Update (of the non-exciting type)

Well, I wish that I was finally updating to say that we had some major news of the adoption kind but, I don't. I just wanted to stop in and let my thousands ;0) of faithful readers know where we are in the process. So, here is the short version:

-All of our paperwork is in Ethiopia and is good to go. It has been in their hands Since July 29.
- We have been officially waiting for 4 months
- The approximate wait time for a referral for a baby boys 0-24 months is 10-16 months. Wait times for a baby girl are longer.
- We still have a long way to go
- A very very long way to go
- my girls think that we are making all of this up and that it was just an evil plot on our behalf to make them behave better : "Girls, if you don't behave and love each other, we WILL NOT have more kids!" "If you want siblings you must learn to cooperate!"

And that's that. I so wish that I had more to share but honestly, I shouldn't wish that. I am already so blessed by my two beautiful girls, and my fabulous husband. I am actually a little ashamed that I am ready to have my 3rd one home when I know that there are adoptive moms to be out there who have been waiting FAR longer than we have. So, for those moms (and one in particular), we wait and pray with you now.

So, I know that this post might cause the website to go out or something because it so very exciting and so many of you will just flock here to read. I can just picture all of you logging on right now just to see what we have to say! If that happens, just try back in about -oh- 12 months. We will probably be right here. Still waiting.

Bloggy Land Love! Tatertots and Jello

Since we are DTE now, I think that the adoption news may be on the slow front. There will be little to report since now we are just wainting. So, time to get bloggy creative! Now that I am on Pinterest (life changing!), I have gotten all sorts of new ideas (Jamie please no eye rolls) for around the house. This love of organization at home has me following all sorts of new blogs! So many good things out there on the ol' internet that I thought I would share one of my favorite

blogs each week.

So, one of my favorite blogs is Tatertos and Jello. The blog is written by a cute little lady named Jen. The blog is a mix of crafts, food, remodeling, DIY, restoration, transformations, style, crafts, did I say crafts?

Now, these are not your granny's grafts (or your mom's ceramics, yes, my mom did ceramics at some little house in the Mount. I can remember it clearly. She made me a bear bank and a Christmas tree with built in lights. Oh yeah, and a cabbage patch doll lamp. What ever happened to that little place? Anyone else remember it?)

Anywways, back to the blog :)

Jen has the most amazing treasures on her blog. ( After re-reading that last sentence, it kind of sounds like I know the girl. Just to clarify, I don't but, I bet she would like to come to craft and wine night!) My favorite part of the blog is the Weekend Wrap Up linky party! This is where crafters, bakers, DIYers, etc - all unite and link up their latest projects to TT&J. I get so many ideas each week for wonderful things that I want to make from the link party! And maybe one day, I will make sometihng worthy of linking up! I just want to start "pinning" everything to Pinterest every week when I see all of the little beauties from the link party. At this moment, there are 449 links on the site filled with all sort of wonderful things!

I put up a few quick pics from her recent posts for you to check out but, as soon as you do, head on over to her site! Then, come back and thank me in the comments! Yes, that means your reader 89 from this week. Seriously! 89 readers who say nothing to me in my comments. Sigh. Well, I won't complain too much, afterall, I am happy that all 89 of you stopped by!

How stinkin' cute is that?!? Revamped bench via spray paint and easy peasy DIY pillow!

Yummy!

So cute and you won't believe how easy!

Go on over and check it out.....don't worry, I am not going to make a sad face because you are leaving without commenting AGAIN!

Confession Friday - Interrupted!

Today is supposed to be confession Friday but I have even better news!!!!

WE ARE DTE!!!

Our Dossier is on it's way to Ethiopia (thus the term D.T.E)!!!! This is a day that we have been anxiously awaiting for many, many months now. For those that are not familiar with the international adoption process. Here is an overview of what we have completed to get to this point:

1. Apply to agency and be accepted

2. Begin Home Study with a social worker (a study of your family, background, finances, employment, basically your entire life in great detail.)

