our flights for Innocent, but God has brought us this far... I'm certainly not going to stop trusting Him and start worrying now!  I hope we can be home by Friday... whatever happens, we can go home!!

For great is Your love, reaching to the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.  Be Exalted, O God, above the heavens; let Your glory be over all the earth.”
 Psalm 57:10-11

In the less important, but very interesting news department, I offer the following updates:

Two nights ago, the tv in the dining room was on the nature channel and during my meal I got to witness a deer giving birth—yum.

Yesterday, the tv in the dining room was apparently still on the nature channel and this time we got to witness a brown bear eating another animal while it was still alive...hmm.

There is a soap opera  on tv here that is called “Beautiful but Unlucky”.  I don’t think it’s made it to Canada yet, but I’m sure when it does it’ll be a hit.

My p.j.’s have deodorant stains on the outside of them because when I put my deodorant on the other day, I forgot to put in on under my clothes—I think I was a bit tired.

This is one of the signs posted across the street from our hotel room.  Shawn couldn’t believe that they would actually have to post a sign saying “No Urinating”.   Personally I like it when all the rules are clear.

I broke one pair of dress sandals last week and they yesterday at the doctor’s appointment both heels fell off my other pair of dress sandals (fortunately they were just little step heels, but if we don’t leave soon, I’m going to be coming home in bare feet!)

I thought the traffic was crazy in Rwanda, but here in Kenya they take it to a whole other level! This is a mini traffic jam in front of our hotel. Traffic lights are not followed, lines on the road are non-existent, and we actually saw a man getting a ride on the back of a motorcycle while carrying a car windshield.

While playing with Lego this morning, Innocent/Ezra made a statue of Mary mother of Jesus (Maria) and then wanted Shawn to pray to it.  After working on that theology for a little while, he decided to make a Bluetooth device and stuck it in his ear—I have no idea where he would have seen that!

Approved!!!!

Our emergency visa has been approved!!!  We just have to give them Innocent/Ezra's passport and then we'll get the visa this afternoon or tomorrow morning!
We've contacted our travel agent and asked her to arrange our flights and 'get us home'!
Rwanda was supposed to go quickly and it was hard--Kenya was supposed to be hard and God moved that mountain in a record 3 days.  He is amazing and so full of mercy.  Thank you Jesus!

Medical is Done!

YAY!  So, we were supposed to go do the first part of the medical (take blood) today and then finish tomorrow (get checked out by the doctor).  But they decided that we could go see the doctor and if he saw anything that concerned him, he could order blood tests... if not then we wouldn’t have to do it!!  So we got both days’ tasks done today!! 

This means that when we get the tracking number of the medical file (tomorrow afternoon) we can submit it to Immigration and then we will wait and hopefully they will grant us an emergency visa.

The big question now is... what do we do about our tickets (we need to get a flight back to Rwanda and then take our normal flights that leave at 8pm)  We still haven’t been able to book Ezra’s flight (due to not having a passport and then not knowing when we’ll be able to leave), and we heard that one of our connecting flights home is full—eek!  I don’t know what to do.  Do we take a chance that we’ll have a visa by Thursday afternoon and say yes to booking flights???  Friday, the Immigration is closed to the public so there’s no use in us putting it off one day either.  I know in James that God tells us that, “if anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives freely and without reproach”.  Well, I need wisdom and I need Him to give it abundantly and freely.  What to do... what to do....

Praise God for what He has done for us yesterday and today.  He is good!

Just so you know...

I saw a lady with really abundant armpit hair... I wasn’t being snoopy... she freely displayed it for all to see (sorry, no picture).

I only have one clean pair of underwear left—I’ll have to do another load of “hotel sink laundry”. (again, no picture)

It is SO dirty here.  No, this is not a picture of the dump... in our hotel neighbourhood (and many others), this is just what the side of the roads look like.

On the right hand side, you’ll see a building with skinny logs coming out of it.  That’s their version of scaffolding.  Serious.

Roller Coaster

What a roller coaster ride today.  I will spare you all the long details, but it looked very positive at first, then the opposite of positive (that would be negative), then a little more positive and then a possible very good... follow? 

They lost our file.  We have been corresponding with these people for 2 years now and they told us that we don’t even have a file!!!  For a bit they were telling us that we must have applied for the wrong thing, but the more they  looked into it they realized that we actually did submit stuff and it is still sitting at receiving meanwhile these files are supposed to be flagged as priority. 

So, we are rushing to get a medical, have to pay an extra $200 to the CIC to fast track it for “humanitarian reasons” (because of the death of Shawn’s dad—but you’d think that if they had done their job we wouldn’t be this messed up.. whatever) and then hope and pray that we have a temporary visa to get Ezra into the country.  Then we have to go through the whole process (that we already did for 2 years) when we get home to make up for it.  At this point I just want to get home.  It’s hard to know what to do about our tickets on Thursday because CIC can’t commit to a timeline.

I have to say that we were SO blessed to get a woman who worked hard to try to figure things out for us.  At first I think she was annoyed that we showed up without an appointment (actually I’m pretty sure she was because she mentioned a couple of times that this is not how they do things).  But then she worked so hard to find a possible solution—and when she did realize that we actually submit properly and the receiving lost/never got to our file, she mentioned how she would have to “give them crap”.  Now honestly, I’d like to do more than that, but I appreciated her intentions.

Okay, well tomorrow we have part one of the medical and part 2 is on Wednesday.  Pray, friends, pray.  God can bring this about if it is His will.  I really hope it is His will!!!  I would be so happy to be able to leave on Thursday!

Praise God for a very helpful CIC worker who helped us tremendously.  I will be praying that God blesses her richly for the way she treated us today.

Hello Kenya!

Well, at 3 am this morning, the Robinsons got up to get to the Kigali airport to fly to Kenya.  And here we are!  I was surprisingly excited to come (I think I’m just hoping that being here to petition in person to immigration, we might actually get somewhere).

The view of Rwanda from our plane window

Kenya seems nice but I love the hills of Rwanda.  There’s so much garbage on the side of the road here... maybe it’s just where we’re staying though.  The three guesthouses that were recommended to us were all booked up so I found a hotel called Nomad Palace Hotel.  It’s very modern, clean and friendly, but the neighbourhood isn’t safe so we’re just staying in the hotel compound which is very safe.

I love the accommodations, but it’s kinda hard to entertain a 3 year old in a hotel room all day.  We’ve been walking about 3 kilometers every day with Ezra/Innocent and so that not only takes time, but it expels energy—a very important ingredient for parental sanity!  We’re booked here for 2 days and then we’ll have to decided if we want to try one of the guest houses in the safer neighbourhoods.   I’m just very glad we’re here.  I have high hopes that we will be able to still go home on Thursday... maybe unrealistic, but I do know that if it’s God’s will, He can move mountains.