No news = good news, and a brief digression about Peeps

We have no news from India, which for once, truly is good news! We haven't heard anything from CARA since being assigned to our orphanage in Bangalore at the end of March -- which is good, because it means that the orphanage has not found any reason to refuse to work with our family. Some families have been turned away from their assigned orphanage for a variety of reasons, such as having no children that match the family's criteria for age, special needs, etc.

So after months (over a year!) of hearing nothing, at this time we are actually glad to hear nothing! Many friends and family have asked us when we will be matched with a child. If the process plays out as we hope it will, we may hear something about our referral (in adoption lingo, that means receiving information and a photo of our daughter) in June or July. But as always, there are no guarantees of anything.

So for now, we continue to wait for news of ANY referrals, from ANY part of India. This will be a huge reassurance that things are happening and children are moving closer to having a family, as every child deserves.

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And we continue to enjoy and cherish the three kids who are already here in our home. For Easter this year, they saw a photo of a sunflower cake in a magazine, and asked if we could make it for Easter Sunday dinner. The main attraction was that it used Peeps for the sunflower petals -- their Dad hates Peeps, and each year they tease Peter mercilessly about eating just one Peep. (I suspect that was the main reason they wanted this cake to be our dessert.) It has become a tradition in our house to sit around the table chanting "Eat the Peep!" until Peter caves in and shoves one in his mouth just to get us to be quiet. Other people make gorgeous traditional Ukrainian eggs, and dignified stuff like that. We, on the other hand, force people we love to eat artificially-colored marshmallow poultry.

As I type this, I'm having a twinge of guilt about how irreverent I'm making our Easter sound. Why the silliness, when Easter is the most meaningful day of the year to us? Here's why: amidst the Good Friday nature of real life, laughter is a holy experience. It is a defiant, joyful reminder that amidst tragedy and loss, illness and pain, Easter Sunday always comes.