The Skids Family

The Rest of Trip 1

2011-08-13T13:17:00.000-07:00

SO this post may be a little long, but in an effort to catch up, I am going to finish up trip one. Keep in mind that this is a cut and paste job from our journals that we kept on the trip. There are even more spelling and grammar errors this time as I did do a little clean up on the last few posts but none on this one.:
Day 4:
"There was a guy with a sign waiting for us, and I thought he would be a little more cheerful but he didnt say a word the whole time to the hotel. the hotel staff was super nice and the hotel is pretty decent considering. Addis Ababa is a poor city. It looks like some one took a giant handful of buildings and poured them out like dice and that is how the city is laid out. Its just a jumble of what look like manufacturing buildings, hotels, houses, schools, stick huts, corrigated metal houses. People are walking everywhere, some have traditional garb on, some western style.
After we got to the hotel we went downstairs and met 3 other families and ate some french fries while we waited to get p[icked up to go to HH. Wass came and pikced us up, we made a deal with the Harleys to film/photo each other. When we pulled in the gates and got out, no one really said anything to us, and we were just kinda standing there. Then the Ladds little boy walked by and we wathced them meet him.
Wass said she is his most favorite baby ever, and that he is crazy for her. He said Salam is crazy for her too. He mentioned several times how much he loved her and had her pcitures everywhere. He came and started feeding her, I got a few spoonfuls in too. We then went up to her room and met her special mothers. It was fun to see her relax and start to play. She is crazy beautiful. I tried to love on her as much as I could and hopefully she will warm up to us. she is loved here, thats for sure." - Mike

Yesterday was the day we met our girl for the first time. She is everything I imagined. we went into the baby area abnd Itook pics for the Harleys.... they were going to video us after. But I looked up and there she was with here huge brown eyes looking at me. I immedietly started to cry and Mike could'nt figure out why, then I said "there she is" and we both saw here. I had to regain my composure and they brought her over. Tsige was holding her and then had her try and come to me and she started to cry but I took her. She was scared andwanted her special mother. She would quit down for a bit and nuggle into my neck, then see one of her special mothers andn then start screaming, all of which I expected :). They all left us in the room with her and she would quiet down then cry. off and on . then they told us to take her outside which helped alittle unti lshe saw and heard Was who she loves. then she would scream. Before we left they would clap and make almost a beebox sound and she would clap and dance back. We love her and can't wait to go back tomorrow. - Chantel

very first meet

first time

Day 5-6:
"When we got there in the morning all of the babies were sunning and playing in the outside court yard. Edlawit was sitting in a high chair and there was a little guy in a walker and as soon as he saw all of the white people walking around the corner he started screaming and taking quick steps backwards away from us, it was so funny. Edlawit was hesitant again so they had us feed her her mush away from everyone, by the big kids. She still cried so Itook her out of her seat and fed her. She did fine while she watched Mike play with the older kids. The older kids were so hungry for attention and they pretty much mauled Mike. He was taking pictures with them and showing them, which they loved. Then he threw them up in the air and they were all pushing and hitting eachother out of the way so they could have a turn. I could definitely see the order they had established, a smaller kid would be playing with a toy and a bigger kid would walk up and grab it from him... There was nothing the smaller kid could do. EDlawit cried a little but soon fell asleep in my arms..... I passed her to Mike and she screamed and reached for me.... I ate it up and took her back. It was thentime to go so i took her back inside and gave her to her special mother and she cried again... which I also loved. I feel so bad for her she is so confused wondering who her person is

"Edlawit didnt cry as much today but was still pretty sad with us most of the time. Its a little tough. She is definitely warming up to Chantel and seems to trust her now. We brought her outside again and kinda tried to isolate her from the special mothers. She still isnt very interested in playing with us, so once she fell asleep with Chantel I went over to hang with the older kids. It was crazy. They kinda started to swarm me and I was doing my best to give each a turn throwing them up, swinging them around, bouncing them on my knee. There were about 5 or 6 that just wouldnt leave me alone. It was really touching. They liked to rub my hair, and feel the hair on my arms. There was one in particular that I really liked, she is a 5 yr old little girl and kinda latched on to me as well. She is really sweet and just wanted me to hold her on my lap. They are learning to count and name the colors in english so it was pretty cute to hear them show their stuff. We came back for lunch and then headed back over. E was even better this time, Chantel gave her a bath and fed her. Then we went inside and the special mothers kinda took over, they brought her downstairs because their favorite soap was on tv. So we sat in the room with them and watched E. She is so cute when she opens up, its fun to see her play with the toys, crawl, stand up etc. We got to interact with us a teeny bit. It was time to go again and we gave her hugs and kisses.
Next we drove thru town to an Italian restaurant. It was sad/interesting/crazy to see Addis. It is just so jumbled. There is such a mix of shanties, nice buildings, garbage, beggars, people dressed super nice, really nice chromed out cars, junkers, and everything in between. I guess we have similar differences in the US but it seems like its specific to areas. The rich are in the rich area, poor in the poor. You can definitely tell its more poor than not. Its very dirty, smells like exhaust and smoke. People are walking all over and there are no traffic lights,crosswalks, you just have to manage your own way. The restaurant had really good food, it was a good change. It was weird to finally be "out" in Addis. I wasnt sure what to expect. There were some stares for sure and immedialty some beggars came to us. I felt so bad, but we had to get back in our bus. The next stop was the shopping market. It was pretty much what I expected, lots of shops with the same or very similar stuff, haggling, etc. Much like Mexico"- Mike

E and Wass

How she felt about me for the first half of the week

Day 7-8:
"Yesterday was an amazing day. We woke up, ate breakfast then headed to HH. 3 families had court in the morning so they left early and were then brought to HH a little later. All 3 families passed! When we got to HH the babies were outside and I took some pics for some families, I think Mike went and got E. She stated to cry s oa special mother took her from him for a bit then brought her back to him and she cried so he took her behind one of the buildings. I followed and when she saw me she screamed for me and reached for me... melt my heart. It didn't say much just that she preferred me over Mike. We hung outhen her diaper was really wet and i knew she would be falling asleep soon we took her in and changed her for the first time. Then she fell asleep and we went inside. Ipasssed her to Mike and she slept for a long time. The other babies were also brought in for ther nap. I played with another little girl who is so stinkin cute for a while. When E woke up we went outside.
Now when she sees her weekend ones or sometimes even Was it is way less of a cry fest, maybe just a whimper, but only for Was . He loves her soooo much and was taking pics of us with her. We went home for lunch but when i gave her back to her special mothers she cried and clung to me and reached for me. Everyone was cheering :) We decided to walk to another restaurant a litttle walk away. I was really tired but we went any way. I was a little nervous walking but we were fine. The food was good but took forever and everyone was staring at us most of the time. We hurried back and on our way gave some people our brownzey and coke. I saw a few more really poor men, one with the hugest lower legs probably from diabetes of congestive heart failure. it was sad cause if it is for any of those reasons, he willlikely die.
E has the most piercing huge beautiful eyes. She walked up to her reflection and gave it a big kiss. Soooo cute. We spent some time in the older kids class room writting numbers and letters with some of the older kids, E was diggin it and grabbing for stuff. I started walking with her again holding her hands then sneakliy transfered to Mike. Shse was good for a while then noticed and wanted me :- Chantel

cultural dinner

Tonight was the cultural dinner, it was really cool. The food was very unique, not my favorite but we saw the coffee ceremony, handwashing and the real way to do ethiopian. Then the dancing show started. It was pretty sweet. Some of the moves were crazy, they did like a running man hump move. The dances were definitley tribal. Wass said it was time to go and then Tsige talked him into one more. Well the next one they come out into the audience and pick people to kida dance challenge. Chantel got picked and it was really funny. The dancer was so intense. The last dance was from Oromila, E's area so it was cool to seee that, the craziest head whipping ever. It was a really fun night.
-Mike

one of my favorite toddlers

Day 8-9
We walked after that but as soon as we got there we got on the bus with the Harleys and headed out to Bethzasa orphanage. It was fun to just have the small group with Wass. He opened up and told us a lot about Ethiopia, adoption, the people etc. Bezthasa was sad. It was a run down version of HH. The director took us on a tour, showed us where our kids were. The special needs room was especially sad. These kids suffer, the orphanage does its best but dont have the resources to take care of them I wished I had brought my donations directly here. The kids didnt get as much love because there arent near as many staff, but most had been matched to families.- Mike

We first went to the special needs room which was so unbelieviebly heart breaking. There was a little 5year old on te floor being fed by a SP. She was pretty severly handicaped and was having a hard time eating. The sm would put the liquid food in her mouth and she would be chocking on it and she would plug her nose so she would swallow and then do it all again,. I couldn't stop the tears. Another little 4 year old was blind and was laying in a crib. The director said they pretty much just stay in the bed all day long every day and will never be referred. Heartbreaking. There was also a little premie who was born at 7 months. She was the tinies thing I have ever seen in my life but tottally aware. we next went to infant room 1 where E spent her time. It was pretty stinky and they had about 2 babies to a bed. Some did not have diapers. It was pretty beat down but better than I had thougth. There were 2 toddler rooms and 2 infant rooms. There was also a room where they take all the new kiddos, it was their isolation room where the kids spend 10 days to make sure they don't have anything infectious. It looked like a prison cell with no bulb in the light and very small. Mike said it had a window with bars but I didn't see any window. One baby there had Leukemia, one had a brain yumor, one didn't have stomach muscles. Pretty sad. -chantel

at Bethzatha w/ the Harley's

Last Days:
Well...... we passed! ahhhh we have the most beautiful daughter, she is legally ours. They called both the Bults and us in and asked us a few question. When they said Edilawit?" I started to cry. then they asked us questions like are youprepared to deal with some identitiy issues, have you educated yourself about ethiopia and she said she thought it was important that we teach her about her heritage, she asked if we had other kids and if they knew about the adoption and she said once she declares her ours, she is ours. Then she daid all of the paperwork was there and "she is yours" Ahhh both Mike and i lost it. we walked out of the room and into the hall and gave each other a big hug. we are now a family of 5...
Our last day in ET was bitter sweet. We were really ready to leave Ethiopia, I was so sick of the hotel food and I was missing the kiddos at home but I was dreading leaving E.
We took her in the bigger kid area and I started balling. She was lookin ginto my eyes for the longest time (i'm sure wondering what was going on ) and she was playing with my sunglasses. We loved on her than took her to her special mothers in the infant house. I was balling my eyes out as I handed her to one of them and she was crying and reaching for my. SO they drove us back to the hotel and dropped us off. I cried the whole way and Wass said they would take good care of her, I knew they would but I was missing her so much already

How can you leave this little girl?

Introducing our girl

2011-08-06T00:07:00.000-07:00

So sorry it has taken forever for us to post but we have been super busy. Here is a quick picture of our girl, she is doing wonderfully, sleeping between 10-12 hours at night and eating like a champ. The kids adore her... well adore might be a bit of a strong word to describe Jmans feelings but he is coming around. I will try and post again soon.

DAY 3 Dubai to Addis

2011-06-15T21:22:00.000-07:00

"So I kinda didn't think much about the next step on our trip today, it was just kinda surreal being here at such an international beach. I was quite bummed I didn't have my speedo though as I was the only one not wearing one. So now we are headed off to bed, its noon in Temecula and 11 pm here. Body is still adjusting, I don't think it has hit me even now what is going to happen tomorrow...its crazy. Its gonna be an adventure!!" - Mike

"Well, today is the day we meet our sweet heart. Yesterday was our full day in Dubai and it was nice and relaxing, just what I had hoped for. The weather was super hot so we swam a lot in the ocean, which was so warm and didn't keep you cool for very long. i loved that the water was so clear I could see the bottom and there was no coral, just the softest sand. It was fun to see all of the different people from different cultures, mostly Europeans. We then went up to the hotel room at about noon and had a 3 hour nap. I was so tired and my body was so confused when i made it get up since back home it was night time. We got up and went back to the beach and pool for a few more hours then went to eat Indian food. we headed to bed at about 11pm and i hoped I would be able to sleep. I knew it might be hard to sleep since I was getting so excited to see my girl. I fell asleep o.k but woke up almost every hour. Mike startled me at 3am when he couldn't sleep so went on the balcony... so i couldn't sleep. I was so excited, this is the day we have been waiting for. I wondered if baby E was awake yet but guessed not. She was probably sleeping and had no idea she would be meeting her new family today. I prayed she would be ready for us and we would be ready for her. We went to our gate and as we checked in they told us we were upgraded to Business class... woohoo Tons of leg room, massaging, reclining seats and yummy food. So now we have about an hour left until we land in Addis, then we head to the hotel and get ready to meet my love. Ahhh, it seems so surreal, I feel like iam just going through the motions but it isn't really happening. Can't wait to meet her and see how big she is, what she smells like, how her hair feels, what her cry sounds like. In a few hours we will know. I love this girl" Chantel

"They treat you pretty well up there but still wouldn't pay thousands of dollars for it. This flight was uneventful, when we came in for landing i was kinda nervous. So unsure of what to expect. The airport was a stark contrast to Dubai, which was the nicest airport I have ever been in, it was like a mall inside. The visa office was like a closet room with a fold out table or 2. We paid our 20 bucks, got our visas and went thru security. They checked our meds suitcase again, but just like in Dubai, they were kinda unsure what to do with us so they just let us go."- Mike

BUSINESS CLASS!!!!!! too bad it wasnt for the 16 hr flight but hey we'll take it

our plane

the Dubai airport was like one of the nicest US malls I have ever been too, and they had PINKBERRY which Chantel was dying to have. It was a little pricey but well worth it

Our hotel had this crazy chandelier that stretched down 10 floors or so

Chantel had just said " I wish we would see a camel walk by" and no more than 5 minutes later this guy walked right by us on the beach

This was pretty much what most of our day consisted of

Just making sure there wasn't still a genie in there! Dubai was awesome

THE TRIP Day 1

2011-06-08T20:37:00.000-07:00

So we are finally gonna start posts about our trip, one day at a time,so here is Day 1 (we both made daily journal entries so this will just be excerpts from those. you will have to excuse the grammar and punctuation since we typed on a tiny keyboard and I have no interest in correcting it all)

