More Pictures

Thanks to Carey for sending us more pictures of Nevaeh!! She and her
husband Drew met her when they were picking up their daughter last
month. Carey says: "You guys are going to go nuts when you meet her
in person. You can just tell she's really special and full of life.
She's talkative, flirtatious, alert and social. She definitely made
an impression on us." Is that simply awesome or what?!

Also, we have made contact with another family that is arriving today in Ethiopia and they will be sending us more pictures.  

Details...

Scott and I were thrilled to get the call from Natalie yesterday!  The timing could have been a little bit better, as I was a bit preoccupied when she called.  My morning kind of went like this...

Both Oscar and Bryce had spent the night at his mom's house for some Grandma time so Max and I were going to spend the morning running errands before she brought them home around 11. Right when Max and I were about to leave, Ginny called me and said that Bryce was constipated and what should she do.  I told her just to try some apple juice and that if he hadn't gone by the time she brought him home, I had some medicine for him.  So she tried some juice and nothing happened.  Meanwhile, as soon as I get off the phone, the electricians show up to do some more wiring for our addition.  I then had to show them some changes we were making, which took up more of Max and my errand running time.  Max and I frantically rush to Target (as shopping is much faster with just one, much less 3, now 4), then to Costco.  We get home right before the boys and Ginny informs me that Bryce still has not gone to the bathroom, plus he'd woken up at 4 in the morning and was a bit cranky (to put it very nicely). So now, I'm trying to unload everything I'd bought, fix lunch and get two cranky kids (it is now past Max's naptime) down for their nap.   While I'm doing this, I decide to call Scott and tell him about the electrician's visit.  We were on the phone for about a minute, when the call waiting beeped.  I looked and it said the infamous word 'UNKNOWN'.  The only other person besides Natalie that sometimes shows up as Unknown is Scott, and I was on the phone with him.  My stomach flip flopped as I clicked over and she said she had a referral.  I clicked back to Scott all teary eyed and told her we got our referral.  We then started a three-way call so she could fill us in on all the details.  It was at this time that Bryce finally had to poop.  Talk about timing.  Poor thing was crying on the toilet so loud that I could barely hear Natalie.  We had to call her back about five minutes later after all business was finished.  Plus, I quickly put Max down.  

Anyways, she is nine months old, born back on March 22 and has the best smile ever.  She's beginning to get teeth which apparently makes her smile even more.   At her last check up in December, she weighed 19.1 lbs, so she may be bigger than Max our youngest boy, who is on the bottom end of the growth charts!!!  She's got one ear pierced, thus the 'cutest pirate'.  

Next steps

We have gotten many questions on what are the next steps and timing of everything. Here are some answers:

Next Steps:
1) Official accept the referral (done today)
2) Gladney Ethiopian staff then requests a court date to finalize the Adoption - this can take 2-4 weeks to get a date so Mid to Late January
3) Court Date - Nevaeh's birth mother is in Addis Ababa currently so she will likely be at the court date to approve (God willing) the adoption
4) After the Court process is final, she is legally our daughter and we can pick her up

We will likely schedule our travel plans one week after the court date, because the court process can be delayed for many reasons.

When we are over there, we will meet and take pictures of her birth mother and try to find out as much history about her and her family so we can share with our daughter when she gets older.

Oh, one more thing, the Gladney staff in Ethiopia have nicknamed her "cutest pirate" because she has one hoop earing in her left ear.

- the "still on cloud nine" lydicks

Introducing Nevaeh Grace Lulu Lydick

It is a mouthful, but we wanted to preserve her given name "Lulu".   We will call her Nevaeh (pronounced neh vay uh), or heaven spelled backwards.   She is nine months old and was actually born in Dubai, although both her birth parents are Ethiopian.  More details to come later.

But.... isn't she absolutely GORGEOUS!!!!

