Our Star in the Sky

Christmas 2010

2010-12-29T06:43:00.000-08:00

Well I'm really bad at keeping up with this blog now. Once every two months is pretty pathetic. But I just had to add pictures from Christmas since it was Miles' first Christmas! Here we are waiting to see Santa for the first time:

Miles met Santa and wasn't too impressed. At least he wasn't crying!

Here's the family on Christmas Day. As you can see we are expecting another family member -- a little baby sister for Miles, due to arrive May 7th! Miles is going to be a big brother!

And now for the cute photos of Miles that I've neglected to post for the last two months!

Family photo shoot

2010-10-17T17:05:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm really slacking on the blog posts. I'm now starting to average about 1-2 per month! It's hard now that I'm back to work part time. When I'm home I want to spend time with Miles, not on the computer. And when Miles goes to sleep, I want to spend time sleeping too!

Miles is doing GREAT. He is such a joy and a blessing. He smiles and laughs all the time. We had a little family photo shoot last weekend and are thrilled with the photos!

First Trip to the Doctor

2010-09-19T06:02:00.000-07:00

We went to Children's Hospital International Adoption Center a few days after getting home with Miles (yeah, I'm a little behind on my blogs). He did wonderful and is perfectly healthy and developmentally on track! He was a trooper too. They had to take a bunch of his blood and he barely cried. He's 25-50th percentile on weight and head circumference and 10-25th on height. He's a hefty 15 pounds!

Here are his many faces during the car ride home:

Our second trip to Ethiopia

2010-09-14T11:20:00.000-07:00

I've been putting off writing this blog entry, not because I don't want to share our experience, but because there is so much to share it's a little overwhelming (and because we've had our hands full with a five month old!) Before getting to our trip I have to say Miles Nahom is adjusting GREAT in our home. He is just the cutest and has the biggest, happiest personality! We've been home for over two weeks now, and I wish I would've written about our trip while we were there or right afterwards, because I'm certain I'll leave out many details.

When we arrived in Addis Ababa it was Saturday morning and we had been traveling for about 24 hours at that point. We were exhausted and took a nap in the hotel. We weren't scheduled to do anything until Sunday afternoon, when we were to pick up Miles! We woke up and had some lunch, met up with some friends we had met on our last trip, and Andy and I decided to take a cab ride to a book store we missed out on during our last trip. It was nice because we could get some Ethiopian children's books (that were also in English!) We stopped at a coffee shop afterwards and enjoyed yummy Ethiopian coffee.

Sunday was the BIG day! We were going to get Miles for good! It also happened to be my birthday. Talk about a great birthday gift! Our good friends Julie and Nathan sent out an email to everyone traveling with us that it was my birthday so I unexpectedly had a little lunch birthday party! Even the hotel staff got in on it, made signs that said "Happy Birthday to Jenny" with five balloons (only one of which was colored blue) and they came out and brought a cake with candles and sang "Happy Birthday"! It was sooo sweet and fun!

That afternoon we met up with Almaz and the rest of the group to discuss and sign some legal paperwork for our embassy appoint Monday. Here we are, happy to have the paperwork behind us and parenthood in front of us:

And then it was off to get Miles! We were so excited to see him again! He was asleep when we arrived so we just looked at him and smiled for a while.

The rest of the trip we really had nothing planned except for the Embassy appointment on Monday morning and the birth family meeting on Wednesday. They did not allow cameras at the Embassy so we can't share pictures from that outing. We waited at the Embassy about 2 hours. I think we were the last family called from our group. We were just asked a few questions by the Embassy worker: did we meet him before the adoption, did we know he had bronchitis, are we still willing to adopt him, ... The paperwork was approved and it was back to the hotel, where we spent a LOT of time during this trip.

Wednesday was by far the highlight of the trip. We got to meet Miles Nahom's birth mother. It was such a wonderful experience. We captured the entire meeting on video, which I am so happy we can share with Miles one day. She looks alot like Miles. She's very young and chose to keep Miles a secret from her family because she is not married and her family, being very strict christian orthodox would not have approved. I will not post pictures of her since I do not have her consent. She brought two friends with her for moral support.

We got the chance to ask her questions about what she wants Miles to know about her. It was so clear she loves him tremendously and only wants the best for him. It was also clear how hard of a decision it was for her. She was very emotional (as were we). She got the chance to hold Miles and just showered him in kisses. She said she wants him to know how much she loves him and that it was very hard for her. She wants him to have opportunities that she didn't and she said she just wants him to be a good person in every way (the same thing we want for him).