"So I worked a little today and Pat had to tell every patient that I was about to leave to Ethiopia. Every patient was like, "that's so great," or "have a safe trip." So I was kinda thinkin about it all day. Then I got BO, which is pretty rare for me so I realized I was pretty nervous. I was a little stressed for our baggage since everyone always says how strict emirates is, but when we got to lax there were no problems at all. Once that was behind us and we got thru security, I kinda realized what was happening. When we boarded the plane, I kinda had a couple mission flashbacks. I am so excited, this will be such an experience and really change our lives I think. Its hard for me to even imagine what it will really be like, this is so different from anything I have ever done. But I am in love with this little girl. I am proud to have the chance to be her father. I hope she learns to love me the way I love her."--Mike

"Well, the day is finally here, I woke up this morning at 5:00am and couldn't go back to sleep. I rolled over and grabbed Mike's face and squeezed his cheeks and said "we are going to Africa today". I keep imagining how E will react when we see her for the first time... I am almost positive she will cry for the first few days. It will be hard not to just go pick her up and snuggle her right away, but my plan is to take it easy and have her warm up to us first."--Chantel

Arabian Pepsi

Leaving LAX

EMIRATES TO DUBAI

DAY 2

"Well, we are in Dubai, we arrived last night at 7:45 after a pretty uneventful flight. I was really sick of the plane though and my booty was so sore and my legs were so swollen and tight. we weren't sure where to go so just followed the crowd which ended up taking us to transferring flights, not final destination as Dubai. So we had to go back through security and down the stairs to the Visa line (which took forever) and then to get our baggage. Ours was the last one there but I was glad it was all there. As we were leaving we got one of our bags searched at customs, it was full of vitamins and creams and stuff. We explained what it was and they eventually let us go, they didn't really understand what it was but eventually said it was o.k. The 20 mile car ride took us over an hour because of the crazy amount of traffic. The drivers are crazy here too, I thought for sure we were goint to crash but I guess it is even worse in Ethiopia so I better get used to it. we arrived at our hotel and it is super nice. I am a little stressed because you can't show any form of public affection so I have to stop myself from grabbing Mike's hand. They could arrest you if they see you. We toured the hotel a little and walked to the beach, the sand was so nice and the water was so warm. I woke up at 5:45am and couldn't sleep any more. Our hotel room has an amazing view of the Arabian Sea. I tried to Skype the kids again but no one was online. Now I am sitting on the balcony overlooking the beach and trying to elevate my swollen feet. I'm pretty sure this time change is going to rock me, I will definitely be taking a nap on the beach today.. possibly as I sip a virgin Pina Colada. I can't even believe we get to meet our sweet baby girl tomorrow. I can't wait to see her in person. "--Chantel

"So day 2 is over, but it was really day 3 I guess since we lost about 12 hours, which is weird and confusing but whatever. So the plane ride wasnt too bad, 3 movies, a nap and some old school atari type games. When we landed, I was expecting it to be more foreign. It was strange to see the Arabs in their traditional garb but otherwise it was just another airport. After taking a wrong turn or two we found our way to the line for Visas. When we went thru customs we did have one bag searched, the one with all our vitamins/creams/ointments for HH. They didnt really get why we had them, but we seemed innocent enough I guess and they let us thru. The letter from AGCI was worthless to them. Anyway, then we got vultured by some non-union taxi driver who wastn really a taxi driver and started what turned out to be an hour long 15 mile drive. Again, I wasn't expexcting to see what kind of looked like Mexico, tons of little shops/stores lined the roads and there were a lot of people out. I know there are the fancy spots of Dubai but we didnt see any of them. Our hotel was really nice and the staff was over helpful not letting you carry anything, pour your own water, etc. Got checked in, took a walk on the beach which was really cool, it finally felt really foreign. It was AZ hot too. We slept for maybe 5 hours, chatted with Jboy and Jgirl for a few minutes on Skype, ate an amazing buffet breakfast that inclued the regular US stuff (except the egg yolks were orange) and then an assortment of meats, cheeses, soups and other non breakfast items tha I guess other people eat for breakfast. Anyway, after that we went to the beach and swam in the Arabian Sea, and people watched. It was a nice relaxing day and it was frickin hot, the water was like a warm bathtub." --Mike

VIEW FROM OUR HOTEL ROOM

DUBAI!!??

WE FLEW RIGHT OVER THE NORTH POLE!

Donation Needs

2011-04-25T13:25:00.000-07:00

We are leaving for Ethiopia in 16 days... you read that right only 16 more days until we are on our way to see our baby girl. The transition home baby E is in has a list of donations they are in need of at this time. We are able to take 4 bins on our flight over so we are hoping to collect and bring some of these items. If you would like to help out with donations please let me know, we would greatly appreciate it and I know the kiddos in the home would also appreciate it. Here is the list:

Infant Needs

***Baby Wipes
***Organic Unground Flaxseed
Bibs
Infant and Children’s Vitamins
Powdered Similac Formula (regular, vegetable– and ****soy-based*** --> cannot get in Ethiopia and many of the kids are lactose intolerant)
Avent Bottles (8 and 12 oz sizes)
Rice Cereal
Diaper Rash Cream (Desitin is preferred)
Baby Shampoo
Baby Oil
Lotions specifically for dry/ashy skin
Toys for infants 0-16 months

Medications:
Hydrocortisone cream
Neosporin (or generic Triple Antibiotic)
Clotrimazole cream
Infant and children's multi-vitamins

Miscellaneous
Towels (blue or pink, regular size)
Kids and Adult's toothpaste (do NOT need toothbrushes however)
Kleenex Boxes
Braun Thermometer Covers
Sidewalk Chalk
Bubbles
Twin Sheets (mainly flats in pink, purple, red, blue or green—solid or printed)

Children's Clothing Needs - Must be New or Like New (please consider slim clothing)
*At this time, infant clothing is not needed*
Toddler Clothing and Shoes
Light Jackets or Sweaters for all ages
Shorts and Tanks for tall, skinny kids
Boys' Clothing - Age 4-10 - especially pants and pajamas
Girls' Clothing - Age 4-10 - especially pants and pajamas
Underwear for all ages
Shoes for all ages, but especially older boys and girls (age 4-13)
(The popular "Croc" is great for these kids as well as sneakers)

Needs for Special Mothers and Staff
Adult-sized slippers (They don’t wear shoes inside)

Crocs for Adults in sizes 7, 8, and 9 (Easily cleaned for special mother's)
Scrubs (White, size medium, for the special mothers caring for the children)

LapTop Computer, New or Refurbished.

Thank you all for your support and help through out our adoption!

Easter Festivities

2011-04-25T13:01:00.000-07:00

Things have been so super crazy around here. We moved on Friday... which will be saved for another post... so I had no idea Easter was this past Sunday until about Thursday of last week. We still managed to pull it off and the kids had a blast celebrating the Easter festivities. We decorated Easter eggs (at 9:30pm on Saturday night) and both kids got a ton of candy and goodies on Easter morning. Our new street has a lot of kids so they do an annual Easter egg hunt Sunday morning, so we were able to participate in that this year...Jgirl and Jboy ate candy ALL day yesterday.... Jboy tried to do it again today so I gave him a little info on type 1 diabetes... he is a little hesitant now :)Church was great, my mum sang in my aunts ward so we all went to watch, it was a great Easter program. I am so grateful to my Saviour for all he has done for us.
I gotta run and finish cleaning our old house but here are some pictures of our fun weekend.

Happy 11 Months Baby Girl

2011-04-15T22:33:00.000-07:00

Happy 11 months sweet baby. We will be in Ethiopia for your happy 12 months.... Please don't learn to walk before then. We can't wait, only 26 more days until we leave.

Spring Break

2011-04-09T17:18:00.000-07:00

For this years spring break Mboy and I were trying to decide what we should do. I really wanted to do something fun as kind of a last shabang, since I am sure our kids worlds will be rocked as soon as we come home with baby E. I really wanted to go on a cruise so I found one that would work (for sheap) but Mboy decided he couldn't take the time off work since he already had a full schedule booked and he would already be taking 2 weeks off for our trip to ET. As time got closer to the kids break we still hadn't planned anything so I told Mboy to book the kids and I a room at a B&B in San Diego with a trade group that he is a part of. So off we went. Mboy still had to work so he came up on Wednesday after work and then stayed the night with us on Thursday. The first part if the trip the kids and I went to the beach (it was sooooo cold), collected shells, swam in the hot tub and went thrift store shopping. Jaida kept saying "this is the best day ever" ( on the day we went to the beach, swam in the hot tub, had a nap and ate donuts... I had to agree) We decided we would take the kids to Sea world on the last day since we had never been. We loved it! So much less stress than Disneyland and my kids had never seen anything like it. Jboy LOVED the killer whales... he calls them "killer." It was such a fun get away, we will definitely be doing it again.

You may have noticed in the pictures something a little special around my waist...That's right, it's a fanny pack. I'm bringing em back, they are so practical:) I don't know why the fad ever left.

Happy Birthday My Boy!

2011-04-09T16:54:00.000-07:00

April, 3rd was Jboys 4th Birthday. We woke up, made German Pancakes (J's choice of course) then watched the morning session of General Conference. We then headed to my mum and dad's for the rest of the day. We told Jboy that he had to wait until my little Bro Cman got there before he could open his presents. (thinking Cman was 30 minutes away)3 hours later and about 5000 askings if we can open presents yet, Cman arrived. We ate hamburgers and homemade french fries, then finally opened presents and ate a most excellent cake. Jboy said he wanted a dinosaur, helicopter, airplane and car cake, with his name on it... sooo we made it happen. He was so worried Cman was going to eat all of his cake so he kept warning him if he did that his daddy was going ot beat him up. Luckily that didn't need to happen. Jboy loved all of his presents and played the rest of the night with all of them. We are sooooo lucky to have this little man in our lives, he is the sweetest, funniest most precious boy.

COURT DATE!! and a small miracle

2011-03-15T22:37:00.001-07:00

And finally we have a court date! So here is the story, a few weeks ago we were pretty frustrated and we were questioning whether our adoption was going to go through, if it was meant to be, why it was taking so long, etc...as we were going to bed that night, I got the scriptures out to read a page or two (we always try to read a page/chapter each night) and I decided I would just flip them open and read whichever page it opened to....Well we "happened" to turn to Ephesians chapter 1, and verse 5 was the first verse on the page:
"Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ..." so Heavenly Father let us know he was with us and that we should just trust in him. That in itself was really cool but there is more. Last week several other families received court dates even though they had received their referrals weeks after us, so we were kinda in a bad place again, so that night we did our usual routine and I decided to just flip the book open and read again, this time our answer came from the Book of Mormon, Mosiah 24 the top of the page was half way through verse 13 "...lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage. And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders that you cannot feel them upon your backs...that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter and that you may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions...And it came to pass that so great was the their faith and their patience that the voice of the Lord came unto them again saying: Be of good comfort for on the morrow I will deliver you out of bondage."
So literally on the morrow we were "delivered", wow, we certainly had felt God lift us up and ease our burdens at times but we were amazed at this small miracle and message that God had sent us. It's amazing how He can speak to us through the scriptures! Our friend April who is also adopting from Ethiopia had posted a prayer request on our behalf on the adoption listserv that same day! A coincidence? nope, this was God's hand in our lives. So thanks to the faith of all our supporters we finally have our date!

We got the call last friday letting us know that we were assigned a court date of May 19th!! We are excited but a little bummed that it is a bit later than we hoped for. So we are making travel plans to go meet "E"!! We know its gonna be a rollercoaster of emotion. The joy to meet her, the sorrow to realize her loss, the excitement to visit Ethiopia and then seeing the reality of true poverty....we are super pumped though.
We are trying to arrange to do some dentistry while we are there and just figuring out the logistics of it. I know of another dentist that has adopted from Ethiopia that actually arranged a huge dental mission last year so I am in touch with him to figure out what is feasible to do while I am there. He said it was an awesome opportunity and that they people served were so grateful. There is an awful amount of need there, so I am expecting the dental work to be different.
Anyway, thats the latest, we will be updating once our travel plans are set any may be asking for any donations to take the orphanage.

Our girl is 10 months

2011-03-15T22:22:00.000-07:00

Happy 10 months baby girl. We are so sad to not have you in our arms for this day but know you are being well taken care of at HH. We love you SOOOOOOOOO much. We are pretty sure you are crawling by now but please don't start walking, we don't want to miss it...
We got 2 new pictures of baby E today from a family that is there picking up their baby girl, this always makes my day. Her hair is getting so long and she is looking so much older.
We finally received a court date but I am making M do that post :)

Tough Times

2011-03-08T22:59:00.000-08:00

OK so since Chantel is making me post this here it goes:
We have been working on our adoption for about 15 months now. As you all know it has taken a considerable amount of time, energy and money to get everything in order. Our prayers were answered Jan 24th when we saw our beautiful daughter's face and were able to read about her and her family story. We are heartbroken for her birth family but so unbelievably excited to join her to our family. Although we are yet to hold her, talk to her, comfort her we absolutely love her.
When we accepted the referral of baby "E" on Jan 24th our case was submitted to the Ethiopian court system to be assigned a court date. This typically was taking a week or two and the court date would be assigned 4-8 weeks from there. The purpose of the court date is basically for the judge to verify that the child is indeed an orphan, the care of the child has been relinquished, the information is accurate, etc., and that we are suitable parents. Well one item in this checklist is a letter from MOWA (ministry of women's affairs) saying that they reviewed the documentation and approve of the adoption. Up until now MOWA has been issuing 40-50 letters per day, but they are planning on reducing this to 5 a day. What this means is that adoptions, including ours will be delayed months and even years. This of course is heartbreaking for us. Not just because we want to bring our daughter home but we feel so much sorrow for the poor kids that will sit in orphanages that much longer. With no Mom, no Dad. These kids will have to learn to cope on their own, fight for attention, fight just to be held or fed. It is hard for us to watch E grow up just in the last month from the pictures we see. These orphans need families. To know that "E" is there waiting and we are here waiting, missing all of her milestones. We are so happy that she at Hannah's Hope and being well cared for, but she still needs us and we so need her. The orphanages are already crunched for space. Its just frustrating to know that there is such a need, and there are so many willing and waiting families. I understand the process, its a process in place to protect the children from fraudulent and unethical agencies. But there has to be another way.

Well is there is something you can do, the Joint Council on International Children's Services has a petition here: http://www.gopetition.com/petition/43714.html
here is the text:

Last week the Ethiopian Ministry of Women’s, Children's, and Youth Affairs announced their intention to reduce intercountry adoptions by 90% beginning March 10, 2011.