Christmas and Santa can fix anything

Yesterday was a fantastic day. Christmas is so much fun with kids. Oscar woke up at six and climbed in bed with us until 7, when we told him he could finally wake up his brothers.  The boys loved what Santa brought them and seeing that he had eaten their cookies and the reindeer had eaten all of their reindeer food.  They even ate the bowl of peanut butter that Oscar thought they'd like as a special treat.  I was kind of worried that some sort of gross bugs would have found the peanut butter, but we lucked out.  Santa had brought each of the boys their own snowglobe.  Max's was a giant plastic one that blew around the snow and the other two were Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh.  Max accidently dropped Bryce's which of course broke.  Oscar piped up and said, "That's ok.  We'll just send it back to Santa's workshop and he can fix it."  This made Bryce feel much better, to which he added "Santa has magic and he can fix anything!"  Under normal circumstances I would have said Santa's already come and gone this year and that he's now taking a very much needed rest and that he'd have to wait until next year.  But I didn't have the heart.  So needless to say, I got up and went to Target first thing this morning and fortunately they had two Winnie the Pooh snowglobes left.  At least now they were 50% off.  We're going to 'mail' the broken one back and the new one will show up in the mail in a few days.  Oscar got an electric guitar (without strings) that he loves from his Papa and Peepie (Scott's dad and wife)!   He keeps running around saying that he's a rock star, then strumming a few notes, before running again.  It's pretty funny.  He even went as far as to put on his rock star clothes. We were a little curious as to what those would be since he has just normal clothes.  He came back in his jeans and a shirt with a lion roaring on it.   He's got the right idea anyways.   We stole one of my friend's traditions and made our own individual homemade pizzas for dinner.  We even made our own dough.  We told the boys they could have whatever they wanted on it, so they both ate theirs with cheese, pepperoni and hotdogs  and no sauce.  It was a fun way for us all to be together in the kitchen, rather than the adults trying to cook a really nice meal that the kids don't care about anyways.  We then topped it off with Jesus' birthday cake which was a chocolate (flourless-for Bryce) cake that tasted like a mix between fudge and mousse.  Very yummy.  The only way the day could have been better was to have gotten a referral, but it will come soon enough.  Hopefully by Ethiopia's Christmas calendar.

It's CHRISTMAS!!!!

Scenes from the Lydick Christmas.  

The more complete set of pics and videos are at:

http://gallery.mac.com/lydick

Our Christmas card pic in product (RED).

  

Putting out reindeer food.    Eating Santa's "Crumbs"

Thoughts on humanitarian aid

After thinking through things a bit more, Emily and I are leaning towards having a big fund raising effort after we get back from traveling to Ethiopia. Several people have asked us what they can do to help, and we have tossed around a few ideas. When we get back, we will have pictures, video, and hands on experience of the needs that are greatest.

We can only carry so many things over b/c of baggage restrictions. We will easily pack 3 full bags with all of our kid's old clothes, plus the normal orphan humanitarian aid (diapers, formula, wipes), and the goodies we are taking for the orphans (beach balls, balloons, candy, i.e. light things that are easy to pack).

So when we get back, I think that a fundraising dinner would be the most efficient way to help raise money for whatever purpose that moves us while we are over there. There is a fantastic Ethiopian restaurant in Dallas (The Queen of Sheba) that caters, so that might be a lot of fun and a good way to give some culture to the event.

Merry Christmas Everyone! The Gladney offices are closed today, so I don't think we will be getting a referral for Christmas, but the bright side is that Ethiopian Christmas is on January 7th, so we could still get our wish.

I pray that our little girl is safe, healthy and happy on this night.

I Think we are NEXT!!!!

Congrats to Samantha and Fernando for receiving their referral of a beautiful little girl, Celeste Fenit.

They got on the waitlist about 3 weeks ahead of us and I think we are next.

Emily and I have been really moved by this post on the Mestas's blog. When they were picking up thier son in Ethiopia they had the chance to visit the Kolfe orphanage for older boys. These boys will probably never have the chance to be adopted. They recently posted a slideshow video from their trip that is worth looking at.

We are trying to decide how best to help out while we are there, details to come soon.

