Sometimes God takes you on a different path then the path you wanted to be on. The path that looks easy and doable...your path. God's path = you may think it is hard now, but what I have in the end for you is the prize! The best path for you to take. The path that God has laid out before us before we were even born. This is what I'm realizing about our adoption. Our move to Puerto Rico. What is God doing in our lives, in our adoption? How is He working in all this? I wish I could truly know and and I'm trying to seek out these answers. All I can say that through all this and every other option we have looked into, God has put a burning desire in my heart for Ethiopia. I know that we have a child waiting for us in Ethiopia. I don't care if it's this year, next year, or five years from now. We will not give up on you daughter. I promise that we will fight for you, do anything we have too to get your here. We think about you everyday and what it will be like for you to be with our family. Your brothers talk about you already, and they like to talk about the things they want to show and teach you. We love you already and pray for you! We will wait until God gets us to you, to bring you home with us. We will not give up. God has a plan in all of this. We will have faith. God is going to use this for his glory because He loves you, and He won't leave you as an orphan. We will be there soon!
Love,
Your family
Daddy, Mommy, Kaid, Keegan, & Keano

Nothing is easy in Puerto Rico

The boys are watching PBS kids in Spanish...the only cartoons that are on....Scott got recalled because of Tropical storm Irene..which is now turned into a hurricane warning for Puerto Rico....oh and his plane leaves at 5:00pm tonight. I will be home with the boys to wait out the storm. Filling up the bathtub and getting last minute supplies ready. We don't have anything because we are still in guest housing. ughhh...

the ants, the ants, thats go marching in

Living in Puerto Rico opens our eyes to a whole new world we've never lived in before. The beaches, the rainforest, the lizards, iguanas, hundreds of stray dogs (satos), horses at stoplights, horses in the back of pickup trucks, horses on the side of the highway...yea horses pretty much everywhere in the strangest places you will ever see. Anyways we have also been introduced to the pesky little critters that crawl around that you can't always see. BUGS...yea have you ever heard of sea lice? Yesterday we had an army invade our back porch and attack Keegan (our almost 4 year old). I was upstairs with Kaid going over his take home folder from school and I hear Keegan start screaming and crying in the back screened in porch (which is open up to our living room). We was crying, "The ants, the ants are biting me!!!!" My poor little Keegan got attacked by fire ants. It's not like he stepped into a nest or anything. He was sitting in the porch playing with his dinosaurs and they came in. I traced their path to a nuttela sandwich I made Keegan sitting on the floor. That is what attracted them in the porch, and on the way they started biting Keegan's legs. So note to self...don't let the kids take food outside unless it's on a plate on the table..and buy some stinkin ant spray. Keegan is doing good and we just had to run his legs under water and he was fine after that. Oh and they boys found a baby lizard in our kitchen last night. Scott was sweeping the floor and swept the little guy right up. We put him back outside but the boys were thrilled to find one in the house.

Fight the Good Fight

a quote from Brandon in New Jersey

There is comfort in the fact that I don't need to know anything other than the fact that God knows what's going on.

The Good, Bad, and the Ugly

I'm not going to say that getting PCS'd to Puerto Rico has been easy. In fact there has been nothing easy about it. In fact..it's been down right difficult and emotionally draining. I never wanted to blog about the bad and ugly. Just wanted to cover it up with the good. Well here goes....Kaiden starts Kindergarten next Tuesday, August 16th. An early start compared to the states standards. Not to mention he is going full day and his bus picks him up at 6:30am. Is he ready for this? I don't know..I hope so. Am I? No way! I offer to drive him to school but he insists he wants to ride the bus. So I will let him and see how it goes. I have never heard of a 5 year olds getting on a bus a 6:30am. If we were in New Jersey his bus would pick him up at 9am. Frustrating. Number 2..we are still living..LIVING..in a hotel. I'm thankful that we have a roof over our heads and this is a selfish complaint compared to 3rd world country standards. So this I'm ashamed I'm even complaining about. Is it too much to ask though that we can move into our house soon? Can't they have them ready for the families that are PCS'ing to Puerto Rico instead of keeping them in hotels for months? My kids are emotionally drained. Keegan claims, "this is not Puerto Rico." Kaid crys to move back to New Jersey or Michigan. It has been hard. Our homestudy was done. Finalized and complete in the state of New Jersey. We were almost over the first large hump in our adoption. Now we are back to almost square one. We need a homestudy update. We have a meeting with a social worker here in Puerto Rico on August 14th. I hope we are in our house before then. Number 3 thing that has been emotionally draining. We left friends that were like family to us. And an awesome loving church family. How will we find those things here in Puerto Rico? I don't know. I don't know at all. I'm sick of being stressed. I'm sick of not knowing Spanish. I'm sick of being in a hotel. It feels like a long drawn out vacation since we've been here, and we're not going home. Not for three years. I hope someday I figure out the reason we were moved here. Oh wait..my husband signed the Coast Guard's dotted line...maybe there is a greater reason then that though that I can't see right now. I pray I see it soon. So there you go..the bad and the ugly. Also my brother is in Afhganistan right now with the marines in a bad area. Please keep my brother Spencer Kubiak in your prayers. There has been some guys in his unit injured and lost. Please keep his company and their families in your prayers. Thank you.