The Ministry’s plan for a dramatic reduction is apparently based on two primary issues;

1) the assumption that corruption in intercountry adoption is systemic and rampant and;

2) the Ministry’s resources should be focused on the children for whom intercountry adoption is not an option.

The Ministry’s plan to reduce intercountry adoption by 90% is a tragic, unnecessary and a disproportionate reaction to concerns of isolated abuses in the intercountry adoption process.

We support the Ministry’s goal of ensuring ethical adoptions that serve the best interest of children and serve all vulnerable children & families.

We respectfully urge the Ministry to consider the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry adoption. Rather than eliminate the right of Ethiopian children to a permanent family, we encourage the Ministry to accept the partnerships offered by governments, NGOs, and foundations.

Such partnerships could increase the Ministry’s capacity to regulate service providers, further ensure ethical adoptions and expand services to more families and children.

We, respectfully urge the Ministry of Women’s, Children's and Youth Affairs to reconsider its plan and to partner with governments, NGOs and foundations to achieve their goals and avoid the coming tragedy for children and families.

My Sweet JGirl

2011-03-08T21:09:00.000-08:00

We have some bad news to post about our adoption involving a change with one of the Government agencies there, but I don't have the heart to make that post tonight. I have cried enough today so I'm making M do it when he gets back from soccer.
I love my kids, they are so stinkin cute. Today as we were driving home from dance Jgirl asked if we can send the kids in Ethiopia some food since they don't have very much. I told her it is hard to send food because it goes bad before it gets there. I told her it is better if you can send clothes and shoes and toothbrushes and toothpaste instead since they won't go bad and the kids need these things too. I also said it is better to send money to help feed the kids rather than actual food, this way they can buy food there. She immediately offered her piggy bank money that she has been saving for years. How sweet is she. I told her that was a very good idea. Then tonight after I had put her in bed she called me in her room and asked if we could send crackers cause they last for a really long time. I love that she is thinking about this. Sad thing is I am sure many of them would LOVE some crackers.

Update... or lack there of...

2011-02-25T12:35:00.000-08:00

Still no news of a court date here. I am so unbelievably done this wait. The last few day have been really hard, I wake up each morning with a glimmer of hope... which quickly fades as the day goes on. M and I are having the hardest time trying to figure what could be going on and why it is taking so long. We received our referral 5 weeks ago on Monday and our file was opened shortly after that (the following Monday we were told our file was opened with the courts at that point but we know it was opened before that Monday, somewhere in between that week) Another family that received their referral after us got their court date 9 days ago. M emailed our case worker last Thursday so she phoned us back this past Monday. I asked if there was any way they could check on the status of our file... I just want to be sure it isn't lost in the courts somewhere. B said no we just have to wait and that she wasn't worried... hmmmmm wish I could say the same. I also learned that when a file is opened it means all of our paperwork has been filed with the courts on AGCI end. I was under the impression this was something the courts sent out saying they received the file... so who knows where the heck it is now. We really want to bring our baby girl home and I just can't understand why it is taking so long. Other families have waited 1 week from their time of referral to hear about their court date. When can we catch a break? We have been praying so hard everyday to hear about a court date. I know it will be in the Lord's time and I am trying to trust in him but it is soooo hard to see this through His eyes when all I want is my baby home NOW.

9 Months Old

2011-02-15T21:35:00.000-08:00

Our sweet baby girl is 9 months old today. I am so bummed we have missed all of her milestones in these past 9 months. We were told she can't crawl yet but there is a recent picture we received from a family who was recently at HH that is showing her pretty dang close. Her face is so funny/determined. Jboy calls it her pirate face. We love her so much and can't wait to get her home. We still have no word on our court date, I am hoping we might hear something tomorrow... but not holding my breath. It has now been 3 weeks and 2 days since we first saw her sweet face and 2 weeks and 2 days since her file has been open in court. Trying to be patient but I have to say I thought for sure we would have heard something by now since she was paper ready at time of referral. We are so thankful to the families who have taken pictures and videos for us, it keeps me going.

The Word Around Town

2011-02-10T21:03:00.000-08:00

So we have again entered the wait phase. We are now waiting for a court date, and since baby B was paper ready we expected to hear by now. So far nothing... which is really what I should have expected since nothing so far has fallen in the early time frame for us... actually not even on the worst case time frame, longer than that even. We know our file is open in the courts and have been for 10 days now (almost 11) We were told since our file was open we could get our date anywhere from the next day to 2 weeks. ( I emailed B and she now says up to 4 weeks hmmmm) If we don't get the call tomorrow we will have waited the full 2 weeks (since they don't work on the weekends) So I am hoping since everything else has taken so long that maybe we can catch a break and get a quick court date. I have been praying so hard for this. When we had our next steps call I was told to expect a court date end of March to beginning of April. I was talking with a family who got their referral a couple days after us and they were told end of April beginning of May (their file is also open) Booo if we have to wait that long. Please Ethiopian courts give us a court date... and have it be really soon, baby B has been at HH long enough.
Enough about the wait....Since we can't meet baby B until our court date we really rely on other families travelling to take pictures of our B for us and give us word on how she is doing (our agency won't give updates unless our baby is sick). There have been so many sweet families who have taken the time away from their own kids at HH to spend some time with our girl and take pictures (we even received a video which made my day... and every day after since I watch it 75 times a day) The pictures and things these families tell us are all we really know of B's personality, so here are a few things people have said about her:
"She sucks her fingers for soothing."
"She is VERY attached to her special mothers, and loves when they hold her"
"her eyes just caught me - they are so beautiful! I love all her curls too... she really is a gorgeous little one!"
"just wanted to let you know that she is precious and gorgeous!!!!! "
"she is SO BEAUTIFUL!! She sits up so straight and tall. And she smiles a lot until she sees a camera--then she gets quite serious" This one is funny because I thought she NEVER smiled. For a while we only had one picture where she was almost smiling. That is why I love the video so much, you can actually see her personality.
"You can tell that the Special Mothers LOVE your girl! She is SUCH a sweetheart!"

We already love her so much. When Jgirl looks at pictures of baby B with other kids in it she always says "but I really want her" pointing to B. Jet loves her video and will imitate what she does in the video and than laugh. Mike says he wonders if any other families adopting feel bad cause B is the cutest one. He says she is the cutest Ethiopian he has ever seen. Pretty sure she has him wrapped around her finger, I hope he feels the same way when it is his turn to get up with her in the middle of the night... I know i'll still feel it.

I am His Daughter (EFY 2010)

2011-02-07T14:08:00.000-08:00

We are loving this song around our house. Both Jgirl and I sing along at the top of our lungs. (Turn off my playlist at the bottom)

The wait...

2011-01-29T19:20:00.000-08:00

The wait to see our baby girls face once we were on the waitlist was 11 months. I wish I could say that I did that wait graciously with total faith in the Lord's timing and that I am a new women and learned so much from waiting so patiently but that just wouldn't be true. There were days especially in the end where it wasn't pretty. I knew there was nothing I could do to make our referral happen faster but I tried. Some days were good and I had more faith. Other days I was mad, sad, frustrated and confused. I didn't understand why Heavenly Father couldn't see that we needed a referral right away and that we had waited long enough and condsidering it was me, I had waited pretty darn patiently (at least up until Decemberish) But the thing I didn't realize... or didn't take the time to truley realize, until I saw her face and felt all that I felt for her, was that my Heavenly Father is perfect, he has perfect timing and knows all. Baby E couldn't be referred to us until the exact day that she was and I wish I had had more faith and patience. I used to read people's blogs who had adopted and they would always say the wait was so worth it when they saw their childs face. I knew it would be great to see our girls face but didn't think it would take away my bitterness in the long wait we had. I was wrong and now I know her story I see why it happend the way it did. She is perfect for our family. People who have been to HH and seen baby E will tell me little stories about her, this helps me get to know her personality and everything about her so far reminds me of either Jgirl or Jboy or M as a baby. I love it. I have seen pictures of other baby girls at HH and they are just cute babies, none of them stir the same feeling as baby E, she is ours. I am so thankful to my Heavenly Father for not answering my prayers and giving us our referral in His time and according to His plan. I am praying for help to apply this lesson to our Court date and Embassy appointements.

Officially Matched

2011-01-27T10:55:00.000-08:00

B, our case worker phoned this morning telling us our referral acceptance paperwork was received and all looks good. We are officially matched to our sweet baby E. I must admit I was a little stressed these last few days getting it all completed but everyone was so helpful in getting their part done fast. On Monday we have our next steps call where B will go over court process and other fun stuff. So now that Agci can contact the staff at HH and they can start working on getting us a court date. B said to expect up to 6 Weeks before we hear about our court date, then up to 3 months until our court date (which is when we will travel to meet our sweet girl for about a week and she will become legally ours... at least according to Ethiopia) then we have to leave her and come home for up to 6 weeks while we wait for a U.S Embassy appointment. Then we can go get her and bring her home for good. We are praying for a miracle that our court date will come WAY sooner since she should be paper ready for court but who knows.

REFERRAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-01-24T12:11:00.000-08:00

This might be a bit long but I wanted to remember every bit of this perfect day, the day we saw our daughters face after a long 14 month wait. (11months on the waitlist and a record wait of 47 days at number 1)

You have no idea how long I have waited to make this post. I was at the gym this morning since I hadn't been in a while. Jet complained as usual since he hates the play place (until he gets in it... than he loves it) It was packed since there was a Zumba class about to start. At about 9:30 I found a treadmill and tried to start running but the treadmill was broken so I picked another one. It was also broken.... probably something telling me to go home and take a shower instead of working out since we would be getting our referral that day and I looked like a freak with bed head and all. The 3rd treadmill worked and I started my work out. I set my phone with the screen facing out so I would be able to see if the call came... although I didn't have any high hopes since we had now been waiting almost 7 weeks at number 1 and still nothing. At 9:41am I heard my phone ring but couldn't tell if it was "one love" I did however see the AGCI name. My eyes immediately started watering and I stopped the machine and answered my phone while gathering all my stuff. B said hello and asked if I had a second to talk. I answered yes and went into a bathroom stall where I let the tears flow. She started telling us about a sweet 8 month old baby girl. We talked for about 5 minutes while she gave me some info on our baby girl, then I said I should go to M's office and call her back so he could hear everything too. I tried to phone M on the way to my car but he wouldn't answer his cell so I phoned his office and told P his secretary that Dr. Briar (her new name or so I hope M will go for it) phoned so I am on my way over. She was a little confused and repeated the message back to me a couple of times and said she would do it. I rushed to M's office and luckily my mum was there so we all piled into M's office and phoned B back. M kept having to leave to work on patients so I took some good notes. After we received all of the info B asked if we had any questions. I told her I just wanted to see a picture. She quickly sent over 5 but I wasn't going to open it until M got back,he said he would be done in 20 minutes. So as B was talking to me I saw the email came in so opened it so I would be ready when M came back. I scrolled down to the attachment and there was a mini little picture of our sweet baby girl. I started balling and stopped listening to B. I told her I accidentally just saw a picture so stopped listening to her and she would have to repeat what she just said. I looked away and let my mum have a peek.. I got off the phone with B and stood to the side while my mum described her to us. Skinny little thing, big ears, big eyes, tall, and sooo cute were a few of the descriptions I got.Jet also said she was a cute little girl. Finally M came back and we were able to see her. She is so perfect and we are soooooo happy and in love. I can't wait to show Jgirl when she is done school.

In the days following this call we have looked at her beautiful, perfect face millions of times. We can't stop looking at pictures and are so thankful for families who have sent us more pictures. From what we could see of her personality, through the pictures, she seems quiet and inquisitive. In a lot of her pictures she has the cutest little scowl. Her personality seems to be a lot like Mike's when he was a baby. We love her more than I ever thought. already.
When you look at the pictures, remember I hadn't showered.... nor did I that day.

Oh ya, sorry we can't post pictures of our girl until we are home (only parts of her so you can't make her out... hence the cute little curls), agency rules. But if you see me in person I will definitely show you and I carry them with me at all times. Actually I will probably ask to show them to you... even if I don't know you. When I want to show her pictures to people I know.. but not that well ( like Jgirls dance studio owner/teacher), I just give a picture to one of the kids and tell them to ask the person if they want to see their little sister. It always opens it up for a picture display.... I'm just sayin.... it works every time.

Get Excited...

2011-01-23T21:34:00.000-08:00

Nope we did not get our referral. We did however make some so super cute bumper stickers. I really wanted to make something that we could sell to help pay for our adoption. My first idea was to make shirts but the adoption world is pretty saturated in fundraiser shirts... even though I had an excellent design. So then I thought I haven't seen anyone make bumper stickers... so that's what we made. I ordered the vinyl and asked our good friends the S's who helped us make them. They were soooooo sweet and had us over for dinner then cut bumper stickers until the wee hours of the night. They turned out so cute.. I think. I just have to find some thin cardboard to ship them in... like the kind you get the fake tattoos from the vending machine thingy in. Where do I find that? So if you are interested in purchasing one they are $13.00 which includes shipping. There are limited quantities of the green polka dot one. Woohoo, help us get our baby girl home.

Ethiopian Adoption: Why Ethiopia?

2011-01-22T09:57:00.000-08:00

Why Ethiopia?

2011-01-22T09:52:00.000-08:00

I Have a Dream...

2011-01-18T21:35:00.000-08:00

Jboy came home from pre-school today with this little project that melted my heart. It appears Martin Luther King, Jr. and I have the same dream. (You can't really see the little white hand print but it's there)

40 days... and counting

2011-01-17T22:01:00.000-08:00

So... I am sad to say we have now been at the number 1 spot for 40 days (almost 6 weeks) and still nothing. Last week I was so hopeful that this was going to be our week..that hope is dwindling now that 12 families are at HH right now with their court appointments or Embassy appointments and not one has mentioned there having been new infants brought in. I am so done with this. When we first got on the wait list in February we were told a 8-10 month wait. Me being the optimist I am :) I was planning on August cause things seemed to be moving along with referrals. Then August came and went, and so did September, October, November and December. I kept hearing word on the listserve that things tend to slow down around Christmas time but I thought for sure we wouldn't be the family stuck at the number 1 spot and that we would for sure get our referral by then. Wrongo. Now we are in the middle of January and still nothing. I really hope that tomorrow I can write a post about our most excellent referral call.