Christmas with Santa

The boys have had a great time with Christmas this year so far.  They are at such a neat phase for the holiday.  Santa is still real.   Learning about baby Jesus.  Great stuff.  

And the christmas pictures never turn out perfect with santa....

Bryce looks like he had some "loaded eggnog", Oscar looks naughty, and Max just didn't want to be there.

The boy's innocence does have its advantages though.  Emily and I keep threatening to call Santa when they are naughty.  That won't last long..  maybe only one more year. 

Waiting

Ok, so in my last post I said that the time up to now seems to have been going fast. Now it seems like it's stopped. The remodel on our house seems to have come to a stop, for no reason, but that we're waiting from a letter from the engineer before the inspector will let us continue. Max is asleep and the other two boys are at school, so it's quiet now. When I'm not busy, or there's no banging in the room next door, (from either the construction workers or the boys), is when it seems to be the hardest. It's also hard when I'm trying to go to sleep. I just lie there in bed and think of all of the things that I'd like to bring for all of the other orphans and wish that I could take 20 bags instead of just the 2. Then I think of even if I could bring everything the orphans need, (warm clothes, school supplies, food, diapers, blankets, new windows for the older boy's orphanage), what they really need are families. I'd probably take every last one of them in if we could. Yesterday I read on someone else's website that they put together baggies for each of the kids. Last night, I laid there and laid there thinking of what things we could put in baggies that are relatively light weight for packing and that the kids would enjoy. It's almost like where do you begin? since they need so much. The Breedlove's just got their referral for their little boy who is an absolute doll!!! What an awesome Christmas present!!! I have to admit that I am a little jealous even though I try not to be. I wish we could only be so lucky. I know that our call will come in due time.  I have a friend who adopted from China and they had to wait 2 years! I don't know how they did it. That seems almost impossible!!!

Waiting and the Bug

Not much to say, it's just been awhile since we've posted. Today makes 11 weeks, 3 days on the wait list. It would be so much fun to get a call by Christmas, but I'm really trying not to get my hopes up. At least the time, up till now, seems to be going relatively fast. I've been busying myself with all of the holiday shopping, Christmas decorating, baking of Christmas cookies, but now all of that is done so I just find myself thinking more and more about when we're going to get the call. I really don't have anything to complain about, seeing that if I were pregnant, I'd only be 6 months pregnant from when we officially started everything. It's just that by now if I were pregnant, I'd have some sort of tangible signs of the upcoming arrival-like kicking, or at least a fat tummy. Anyways, enough of the dwelling.

Today is a perfectly gorgeous day, but unfortunately, we've been passing around a stomach bug and can't enjoy it. I was nauseous all day yesterday, Max threw up all over himself in the car on the way to Scott's sister's house where we were going to celebrate an early Christmas. (His grandparents were in town for a long weekend, so we all thought we'd celebrate with them while they were in town.) Oscar threw up at Scott's sister's house, while Scott was giving Max a bath from his throw up while I laid on the couch since I wasn't feeling well. Oscar again threw up after we got home, and then Bryce threw up pizza all over the carpet in the middle of the night. There's nothing like cleaning up a bright orange stain in the carpet at 2:30 in the morning. Now Scott is beginning to feel a little sick. At least I and the kids are on the upswing and so far it seems to be a 24 hour thing . (I hope.)

Two Data Points

Well, I thought Emily would be the one waiting by the phone, but it seems that it is more the case with me. I am not a very patient person plus I am a very analytical person (its my job).

Anyway, I just found out that a Gladney Family in the process of adopting an infant girl recieved their referral yesterday, exactly 15 weeks and 4 days from their official wait list date.

Also the parents at Timm & Jennifer got their referral for an infant girl 15 weeks and 2 days after the wait list began.

Given that our wait list date was Sept. 27th, that would put us at Jan 12-14th to receive "the call". Very very exciting. We were originally told that the normal is 3-5months although it seems to be quicker for those adopting boys. So 15 weeks definately falls in the middle of that range.

