No news is bad news.

Our neighbors across the street hang balloons and streamers as part of the asking of blessing from the earth goddess.

As I type, I am hearing raucous sound outside in all directions.  One home somewhere in the neighborhood is playing slightly off-key, traditional Andean music.  Another home has just lit firecrackers and some other family seems to be trying to out-do them with the popping and cracking.  It's carnaval.  Today is the big day to try to bring a blessing from the Pachamama on your home and business by tying balloons on your outside walls, hanging streamers, splashing the ground with alcohol and lighting fire crackers.  This is day #4 of drinking for a lot of people (at least).  It's not the godliest of holidays, but we are grateful for 4 days of fun as a family.  Lately, when we have some free time on the weekends, we've taken to heading over to the land for a family "work" day.  I usually pull weeds around Zion's grave, which are springing up overnight with all the rain.  Scotty works on any number of little projects he has going and the girls play inside the dusty little brick room where we are slowly gathering materials for the new house, watering plants, digging, looking for rocks, etc...  We did that on Saturday, had an all-day game day after church on Sunday, drove into the countryside with our pastor and his family on Monday and will have some friends over for dinner tonight. 

A little piece of countryside where we had a picnic with friends.

I've loved watching the girls get into the water and foam play that is usual with carnaval.  Friday, Natty had a half-day of water games and competitions at school.  On Saturday, she got into a water fight with our elderly neighbor downstairs (hilarious!) and then her and Jubilee found some time to spray foam at each other and make a total mess of themselves. 

The unfortunate part of this big holiday is that everything shuts down for a while.  I prayed we might have some news about our boy before carnaval started, but the lawyer only confirmed what we are starting to expect- nothing new has happened.  Scotty's coined a phrase for this process that is the opposite of what we've grown up saying and understanding: "No news is bad news."  She said she'd check again on Thursday, since no one will be back to work until Wednesday...but that only leaves a couple days for something new to happen before the weekend.  Instead of hoping that this will be the week things move forward, I just pray we'll get him before he finishes another month of life.  At the beginning, I prayed he'd come before he turned 3 months.  We're coming up on 5 months now and even though it's probably unlikely we could have him by then, I'm praying.  And then I'll pray that he'll come before 6 months.  At some point, we'll need to sit down with our lawyer and ask what to do as the summer approaches.  We have in our hearts a short trip back to the US to see our parents and participate in a NICS training that's required for new teachers at Highlands and their families, but we can't make any plans till we know more about the adoption.  I'm getting more used to living in uncertainty, but I still don't love it.