Timeline

A quick timeline of our adoption journey so far (if I could figure out how to add it to the side I would...I'll enlist help from someone eventually):

February 2010 - Started adoption process
September 3, 2010 - On wait list
October 2011- Go on hold
March 10, 2012 - Off hold, back on wait list (adjusted wait list date)
March 1, 2013 - Referral
March 20, 2013 - File submitted to court
April 8, 2013 - Found out MOWCYA court date scheduled for May 24, 2013
May 16, 2013 - Found out MOWCYA court date changed to May 21, 2013
May 22, 2013 - Birth relative relinquished, no MOWCYA letter
June 4, 2013 - MOWCYA letter in file, court date scheduled for June 7, 2013
June 7, 2013 - Passed court

Referral!!

We got our referral!! I can't believe I'm actually typing the words. It seems like it's been so long coming that I never thought I would be able to say it! WE GOT OUR REFERRAL!!! 

He's a beautiful little boy that I am already madly in love with even though I've only seen a handful of pictures of him and never met him in person or heard his voice. 

Here's how March 1, 2013 went: 

What a very ordinary Friday it was going to be. I was going to drive to Lynden for work (about a 2 hour drive from my house) to find meters that had no addresses attached to them. BOR-ING!!! I was even wearing sweats because I knew I would literally be driving all day long and really, who was going to see me and who cared what I looked like? 

Just as we're getting ready to walk out the door (I was taking Madelyn and Nolan to school) my phone rang. It was Brandon. It was 8:57am. We usually leave at 8:56am so I was already feeling the pressure of being late. I answered in a very clipped and hurried way, "Hi." Brandon asked me, "Did you see the email from Lindsay?" I said, "No.....I'm walking out the door to take the kids to school." He said, "Read your email." I, not in a nice way, asked him, "What did it say?" He said, "There is a little boy and she wants to know if we want more info on him." My heart started HAMMERING. WHAT?! Is this it?? It's not how it's supposed to be! We're supposed to get a phone call from Fort Worth, Texas. What in the world?! I literally could not think straight for about 10 seconds. Brandon said, "Just check your email." 

So...I get in the car to drive the kids to school, thinking that I would check my email on my phone as soon as they were out of the car when my phone rang....817 area code - Forth Worth, Texas!!!!! This was it...this was what we'd been waiting so long for!

I answered, "Hello?" I got THE. BEST. GREETING. EVER. "Hi April, this is Lindsay from Gladney and this is your referral day." WA HOO!!!!!!! 

Of course I started crying because I was so happy and then asked if she could call back so that Brandon and I could run home and be on the phone call together. About 1/2 hour later we saw the first pictures of our son and got  his background information and health information. We are so over-the-moon happy I can't even describe it. 

Brandon kept saying it would happen in March. He had a "feeling". My friend Suzi said the same thing. She thought March. They were right! 

I can not wait to meet our little guy and tell him how much I love him. The kids are ecstatic and can't wait to meet him. Just praying now that everything goes smoothly for court and embassy so that we can bring him home and start our new life as a family of 5. Thank you, Jesus, for our new son.

Long time, no talk

Well, it's been quite a while (in fact, nearly a year) since I've written any posts on here. It's not for lack of trying though! I think that's what happens when you have an old computer that takes forever to download pictures. Sometimes it posts and sometimes it doesn't. Oh well.

I will really try to be better about posting though, if for no other reason than my children will have SOME sort of "scrapbook" they can look back to. I am terrible at scrapbooking and keeping photo albums so this will just have to do.

What is new and exciting? Madelyn's in 3rd grade and doing awesome! She was in a drama performance in March and did unbelievably well! We are so proud of her! I'll see if I can somehow post the link to her singing. Nolan is doing quite well in school too. We are so proud of the progress he's made this year. We love his teacher, Mrs. Carrington, and hope that he has the same type of teacher next year.