Nativity

2011-01-09T22:37:00.000-08:00

The other day I heard the kids playing and Jgirl wanted me to come and look. This is what I found. Can you guess what it is? Jgirl said Jboy was baby Jesus.... (About 10 minutes before he was a dog, hence the leash). He layed still like that for a long time. Hahaha too funny, they are so stinkin cute.

New Years Eve

2011-01-09T22:07:00.001-08:00

This New Years Eve, we were still in Montana so we decided to go to the Bigfork Inn (as did John Lithgow). We had an excellent meal and then danced to the live band to our hearts content. The kids were dancing up a storm and by the end (yes we were there until midnight) were pretty beat. They were the only kids there besides one other little boy that was a dancing fool too. He really wanted to dance with Jgirl and kept grabbing her hands. She would pull away and go sit down at our table. We all sat down for a break and I told her she shouldn't say no to boys when they ask her to dance since they have to do the hard part and ask. She said " but he smelled like Cheeze its" Hahaha we laughed so hard... mostly because we have all, at some point, had to dance with someone that smelled like "cheeze its" It was a great night with family and the first time we have gone out for New Years in a while.

Christmas Festivities

2011-01-09T21:03:00.000-08:00

I know this is a little late but here are the pictures from our Christmas in Montana. This year, like last year, we had so much fun. We made snowmen, snow forts,gingerbread houses, sledded, skated, skied/snowboarded, played hockey, and the boys joined the polar bear club and Santa even came for a visit. The kids loved the snow, I am so grateful we have such a beautiful place to holiday, it really can't be beat. Jgirl was so excited to try skating this year, she was so determined and ended up picking it up right away. Jboy tried it but didn't care for it much, he preferred to just run around on the ice. M, my brothers C, and T and I all went up to the ski hill one day. It was soooo cold but so much fun. The ski hill is about an hour drive to the top so we opted to just have the kids try snowboarding on our drive way since we knew they wouldn't last that long on the ski hill. They both did so well. Jet decided on one of his rides down to ollie a scarf on the ground and did it every time, it was so funny. Christmas morning the kids were so excited, they were really spoiled this year and had fun playing with their toys all week long.
Enjoy the plethora of pictures... Funny they look almost exactly the same as last years.

Number 1

2011-01-07T09:56:00.000-08:00

We are now officially number 1.... Although we have unofficially been number 1 now for 30 days, way too long if you ask me. I am so done with this part of the wait, I am literally sick to my stomach of waiting. Every morning comes and I get excited wondering if this is the day... and it never is. I know our baby girl is probably going through some changes that no one should have to experience right now so I am trying to focus on her, my waiting is nothing compared to what she is going through. So we will wait until it is our Heavenly Father's time, to see her face and in the mean time pray He will watch over her and her family.

10 months and 2 days...

2010-12-28T11:17:00.001-08:00

It has now been 10 months and 2 days since we were placed on the waitlist, and 20 days of being at number one. Both waits longer then I had anticipated or hoped. I have been doing pretty good thanks to the business of Christmas and knowing that AGCI was closed until yesterday. Now i'm going crazy again. I am hoping and praying it is this week, since a lot of my family is together.... and cause I can't wait one week more.
I gave M a little scare this mornin. On my phone I had AGCI's number set to a specific ring tone "One Love" by Bob... M's pick. I had to get a new phone and had downloaded the ring tone but hadn't changed it yet. I was listening to the ring tones I had downloaded this morning before M got up and a few seconds after I played One Love, M came running down the stairs thinking we were getting the call. Poor boy. I'm pretty sure I would have started to cry if the roles had been reversed and I had the false alarm. But now we are all set up.

So After Christmas It Is

2010-12-22T17:23:00.001-08:00

Nothing to Report Except a Sweet Shirt

2010-12-21T17:16:00.001-08:00

No call yet. I did however find a shirt I love. I had just taken Jgirl and Jboy to the movie Megamind (which is really funny) with some friends. Jgirl got invited to her bff's house Sgirl, so Jboy and I went shopping. He was not that exited until I bribed him with a toy. I stopped at a skate store called Active which I don't usually shop at because it is pretty expensive but I was glad I did. I found this gem of a shirt (pictured) and had to buy it. When I got home I googled the brand and learned about the "Krochet Kids Uganda" Their story is pretty funny and their purpose is pretty inspiring. Check em out: www.krochetkids.org.
P.S- I won't be able to post tomorrow since we will be in Vegas but if by chance (the smallest chance) we get our referral I will post on the listserve.
Merry Christmas and THANK YOU to everyone who is/has been praying for us during this wait/process. We feel them, appreciate them and couldn't make it without them.

Nothin yet.

2010-12-20T22:35:00.000-08:00

Nothing yet my listserve peeps. Our Case worker emailed me again about some USCIS stuff and again wished me Merry Christmas. Enough with the dashing of my hopes for a Christmas referral. Hmm this is sounding an awful lot like another complaining about not getting a referral post so I will stop. Just wanted all those behind me to know, there is nothing yet.

Maybe Christmas Doesn't Come From a Store...

2010-12-19T22:42:00.000-08:00

I got this talk by Jeffrey R. Holland from my sister-in-laws blog. Love it, helps me to relate a little more to what the birth of our Savior may have been like and reminds me that He is why we celebrate this season.

“Maybe Christmas Doesn’t Come from a Store”
You will recall from Dr. Suess’s holiday “horror” story, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, that the devilish Grinch determined to rob Who-ville of every holiday treat. In a nefarious scheme in which the Grinch dressed as Santa himself, he moved through Who-ville taking every package, tree, ornament, and stocking.

We now come upon him as he leaves the city, chuckling to himself in delight over the pain he will have caused children like little Cindy-Lou Who.

Three thousand feet up! Up the side of Mt. Crumpit,
He rode with his load to the tiptop to dump it!
“Pooh-Pooh to the Whos!” he was grinch-ish-ly humming.
“They’re finding out now that no Christmas is coming!
“They’re just waking up! I know just what they’ll do!
“Their mouths will hang open a minute or two
“Then the Whos down in Who-ville will all cry Boo-Hoo!
“That’s a noise, “grinned the Grinch,
“That I simply MUST hear!”So he paused. And the Grinch put his hand to his ear.
And he did hear a sound rising over the snow.
It started in low. Then it started to grow …
But the sound wasn’t sad!
Why, this sound sounded merry!
It couldn’t be so!
But it WAS merry! VERY!
He stared down at Who-ville!
The Grinch popped his eyes!
Then he shook!
What he saw was a shocking surprise!
Every Who down in Who-ville, the tall and the small,
Was singing! Without any presents at all!
He HADN‘T stopped Christmas from coming!
IT CAME!
Somehow or other, it came just the same!
And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling: “How could it be so?”
“It came without ribbons! It came without tags!
“It came without packages, boxes or bags!”
And he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before!
“Maybe Christmas,” he thought, “doesn’t come from a store.
Maybe Christmas … perhaps … means a little bit more!”
(Dr. Suess, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, New York: Random House, 1957.)

Part of the purpose for telling the story of Christmas is to remind us that Christmas doesn’t come from a store. Indeed, however delightful we feel about it, even as children, each year it “means a little bit more.” And no matter how many times we read the biblical account of that evening in Bethlehem, we always come away with a thought—or two—we haven’t had before.

There are so many lessons to be learned from the sacred account of Christ’s birth that we always hesitate to emphasize one at the expense of all the others. Forgive me while I do just that in the time we have together here.

One impression which has persisted with me recently is that this is a story—in profound paradox with our own times—that this is a story of intense poverty. I wonder if Luke did not have some special meaning when he wrote not “there was no room in the inn” but specifically that “there was no room for them in the inn.” (Luke 2:7; italics added.) We cannot be certain, but it is my guess that money could talk in those days as well as in our own. I think if Joseph and Mary had been people of influence or means, they would have found lodging even at that busy time of year.

I have wondered if the Inspired Version also was suggesting they did not know the “right people” in saying, “There was none to give room for them in the inns.” (JST, Luke 2:7.)

We cannot be certain what the historian intended, but we do know these two were desperately poor. At the purification offering which the parents made after the child’s birth, a turtledove was substituted for the required lamb, a substitution the Lord had allowed in the Law of Moses to ease the burden of the truly impoverished. (See Lev. 12:8.)

The wise men did come later bearing gifts, adding some splendor and wealth to this occasion, but it is important to note that they came from a distance, probably Persia, a trip of several hundred miles at the very least. Unless they started long before the star appeared, it is highly unlikely that they arrived on the night of the babe’s birth. Indeed, Matthew records that when they came Jesus was “a young child,” and the family was living in “a house.” (Matt. 2:11.)

Perhaps this provides an important distinction we should remember in our own holiday season. Maybe the purchasing and the making and the wrapping and the decorating—those delightfully generous and important expressions of our love at Christmas—should be separated, if only slightly, from the more quiet, personal moments when we consider the meaning of the Baby (and his birth) who prompts the giving of such gifts.

As happens so often if we are not careful, the symbols can cover that which is symbolized. In some of our lives the manger has already been torn down to allow for a discount store running three-for-a-dollar specials on gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

I do not feel—or mean this to sound—like a modern-day Scrooge. The gold, frankincense, and myrrh were humbly given and appreciatively received, and so they should be, every year and always. As my wife and children can testify, no one gets more giddy about the giving and receiving of presents than I do.

But for that very reason, I, like you, need to remember the very plain scene, even the poverty, of a night devoid of tinsel or wrapping or goods of this world. Only when we see that single, sacred, unadorned object of our devotion—the Babe of Bethlehem—will we know why “tis the season to be jolly” and why the giving of gifts is so appropriate.

As a father I have recently begun to think more often of Joseph, that strong, silent, almost unknown man who must have been more worthy than any other mortal man to be the guiding foster father of the living Son of God. It was Joseph selected from among all men who would teach Jesus to work. It was Joseph who taught him the books of the law. It was Joseph who, in the seclusion of the shop, helped him begin to understand who he was and ultimately what he was to become.

I was a student at BYU just finishing my first year of graduate work when our first child, a son, was born. We were very poor, though not so poor as Joseph and Mary. My wife and I were both going to school, both holding jobs, and in addition worked as head residents in an off-campus apartment complex to help defray our rent. We drove a little Volkswagen which had a half-dead battery because we couldn’t afford a new one (Volkswagen or battery).

Nevertheless, when I realized that our own night of nights was coming, I believe I would have done any honorable thing in this world, and mortgaged any future I had, to make sure my wife had the clean sheets, the sterile utensils, the attentive nurses, and the skilled doctors who brought forth our firstborn son. If she or that child had needed special care at the Mayo Clinic, I believe I would have ransomed my very life to get it.

I compare those feelings (which I have had with each succeeding child) with what Joseph must have felt as he moved through the streets of a city not his own, with not a friend or kinsman in sight, nor anyone willing to extend a helping hand. In these very last and most painful hours of her “confinement,” Mary had ridden or walked approximately 100 miles from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem in Judea. Surely Joseph must have wept at her silent courage. Now, alone and unnoticed, they had to descend from human company to a stable, a grotto full of animals, there to bring forth the Son of God.

I wonder what emotions Joseph might have had as he cleared away the dung and debris. I wonder if he felt the sting of tears as he hurriedly tried to find the cleanest straw and hold the animals back. I wonder if he wondered: “Could there be a more unhealthy, a more disease-ridden, a more despicable circumstance in which a child could be born? Is this a place fit for a king? Should the mother of the Son of God be asked to enter the valley of the shadow of death in such a foul and unfamiliar place as this? Is it wrong to wish her some comfort? Is it right He should be born here?”

But I am certain Joseph did not mutter and Mary did not wail. They knew a great deal and did the best they could.

Perhaps these parents knew even then that in the beginning of his mortal life, as well as in the end, this baby son born to them would have to descend beneath every human pain and disappointment. He would do so to help those who also felt they had been born without advantage.

I’ve thought of Mary, too, this most favored mortal woman in the history of the world, who as a mere child received an angel who uttered to her those words that would change the course not only of her own life but also that of all human history: “Hail, thou virgin, who art highly favoured of the Lord. The Lord is with thee; for thou art chosen and blessed among women.” (JST, Luke 1:28.) The nature of her spirit and the depth of her preparation were revealed in a response that shows both innocence and maturity: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.” (Luke 1:38.)

It is here I stumble, here that I grasp for the feelings a mother has when she knows she has conceived a living soul, feels life quicken and grow within her womb, and carries a child to delivery. At such times fathers stand aside and watch, but mothers feel and never forget. Again, I’ve thought of Luke’s careful phrasing about that holy night in Bethlehem:

“The days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

“And she brought forth her firstborn son, and [she] wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and [she] laid him in a manger.” (Luke 2:6–7; italics added.) Those brief pronouns trumpet in our ears that, second only to the child himself, Mary is the chiefest figure, the regal queen, mother of mothers—holding center stage in this grandest of all dramatic moments. And those same pronouns also trumpet that, save for her beloved husband, she was very much alone.

I have wondered if this young woman, something of a child herself, here bearing her first baby, might have wished her mother, or an aunt, or her sister, or a friend, to be near her through the labor. Surely the birth of such a son as this should command the aid and attention of every midwife in Judea! We all might wish that someone could have held her hand, cooled her brow, and when the ordeal was over, given her rest in crisp, cool linen.

But it was not to be so. With only Joseph’s inexperienced assistance, she herself brought forth her firstborn son, wrapped him in the little clothes she had knowingly brought on her journey, and perhaps laid him on a pillow of hay.

Then on both sides of the veil a heavenly host broke into song. “Glory to God in the highest,” they sang, “and on earth, peace among men of good will.” (Luke 2:14, Phillips Translation.) But except for heavenly witnesses, these three were alone: Joseph, Mary, the baby to be named Jesus.

At this focal point of all human history, a point illuminated by a new star in the heavens revealed for just such a purpose, probably no other mortal watched—none but a poor young carpenter, a beautiful virgin mother, and silent stabled animals who had not the power to utter the sacredness they had seen.

Shepherds would soon arrive and later, wise men from the East. Later yet the memory of that night would bring Santa Claus and Frosty and Rudolph—and all would be welcome. But first and forever there was just a little family, without toys or trees or tinsel. With a baby—that’s how Christmas began.

It is for this baby that we shout in chorus: “Hark! the herald angels sing Glory to the newborn king! … Mild he lays his glory by, Born that man no more may die: Born to raise the sons of earth, Born to give them second birth.” (Hymns, no. 60.)