How He loves us....spanish version..check it out! amazing!

El Yunque

We are here!!

We landed in our new home, Puerto Rico, on Thursday July 14th. We have been living in a hotel since then over the weekend. Gotta love a mini vay-k on the Coast Guard's dime as we wait to get into our official house. We are having a lot of fun (with some stress and anxieities thrown in) exploring the island and being in a totally new culture. The people are so nice and the boys seem to be a big hit with the locals with their "blanco" hair...a dear older lady even had to take a picture of them. Keano loves the attention and has learned to wave to everyone we pass. Puerto Rico is totally nothing like I've seen before. It totally feels like we are living in a different country..well which we are. We have been immersed into a new culture. The main language is Spanish...everything in Spanish. We are learning some basics but right now it's even hard to order at Mcdonalds or subway. The driving is nothing like I've ever seen before. I have seen cars go places I never thought they could go. Everyone is in a hurry when they are driving, but take there time everywhere else. This I will probably never figure out. We've also seen a lot of satos (stray dogs) running around. I want to take them home. We also saw a pickup truck with a horse in the back. That was interesting. So far it has been an emotional but fun expierience. We just can't wait to get into a house and feel settled down. I'm posting some pictures and will post more tomorrow of our trip to El Yunque today.

Happy Father's Day!!!!!

yo yo yo

I Run

Ballon

Keegan: uh oh my ballon is going up in the sky!
Mommy: yes it's going up to heaven with Jesus!
Keegan: Will Jesus bring it back?

UPDATE: Africa Bag Fundraiser!!!!

Just an update! $580.00 has been raised from the Africa Bag Fundraiser. THANK YOU so much to everyone who has supported us on our adoption journey by purchasing a bag. The amount can pay for our child's flight home from Ethiopia!!! Such a blessing and thank you. We also have raised $130.00 to date from our coffee fundraiser. Thank you to all of you who have supported us by buying coffee! Buy a bag of fair trade coffee and we get $5.00 from every bag toward our adoption. www.justlovecoffee.com/thecameronfamily
We appreciate all of your support. We are getting closer everyday to having our child home!

adoption update

I thought I'd update everyone as to where we are in the long journey to our son/daughter. We are one step much closer as we are finishing up our homestudy! Almost complete! phew! One down...many steps to go! But that is okay. We are taking each step one at a time and knowing that every step we are getting closer to our child. So exciting and amazing at the same time. God is working big time. We had our adoption fundraiser with our good friends the Dawkin's (who are also adopting a daughter from Ethiopia), and we were provided with funds to take us the through the next steps. What a blessing!!!! Next step is UCIS paperwork and then we compile our dossier to send to Ethiopia. We are covered up to our dossier being in Ethiopia. As soon as I get our final copy of our homestudy we can start applying for adoption grants/loans. In the middle of this we are moving. Scott is being transferred to San Juan, Puerto Rico for his next job. It is still not official as we are awaiting overseas entry approval. We hope to find out in a few days. Either way if we get approved or not we are moving somewhere. We have grown to like being in New Jersey and it took the last two years out of four being here to like it. We have a wonderful church and made some best friends who are like family to us out here who we will miss dearly. Of course there will have to be some future visits in store back to jersey:) A neat thing if we do get Puerto Rico is our church has a mission team who goes to the Dominican Republic every year. We can take a ferry over to Dom Rep and meet up with them! How exciting would that be? Some of you may wonder how we are moving overseas and still adopting? As we spoke of this possibility with our adoption placement agency we still can adopt overseas from Puerto Rico. It is no different then being in the states. When we move we will get a homestudy "update" and that is it. We go through the same process as everyone else. I'm sure there will be some hiccups as we are moving to a spanish speaking island but nothing we can get through. That is why I'm learning mi espanol. Alright I know its been a while since I've posted so I just wanted to update everyone. Sorry no pictures this time..