I have to admit, I have been thinking how wonderful a christmas present "the call" would be.

Everyone sing with me, "All I want for christmas is the re-fer-rall call, the re-fer-rall call, oh the re-fer-rall call...."

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my side of the family. Every year we alternate between Thanksgiving and Christmas between Scott's and my families. This year we'll do Christmas with his family and next year we'll switch. When we spend Thanksgiving with my side, we also do Christmas. We were up in Indy for 5 full days and our boys played with their cousins nonstop without ever getting tired of each other. It's fantastic. My brother has a little girl (the only girl of all the cousins) and can't wait for ours to get here, even though there will be about a 3 year age difference.

I've been waiting to go on this trip so that we can get back and I can go ahead and pack a bag for Ethiopia. It might sound a little premature, but organization is on my list of things to do before we get our referral. (I'm whittling away at my list-I still need to find an adoption keepsake book that I like.) Since we won't need anymore boys clothes, I have been throwing all of Max's clothes he's outgrown into a huge pile. If the pile had been right next to his crib, he could have easily crawled out of his crib and slid down the pile! Yesterday I washed everything and folded it all, ready to pack one of our large bags with all of them to take to the orphanages in Ethiopia. Today I made one last look in his closet before I was going to pack our first bag and I found two more boxes of clothes that I am now washing. Originally I was just going to donate them here, but then decided that we'd take them there instead. We may have to pay extra for all of our luggage, and most all of it won't even be for Scott and I to wear.

As far as our house goes, the construction crew has started on our renovations. I'm so excited. They worked a little while we were gone, so it was pretty wild to come back to an almost entire new room upstairs (at least framed and floored). I'm so glad that we decided to do the room addition, and especially to get it done before we travel. Need to go pick up paint samples. I'll add that to my list...

Want to learn more?

Emily and I finished reading the book, There is no Me without You. It has been the best book we have read as far as educating us on the need in Ethiopia to help the over 4 million orphans.

Ethiopian Children Adopted from the US
Fiscal Year Number of Immigrant Visas Issued
FY 2006 731
FY 2005 440
FY 2004 289
FY 2003 135
FY 2002 105


Some Statistics:
• One in ten children die before their first birthday
• One in six children die before their fifth birthday
• 44% of the population of Ethiopia is under 15 years old
• 60% of children in Ethiopia are stunted because of malnutrition
• The median age in Ethiopia is 17.8 years
• 1.5 million people are infected with AIDS (6th highest in the world)
• 720,000 children have been orphaned by AIDS alone, and there are 4.6 million orphans in Ethiopia.
• Per capita, Ethiopia receives less aid than any country in Africa
• In the 90s the population (3%) grew faster than food production (2.2%)
• Drought struck the country from 2000-2002 (first year no crops, second year no seeds, third year no animals)
• Half the children in Ethiopia will never attend school. 88% will never attend secondary school.
• Coffee prices (Ethiopia’s only major export) fell 40-60% from 1998-2002.
• Ethiopia’s doctor to children ratio is 1 to 24,000.
• 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.

7 Weeks in Waiting

Scott and I were reading another blog the other night that just picked up their little girl from Ethiopia. They, too, are using Gladney. They said that the orphanage was completely full with 20 babies, all under 9 months. They also said that only 3 had been referred and the rest had been matched, meaning that they're waiting on all of their medical testing, etc. to finish up before they're referred. So what I'm getting at is that one of those remaining 17 babies could be ours, we just don't know it yet! I'm trying to not get my hopes up. I keep thinking of things that would make the process longer so as not to get my hopes up. Like, the additional PCR HIV test we ordered. (They already do one Rapid test and 1 PCR test.) They have to wait for the results before they do the second PCR test. This would delay our referral some, but we would never know it. It's 7 weeks today since our dossier was sent off and it seems like some people are finding out as soon as 2 months.

