It is difficult to put into words how blessed I feel right now. Brad and I have been matched with an adorable, sunny little girl - yes, you read right! A girl! I was totally shocked when I got the call, and with my jittery nerves when I tried to conference call Brad I dialed the wrong number, hung up on our social worker, and tried really hard not to freak out so my co-workers would not be alarmed.
We received two pictures of our little pumpkin, she is smiling big in both! We cannot distribute her picture too liberally nor post her picture on any kind of public site until our case is heard in the Ethiopian court, which we are hoping to be in about eight weeks, but I assure you she is precious! If you see me in person in the next eight weeks, I’ve been carrying them wherever I go, so ask me and I will show you! Okay, let’s be honest - you probably won’t even need to ask…
Her name is Tesfanesh, which means ‘you are my hope’ in Amharic. She just turned two at the beginning of January, and we hope to travel to pick her up in April.
I’m at a loss for words… don’t know what else to say. Once it has time to sink in a little more, I am sure there will be more.
Welcome to the family, my little Tesfanesh!
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Most Depressing Day of the Year?
Yesterday (third Monday of January) has been declared by some random researcher somewhere to be the 'Most Depressing Day of the Year'. Click here for TIME's article.
Good thing I didn't know that yesterday - I seem to like to take any excuse I can to be a grump lately. Bah-humbug!
Good thing I didn't know that yesterday - I seem to like to take any excuse I can to be a grump lately. Bah-humbug!
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Two Good Things
What do you get when you put together two sisters, some clay, a cookie cutter, and a lazy Sunday afternoon? Magnets! Oh, and some really sore fingers. But the results are pretty good, if I do say so myself.
Our idea was to make cute little hands (hence the cookie cutter), glue a heart to the palm (hence the sore fingers... 36 hand-made hearts are hard on the ole' 30 year old joints), and write 'love' in both Amharic and English.
I don't know if I am totally set on the writing yet, but this is the prototype. Not too shabby, just needs some tweaking. Take a look for yourself!
Aren't we cute?
* Edited to Add: Anyone else notice how disproportionate my teeny little girly forearms are compared the rest of my (large hipped) self? One thing I am glad not to pass onto my children, itsy-bitsy freaky forearms (sorry mom!) *
Second bit of good news... drum roll please... We have been approved by CIS! Huge sigh, this was the very last piece of 'approval' we were waiting for. I didn't think we weren't going to get it - just when was the question. I'll be honest with you, I don't have an enormous amount of faith in the speediness of our government at work, so this is a monumental affair. So much so, I'll share a picture. Ah, yes... can there be anything sweeter to the international adoptive parent waiting for a referral than the I-171H, I ask?
The answer - no.
(P.S. Mitch and Jennifer - I hope this means yours is in the mail super quick! Keeping you in my thoughts.)
Peace.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
How To Make Your Husband Want To Live Out In The Garage While Waiting For A Refferal
1. At every moment there are at least 10 seconds of silence, decide to direct the conversation back to adoption. This could be an article you read in the newspaper, a post you recently read on an adoption forum, or just your own personal musings on the subject.
2. Continually ask questions he couldn’t possibly have the answer to, but there is no one else to ask and you’re tired of asking yourself. Examples being – When will we get our referral? What time of day will they call us? How old will our child be? Will he like squash?
3. Continually ask questions that you know he hasn’t put as much thought into as you have, and than get irritated for no good reason that he hasn’t put as much thought into them as you have. Such as – What do you think the perfect age for our referral would be? What time will we have to leave for work in the morning to get the Little-One to daycare and us to work? How will we do (insert what activity we are currently doing at that moment, like going to the YMCA, grocery shopping, etc) once we have Little-One home? Will I have to make cooked carrots?
4. When he tries to make plans for anything farther in the future than three months, sigh loudly and say either a) You can’t make any plans until we know when we are traveling! - or - b) Fine. I’ll just stay home with Little One myself (whether or not you know your child will be home by then).
5. When you get an very generic email from someone who has been through the entire adotion process once already, and she ends the email with "Hope you hear something soon", quiz your husband on whether or not she is somehow 'in the know' and we will indeed 'hear something soon'.
6. Sit on the couch and mope. A lot.
7. Continually ask if he is worried about (insert adoption and / or parenting activity here, such as traveling to ET, potty training, ringworm), because you certainly are.
8. Get huffy for no good reason when his answer to above question is ‘no’.
9. Ask to use the laptop while he is on it at least once a night, because you just must check your email and the forum – after all, it has been at least two hours since you checked it while at work. Don’t go use the computer downstairs to do this, because it will obviously only take ‘a minute’. Take ten minutes scouring the forum for anyone’s referral announcements. Get irritated there is none. Repeat step ‘sit on the couch and mope’.
Okay, I'm not really quite as whiny as this post indicates... I do at least try to spread it out a bit. I don't, after all, really want him to move out to the garage. It is far too chilly out there for me to be continuously walking in and out asking if we should buy a toddler bed...
Love you, Brad!