Perhaps recalling the circumstances of that gift, of his birth, of his own childhood, perhaps remembering that purity and faith and genuine humility will be required of every celestial soul, Jesus must have said many times as he looked into the little eyes that loved him (eyes that always best saw what and who he really was), “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 18:3.)

Christmas, then, is for children—of all ages. I suppose that is why my favorite Christmas carol is a child’s song. I sing it with more emotion than any other:

Away in a manger, no crib for his bed,
The little Lord Jesus laid down his wee head. …
I love thee, Lord Jesus, look down from the sky
And stay by my side until morning is nigh. …
Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask thee to stay
Close by me forever and love me, I pray.
Bless all the dear children in thy tender care,
And take us to heaven to live with thee there.
(Sing with Me, p. F-2.)

“Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before! ‘Maybe Christmas,’ he thought, ‘doesn’t come from a store.’”

Jeffrey R. Holland, commissioner of Church education, is a member of the Bountiful Forty-fourth Ward, Bountiful Utah Central Stake."

Is This a Test?

2010-12-19T18:02:00.000-08:00

All I can say is this next week better bring a blog post about a sweet little baby girl. As of the 26th (in 7 days) we will have waited 10 months.... Too long if you ask me. I am so grateful for this holiday season to keep me busy. We leave for Vegas (Jboy's dream come true... not sure why, he's 3) on Wednesday then fly out of Vegas to Montana on Thursday for Christmas. I would love a picture our baby girl for Christmas, is that too much to ask for? I decided that all I ever post these days are my waiting woes, so this will be my last one (of waiting woes) till we get our referral.

Yet Again Nothing

2010-12-16T16:18:00.001-08:00

Still no referral call. I thought for sure we would get the call before Christmas but now I am starting to doubt it. I know there are still a few days left before AGCI closes for the holiday but things aren't looking good. I emailed our case worker yesterday saying I was available any time to take our referral call:) She emailed me today saying it will happen when it is meant too (which I know but it is hard to be patient when we are so close) She also said " If we don’t talk before Christmas, I hope your family has a blessed holiday!" What the heck? We better talk before Christmas or it might not be that merry. Boo for waiting.

One Week

2010-12-15T19:45:00.000-08:00

It has now been 7 days since we have been at number 1 and still no call. I was doing so good until today... for some reason I convinced myself we were getting the call some time today. Not sure why but it did not make for a fun day, especially when 5:00 came around. Waiting sucks. Jgirl thinks Thursday is going to be our day so lets hope she is right.

Boy Boots

2010-12-14T21:58:00.000-08:00

So Jboy has been asking for a pair of boy boots for quite some time now. To hold himself over he tries to wear Jgirls pink, flower rain boots any chance he can. I took him for a walk through the meadow today and he insisted on wearing Jgirls boots, so I let him. He was working up a sweat kicking up the dust so took off his shirt. I was busting up watching him in his little get-up, swinging his little arms, but he didn't seem to mind. He is really hoping for a boy pair for Christmas... We will see what Santa can do.

Cookie Party

2010-12-14T21:49:00.000-08:00

This past Wednesday my friend L had a cookie party for the kids. It is a something her mum did when she was little so she now carries the tradition on. Both Jboy and Jgirl love going to L's house since our kids are best friends. We had a ton of fun.

Look to the Light

2010-12-14T12:16:00.000-08:00

No News

2010-12-10T22:49:00.000-08:00

Well, today is our 3rd day at being number 1. I didn't expect our referral before this weekend and then our case worker B emailed saying she would be out of the office today (Friday) so then all hopes for a referral this week were gone. I'm still doing pretty good though. Usually when my phone rings and I am doing something, I let it go... not anymore. I think it is time to set AGCI to a special ring tone. Come on baby I wanna see your face.

Chain

2010-12-09T16:15:00.000-08:00

In case you were wondering what our count down chain is looking like lately.. here is is. As of yesterday we are unofficially number 1. So today is our second day here and I'm loving it.... But hope we aren't here for very long. I don't expect the call before this weekend so I am surprisingly relaxed. I keep checking the list serve for referrals but then realize I may be the next one woohoooo. I do hope the call comes on a Friday so both M and I can be home, otherwise I will probably have to meet him at work and see her face for the first time there. However it comes I will take it.

December Number

2010-12-07T22:01:00.000-08:00

We received our monthly update email and we are now officially number 2. So close, but I must say the wait is getting even harder the closer we get. I asked M today if he was getting sooooo anxious to get our referral, like I am. He said no. Man I wish I had his patience, he just said it would happen when it happens. I can't wait to see what she looks like, if she has any hair, how old she is, what her features will look like. I could think non stop about her if I let myself. Thank goodness it is December and I barely have time to breath.

Here Comes Santa Clause

2010-12-06T22:18:00.000-08:00

On Saturday our community had a small Christmas party where Santa made a guest appearance. I was so glad he was there since I refuse to pay the $20 to see him at the mall and I love to get a picture every year with him and the kids. Jet was still nervous this year but he did force himself to sit on Santa's lap so he could tell him what he wanted for Christmas. I felt really bad for Santa this year since the room we were in was about 1000 degrees, I'm sure he was roasting. After the kids sat on Santa's lap they decorated a cookie and drank hot chocolate. We all had a great time. I must admit Christmas is and always has been my favorite holiday, I love the music, Christmas movies, the excitement and spending time with family. It seems like everyone has been hating on Christmas lately since it is so commercialized these days, (which I totally agree with) but I LOVED Christmas eve and waiting to see what Santa was going to bring me growing up. I love seeing my kids get excited for it too and I also love being able to bribe my kids to be good cause Santa has elves watching. I try to teach my kids and Ithink they get the true meaning of Christmas and we celebrate Christ's birth and try to focus on him and giving to others, but I think it is o.k to believe in Santa too. Just the other day J said that she used to think Christmas was about getting presents but now she thinks it is about giving gifts. She has been so excited and determined to find the perfect gift for M and I. I love my girl and I love Christmas....

Family Visit and Dland

2010-12-04T11:14:00.000-08:00

The week before Thanksgiving my sister V and her family came for a visit. They stayed in Anaheim so they could be closer to Disneyland so we met up with them one day. J still had dance for part of that week so we couldn't go up until Wednesday. So the kids and I, my mum and little bro all met up that morning. We had so much fun with them, J held my niece C'S hand the whole time, she adores her. The only down side was it was freakin freezing at night and so super busy. We are sad they live so far away so we don't get to see them very often.

Last Beach Day

2010-12-04T10:48:00.000-08:00

This is a little late but.....The forecast for the first week in November was unusually warm so we decided to take advantage of the weather and skip school to go to the beach. Since M doesn't work Fridays and my mum wasn't busy, we decided go then. It was the perfect day, a warm 84 degrees, fish and chips (and vinegar) for lunch, a little swimming and boogie boarding (this was a little nippy) sun tanning and lots of playing in the sand. Did I mention I love living in California?

Updated Medicals

2010-12-04T10:40:00.000-08:00

I haven't downloaded pictures from my camera for a while and when I did this morning I came across these beauties. As part of our homestudy update we all had to get new physicals. Here are the kids getting theirs. I thought they were so stinkin cute in their little hospital robes.

Not So Patient...

2010-11-30T13:59:00.000-08:00

Today I am going a little crazy. I keep analyzing every bit of information I have, trying to calculate when we should be getting our referral. The last few families who have our same parameters have waited 9 months.(not sure how long into the 9 months they were) As I was calculating time, my phone range and it was an out of state number. (yesterday a 619 number phoned me and for some reason I thought that was Oregon's area code so I was really excited when i answered it..... Apparently 619 is San diego) I wasn't going to fall for the same trick today so I answered the phone and to my surprise it was B. My heart started racing and I got teary eyed, thinking this may be the call. She received our homestudy update so was phoning to let us know where to send the other copy to. I kept waiting for her to say "and then I also have a little girl I want to talk to you about" It never happened. So at the end of our conversation I told her I was bummed this was not our referral call. She felt really bad but did say it would be coming. (She doesn't know when until she gets the email with our babies referral info) But she did say to expect to get our monthly number update which should be coming in a week or two. That little bit of info helps so I know not to expect the call within the next week or so. At least I can now prepare for how I will react when we do get the call. Definitely tears and possibly a slight cracky voice....

9 Months Waiting

2010-11-27T22:48:00.000-08:00

We have officially been waiting 9 months and 1 day on the waitlist. I must say I think I have done pretty well considering I am the most impatient person I know. Don't get me wrong, there were days (especially in July/August) that I thought I wouldn't make it. When we first got on the list I had in my mind we would get a referral at the end of summer. When the end of July came I knew that was never going to happen. I begged M to let us be put back on the boy list (even though I got knots in my stomach every time I thought about it) but I just couldn't wait any longer and i knew we would get a boy faster. Then my anxiousness passed and I set our new referral date in my mind for October. The closer we got to October I knew that was not going to happen. So when our case worker phoned for our monthly update that month I asked her when she would estimate our referral with her case worker knowledge. She said the wait is now 10 months from when you first get put on the list. (This does not count how ever many months it takes to complete the paper chase) So my new date set in my mind is December... that's in 4 days. I'm ready. We are unofficially number 2 but I don't think it will happen until the end of December... and if it doesn't.... I might lose it. I can't wait to see our babies face.
In other happenings, our homestudy update/addendum has finally been completed and we sent 2 notarized copies to AGCI this mornin. Woohoo. I am so glad to have that done so it won't cause any problems when we receive our referral.

Giving Thanks Giveaway

2010-11-22T10:58:00.000-08:00

O.k get excited, a friend from our adoption listserve is having a "giving thanks giveaway." You need to act fast since the drawing will be tonight! Head on over to their blog: thefarmerswifetellsall.blogspot.com to enter, there are so many cute things to be won.

Update on the Update..

2010-11-15T14:05:00.001-08:00

I just received and email from our homestudy agency saying that AGCI had reviewed out homestudy update and they have made some changes to how they want the update written. Our homestudy agency said "apparently they have a new home study template and format that they want home study updates to be written in, the format is fairly extensive and will require significant revisions on this end" Sure do wish our homestudy agency was informed of these changes prior to our update being written. So just a heads up for anyone else doing an update... We will be patiently ... or not so patiently waiting for this to be completed... and more importantly for our referral.

Paperwork Update

2010-11-14T23:05:00.000-08:00

Well, we are done with round 2 of the paper chase. In California, the homestudy is only valid for one year and our adoption has to be completey finalized with a valid homestudy. Since we moved, we had to do a homestudy addendum but since we are getting close to the 1 year mark (Feb 2011) we decided to do a homestudy "update" which will give us a one year extension on our homestudy.
So we got to get finger-printed again, have physicals, do financials and a few other items....just busywork in my mind. And of course we had to pay yet another fee. But it is just a small hurdle in the grand scheme of what we are doing. We are just trying to stay focused on the goal and have faith that the Lord will provide the way.
We also had to have another home visit from our social worker who is super nice so it was a piece of cake. So we have done our part, we are just waiting for AGCI to approve it all.
The final round of paper work will come when we actually get the referral of our daughter. It is so exciting that it is so close, we are now unofficially #3!!!!

November Numberrrrrrr

2010-11-04T19:24:00.001-07:00

October was quite the productive month on the adoption front. There were 10 infants brought into Hanna's Hope (our adoption agencies transition home) So with most of those babies being referred our November number is 6. Woo hooo.

Spooky Dance Studio Sleepover

2010-10-25T22:28:00.000-07:00

Neither one of my kids have ever had a sleepover with anyone except Grandparents. I guess I'm kind of anti sleepover with anyone else... for now. With the exception of J's dance studio sleepover. There was no way I could say no when the whole studio (minus the boys) were going... I agreed it would be a little unfair to say no, so I let her go. They were supposed to wear Halloween pajamas (which we were told 2 days before the sleepover....) so on Saturday (day of sleepover) I searched and found the cutest pair of jammies. Jgirl was so excited and when we pulled up I wondered if she would have second thoughts about spending the night... Boy was I wrong. There were so many girls, both dance rooms had no walking room, they were filled with blow up mattresses and sleeping bags. I knew they were going to get no sleep at all.... I was right. Jaida said they had a chocolate fountain with marshmallows (a dream come true for her) Pizza, candy, face painting, crafts, a pinata, dance competitions, games, movies, and a fog machine (which apparently set the fire alarms off at 2am which resulted in fire trucks and almost putting an early end to the sleepover)So much fun for a little girl, she is still talking about it. I love the after picture of Jgirl.... she was so stained up.
Poor Jboy got left out of all the fun. When we dropped Jgirl off he kept saying " I wanna sleep over at my dance class!" (he takes a hip hop class) So we took him for ice cream.

Haunted Hay Ride and Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-25T21:57:00.000-07:00

A few days ago while M's mum was in town we took the kids to Vail lake where they had Halloween festivities and a haunted hay ride. I figured the hay ride would be o.k since the description didn't give any age recommendation. Some of the scarier attractions stated recommended ages. So off we went. The kids danced, and helped judge the costume contest. Since the prices were pretty ridiculous we didn't do any of the other attractions besides the hay ride. When we were waiting in line there were a ton of kids jgirl and j boys age so we figured it was o.k. As we were getting on the wagon I started to think maybe it wasn't a good idea for the kids... but it was a little late, so I prepped them for what they might see and told them over and over it was just going to be people dressed up. As the wagon went deeper and deeper into the forest there were pretty scary, dressed up, teenagers that would jump out and jump on the wagon making crazy noises. The kids did pretty well until a freaky clown came up to our side of the wagon and picked J out. He stared at him then pointed.... then lunged toward him. J freaked but really, who picks on the 3 year old on the haunted hay ride? He settled down quickly and both kids did fine the rest of the ride. I would however, not recommend the haunted hay ride in Temecula for anyone under 10.
Since we have been quite festive this year we also decided to go to our local pumpkin patch, way better family environment. The kids loved running around the pumpkin patch, playing in the hay and doing the corn maze. Nothing however, compared to the 2 minute pony ride for $5 each. The kids were obsessed about it until we caved.. then it was complete joy. They were so stinkin cute.
P.S- Don't judge Jboys sweet outfit at the pumpkin patch. M dressed him that day :)

Keep em coming

2010-10-19T22:02:00.000-07:00

I am not sure if I have mentioned this yet or not, but we are part of a listserv made up of other adoptive families, adopting from Ethiopia, from our agency. I am really lame and haven't taken the time to figure out how to post a comment since it has recently changed... so I quietly stalk it. I am addicted to this listserv since it tells me when referrals have gone out. Every day (or... every minute) I search for the words "REFERRAL" which if it was an infant girl means we have moved down a number. (also if a family is on both lists and they get referred a boy, and they are ahead of us, then our number also goes down) So the family on the listserv that was number 1 for an infant girl is not on the list serve but the number 2 family is. They just received their referral today. Soooo, that may mean we are unofficially number 10. I am loving the surge of girl referrals but do feel bad for the families on the boy list. I know this will turn around soon and the boys will start being referred. This kinda bums me out since I don't want to wait much longer, but i know this is all in Heavenly Fathers hands and we will be referred the baby that is meant for our family.
Another update is we moved (last May) and haven't done the homestudy addendum yet since we thought we were going to buy a house and move again before now. Well now we can't buy a house until December, since all of the banks want M to have a 2 year history of owning his practice. So I finally contacted our home study agency and it looks like we will need to do an update rather than addendum since our home study will expire in the end of February. Our home study must be active until we bring our baby home. This involves re-varifying M's job, updating our financial statement, re-doing all of our medicals, and getting refinger printed... and re-pay for all of it. Our social worker also needs to come do a home visit so we have her scheduled on Saturday. We are in a rush to get this done because I don't think we can receive our referral until it is complete. So let the paper chasing begin... again.