Max is going through an extremely clingy stage at 17 months, and Bryce (3) still hasn't gotten all the way out of it. Actually, Bryce isn't clingy, he's just really needy if he's tired, and unfortunatley he's not the best sleeper. He is getting much better though about not waking up in the middle of the night. He's also recently gotten better about staying in bed at bedtime. We have to threaten to throw away his Halloween candy, of which he's not really eating anyway, but regardless he does not want us to throw it away, so he's been staying in bed. With Bryce, it's kind of like you do whatever works. At least Bryce is still napping. I keep thinging that even if we were referred today and travel in 6-8 weeks, that maybe that's enough time for both Max and Bryce to get out of their clingyness. That's probably a lot of wishful thinking.

Meanwhile, Scott and I have been filling our free time watching Hague videos to satisfy their new requirements. We have 4 hours left. We keep thinking that if we finish our hours, then they'll see that we're ready. At least Scott and I are ready. Oscar can't wait. Don't know about Max and Bryce.

Two Different Kinds of Love

A friend of ours posted this poem on her family's blogsite when they were adopting from Columbia. It was written by a Colombian birth mother that was giving up her child. I found it so revealling that I asked Barbara if she would mind if we posted it on ours. It says the world from both sides of the story....


Once there were two women
Who never knew each other
One you do not remember
The other you call Mother
Two different lives
Shaped to make you one
One became your guiding star
The other became your sun
The first one gave you life
And the second taught you to live it
The first gave you a need for love
The second was there to give it
One gave you a nationality
The other gave you a name
One gave you a talent
The other gave you an aim
One gave you emotions
The other calmed your fears
One saw your first sweet smile
The other dried your tears
One sought for you a home -that she could not provide
The other prayed for a child - and her hopes were not denied
And now you ask me through your tears
The age-old question Unanswered through the years
Heredity or environment?
Which are you a product of?
Neither my darling, neither
Just two different kinds of love

"Eyes wide open" ... well not quite yet, but getting closer

As said in a previous post, Emily and I have been busy trying to better educate ourselves with regards to culture, race, Africa, and Ethiopia. It is amazing what you think you know until your eyes are opened to what you don't know. I think it is tough to "know" much about all four of those things growing up in a middle to upperclass white family living in white suburbia unless you actively search out information.

We watched the movie God Grew Tired of Us over the weekend. Orphaned by a tumultuous civil war and traveling barefoot across the sub-Saharan desert, John Bul Dau, Daniel Abol Pach and Panther Blor were among the 25,000 “Lost Boys” (ages 3 to 13) who fled villages, formed surrogate families and sought refuge from famine, disease, wild animals and attacks from rebel soldiers. Named by a journalist after Peter Pan’s posse of orphans who protected and provided for each other, the “Lost Boys” traveled together for five years and against all odds crossed into the UN’s refugee camp in Kakuma, Kenya. A journey’s end for some, it was only the beginning for John, Daniel and Panther, who along with 3800 other young survivors, were selected to re-settle in the United States.
The movie was eye opening to say the least. The most incredible thing to me was the drive that John Dau (one of the "Lost Boys") had to not only be successful himself but to transfer that success into help towards his country. In addition to sending money directly to his family and friends at the refugee camp, he has set up a foundation to build medical clinics in Sudan.
The cliff note version:
- a boy that survives a thousand mile walk through Africa with no other means besides other kids like himself
- he lives in a refugee camp on the brink of starvation for 5-7 years
- he is relocated to the US, where he works multiple jobs a day and gets an education
- he uses his freedom to devote his life towards helping the boys/men still at the refugee camp and to set up medical clinics in Sudan

If he can accomplish that, what are we supposed to accomplish (from a humanitarian prospective)?

