Better Attitude!

Well as the holidays are winding down my attitude is better!  We have our fingerprint appointment next Friday! So that wraps up our paperwork (well depending on what the changes to the Dossier authentication process are!) 
My new hope is that by February we will be parents in waiting!  I am trying to decide how we can do our countdown- would love any thoughts and suggestions ( I have seen the post it's, the chalkboard, the drawings...)
We have our niece and nephew coming today and they have a 9 month old little boy! So I am super excited about this- but also anticipating seeing what all we need to change in our house to accommodate little ones!!! I am sure a list of stuff to do/change will be in the works!!!
I am also starting my training of my 2nd half marathon- this will be great and a good thing to keep my mind a bit more sane!

I am so enjoying seeing every one's Christmas posts/pics!
Happy New Years dear blog friends!

Normal Feelings?

I have not written in awhile, matter of fact I have not been on the blog much at all.  Been a bit bummed lately, we still are not completed with our paperwork process and I really expected to be by now.  This just means I have to add even more time to our "wait" time. I know that Gods plan is bigger than I will ever know, but...sometimes it is so hard.  I want nothing more than to be a mom and well it is just not time yet I suppose! Normally seeing all the families and seeing what is going on really brings me joy, but lately I feel more sad and jealous, especially with the holidays.   I am trying to move forward with it and take advantage of "my" time before that becomes a thing of the past but really I am ready to not have this time!! I am sure some moms are going to save this and send it to me in a few years when I am begging for 5 minutes of alone time!  I do wish everyone out there a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  I hope those waiting will get a blessing from Santa ( Meg, Jenny, Kwatkins...) and for Jennifer just waiting to pick up her littles ones- a quick trip and continue to have fun shopping!!  And those that have their little ones that bring me joy to hear the stories and see the pictures have a great holiday and I look forward to the posts!

dreams

I had a dream last night that when I spoke to my social worker today, she told me she had to children waiting for us, an infant girl and a toddler boy.  She was encouraging us to speed up the process as fast as we could.

Well, I did speak with our social worker today and well no such luck!  As far as speeding up...If I was not so organized with all of this it would be going much slower!  Our paper process is coming to an end slowly and hopefully our home study will be approved this week and we can send in the I-600 by the end of the week. 

But back to the dream, it was the first time I had a dream like this and it felt so real, yesterday I prayed for God to let our children know we are out here and we will be with them soon, maybe this was their response...I hope I get these dreams often!

I also was able to speak to a reference family today regarding their adoption, what an amazing story I got to hear, we both cried and laughed and you would have thought we had known each other for years.  What a true blessing!
I pray for all of you that have your referrals and are awaiting travel  and pray today for all of us awaiting the special day of our referral!

need more advice!

As Duane and I finish up our home study (finally...) and begin the last link in our paperwork journey we are thinking about changing our age range, we are currently at 0-4 sibling group, and thinking of changing it to 0-6.  There are many reasons we are thinking about this, but I would love to hear from anyone that has adopted siblings in this age range and can tell us some real life things to think about.  We currently have no kids but have a great deal of experience of being around kids.  I know 4 & 6 are much different and that our "4" yr old could be 6 and our 6 yr old could be 8....love to hear from my friends out there.  If you don't know but know someone please pass this along!  thanks!!

Homestudy

Well tomorrow starts our home study!  I am very excited!!  I am trying to figure out (asking advice!!) do I balance this, the I-600 and the dossier now?  I know I will ask the agency but curious of how others did it!

On a fun note, I woke up at 2:30 this morning not sure why, but then I laid their daydreaming about picking up my little ones!!  Will they be boys, girls, one of each???  How old...all the good stuff!  I then realized that I have to make sure that someone is at the airport to take pictures....yes I know I am WAY ahead of myself, but I enjoy the thoughts!!

Baking...Dossier...

So last night I went to bed, ready to fall right asleep and then it hit me...I don't bake...I cook meals and I can open a mix and make a cake and properly cook ready to bake cookies, but I don't bake from scratch.  I began to panic, what will I bake for my kids, I want to be the kind of  mom that makes homemade goodies, my grandmother always had cake, my mom had cookies and monkey bread, my mother-in-law to this day makes peanut butter candy and yummy ice cream cake...so I lay there thinking, what will I learn...I have time and so all these different ideas ran through my head and then I panicked again!  Called my mom tonight she laughed and so no worries!  She told me that when women get pregnant they get the "mom" hormones, and that mine might be starting and that when I see my babies the hormones will go into over drive and the baking will come naturally!!! We laughed, definitely made me feel better!!