She will receive updates from the agency that we send in every year, along with photos. I am glad our agency is so willing to accomodate birth families in this way.

On Thursday morning we took a bus ride out into the countryside of Ethiopia with some other families traveling with us. The landscape was beautiful. There were of course, lots of cattle and donkeys walking to town. There were also a few little houses on the side of the road as we passed, and lots of children running around.

Thursday night we flew out of Addis Ababa, an overnight flight to D.C. on Ethiopian Airlines. We didn't get the bassinet we requested, but Miles did GREAT on the flight. He slept most of the 17 hours, although we didn't sleep much. By the time we got home on Friday at around 1:00pm we were exhausted and all three went straight to bed.

It was a wonderful trip all around. We continue to be amazed at the beauty of the country of Ethiopia and the kindness of the people there. We will definitely be going back.

Introducing Miles Nahom!!!

2010-08-30T07:19:00.000-07:00

As you can see, he is a very happy baby! And cute too, eh? We are HOME and settling in. Miles is adjusting perfectly fine. Our trip home was very long, but Miles did great on the plane. We didn't get the bassinet that we requested so the long flight was harder on us than Miles (we had to hold him continuously for 24 hours, so needless to say we got little sleep). By the time we arrived home we were exhausted but we now feel human again. We are just so thrilled to be home with Miles Nahom!

Our second trip to Ethiopia was wonderful. I will have to post more on it later, along with pictures. The biggest highlight was meeting with Miles Nahom's birth mother. We feel so fortunate that she came to meet with us. It was truly a blessing and a memory we will never forget.

Trip #2 to Ethiopia!!!

2010-08-19T06:29:00.000-07:00

So we're leaving in less than 24 hours for our second trip! We fly out of Dayton tomorrow at 6am, flying to Dulles International Airport. We fly out of Dulles at 10:00am on Ethiopian Airlines. Our flight is a straight shot to Addis Ababa, with a stop in Rome for re-fueling (we have to stay on the plane). We'll arrive Saturday morning in Addis at around 8:30am.

We'll have all day Saturday to sleep, regroup. Sunday afternoon we'll head over to Hannah's Hope to pick up Miles Nahom!!! Sunday is my birthday -- can you think of a better birthday gift?!?! We'll bring Miles back to the hotel with us, where he'll stay with us the remainder of our trip.

Monday morning we have the Embassy appointment with Miles. They say to expect to wait there a few hours. That's really the only thing we have planned for sure on this trip. We MIGHT get to meet with Miles' birth mother. I really hope we can. It will all depend on whether she can make the trip to Addis from northern Ethiopia. We made a photo book and wrote a letter to her, which I would love to give her in person, as well as get photos with her and ask her questions. We won't know if we will be meeting with her until we get to Addis.

We have to stick around until Thursday because we're waiting on Miles' Visa. They say it could take until Thursday to get it. We fly out of Addis Thursday night, again on Ethiopian Airlines. This flight is overnight, so I'm hoping Miles will sleep for a lot of it. We fly into Dulles at 8:00am on Friday, and from there connect on our flight to Cincinnati, where we arrive at CVG at 12:48pm on Friday!!! Can't wait to be home with Miles!

During our last trip we could not access our blogs, or even our email for some reason, so I doubt I'll be updating until we return. Until then, keep us in your thoughts and prayers!!! We'll be home soon:)

Baby Shower

2010-08-17T09:13:00.000-07:00

Kate, Marilyn, and Gerry had a couples baby shower for us on Saturday! Just in time to get some last minute necessities before we leave for Ethiopia! We got lots of great gifts!

The cake was so cute -- stars in the sky for Miles Nahom!

We leave in 2 1/2 days for Ethiopia! We've started packing but have a lot to do in two days. Our flight leaves Dayton at 6am on Friday morning, so we need to be completely packed and ready to go by Thursday night!

Tentative Travel Dates!!!!

2010-08-04T12:55:00.000-07:00

Well that was quick. We've already received our tentative travel dates for our second trip to bring home Miles Nahom!!! Get this-- we leave 2 WEEKS from Friday!!! We're holding flights that depart 6am on Friday August 20th and get back Friday August 27th! Cannot believe it is happening so fast. This means we will be HOME with Nahom on the 27th!

