done and done

Our homestudy visit was great. She was on time! She was professional! She was personable!
It was great. She said the homestudy would be done hopefully by the end of next week.

In the meantime, our rep from AGCI said that we could send our dossier to be checked out. So yay.

Bummer is that I am miserably ill. So I have a dr appt in an hour. Then tomorrow I have to get another marriage certificate (luckily it's only ten minutes away and no lines!) and get another copy of J's physical health goodness.

I hate being sick.
But I love having progress on adoption!

good feelings

Ok, so referrals for a boy, a girl, and a sibling set.
This is awesome!
Since I found out about all this today, and since today is our new homestudy appointment, I am taking it as a good sign.

Now, if only I had enough time to clean my house like I did the first go around. Oh well. Since I've had a three year old around lately...I know there is no sense in cleaning it today (she is here) and that it really doesn't matter anyway.

But, I really am going to start cleaning now.
Think happy thoughts for us tonight!

resolution, part 1

We finally received some resolution today. Our homestudy cannot be accepted because one of the agencies refused to sign a cooperating agency agreement. The thing I don't understand is why it took a month to decide they wouldn't sign it. Sheesh.

Good news: Because AGCI is so great, they've already selected and contacted another Homestudy Agency to fix our problems. Luckily, I have all the documents needed for the HS from our dossier packet (which I still have all ready to go...minus the HS) so we only have to fill out new autobiographies. We're scheduled to meet next Wednesday. Our new social worker said they can have everything put together about a week after our meeting. I am excited about this because I'm pretty sure that means none of our forms are out of date yet.

I did realize today that we made our first contact with AGCI to get contracts 9 months ago. If you would have asked me then, I would have told you we'd at least have a referral by now, if not travel plans.

I'm trying to look on the bright side. And so far, instead of binge eating, I did some binge shopping. I was already out playing when we got the call from AGCI...and since there was no place to sit but a fitting room, well, I had to have some clothes to try on. The truly exceptional part of this story is that since the Lord already knew what was happening, he had me someplace really affordable. I was able to purchase this fabulous pair of shoes, as well as three (yes three) pairs of pants...all for $8.98 each.

I'm going to go and wear my shoes now because I truly believe they'll help me feel better.

Oh, and about the job. Well, they said I should hear "at the end of next week". Well, that week is now this week...and I think that Thursday should serve as the end...but it's not. Hopefully I'll have some news tomorrow. Pray hard though, because I am realizing just how much I want this job!

three weeks of bumps...and a bruised heart

Hi blog families. Just a little warning, but my heart is really aching tonight.

I received our biweekly update from AGCI. Since they put into effect the new wait list stuff, there are now
31 families waiting for a little girl
25 families waiting for a little boy
10 families waiting for a sibling set

There have been zero referrals in the last four weeks.

We're not even waiting yet. It's been three weeks with no word about what to do to fix our issue.
I am totally bummed.
: (

bigger bump...ugh!

Well. Today was a day of weird news. So we've been waiting for our social worker to get the paperwork from our agency for a while now. She got it. And read it. And realized that she can't fill it out because she's not a 501c3 (non-profit).

I called AGCI and they said to forward it on to Little Flower Adoption Agency. (Backstory: our SW can operate as a satellite SW of that agency, even though they are based four hours away and she is like ten minutes. She did all of our visits and such, we just filled out extra paperwork, etc. for the other agency, too. Sounds more confusing than it is.)

We notified our SW of the plan and asked her if she would go ahead and forward it to Little Flower. Turns out they are not a 501c3 either, according to her, because in the state of Texas, placing agencies do not have to be.

AGCI says this is not good.

I tried to get ahold of Little Flower today without luck.

An interesting opportunity presented itself yesterday to work with The Arrow Project. They are one of the main agencies dealing with the Eldorado Mess. I am starting to wonder if all of our adoption stuff is not working out because I should take this opportunity with The Arrow to work with those kids. I'm feeling a little lost and confused lately, so am praying for some answers from either our adoption front or The Arrow front so that I can move in the direction that is actually going to take us somewhere!

Thanks for all the encouragement. Lately I just don't know how to feel about much of anything.

did you hear the good news?!

Yay! So things are feeling better today. I got this amazing email today from our case manager at AGCI. From now on, families do not have to wait for their FDL to get on the list. That's right. I know, there's hope for us yet!

Someone reminded me just the other day that while this is all in God's hands and His perfect timing, there is no reason that I can't (or shouldn't!) tell the Lord how I feel and ask for a miracle. Then again, isn't it already a miracle that He's located our missing family all the way in Africa? Wow. God is so good. And today, so is AGCI.

