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.)