Two Families

God is blessing two families with the gift of a child from Ethiopia. God loves the fatherless and gives hope to those with no hope. He takes care of them for He says, "I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you." John 14:18. Are we willing to listen and step out on blind faith? The relentless hours of paperwork, adoption training, fundraising, and many tears all so we can get our child home. It is all so very worth it and we are filled with joy. God is using these two simple families to do a big thing. God is using all of us for His purpose. How is He using you today?

Keane's TOMS shoes

Keano got his first pair of TOMS shoes for this spring/summer! They are organic cotton elephant print. He loves them, I love them...if you haven't heard of TOMS shoes you buy a pair and they give a pair to a child in need. It's a one for one. Our family loves TOMS!

On Scotty's bday we surfed

Happy Birthday to US!

We celebrated my birthday on March 10...and four days later we celebrated Scott's birthday on March 14! Yes I'm the older one by four days...yoo hoo! I always say God created Scott four days later because He knew I'd need a good husband to get me through life..lol...and that I did get:) So for Scott's birthday we had a healthy cake as the boys are calling it. When I went to the store to pick up some stuff to make a cake EVERYTHING had transfat in it = not healthy. Instead I bought an organic chocolate cake mix..which had locust bean in it (i can only imagine what that is) but I figured we'd rather eat locust bean then all the chemicals and transfats in the not so good for you brand of cakes. And for the frosting I used nutella which is all natural and delicious! So there you go! You can make a healthy cake for only $5.00! Or should I say you CAN have your cake and EAT it too! pictures...

Kaid Riley

Africa Bags!!!!

I'm finally getting some pictures of the totes I'm selling for our adoption funds. These are the Africa bags I've been talking about. They are great for taking to the beach, grocery store, spare diaper bag, purse, you name it! They are super cute and I'm selling them for $10.00 each and I have sold 22 so far. Everyone who has purchased a bag has loved it. I have many fabrics and colors to choose from!!! If you would like to purchase an Africa bag for $10.00 and help us bring our child home from Ethiopia please email me at: coastguardcameron@yahoo.com Thank you!!! I can also ship bags.

This is what our mornings look like when Kaid is at preschool.....Keegan still in pajamas with nutella on his face that was in his oatmeal...endless car playing on the rug in the living room. Keano sporting the Chicago cubs tee making daddy and Uncle Jeremy proud. And great pictures by two adorable boys. Of course if Kaid was here we would have one extra adorable boy but he learning the letter "T" today at preschool and very excited about taking his wale and frog to letter "T" show and tell whom he named "Terry" & "Tom".

Coffee Store Fundraiser!!!!

Our first fundraiser is up and running and we are selling coffee through Just Love Coffee Roasters to raise money to help with the costs of bringing home our child from Ethiopia. We are so excited to have this started and for all you coffee drinkers out there this is a great way to help a school being built in Africa and also $5.00 of every bag goes to our adoption! For you non-coffee drinkers...coffee makes a great gift!!! The coffee is fair-trade and delicious.
Go to: www.justlovecoffee.com/TheCameronFamily
and buy some coffee today:)
Also our homestudy is this Friday! So excited to get stuff moving. We had our fingerprints done last week and are filling out paperwork like crazy. We are that much closer to our son or daughter. It amazes me whenever I think that God knows exactly who are child is that He is bringing into our family. I can't wait to hold him or her in my arms.

Amen to this!

Listen to this song! It's amazing!

If anyone wants to know why our family is adopting, listen to this song.

tired, sleepy, exhausted

Colds

After the marathon, your immune status will be depressed. Because of the physiological hit to the immune system created by the stress of running a marathon, colds, flu, and other upper respiratory tract infections are potential problems in the days and weeks that follow. The best medicine is prevention. After the marathon, take care to allow yourself more sleep than before the race. Resume a well-balanced, nutritious diet immediately following the race. During the first week following the race, focus on rehydration.

I ran the Chicago Marathon 4 months ago in October. I am NEVER ever sick. I can't remember a time I was sick before the marathon. But since running it this winter season I have had a numerous upper respitory infections, the stomach flu, strep throat that lasted two weeks, and just plan exhaustion. This weekend I'm extremely tired and shaky. The marathon seriously wrecked havoc on my immune system. Was the 26.2 really worth it? Oh yes it was!

Going back

I just came these photos from five years ago! When Kaiden was around one and we lived in Maine. It is crazy how much time flies by. Seriously where is my sweet baby? I see a handsome 5 year old now!


That's my little musical man rocking out on the strings at one year old!

