fiddlehead.....every changing, ever growing

fiddlehead....ever changing, ever growing

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Blue Boy


It has been a sad time at the Rikkers...our sweet spirited dog, Blue Boy, died very unexpectedly. His death was a tragic accident and leaves us with very sad and heavy hearts.

We will remember you Blue Boy....how much you loved each of us and wanted to kiss us and touch you whenever we could. How much you LOVED playing ball in the yard, and how you always amazed us with your speed and agility. How you would bark at us to throw it again and again and again. Your sweet, loving spirit....so unconditional. How you would nudge us to keep petting you the moment our hand would stop. How you would jump up on the couch and make yourself a comfy little stop for yourself. How you would sleep and snuggle with us and put your body under the covers and head up by ours on the pillow...just like a little person would. We will remember you as a puppy...so small and sweet. The day I found you and you held your paw up to me to please me, and how you continued to do that whenever you wanted to please me. How you escaped from the fence at the old house, were hit by a car and came home nearly untouched by it all. Then to prevent your skinny body from getting through the fence, how I had you were a doggy backpack with waterbottles in it. How you would jump on people because you were so excited to meet and see them...and you meant it...and how much that annoyed me. How you would bark to protect us like a big dog would. I will always remember how you were symbolic of these days in our family life- full of energy and love...just like you.
Blue boy I am so sorry for your death. I am so sorry. But I am also so glad that you were apart of our lives. The boys will always remember you and love you as their first dog. And we will always love you for loving us the way you did. Good-bye Blue Boy... good boy.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Really? 14 months!




Really...it has been 14 months of official waiting.  And as I think about it I realize it has now been 2 years since we officially started this process.  Wow.  I am so glad we had the foresight to start when we did.  Jack was such a peanut (9months) when we started, but I remember thinking that it would make for a good age difference between he and our daughter.  I do think that is still true, but the wait is wearing on me.  Some days I do really well with distracting myself.  And for a while I wasn't on edge about it, knowing it wasn't time.  Then last week with all this talk about the upcoming court closure, my mind is on things much more.  I really feel like we are incredibly close so whenever the phone rings my heart skips a beat.   The other day the pediatric office called and said "Is Jennifer there?".  I responded with a very excited, "Yes, this is!".  She must have thought I sounded like a nut, because then she said "This is Katie from Pediatrics...Drew's culture was negative".  Oh.  Anyway, that is what it has been like lately.

The agency is hopeful that anyone who receives a referral by the end of this week will pass court in Ethiopia before the court closure.  Our specialist has said "You are soooooooo clost.  We just need a bunch of referrals.  It is going to be a close one."  AHHHH!!!!   So, now I need to work on accepting, once again, my lack of control in this process.  It is very likely we will hit the court closure and have an extra 2 months added to our wait to travel to our daughter.  Now I am focusing on just receiving the referral and all that that means:  we will know who our daughter is, we will be able to see her photo, we will know her health and social history, we will know she is safe and being cared for at the care center, we will KNOW....   I will hang on and hope that the next blog post is "the post"!!

Here are some recent photos of us enjoying the lake.  As you can see, we will need to find a new name for the boat!  Next summer for sure!

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