Life With Janaa

The past few days have been a blurr.  We spent a few days with our days and nights greatly confused.  The last few days we've just been exhausted. Today is the first day I feel the least bit hopeful that I could be "normal" in a few days.

There's not much exciting to tell about other than this is what your child may look like after taking a 4 hour nap and waking up at  8:00 pm to eat supper. Apparently, chicken is near impossible to chew at this time of night. She went to bed 2 hours later, slept through the night and didn't wake up until 8:00 the next morning.  I'm still crashing every evening, and getting up early.  Not, me if you know me...I much prefer the night hours to the morning and all of it's glory.

It seems that no matter how many times you say goodbye it never gets easier.  For some reason is feels like the more you do it the more you should get used to it.

We left Thailand on Saturday and something about it felt even more final than the last.  It was so fun seeing Janaa with her foster brother and sister and her best friend, Emma.  From the moment we arrived it was as if no time passed between them at all.  There were other people that Janaa was excited to meet, but then seemed too overwhelmed.  Not with them.

Janaa's brother has a family on the way.  While we are so excited it's a bit sad.  We will miss him very much.  There is a very real chance that we may not see him again.  Janaa kept telling me to bring him to America with me.   As we were leaving it was obvious that they were both, in their own way, dreading the goodbye.  However, it was good for Janaa so see his family album and share the news with him.  I think it helped her feel like she was part of saying goodbye, something she had  been worried about before we left. She was concerned she wouldn't get to tell him goodbye.  God is faithful and his new home seems just right for him.

Please pray about her foster sister's situation.  There is a very good chance that she has an amazing family waiting for her as well, but it all is hanging on one form that must be fill out. Pray that God would guide those who must complete the forms to work in her best interest.

Knowing that her sibblings are leaving, Janaa is ready for Mommy Rachel to come back home.  She kept asking when she would get a plane.  Soon...we're praying.

Continue to keep Emma in your prayers as well.  She is in the process of being adopted. Since she is special needs she will be able to be adopted by her foster family, which are good friends as well. However, they are still waiting on some details as well. We're ready for Kosharah and Emma to come to America as well.

Our flights went well even though our flight plan was terrible.  We had a lot of layovers.  We ended up traveling almost exactly 36 hours.  How fun to be home with Brent.  Janaa missed him so much. She ran up behind him screamind "Daddy, Daddy" at the airport.  We are glad to be home.  Janaa goes back and forth between wanting to be home or in Thailand.  She hasn't slept much tonight. I've been up since about 2:00 am. I finally let Janaa get up for awhile as well. She is finally back to sleep so we'll see how it goes.

Thank you so much for praying for us as we traveled. We had a great time.  I'm so thankful the Lord allowed us the opportunity.  There was a lot of good closure for Janaa as well as answers to many of her pressing questions concerning Nipaporn.

I made it!  My ribs are not showing, the laundry did not consume me (yet), and I remembered to take out the trash every week!  The worst thing that happened overall was that the car wouldn't start last Friday, sitting in the Wal-Mart parking lot, but it only ended up being some loose wiring right at the starter.  Well, there was that little scare with both computers dying and thinking that we had lost ALL of our important data. 

I learned several things in my month alone.

1. A month is a really long time to be alone
2. A month is really not as long as you think
3. It is easier to do laundry as you go along, instead of all at once.
4. Grilling is not fun by yourself
5. Two to four hours of sleep a night is enough to function each day, but just barely.
6. Movies -
7. 1. "Stardust" is not a bad movie, but I can't look at Robert DeNiro the same ever again. 
   2. I don't know why it took me so long to watch one of the Bourne movies
   3. Commentary on a movie can either really help or really hurt your viewing experience
8. Locking yourself out of the house is a good way to create fun

Anyway, September is at and end, Fall is here, and my girls are coming home.

So, another quick update. We just got back from a visa run, and are headed to the dentist any moment so I may have to finish this later.

Anyway, yesterday we headed up to the Golden Triangle where you can see Burma (Myanmar), Laos and Thailand. We took a cool boat ride over to Laos then they took us by Burma.  We rode in a classic "low boat".   We headed on up to the border last night and stayed at a really cool place. This morning we got up early and headed over the border of Burma.  I was a bit concerned taking Janaa, but it actually really helped. Everyone loved that she was Thai and had lots of questions for her about being adopted.  They were so very kind.  We only had about 15 minutes after we crossed the border because we had to get back to Chiang Mai, but it was still fun and eye opening.

So before Janaa turns 5 years old she will have been in Thailand, America, Laos and Burma.  How fun! 

I probably will not be updating much more on our trip. Our time is fading quickly and we're trying to make the most of every moment.  Please pray for us as we travel back.  We are hoping to check our bags through to Raleigh's customs instead of going through in San Fransisco.  If we have to go through in San Fransisco I'll probably get stuck with all our luggage over night, which concerns me.  Anyway, we'll see everyone soon if we don't get to talk or update sooner.

The past few days have been so crazy. We only have a few days here in Chiang Mai so we are cramming each day with things to do.  We get up early and go to bed late. We've been to the Night Safari, where we had our picture taken with the puma; we've been  to Tiger Kingdom, where you eat around a tiger cage and watch them while you eat; We've been to pre-school.  Monday was a day for the moms.  We dropped them off at preschool and headed over for a Thai massage, picked them up and put them down for naps then went to get our hair washed and dried.  The last few nights we've spent at the night market and night bazaar, which is always fun to walk around. 

I'm headed upstairs to try to start packing some things for the trip home.  We're headed up to Burma today for a visa run.  It will probably be a couple of days before I'm back on.  You never know if you can get the internet when traveling.  Please keep Rachel's kids in your prayers. She's at the orphanage now working on a solution for one of them.  The other is waiting for his parents to come get him.  God is good and His timing is perfect, but it's hard to sit and wait for them to come.  Thanks for praying for us as we've been traveling.  We'll see most of you soon.