We have a LOT to do before we leave. We have the room finished for the most part, but we have no diapers, no formula, no wipes, no CAR SEAT, no stroller. We have alot of summer clothes, but it's cool in Ethiopia right now, so we need some warm clothes. We still haven't prepared the photo album and letter for Nahom's birth family, we haven't figured out health insurance, we haven't set up our Dr. appointments when we get back. I could go on.

I know that we will get it all taken care of before we leave. We'll just be busy until then. We're so excited that we get to travel again with the same families that were with us on our first trip. We all have the same embassy appointment on August 23rd! This is a great birthday present for me!

Cannot wait to bring Miles Nahom back home for good! There are so many people here who are excited to meet him and love on him. Let the countdown begin!

We're Home

2010-08-01T09:32:00.000-07:00

Wow. Our trip to Ethiopia was wonderful. Not only did we get to meet and spend lots of time with our beautiful, playful son, but we also got to meet great people that we know will be friends forever and we got to experience a culture that will forever be in a part of our lives.

We arrived in Addis Ababa on Sunday night around 8pm. We were definitely tired at that point after 20-some hours of travel. We got to our hotel, ate some dinner, and went straight to bed. Monday morning we got up, had breakfast and took a walk down the city street to take in the sights. Here we are with a view of our hotel behind us, the Riveria:

We took a lot of pictures of the city. It's not uncommon to see traffic yield to goats or donkeys -- they're all over the place!

I also noticed there were many buildings with bamboo scaffolding that were started but never finished.

We weren't scheduled to meet at the transition home until 1:30 on Monday so we had plenty of time to kill that morning. Finally 1:30 rolled around and we met with Almaz and the other families from our agency. It was time to meet our son! For those of you who don't know yet, we decided on a name! Miles Nahom. Let me just tell you, he is the cutest, most loveable baby boy I've ever met. After five days with him, we are completely in love with him. Our first meeting with him went better than we could've imagined. He smiled at us almost immediately and laughed with us while we played. The whole time we were there, we didn't hear his cry ONCE. I know I know, we'll hear it soon enough (probably on the 16 hour flight home!) but while there, he was so smiley and happy.

I wish I could post photos of him (we took a few hundred!) but our agency requests that we refrain from posting any photos until he is home on U.S. soil. When will that be?? Well, hopefully SOON. We had Court on Wednesday and PASSED!!! It was a great experience. The waiting room of the courthouse was filled with families adopting. We waited about an hour. Finally, they called our son's name and we proceeded into the courtroom. I expected a judge in the black robe, the bench, the gavel, etc. But instead it was a small room with a very beautiful Ethiopian woman behind a desk -- she was the judge. We sat down across from her and she asked us about five questions -- Have you met Nahom yet? Does your family know you are here adopting? Do you have other children? Why do you want to adopt from Ethiopia? Are you prepared for the "identity issues"? We were comfortable with all of the questions except the last one. First of all, she spoke very softly we were straining to here her. After she asked about identity problems twice and we were not sure about what she meant, she smiled at us and simply stated "You know that he will have a different skin color than you." Ohhh, okay... yes, we are aware of that, and are prepared for those issues! :) Finally she asked, "You are aware that this will be a final decision and cannot be changed?" "Yes, we are." "Well, then, congratulations, he is all yours." We were so thrilled! We thanked her (many times) and left.

Since we passed court, they tell us to expect to travel for our second trip in 4-8 weeks. The reason for the wait is they have get Nahom's passport and process the Visa. Our second trip will be planned around our embassy appointment, which will allow us to bring Nahom into the U.S. I am hoping we will get tentative travel dates soon!

There is so much to share about our trip that I can't possibly cover it all in this post. A few of the highlights:

* On Tuesday afternoon we took a taxi tour of the city with three other couples (we needed two taxis). One of the taxi drivers, Solomon, invited us to his home for a traditional coffee ceremony with his wife and two sons. We all crowded into their front room and watched his wife roast the coffee beans, grind them by hand, and brew the coffee with boiling water. The coffee was soooo good. I told them they should move to America to open a coffee shop (much better than Starbucks, if I do say so myself!)

We learned that coffee originated in Ethiopia, and so we just HAD to buy lots of it to bring home. They come in kilos, and when I lined my suitcase with my kilos of coffee, I just had to take a picture. I'm SURE this bag was searched on the flight home!!

