Lincoln

Many of you know about our sweet Lincoln, but for those of you who do not, he is our 11-year old cutie who also has severe autism. There is no sweeter child on this planet! He has been such a treasure for our family. As a whole, we have all grown in so many ways. I love watching our other children with him, holding his hand, gently encouraging him to stay calm, and including him in some of their activities.

Autism comes with it's own set of trials, the biggest of which lately has been Lincoln's need to escape or as Winnie the Pooh would say "go on an explore." We recently moved into our new home, new state, and new schools.

Immediately we put up a wooden fence to encourage Lincoln to stay in the back yard. After all we have almost an acre of land, many trees, tons of secret places to let your imagination run wild, a canal, a trampoline, swing sets, play house, fort and a huge shed that the kids call the barn. You would think that would be enough .... right? Nope! Apparently the world outside of our house is much more fun and exciting. He has found any and every way to escape. After two hours of looking for him the other day I decided to head over to the police station. Thankfully my mom found him a mile or so from our home. Thank you mom!!!! He figured out how to get out of a window.

I share this because I am so anxious and ready to be in China to get John, and equally anxious to leave Lincoln with someone when he is too smart for his own good. I am sure it will all work out, but I am a little nervous. I was having a conversation with my dad tonight in his backyard, and he pointed out the fact that I stopped the conversation to look for Lincoln about every 30 seconds. Yeah! A disjointed conversation is MUCH better than a search party for two hours :).

Rick and I really want Lincoln to have the freedom of an 11-year old boy, and we want to keep him safe. I don't think the two really work hand in hand right now.


There have been many things in our adoption process that have been road blocks or that have made the process really slow. I like to pride myself in thinking that no one has gotten their paperwork done faster than I did. Our home study interview was done very quickly, only to lose our beloved social worker and her family in a tragic accident. Not only were we saddened and devastated by their loss, but this obviously delayed us a great deal as the home study interview had to be repeated. No matter how quickly I finished the paperwork on my end, China took their own sweet time in getting our approvals - like 110 day wait on the LOA!

 

I am pointing this all out because I think these delays although some obviously tragic and others just annoying, we are going to China on God's schedule and not our own. I'm so grateful that we are getting the opportunity to really secure our backyard and home, so that Lincoln will be safe and whoever helps us out won't go completely mental while we are gone for two weeks in China. Let's all just pray that we can stay one step ahead of Linky boy and keep that inquisitive cutie safe and happy!