Adding On

I keep forgetting who we've told and who we haven't told about our adoption. I keep thinking we've told everyone, then we run across someone that for some reason or another we haven't told. For example, every year our neighborhood has a great big Halloween block party. Everyone comes to the block party, then when it gets dark, the kids scatter and start their trick-or-treating. Not only are we adopting, but we are also going to add on an office/spare bedroom to our house. Our family room has high ceilings that go all the way to the second story. We're going to floor it (put a lower ceiling on) so that the new room will be upstairs. Scott had told one of our neighbors up the street that we're adding on. So I'm standing between two neighbors at the party when one asks about how are adoption is going. I tell her that we're done with the paperwork and that we're on the wait list and that we're very excited. I never said the word 'adoption' so I guess the exact same answer could be applied to our house addition. I guess my other neighbor didn't hear the question because about five seconds later, she says to me "So, Scott tells me you're adding on." Then she goes on saying "That's the best thing I've heard anyone doing! I wish we could have done it ourselves." Then I say, "Wow, we normally get really positive responses, but that's the best response yet!" I'm thinking she's talking about the adoption. She then kind of had a blank look on her face when I realize she's talking about the house. For some reason, the news of our adoption hadn't spread to her. Scott and I just keep going around, assuming everyone already knows. My apologies to anyone we haven't told. We haven't intentionally not told anyone, we just keep thinking we already have told everyone. Also, within our group of friends, news sometimes travels rather fast. So we've figured that if we didn't say something, then it has already traveled through the grapevine. So here it is, we're adding on 1) another child and 2) another room.

Ramblings and a book review

Now we have been on the wait list for about a month and luckily the time has gone by very quickly. Emily and I have been busy enough with the kids and work and traveling to really not get too impatient about the next 2-3 months of waiting for "the call".

We have both been spending time reading books about adoption, interacial complexities and Ethiopia.

I read Same Kind of Different as Me and really enjoyed the book. Our Church hosted Ron Hall and Denver Moore (the authors) 2 weeks ago before we received the book in the mail. I am really bummed that Emily and I didn't get to see them speak and get the book signed by them when they were there. The book was fantastic and really was uplifting to read about how the Lord worked through the characters to help them see through race and preconceived biases against social-economic statuses.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are you adopting?
Scott and I always wanted 3-5 kids. After three high risk pregnancies, we decided that that chapter of our lives was closed. (Being pregnant anyways.) We still wanted to have a girl even though we already had 3 wonderful biological boys and decided that adoption was right for us.

Which agency are you using?
We're using Gladney, which is base out of Fort Worth, TX. So far, we've been very pleased with our decision. They have been very supportive and very quick to answer any of our questions. We feel confidant in them since they have been around for over 100 years.

Why International versus Domestic?
We had never even considered the differences between the two until we started thinking about adoption ourselves. We decided that we didn't want to emotionally deal with being picked by a birth mother, and then for her to change her mind in the end. It would be several months of excitement and then a huge let down. We also didn't want to have an open adoption. Pretty much all domestic adoptions are open in some way or another. It varies widely from one picture to yearly get togethers. We decided to be selfish and keep her all to ourselves.

Why Ethiopia?
We knew that we wanted to have an infant girl. Seeing that we already have 3 boys, that eliminates us from some programs automatically. We also wanted to be able to choose the gender and get an infant, or as close as possible. By narrowing it all down, we decided that Ethiopia would be our best fit. Plus, Ethiopian food has long been our favorite, so it will be a pleasure to have an even better reason to learn to cook it now. Plus, in our heart of hearts, we knew we'd find her there.

How long does it take?
We were able to finish our application and our dossier (all of the paperwork that is sent to our Sec. of State, then the State Department, then on to Ethiopia for translation) in about 3 1/2 months. From there, the referral time is 3-5 months for Ethiopia, then 6-8 weeks till we travel to get her. (The referral means when a child is placed with us and they start sending her med. records and pictures).

Do you worry about raising a child of another race?
Absolutely, but then worrying is just a plain fact about parenting. We're worried that people won't be accepting of her and all of the obstacles that may come her way. Being white, we'll never know what it's like to be black. We just pray that we do the best that we possibly can. We never would have taken on this adoption if we didn't think we could handle it. Plus, I think worrying about her makes us, if not better parents, at least more sensitive.