3. Begin "paperchasing" - Collecting and certifying all of the documents that will make up your dossier.

4. Compile dossier - A dossier is a big (BIG!) file of documents for your adoption. It includes medical exams, birth certificates, marriage certificates, passports, financial statements, training certificates, insurance verifications, employment verifications, and much more. Some of these documents have to be county and state certified which requires a trip to your county notary office and to Frankfort. Most of the documents have to be notarized individually.

5. Send dossier to agency for checking and double checking - Our dossier received 2 checks for accuracy at our agency before it was sent to Washington DC for US certification.

6. Agency sends completed and checked dossier to Ethiopia where it will be translated and sent to the appropriate officials. Even though our dossier is not actually in Eth. yet, today is considered our DTE date with our agency. This puts us officially on the waiting list for a child in our age range!

Here is what our timeline has looked like (starting at April 09' where the timeline on my side bar leaves off and, OH MY! I just noticed that should be April 2010. We have been working on this for a long time but not THAT long!)

Okay so May 2010 - Paperchasing and working on saving $$$

June 2010 - Adoption dinner at FBC

July, August, September, October, Nov, December 2010 - Homestudy

December 2010 - Homestudy finalized.

January, Feburary, March, April, May, June 2011 - Paperchasing for Dossier

July 2011 - Dossier complete and on it's way!

Now, please understand that it really shouldn't take most families this long to get to DTE status. During this process we went from 2 kids, to 3 kids, and back to 2 kids again. In other words, we have had our hands full with plenty at home to keep us busy. There were many times that our paperchase was delayed because of nothing more than the fact that I didn't have time to complete a piece and get it notarized. I was able to take our spring break this past April to wrap up all of my loose ends and get everything state certified. Then, just when we thought we were ready to send everything in, we realized that some of our paperwork had expired and had to be redone. This was the case with our medicals and a few other pieces. So finally after some redos, I sent everything to our agency and during one of the "checks", they discovered problems with our medical forms and they had to be redone again!

I know all of this sounds painful but it really wasn't. It might have been annoying at times but it wasn't every really difficult or complicated. Just annoying. But, it's okay because it's all over now! All paperwork is complete and I never ever have to see it again! Now the fun part begins. Now we wait.

And oh the wait! We are in for a long wait. Our agency is estimating 10-16 months wait for a referral (a referral is what they call your specific child when the information about that child is sent to you) . Once we receive a referral we will travel to Ethiopia 6 weeks later to meet our baby and go to court. Then back home for another 8-12 week wait before we can pick them up. So using my "adoption math" skills, I am going to roughly estimate late next fall/ winter if we are on the short end of the wait. If on the long end...well.... let's just not go there.

The tough part is the fact that it's possible that our baby has been born since we have requested a child that is 0-24 months at time of referral. This means that we need your prayers. We need you to pray for our baby and for his/her mother. All adoption stories unfortunately start with a tragedy. A mother has to say goodbye to her child in hopes for a better life. Some of these mothers are sick and will not survive. Some of these mothers simply have no way to feed a baby and know that it might starve if she doesn't choose adoption. The conditions in Ethiopia are not good right now. There is a terrible drought. There is so much to pray for. We plan to raise this child with a love for their home land. We will bring Ethiopian culture into our home and will try our best to honor this little one's first family and first home. Here are some prayer needs that we have right now:

2. Pray that our dossier makes it safely over the ocean and to its destination.

3. Pray that wait will be short and that our child (born or unborn) is sustained and healthy while he/she waits for us to come.

4. Pray for the family and the country that is loosing a child through our adoption. This is not easy for the people of Eth.

5. Pray that more hearts will be moved in our community to obey the Lord's call to care for the orphan. Pray that our fellow Christians will understand this biblical mandate and will embrace it so that there will be one, and one, and one, and one, and one, less orphans in the world. One at a time folks. We can do this! We can save them!

We appreciate your prayers more than you know!

