Okay, So, Big Stuff Around Here!!!

The end of January marked two years since we'd begun the process of adoption from Ethiopia, referrals were few and far between, and considering we had about 67 families in front of us, we knew we were now looking at a good 2-3 more years to finish the adoption, and longer than that for siblings. On that day we finally decided it was time to look at other options.

After a month of praying for clarity and leading, and researching 50 or so agency/country combos, we still weren't finding the right fit, it was all much too complicated... that is, until yesterday!!!

Yesterday the wonderful social worker who has performed our last two home studies emailed me and said she'd thought of us that afternoon when she heard that another agency was opening a couple of new programs in Africa. Well, it turns out that yesterday they launched a new program in Ghana, and because we found out when we did we had the opportunity to be the very first in line!!! So to Ghana we go!!! 

The extra great news is that it should be a much faster process because we're the first family, maybe 6 months?!?! That's just a guess, but it should be really fast!! And we're still adopting two young children, which is something we thought we'd have to give up on. We've heard good things, and are excited to work with our new agency. They've been bending over backwards to help us get our paperwork in order as fast as possible.

Praise the Lord for His amazing, mind-blowing provision!!! He is so good!!!

9 months

Yesterday was nine months on the wait list. Nine months. That's how long it takes to grow a baby!!! Here's the deal though, we're waiting for two kids, so we'll just keep on truckin' :)

Also, this is National Adoption Month, and this Sunday is National Orphan Sunday, which is super cool, seeing as there are way too many children in this world without families!!! See http://orphansunday.org/ for more details.


9 months unofficial wait list stats:
#50 overall (-3 families on hold)
#26 willing to accept siblings in our age range (-3 families on hold)
#16 specifically asking for siblings in our age range (-3 families on hold)

Sweet Poetry for Month Number 8

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
                                  i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

                                                                 -by e e cummings

I have a fledgeling love of poetry. This one's a classic, and I love it because it strikes a chord in me that has something to do with how I feel about my husband and about our children, and in some ways about what goes on between God and man.

My friend is coming home from Ethiopia this weekend with her son!!! We've walked through this process together, meeting at first through the blog world, then developing a real face-to-face friendship, we've coached and commiserated, and helped each other maintain focus and perspective. I'm so excited to get to meet the little buddy soon!!! We've prayed for him so long :) Praise the Lord!!!

Our 8 months' waiting stats are much like our 7 months' waiting stats. A conference call a few days ago revealed that average wait times for a referral are around 16 months, and not likely to get shorter. So as is, if we end up waiting a total of only 16 months, then we're half way and we'll get a referral somewhere around May of next year. At the same time, we could get a call tomorrow or we could wait 2 more years, there are no certainties. God knows who our kids are, and He knows what's best.

Thanks to everyone who's been so supportive and encouraging along the way. You've acknowledged the weight of our wait, encouraged us, counseled us, sometimes cried with us, prayed for us, and even written songs for us... we're humbled and warmed by your love and support. We thank you and praise God!!!

Bring on the social workers :)

Either I always have fresh flowers on the counter and cookies in the oven, or... we have our HOME STUDY TODAY!!!!

 

 

Home Study: Take 2

Because I promised my sister pictures of our new apartment, and because we have our home study update scheduled for Thursday, and because this is one of the last 2 things we need before we can get back on the wait list(!!!)... I present to you, our home, complete with the beginnings of a nursery :)

 

 My sisters have continued to send me flags for every month that we've been "waiting" since the original wait list date last June. Since we begin a new year this month, I get new fabrics :) Here's to getting wait listed in July and high hopes for this year!!!

TIME TO CELEBRATE!!!!!

God has given us a giant blessing!!!! He now has a full-time job!!! We can finish our adoption!!!!!!!

It’s been a rough, sweet, heart-breaking 6 months, but the dog-days are over!!!! God has shown Himself to us in a very real way, providing for us in dramatic fashion, just at the right time, even to the point of catering to our prayer requests (a la Gideon). He’s opened our eyes in a big way to new things He might be calling us to, and we’re totally excited about them. It’s been hard, but it’s been good. Thank you Lord!!!