Dear Wait List,
Hi. We'd really like to meet you and be part of what you're doing. We've been having some issues lately but are working to resolve all of that. We are excited to learn that your club is not as exclusive as it once was...so we're hoping to rush right out and pledge as soon as we can. Get ready and make some room for us, please!

moving on...with or without it

Well, I'm tired of being down in the dumps about this, so I've decided to move on. Just for factual coverage, our SW has still not received the paperwork she's supposed to fill out and mail back. Thechanges to our HS will not be sent to her until they have the other papers all worked out. I'm just accepting that this is (obviously) out of my hands, but in total control of the Lord. Is is He who planted this idea in our hearts and He who will bring fruit from it. Can I get an amen?

So, to pass the time, I'm going to have an extreme blog make over. Well, without all the commercial breaks. And probably tears. I mean, I've cried over blogs before, but I don't think it's going to be the same. Man, I just had a fantastic idea. More on that later. (I love suspense! Maybe adoption was made just for me afterall...)

Also, here are a few of my favorite shots from my cruise. I know, that was like a month ago. But, better late than never. I just realized it's been forever since I've posted any pics. Sorry!! How lame of me. Remedying that now.

This was our cruise ship. On fruit. Yeah. Please also notice the funny lady posing behind the ship.

Here we are all gussied up for the Captain's Dinner, but he didn't even eat with us. This is the date we shared instead. His name is Stanley...loads of fun, but a little crazy to keep up with.

This is Marc, Ethan, Me, Christina. These are the crazy margaritas we tried. I will not be posting our reaction pictures. Christina's reaction was definatley the best. Trust me.

I think we were dancing in this picture. This might have had something to do with the crazy margaritas. Or the inherent crazyness that is inside me. You pick.

This is a little trouble we caused. Luckily, it did not sabotage our return home. (This had nothing to do with our margaritas, believe it or not.)

You get free sushi on a cruise trip! I'm saving Christina the embarrassment of showing her sushi picture. It looks like the sushi is trying to crawl out of her mouth. It wasn't. As far as I know.

This is some really late night shuffle board on the top deck. I'm pretty sure it was about 2am here. We just weren't ready to go home yet.

There you go. Some cruise trip highlights...a month late. I promise to be better about posting pictures from now on. Of course, I'll have to be better about taking pictures that anyone wants to look at.

P.S. I'd like to shout out to Jackie-- Jackie, I know you're stalking. It's ok. We're friends. And I don't think you're a weirdo. Now comment already so we can set up a lunch date! : )

really frustrated

Well, it's been over a week since our little bump. Here's the update. Our SW has not yet received the documents that were supposed to be sent to her, therefore, she definately hasn't mailed them back yet. Our agency can't send the revisions back to our SW because they are not "cooperating agencies" yet (has to do with the Hague Treaty) and so that will still take some more time.

Silly me, I was hoping to have all the homestudy stuff done by March 1.

I know this means, in the greater scheme of things, that the Lord is still working things out to unite our little one with us, but this has been pretty hard so far. Also, because we're waiting to share the news until we have wait list numbers, there are only a handful of friends who know that we've actually begun the process at all. Those of you who know, please pray for the settling of my spirit; that I would have peace about the time this is taking.

I also realized this week that as of Sunday, I will very officially be closer to 35 than to 15. Wow. Birthdays are becoming less fun and more and more cruel. Boo.

Ok, off to write a huge paper from the DSM IV TR. Yay again.

another little bump

Martha at AGCI called to say that she had our homestudy in hand for review. We have a speedbump though because there was some paperwork between our homestudy agency and adoption agency that wasn't processed, but everyone has been notified and they are taking care of things now. Martha said she'd go ahead and review it while they are working on those other contracts, so at least this won't push us back.

This is a great time to be reminded that adoption is about waiting. I had a conversation with a friend/relative today about waiting. In the last year, my husband and I have done our fair share of waiting. We were waiting for the city to start a new academy class, to start the adoption process, to get health insurance, to see an answer to prayer, to see direction in finding a new church home...I mean, the list goes on! But I was explaining in that conversation today that waiting is the perfect time to learn from the Lord. While we've been waiting I've really been learning about fulfillment from the Lord instead of the zillion other places we're constantly trying to find it. While this season of waiting has sometimes seemed woefully long and painful, it has been graciously full of growth and insight into the mind and heart of Christ. I know that our wait for adoption is only starting. And I know that in essence, we spend our entire Christian lives waiting for our spirit to catch up to it's potential or for Jesus to come back, but I am so glad that we can have these teaching seasons.

