Sixteen!!!

Well, I finally have some adoption news to report. I found out today that I am number 49 on the overall waitlist and 16 people are ahead of me with overlapping or similar child requests. Just to recap we are open to a little boy ages 0-36 months.
Out of that 16 people some are open to the same request as us but others will accept a boy or a girl and some will only accept under 12, 18 or 24 months. So, it still really doesn't mean much. However, in this process I will take what info I can get.
If you look on the right side of my blog my ticker says we have been officially waiting for two months today and my agency quotes a 1-10 month wait which is really broad so it doesn't really help. Someone from my agency posted that our agency told her they are giving referrals to mid June/July waiters now. That means they have waited around 4-5 months. Ideally, I am hoping that we receive a referral in enough time to get through court before they close for rainy season (typically Aug.- Oct.). But, I am trying to just relax and be patient. I would rather be pleasantly surprised than devastated. And, I have been stalking peoples blogs that were going through this process since summer of '07 so you can bet that I know how fast things can change in international adoption.
But, today I am happy to be lucky number 16!!!

171 Approval & Welcome to the Program Phone Meeting!!!

I am happy to say that I finally have moved on to a new stage in my adoption process and we are now an official waiting family. Our agency uses the date on our 171 (ours was 9/30/09) so I have in fact been waiting 1 whole month today.
Mike and I had a phone meeting yesterday with our case manager at WACAP. We discussed details about the program (nothing really new), and we gave her our preference on gender and age. We decided to request a boy 12-30 months and that we would like to be considered for a boy up to 36 months. I was hoping to get something out of her as far as where we fall on the infamous list... but alas I got nothing. I have to call in 4 weeks and then I will be given some kind of an idea. So, here it is. I am waiting.

More Halloween Fun!!!

Pumpkin patches and trick or treats have been our theme this month as we visited the pumpkin patch not once but twice this month and spent another day at Disneyland. We have been having so much fun together... and I am excited about the fall weather rolling in (although as I type it is a blasted 86 degrees outside).
I love this time of year (or I will once it gets cold) when the air is crisp and you can bundle up with your favorite hot beverage. Plus, there are so many fun things to do together!!! I am looking forward to trick or treating, my boys birthdays next month, our family trip, thanksgiving and xmas. And, I am even more excited because yesterday we were "officially" accepted into our placement agencies Ethiopia program, and my dossier is done and being mailed back to me from Sacramento and our 171 arrived approved since 9/30/09 which is the date our agency uses as the date we began waiting. So, this year I am even more excited about all the upcoming events bc it will keep my mind off the wait (hopefully) and it is possible that next year we will be doing these same events as a complete family with our new child. So, I am settling in for fall and the long anticipated wait for my new son!!!

Yesterday was a good day.
I received my home study after picking it up from the post office (it was lost but now it is found). Then to my surprise when I got home I had my last document for my dossier and my notice of favorable determination for my 171... Hip Hip Hooray!!!!!
So, my documents are now on their way to Sacramento to a courier who will walk them in to be authenticated and then mail them back to me... and my notarized Home Study is on its way to Wacap so I can soon be Officially Waiting!!! Of course there is a decent size check I have to write in between those stages... but it feels good to be moving on to the next phase. I am hoping the holidays keep me crazy busy so the wait is manageable.

Almost there...

I am going crazy lately. You see my home study is done and immigration received their notarized copy... but my copy for myself and the one I need notarized for my agency are M.I.A.!!!! I told my social worker I would be patient until this Friday (she mailed it on Sept. 23rd) and then I would need new ones sent to me. But, today my patience is gone and I just want to drive to their office and pick up new copies.
In the meantime I have been trying to not drive my doctor too crazy b/c he had to re-do our medical certificates b/c his notary did not put the proper language on the form for my dossier. I was nervous after I called and emailed him with no response. But, today he emailed me that he was available and had the new document ready if a notary could be there today. I grabbed my phone (thank goodness for the iphone) and I was able to find a notary experienced with dealing with international adoption paperwork and who would accept a paypal payment b/c the doctor was nearly 2 hours away from me at his hospital today. And, the mission was a success!!!! Whew...
So, once my home study makes it to me I can finally send everything to be authenticated. Keep your fingers crossed that the authentication process goes smoothly. Man o' man am I nervous about sticking all this paperwork in the mail. But, at least I am feeling a little closer. A quick side note I started listening to the basic amharic cd in my car today. But, for some reason the only thing that I can recall learning is "I am your mommy". It's okay though I have a long wait ahead of me so hopefully I will learn more in the meantime.