We are beyond excited to be doing things that our hearts long to do. Not only do we have jobs, but he’s going to be working for Young Life and for a sweet, sweet church, and I even have the special opportunity of working part-time at a job that has me loving on and ministering to teen mothers in the area. AND obviously, it looks like God is providing for our HEART’S DESIRE to adopt a child in Ethiopia who needs a family.

Basically, I haven’t slept since Saturday because I’m so excited.

Just a little paperwork, a little fixing up the apartment for our home study, and we’ll be right back on that waitlist!!!!

Let’s BTBH, people!!!!!

James 1:17 – Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

On top of all that, we're celebrating together with a blog friend who just got a referral (you know who you are)!!!  Congrats you guys!!!

This year

 A year ago today, we started this adoption. A YEAR!! High five, right?! that's a big milestone!!

This year in summation:

-The paperwork stage was intense, but strangely fun for me (giant dork)
-After paperwork, getting baby/nursery stuff ready has been one fun way for me to feel connected to our baby
-God has opened our hearts and minds to the needs of people all over the world, but mostly, that people need Him all over the world, and that we can help with that
-He's opened my heart to a desire to love on and help orphans find love and a home
-We love the beach, we love our family, we love encouraging music, our friends, Ethiopian anything :), baby things, Haiti, Modern Family, blogs and blog friends, Szechuan 132, and Harry Potter (but we already knew that)
-We're praying for our babe every day; that he/she'd be safe, warm, fed, clean, and played with, and that God would be near to them, that they would grow to love Him, and that He would give us wisdom to raise them well
-We're learning about trials and suffering and what it means to have joy and peace in the midst of all of it
-I'm getting super pumped about doing black baby hair!!!! I've started stocking up on some Carol's Daughter, I'm keeping my eye out for other good stuff

-We're praying every day that we can bring him/her home soon. Maybe this year...

Why Ethiopia?

I feel passionately that orphans, whatever their nationality, need loving families. As a family we feel called to adopt a child from Ethiopia. There are roughly 5 million orphaned children who need a family in Ethiopia. But there are also 800 thousand children in America that pass through the foster care system each year, and they too need a family. In fact, there are 143-147 million (depending on who you ask) children, orphans, who need a family in the world.

That being said, some of the reasons we really do feel called to Ethiopia are that AIDS, famine, and poverty are reeking havoc on that nation's families. One in 7.7 children die before their first birthday, over 50% of children under 5 are stunted by malnutrition, and most are at great risk for being mutilated, raped, abducted, forced into marriage at a young age, or even being trafficked in the black market for body parts. Millions of parents cannot feed their children. Poverty, sin, and perversion have no mercy on these little guys. Children who have no parents, who live on the street, are lost, you can see it in their eyes. That's true in Ethiopia, America, India, China, Haiti, Russia, and the world round. We're doing what we feel called to do to help, to love, to find our children, to be parents for the parentless.

Boy or girl????

So, I made a tally last night off of the unofficial list, and found that for families in the last two years that requested "either gender", there was about a 4:1 boy:girl referral ratio. There's clearly a high possibility we'll be bringing home a boy (our little Habibi!!), but the girls are still holding strong there at 1/5 (oh, my sweet Habibti!!). It's funny cause if I were pregnant, I think I'd definitely want to know the baby's gender, I've never been much good at waiting on surprises if there's the option not to. But adoption has it's own set of rules, and we'll have to wait till almost the very end to know. It's all gravy though, cause honestly I just happen to like gender neutral colors (green and aqua and orange and yellow) better than your traditional blue and pink (though I do like a good peach), and more importantly, we feel really confident that we'll be equally as excited about either gender. I've even realized that (at least this time) if we'd requested one or the other it might have driven me crazy, I'd have been doubting the choice the whole time. This way it's not up to me, which is better (for me) :) But... I still can't wait to know who you are, my sweet!!!