So, even though we had a little bummer today, I could not stop grinning because I received two pictures in the mail today. My grandmother has been busily working away at our baby bedding -- just worried to no end that we're not going to like it when it's finished and "we'll have to throw the whole thing out!" Well, I called her and put that to rest because I L-O-V-E it!!! It is so fun! Justin even said it was cool, "cool enough even for not the baby...like for other stuff" -- which is good because we have so much material that it's going to be everywhere! Anyone need a bib or blankie that matches our bedding? : )

forget the waiting...

Well, in a few hours I will no longer be thinking about homestudies or paperchasing or anything other than the glorious sun and my best traveling buddy.

That's right. Tomorrow begins my last spring fling! Christina and I board the Ecstacy ship tomorrow and head for a "Girls Gone Silly" Spring Break. We're taking along a surprise guest. More on him later. (I love surprises...that includes pushing them on others.) Then when I return I get one night with dear hubband and then I'm taking a little road trip with my mother and grandparents. This is going to be something. Yay for traveling! Yay for being busy thinking of other things!

I was hoping to have our HS back so it could go to Portland and be accepted and then I could mail our USCIS stuff and know that I was done with all the stuff that depended on me. But alas, God has different plans and so I leave with all that up in the air. I emailed my SW and asked that she please send the HS straight to AGCI while I'm gone so that I can mail everything off when I get back, fingers crossed.

Please pray for a safe journey for us Girls Gone Silly, speedy HS acceptance, and my sweet hubband who can't vacation because he has to work. He's going to miss me a lot and the pups will also be mighty lonely. He has plenty of clean laundry but he doesn't eat at home when I'm gone. That means he'll be having meals out at lunch and dinner (since I'm not here to make his lunch...or breakfast) which includes a lot of Lenny's Sub Sandwhiches. We keep that place in business.

Enough. Until I return...this is me! Yay!

oooow! i feel good...duhnuhnuhnuhnuhnuhnuh

I knew that I would!

(duhnuhnuhnuhnuhnuhnuh)

So good, so good...

baby, I almost got you!

**I added a music player...how fun is that?!**

Ok, so that's my newest rendition of an old song. I have this habit of rewriting things to make them work for my life. You know, if you had your own tv show about your life and it had a theme song or montage...well, my life does! And watch out, because I am singing them often.

So, our completed homestudy should be finished this weekend. I know, this weekend! Tomorrow morning I have an appointment at the Houston Passport Office to get that. Yep, I will have my whole passport in one day. Yippie! And (and I love it when there's an "and") if our homestudy is done this weekend, then I can send it to CIS on Monday or Tuesday. And that will be the last stop before we can be official!

Now do you see why I feel so good? So that you may all feel good too, I am adding some feel good pics! That's right, some generosity just for you! Enjoy -- and FEEL GOOD! Yay!

by popular demand

Ok, here it is. You can stop checking our site six times a day to see if I've posted about it yet. Goodness gracious. Ha ha, like we're really that popular or in demand. But thanks for checking in and well-wishing!

Here are some fun things to know:
About our house:
1. I'm pretty sure it's never been this clean.
2. I'm pretty sure it will never be this clean again.
3. I'm really astonished at what we accomplished.

About our social worker:
1. I'm just guessing here, but I'm guessing she's about nineteen years old.
2. Her vocabulary is surprising...and I'll leave it at that.
3. She drives the biggest Ford 350 diesel pickup ever.

About our homevisit:
1. It started two hours late.
2. It's finally over.
3. We should have the completed homestudy next weekend.

I'm sure by now you're guessing that our homevisit didn't go exactly as we had pictured it would. But that's totally ok because I like seeing God's sense of humor and know that it doesn't even really matter anyway. I am really glad that we got so much clean, though. So there you go, two good things happened:
1. A really really clean house
2. One more step closer to our baby.

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering about our previous predictament of name choosing, we've finally decided on a name for either a boy or a girl. Yay for that. Now if only someone would get us a baby...

tomorrow is the day!

I'm nervous!!!
In about 25 hours our social worker will be arriving at our home to judge us. Ha ha. I mean, I know she's not judging us, but she's kinda judging us. So I'm nervous. Really nervous. And my house is a wreck. I'm off tomorrow so that I can start the mammoth cleaning process bright and early -- at 5:25am when hubband leaves for work. That will give me over 12 hours of pure, unadulterated cleaning time.

I wonder what all I can get done in that time...