2. Continually ask questions he couldn’t possibly have the answer to, but there is no one else to ask and you’re tired of asking yourself. Examples being – When will we get our referral? What time of day will they call us? How old will our child be? Will he like squash?
3. Continually ask questions that you know he hasn’t put as much thought into as you have, and than get irritated for no good reason that he hasn’t put as much thought into them as you have. Such as – What do you think the perfect age for our referral would be? What time will we have to leave for work in the morning to get the Little-One to daycare and us to work? How will we do (insert what activity we are currently doing at that moment, like going to the YMCA, grocery shopping, etc) once we have Little-One home? Will I have to make cooked carrots?
4. When he tries to make plans for anything farther in the future than three months, sigh loudly and say either a) You can’t make any plans until we know when we are traveling! - or - b) Fine. I’ll just stay home with Little One myself (whether or not you know your child will be home by then).
5. When you get an very generic email from someone who has been through the entire adotion process once already, and she ends the email with "Hope you hear something soon", quiz your husband on whether or not she is somehow 'in the know' and we will indeed 'hear something soon'.
6. Sit on the couch and mope. A lot.
7. Continually ask if he is worried about (insert adoption and / or parenting activity here, such as traveling to ET, potty training, ringworm), because you certainly are.
8. Get huffy for no good reason when his answer to above question is ‘no’.
9. Ask to use the laptop while he is on it at least once a night, because you just must check your email and the forum – after all, it has been at least two hours since you checked it while at work. Don’t go use the computer downstairs to do this, because it will obviously only take ‘a minute’. Take ten minutes scouring the forum for anyone’s referral announcements. Get irritated there is none. Repeat step ‘sit on the couch and mope’.
Okay, I'm not really quite as whiny as this post indicates... I do at least try to spread it out a bit. I don't, after all, really want him to move out to the garage. It is far too chilly out there for me to be continuously walking in and out asking if we should buy a toddler bed...
Love you, Brad!
Friday, January 11, 2008
One Hundred in Spanish is Cien
On day number 100 of our ‘officially waiting’, I thought I would give an update of where we sit. If you haven’t read the past post “Math? Not so much, thanks…” (Nov. 16th), here is a preview: At that time, we were at spot number 74 out of 82 families on what I like to call the ‘can-I-at-least-feel-like-I-have-a-shred-of-control-in-this-process-pretty-pretty-please’ list, and per CHS there were 184 families on there ‘real’ list. With those numbers I made up some math, spun around in a circle, threw some magic beans in the air and predicted we were sitting at about spot #166 on the list-that-matters. That was mid-November.
So, here we try again. We are now are sitting at number 55 out of 78 people on the fake list. At CHS’s last update in mid-December, they said there was 186 families actually waiting. So, for every one person on the fake list, there are approximately 2.4 people on the real… 55 x 2.4 = close your eyes and pray really hard it is somehow magically less than spot #100… nope. Plops us down at about spot number 132.
One hundred thirty two out of one hundred eighty six. Not so bad, I guess.
Have a great weekend. And thank you for making it to day number 100 with me.
Peace.
So, here we try again. We are now are sitting at number 55 out of 78 people on the fake list. At CHS’s last update in mid-December, they said there was 186 families actually waiting. So, for every one person on the fake list, there are approximately 2.4 people on the real… 55 x 2.4 = close your eyes and pray really hard it is somehow magically less than spot #100… nope. Plops us down at about spot number 132.
One hundred thirty two out of one hundred eighty six. Not so bad, I guess.
Have a great weekend. And thank you for making it to day number 100 with me.
Peace.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
2,352 Hours
Today marks 14 weeks of waiting to find out who our Little One will be. That equals out to 98 sometimes good, sometimes bad days. I think I will have a little celebration on Friday for making it all the way to day number 100 without some serious cracking. For example, in those (soon to be) 100 days, I have only broke down and sent three emails to our specialist at the agency to basically ask stupid questions that I already know the answer to, but am not so happy about, to see if I ask again the answer will magically change. Just for me. Like it will all of a sudden dawn on her, ‘Oh, wait! This is Beth we’re talking about! She doesn’t have to wait the possible 6-9 months, silly us! Here is your referral, go get on the plane!’ By the way, that hasn’t happened yet. Her answers are always very sympathetic, but understandably reasonable and logical. *sigh* But, I’ll keep you posted. And only three emails out of 100 days? I think that takes some serious restraint on my part.
I’ve read that you can’t let yourself get worn down in the ‘waiting’ part of adoption, because then by the actual ‘Here is a screaming child, he is yours! Oh- and by the way, he has intestinal parasites, so watch out for flying poop!’ part you are already not in your best mental shape. And I have heard enough first hand stories that I believe Post-Adoption Depression is a real thing. That is not going to happen to me! But it is hard not to get weary. I keep having little nightmares that I am walking a couple steps behind a little brown child, and I can never quite get to him in time to keep bad things from happening. Like, a snake will jump out and bite him before I can scoop him up out of the way. Or, he trips on a stick and skins his knee before I can catch him. They aren’t jolt you out of your sleep kind of dreams, just wake up sorta’ sad kind of dreams. I think ‘weary’ is the best way to describe my feeling. Just weary.