* Thursday night we had a traditional Ethiopian cultural dinner. If you haven't had Ethiopian food, it is served on a big round platter with injera, a spongy kind of bread that you use to pick up the food (no utensils used). The platter is shared among maybe 4 people and it's so colorful:

They also had entertainment and dancing. It seems like traditional Ethiopian dance style is all about the shoulders. It was amazing what these dancers could do. At one point a woman dancer had her head flying around so fast I couldn't believe what I was seeing! We loved the music and the dancing. Andy is still in search of more Ethiopian music.

* Thursday morning we visited a state-run orphanage, Bethzatha. What an eye-opening experience. We already knew there were many orphans in Ethiopia (the statistics suggest around 4 million orphans in Ethiopia alone), but we hadn't seen in person the faces of these orphaned children. They are sweet, kind, beautiful children that have to go to bed every night without a mother or father. They want and deserve love. It is sad that the children that make it into these orphanages are probably the lucky ones. There are many many orphans living on the streets, begging for money. It was heartbreaking. Once you see the poverty and the faces of these children, it really changes you. I feel so fortunate to have been born into the family and country that I have been, but I feel a responsibility now to do what I can to help these children who are living without a mom and dad. I can't forget what I've seen.

* I learned that Hannah's Hope is truly an excellent facility. I had heard great things about our agency's transition home, but until I saw it and met the special mothers, I had no idea how nice it was. I feel so blessed to know that Nahom is being cared for right now. It was so hard, as I expected, to leave him, but the special mothers at Hannah's Hope are SO wonderful. They love the children and take such good care of them. I feel like I owe so much to them. Here are some pictures of the inside of Hannah's Hope:

I cannot wait to get back to Ethiopia to pick up Miles Nahom! I'll update on tentative travel dates as soon as we receive them!

Leavin' On a Jet Plane...

2010-07-23T17:50:00.000-07:00

We leave for Ethiopia TOMORROW! I cannot believe we will meet our son in three days! We are finally all packed (I think). Two checked bags, two bins of donations, and two carry-ons. Done. We are very worried that the airline won't allow us to bring the bins of donations. Andy went in to talk to the United people at the airport and they said the size of the bin isn't a problem, but the weight is -- it has to be under 50 pounds. We even have a letter from our agency stating the need for donations but they won't budge on the weight limit. So we're right at 50 pounds each, and I hope whoever checks us in doesn't care about the size of the bins because they are huge. Thanks to all of you who donated items for the kiddos! We even have some items left over that we'll bring in bins next time!

I've been so busy this week that it hasn't even hit me until today that we are GOING TO ETHIOPIA! On my drive home from work today it finally hit me. I now have butterflies. I'm excited/anxious/nervous all at the same time. Our flight leaves tomorrow at 2pm and we fly to Dulles. We fly from Dulles to Rome to Addis and arrive in Addis at 7pm Sunday night. Someone from the agency will pick us up at the airport and we'll head to the hotel for some much needed zzz's (that is, if we can sleep). Monday morning we get up and head to HH to meet our little star!!! The only other thing that we definitely have planned is the court appointment on Wednesday. Other than that, we will mostly hang out at HH, learn as much as we can about him -- his schedule, food, behaviors, personality, etc. The focus is on getting to know him and bond with him. And of course, get lots and lots of pictures and video! We're so stinkin' excited!

We should get internet access in our hotel, so I will try to post more while on our trip. If not, I'll definitely post when we get back. Farewell!!! ;)

Beach vacation!

2010-07-18T10:01:00.000-07:00

We went to the beach two weeks ago and had a blast! We went with Andy's side of the family, so two nieces and one nephew, aunts, uncles, GiGi and G-Daddy. The kids loved the beach! We took a zillion pictures. Here are just a few:

One week until we leave for Ethiopia!!! More later...

Court results

2010-07-02T15:50:00.000-07:00

Everything went well in Court today. Our birth mom showed up and testified, and since we didn't hear otherwise, our case worker thinks the Judge must've received our MOWA letter and the Central Authority letter! This is great news and we're that much closer to bringing him home!!!

Court TONIGHT

2010-07-01T08:36:00.000-07:00

Tonight is the scheduled court date for our star's birth mother to attend. Ethiopia is several hours ahead of us, so for them it will be Friday morning. It should take place while we sleep (or, rather, try to sleep).