We are still waiting for a referral for a little boy from Ethiopia. We had put ourselves on hold for quite some time, due to finances but we realized that we weren't putting our faith in God regarding that situation. We do feel led and called to adopt and if we believe that then we have to believe that He will provide for us when the time comes to pony up the cash. Where is our faith, right? I have asked myself that question many times. All I can say that is that we were in a very rough spot and we're slowly coming out of it but that shouldn't matter. We know that we have to be obedient to Christ and we know He called us to this. We will follow Him.

K, so I think I added the link of Madelyn's solo. Hopefully I did it correctly and it works.

Swimming!

Photos courtesy of Krista Schei - thanks, Krista!!

Summer of Fun!

Our summer of fun is just about to start! The kids just got out of school last Friday, June 26th. The first order of business was for the kids to go to Krista's yesterday and today. The kids were thrilled, to say the least! They love going to her house and playing with Will and Katie and Ben. Today they are off to go swimming (pictures will come soon) and then river rafting and demolition derby along with fireworks this weekend! Let the fun begin!

Me too

Last week we had school conferences. Each teacher gave us a portfolio of the kids' work that they had completed for winter quarter. Here is what Madelyn put down for her wish/hope for 2011.

Me too, sweetie....me too.......

Go, Dog. Go!

Working part time has many perks. While I sometimes wish I could quit completely and be a full time stay at home mom I do enjoy my work and the adult time I get, along with getting out of the house and earning a small (very small) income. Plus, I have a nice flexible schedule that allows me to do things with the kids at school, such a field trips and getting to volunteer in their classrooms once/week.

Yesterday I went with Madelyn's class as a chaperone on a field trip to the Seattle Children's Theatre and saw their production of Go, Dog. Go! What a great show! They took a 5 minute book to and turned it into an hour and 30 minute musical. The kids absolutely loved it and I have to say that I was giggling at quite a few parts myself. Nolan's class went as well since all of the 1st grade classes were going but because Madelyn is in a 1st/2nd split her class got to go too. Nolan sat with Madelyn and I during the first half and at intermission went back with his friends and sat with them during the second half.

Anyone that knows me well knows that anything having to do with cars and hitting curbs, or running over something, going too fast and getting mild whiplash when you slam on the brakes....that stuff makes me laugh really hard so the scene in the play where they were driving to the dog party...let's just say it was my favorite part. Brandon asked the kids separately about the play, "How was it?!" They both answered the same, "It was really funny."

Waiting, waiting, waiting

I feel like have been fairly patient and have not gotten riled up over the wait for our referral and even taken in stride the different obstacles that have started to surface regarding our adoption process. I am slowly losing my positive attitude. I am getting frustrated and anxious. What this ultimately means is that I'm not praying enough and giving my worries and anxiousness to God, the One who can handle it and the One who knows what's going on, here and in Ethiopia. I KNOW that His timing is perfect and know that I don't have all the pieces to the puzzle. I do take comfort in knowing that God's hand is all over this and has the perfect plan for our family. Friday will mark 6 months on the waiting list.

The kids are doing well...we are in the throes of selling Girl Scout cookies and Madelyn has been enjoying that. Nolan is in Cub Scouts still and baseball starts in less than a month. Where is the time going?!?

BTW...random thought here...I think that dogs eating chocolate and getting sick from it is a myth. Our dog ate an ENTIRE box of Tagalongs yesterday while we were gone and was fine.

My most favorite time of year

I am absolutely giddy. I love Christmas. I love the music, I love the decorations, I love baking, I love that we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ! It it my most favorite time of year. I feel warm and fuzzy and so incredibly thankful for everything that we have.

As I began decorating this year, which included getting into the attic to get everything down, figuring out where I put stuff, and then trying to somewhat organize where things will go (the kids, mind you, are frantically pulling stuff out trying to find their stockings and their nutcrackers) I am reminded of how blessed I am to be living in this country where I have the freedom to decorate for Christmas, where I can put up my nativity scene near the front window so anyone passing by can see it and I don't fear persecution for celebrating the birth of my Lord. What a blessing!