Sweet baby dreams

A couple of weeks ago my fried had a dream that she went to Ethiopia with us and my Dad to pick up our babies. That's right, two, a set of twins. a boy and girl!! How funny is that?!? If you think I didn't melt inside for a moment and wish we were getting twins, think again :)

I had a dream too just the other night. It was about meeting our baby. He was a boy, and he was tiny, and I can remember feeling so much love for him, and my husband was so in love with him... it was sooo sweet. Only, then, as i held him I started to realize that he wasn't Ethiopian at all, he was just as vanilla as me. It caught me totally off guard, I was like "what the heck?!?" But I'm pretty sure I decided to love him anyways :) Dreams are the weirdest!! I think it must've been some sort of repressed fear I have of getting a referral for a child that's different from what we're expecting. There's a fair amount of letting go of expectations in adoption. Just about every piece of paperwork we sign has some sort of disclaimer on it, stating that things may not go as planned. It's really sweet, cause part of me (the part that knows that God's in control) doesn't think this is any big deal, cause I realize that I've never had an ounce of control anyways, nor do I want it. The other part of me (that does want to hold on to my life with an iron fist and freak out when something slips) just needs to jump on the bandwagon and take a ride on the wild side! :) Nothing's unexpected to my Lord, he knows exactly what I need, and exactly what's gonna happen in our life. So far, he's given me the sweetest boy in the world for a husband, some days I stop and realize how special he is and I just can't believe he's mine!!! We're closing in on our third anniversary :)

Unexpected updates!!!

Fabric for the crib bedding :)

It's Wednesday, our official do nothing day. I slept in till 10:30, we've watched LOST and 1.5 movies so far. We were planning to beach it, but we were to lazy to go. The last thing I think about on Wednesdays is getting anything done. But, praise the Lord, He doesn't stop blessing us even if it is Wednesday!!! In between movie 1 and 2 I checked my e-mail and found a letter from our agency. So I opened it without looking at the subject line, cause I assumed it was some update on adoption policy, or some newsletter, I don't know, I wasn't expecting anything pertaining to our adoption for weeks. But lo and behold, she was writing to tell me our home study's been processed, and she's sent it to CIS! A process that's supposed to take 3 week took 6 days!!! Including last weekend!
As soon as I'd read that I had another e-mail, this one saying that we are APPROVED!!! Basically, that means that our agency, after reviewing all of our paperwork, agrees to work with us! Yaaaaayyyy!! So exciting, I so didn't expect this today! We're one big step closer to our baby!!!

So, all we have left is:
*Waiting on my FBI fingerprints
*Waiting on my birth certificate
*Waiting on CIS approval
*Send all the above to be authenticated with the rest of the dossier, then...
*Send it all to Ethiopia and start the wait!!!!

In other fun adoption news, earlier this week I was on the unofficial wait list I talked about last week, and noticed that some of the families were waiting on children under the age of 6 months. I hadn't known this was an option, and so asked my program assistant about it. Age preference in an application for adoption is a very personal decision to make, as is the decision about whether or not one is able and willing to care for a child with health problems. It is a decision that requires a lot of thought and prayer, and one each family must make after careful consideration of their desires and capabilities. I know for me the thing was that I kept secretly and almost unconsciously wishing for an infant under 6 months, and feeling guilty for wishing it. But no more guilt, that's for the birds, I have no time for it. As my friend Shelley says, there is nothing wrong with wanting to meet your baby as early as possible in his or her life. So i heard back from Susanne that we can request any age range we wish, and it's not too late for us to make a change, so we decided that this time, for our first baby, we want to go ahead and narrow our request down to an infant either gender 0-6 months at time of referral! Yay!
Thank you guys for caring, and for loving us. Thanks to all our sweet friends and family who continue to be so encouraging to us! We're pumped to be moving forward! Love you guys!

PS: check out this sweet JUNKPOSSE necklace giveaway here:
http://bottomlysandethiopia.blogspot.com April 7, 2010

A great week

Happy Easter everybody! It's been a great week! We have gotten to spend some time at the beach already this week, which I've gotta say, I do LOVE. I don't know if it was SAD (seasonal affective disorder), PMS or just plain sinful worry I was struggling with last week, but this week's been easy: full of sweetness and sunshine. I started a new workout routine, which I love, we got rid of our old apartment (PRAISE THE LORD!!!!), our new apartment continues to be a source of peace and thanksgiving, and I've discovered some new favorite things!!

1) I found the unofficial list! It's a list of the parents adopting from our agency and from Ethiopia, in order of where they stand in line for referrals. It's totally unofficial and fallible, BUT it's really fun just the same to watch people move up the list, and look at their blogs as they get referrals. One day...!

