"Bowen" is just over a year old. He is missing limbs. More information will be made available as we get it.
http://reecesrainbow.org/?s=bowen
This has been a more frustrating adoption process than when we got Elena and Juliana. The documents have been a persistent problem. It took six tries to get a letter from the bank regarding our house. Even when we faxed them a letter regarding what needed to be on the letter, they misspelled names (Kelly apparently goes by "Kathy"), got the address wrong, got the monthly payment wrong (they said we paid $7000 a month on our mortgage), got the square footage wrong, got the notary stamp wrong..... it is very comforting that we send them mortgage money every month.
Many of the documents from other sources have had delays, or improper notarization. OtherCountry has many rules for notarizations, the stamp must have the right orientation, date, mustn't touch any other writing on the paper, must have a date that matches the paper,....... and we tell the notaries (especially communicating long distances, like the mortgage company) all the rules - and they happily ignore it and stamp it any old way the first two or three times.
The other problem has been the children. The four brothers we committed to earlier were in process of being adopted by other people. We have inquired about several other children (at least six), only to find that they are being adopted also. The important thing is that these children who desperately need families are getting them.
We see all these delays and setbacks as our being providentially hindered. On the down days it makes us question our resolve, to question whether we are actually being called to walk down this road. However, our lives and our schedules and our timetables are never actually our own; we content ourselves with this. As Lewis put it in the Screwtape Letters: "Let him have the feeling that he starts each day as the lawful possessor of twenty-four hours .... [let them] believe that they "own" their bodies—those vast and perilous estates, pulsating with the energy that made the worlds, in which they find themselves without their consent and from which they are ejected at the pleasure of Another!"
Elena and Juliana have been very helpful too. They love important-looking piles of paperwork. Elena is honing her artistic abilities and Juliana is hoping for a career as an industrial paper-shredder. Thus far, they haven't ruined any of the adoption paperwork (they have scattered it all over) but we suspect they are biding their time waiting for an opportune moment to strike. For example, Elena had a glorious time scribbling through our income tax return paperwork with a pen (after sneaking up from her nap, without a peep, and getting it off her father's desk.... while ignoring the pile of blank drawing paper located nearby). Our babies are very clever and extremely fast - a bad combination for us.