I am reminded of how we are blessed because we have a warm roof over our heads and food in our cupboards and we have a healthy family. Do I deserve these blessings? No. Does God give us good and perfect gifts? Yes. And I am thankful. So incredibly thankful.

We always host Thanksgiving at our house and I was thinking of how next year I would be adding another little plate at the table, God-willing, for our new son. This thought seemed to carry over into the decorating for Christmas since the kids were asking which stockings were mine and Brandon's (they of course know their own) and I wondered if I might be adding another one very soon. I imagine it will continue as I wrap gifts and we carry out our traditions of making sugar cookies at Grandma's house and driving around looking at Christmas lights.  Will our new little guy be with us next year doing all these wonderful things?? I pray it will be so!

I am anxious to find out who this little boy is and when we'll be able to meet him. Friday will mark 3 months on the waiting list and it has gone by so fast that I really can't believe it. Not a day goes by that I am not thinking of him and what he's doing and wondering what his story is.

This post started because I am so excited for Christmas and wanting to share how much I love this time of year but ended up being Thanksgiving/Christmas/waiting list update all in one! I'm good with that.

Eli

Today is the first day that I am officially no longer Eli's caregiver/nanny/babysitter...whatever you want to call me. Actually, that's not right. It would have been last Thursday but today I am feeling the loss of him. Yes, it was my decision and yes, I know he's not mine but I love him like he is.

When Matthew & Nikki first asked me about being able to watch Eli I prayed about it and talked with Brandon and really took my time in giving them an answer. I prayed that God give me the love for him that I have for my own children and He did. He answered my prayers tenfold. I can honestly say that I love Elijah with as much fervor as I do Madelyn and Nolan. He's my little buddy. We have a special relationship that I can't really describe. I am his auntie. I'm his "Awa".

What I didn't pray for and probably should have, was that when the time was right, and it was time to move on from being his caregiver, that I would be able to let go and not feel the hurt that I feel right now. It's probably totally unhealthy to be mourning the loss of a little boy who is perfectly fine, is being well cared for by his new nanny, that I WILL see quite often, and whose parents we are extremely close with. But he brought me such absolute joy and loved me as much as I loved him that my heart is breaking because I will no longer be the one to care for him, to see his glowing little face every Wednesday and Thursday morning.

I know this whole thing may sound totally irrational, especially considering that I am now able to work in Madelyn & Nolan's classrooms every week, go on field trips, and take time to bond with our son when he comes home. It doesn't stop my heart from hurting. I expect it will take a long time to mend.

Latest news from Ethiopia

On Monday we received the latest news from the federal court in Ethiopia re: travel and court dates. They have decided that instead of both parents having to travel to Ethiopia to attend court only one parent is now required to go. Also, they have changed the court process. The previous way they scheduled court dates was that once you accepted your referral you were assigned a court date that you did not have to attend. This first court date was for MOWA (Ministry of Womens Affairs) to give their opinion to the judge on whether or not the child should be adopted and for the birth family to relinquish their child, if possible. The second court date, approximately 4-8 weeks later, was for the adoptive parents to be present in court to state their request to adopt their child(ren). Now there is only one court date. MOWA, birth parents, and adoptive parents will all be in court on the same day but MOWA and birth parents will be there in the morning and the adoptive parent(s) will be there in the afternoon. This is really great news because travel is approximately 4-8 weeks quicker than it would have been!

Gladney has a conference call that they give on their Ethiopia program every month and this afternoon they gave a good explanation of the new policies as well as what to expect on the first trip to Ethiopia. The first trip is NOT a bonding trip, you do not get one-on-one time with your child, you do not get to have pictures taken with only your child and you and you aren't allowed to give them a care package. If you take one, the care center will keep it for you until you have passed court (which may or may not happen on the date that you're there) and then give it to your child. The bonding time will be on the second trip, after you have passed court, and the child is officially yours.

Brandon and I are talking about the different possibilities but right now we're leaning toward Brandon leaving for the first trip, me giving him power of attorney to speak for me in court, and returning home and then I will will travel for the second trip and he will stay home. This is not set in stone but this is what we're thinking for now.