2) I rediscovered the glorious FedEx tracking system, and am now checking it obsessively to see if my FBI clearance has been shipped :)

3) I've gotten the chance to enjoy several de-stressing afternoons in our hammock on our patio, and that is definitely one of my new favorites!!! Thanks Kate, for the hammock!

and 4) This sweet new T-shirt that my sweet friend gave me:

is definitely my new favorite! Seriously, like I had to take it out of the washing machine for this picture, cause I'd worn it like 5 days in a row. I had had this attitude of "oh, I don't need to spend money on that kind of stuff," but when I got it in the mail, I'm pretty sure my heart grew two sizes. This is my maternity shirt :) My favorite part is the tiny Ethiopian flag, I'm wearing that bad boy with pride!!! Somehow, it's sweet to wear on your shirt what's already in your heart. It feels like I'm carrying my baby around with me a little bit. Plus, it's SUPER soft. You can find it and other T-shirts at adoptionbug.com or at t-shirts.cafepress.co.uk/international or on etsy, or at a bunch of different sites.

In adoption news, we got some more details this week about the two trips that are now required by Ethiopia for prospective adoptive parents (or PAPs, if you're cool like that). It seems like the first trip is gonna be 4-7 days long, and primarily for two purposes: 1) to appear in court 2) to be a tourist. Visits with our babe will be limited and scheduled, since officially he/she will not be ours yet. They want to make sure that parents see the sites, and really experience Ethiopian culture on this trip, because on the second trip, which will be a week long and will be scheduled 3-6weeks after court approval, the main focus is bonding with the child, which will mostly limit us to our hotel rooms. Once again, we'll get there when we get there, I suppose :)

And lastly, I noticed this last week and thought it was pretty funny. Here is what my planner looked like in January, before the paper chase:

And here is what it looked like in March, in the full swing of adoption: Hillarious, right? It's been busy, but God brought us through it, and I think the busy part is almost over. I think we're about to start the long wait, which I'm sure will bring challenges and sweetness of it's own.

Adopted

(Me and my buddy back in the day. Just met his awesome fiance. Congrats Griggles!!!)

Warmth! I'm so excited about living at the beach here in the next 6 months, mostly because I can be in the warmth of the Sun and be working at the same time. I just spent the other morning putting together a hangout in the basement of a beach house that is bound to see many an epic game of ping pong or Foosball, and lots of naps while watching movies after coming off the beach. This is my job! I befriend teenage folks and do things like this while fighting for their spiritual well-being. So, what does hanging out have to do with the soul?

I've had this conversation with a couple of people lately: what's so important about hanging out? The simple answer is, that through hanging out, people just realize they can be themselves with one another. In the movie "Meet Joe Black" the character Quince describes what Love is to Death. He says it's when his wife knows "the worst thing about me and its okay." Knowing someone at their worst and accepting them in spite of that...sounds like a pretty accurate definition from a human perspective. Letting yourself be loved includes knowing the you that is being accepted. I think of my kid: will they grow into a confusion about who they are? Will it tear them up that they don't know what their birth parents look like? Will they search for fulfillment in where they came from? I think of the dead ends that I have spent time looking for fulfillment in: status, pleasure, comfort, etc. Will they look there as well?

Regardless, there will inevitably come a point, sooner or later, that they will question their identity and feel unable to look to me for an answer. I was raised by my birth parents, know the culture I was born into, and am not from where my kid will be from. But what I will tell them is what binds all of us together: we have all been orphans. Some of us don't know our birth parents. We all know what it's like to not have a spiritual Dad to turn to. Even for those of us who have cried out like children to our loving Father, none of us have yet seen His face. Even with all of us being very different, we are very much the same when it comes to this.
My kid will actually have an advantage. They will see that their adopted dad is their real dad. They will know that their real home is not the place they were born, it is the place they are going. My hope is that they will know, much more than I can, that their Heavenly Father waits for them with the expectation that I do now; expectation that only a real dad could have.