We know very little about his birth mother, but we do know that she is from the very northern region of Ethiopia, so it is quite a trip to Addis Ababa. Our case worker assures us that our agency has an employee whose sole job is to accomodate birth families to their court dates by providing transportation, lodging, food, etc.

We really hope she can make the trip and will be in attendance in court! I have been thinking a lot about her lately and really feel for her for having to make such a sacrifice. I hope she feels at peace with her decision and knows that he will be so loved! Right now we don't know if we'll be able to meet her on our second trip, but I really hope that we can. I just want her to know he'll be okay and we will love him and take good care of him.

As for court tonight, we are hoping that, in addition to the birth family's testimony, the necessary documents will be in the Judge's hands -- the MOWA letter and the Central Authority report. If all three of those have been completed, then more than likely we will PASS court when we travel the end of July!

Yesterday we finally booked our flights for our first trip! Talk about expensive. Apparently a lot of people are traveling to Ethiopia the last week of July because all of the flights were overbooked and expensive. We are paying about $300/ticket more than we expected, but at least we have our flights now! We fly out on Saturday July 24th and arrive in Addis Ababa on July 25th 7:00 pm (Ethiopian time). We will get back on Saturday July 31st at 6:30 pm.

Please keep us in your prayers that everything goes well tonight in court! We should (hopefully) hear something tomorrow at some point... we'll update!

Summer Andy

2010-06-27T07:48:00.000-07:00

So everyone who knows Andy knows that he is a COMPLETELY different person in the summer compared to the rest of the year. I coined the term "Summer Andy" the first year we were married and it stuck. Summer Andy is care free, up for a movie on a week night, not on a schedule, and stays up later than 9pm! Rest-of-the-year-Andy is very responsible and timely, but,... well... a little dull. I happen to LOVE Summer Andy. (I also love Rest-of-the-year-Andy, for the record).

Here are some pics of my goofy husband, Summer Andy. He's working on building a retaining wall in our back yard. He has spent the past week on it and his bright yellow headband, for those of you who were wondering, is home-made, he cut the sleeves off of one of his old t-shirts. Isn't he just the cutest?

Court Dates!!!

2010-06-24T10:48:00.000-07:00

We received a call from our case worker on Tuesday with our upcoming court dates! They have scheduled the birth mother's court date for July 2nd (Andy's birthday!) The court date at which we will need to appear is scheduled for July 28th. This means we will be traveling for our first trip to Ethiopia in just one month!

I was concerned that if his birth mother doesn't show up on the 2nd that we would get bumped from the 28th, but our case worker indicated that we would appear on the 28th no matter what. The trip will only last a few days; she said to plan to arrive in Addis Ababa around Monday the 26th and leave on Thursday or Friday of that week.

HOPEFULLY we will pass court on the 28th and we will be able to travel to bring him home 4-8 weeks later! That's the time line the agency is predicting. To "pass court" the birth mom would've had to have testified in court that she relinquishes her rights AND the court must have received all relevant documents from MOWA and Central Authority, recommending the adoption.

We should hear from our agency next week confirming travel dates, so we can go ahead and start booking flights. Luckily our agency pretty much handles everything else. And we've already "met" (through email/blog world) four other families from our agency that will be traveling with us at the same time! It will be nice to have that support from other families going through the same thing as us!

Donations

2010-06-21T06:53:00.000-07:00

Many of our friends and family members have asked about giving donations to our agency and other government orphanages in Ethiopia that we can bring with us when we travel. Our plan is to fill bins of donations in lieu of extra suitcases to bring with us on the flight over. So, if you are interested in providing donations we will gladly accept them to deliver! Here is a list of on-going needs in the orphanages, according to our agency:

Diapers of all sizes, including preemie sizes
Baby wipes
Bibs
Hand sanitizer
Kleenex boxes
Infant and children's vitamins
Formula -- soy based Similac, as well as regular formula (soy based formula is the hardest to get in Ethiopia)
Scrubs for the special mothers (size small and medium only)
Bottles -- Avent bottles for both 8-12 ounce feedings
Blow up balls/outside toys for older kids
Sidewalk chalk
Children's DVD's and CD's
Twin sheets (mainly flats) in the colors and children patterns of pink, purple, red, blue, green -- solid or print materials

And for any of you medical people, there is also a need for certain medical items:

Otolaryngoscope set (I don't even know what that is!)
BP apparatus (Pediatric size)
Oral Antifungal medication
Iron drops
Adult and children cold medicines

Please get in touch with us if you want to contribute! Thanks!