We'll keep you posted!

Oh, and the wait list is still approximately 8 months...we're almost to month #2!!

Madelyn's 8th birthday

 Madelyn turned 8 years old this year! I can't believe how fast 8 years has gone by! She had a very fun, special birthday this year. She had the option of having a party with a lot of her friends at home or taking one friend to go to Lily's Pampering Salon & Party Boutique http://www.lilyspamperingsalon.com/ for an afternoon of pampering. She chose to take Bella (no surprise there!) and go to Lily's. The girls had a GREAT time! They got manicures, pedicures, had their make up done, drank pink lemonade, ate cupcakes, and even got their ears pierced!! It was a HUGE day for both girlies!!

 


 

Getting pedicures

Aunt Jamie got to go with us!

Beautiful toes

BEST FRIENDS!!

Bella getting her make up done

Madelyn getting her make up done

Bella getting her ears pierced! Gorgeous! She was sooo brave!

Madelyn was upset when she got her ears pierced but is very happy with the outcome!

Mama wiping away the tears.

Silly, happy girls at Red Robin for lunch after their morning at Lily's.

 

Then............as if that weren't enough of a celebration.......we had dinner with our family to celebrate as well!

First day of 1st Grade and 2nd Grade

Nolan was so ready for the first day of school! He loves it every single day!

 Madelyn has a bit of a harder time with school starting but having her same teacher as last year helped!

One month

We have been on the wait list for one month. It sure has gone by fast! I know that not all months will go this fast but I expect that these next few will fly. It seems like with school starting, Madelyn's birthday, Halloween, Nolan's birthday and Thanksgiving, and then Christmas....it's a very busy time of year!

The kids are sooo excited for Halloween this year. We just put all of our fall decorations out. The kids did a very good job of making sure that everything was put where it was supposed to go and even made a few decorations of their own. Very cute!

Most posts to come...first day of school, Madelyn's birthday, and the zoo!

Why Ethiopia?

Just because a lot of people ask the question, "Why Ethiopia?" I thought I would share these statistics:

• There are over six million orphans in Ethiopia
• One out of every 20 children born alive die in their first month of life
• One out of ten children born die before their first birthday
• Ethiopia’s doctor to children ratio is 1 to 24,000.
• One out of six children die before their fifth birthday
• The median age in Ethiopia is 18
• Per capita, Ethiopia receives less aid than any country in Africa
• Coffee prices (Ethiopia’s only major export) fell 40-60% from 1998-2002 - strange since coffee consumption has grown in the US.
• In 1993, after 30 long years of war, Eritrea broke from Ethiopia and became an independent nation leaving Ethiopia landlocked without any major seafaring ports.
• If only 7 percent of the 2 billion Christians in the world would care for a single orphan in distress, there would effectively be no more orphans.

WAIT LIST!

Oh man, I am soooo excited!! We just got the word that we are officially on the wait list!! So, any day now (hahaha) we will be getting our referral. :) I am so excited to have moved on to the next phase in our adoption journey. This one is HUGE. God is good and I am thrilled! And nervous....but for a different reason...I have to drive the trailer up to Anacortes today BY MYSELF. Yipes. Wish me luck! And send me prayers.

Trailers for sale or rent...

Sometimes I hear a song and think of my Grandma and Grandpa Fannin. My grandpa passed away a month before Brandon and I got married (10 years ago), and my grandma in December of 1996. A song that I absolutely love and brings back such strong memories of them that I get teary is "King of the Road" by Roger Miller. Don't ask me why this song gets me, but it does.

Gone are the days of riding in the back of their Suburban, yelling, "You okay back there Sadie?!", referring to the old travel trailer they had. Gone are the days of getting up at 3am to get in the car to drive to Soap Lake to get our vacation started. Gone are the days of peeing in the garden because it was too far to go to the house.