Thankful Thursday

I am so proud of myself for actually keeping up with this weekly posting thing! Yesterday's wordless Wednesday was kind of odd I guess but I love to look back at photos and compare the kids. Without further delay... Thankful Thursday!

Family Helpers

I know that everyone is thankful for their family. No matter your differences, you are always glad to have your family. I have to say that I am EXTRA thankful for our family and it's weeks like this where Jamie and I reflect on how BLESSED we are.

We are pretty much back to school mode. Silently, and swiftly, Summer has left the building. I have worked all week this week preparing my classroom and in trainings for the new school year. I will also be working all next week as well. This has been a little rough on the girls but nothing worse that expected. With all of this transition comes the dread of finding a sitter. Well, a free one anyways. I have lots of people who will watch the girls for some cash but with our frugal budget (aka adoption funding), we have to watch our funds. Most people would have a tough time with this but we are incredibly blessed to have 3 people in our lives that will take our kids anytime, without hesitation, for free!!! So, my girls have spent their week with 3 of their favorite people and it makes my heart so happy to know that they are so loved.

1. Aunt Patty - Those of you that know us in real life know that we all love Aunt Patty. The girls spent most of their week with Aunt Patty. Aunt Patty (and Uncle Russell, and cousins Ryan and Shelby) lives in Edmonton, KY. There home has always provided us with a little country "get away". We can always go to Edmonton for some little RR away from the all of the chaos of the big city (MW...big city... hahah). Edmonton is simply life at a slower pace. Aunt Patty has a sweet remodeled farm house that is so beautiful, open, and airy. There is a hammock in the yard where you can sit and listen to the crickets chirping away in the big empty field beside their house. They have two swings hanging from a tree that magically entertain my girls for hours. And, Jamie is completely spoiled rotten so there are ALWAYS warm no bake cookies cooling on wax paper on the counter. My favorite thing about Aunt Patty's house is that the TV is tucked away in their to die for media room and therefore, it is not a distraction from our visiting. We just sit and talk for hours. We have sat up chatting the night away until the wee hours of the morning sometimes! Wow, the world would be a better place if everyone had an "Aunt Patty's" house to go to! We are amazingly blessed in the Aunt Patty is available and willing to take the girls at any given moment. Gracie made her first trip there to stay for a few days as a 9 month old. Since then, the girls make multiple trips without us each year.

I have loved to see the bond between Patty and Russell and my girls grow over the years. We consider them grandparents (even though they are NOT old enough to be). They love the girls with the genuine love of a grandparent. Patty spoils the girls just like a grandparent would. She provides them with their favorite things. This includes an endless supply of chocolate donuts when Evie is in town and mani/pedis on demand whenever requested! And Evie has a special bond with Uncle Russell. She doesn't like to admit it but, he is the first person that she looks for when we arrive. It is an unspoken bond of a special admiration. She looks up to him. And, she couldn't have a better person to look up to! And, you wanna know a secret? I look up to them too. They are an wonderful example of a traditional family who serves the Lord. I love that Patty cooks big meals and serves her family. I love how hard Russell works to provide for their family. I love that Ryan (16) has to work all summer even though he doesn't want to. He is working hard because it's good for him and because his parents want him to understand hard work. And, I love how they have let Shelby just be a kid. She has been able to have a childhood without distractions, and her innocence is sweet. They are a truly amazing family that I am so proud to belong to. Most people can't say that they truly love their extended family but, I do. I love them as much as I love my first family.

The girls just returned from their second visit this summer and this time, I was a busy bee at school while they were away. I always miss them like crazy when they are gone but I am so thankful that they love their extended family so much that they don't miss us!

2 and 3. Grandparents - I had to lump them all together because I didn't want to put them in any kind of numerical order - hahah!! So, I am convinced that my girls have the BEST BEST BEST grandparents ever. They are beyond spoiled rotten! Way beyond! And oh my, the girls milk it for all it's worth!! My grandparents were great growing up but, I don't think I was as spoiled as the girls. I know that both sets of grandparents love watching the girls and spending time with them but, I wonder if they know how much WE (Jamie and I) love watching the girls with them?? There is nothing better in this world that watching my girls light up from head to toe when they see one of the Fab 4. It is like Christmas.

