GIFT FROM A FRIEND...

This blanket was given to us by a special friend named Denise. What makes it even that much more special is the fact that she made it JUST FOR ASHA and each row that she crocheted, she prayed and thought of our daughter!

We can't wait to see you warm and cozy in the blanket Asha! Until you are home, Mom will promise to keep the blanket safe and warm for you. We miss you baby girl!

A COURT DATE WILL BE ANNOUNCED IN THE NEAR FUTURE...

We are truly grateful and appreciate all of the support we have received. All of you are so excited and want to know when we can finally bring Asha home to Canada. Many of you probably aren't too familiar with how the whole process works when adopting from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, so we thought we'd take the time to fill you in.

When you adopt from SVG, before your child is "officially" named as YOURS, certain guidelines must first be followed. After your child referral, an adoption board in St. Vincent must meet to sign papers to approve that we may in fact adopt and bring home a child from their country, to Canada. We spoke to our lawyer in St. Vincent and she said that the meeting is just a formality and that she expected the board to meet by the end of January. After the adoption board has met, our lawyer requests a court day. We found out today from our agency CAFAC that our lawyer in St. Vincent will be calling them with an official court date on Monday! Court is not the same here as it is there. In St. Vincent, court is primarily a time to authorize our paperwork with the stamp of approval from their government. With court being completed, that means we are one more step closer to bringing our little peanut home!

After court, the speediness of the process rests in the hands of immigration which is through the country of Trinidad. Many ask why we can't just bring her home after court. Well, in order to get approval to bring her to Canada, we need to wait for immigration to issue Asha an exit visa and her Canadian citizenship first. This can often be the most time consuming part of the whole process. We are hoping that immigration does not lose our paperwork and that her documents are processed through sooner than later. We have heard as well that by having a member of parliament contact the embassy in Trinidad, it can and has sped up the process. We have been in contact with our MP for our area and now just need to pray that things go smoothly from here on out.

So, hopefully Monday we will know the day of court and then it will all come down to immigration. Since we first saw Asha, we have known that she was ours and that she was chosen just for us by God. It drives us crazy to think that by next month we could technically be with her if we moved to St. Vincent for a couple months before her paperwork is processed through immigration. Either that or we could take a quick trip, pack her in our suitcase and fly right back...well we can dream...

Will keep you posted.

S. and D.

PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE...REALLY IT IS!!!

Before we received our referral to adopt Asha, we had been used of waiting and having things not happen in OUR timing. We tried to have children on our own for just about six years. I can't say we ever got used to waiting and trying to become parents, but the wait was tolerated more easily over time. I guess we just got more patient or got accustomed to seeing our infertility treatments as being a part of our lives, what we needed to go through to become parents. What eventually gave us comfort was knowing that things would happen in God's timing. Days would go by, then weeks and months and when we weren't getting pregnant, I think we still had the outlook that at least we were doing SOMETHING - still reaching for our dream to parent, doing whatever we could. We at least felt in control! Looking back on that time in our lives I can see that we weren't the ones really in control at all. God was in the driver's seat all along, guiding us on the path He had planned for us. It is crazy to look back and think now that the plan all along was for us to go through the pain of infertility so that we could become the strong and compassionate people we are today, to be able to be the wonderful Mom and Dad that I know we will be.

The other night I was thinking...what if God said to me - "Desiree, I have the power to make you pregnant now but you would have to give up Asha and she would have to go with another family. What do you want me to do?" Without even a seconds hesitation, I know in my heart that I would choose Asha. She is already a part of my heart and soul...she is my little girl and without her I would be truly lost. To be able to see how I have changed so much over only a few years shocks me - going from a place of desperation with not being able to have my own biological child to a place of peace in knowing that my destiny all along was to be a Mom to Asha. Because of Asha I can now celebrate Mother's Day without tears of sadness but tears of joy because I AM A MOTHER...I have always been a Mother but Asha has made it "official".

Since we got our referral and have found out that we have a precious baby girl and that we are officially parents, the days, weeks and months go by so slowly. Days seem like weeks and weeks seem like months. The time drags along. I imagine it is because I KNOW she is out there. She is getting bigger and bigger as time goes on and I am not there to see her change and grow. It makes me sad knowing that there are so many things I am missing. Like her sitting on her own and crawling...she is already rocking this week on her hands and knees to try to crawl! She is making silly sounds and is mimicking everything you do! I have never met her in person but she gives me such joy and hearing her on the phone makes my chest heavy. She is the most beautiful gift we could have ever been given and yet she is so far away.

So today, more than anything else, what I am needing most is prayer (except for Asha of course...need her home most of all). Pray specifically for patience. Patience that the next four or five months go by quickly so that we can bring her home to her forever family. I find myself overly consumed with the fact that she is not here instead of focusing on the fact that she will be here soon. Please pray for me that I may feel comfort in this time of waiting and longing. Also pray for Asha, her foster parents Godrick and Lynda, for the country of St. Vincent, for our paperwork through Immigration in Trinidad and for the birth mother, whose heart must ache with the decision to place her daughter up for adoption. She had enough courage and strength to make the decision to place Asha with a family who can care for all her needs and because of that, we have so much love and respect for her. Thank you also to everyone who has been praying for us already and who has been following along side us in our journey to parenthood. We feel blessed and honored to have so many supportive friends and family.