They did, however, leave behind lessons that we won't soon forget...spontaneity, famous "Maudie" sayings such as, "Better out than in...", "You have to have pants with pockets or they aren't any good", and "Your feet are like ice." But best of all, my grandma instilled in me a love for garage sales! Every Saturday we would get up and go see what treasures we could find. Rain or shine, that was what we did. 

Many times she would let us stay home from school on the Monday following the weekend that we were with her to keep her company. She liked to spend time with us, taught us card games like crazy, and always had 7 Up or Ginger Ale on hand (with salt added to it) in case we got a tummy ache.

I still love to garage sale and still drink 7 Up with salt in it when I have an upset stomach.  I love memories....thanks, Rog.

Just stuff

It has been so long since I've written here. I really must be better at this. While I don't have a lot of new information right now (at least nothing earth-shattering) there has been "stuff" that has been happening. We had our fingerprints done at the Department of Homeland Security. This was serious business. They took away my travel wine bottle opener though, just like they would if it were the airport. But the wait was no problem. We were in, we were out. Easy-peasy! We are still waiting for CIS approval. Hopefully that will come soon. We also need ANOTHER employment letter from Brandon's employer. Apparently the notary's commission expiration on her stamp was incorrect and the secretary of state detected that mistake and now wants a new letter. Of course it would have to be THAT piece of paper that was the hardest of all to get in the first place! Sigh....

On a brighter note we did switch the kids' rooms around. The were re-painted and Nolan's room now has bunk beds - exciting!! Nolan's room (now, originally was Madelyn's) had two closets so we figured that would be much better for the boys.

On August 3rd I was in a car accident. The trusty van refuses to die so it's in the shop being repaired, even as I type! We should hopefully have that back by the end of the month. I hope we never have to deal with insurance again - what a pain.

We are going camping this weekend and also for Labor Day. As much as we enjoy camping we haven't really been able to go on too many camp trips this year, due to Brandon's work schedule. I hope that's not the case next summer. I miss it when we don't get to go!

I guess that's about it for now....will write more as I learn more!

Gladney approval!

So I'm not exactly sure what this means but I know it's good! I have 4 notarized copies of our homestudy in my hot little hands and one of them will be on it's way to CIS come Monday morning - yipee!!! This means that once we get immigration approval we will be able to get all of our documents sent to Ethiopia so that we can get on the waiting list!! Ya hoo!! This is excellent news.

Oh, and we are STILL waiting for Brandon's employment letter. We really need that ASAP. Any prayers that you could send our way would be much appreciated. It's very frustrating to know that we literally need one more piece of paper to be done with this whole paper-chase thing. But I know that God's timing is perfect and I rest in that.

Mexico, here we come!

Back in January when we booked our trip to the Mexican Riviera via Royal Caribbean (the nation of Why Not) for our 10 year anniversary it seemed like it was so far away. Now we are only 3 days away! Our plane leaves Sunday morning at 9am to Los Angeles and then we set sail that evening at 5pm. 7 nights away! Wow! We haven't been on a vacation that has been just the two of us since our honeymoon.

When we decided to move forward with the adoption it was shortly after we had booked our vacation and I asked Brandon if he thought we should cancel so that we could take that money we had spent on the vacation and put it toward the adoption. That was met with a resounding, "NO!" He said that we definitely needed to go on this trip because we probably wouldn't have another chance for a long time. He's probably right about not being able to get away for a very long time after this so I'm glad we didn't cancel.

Speaking of the adoption I think the kids are still very confused as to when our little brother will come home. The talks about going on a plane to Addis and then the talks about going on a plane to L.A. is too much. Nolan asked today if we were bringing our little brother home on Sunday. I wish!

Pictures to come when we return home. Adios, amigos!

The desires of our hearts

Brandon, the kids and I, all went to an adoption seminar last night. It was great! It was basically an informational meeting about adoption but there were other families there that shared their stories of how they came to the decision to adopt, where they adopted from, and their experiences.