Ephesians 1:4-6 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

Favorite food: green bean casserole
Favorite song: Lullaby by the Dixie Chicks
Favorite rapper ever: still Ice Cube

Piesole and other delays

Here's the deal y'all: I've been a little discouraged, just a tiny smidgen. I know I have no room to be so, seeing that our process has gone sooo much more quickly than normal, and seeing that God's in control. But I'm no good to anybody if I'm dishonest, and I want to remember what this whole thing was really like, so here it is: I've had a little bit of a rough week. Nothing major's happened or anything, just a few paperwork delays and unresolved life things, but since I'm a girl that likes to have all my ducks in a row, a lot of little loose ends can stress me out a little.
Following our home study I felt like I had just worked a night shift and never gone to sleep. I had that "I just ran into a brick wall, and you're gonna have to scrape me off the sidewalk" feeling. I think it's because this whole last month we've been pushing so hard to get paperwork done and completely put the apartment together, that the 4hr culmination of a home study just drained anything I had left. But I had to keep going. Somehow, the rest of the week was one of the busiest, errand-filled weeks I've had since I quit working, and yesterday had a few little surprises and realizations, some of which I'll talk about here and some I won't, that had me ready to just start over with a new day. Here's what it's looked like:

*Have you ever had a day when you just completely put your foot in your mouth all day long, and you just have to keep apologizing? It's like you've lost control, only you know that you really are saying those things, so you wish you weren't saying them, but you never know when the next one's gonna come out, and you'll realize a half second too late what you said, and that you meant it, and that you wish you'd just not. That was yesterday.


*I was photocopying my birth certificate yesterday, because I was about to send a bunch of papers in, and I noticed that my city of birth was misspelled. Whoopsy. I sent it back in to the Passport Vital Records Office with a notice of correction needed, which again is estimated to take 4-8weeks, but we'll see.

*I didn't get my FBI clearance back yesterday, which broke our one-week turn-around streak. No big, there are plenty of families who've been having to wait 13 weeks for theirs. I can't really trow a pity-party on this one, but I'd be lying if I said I hadn't had my hopes up.

*And finally, I haven't done any serious form of exercise in a month. I've theoretically been saving it on my to-do list for the waiting months, but I think maybe it's time to go ahead and start that process, cause y'all know how you start to feel... :)

Ok, now for a happy thought: I also realized this week that God already knows our baby. How sweet is that!?!?! He already knows who he/she is, He can see them even when we can't, even before anyone can see them cause they're hidden. And He already really knows them. He knows our baby's personality, He knows what he/she looks like, what he/she's gonna love to do in this life, even the foods he/she's gonna refuse to eat!! Soooo... this whole process is gonna go just as fast (or slow) as it needs to go to get us to the right batch of referrals, with the perfect little babe for us. My husband told me that my job for today is to not worry about anything. Ok, I give.

Home study: check!

It's done!!! We had our home study this morning at 10:30! Our social worker came from Greenville and we had a great time. All the things I was worried about last night (and I did have just a minor minor break down) were no big deal, everything's great, and a my friend of mine said, we're one step closer to our baby!!!

It's funny, I think I expected to be scrutinized a lot more closely than we actually were. I mean, don't get me wrong, she was thorough and it took a good 4hrs as predicted, but what I didn't expect was that she was a human, and not a drill-sargent, robot, crumb-detector, child-proofing dictator. Quite the opposite in fact, she was totally supportive and nurturing, really out to set us up for success. We had a great day with her!

All that being said, I wanted to post pictures of the last-minute home improvements and details that we put together in preparation for the visit!!! All fun stuff that I'm glad we did, even if some of it was over the top... but really, how often does a girl get to use her fine china?

I got a fern for our front patio. I think it made the apartment look more homey. First impressions, you know.

Our big flowerpot finally found a place to live right outside out front door.

The nursery/office as-is right now. Notice the giant crib-sized space on the right!!! :)

Our couches: the final look!

Pretty little pictures all in a row! Ethiopian landscape on the left, and Italy on the right.

Curtains to hide our DVD player and movies!!!

Setting the mood with daffodils and tulips, cause my sis says they're seasonal.

More flowers. It was fun to pretend like it was no big deal, but inwardly feel so fancy for having flowers around the house!

Aaaaand, the breakfast spread! Thanks friends for the banana bread just in time!

I'm pretty tired this afternoon, but I have a real peace deep down in my soul. I'm not generally one to put words into God's mouth that He didn't say, or claim that I know His intentions, but I sure do appreciate the blessings He's giving us along the way!!! I prayed this morning that our SW would be a Christian, because I wanted to be able to relate to her on that level. Because I felt like that would make a giant difference in her understanding us as a couple. She totally was!!! Not only that, but she'd gone to Young Life when she was a high school student, so she totally understood what my husband's job was about!! I'm so thankful for that, it makes me cry a little as I write this. And guess what else, I got my birth certificate at the end of last week. It took it two and a half weeks to get here. It was supposed to take 4-8 weeks. Praise the Lord, I'm thankful for these blessings as they come.