Morning at the Park

2010-06-20T09:12:00.000-07:00

It was a beautiful morning here so we decided to take Bela to the park, which is her absolute favorite thing to do! Got some good action shots!

She LOVES cooling off in the creek!

AND she's done..

Court File Opened!

2010-06-17T07:17:00.000-07:00

We had our Next Steps phone conference with our case worker two nights ago, and she explained the process from here. Now that we have officially accepted the referral, the staff in Ethiopia is hard at work! In our phone call, our case worker said that it could take up to a month to gather all of the legal documents required for our case to be opened with the courts -- they need the original birth certificate (which apparently is very rare to have in Ethiopia), as well as many signed documents from orphanage directors, etc. When we spoke with her, she said they already had the birth certificate (great!) and everything else except one document that needed to be signed by the director of the state orphanage that originally took in our son.

Well... Yesterday we got an email confirming that our case HAS been opened with the courts in Ethiopia! That means they have everything they need to assign us a court date. We were told to expect a wait of 1-4 weeks after a case is opened with the courts for them to issue our court dates.

The first court date is for the birth mother. She will need to travel to Addis Ababa for court. She is actually in the very northern part of Ethiopia, so I really hope she can make the trip. If she doesn't, they just keep continuing the court date, and we can't go for our court date until she has gone and testified that she's relinquished her rights. Our court date is expected to be scheduled 2-4 weeks after the birth mother's court date. Sooo, we won't have much notice for our travel -- which is fine with me!

There are two agencies working on our file right now -- the Ministry of Women's Affairs (MOWA) which looks over our dossier as well as the child's information to make sure all is in order. They will then write a recommendation letter on behalf of the adoption. Also, the Central Authority (CA) will look at our file. Their job is to look at the background of our child and the circumstances surrounding how he came into the orphanage's care. They want to make sure that, whether it was an abandonment or relinquishment, it was done ethically. Once they are satisfied with their investigation, they will submit a document to the court in Addis Ababa. This is a part of the process that can delay our case. If there is a delay in submitting documentation by either of these agencies, there will be an automatic denial at the first court appointment, and another one will be scheduled (typically a new court date can be scheduled for about 3-4 weeks later). I hope hope hope (1) both agencies get their recommendations in SOON and (2) the birth mother is able to make the trip for the first court appointment.

Once the adoption is finally approved (at or after our first trip) then a Court Decree is issued. At that point we'll be able to request our child's passport and US Embassy medical exam. Then we'll be have a better picture of the projected dates for the second and final trip. They are telling us to expect travel for the second trip 4-8 weeks after we are approved at court.

We're moving along... I just want those court dates!

Feet!

2010-06-13T17:23:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately we cannot post pictures of our baby until we legally adopt him in Ethiopia. So a sneak peek for those of you who have not seen him yet... Here are his cute little feet:

He's so precious! We sent our acceptance paperwork by FedEx on Thursday, and our agency called on Friday to let us know they have received everything and will begin the next step of opening a court file for us in Ethiopia. We have a "next steps" call with our case manager soon to figure out the timeline of court and travel.

Until then, we just keep staring at his pictures!

FINALLY! We got the call!

2010-06-09T19:37:00.000-07:00

We finally got our referral!!! Iwas starting to get sooo impatient on Monday that I broke down and called our caseworker, K. I left her a message asking if she could give us an idea about what's going on or if they needed anything else from us. I'd had court earlier that morning so my cell phone was on vibrate. K must've called back on my drive home from work but I didn't hear the phone. When I pulled in the driveway Andy was outside and mouthed "check your phone." I had nine missed calls! (1 from K; 8 from Andy!) I asked what's going on and Andy said very casually, "Oh she's just calling you back. I told her we'd call back together when you got home." He didn't say a THING about a referral. So when we get on the phone with K she says, well it's funny you called because I needed to call you anyways about a little baby boy." WHAT? Andy had already talked to K, knew we were getting THE call and didn't say a thing! Surprise!