October Number

2010-10-05T18:49:00.000-07:00

I Just got the email with our October number. We are now 14, woohoo. I secretly hoped for 13 but 14 is great too considering the dry spell we just had. We made bets on the day we thought our referral would come. Mike bet Jan. 22nd, Jaida bet right before Christmas, and I bet Jan. 18th. Jet's guess was "motorbike" We will see who wins.

Travel Immunizations

2010-09-30T21:07:00.000-07:00

Oh man, I was so nervous to get my immunizations since M had just gotten a tetanus shot and he got really sick and said it really hurt and Tetanus was on my list of shots to get. Yikes! I needed 6: Typhoid Fever, Yellow Fever, meningitis, Hep. A, Polio and Tetanus. (M needed 5 since he had already recently gotten Tetanus) I kept worrying about it for weeks and would plan a day to go in but I had an ongoing sore throat for a while and didn't want to complicate things with being sick too. So this week we finally decided to get them Thursday, I was sick of worrying about it so wanted to get them all done at once. We waited till after Jgirl was done school, she really wanted to come and watch, crazy girl. When we arrived at the clinic I opted to go first to get it done and the nurse recommended NOT getting them all done at once in case I fainted. I told her I was a little nervous but had never fainted and didn't want to have to worry about it any more so as long as it was safe I wanted to get them all. I told her M had his tetanus and cried about it (kiddingly, but I think she thought I was serious) So She had me lay in the bed while she got ready and nervously talked to herself the whole time. It was seriously easy peasy and i kept telling her what a good job she was doing. So I got them all done. She made me lay there for a while to be sure I wasn't going to faint. She then told me I could take the kids outside while she did M's. As I was leaving I could hear her say "if you notice I am sweating it isn't because I'm nervous, it's just menopause." A while later he came out and said as she was finishing up she asked for a back up nurse because she was feeling really dizzy and had to sit down cause she thought she was going to faint. A bit ironic I must say. She was so sweet and really did do a good job. And they were all FREE (well, not technically since we do pay for our insurance) not even a copay, thank you Kaiser Permanente. Our arms are pretty sore now and I am sure they will be even more so tomorrow. But at least it is DONE so bring on my baby girl.
Oh ya, and I got a new hair cut...

Number Chain

2010-09-30T20:54:00.000-07:00

The other night Jgirl and I made a number chain to help get the kids involved in our number count down. When a referral goes out we will take a chain off. Oh how I can't wait till the chain gets smaller. Jgirl has been asking a lot lately about when we will be getting our baby. She says it is "taking FOREVER"... I agree.

For Heather's Viewing Pleasure

2010-09-28T23:04:00.000-07:00

Speedo Day!

Frequently Asked Question

2010-09-26T22:31:00.000-07:00

I have been meaning to write this post for a while but haven't quite been able to come up with the words to explain it. This question seems to come up often: Why adopt internationally when there are so many kids in the Foster care system in "our own backyard" who need homes right here in the U.S? At first this question made me feel bad and question what we were doing. Then it made me mad. Now I realize most people are coming from a good place and yes it is true there are a ton of kids in the U.S that need homes, but there are also a ton in other countries that need them too. There are many different reasons we chose this path... or this path was chosen for us but the main one is that God led us here. I came across a blogger friends post on this same question and she explained my exact feelings, so with her permission this is what she wrote:

"First of all, I wrote this post awhile back on adopting internationally verse adopting from the foster system here. As a mother of five adopted children- TWO from the foster system and three internationally I feel that I have a right of passage to respond to this question. ;0)

I want to reiterate that to us- adopting from the foster system and adopting internationally are equally as amazing- simply because we were blessed by both experiences- our children came home. While of course there are strengths and weaknesses to both adoption processes- the end results are absolutely priceless.

However, what struck a cord with me was the part about 'our own' children in our own backyard.

I don't know how the bible speaks to you- but my God says to "love your neighbor as yourself" (Mark 12:31) and I am pretty positive He was not just talking about the person physically next door.

I am pretty sure He was talking about every person- every tribe- every tongue- every nation.

I am pretty sure He desires the orphan in Dallas, Texas to not remain an orphan as much as He desires the orphan in Africa, Afghanistan, Belize, China, India, Liberia, Hong Kong, India, Korea, Mexico, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Guatemala, Moldova, Honduras, Costa Rica or the Marshall Islands to have a family of their own.

I am pretty sure they ALL matter to Him equally.

John 14:18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

So while yes I agree that people should be answering the call to foster or adopt from the US foster system (PLEASE, PLEASE DO!!!) I also believe that if God has called you to Russia, China, Guatemala, Serbia, Vietnam, Africa, that you SHOULD OBEY.

The beauty of God's plan is that He is sending His people EVERYWHERE to answer His call. If ALL of us were to adopt from China- then what about the orphans in Guatemala or Columbia or Haiti?

And I love how God places certain places and certain children on certain peoples hearts. (Not to mention some programs are just a better fit for certain individuals- due to family size, age, income, etc.)

I have met families who are passionate about adopting children with Downs Syndrome.

I have met families who are passionate about adopting children who are HIV+.

I have met families who are called to teen boys from the US foster system.

I have met families who are called to children with club feet from China.

And the things is IT IS ALL EQUALLY AMAZING and EQUALLY WONDERFUL because that family answers the call and goes where God has called them.

I personally find it incredible that the God of the universe hand chose each and every one of our children.

I love that He orchestrated the most beautiful consummation- and I have never doubted for a single second that each child He has allowed us the privilege of parenting was meant to be ours- because it was His plan.

I have never doubted for a single second that God, in his infinite wisdom, knew which children needed us and which children we needed to become who we are.

Two times He sent us to Guatemala and provided for our every needs. Two times He led us to adopt through the US foster system and provided for every need. And one time He sent us to Ethiopia and provided for every need. Each time we stepped out in faith and trusted Him to bring the child He chose into our family- and it was perfect.

So if God is calling you to adopt from China- GO!!!

If God is calling you to adopt from the US foster system GO!!!

No matter where the child is located-Adoption is a beautiful, hard, emotional rollercoaster- that in the end is worth it all.

Now, go get your child- no matter where they may be. ;0)"

Elephants Everywhere!

2010-09-23T21:17:00.000-07:00

As I said in my last post, while I was in Montana I got the sewing bug. I found some cute elephant fabric for baby b's blanket then visions of elephants danced through my head so I sewed some of the extras onto anything I could find. My mum helped me with the babies blanket and since it rained a few days we were able to finish. With some of the scraps I made a little tag blanket... not sure how I feel about the ribbon on the edges but all the pictures i saw of tag blankets had them. If I did it again I would just put one loop of ribbon on for baby to carry the tag blanket with... (will it still be a tag blanket then? ) Jgirl really wanted to get in on the sewing action so she decided to make a tag blanket for the baby too. She cut the ribbon into tiny pieces and put it together to make a shape of our baby then added longer pieces to the outside. It was a bugger to sew all those little pieces but Jgirl loved it and i think it turned out so cute. I am sure it will be babies favorite.

September long weekend

2010-09-23T20:29:00.000-07:00

Well look at me, I am quite the blogger, slowly catching up. Foe the September long weekend we found some dirt cheap plane tickets to Montana (as in $19.99 each way from Vegas whoot whoot) So I took the kids out of school the week before to extend our vacation, then M and my brother C came just for the weekend. My other brother T also came up from Calgary to meet us. It was so nice to go back although both the air and water were a lot colder but we didn't let that stop us. The kids and I went for walks, watched movies, swam and played in the tree house. I love how life just slows down out there, it is such a refreshing break. Of course Jet would wake my mum up first so I got to do a lot of sleeping in. The kids got their Grammie fill to hold them over until they come back to Cali for the winter. When M and C came there was non stop games and mini competitions. The day before we left Jgirl woke up with a bump on her forehead, it started to swell pretty good then the next day the swelling dropped to between her eyes. SOme kind of bug bite we assumed. She looked like Avatar people. We kept calling her Avatar and she would get mad but I kept catching her checking her face out in the mirror and she told me she thought she looked better that way... Silly girl. The best part was she had pictures the day we got back... So much to Jgirls dismay we did retakes. We all had so much fun and feel blessed to have such a beautiful place to visit.
Since it rained a few days I did a little bit of sewing. I found this super cute elephant fabric and decided to put elephants on EVERYTHING. I originally bought it for baby B's blanket (which my mum helped me make, it turned out sooooo cute) but had extra so made some cute onsies and shirts. Check them out in my next post.

September Numberrrrrrr

2010-09-22T22:53:00.000-07:00

So I know I am really behind on this but our September number is 19... Not to be confused with 13 which is what the first email our new case manager emailed us said (our first case manager J is on maternity leave). Mike was really excited but I knew better thanks to T an awsome adoptive blog friend who keeps the unofficial list for us. It has been a brutaly slow last few months and if I think about it too much I start to get frusterated. I keep thinking if we had just used an agency called Holt (Holt is the agency my friend L who first got us interested in international adoption used for her little boy from Korea) we could have been back with our baby before the 2 trip policy was in effect. I have to keep reminding myself we were led to AGCI for a reason, this is the agency that will lead us to our daughter. I truley believe this, even though I get frusterated, there were so many things that happend when we were initially looking into agencies that lead us where we are now. So I just need to be patient. Good news is there have been 5 baby girl referrals in the last few weeks woohoo. Can't wait to get our October numbers... lucky for you guys it will be a short wait since I am so late posting this... what a state... mate.

Not too cool for school

2010-09-22T22:35:00.000-07:00

The start of school came way too quick for us. I can't believe Jgirl had to go back August 11th, back in the good old days in Canada we had from the end of June to the beginning of September, that was a summer holiday. Don't get me started on this years calender, they get out and go back even earlier.... summer doesn't start in May... i'm just sayin.
Anyhoo, Jgirl started grade 1 and was really nervous but did great once she realized it was really the same as kindergarten. Jboy started preschool and didn't want to go until I told him he gets to wear a backpack and his teacher Miss M told him she had a playground in her back yard. They both enjoy it and are doing great.

Our Garden of delights... and Jet doing his favorite thing

2010-09-22T22:22:00.000-07:00

So we planted a garden this year with our hopes set pretty low since we don't have a great track record for keeping plants alive. But we were pleasantly surprised when we came back from our summer holiday to find tomatoes galore and about 20 peaches on our peach tree... which we didn't know we had. They were sooooo good, so we decided next year we will water and prune it and see if we get more. I love going in my back yard to pick food for dinner... minus the ginormous grass hoppers that hide right by the most ripe tomatoes and you can't see them till you are touching them... I try and make Jgirl or Jboy do it but they have caught on. Not sure how to get rid of these bad boys but they freak me out.
On another note, Jet has been taking note of our landscape workers and apparently he likes the work. I have found him out back on numerous occasions weeding the edge of our grass with a long stick, then mowing the lawn with his mower. Some times he is in his under ware.... other times he is not.

Skids Family Reunion

2010-09-22T21:48:00.000-07:00

We headed home from Montana/paradise in the second week of August so we could meet up with M's family in San Diego. We were sooooo sad to leave, we all cried the first 2 hours of the trip, (minus hubby since he had been home for a few weeks already... and he never cries) but were excited to see our other family. We all stayed in condos right on the beach so of course spent a ton of time on the beach and swimming in the pool. The kids had a blast playing together and the adults had fun playing games after the kids were in bed. Both Jgirl and her cousin B had birthdays while we were there, born only 2 days apart, they had fun celebrating together. Stormy treated us all to a day at Legoland which was a first for us and just happened to fall on Jgirl's birthday so we celebrated there. We had an awesome time together and were sad to leave early since Jaida had to start school on the 11th... which is another post in itself.

Slacker on the blogging front

2010-09-22T21:44:00.000-07:00

So.. Lately I have to admit I have been super lame at blogging. Not for lack of pictures and events... just a lack of time. I am going to try and do a few catch up posts (still not quite ready to finish loading our summer pictures..., our nice camera takes FOREVER to upload... Heather you won't be disappointed) So the following posts will be short in order to catch you all up on the our recent happenings.

August Number

2010-08-11T22:57:00.001-07:00

I will interrupt the continuation of my last post with our August numbers, since I still can't get our pictures to download onto the blog. We are now number 21 for our baby girl and no referrals have gone out since so this number is accurate. I am guessing we will get our referral in January but I am hoping for earlier... like maybe September :) Can't wait till we are in the teens.