So we have officially heard from our social worker!  She cannot meet us until end of October...ugh...but at least we have one and are continuing to move forward! I continue to remind myself this is on Gods time not mine!  Our kids don't need us yet! Going to start of the dossier as well- I am completely intimidated by it! But need to get ahead of it. 

I Love You Through and Through

Well I did it! bought my first kids item! I bought a book! Kind of a celebration that our paperwork is complete and our Social Worker should be assigned this week.

As I was thumbing through books and landed on the book- I love you through and through. It is just the cutest little book.  I cannot wait to read it to my little ones! It is a simple book so I am going to translate it in Amharic.  There are a few Ethiopians I work with and see if they can help me!

  A step closer!

Checking the list off!

Well we are making progress here!

Restored Doors and Windows on front of house-check! not us but the fabulous contractors!
Kitchen painted- check! two days but walls and cabinets look great
Fire Marshall inspection- check!
Water and Sewer inspection- check in about an hour!

Bio- NOT check- I am really struggling with this, I am half way through and stuck, I know it does not need to be flowery and they want the story of my life, but...it is not easy and it HAS to get done today! It is the deadline I have given myself we are turning it in tomorrow so today is my only choice!! But here I am creating a blog of nothing instead of focusing on it!

On another note, I want to buy something, anything that resembles us starting a family, but what would I buy, I am not sure how old or what sex our kids will be, but I feel like I need to have something to start feeling that "fun" part, I am thinking maybe books- no matter the ages they will need books, sweet fun books.   My mom has started knitting blankets she feels the same way I think!  She said she cant stop!!  I think I will have a suitcase full for the orphanage as well!!

I know today's blog is full of "nothing" but felt compelled to share my nothings!

house prep

In anticipation of expanding our family and because it just needs it, we are in the process of fixing up our house.  Just another thing to keep us busy! It is fun though to watch the progress as our house is over a 120 years old!  I am starting to realize all my decisions need to be based on the fact that hopefully in the next year we will have little ones running around, so looking more at cotton curtains, washable paint...not that we can't have nice things but want to be realistic as well! 

Paperwork will be done by Friday and the home study can start!  That is if the Dr.'s office can find my paperwork that they could not seem to find today...ugh...relying on other people with this process is not fun!  So tomorrow I get to track down there and not leave until they find it, should be fun!

Not much else happening in our world as we are in the holding pattern until the home study begins! 

will I be out of line?

More and more I am seeing what I think are parents who have adopted Ethiopian/African children, at the grocery store, last week in target, even customers where I work!  First I am so excited and thinking that will be us soon!  Then I think can I go say something, can I ask them questions, can I hear their experience????  This is what I am putting out to the blog world, can I ask? if so how? I do not want it to come out wrong! As we are getting more into the process I just want to know more, these blogs are fantastic for that, but if there are people living in my city that have been through-it would be amazing!!  So I ask what do I do? Do I leave it alone and just know one day that will be me or can I please approach!!

Clothes...

I worked all weekend in the children's department and all I could initially think about was all the items that I wanted to buy my future kids!  At first I was excited about all the different pieces I could buy them.  Then I got thinking wow my kids are out there right now, somewhere and they are probably needing the t-shirt I am folding, or the dress I am hanging.  Where are my kids right now? Are they still with their mom? are the in the orphanage?  Do they know, even at their little tiny age that we are out there and we will have them here soon. I know that God has us all picked out for each other!  I cannot wait to meet these little ones, to keep them safe and hold them tight!  Soon my children we will be there!  We don't know you but we love you already!

First Post

This is my first post!  My husband and I have begun the journey of adoption, and I have been reading so many blogs of families that have or are adopting from Ethiopia that I decided I would start one as well!  They are very therapeutic to read and look forward to the same for writing them! 

We are in the middle of the process with the paperwork piece, trying to get it all completed so we can begin our home study.  I am ready for the home study process to begin, it will mean one step closer to having a family!  I look forward to comments, advice and thoughts as we begin this journey!