And, as a complete daddy's girl, I have to admit that my favorite thing to watch is my girls leaping into my daddy's arms for a big bear hug. They hug my dad in a way that is so precious. Every hug is an eyes closed, squeeze tight, hold on for dear life, kind of hug! Like watching a kid hug Santa Claus. My dad is never to busy for my girls. When he watches them, it is 100% "Papoo" time. He paints with them, sprays them with the hose, lets them play with shaving cream and play dough, he cooks with them. It's all day fun.

I guess I claim the daddy's girl title but I love my momma just as much!!! She too is an awesome sitter. She loves to team up against me and be on the girls "side". It is hilarious! If I say "no sweets, they are grounded", mom says "sorry, not at my house they're not!" I try to act mad about these things but to be honest, I think it is sweet. My girls have learned that they can trust MamMam with their hearts. They know that she is always on their side and they have a deep trust with her that is hard to put into words. I know that this will be so wonderful as we move to the teenage years. And, something I have noticed is that my mom can get the girls to "cuddle" with her at any time. Sometimes now they do not want to cuddle me (tear) but, they will ALWAYS curl up in MamMam's lap. I just love how they love her! It's a bond that not even I could ever ever break!

Jamie's' parents are also so incredibly good to the girls. James (Jamie's dad) is willing to drop everything to watch the girls. He has watched them since Gracie was weeks old. He has never been afraid to jump in and change diapers, bottle feed, you name it! He has done it all! He has run taxi service for us from the girls preschool program and has done the car rider lines at both elementary schools. He has done the " Gracie is throwing up and we HAVE to go to work today, can she stay with you?" kind of babysitting days. He has never said "no". Not once. I am so sure that there have been days that has has wanted to say no, but never would he.

Papaw has a different relationship with both of the girls. He has nicknames for each of them and I love to see how they play with him in their own special ways. Yep, the girls sure do love their Papaw. Of course, we can't leave Nanny out. Papaw is fun but to my girls, their Nanny is like a storybook princess! I know that sounds funny, (I am sure that Nanny is laughing as she reads this) but, it's true! The girls Nanny has an amazing sense of style. She is often dressed to the nines when coming home from work. As she pulls into the driveway, the girls giggle and scream: "Nanny's Home!!!" She can't make it to the front walk before two little girls are grabbing at her waist! As Nanny gives sweet hugs, she is also promptly striped of her bracelet, earrings, high heels, and necklace. The girls literally "wallor" in her fancy things. The LOVE to try on her pretties. And Nanny ALWAYS lets them. No matter the cost of sentimental value of her things, she is always quick to let the girls explore. Their eyes just sparkle when they play with Nanny! She is fascinating to them! And while we sometimes see her all dressed up, we also get to have Nanny who is real and loves the girls more than anything! My favorite thing is when Nanny tells the girls about how much she wanted grandchildren and girl grandchildren at that. She tells them of how she bought things before they were born. She keeps AMAZING scrapbooks of the girls lives. She tells them stories of when they were babies and how loved and wanted they were. She helps them focus on how special every little moment has been in their lives. This is so special to me because the girls KNOW that they were wanted in this world by their Nanny and by all of us. And one day, when Gracie figures out the timeline of events surrounding her birth, I think that it will be Nanny's constant reminders of how much she was wanted that will assure her that no little girl (girls) could be more loved in the world!

Well, are you convinced? Do I have the best family ever? Yes, I do!! Of course, this isn't all of our family but, I chose to share this today because I am so thankful for the HELP that these people have given me this week. Without them, our lives would be a hot mess. Is it perfect? Heck no. Sometimes we fight like cats and dogs. Again, it's not always rainbows and sunshine here. We don't always agree, and sometimes it's ugly. very ugly. But, if you were to ask my girls, they would be totally oblivious to any ugliness. That is because we always forgive. Spoken or unspoken, forgiveness AND thankfulness make this family go round!