A taste of our summer

2010-07-25T22:42:00.000-07:00

So as tradition goes we headed to Montana (aka my parent's cabin)for the summer. On our way we stopped in SLC for a couple nights to visit Mike's family. The excellent thing about Salt Lake is they celebrated July 4th on the 3rd (since the 4th was on a Sunday) to honour the sabbath. So we hung out with family for the 3rd then headed to Montana on the 4th just in time for the Lake Blaine firework extravaganza. As is also tradition, Mike did not continue on to Montana with the kids and I he didn't have work off until the 3rd week in July so he flew back home from Salt Lake for work. The kids loved the fireworks this year, Jet was a little scared but as long as they were a good distance away he was good. In SLC the kids had a blast playing with cousins and Grandma, they didn't want to leave. But The 4th came around and I braved the drive alone with the 2 kiddos and a smelly dog. Thank goodness for our new dvd player we had installed right before we left.
When we arrived at the cabin the fireworks were almost starting. We love taking the boat out to the middle of the lake, snuggling up with blankets and watching everyone light fireworks and this year was exceptionally good. Thanks to all those who bought fireworks for us to enjoy.
While at the cabin Jaida has loved playing with cousins non stop while Jet tries to keep up. They have rebuilt and painted the tree house with my mum, played baseball, soccer and basketball, swam, fished, painted bird houses and rocks, explored the mountain side,went on lots of sun runs (when the sun goes off our dock we go to the middle of the lake and swim off the boat, and usually wash our hair), had nightly swims and skinny dips, went turtle catching, quad riding, water skiing, and wake boarding. This is definitely our most favorite place and we are sooooooo lucky to be able to come. Summer is quickly coming to an end for us, Mike got here last week (just in time for speedo day... the boys think they are going to bring speedos back in style...but the next day their thighs were all so burned... so maybe not) and he already has to leave tomorrow. We will be coming home a week after him. Boo for school starting August 11th, what ever happened to a September 1st start date... the Canadians know how to do it, we never started school before then. Enjoy some pictures, I have a cabajillion but they take FOREVER to download so here are a few. Funny thing is they are exactly the same as last year everyone just looks a little older.
Also, check out my brothers beautiful girlfriend Abnet, she is from Ethiopia. Fun huh.
O.K my computer will only update the 2 pics so you will have to wait for the others which will include the speedo day so get excited!

Sweet Tatt!

2010-07-08T22:20:00.000-07:00

This guy was so cool he had our July Number tattooed on his arm. Thanks man!... So there you have it we have moved a few spots. I must admit the past 2 months have been a struggle with no news of referrals, so I was a little surprised to see we had moved 3 spots. I have learned through this experience so far that I really have no patients,and it is something I really need to work on. I keep asking Mike why more staff isn't hired or a bigger facility made with so many children waiting and so many people on the wait list. I was getting so frustrated. Then the other day I was reading out of the May 2010 Ensign and I came a cross a talk by President Uchtdorf on continuing in patients and his words inspired me. This part in particular:
There is an important concept here: patience is not passive resignation, nor is it failing to act because of our fears. Patience means active waiting and enduring. It means staying with something and doing all that we can—working, hoping, and exercising faith; bearing hardship with fortitude, even when the desires of our hearts are delayed. Patience is not simply enduring; it is enduring well!
So far I have been a sucky endurer. There is so much more that I can be doing as I wait and I am sure if I do, the wait won't be so unbearable. I started reading the book The Connected Child in preparation for our sweet baby girl. It definitely has some good ideas. There are a lot more things I can be doing to prepare for this baby, including giving more attention to my kiddos and less attention to my computer... I can work more, hope more and exercise more faith.
That's all for now :)

May Number

2010-06-10T20:51:00.000-07:00

Well... May has not been as productive on the adoption front as I had hoped. There were no referrals for 3 long weeks and we just barely had 2 referrals go out at the beginning of this week (none of which were baby girls 0-12 months... just wondering which agency is stealing all the baby girl referrals...) The wait is unbearable for me, it is really hard when there is no progression for such a long time, I get frustrated. I know there are certain things that need to be done in order for the adoption to be legal but does it really have to take this long, especially when there are so many orphans in Ethiopia. I know with the 2 trip policy that things will slow down a bit until they fully figure it out and work out the kinks and that has recently,officially gone into effect but... I'm ready... Not sure how the next 6 months of waiting will go... My guess is not so great. Hurry up baby, get in my arms.
Any how.... I am done my rant, J emailed us today (actually she phoned and left a message to confirm we wanted to be taken off the boy list... But when I heard her voice and knew this was an email month and not a phone month, my heart skipped a beat. I thought maybe we were getting a referral and that for some reason the requirements of the many families ahead of us didn't match up to the referral so we were next in line... Not the case. It was just a confirmation we wanted off the boy list. boo)Sooooo, we are officially number 30 (and unofficially number 28 since the 2 referrals went out this week) Come on referrals keep coming.

A Name...

2010-05-29T22:59:00.000-07:00

When it comes to naming our kids Mike and I have opposite taste... Maybe it is because he likes really lame names... I will not mention them for fear someone reading may have one of these names, but I am sure you would agree. In the past Mike and I have disagreed about names through out my pregnancies but when it comes down to it and we actually have the baby, he has been so sweet and has let me make the final decision. I figured this was because I carried the baby for 40 weeks, was sick for 2 months, gained 40 pounds... more the second time around... then pushed 6ish pound babies out... Definitely grounds for naming rights. This time around I am not sure how it will pan out. For some time now I have been in love with a certain girl name, the first time I heard it I LOVED it and think it will be perfect for our baby. I am not going to post it or call our baby by this name until we pass court because I love it so much, so lets just call her baby B.... Only problem is Mike has vetoed it and I have no grounds for naming rights. So I figure if I post this and call her baby B Mike will warm up to it.... I'll Let you know how it goes :)

GOOD NEWS and NEW NEWS

2010-05-20T21:26:00.000-07:00

GOOD NEWS!: We received our FDL (Favorable Determination Letter) form the US Immigration office. This means that our I-600A form was approved and basically that the US government is ok with us adopting an international orphan. The approval gets sent to Addis Ababa and will wait there for us and our beautiful baby. So we are officially DONE with all the paperwork, letters, notaries, signatures and forms....that is until we get our referral, then there is a whole new stack of papers to sign and forms to approve...yikes. But this is a huge step so we are excited.
NEW NEWS: There has been a change in the process that will affect all families adopting from Ethiopia; regardless of agency. This change has been in the works for awhile but is now actually taking effect. Due to some highly publicized but very rare issues with some recent adoptions the Ethiopian gov has decided that they will no longer allow a representative for the family attend the 1st court date. The old process was that we gave a Power of Attorney Letter authorizing someone from AGCI to act in our behalf at the court. Now we are required to attend court. So what that means is that we will have to travel TWICE to Ethiopia. The trips will be 5-7 weeks apart (we think) and our child will come home with us on the 2nd one. The downside: significant extra cost and missed work and having to leave our baby after meeting her; the benefits: meeting our baby sooner than later, more time to bond with her, more time to see Ethiopia, and we are working on doing a dental service mission for the children in Hannah's Hope and as many of the other orphanages we can!!
So overall we are excited but of course a little concerned with the extra costs. We have so far been blessed with everything we need in the process and continue to rely on Heavenly Father with faith and prayer.
Thanks to all those who continue to support us
PS chantel has been asking me to post this for at least a month, I am kinda a blog slacker I guess..but it's done now

It's a girl

2010-05-20T11:40:00.000-07:00

Well, it's official, we have been taken off the boy list. That means we will be adopting an Ethiopian Princess. Both Mike and I have been feeling this way from the start of our adoption but wanted to be put on both lists just in case. I think for Mike it may have been the face of a beautiful little Ethiopian toddler girl, on a families blog that we were reading when investigating if this was something we really wanted to do. It was one thing that started to turn his heart from not being interested in adopting at this time to thinking this may be what our Heavenly Father has in store for us now. For me it started with the last 2 pregnancies (which ended in miscarriages) I was sure I was having a girl both times. It's kinda weird but with both Jaida and Jet I knew as soon as I was pregnant what they were (even though Mike felt strongly that Jaida was a boy... I should have bet him something good)Lately we have really been pondering if we should in fact be taken off the boy list since we are getting closer to a boy referral. I knew if we got a little boy referral I would not be able to say no. This was really hard for me because I hate waiting and am so ready for our baby now and a girl means the wait is even longer. We just keep feeling a girl in every way, so today when our case worker phoned I made is official. So I guess this means I can start buying little girl clothes... since I don't quite have enough from Jaida :)

Yay for new numbers

2010-05-12T16:44:00.000-07:00

We just received our new numbers via email. Officially 34 for a girl and 19 for a boy. Not sure unofficially what we are yet. Referrals keep comin!

Trip to the dog beach

2010-05-11T22:18:00.000-07:00

One of our favorite past times living in sunny California is going to the beach. Often times Ziggy likes to come with us, so when he is lucky (which just happens to be not that often) we make the 45 minute drive into San Diego to go to the dog beach. The kids love playing in the tide pools, rocks and petting all of the dogs and Ziggy loves running/swimming in the ocean and chasing other dogs. Here are some pictures of our last trip to the dog beach which may or may not have been in January... I have been a bit of a slacker on the blogging front.

Calgarians get excited!!!

2010-04-30T23:20:00.001-07:00

I am writing this post to inform all of my Calgary friends to get excited , Blue Lily is coming your way. Who is Blue Lily you say? Only the most excellent, awesome, hilarioso, talented, husband and wife team photographers EVAR. They are also very excellent at any kind of charade game... especially Tyler (the husband of the team, he does a mean Barbie I tell you)... You can check out their excellent work by viewing their blog at www.bluelily.squarespace.com. Once you click on their blog you will see a list of cities on the right hand side. Click on the city and it will tell you how to book a session. You may have also seen their work if you read the NieNie diaries, Bluelily takes their family photos which have appeared on Oprah... believe it. They will be in Calgary for 4 short days August 6th-9th for some shoots. There are only a few spots left so I highly recommend you book your session ASAP you don't wanna miss em.

Don't feel bad if you don't live in Calgary, there is still some good news for you, Bluelily travels all around the WORLD so check out their travel schedule and book a session.
Above are a few of the pics from our session last spring....

New Numbers!!!!!!

2010-04-17T21:53:00.000-07:00

So I know it has been a while since our last post but things have been really busy. We have a lot to blog about but will just give a quick update for now. We received our new numbers for the month of April: officially Girl 42 and boy 25. We are part of a list serve that joins families adopting from Ethiopia using our same agency. Someone from the group creates an official and unofficial list. (unofficial numbers would include referrals that have gone out but have not been completed, meaning the families have accepted their referral but have not sent in their paper work officially accepting their referral. AGCI's official numbers do not include these referral's) So our unofficial numbers are girl 37 and boy 22. This makes me so excited.

Friendly Visit

2010-03-16T19:57:00.000-07:00

Last Monday one of my most favorite people EVER came to visit. Kathryn and I have been friends for a very long time, we spent every night of the week and every Saturday morning dancing together (Tap, Jazz and Ballet). We became very close one Halloween when I had no one to go trick or treating with. Kathryn invited me to go with her and Patti (her best friend at the time.... until that fateful night) Both were surprised I accepted the invitation but I did. All I recall is wearing a sweet Kermit the frog costume my mum had made (when we were kids) and for some reason or another Patti didn't like me... was it the costume? I like to think not. From that night on, Kathryn and I were best friends. We have been on many expeditions together whether it was camping with her family (and meeting Warren and Brad... who as if didn't love us), visiting my cabin or a spring break trip to Cabo with my family (getting so sunburned the first day that Chase cried, and we had to sit in the shade for the rest of the week...who knew number 4 sunscreen wouldn't be enough for us Canadians in the Mexico sun?) When we weren't dancing we were hanging out, watching Dirty Dancing (every Saturday between dance classes) and harmonizing to Ace of Base and many other favorites... and never singing during "the best part" Once in a while when Kathryn's parents were out of town and she was fighting with her brother I would help her escape out her window so she could stay at my house. Good times.
I sure do miss that girl and was so happy to see her after so long (it had been about 9 years... too long, but it was just like old times) Her parents just bought a winter home in Indio which is only an hour and a half away from us so I am hoping to see a lot more of her. Can't wait.
I can't find any of my hundreds of pictures of us together, so this group one will have to do.... Can you pick us out?

New Numbers

2010-03-16T19:44:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of every month we receive our new wait list numbers. It took a little longer this month for us to get our updated numbers since there have been some changes in the Ethiopian adoption process... which I have assigned M to post... he hasn't yet. I thought our case worker forgot to phone us since we were put on the wait list so late last month but this morning I received the call. Girl: 49 and boy: 31. She said we are actually 2 or 3 spots lower since people have already received their referrals, but these are our beginning of the month numbers. Yay for new numbers.

Jetty Boy

2010-03-09T21:27:00.000-08:00

Every Friday is Jet's favorite day since that is the day the garbage trucks come. He will ask through out the week if they are coming the next day. Then he listens all morning on Fridays for them and races to the window to watch until they are out of sight. This last Friday we happend to be out front, so he could fix and wash his Cadillac, when one of the garbage trucks came. He was so excited and so cute.

We Have Our Numbers So Get Excited!!!

2010-02-26T15:59:00.001-08:00

Today is an even more excellent day. This morning I tracked our dossier through UPS and it arrived at 8:45am. I had requested the package be signed when it was received, so I was a little nervous no one would be there to sign and then it would be taken back to the post office for redelivery. Thank goodness Haek (who ever that is...) was there and signed for it. Then today at 3:13pm I received a phone call from our case worker (J), which I missed so she left a message, saying she had received our dossier and she had good news for us. YES! I phoned Mike and told him we had numbers and he asked what they were. I said I didn't know yet but would call and find out. I phoned J back and she gave us the great news. Number 53 for a girl and 34 for a boy. I am so so excited and relieved to have gotten to this point and with minimal bumps thus far. I have to admit before we received our dossier packet I had in mind, from reading other peoples blogs, that there was going to be this CRAZY amount of paper work needed that I wouldn't even know where to start. Not that there wasn't a crazy amount of paper chasing it was just less intense than I expected. Maybe I feel this way because, besides a few notary issues,everything went smoothly... And we are grateful for that and every ones support and help. It is weird...lately I have had a peaceful feeling that we are exactly where we need to be right now in many aspects of our life. At times it was hard for us to get to this point, especially with trying to grow our family. But I know there is a plan for my sweet family and I believe we are on the right track and adopting a child from Ethiopia is exactly where we are meant to be.

Dossier Sent

2010-02-26T15:34:00.000-08:00

Well, yesterday was a very excellent day. I drove down to San Diego with my mum and Jet to pick up our final homestudy and ship our completed dossier to AGCI. I was so happy to get our 2 months of paper collecting out of my hands. I quadruple checked everything to make sure I had everything in order and that I had the address correct. (thanks to my mum for driving Jet around in a car shopping cart for 45 minutes while I did this) I was annoyed at the UPS lady who was on the phone and helping other customer while trying to get my package shipped off. I needed her undivided attention to be sure the package got sent to the correct address. She promised me it would.... and it did... at a fee of $65 dollars....totally worth it...