How have your families and friends reacted?
Fortunately, we have had very positive responses and a lot of excitement. It will be the second granddaughter on my side and the first granddaughter on Scott's side. We have had a few people that were surprised, but I think more surprised over us adopting than from where. Only one couple was so taken aback that we didn't even tell them that we were adopting from Ethiopia. It was an unfortunate reaction, but we don't see them often and will probably become more infrequent if they're not supportive.

What age have you requested?
Seeing that we already have three wonderful boys, we decided to go for the girl! We've requested 0-9 months so that we can start from her earliest stage possible. We hate to miss all of those first firsts that happen in their infancy.

Do you worry about AIDS/HIV?
HIV/AIDS unfortunately is extremely widespread throughout Ethiopia. We didn't want to have to emotionally deal with this, so we've requested a child without HIV. She will be tested three times -one Rapid test and two PCR tests. These tests are done before we even know that we're getting her so that we don't have to make a difficult decision.

I have so many other things to do....

Last week, Scott and I had the pleasure of meeting up with three other families that are also adopting from Ethiopia. It's always interesting to meet other people that are in the process or already have adopted, because everyone always has a story. It's really nice to have a network of people that understand everything that adoption entails. The only downside to our meeting was the discovery of our lack of a blog. We knew about blogs, had thought about blogs and had planned on blogging, but just hadn't gotten around to it yet. Needless to say, we were the only ones there without a blog-thus here is our blog.... I have so many other things to do, especially with three kids, but now I find myself looking at other people's blogs thinking of things we need to add. Like earlier today, I found a great blog (also adopting from Ethiopia) that has music. I IM'd Scott and told him we now need music. I also saw some FAQ's that were really good and told him we need to add those too. (Nothing like keeping up with the Jones's, huh). I even made myself a list of things I want to get done and organized before we get our little girl. I can say that I have successfully done a few things off the list, but the list is still taped to the fridge, waiting for me to cross more things off. Instead, here I am typing, thinking of adding some music...

Names, Names, Names

We've finally been tossing around names, which is somewhat easier this time since we know we're getting a girl. At least we don't have to come up with a boys' and a girls' name this time. We think that maybe we've decided (still not 100%) so I won't name it quite yet. We do, however, think that we're going to give her a first and middle name, then use her name that her birth mother gave her as a second middle name. We were once at the airport and saw this lady working there that had such a long first name that it took up the entire name tag. We hope that that is not her name, but we'll make do if it is. We just may have to shorten it by 20 letters or so. Anyways, we told the boys of our name idea and they were anything but enthusiastic. They pretty much just scrunched up their faces like we were crazy. Oscar wants to name her Bessie (like a cow), or maybe Ellie, which Scott and I much prefer. We told them that regardless of what we name her, they're welcome to call her by their own name that they choose to give her. The poor thing is going to be so confused with so many names.

our first post

Ok, so we are a little behind on doing the blog, but better late than never, right?


An update:
All of our documentation was finished and sent to DC on September 27th. From there it is sent to Ethiopia and we are told that the current waiting time for a referral is 3-5 months. So we could travel and pick up our baby girl anytime in between December - March.

The only thing left for us to do is to complete our 10 hours of educational training which includes any courses or books.

We just ordered the following books from amazon and should receive them shortly:

Same Kind of Different as Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together [Hardcover]
By: Ron Hall (Author), Denver Moore (Author)

There Is No Me Without You: One Woman's Odyssey to Rescue Her Country's Children [Paperback]
By: Melissa Fay Greene (Author)

I'm Chocolate, You're Vanilla [Paperback]
By: Margeurite Wright (Author)

Born in Our Hearts: Stories of Adoption [Paperback]
By: Filis Casey (Author), Marisa Catalina Casey (Author)


Also we are watchings some videos about adoption on a website and our CPR class that we took a few months ago should count toward our goal. So the end is in sight.




The time really should fly from now until when we start getting pictures and when we travel as the kids are gearing up for Halloween, then we travel to Indy for Thanksgiving, and finally Christmas... busy busy