They Moved the Window?

Six families are in Ethiopia collecting their new family members this week!

We are anticipating a conference call with our program director next Friday. That should be interesting! It is to answer the many questions that families have and to share developments with us.

Here is this week's update from America World:

America World Received 2 referrals for the last week of February. The DTE (Dossier Submitted to Ethiopia date) for referrals in February is as follows.
Sibling group under 5: May 11, 2007
Female infant: July 18, 2007
Male Infant: September 20, 2007
Based on the new referrals, the wait time for infant girls is 7-9 months, for infant boys 5-7 months and the wait time for sibling group under five is 9-12 months.

Our dossier was submitted October 5, so our 5th month of waiting will pass next Wednesday. According to this information, we should receive our referral in the next two months. Will we have our referral by May 5? Stay tuned...

Getting Ready for a Baby!

Recently, I've been thinking about all of the things that we need to do to get ready for our new little one...

I made a spreadsheet with our adoption expenses -what we have paid and what is looming in the near future. I don't want to think about that anymore! That is a matter of prayer!

Our Yahoo! group has been discussing bottles, and I had forgotten that baby bottles were toxic. Most commonly-used bottles leach BPA into the milk which can affect hormones and development. (Link to plastics guide here!) Having only used bottles part-time for the first 3 weeks of Jeremy's life almost 10 1/2 years ago, this is pretty foreign to me, and I'm praying that our baby will just nurse. LJ has some glass bottles for me to use also.

Although, we'll most likely co-sleep with our new baby as we have our homemade ones, my sister loaned us crib, and it is set up. I've tucked in my $3 Dollar General Store baby, "Elijah," to sleep in it, but unfortunately, I've also piled clothes on it as it is conveniently located next to my side of the bed!

We've got closets to clean out and and a garage sale for which to gear up! I guess I'm feeling like nesting a bit! We've got to make room for the new guy! So much to do!!!

~*~*~Happy Birthday, David!~*~*~

Cousin-in-law?

Earlier this month, I emailed William's cousin's wife, Trisha, to wish her a happy birthday, and she mentioned that her cousin, Delisa, was adopting from Ethiopia also. It just so happens, that a woman named Delisa is in our agency's Ethoipian adoption Yahoo! group! Now, how many people named "Delisa" would be adopting from Ethiopia at the moment? She is the ONE!

As I figure it, William is first cousins with Aaron, and Delisa is first cousins with Trisha, and Aaron and Trisha are married to each other making William and Delisa "first cousins-in-law!" :-D

Delisa and her husband, Phil, have 4 children and are adopting a sibling group of 3! (Hats off to them!) They will be traveling soon! Follow their journey to Ethiopia here!

Annika's Arm Update

Annika got her cast off yesterday. We knew that her bones had shifted after the cast was put on, so I knew that her arm would not be perfectly straight.

After the cast was cut off, I couldn't look for a bit. The technician said that it was more bowed than normal, and I made myself look. It is quite bowed. I tried to hide the tears from Annika.

Annika has good range of motion in her arm, is using her it already, and is happy to have her cast off. She hasn't noticed that it doesn't look like the other one or that anything may be wrong.

The doctor continues to assure me that in "a few" months her arm will look "normal" again. Please, pray that her arm will grow straight and strong and that we won't have any more issues with it.

I am so over the broken arm drama.

Sunday Scones

As a family in America World's Ethiopia program, we had opportunity to join a Yahoo! group with families who are in the same process. William and I both joined right away and have found the group to be an excellent source of information and encouragement! (We sometimes even discuss LOST!)

A few weeks ago, one of the members sent her scone recipe, and Sunday scones began. We can have breakfast "together" and think of and pray for each other.

This morning William made chocolate chip scones, and we drank Ethiopian coffee with them. YUM!

Happy Sunday!

Paper Me!

Marissa has been dying for me to sit down and play with her paper doll book for quite some time. Today, I plopped down in the floor. I was allowed to choose the outfit and tape them to the body. Then Marissa promptly found and added the babies. It is me with Ethiopian twins -a boy and a girl!

We have officially requested a boy between 0-24 months OR a boy and a sibling in the same age range which would cover boy twins or boy and girl twins or the unlikely sibling set with both under 2 years but not twins.

Both Marissa & Annika are clinging to the very remote possibility that we'll get them a baby brother AND a baby sister! I say if God wants that for our family, it will happen, but from down here, it doesn't look like it will.

I *know* that they will LOVE their baby brother like crazy!

I'm planning on making a batch of SILKS this weekend. We also have an address to send a tax deductible contribution to assist with our agency fees and travel expenses if anybody would like... Just email us, and we'll send you the information. Thanks!

Also, our friends, the Tennants, are selling the *BEST* caramel corn we've ever tasted! Click here to read about and buy some caramel corn to help support their adoption!

Annika's cast comes off next Wednesday! It sure does STINK! She's a trooper!

The Circus!!!

WE LOVE THE CIRCUS!

This year was our favorite tour of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus! The red unit was in town which meant it was a ~BELLOBRATION!!~ starring Bello the clown! He is great!

(William's manager told him not to volunteer for anything because according to the back of the ticket, if he broke his arm, they wouldn't be responsible!)

Before the show began, we were able to hang out on the floor and watch some performers up close. The kids got to try on some costumes (see photo), and we watched Asia the elephant paint. Annika was a bit afraid of the clowns except for one with pigtails and a tutu of whom she declared, "She is beautiful."



Marissa and Annika really loved the tigers. They were especially fond of one white tiger named "Princess." The dogs were a hit with them and Mema too.

This was Annika's first circus. She asked for EVERYTHING she saw pass by! (and got nothing!) After it got going though, she was on the edge of her seat just enthralled by it all! I loved watching her face!

Jeremy enjoyed the clowns, and I made sure that he understood that he was not to EVER build a huge ramp and jump with his bike!

I loved being sprayed with a confetti canon! It rained confetti for quite some time!

Thanks Grandma Jo!

"4 to 7-Month Wait"

Here we are! We are officially in the window of time in which we were told that our child(ren) *should* be referred to us! Yesterday, we hit 4 months! Our 4-7 month window is from February 5 to June 5, so sometime during the next three months, we *should* get our wonderful news!

Last night, I had a dream that we hadn't received a referral, but I got a letter giving us a court date of November 11. I was so excited to have a court date, although it did occur to me that this was very far out and after the rainy season even... I was crying and so happy to have the hope of getting our child home!

We are praying for the 7 families with their children's cases in court this week, and we know that more referrals are to come in February.

Update 2/6/08: 2 families with 4 children made it though court today!

February?

We are having crazy, beautiful weather here! The kids are getting a lot more outside time since they don't have to bundle up. Tomorrow, Tuesday, it is supposed to be over 70! However, it may rain, but that is OK since we are so far behind in our rainfall. (LOOK! Jeremy is on his scooter!)

I found out today that 3 families got referrals last week bringing the total for January up to 4! Our AWAA program director says that more are on the way for February. We really don't think that we'll hear anything this month since there are so many still ahead of us. We are hopeful to hear good news about the grant for which we applied from Shoahannah's Hope. Please, pray that we get a BIG one!



Here are the "gnomes" that I have been knitting since -I really don't remember! I wanted to make some brown and tan dolls for the little ones that are coming from Ethiopia. I hope to have one for each of the children in our travel group and some extra to leave at the transition home with the little ones there. I bought some lavender and red yarn yesterday to make some more!!

Happy 4th Birthday, Bennybennybenben!