A Documentary Worth Watching

Below is a link to a documentary that is definitely worth taking the time to view. It shows what the impact of the war has done to Liberian children. Just a warning, some of the photos are graphic. What a heart and spirit the Liberian children have!

Liberia: War's children Chicago Tribune news Broadband

We Are Family...

The last two weekends have been fun ones for our family. Two weekends ago was Clayton's 7th birthday. (6-17) We celebrated with a trip to Six Flags in St. Louis with Lori's mom. Tanner, a family friend also tagged along with us. (That is him in the back of the second photo). Clayton and grandma had worked this trip out months ago to celebrate their birthdays together. Grandma Helen's birthday is June 7. Despite the extremely hot weather, we had a fun time. We also enjoyed a yummy meal at the Cheesecake Factory, a trip to Build-A-Bear, and a visit to Ted Drew's for some frozen custard. We made some wonderful memories and laughed a lot. The favorite ride was the mine train. It is a small scale roller coaster, but tons of fun. Clayton is our adventurous child and rode most rides that his height would allow him to ride. The ride that we laughed on the most was Thunder River. We all got off of that ride soaked. No one was complaining though. It felt so good in the 100 plus degree temps.

This weekend we travelled to the Kettelkamp family reunion. The reunion is something that our kiddos love to attend. We stayed with Alan's parents and had a cookout on Saturday evening complete with homemade hand cranked vanilla ice cream. There is nothing better! The kids each took turns cranking the ice cream in Grandma and Grandpa's basement. It was a lot of work, but boy was it good.

On Sunday we met up with cousins, aunts and uncles for a huge potluck meal at the small country church where Alan attended as a boy. Usually after eating the large meal, a game of softball takes place. This didn't happen this year however due to the downpour that occurred that afternoon. Alan, the kids and I were introduced to a game called "hillbilly golf". I know that it sounds fatuous, but it was fun to play. Otherwise, we caught up with relatives that in some cases we only see once a year.

Prior to the reunion, Alan, the kids and I were talking about how exciting it was going to be for us next year because we would be attending the family reunion with our new brother. Oh how things are going to change in the next couple of months. We can't wait!!

Our Adoption History

Some of you may know our story, but many of you don't. I wanted to share with you where we've been in our journey. Our adoption has been interesting at best. We began the process about 13 months ago. We accepted the referral for 6 year old Kenneth Jayswen and were excited about what God had planned. We did things a bit backwards like a few others. We didn't have a home study or any paperwork completed prior to our referral. Because Kenneth is special needs (he has a burn on the side of his face that needs some attention) AOH (Acres of Hope, our placing agency) was able to begin the process in Liberia without our home study. Never in our wildest dreams could we have imagined what was coming next.

Just as we were beginning this process, Alan unexpectedly lost his job. Needless to say, we were devastated for many reasons, the main one being the adoption. After we got over the initial blow, we brushed ourselves off, rolled up our sleeves and began looking for a job for Alan. He works in health care management so we didn't think that it would take him too long to secure a position. Well, long story short and almost a year later, he has a job! Praise God!! He started in April with GE Healthcare and we didn't have to relocate which was a huge answer to prayer. We knew that a move would be difficult on the kids and wanted to avoid it if we could. The down side to Alan's new position however is that he is travelling Monday thru Friday on most weeks. We miss him terribly and I'm not going to lie, it's hard. But right now HE HAS A JOB! That's what I keep telling myself especially on those looong days with just me and the kids.

During the unemployment phase of or lives everything was put on hold with regard to our home study. We completed everything that we could that didn't require proof of employment. Our home study was completed a couple of weeks ago. AOH and immigration now have their copies, so we are now waiting on our I600 to arrive.

So now we wait. Sometimes that is the hardest part. The kids and I keep busy and pass the time this summer with swimming, baseball, gymnastics, playing, relaxing, and getting our hearts and home ready for Kenneth.

Finally, the Kettelkamp's have a blog!

I can't believe that I finally have a blog page up and going. Like so many others, I'm not sure how interesting my life is for others to read. I do know that I receive many questions about how the adoption is going, so it is about time I give others a way to keep up with our adoption! I'm so not computer savvy, so this will definitely be a learning experience for me. I'm embarrassed that it has taken me this long to sit down and get this far with it, especially since it seems like we have been involved in our adoption for sooo long.

I hope to have more photos and other additions to our blog page soon. In the meantime, bear with me as I try to figure this all out. More of our story to come soon.