Kaiden & beautiful Macy who came to visit us with Grandma Faith in Maine.

Kaid with Uncle Jon (who is now married to a beautiful woman inside and out aka Aunt Heather)!!!

All the kiddos..Tyler, Nic, Nelly, Tara, Mere, Tom, Kaid...in the snow in December 2006..PS. Bella wasn't born yet!

Kaiden in the snow at Grandma and Papa's house in Michigan (December 2006)

Keane

KEANE ELI CAMERON

Keane Eli or Keano as we like to call him is 16 months old and a package wrapped up with smiles and stubborness. We have entered into the phase of, "Mom don't you dare put me down, or I will throw myself onto the floor and scream as loud as I can." Yes that stage as all you moms who have been there can sympathize with me here. Keano, my third son, has definitely been my most stubborn child. If I'm just looking at him out of no where he will just raise his hand up and smack me in the face and then laugh about it. I guess my big "OWWWWW" reaction must seem real funny to him. Followed along with a "NO Keano that is not nice", followed along with another wack by Keano. Scott always looks at me and says "you're 24 and he's 16 months"..haha like I can win this battle. So I set him down on the floor and fits of rage enter Keane as he dramatically collapes on the floor and screams. And then my heart breaks for him and I scoop him up in my arms and pat his little tush and lovingly say in a motherly voice "it's ooooooookay Keano, mama's here." I love his little mind. He is constantly on the move from one thing to the next and I would love to know what goes through his little head on a day to day basis. He's constantly watching Kaid and Keegan play and often tries to squeeze himself into whatever they are doing. Which often results in two boys yelling, "NO KEANO YOU'RE KNOCKING IT DOWN!" or "NO KEANO THATS MINE!" So yes I do think Keane has reason to be so stubborn and tough. He does have to stick up for himself in this pile of boys. Keane's name meaning is Commander. And that he is.

It's OFFICIAL!!!!

Our application was approved and we are officially in the Ethiopia program with our agency Children's Hope International!!! This was such exciting news for me to hear. I can seriously compare it to taking a pregnancy test and seeing the positive sign come up telling you that your pregnant. Yes...I'm an expectant mother in the early weeks of a "paper pregnancy". It's been my easiest "pregnancy" yet as I have no morning sickness and I won't be hanging over a toilet seat for the next three months! It does bring anxiety and long hours of paperwork and digging into my past and totally exposing my whole life to a social worker (a complete stranger). Which I would totally trade any day over morning sickness:)
Ah yes my three handsome boys all gave this mommy severe morning sickness and nausea...and they were so totally worth it! Keegan humored Scott and I tonight as he was cooking dinner and we were all hanging out in the kitchen. Our kitty cat Ukee is going to get neutered at the vet next week and I was sitting on the floor with Keegan in my lap and Ukee came up to be pet and I said, "Ukee you are going to get fixed." And Keegan said as cute and serious as can be in his little three year old voice, "Mookie broken?"....."Mookie broken mommy?"...that just made me smile and then I had to go into explaining that Ukee wasn't broken but that he had to go to the vet and ya well ya know...try explaining that to a three year old!! Well that is all I got tonight folks...it is late and I'm off to bed! I will leave you with a cute pic of Keegan and Kaiden and their snowman that they made.





I love this picture! All three boys plus the dog staring outside at the snow..it's too cold out there!

Wow! So I just checked and I haven't posted since our wedding anniversary. Things have been crazy here at the Cameron household. We went to Michigan for Christmas to be with family and friends and had such a good time! Then New Years came and went and we are in 2011! We are starting out the year with the start of our "paper chase" to bring home our 4th child, a son or daughter, from Ethiopia. We are so very excited about this and are in the midst of paperwork and more paperwork! We thank everybody who has supported us in our decision to adopt. This is not something we are going into lightly. After much research and prayer for the past couple of years we are doing exactly what God has called our family to be doing at this time. In order to bring our son or daughter home we will need the funds to make that happen. We have faith that God WILL provide as He obviously brought us to this point. We will do whatever it takes to bring Baby K home. We will be applying for adoption grants and fundraising. We will be having a big fundraiser event at our church with another family, amazing friends of ours, The Dawkin's family, who are bringing a daughter home from Ethiopia. There will be music and a silent auction and testimonies of why we are doing what we are doing and a chance to learn about the culture and people of Ethiopia. I will post in a few weeks once we have the date set in stone, but it will be in April. I will also be selling hand totes that I have made and will post about that in a couple of days when I can get some pictures up. We are very excited and we look forward to sharing our adoption journey with you on our blog! Your support in prayers is very much appreciated!