What are you thankful for this Thursday??

Wordless Wednesday: Where we were in life exactly 3 years ago today!

7-27-2008

Confession Friday

Ok so I gotta type fast because at this very moment there are only 3 minutes left of Friday. Today was a busy day and all day long I have been working at home and thinking about what I wanted to post for "Confession Friday". I couldn't think of anything at all during our busy day at the house and then I was blessed enough to not have to think of anything at all (any silly things that is) and focus on worship for a while this evening while at church.

After church it was over to mom and dad's for "Ernie's famous sweet tea". While there Gracie smashed her fingers in the door and I hijacked my mom's Facebook status - again. At last as I sit down to check blogs and do some reading, I still had nothing for confession Friday. "Oh well", I thought, "maybe next week I will have something profound to confess". And just then as I was about to turn it in for the night, my beautiful baby girl woke up to go to the bathroom. As she stumbled and fumbled down the hall to the bathroom and put her hands all over my freshly painted hallway, I ran to help her make it to the potty in one piece since she was half asleep. As I put her back to bed a few moments later, it hit me. Evie smells. Not a bad smell but a weird sorta smell. Like sweat, sunscreen, chocolate milk, our dog, and just general "outside" summer smell. Hmmmm, when was the last time these two little piggies had a bath?? So here it is, confession Friday.....

My kids rarely bathe in the summer.

Yeah yeah, I know, gross right? Well I guess "rarely" might be a bit dramatic but, I will say that their last bath was Tuesday. Really. Does this make us bad parents? Is this dangerous? I do promise that we are much better about bathing the children during the school year. Every other night, religiously. I swear.

I can't claim that we are too busy for a bath though. I can't say that I just don't know why this happens. We aren't too busy and I do know why this happens. It is because we are soaking in every last drop of sweet summertime that we can .......

(and occasionally, all heck has broken loose in our house for some reason or another and both Jamie and I are too exhausted to make it up the stairs to the bathroom so....... For example, the day before yesterday, my lovely sweet pea baby girl was supposed to be cleaning her playroom and instead she made some noise down there so that I would "think" that she was cleaning. A few moments later, she proudly comes up the stairs and announces that she is "done" while she closes the door to the basement behind her. I give her the "good job Evie" talk which she takes with a huge prideful smile and head upstairs to change. A few moments later I realize that I don't have my pants and that they are still in the dryer. So, I take a quick peek downstairs and see that the curtains are closed and the door is locked so, I make a dash for the basement in my, uhhem.... underclothes (sorry for the visual) just to discover that the basement door is locked. That's weird. Oh wait a minute.... EVIE!!!!! As I frantically look for one of those over the door key unlock thingies while dodging the windows and doors in fear that someone might see me in my skivies, I am screaming for Evie to get downstairs. When she arrives, she tells me that she locked the door. About that time, I get the door open to discover why. She didn't clean the playroom. It's a disaster. AND, the mini blinds are all bent away from the frame on one of the windows???? .This, she explains, is because she heard Papaw mowing outside and wanted to say hi but didn't know how to open the blinds! Oh boy, I was one mad momma at this point. Not only did she lie and accept praise for something she didn't do, she locked the door to cover up her crime! And, now it is 6:30 Jamie is coming in the door, we are supposed to be at a friend's house in 30 minutes and none of us are ready. Geez! See people, it's definitely not all rainbows and sunshine around here. My kids can be bad. Very bad.)

But, let's just go with the sweet thoughts that most of the times the girls go to bed dirty it is because:

1. We are sitting on the swings out front with the neighbors until way past bedtime while the girls run barefoot around us catching lightning bugs.

2. We are sitting at mom and dad's drinking up all of the sweet tea and talking about what's on Nancy Grace.

3. We are at my inlaws drinking all of their diet coke, eating all of their brownies and honey buns and talking about what trouble the kids have been into lately or what trouble their daddy was into at their age!

