Know when to hold 'em

"You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em"....

Good thing my mom & dad listened to Kenny Rogers when I was growing up.  Otherwise this game of immigration visas would be impassable.... HA!  Just trying to stay positive....

If our current adoption journey conjures up any lines from old songs, it's probably from 'The Gambler'. In the last few days, we've had to know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em.  So I've been holding our boys & using a translator.... telling them that we've had to 'fold' all of our current attempts to get them home and pursue the longer road of DNA testing as required by our government officials.  I won't say much, but there is certainly a game that is played....  And no one tells you the rules until afterwards (or as they are made up or never ends up telling you).

"the secret to survivn' is knowin' what to throw away and knowin' what to keep."

So we're keeping hope, praying and fighting, but throwing away the dream of getting our sons home in October.  Or we've been forced to throw that dream away....

"If you're gonna play the game, boy, ya gotta learn to play it right"

Lesson learnt.

Trying to navigate this road has been very challenging.  For all 9 of our family members in different ways.
For our 3 sons in Ethiopia, they actually took the news better than I expected.  They gave me a great gift.  From the mouth of our oldest son with a smile on his face (as translated by our social worker): "you came this time... its ok you go again because we know you will come back for us".  He's really shy, so that's about all he said via translation.  They know the wait will be a while - months...  This is quite an astounding statement from him based on all that he has been thru in his young life.  This is also the kind of thing that makes a father fight even harder & pray even longer!

So, playing the hand we've now been dealt means me getting home to my wife & kids in Canada and getting back to my job while we wait for these tests to be done.  I leave Addis very early Saturday morning for home & am trying not to feel defeated.  God's been changing my attitude and granting me a peace over the last couple days.

The reality is that it's time to re-group & get ready for the next round.

So that's the update.  Not fun - except that it's filled with God, amazing kids & Kenny Rogers.....