The paperchase: an adoptive parent's labor

Emily:


Today I bought our fire extinguisher, smoke detectors, and some child-proofing stuff for the home study on Monday. I have the rest of today and tomorrow to get everything ready. Namely, make curtain rods for the TV stand, get a box spring for the bed in the nursery, and generally make the nursery less office-y. I feel fairly confident about the rest of the apartment, but this room makes me tired every time I think about it :)

On Tuesday we spent the night in Durham so that we could get our fingerprints done at the USCIS (US center of immigration services) on Wednesday morning. Praise the Lord that the USCIS office was in Durham, and we could just spend the night at Graham's parents' house! I was so excited/nervous about the appointment that I woke up at 4:30am and couldn't sleep. Once we got to the office for our 7am appointment I was so jacked up, and poor Graham was so sleepy, the contrast was laughable! The office didn't open till 8, no big deal, we had a lovely experience overall. It's a running joke amongst adoptive parents that the personnel at these offices are VERY serious, bordering on grumpy. Homeland security is no laughing matter. However, I'd like to report that I made one laugh!!! I was asking him if we were set to leave, and if he needed the form in my hand or if we were done with it. He assured us we were done, but suggested "you may want to keep it for your own records, though." Bless his heart, there was so much concern in his voice, he had no idea who he was dealing with. I assured him "OH, I KEEP!!!" We laughed, it was miraculous.
Today I shipped off:

*Graham's FBI clearance letter (I'm getting my fingerprints redone for the second time tomorrow)
*All of our employer letters/rental income letter
*our family/apartment photos
*2 more reference letters (they're all in!!!)
*and proof that the government received our I-600a petition (to bring an immigrant into the US)

We're getting there! I have to admit I'm a little over it today. I think we're both ready to be done with paperwork and officially "waiting". God has blessed us so much. From an empty parking space in front of the court house downtown with time left on the meter, to getting FBI results back in 1 week instead of 13, to finding pillows that match our couches perfectly for free, to getting physicals and insurance letters (the two things everyone said take the longest) almost as soon as I ask for them, it's seems He's laying this out for us. Praise the Lord!!! I want to give Him all the credit He deserves in front of everybody!

So, all we have left to send in is:

*my FBI clearance
*my birth certificate (waiting for it in the mail)
*our home study and associated documents
*our bank letter/financial statement (waiting on it from the bank)
*and our USCIS approval letter (waiting for it in the mail)

We're so close!!! Yay! Thanks for caring! And a giant THANKS! to everyone who's helped us along the way, given encouragement, written a letter!!! Thanks to our family! Thanks to Lee, Liz, Katey, Sam, Marty, Parks, Dr. Holdsworth, Roland, Christy, Samantha, Shelley, Debra, Susanne, Natalie, Kate, Sandra, and Maria!!! And thanks to everyone else for all the love!!!

On getting closer and big changes

This week was so fun! We've been working on decorating our apartment like crazy, we bought a bed (like a real one with a frame and everything) and couches from craigslist, and we got a BUNCH of adoption stuff done too!!! I'm surprised to say that I've really enjoyed setting up our home. I feel like I'm finally learning my own likes and dislikes. I've been tackling it room by room and wall by wall, and it's so satisfying to be able to look at a wall and say "yeah, I really like that, I feel like it really captures my style!" Pictures of the whole apartment are coming soon for those of you who've requested them.