Our little man is two months old and absolutely adorable! The first thing I noticed was his big brown eyes and his cute hair that curls up around his hat in one of the pictures! Poor little guy was hospitalized for pneumonia before getting to HH so we were concerned about his health. But our international adoption pediatrician said he seems to be pretty healthy and she doesn't have any major concerns. We've been busy with referral acceptance paperwork and we're sending the official acceptance in tomorrow!

K says that the courts in Ethiopia now require two court dates -- one about 4 weeks after the referral acceptance where the birth family has to go and testify; the second court date is for us to attend and it is expected to be 7 weeks after the referral acceptance. Seven weeks from now is the last week of July -- so if all goes well, we could (maybe, just maybe) get in to court before the court closure in Aug/Sept. I'm soooo hoping!!!! If that's the case, best case scenario of bringing home our little guy would be September. Let's not even talk about worst case scenario... Now that we've seen him the real waiting starts! We just want to bring him home!!!

On cloud nine here in Ky!!!

Holy moly. Two weeks waiting.

2010-05-25T15:42:00.000-07:00

My goodness! It's been two weeks waiting at the #1 spot. Every afternoon Andy calls and says "Any Calls?!" Like I wouldn't call him immediately if we got the call!

I really would like to get that call before the long weekend. I'm pretty sure AGCI is closed on Memorial Day. Two days every weekend is hard enough to go knowing we won't hear anything -- three days might be unbearable.

Maybe this will be our last post before "The Call" post! A girl can hope... :)

Still waiting...

2010-05-20T11:38:00.000-07:00

It's been one week and one day that we've been sitting here in the #1 spot. This waiting is hard! I'm trying to keep myself busy with work so I'm not constantly obsessing. But everytime the phone rings I jump. I find myself checking my cell phone throughout the day to make sure it's still working. Ahhhhhhhh! Ring! Ring! Ring phone Ring!

Six Months Waiting...

2010-05-13T18:42:00.000-07:00

Today marks our sixth month on the waitlist. We were placed on the waitlist on November 13, 2009. At the time, our case manager told us to expect a wait of 6 months for the referral of an infant boy and 8 to 12 months for the referral of an infant girl. I expected she was overestimating our wait, and that it would really be more like 4 to 5 months. I was wrong. The first few months of waiting went by pretty quickly, maybe because of the holidays. But lately I've been getting pretty impatient. I just want to receive that call! With all the referrals lately, I think (and hope) we should be getting our call sometime in May!

I THINK we might be #1 (unofficially) on the waitlist. If not #1 then we're at least #3. We got our new number 5 on Monday, and family right in front of us on the list (got number 4 on Monday) just got their referral yesterday!!! So, unless the two people in front of them (who we don't know because they're not on our agency's listserve) didn't get their referral for some reason, we are #1!!!!! I just can't wait to see our baby's face! I can't wait to meet him! I think when we see him, we'll be able to decide on a name, and we'll be able to refer to him by name, rather than as "our star in the sky"!

May numbers

2010-05-10T18:08:00.000-07:00

We got our new official waitlist numbers from AGCI today!

GIRLS LIST:

BOYS LIST:

SIBLINGS LIST:

New bathroom

2010-04-20T06:41:00.000-07:00

We redecorated our extra upstairs bathroom, to make it a little more kid-friendly, since this is going to be the kid-bathroom. I wish we would've remembered to take "before photos" because it looks completely different now. Here are some "after photos":

I love the blue and the polka dots. It was a pretty thrifty project. We already had the flooring; my mom made the shower curtain (thanks, Mom!) so we really only had to buy paint, a new vanity, and a new mirror (and rug and towels and accessories and faucet, but who's counting anyways?)

Working on the nursery

2010-04-17T15:20:00.000-07:00

Even though it was BEAUTIFUL outside today, we spent a few hours inside putting together the nursery furniture! It was fun, but so many pieces... what a pain...

We finished the crib...

And the changing table/dresser...

We bought the cutest area rug a few years ago because we just couldn't resist. Now we finally get to use it in the nursery! Isn't it cute?

So here's how the nursery is looking now. Still have some work to do. We need a matress; need some curtains; need some art work or decorations. But we're getting there.

I think our unofficial number for the boys list is now 8!!! Hopefully soon we'll be getting THE CALL. Probably in a couple months. Can't wait!

April Numbers

2010-04-09T08:56:00.000-07:00

We got our new numbers yesterday from AGCI!

