Thank You

Since not a lot is happening here except for waiting, we will put in a few new pictures of the city and take some time to thanks some people.

Pam and Len: Without the two of you having the courage to do this on your own, Roger and I would not be bringing this wonderful child into our family. It is so hard to imagine how difficult your adoption experience must have been without someone there to hold your hand, the way that Roger and I had the two of you. And a thank you to Angella , who is celebrating one year in America this week, this has all happened because of you.

Next of course would be our family. Without their support we would not have been able to make this journey. Ben was on board with the adoption idea from day one and still is. We all knew that the process could last this long, but we were sure it wouldn’t (we were wrong). The first 5 weeks away from Mom and Dad, wasn’t so bad, but we are all ready to get our lives back to normal and Ben is no exception. So we thank him for being patient and we can’t wait to see him.

Cathy has left her home for what will be 8 weeks by the time it is all over. She came to Cincinnati to take care of Ben, a young teenage boy (need we say more), the dog, the cat, the fish and the toad. She has run errands, paid bills, gone to dentist appointments and gone to martial arts more times than we can count. Having one person commit that much time and take on all that responsibility is uncommon and we will be forever thankful. And let’s not forget Steve. While Cathy is in Cincinnati for these 8 weeks, Steve has been home alone. A couple weeks is one thing, we married folk might even consider that a good thing, but both Cathy and Steve have disrupted their lives so that we could be here.

We can’t say enough about Robbin. She too was on board from the very beginning and we don’t know what we would do without her. She helps in too many ways to mention, but has been especially supportive with Ben since we have been gone. She has been there to give Cathy well deserved breaks, she has helped Ben with school projects and been there when he needed her. We Skype with Robbin almost every work day and that bit of normalcy does wonders for our morale. We should also mention that Bill has also been very supportive, he and Ben are close and I am sure that having Bill at the black belt testing really helped.

Thank you to all the friends that have taken Ben for a day of play or for sleepovers. This has really helped the time pass for him and we really appreciate it.

There are people back in Iowa that I would like to thanks. Aunt Trula and Aunt Mildred are nursing my mother after a minor surgery. And Bev and Dick take a lot of time out of their busy lives to help with her medical care. Hi Mom, hope you are feeling better.

Finally, thanks to all of you out there who are following the blog, writing comments and sending emails. You have helped Roger and I get through the each day and put smiles on our faces.

Hope to see you all soon.
Kelley and Roger