In other news, we heard this week that the Ethiopian government is making some changes to the way they process adoptions. There have been some reports recently that maybe not all of the children that have been adopted from Ethiopia were in fact orphans, and the Ethiopian government has responded swiftly and responsibly to address the issue. The changes, as I understand them, are as follows: every potential adoption will undergo an in-depth investigation to ensure that the child is indeed an orphan, AND prospective adoptive parents will now be required to travel twice to Ethiopia. Once to meet the child and attend a court hearing (which was previously attended by a representative for the parents), and a second time to pick up the child, receive the visa, and bring him or her home. All together this can add a few weeks to several months on to the process, and all right at the end, after the referral's been accepted. I have to say my only reaction right now, besides being relieved at the steps that are being taken in the name of ethical adoptions, is to say "Ok, we'll deal with it when we get there." It does represent an added expense, a logistical dilemma, and a potential emotional roller-coaster that we weren't planning on. I also know that God has been over-the-top faithful and encouraging to us in this whole adventure, and I'm finally learning what it feels like to just trust that He'll work it out just as it's supposed to be. And as my dad says, it won't just be A way for things to go, it'll be the BEST way! Oh, and by the way... did I mention I get to go to Ethiopia TWICE?!?!

As for this week's accomplishments (only read if you care to know every detail of my life!!!):

-Just yesterday we got our appointment to get fingerprinted for USCIS!!!! This is a milestone for me, cause I can remember reading on other people's blogs the day that they got that done, and it felt so far away in my mind, unreachable. Guess not, huh?!
-We each finished 8 out of the 10 hours of online training, and we're gonna do the other 2 tonight!
-We got back our FBI background check results (which was supposed to take like 11-13 weeks, but only took one!), well, one of us did anyway, my fingerprints had to be re-done, so I'm hoping for another one-week processing time!!!
-We sent off:
*our medical papers for our agency application and our foreign dossier
*Husband's new birth certificate
*passport-sized photos
*photocopies of our passports
*power of attorney papers
*proof of insurance
*AND most of our references are in!!! Thanks you guys!!!

We're getting more and more excited about our sweet sweet baby!!! Just in the daily stuff we do we have this ongoing conversation of how things will change; driving places, carrying groceries in, setting up the rooms in our apartment, and even just laying in our new bed talking. Everything's going to be different, more sweet. Can't wait to meet you babe, we miss you every day!!!

Here are some pictures of our fun picnic with friends!!!

A is for Application

Y'all, I'm tired! "Why?" you ask, THIS is why:



My new best friend and dictator is my cute little gray filing cabinet and all the paperwork that lives in it. This week has possibly been the most productive week of my life. I've sent in:

**WARNING, LONG LIST FOR THE SAKE OF MEMORY, SKIP AHEAD UNLESS YOU REALLY WANT TO KNOW**
Requests for both of our birth certificates, marriage certificate (already received)
Group 1 documents for agency (including Application, copies of said certificates, directions to our house, some moula and other very important documents)
Some of our Group 2 documents (including our child preference profile and some other important documents)
FBI Clearance fingerprints
I-600A
The beginnings of our Foreign Dossier to authentication service
AND
I've initiated:
Reference letters
Bank statement
Employment Letters
AND
We each got our local drivers licenses
We've each had a physical and a bunch of vaccinations! (we're coming, baby :))
**RESUME READING, LIST FINISHED**

Can anyone else who's done this before validate me and say that they felt like they'd run a marathon every day during the paperwork months? Seriously, I'm kinda thinking that God had me go through nursing school/work as a nurse to build up my meticulous organizational skills and endurance for completing 'to do' lists. Mostly I really loves this, though. My personality enjoys this kind of work, and it's still exciting every time I have a new document to prepare because I know that it's one step closer to our baby!!!

Just to keep that happy thought in mind, here's a picture of everything we have for our baby so far:

It's mostly my old stuffed animals, and there's even a blanket that my mom made before she had any babies (Mom, if you were wondering, I took it home with me last visit :)). We've bought two little super-cute gender-neutral outfits because I needed something baby-shaped around here, and one of them says "universally cute;" my sister and I thought it was appropriate! Other than that, we'll probably wait till much closer to time to buy anything. We shouldn't spend the extra money, we don't know the details about our baby, and it's always a good idea to keep my emotions/expectations a little under control. At least that's what I'm saying tonight.... :)

Here's the blanket:

On moving, orientation, seeing babies, birthmothers, and my husband.

Sorry for the long delay in blogging, but I didn't feel like writing until I had something to write about. So here it all comes:

Yesterday we moved!!!! Yaaaayyy!!! It has been the biggest hindrance to our adoption so far, and I’m so so glad it’s OVER! Our new apartment is lovely, it’s clean and it smells good. We have a gym, which I couldn’t be more excited about, and indoor and outdoor pools, with hot tub!!! Y’all we’ve moved up in the world : ) Many thanks to our friends for all their help! Now we're just praying for someone to come and take over our lease for the old apartment.