GIRLS LIST:

BOYS LIST:

SIBLINGS:

We know of a couple of referrals that went out this week that aren't included in these numbers because they haven't been officially accepted by the families, so our Boy number may be unofficially closer to 8 or 9!

Hoping for a referral by June so we can make our first trip over the summer in July. Our caseworker said the two-trip policy will begin in May, so we're expecting to travel twice.

We've been working on the nursery lately, so hopefully I'll be posting pictures soon -- it's a work in progress...

Changes in Ethiopian Adoption Process

2010-03-16T12:10:00.000-07:00

Last week we heard from our case worker with AGCI about the changes in the adoption process being implemented in Ethiopia. Unfortunately it's not good news for us. We will now have to make two trips to Ethiopia, rather than just one. This will increase our wait time, but also increase our expenses by a few thousand dollars (it's very pricey to fly to Ethiopia)!

We will have to travel for the actual court hearing, so we will meet our child and get to spend about a week there while we attend court, but then we have say goodbye, which will be just awful! I can't imagine leaving after meeting him! We will then travel again, about 6-8 weeks later for the embassy appointment, after which we can come home for good!

I'm trying to stay positive about it, because it does mean two good things (1) we'll get to meet our child sooner than we thought, and (2) if our child's birth mother relinquished her rights, we will have a better chance to meet her because she too will have to be present for court. I really think it will be important for us to have the opportunity to meet our child's birth mother, even though I know it will be extremely emotional.

As far as our wait, I think we are now unofficially #12 or #13 for the boys list. If I'm going to be realistic about it, we are looking at July for a referral. Travel the first time in October. Travel the second time in December or later. Please, some time this year!!!

March Numbers

2010-03-10T07:00:00.001-08:00

I got a call yesterday from our case worker, updating us on our new numbers!

As of yesterday, our waitlist numbers are:

GIRLS LIST:

BOYS LIST:

SIBLINGS:

We haven't moved as quickly as we had hoped. Our case worker said that moving 3-4 numbers per month is average, which would mean we might not get our referral until July! The courts in Ethiopia close in August and September so if don't get our referral until July, we would have to wait until October to go to court. Even if we passed court the first time (only about 50% pass the first time, from what I'm hearing), we wouldn't be able to travel until about a month after we pass court. We're looking at November/December to travel!!

I said before that I wanted to travel this summer while Andy was out of school -- now I just want to travel sometime in 2010!!

Trying to stay patient here...

Creating a Nursery

2010-02-28T10:53:00.001-08:00

So we finally started on the nursery. We've cleared out the room and painted on a coat of primer. Here was the room before the transformation -- we used it as our office:

Now our office has been moved to the smallest upstairs bedroom and it is a dark gray, which I love. This is the only part of the office I can show (the rest is piled with stuff during this painting process):

Yesterday we started painting the nursery...

Even Bela helped...

Below is the nursery now. Not quite finished, eh? I don't know how I feel about the color (this is just the primer, but the actual color we chose is very close). It might be a little too bright for my taste...

It looks kind of yellow in that picture, but it's actually a bright sage/celery green. Here's a picture of the bedding we've chosen:

Very fitting for our "star in the sky." We get our new numbers next week, I hope! Keep your fingers crossed for a lot of movement up the list!

Notice of Favorable Determination

2010-02-15T11:12:00.000-08:00

We received our Notice of Favorable Determination from USCIS on Friday!!! Our USCIS fingerprints were taken on December 14th, so it only took two months from then. We are approved to adopt a child from Ethiopia! Now we just need our referral...

2010-02-09T15:05:00.001-08:00

Well it was a snow day today for Andy, not me. But I never work too much when Andy's off (it's a good excuse to stay home). We finally picked a paint color for the nursery at Lowe's -- it's somewhere between sage and celery green, so I hope it looks ok on the walls! I'll post a picture when the nursery is finished! I have a feeling it won't be for a while though!

First Blog EVER

2010-02-07T07:09:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I'm going to try my hand at this whole blogging thing. I figure I need to do SOMETHING to make this wait go by faster. We got our new waitlist numbers on Friday and they are:

Boy's list: #18

Girl's list: #29

Siblings: #13

Soo, while we've moved a lot on the list, we still have a ways to go. I'm trying to stay patient. Andy's doing a much better job than me.

Today is Superbowl Sunday, so we're going to Ben & Loren's house today to root for the COLTS!

Go Colts!