Update on the adoption front

2010-02-23T21:56:00.000-08:00

So I no longer feel abandoned... Our case worker phoned me on Monday and I was able to get a bunch of questions answered... She is so sweet and I know this adoption will all happen in the Lord's time and it will be timed so we get the child that was meant for us... I'm just not very good at being patient....
Our homestudy draft was sent over to AGCI on Monday for review and they have 5 days to review it so I was feeling kinda bummed because that meant Friday was for sure out for our numbers. Today however, I received an unexpected call from Nicole at our homestudy agency saying they had received our edited homestudy and just had to change a few things then send it back for final, final review. This is going to be a very excellent homestudy. Nicole said she would send it back with the final changes and if she got it back tomorrow she would send the notarized final copy to me. I told her not to send it but to call me so I could go pick it up... a 50 minute drive is nothin if we can get a number a week earlier. (assuming there is nothing that needs to be re-done on our dossier... If so we can find that out a week earlier too)Member the part where I am not very patient... If every one is speedy we can get our homestudy tomorrow and overnight our dossier to AGCI for Friday review. Please be speedy... please be speedy.

Speak of the Homestudy...

2010-02-19T16:29:00.000-08:00

Yesterday at 5pm we finally received the rough draft of our homestudy. (which is one word... who knew) We made the necessary changes and sent it back to our homestudy agency this morning. We are hoping they send it to AGCI on Monday (since they aren't in the office on Fridays) and that AGCI has a speedy editing process so we can get our dossier in by next Friday. I have to admit I feel a little abandoned by our adoption agency. We are supposed to have a phone call from them every 2 weeks to check on our progress. I had the initial dossier run through, then 2 weeks later (Jan. 25th) our case worker was caught up on the phone so a different case worker phoned me, which was totally fine. At that time no other calls were scheduled and I haven't had a check up call since. I have however, called and asked questions a few times. They do have one excellent excuse as well, our case worker was in Ethiopia for a couple of weeks on a mission, so I definitely can't complain about that. I guess I just feel like this part of the process is something we can control and accomplish things but not much is being accomplished. O.k... I'm done complaining and now I'm gonna go on a hot date with my lover, have a great weekend.

The wait is killin me

2010-02-18T10:26:00.000-08:00

I can't wait to get our referral number and I don't know how much longer I can wait. Our home study agency is taking FOREVER to send us the rough draft of our home study. Originally our social worker said she had 2 weeks to write it up but it wouldn't take her that long, 2 weeks was last Thursday. I was secretly hoping we would have our number by this Friday since it is my birthday, I knew it wasn't likely but thought slightly possible. So I emailed our home study agency on Monday asking her if she thought it was possible we could have it all revised and sent to AGCI by Friday (AGCI reviews all of their dossiers on Fridays, so that is when the numbers go out).... She didn't say no but implied it by telling me that she had the rough draft and had to read and edit it, then send it to me so I could look it over and make any needed changes then they would send it to AGCI for review ( I am assuming all of this is via email) and that this would take a few days. So after obsessively checking my email for 3 days (that's a few... right?) I broke down and emailed our home study agency again. She said pretty much the same thing so I am sure it hasn't even been looked at yet. Looks like this Friday will not be the lucky day.... cross your fingers for next Friday, as long as our dossier is complete, we may get a number.... If not next Friday then the Friday after that... or the Friday after that.... Or the one after that...

Love Is...

2010-02-15T10:17:00.000-08:00

I was volunteering at J girls school on Wednesday and they had made a poster which answered the question "love is..." Some kids had written love is giving my mum a hug or giving some one a pet, I saw J's on the wall and took a picture of what love is to her. (refer to picture) Oh how she melts my heart. Love is many things to me but one of them is as J's is... adopting a baby.

Dental Fundraiser... Get Excited

2010-02-10T21:50:00.001-08:00

To help us help Ethiopia we are hosting a dental fundraiser, so if you have been putting off dental treatment, need a cleaning or want to whiten your smile, NOW is the time. Please spread the word to all your friends and family in the Temecula area (or whoever wants to come visit Temecula).

Here is the skinny: On Saturday February 27th we are discounting all dental work by 33%!! So that is 1/3 off of exams, x-rays, cleaning, fillings, root canals, crowns, bridges, veneers, etc.
PLUS our in office, one hour, power whitening is only $99 (reg $199)!!!

ALL of the money will go directly to the orphanage and agency fees. So, how do you sign up? Just call or email Mike (sometimes known as Dr. Skidmore... or Skids) dmdskidmore@yahoo.com. We already have a few spots booked so call soon. I will have my most excellent hygienist and assistant there to help so we will get as many people seen as possible. This really is a win/win for everyone.

Feel free to call or email with any questions!
Michael Skidmore DMD
27699 Jefferson Ave Ste 306
Temecula, CA 92590
www.wemaketemeculasmile.com

note: unfortunately due to my contracts as a preferred provider, we are unable to offer this discount in conjunction with insurance so we can accept cash, credit cards or checks. But if you have insurance and want to utilize it, you are more than welcome to schedule anytime and this will also help.
We sure do appreciate everyone's help, support and prayers, thanks so much.

Arizona Trip

2010-02-09T11:54:00.000-08:00

So, a few weeks ago we made a long overdue trip to Arizona to visit friends and renew the lease for our rental home.... Darn this housing market... But thankfulness to renters who want to live in the home for at least another 2 years. So the week prior to our visit Jaida kept saying how excited she was and how she couldn't stop thinking about all the fun things she was going to do in in AZ and boy was she right. We were only there for 3 nights and had a lot of people we wanted to see.

Thursday night we stayed with our good friends the Fryers and went hot tubing and hung out till the wee hours of the night. Jet had a rough night and kept me up for the majority of it so in the morning Mike let me sleep in. As I was getting up I could hear Jaida coming up the stairs with Mitch saying "we have to be real quiet cause my mum is sleeping... that is all she ever does... she sleeps ALL day" So glad this is her memory of my daily activities. Silly girl.
So Friday we spent the morning with the Fryers (Shannon was so nice to colour my hair.. thanks again) then went to meet up with my Calgary friends (who had both moved to AZ). Man I miss these girls. It had been forever since I had seen both Emily and Annie so it was so fun to hang out. Jaida and Jet loved playing with Annie's girls (when they finally warmed up to each other) it was non stop playing. Kyle (Annie's husband was so nice to watch the kids while us girls got pedicures. Then it was off to Scottsdale to see the Bridges and hang out in our sweet hotel.. courtesy of a dental rep. trying to lure Mike into buying a very expensive dental machine... I guess they don't know ALL of our money is going to our Ethiopian adoption.
Saturday we swam at a few of the many pools the hotel had, trying to find the warmest one which we eventually did. The kids had a blast and I loved relaxing with Jake and Tara. We then headed out to good old QC for some San Tan Flat fun. The kids loved roasting marshmallows and we even met up with some fellow Canadians. All in all a perfect day.
Sunday we hung out in the morning then made our long trek back home. It was a very needed holiday and we were so glad to see all of our friends, we miss them all. Here are some delightful pictures... I don't have any from our first night with the Fryers... yet... and I am missing a bunch of other pictures... soon to come.

Yay for Arizona and New York

2010-02-02T14:48:00.000-08:00

We just received my child abuse clearances from both Arizona and New York. Now just waiting on Alberta. All of our reference letters and forms are completed and received (thanks to everyone who filled them out for us) so the only thing we are waiting on now is our home study write up, which should be done soon. I am hoping to send in our dossier as soon as possible. We have tentatively planned on February, 27th for our discount dental fundraiser. Again, I will post more details when we set the date in stone. Congrats to fellow adopting families who finally received their finger prints woohoo.

Pictures Galore... Ga-lore

2010-01-30T23:13:00.000-08:00

So I realize this post is a little late but here are some pictures of one of our best Christmases yet (except for not seeing Mike's family). We had such a fun time in Montana we skated,played hockey,went snow boarding, played games, made ginger bread houses, made snowmen and an igloo and also had a visit from Santa on Christmas eve and Christmas morning. The kids were so excited for Christmas day and got very spoiled.
The kids weren't too sure about the cold snow, and at first I had to force them (mostly Jaida) to play outside. After we found more warm clothes and bundled them up we couldn't get them to come back in. I love that my kids can live in such a nice place but have the opportunity to visit such a beautiful place. We really are so blessed to be able to visit Montana and hope my parents keep their cabin FOREVER. My most favorite place in the world.

Madagascar

2010-01-28T17:04:00.000-08:00

My boy J makes me laugh. In the morning if he wakes up early I have him sit in my bed and watch a movie on the dvd player till it is time to wake up. He had a madagascar phase. (this was before the Barbie Swan Lake phase) One day he started doing what is in the video, it took me a while to figure out what it was. My J girl is also getting in on some Madagascar action. Love these kids.

Home Study Interviews... DONE!

2010-01-28T16:53:00.000-08:00

We just completed our last home study interview. Our social worker L (whome I love), walked through our house to make sure it was safe for our new baby and asked us a few parenting questions. Once she writes up our home study we are done everything we can do on our end. No word yet from AZ,NY,and Alberta for our child abuse clearances, way to go UT for being so speedy, we really appreciate it.

The end is near

2010-01-26T10:17:00.000-08:00

Yay, the paper chase is almost over. Yesterday J and I drove to San Diego and had our power of attorney state certified. He was so good and watched Ice age two and a half times during the drive. I asked if he wanted to watch a different movie but he said no he wanted the dinosaur one ( I guess Ice Age has dinosaurs in it) I didn't argue since his most recent movie request has been Barbie Swan Lake. On Sunday Mike wrote our application letter which introduces our dossier to the officials in Ethiopia who will be reviewing and hopefully approving our adoption. Then on Monday our birth certificates arrived and our homestudy agency informed us our FBI and DOJ fingerprints had been recieved. This is great news since I have read many families who have had to wait months for theirs to clear. So now we are just waiting on our last home study visit and my child abuse clearances from AZ,NY,UT and Alberta. (Mike is already cleared except for the Czek Republic when he was there on his mission and we don't know if they have child abuse clearances there)
Our next step is fundraising. Within the next few weeks we need a total of $6200 YIKES! $1200 for the second half of our home study and $5000 for when we send in our dossier, which at this time we don't have. We are planning on having a discounted dental work day where all work is 30% off and all proceeds will go towards our adoption. This is a win win for everyone. Needed dental work is completed at a discounted rate by a very attractive dentist and money is earned for a good cause. The details have not yet been worked out but if you or any one you know live near Temecula and have been putting off any dental work needs, please keep this in mind and please help spread the word. We really don't want finances to slow this process for us and have faith that it will all come together. We will post the nitty gritty on our fundraiser when we figure them out. Thanks everyone for their help and prayers.

Second home study interview

2010-01-23T16:47:00.000-08:00

Well, lookey, lookey I am turning out to be quite the blogger. Today we had our second home study interview. She Interviewed me privately for a little over 2 hours.. it also turns out i am quite the talker.... Mike's interview was a little over an hour.... he is not quite the talker. We were asked a bunch of questions on how we were raised, our childhood and our lives now and how we raise our kids. I was so so nervous for this but our social worker was so nice and it was actually really fun. So we now have one more interview next Thursday where our social worker will interview us together and inspect our home. Once that is done she can start writing up our home study and by that time we should be done all of our paper collecting. Our Dossier will be sent into AGCI for review and then we will get our number. Woohoo I can't wait.

What not to have...

2010-01-22T16:06:00.000-08:00

Just another tid bit of advice for those thinking of adopting. This is what not to have when your social workier is coming over the next day to interview your family. Not sure how J got this black eye but she thinks it is when M was teaching her flips onto our bed.

Hannah's Hope (where we are adopting from)

2010-01-21T18:32:00.000-08:00

This is stressin me out...

2010-01-21T17:42:00.000-08:00

So yesterday I was ready to knock a few thing off our to do list. I was so motivated when I woke up, I sent Jaida off to school then I planned on having our power of attorney County certified then sent off to the State to be certified, then we had an appointment to get our criminal back ground check notarized. When I got home from taking Jaida to school I had an email from our social worker saying with all of the rain, she had to cancel our second home study visit on Thursday. Then when I went to the County Clerks office it was jam packed. I took my number and waited my turn. When they called me up the employee said it would take 15-20 minutes for her do it so I waited again. She called me up and said she could not certify it because the signature our notary signed on the power of attorney did not match the one she signed for the State. I checked and they totally didn't match. Just in case any of you are thinking of becoming a notary.... don't change your signature. So I called our notary she was so nice and said she would re-do it for us. As I was leaving the County Clerk's office I get a call from the Sheriff's office and they cancelled our appointment to have our criminal back ground check notarized. More lameness. At this point I was so frustrated then I start thinkin our notary will redo our power of attorney so the signature matches the one they have on record for her but then everything she has notarized for us so far will have a different looking signature. In our information packet it says when our dossier gets sent to Ethiopia they are super anal about having everything perfect. So I think EVERYTHING is going to have to be redone. I was so stressed. Finally today I was able to talk with our caseworker (who I am sure thinks I am a FREAK) and she said she thinks it will be o.k. So for all of you in the process of adopting an Ethiopian child, even though they say everything has to be Perfect.... some times they are just kiddin.

Yikes! almost...

2010-01-19T18:44:00.000-08:00

Today I had a mini heart attack. We had our physicals and power of attorneys notarized yesterday and I was so glad to check some things off my to do list. I decided to do a quick look through to make sure everything looked right (everything has to be exactly perfect or it will have to be re-done) I noticed that our notary had filled in the blanks for us for both documents but the section that said we were residents of blank she had filled in Wildomar since this is what our licenses say.... However we are no longer residents of Wildomar, we now reside in good ole TEMECULA. I was so mad for not filling this in myself. We had spent 3 hours getting these documents notarized and all for nothing.... I was cursing many curse words.... in my head. I called our case worker J first thing this morning and finally heard back that she thought this would still be o.k but she would have to see it. So as for now things look good. phew I think. So tomorrow the plan is to get our criminal background checks notarized and get the power of attorney county certified, then send it off to be State certified. I can't wait to get on the waitlist, hopefully if everyone sends us our requested documents and info we can make it in February. Thanks everyone for your support and prayers.