ALSO, today I had a phone orientation with my agency contact!! So much information gained, so many questions answered, so much excitement all around!!! Seriously, the staff has been nothing but helpful and excited with me!

The next step was to send in my request for application and the application fee, which I did very promptly, and promptly an application was delivered to my inbox! Now, you KNOW that's all I'm gonna be doing tonight!!! This is so fun. Sorry for the play-by-play, but I just can't help my excitement :)

Other than that, today I was in a cell phone store, and a woman came in with a tiny crying baby in it's car seat, and my heart just ached! I always imagined that pregnant women must feel excited when they see other babies, I thought that they'd just be pumped by the reminder of what's to come. I didn't realize how strong my emotions would be, being myself a sort of pregnant. Seeing that sweet baby, and even hearing it cry made me long for my baby so much. I felt like telling that mom "hey, me too! I'm gonna be in the secret mom club soon!" It did, it made me SO excited to hold my own sweet little one. That day is coming, and it's gonna be AWESOME.

As I think about and pray for my baby every day, knowing that it's probably growing away in a womb somewhere in Ethiopia, I've also had my baby's birth mother on my mind. I've given her a secret name until I find out her real one. A name that I lovingly use for her as I talk to the Lord about her. It helps me feel how real she is, it helps me love her better. I bet she's having a really hard time right now... sweet girl, I wish I could hold your hand. I wish I could help you. You're on my mind all the time...

We ARE adopting!!!!

So, funny story, the last post I wrote was about how excited I was that I had found stuff I could be working on toward our eventual adoption while we waited for our life to calm down enough so we could decide what our plan was. I thought I was just getting a head start, and that someday, far off in the future we'd adopt. HOWEVER...

Last week we went out to a fancy dinner and made the decision that we're ready to pursue adoption, like NOW! We've spent the last week telling our family and close friends, and that's been really sweet. I don't think it's really sunk in yet, but at the same time it's all I can think about. Have I mentioned...

We're going to be adopting a sweet baby (12months or less) from the BEAUTIMUS land of ETHIOPIA!!!! And we're so excited, we can't wait!

"Why Ethiopia?" you might ask. Well, let me just tell ya... we both just feel our hearts drawn over seas, especially after reading books like Field of the Fatherless by Tom Davis, and There's No Me Without You by Melissa Fay Greene, and after learning so much about the world through Compassion International. As for the specific country, a friend of mine who has adopted internationally shared with me that as she and her husband were considering this for themselves, they asked themselves what culture they were most drawn to. After all, this culture's gonna be a celebrated part of your home for the rest of your life. For us that narrowed the search to the continent of Africa. And to be perfectly honest we weren't very well educated about the similarities and differences in its individual countries in terms of culture, socio-economic status, or really anything. So from there we began our search, investigating geography and economics, scouring agencies and programs and prerequisites, until we landed on Ethiopia. This last part of the decision seems really technical, but as we started investigating, we found that it's an ancient, beautiful country, rich in history and tradition, but it also faces the daily struggles of poverty, disease, and famine. We feel both inspired by the beauty of Ethiopian culture, and compelled to reach out to it. They call it the cradle of life, it's people the lost tribe of Israel. Archaeologists and theologians (my dad included) speculate that the arc of the covenant might be hidden in Ethiopia. They have beautiful legends of a dynasty of great rulers descended from a secret union between king Solomon and the famed Queen of Sheba (which I'm finding out may really be accurate). I mean, how much cooler can you get!?!?! Ethiopia's been in our hearts for over 2 years now, we just knew that that's where our baby was gonna be. Now we get to go find it!!!!

If you think of us when you're praying: (I'm anticipating this might need to be a recurring section in our blog) We've hit roadblock number 1. We need to get out of our apartment. It's not fit for a baby, and most likely wouldn't pass a home study. We have a couple of options, but it's a tricky, wait it out sort of thing, and that's hard. Please pray for us.

Below is a picture of the sweetest children's book I've found that deals with the subject of adoption. It's called A Mother for Choco, and as my sweet cousin would say "It's the best!" Does anyone have any sweet books they'd recommend?