So, I’m taking my wise husband’s advice, and am going to try and throw myself back into my hobbies that I had previously put on hold because we were busy running from class to government office, and filling out form after form. I actually did finish the top of a crib sized quilt, and am working on other sewing / craft projects. Don't know how useful these things will be in the future, I may just end up with a house full of small quilts and misc crafts, but at least my hands and mind will stay busy!
Peace.
I’ve read that you can’t let yourself get worn down in the ‘waiting’ part of adoption, because then by the actual ‘Here is a screaming child, he is yours! Oh- and by the way, he has intestinal parasites, so watch out for flying poop!’ part you are already not in your best mental shape. And I have heard enough first hand stories that I believe Post-Adoption Depression is a real thing. That is not going to happen to me! But it is hard not to get weary. I keep having little nightmares that I am walking a couple steps behind a little brown child, and I can never quite get to him in time to keep bad things from happening. Like, a snake will jump out and bite him before I can scoop him up out of the way. Or, he trips on a stick and skins his knee before I can catch him. They aren’t jolt you out of your sleep kind of dreams, just wake up sorta’ sad kind of dreams. I think ‘weary’ is the best way to describe my feeling. Just weary.
So, I’m taking my wise husband’s advice, and am going to try and throw myself back into my hobbies that I had previously put on hold because we were busy running from class to government office, and filling out form after form. I actually did finish the top of a crib sized quilt, and am working on other sewing / craft projects. Don't know how useful these things will be in the future, I may just end up with a house full of small quilts and misc crafts, but at least my hands and mind will stay busy!
Peace.
Monday, January 7, 2008
There Are No Carp Babies In The Tap Water
Since we haven’t heard boo from our agency, I am left to my own vices. Which lately, unfortunately, has meant a lot of television watching and lifeless sitting on the couch for me. I think I’ve made a permanent butt indent. I never used to watch this much TV…
Anyways, I saw an add the other day for a certain water filtration company - I won’t say the name directly, because Google and I have some qualms of how easily my blog comes up as a search result with the oddest searches. Well, I should say I have qualms, Google I am sure couldn’t care less. I realized my odd blog traffic when I signed up for a free ‘site tracker’ kind-of-thingy, which can tell me how people found my site. It is bizarre. So, anyway, let’s just say it starts with a ‘B’ and ends with a ‘rita’.
You may have seen it. It starts with a close-up of a beautiful flowing stream, and says something along the lines of ‘If this was your water, you wouldn’t need us’. Then it cuts to a congested four lane freeway, and the narrator states ‘but you live here.’ Umm… really? Are they seriously trying to tell me that my quality tested, EPA stamped tap water in a major metropolitan city (since they showed the congested freeway) is just too unsafe to consume? Hark, I better shell out more money to make my clean water cleaner!
I think the reason this bugs me so is there is an actual, very serious problem with unsafe drinking water throughout the world. A devastating one. For millions, a fatal one. But this is not the case necessarily here, in the US, where this commercial is being played. In making it seem like we have water quality issues, they are trivializing the millions who are in reality impacted daily dealing with the ramifications of unsanitary water. And that just plain bothers me.
Or, maybe I am just crabby. TV in general does bring out the worst in me, and my rear is sore from sitting so long, staring off into the glow. But, either way, it is still straight from the tap (but sometimes refrigerated) city water for me. And I have yet to catch dysentery.
Anyways, I saw an add the other day for a certain water filtration company - I won’t say the name directly, because Google and I have some qualms of how easily my blog comes up as a search result with the oddest searches. Well, I should say I have qualms, Google I am sure couldn’t care less. I realized my odd blog traffic when I signed up for a free ‘site tracker’ kind-of-thingy, which can tell me how people found my site. It is bizarre. So, anyway, let’s just say it starts with a ‘B’ and ends with a ‘rita’.
You may have seen it. It starts with a close-up of a beautiful flowing stream, and says something along the lines of ‘If this was your water, you wouldn’t need us’. Then it cuts to a congested four lane freeway, and the narrator states ‘but you live here.’ Umm… really? Are they seriously trying to tell me that my quality tested, EPA stamped tap water in a major metropolitan city (since they showed the congested freeway) is just too unsafe to consume? Hark, I better shell out more money to make my clean water cleaner!
I think the reason this bugs me so is there is an actual, very serious problem with unsafe drinking water throughout the world. A devastating one. For millions, a fatal one. But this is not the case necessarily here, in the US, where this commercial is being played. In making it seem like we have water quality issues, they are trivializing the millions who are in reality impacted daily dealing with the ramifications of unsanitary water. And that just plain bothers me.
Or, maybe I am just crabby. TV in general does bring out the worst in me, and my rear is sore from sitting so long, staring off into the glow. But, either way, it is still straight from the tap (but sometimes refrigerated) city water for me. And I have yet to catch dysentery.
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