One of the dads shared that he and his wife were unable to have biological children but that God had not forsaken them, that He had given them the desires of their hearts, through adoption. This dad shared something that has stayed with me these past 24 hours and that is that God does indeed give us the desires of our hearts and, in fact, manifests those desires within us. How undeniably true this is! I have dreamt of our lives when our children are grown and gone and home from college and we're a bustling family, full of loud laughter and love. Even when I thought we were done having children after Madelyn and Nolan I couldn't help but thinking how fun it would be to have more children, to be bursting at the seams. Now I see this as reality and not just my dream.

God does give us the desires of our hearts and will point us in the direction He wants us to go, if we only stop and listen and then, obey.

Removal of rose-colored glasses

We had our first home visit with our social worker yesterday. It went very well, I think. I feel like she removed my rose-colored glasses and I am now in reality. So I am a little more anxious, a little more nervous about this. Not to say that I didn't know that there could be attachment issues or bonding issues, but I didn't think it was THAT common. I guess I'm just the more optimistic kind and think that everything will be fine. The reality is that he may not be fine, for quite some time. I just need to prepare myself for challenges and struggles and realize it will take time. I wish patience was more of my virtue.

On the up side of things our homestudy is almost complete. We have our one-on-one interviews with our social worker at her office on April 19th and then we'll just be waiting on our fingerprints to get back from the FBI. Not too long ago it was only 3 short weeks to get fingerprints back. Now it can take up to 3 months! Yipes.

We have not submitted our I-600A application (to immigration) yet because we found out a couple of weeks ago that the Ethiopian government is now requiring two trips for adoptive parents. The first trip Brandon and I will both have to go, to attend court, and then to meet our little guy. We'll spend approximately 5-7 days there. The second trip only one of us is required to go, we will spend time with our son and also spend another 5-7 days in-country before we head home.

So our next steps are to submit our I-600A app and get started on "Group 1" of our paperwork for Gladney and our dossier.

If you would keep us in your prayers we would appreciate it. We know that God is in control and that He already knows the perfect child for us. We pray that he is healthy and strong and is being well cared for now.

We're on our way!

Well, we have officially started the adoption process! We have chosen our agency, Gladney Center for Adoption (http://www.adoptionsbygladney.com/) and have been in touch with a social worker up in Bellingham for our home study. I got an email from her last night with some things to go over. 23 documents!!! And one of those documents is about 20 pages long! Wow. We also filled our Information Sheet with Gladney so we have a phone orientation next week. The process has begun....here we go!

Trouble sleeping...

I have never, and I mean, NEVER had trouble sleeping. I easily fall asleep and once I'm asleep I'm down for the count. Not the past two nights. I have tossed and turned and woken up and gotten up. I wonder if this is because we made one huge decision about the adoption? I wonder if it's because I'm so excited and have so many things to do and need to get started? I don't know. I have to say, it's a bit frustrating, this not sleeping thing. Hopefully after I get this off my chest I can go back to sleep and stay there!

And just so you know, our huge decision that we made is that we are definitely adopting from Ethiopia! One decision down, 500 billion to go. :)

Emotions/prayer

I have so many emotions right now. We are adopting!! We are adopting a little boy, probably from Ethiopia. I am thrilled, I am scared and nervous, I am ecstatic! My prayer for my son that I do not yet know....

My Lord, My God, You are holy and just and righteous, there is none other like You. You are faithful. You fill my cup to overflowing, Lord. Thank you for the blessings that you bestow on me and my family. Thank you for Your love that reigns down upon me. Thank you, Lord, for sending Your Son!! Now I want to lift up mine. Protect him, Lord, with your loving arms. Surround him with Your love. Care for him while I can not and hold him close to You. Let him know how much his family loves him....his mommy and daddy and brother and sister, grandmas and grandpas. Lord, I lift up my son and ask that you keep him close to You until I can get to him. All these things I ask in Your Son's holy and precious name. Amen.

Feeding baby calves at Tom's

Tom had just gotten week-old calves and the kids were ecstatic to feed them! Madelyn was a little nervous at first but when she realized how gentle and cute they were, she got over it.