Weekend Catch Up

I don't know where time goes... but I have a lot of catching up to do. We wasted no time getting into the Halloween spirit this year starting with a visit to Disneyland on the first night of their Halloween festivities. The place was packed but we still managed to have a good time!!!

And, this past weekend we did a little brick or treating. As you can see my kids are readily getting my $5 worth on the orange t-shirts. They want to wear them every time we do anything Halloween :)

The kids were thrilled that they were able to change into their actual costumes in the evening to go back in to Legoland for the actual trick or treating.

Adoption Update:
USCIS received our Home Study... YAY!!! But, my copies I think are lost in the mail... BOO!!!
I have to re-do 1 document for my dossier then I can get everything aucthenticated. I am approaching my goal date of Oct. 15th which is when I wanted to be done with the dossier. I am keeping my fingers crossed. Good news is that our agency uses the uscis stamped date for the date you are officially starting your wait. Come on 171H!!!

Happy October!!!

Characters

We went to Disneyland this past weekend to celebrate the last day of summer vacation and we ran into Frozone. I was pretty excited to see him especially after just running across this...I always wondered when Disney was going to have a black princess. There was a Native (Pocahontas), a Hawaiian (Lilo), an Asian (Mulan), and a Middle Eastern (Jasmine). Plus, they had represented multiple hair colors with Belle, Tink etc... But, never a black princess. This is Princess Tiana, and she will be in the new princess and the pea movie opening this December.
I would say its about time :)

Some Random Thoughts...

This picture has nothing to do with my post.
I just like the colorspash app. way too much on my iphone :)

I have some stuff I want to talk about so here goes... I really feel like adoption is a lot like pregnancy except only to me and my husband and not the rest of the world.

Like right now I feel like I am at the stage where I just found out that I am pregnant. You know the excitement, joy, etc... You start thinking about the future, looking at the calendar trying to figure out when you are going to meet them, what they will look like, if you can love them as much as the children you already have.

It is interesting because we announced to our family back in May that we were planning on adopting. We received a couple (literally we have a ton of fam and friends and I think maybe 2) emails, phone calls with excitement but mostly silence. I think people don't understand why we would adopt when we have already had three children. And, we have boys and a girl so we aren't doing it to get a certain gender etc... I know that if we had told them we were pregnant it would have been a whole different story. It seems to get even quieter when they learn that we are adopting from Ethiopia.

Anyhoo, we keep going through the process (which hasn't been very eventful yet) and we try to talk about it sometimes with the silent ones... but nothing. I have been okay with it but as we are nearing being done with paperwork and moving on to the waiting I feel like I am sad that there is no excitement. With my agency they said plan on a 1-10 month wait once your dossier is completed. I am almost done with the paperwork and then I figure I just have to wait (just like pregnancy) to at least see the face of my sweet new little boy. I had to wait with the other 3 for nine months so I can do this. Plus, because our age range is pretty broad it may even be a little shorter. I am ready to get excited people.

This is just another fantabulous (fantastic and fabulous together) reason why I love love love all the support I receive from blogland, facebook, and all the other adoption support groups. You guys share the excitement with me and help me deal with the fact that my friends and family most likely won't be joining in on the excitement for sometime.

If anyone out there has been in my shoes do you have any tips for me? And, at some point does the silence turn into excitement???

And, We're Back!!!

Woo-Hoo!!!
Okay so I took the summer off of adoption talk to make sure that I was confident and prepared- as much as one could be for the process. And, I say I b/c Hubby needed no said break :) But, I had some worries about finances, how my three kids would handle an edition, and I also had a hard time with all the choices available when you adopt.
When you get pregnant there is no choosing. You get what you get so to speak. There are no discussions on if you can help a child learn a new language or if you think a 4 year old would be able to bond with you. You don't worry about disrupting birth order or explaining your adoption choice with your family members.
So, after a few months off I discovered what I knew all along and what my husband never doubted and that is that we are adopting, and we are adopting not to save a child or to fill some empty void... but much more simply to have one more loving sweet face at our dinner table. We are adding an edition that will bring us joy and yes sometimes pain. We are bringing a new child with which comes a whole new dynamic for our family and we are THRILLED out of our minds to meet them someday.
With my time off I lost some ground on my paperwork etc... So, now I am trying to make up for lost time and scramble to get all my paperwork for the dossier done. Whew... it is a lot of paperwork. I also have to finish my classes for my home study. I have a lot to do before my busy season at work starts next month. And, I need to get this all done quickly b/c I am worried about my adoption being finalized before the tax credit ends at the end of 2010 (in case it is not renewed).
With that said, if any of you have tips on getting this paperwork done in a hurry I would love to hear 'em.

Coincidence??