LAUREEN...

We have not been members of the Saskatchewan Caribbean Association for too long but we have already become close with several of the people in the group. One of the woman we have connected with is a sweet and loving soul; she was generous enough to pass along a precious doll for Asha. The doll was handmade and it was given as a gift to her girls when they were little. This doll has already become a permanent fixture in our home and has melted the hearts of those around her.

We named the doll Laureen, after the kind woman who gave her to us. Laureen wanted to have a new festive outfit for the holidays, so Nana Balaberda took her shopping for the perfect outfit. Each place we went this year, Laureen cheerfully came along with us dressed in her best clothes. We can't wait for next year when we will get to see Asha dragging Laureen around herself.

Thank you Laureen for blessing us with such a special gift. We will treasure it forever!

CHRISTMAS THIS YEAR...

Even though Asha wasn't here this Christmas, we celebrated as though she were. Thank you so much to everyone who blessed Asha this year with your love and many gifts. Next year she will have slobbery kisses for you all!

NEW PICTURES...

We were truly BLESSED this Christmas!

We envisioned that Christmas would be difficult this year without our new baby girl. But, although we did not have Asha home for Christmas, we had the next best thing! The foster family was able to use the camera we mailed them and emailed us new pictures of our daughter. We received them on Christmas Eve - what an amazing gift. Seeing more pictures of Asha was something we wanted more than anything else in this world! What a truly amazing present we received.

We have attached the pictures for you to see our little bundle of joy! Make sure you check out her chubbiness! She is obviously eating well.

Much love and blessings to you and yours this holiday season.

ASHA TELLIN' STORIES...

We have called The Ottley's several times throughout the last couple of weeks. Everytime we called to talk to Asha, she had JUST had some "tea" - what they call the bottle - and had been put down for a nap. They do not have her on a specific schedule for nap times but each time we have called lately (different times), we always get told she is sleeping! Today, we finally got to talk to our little girl and was she ever making noise. If you listen very carefully, the foster mother Lynda tells us that she is upset because she brought her inside and she doesn't like to be inside. She loves being out in the sun! Make sure before you listen to the clip that you turn down the music player on the left side of this page.

THE PARISIEN'S NEW CHRISTMAS TRADITION...

Family is all about traditions and for us being that our little girl is going to be home soon, we wanted to start our own Christmas tradition. We decided to make sugar cookies and to honour Asha we made some of the cookies with a St. Vincent flair. Keep in mind, this is our first attempt at these, so they are not perfect but let us tell you...they sure taste yummy! Here are some cookies we made in the St. Vincent national colors.

Our foster family, The Ottley's, refer to us as being plain skinned and call themselves brown skinned. So we made this bear just for The Ottley's because he...you guessed it, is brown skinned!!!

Daddy wanted to decorate cookies to look like Asha helped to make them. Which cookie do you think Asha would have made?

NOT HOME FOR CHRISTMAS...

We have been ready for Christmas for quite some time already. Our tree is decorated, stockings hung, gifts all wrapped and under the tree and the baking is completed. Although we are ready for Christmas in that sense, we will never be ready for the sadness we feel this holiday season.

To us Christmas means the birth of Jesus Christ but it is also a time for children. And for us, our most special and important gift is not going to be here this Christmas. It will be Asha's very first Christmas and she will be away from home, away from her Daddy and Mommy. More than anything, this time of the year makes us miss her that much more. We are trying to look to the future, to next year when she will be with us and will have her FIRST Christmas home with her family. We try to imagine what she will be like at Christmas next year with the lights and the gifts and the treats and the snow! Especially the snow! What a shock that will be for her!

So during this time, although our hearts ache to hold our little girl in our arms, we hold on to the dream of how wonderful Christmas will be next year. 2009 WILL BE the best year of our lives!!!

ASHER'S BIG FLIGHT...

We wanted to send off a package to our little girl with some things to keep her busy until we could come to bring her home. The first thing we knew we wanted to send to our daughter was a teddy bear for her to cuddle, so we went to the Build-a-Bear Workshop and made her a bear we named Asher. We also put a recording of our voices inside Asher's paw, telling Asha how much we love her. So as Asha grows during her wait for her Daddy and Mommy, she can hear how much we miss and love her every night before she goes to sleep. Asher has a big heart and we know that he will give Asha all the love and hugs that she needs.

We ended up sending the package by UPS and it will hopefully get to St. Vincent by Tuesday this week. It has made us that much more excited to be able to track Asher's journey to find his best friend. Asher wanted to try on Asha's onesie before we sent it. Isn't he adorable and don't you think this onesie will look adorable on Miss Asha?

If you haven't already done so, pause the music on this page (bottom right hand side) and check out the video from Asher himself which is posted below. For a tiny bear, he sure does have a lot to say!