4. We are with friends watching "the daddies" play basketball in the driveway while the kiddos ride their bikes and demand that we "look, look!!" the whole time.

5. And sometimes we are falling asleep on the couch watching a movie that we have seen a thousand times (curse you Lemonade Mouth) but we pretend to be watching because it's better than....oh, I don't know.....giving the kids a bath.

And after all of this, we are simply beat and cannot possibly bathe the children. Tonight was one of those nights. The evidence is all over Evie. I know this is probably strange but, I love that smell.

** Note, the parents of these dirty children still bathe daily.

** Note it's now 12:28, it's Saturday. Darn.

Thankful Thursday (and some ranting about Facebook)

Now that the blog is public again, (YAY! Welcome back), I thought I would jump on this whole special posting for each day thing. Now, you know that I will probably forget about this as soon as school starts and we are back to reality but for now, here it is! After all, we have so much to be thankful for right? So without further delay, here is my first "Thankful Thursday" posting!

Friends

Okay so this has been an interesting week. Without going into detail, let me just say that my husband is more convinced than ever that Facebook is the devil, the Antichrist, the arch enemy, etc. etc. Let me preface this statement with the fact that I do love me some Facebook. I so enjoy looking at pictures of all of my cutie friends and their kiddos, checking out what's going on with family, and lately I have REALLY enjoyed hacking into my mother's account and giving her a ridiculous status. Childish? For sure! But, for some reason it gives me great joy!

However, we all know that there is another side of Facebook. The dark side. I have to say that I have never been so shocked as I have in the last few months by what I have seen on Facebook. Now, I know that it's probably my fault because I have a great big number of friends but honestly, I have a personal connection with all of them and each is there for a reason. Here is some fun from the "dark side" that I have been made painfully aware of recently.

1. "Friends" who call others horrible names publicly. (Friends who are mothers and would never use these words around their children)

2."Friends" who get mad about something on Facebook, stomp their feet, throw a fit, threaten to "de-friend" people, and then start clicking friends away while steam comes out their ears and all of their de-friended friends smile smugly.

3. Families and relationships that have been ruined by something posted on Facebook. Families that are literally broken because the people behind the profile posted something in anger or something that was a simple misunderstanding.

4. Children who post inappropriate pictures and videos on Facebook and parents who do not make them remove it.

5. This one seems like no biggie until it happens to you but worth mentioning: identity theft and viruses .

6. My personal favorite - people who post vague statuses that have everyone wondering what in the world they are talking about. Example: "thinking that I just made the worst mistake of my life", or - "wondering if it's all worth it", .... Yeah, don't you just love those?? This is actually called "Vaguebooking" in the Urban dictionary and it is so annoying!! I have seen people read these on FB and then think that it MUST be about THEM and then it turns into OMGosh , I HAVE to "de-friend" them!!!!

If you need more evidence, do a Google search for "The Dark Side of Facebook"

There have times that I have screamed into the computer: "What the HECK is wrong with you people????" I mean, I just don't get it. I do not understand why people use words that they would never use in person. Is it something like "liquid courage"? "Social media courage"?

I don't know but I do know one thing, I am SOOO very thankful (Thankful Thursday remember?) for my friends. My true friends that love me for who I am, that challenge me to be a better person, that never give up on me (especially when I don't answer my phone or texts for hours at a time, seriously, I am the world's worst!). I have the BEST friends in the world! The best blog reading friends, the best Facebook friends (yes, even those too), the best "school" friends, the best church friends, and the best family friends! Wow, I am blessed and my goal is to take the time to make sure that all of the people that I appreciate in my life know it! My other goal is to spend less time with FB and more time with the people that love me. I don't spend a TON of time on there now but I am guilty of checking it on my phone during "wait" times (redlight - NEVER while driving, doctors office, etc.)

So, what are you thankful for this Thursday? :)