Two weeks ago when I thought our home visit was that week, I made this massive list of things to do. I should start check, check, checking things off that list as soon as possible. I have done most of our laundry today. Even though I'm not really sure that she'll even be checking our laundry room, and I'm sure she expects some laundry to be in there, I still think there should only be enough to look like I didn't do it all before she got here. Like, maybe I'll leave an undershirt, a pair of socks, and a couple of washcloths or something. Did I really just think that? Am I really staging my laundry room? I told you that I'm nervous.

I've wasted enough precious time blogging when I should be cleaning! Let the whirlwind begin!

ahhh! time is up!

So I got an email today stating that our home visit for the home study is this coming Thursday...Valentine's Day. Which means I have four days to get everything else done and the house ready and I'm a little bit in panic mode because I feel like there is still so much to do!!!

Our SW, Amanda, will come out to our house Thursday, take a week to write our homestudy, send it to AGCI for proofing, and then in another week's time have it finalized and done. Three weeks until our homestudy is completely complete!!!

I have so much to do! How in the world am I going to get it all done?

Eeek!

little news bits

Well, the big news is that we made the Ethiopian Adoption Blog Roll. We're one of the newbies! Check us out. Maybe that means that soon I won't be typing to emptyness...but that someone will read about us. Also, even though I've been reading other bloggers (uh, check out my growing list) I've never commented or anything to anyone else because I didn't have a blog and thought that might be weird. But I think I'm getting over it now. Needless to say, I am ready for some webfriends and blogbuddies...so please accept this as your official invitation to be my friend.

The best news of last week was that we should be receiving our Dossier packet this week! Yay!! I cannot wait to start on that. Even though I know it's just part of a big process, it makes me think that I'm speeding things up. Since adoption is all about waiting, I figure why not hurry up and start. The wait. Yes, I'll admit it. I'm a little weird.

This past weekend Justin and I went on a little weekend getaway to Fort Worth, Texas. We try to spend a little time away with just each other and no pressing responsibilities every few months. We stayed downtown in Sundance Square, did some touristy things, and did a lot of walking. Er, I mean, relaxing. It was great. I'd like to post some pictures but my laptop died and we can't figure out how to get the desktop to recognize my camera...so when we find a solution, I'll post some fun pics.

Also, I am counting down the days until I can put up my Christmas stuff. Justin likes people (even me) to think that he is a little bit of a Grinch...but he's not. He's the most giving, sharing man I've ever met. But he makes me wait until Thanksgiving-ish to start decorating. I tried to weasel in earlier this month...but things kept coming up each night that we'd planned to do it. It was probably not coincidence. I'll forgive him.

The last cool thing of note is that Babies R Us finally came out with some new stuff. See, we are the last couple we know to start a family (well, ok, there's one other couple. One!) and so all the good stuff was taken. And I was afraid that I was going to have to make it all. Which translates to "I should have started making it in high school so that maybe it would be ready for my grandchildren" because we already have a million projects going on. But! Since BRU now has some cool stuff, I am getting a little excited. I still don't know if I should start now and do something that is gender neutral...or if I should wait and do something specific much later when we have a referral. Any ideas? Anyone actually reading this? : )

starting to feel real

Today we had our Orientation phone call with Martha from AGCI. We just basically went over timelines and procedures and expectations and what not. Then more paper signing, a trip to the notary, and then to my new favorite mail place. There are two teenage boys who work there (and are obviously really bored during a good part of the day) and when I got there, they both stood silent and watched me fill out my envelope. Really exciting.

Oh, and it's only 39 days until Christmas. Really! It's only 39 days and I don't even have one decoration up yet. Nor have I wrapped any presents. Not one! I am so behind this year.

exciting things coming up!

Well, we have the adendum to our contract which we'll sign and mail off Monday morning. We also have our orientation call set up for Wednesday, November 11th. We've officially been accepted and are now on the road!

Justin told me today that he made his first purchase for our baby. I ,of course was super excited and couldn't wait to find out. So I asked him what it was. And he said, "Ratitoullie", like it was the only answer out there. Let me just explain that Justin secretly loves animated flicks...so this movie was totally for him and not our child. It was so-not-for-our-child that he watched it last night...when I wasn't even home!

A big shout out to my lovely friend Christina who I visited in the cool part of town. She took me to nifty places to eat and snack and play. She's too fun. Pictures to follow...as soon as I learn how to do them on Justin's computer since mine broke.

Lately I've been discovering lots of blog families who are with our agency, AGCI and it has been so fun to read their posts particularly. It makes me so thankful that this community exists.