One Month Down

Well today marks one month since we became officially waiting! Here is how I am tracking it!

March-April

April- May

May- June

June- July

July-August

August-September

September-October

October-November

November-December

December-January

January-February

February-March

March-April

 It was a quick month being the first month!
With everything going on the past two months with ET adoptions I had been pretty emotional about everything, but I feel very confident as of now.  I do say "as of now" I am sure things could change, but I am trying to stay positive on this!  We had so may difficulties in just getting our paperwork completed, that I refuse to take on more stress.  This needs to be a fun time in our lives!  So that is what we am making it!

I have my half-marathon in a month! Yeah! this is my 2nd one and I am trying to improve my time by 36 minutes!  Plus I signed up to do the Trek Across Maine- that is 3 days on a bike!!  It is for the Lung Cancer Association.

Duane and I have a vacation in 2 months! Beach here we come!!!

My mom has started making things for the kids rooms!  I am really excited about this!!!  I have not bought anything in awhile...hmmm I need to get on this!!

Here is to another great month!!!

Been a long week!

With all the news coming out on ET and the changes they anticipate they need to make it has been a long week.  A lot of emotions have happened here in our house.  Unsure of what to do, we have talked to our caseworker twice- she has been GREAT!! 
We have decided to wait it out!  ET was our country of choice from the beginning, we did not even research any other country.  Our children are there and it make take 1 year or 3 to get them home, but we are going to wait.  I imagine over the next year or so I am going to have a range of emotions but I know this is the right decision for us.  The only other piece we would consider down the road will be to increase the age range or WH children.  We will see on that and keep those options open.  But for now we wait- oh yeah by the way still have not received our official wait document for our dossier- so we are still not waiting!!

I know there are a lot of folks like us out there in limbo...go with your heart- wherever it takes you is the right place!

every little step counts!

So I was going to rename the blog to paperwork mess up!!  But through all the ups and downs with our paperwork we are getting it back from authentication tomorrow!!  Yep- that is right, meaning that we will be sending the paperwork to WHFC tomorrow afternoon!!  OMG!!  We are about to be waiting- we will actually be waiting in a few weeks (not sure how long it takes from them receiving to us officially waiting).

A bit of fun we are going to have for Easter though....Duane and I are light on celebrating holidays we don't live close to family and well some of the holidays we just do not go crazy on so I decided we needed to practice being better at this so when our little ones come home to us we are ready to go!!  So I decided I am going to put in a hat- papers that are labeled girl or boy with ages 1 to 4- we are each going to draw one and then create Easter baskets for them!!!  I am very excited about this!  I know kinda cheesy but should be a lot of fun to see what we each come up with!!! 

Adopting from where we were called...

When my husband and I decided to adopt (almost a year ago) there was very little discussion of where we were going to adopt from.  There was discussion but we knew we were called to Ethiopia, everything pointed to that Country.  As we have been telling people throughout the past 8 months we have had some surprises, some people were concerned with the interracial piece, but nothing that I did not expect.  Overall people were very supportive.  Then it came this weekend, I got myself into a conversation that wanted to make me explode...

I was at work and talking with one of my subordinates  ( I specify this to that you all understand why I did not blow a gasket!) and he was unaware that I was adopting, so as I was telling me he said "Please tell me you are adopting in the US" and I said no we are adopting from Ethiopia.  He then went on to tell me that -I was wrong for doing that, that we should take care of our "own kind" first- I replied that ALL children that are orphans need a home and that human beings are "our kind", but he kept going...stating that all these people who adopt internationally are WRONG that we do not need to worry about other Countries children.  I just stood there in awe, I could not believe what I was hearing, he wasn't irate or heated, but just so matter of fact about it.  Being this was occurring at work and I am his boss, I turned and walked away. 
I just don't understand how people can be so closed minded.  Everyone has a calling when it comes to children, some people don't want children, some want 10, some will adopt, some will only birth and some will do both. When it comes to adoption you do choose, you choose country, health, age, siblings or not...it is so hard to make those choices it is not as easy as when you get pregnant.  So for people to judge where your going to adopt your children...
I am still fired up about this and need to move on, it is his issue not mine but...I don't do well with stupidity!

Happy Valentines Day from UCIS!!

It has been determined that we are able to furnish proper care to an orphan(s)... YIPPEEE-
Just got off the phone with Ray in DC- authentication going out tomorrow
Sent an email to WHFC- looks like we could be "waiting" with NOTHING to do in the next two weeks!!!  (barring some crazy paperwork snafu!!- I am prepared for it!!)
How AWESOME!!! 

Timing

Ok- so no one told me that adoption time was like football time.  You know how a football game would only be about 50 minutes if there were not so many timeouts, commercials....that is how I feel adoption time is...Duane got his fingerprints completed a week ago and the lady at USCIS told us when he got them she would have results in 48 hours...guess what still NO results...ugh we leave town tomorrow for 9 nine days and now no paperwork on the way to authentication...booooooo.

Is there anyway to check my status online??? 

Update

Happy Wednesday!
Fingerprint update- an officer from USIS called Duane on Monday asking why she had my fingerprints but not his! He told her the story and she said call her after we leave so she can expedite and she should have them in 48 hours...does this mean she will have it all done???? Could we be a week (if they can get his print on Friday) away from authentication!!!  Can anyone give me a rough timeline after authentication and I send it all to ET about how long it took before you knew you were "waiting"???  Could we possibly be waiting by March?  I don't want to get to hopeful as there are still so many things that can go awry but...

 As I sit here and watch the snow I have been excitedly looking at all the formula that is coming in!  The drive is going very well!  Wanted to extend to anyone out there....if you want to send any this way I am going to collect for another 2 weeks and then ship to WHFC! 
also for anyone out there who would prefer to do clothing just a GREAT tip- LL Bean is having 30% off their sale items starting tomorrow!!  I work there and I am anxiously awaiting so I can gather as much as possible for the kids out there! 

Here's to a great day- and maybe being a month away from waiting!