I haven't talked much about adoption lately b/c Hubby and I were taking a break from the idea... trying to make sure that it was the best choice for our family, trying to figure out the finances etc... But, as many adoptive parents will attest sometimes adoption is not really something we choose. It is more of a path that was laid out for us.
For some reason adoption was placed in our hearts a long long time age, for some reason we both vocalized that inner voice and agreed that we needed to do something about it. And, for some reason every time we try to turn away or change course some huge sign comes out of nowhere and hits us both (honestly we have had numerous moments where we felt like we were in Evan Almighty-- those kinds of signs). For example (small example here b/c it just happened) Hubby and I have always talked about adopting a boy. We toy with age but never gender. Until today in the car I turned to him and asked him if he was still thinking boy b/c for the past few days I had been contemplating the possibility of a girl. To my surprise (b/c when we started the process he was adamant about a boy) he turned to me and said he had been thinking the same thing. I didn't think much of that conversation as it ended there and I figured the boys just had a lot of energy at the aquarium and we were tired (as some of you experienced parents of boys know-- they have the tendency to tire you out). But, then tonight (or I guess this morning) I woke up at 3am and could not sleep. I finally came downstairs after tossing and turning got onto my computer to research some fun stuff to do when Hubby and I go away for la-la love weekend (our anniversary) next weekend. But, instead I end up at one of my adoption support groups and I come across a woman from my agency's blog here who has just returned with her new daughter from Ethiopia. Guess what she has two biological sons and a biological daughter (who happens to be named *** too) and they are the same ages as my bunch. It got me thinking maybe a girl would be good? Anyhoo, my question to you is... Is there really a reason these types of things happen? Should I ignore them? Think of them as coincidence even though I have a loooong list of "coincidences"???
Going back to the yard sale woman who questioned why I am choosing to adopt from Ethiopia... I don't know that I did "choose" the path I am on.
I do not consider myself any sort of super parent, nor do I think that financially this is a walk in the park. I can tell you there are moments the three children I have exhaust me. Not to mention the stress of others telling you all the reasons our "decision" to adopt does not make any sense. However, I am pressing forward as I feel I can not sit and doubt in the dark what has been shown to me in the light.
If you have a similar experience lay 'em on me. How did you respond to your coincidences?

Mother's Day Weekend & Agency Change

My Mother's Day was a blast!!!
We spent the night at a beautiful relaxing resort (okay maybe not relaxing with 3 kids) but we definitely had a lot of fun. I love all of the creative games the kids (and yes that includes Hubby) can come up with i.e. the race above... is Captain's face not hilarious...lol.
And, we also made a big decision in our adoption plans. We decided to change placement agencies. This was a hard decision to make, but Hubby and I are very confident in our decision and we are excited about the direction we are going. I will post more about the change and the new agency a little later.
Happy Belated Mothers Day to all the mommies and mommies in waiting out there!!!

It's been awhile :)

So, a lot has been going on over here. We are almost through our spring season at work, helping schools get donations, Captain's basketball, Cuddlebear's singing, school end of the year mumbo jumbo, home study paperwork, moving our work office, my doctors and dentist appt.'s... ugh!!!

So, we took a few weeks off of adoption- schmoption to see where things were going with our current agency and to see if a switch was needed (we are still trying to figure this one out). This led to us realizing that summer is here and we will have to move slower through our paperwork process the next few months b/c our summer funds get a little tight (ahhh.. the seasonal business). I am still working on a yard sale for those who so graciously said you could donate some of your used stuff... I am thinking sometime in June. But, with the slow down means our 3-Day Weekends Full of Fun are coming... hip hip hooray.

Hubby and I started this last year and it is fantastic. We take Fridays off the entire summer and we do day trips around our state and little night stays here and there. I am so excited b/c we get a little sneak peek at the summer get-aways this weekend because we are going away for Mother's Day. I can't wait!!!! I feel like we get so much closer with the kids and we really all bond and re-connect as a family. And, the great thing is there are so many ways to do this on a tight budget. We bring snacks, food, & our ice chest from home. We already have all our beach/ outside toys that we bring with us. We stop at my fav place Trader Joes and pick up pre-made sandwiches etc... near our beach or hotel. And, it is so much fun when you look up local beaches and parks online (yelp helps). Being a tourist in your own town and its surrounding community has so many perks... you should try it!!! I could not believe how many places were an hour away and yet I had never traveled to them before.

As I have been trying to step back from the adoption process I sort of stepped away from my blog too. Which is why I may have overcompensated with some cute pics of the kiddos below. I think my kids are so darn cute... so YES I know I am "that" mom :) Oh, well... at least hopefully the grandparents will enjoy!!!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!!