birthday stuffs

Today is Baby Galindo's 3 month birthday. 

Happy Birthday Baby! 

In honor of that, here are the top three things Justin wants to do with his son:

1. Teach him to catch. And throw.

2. Read with him.

3. Teach him to shoot.

Three things I want to do with our son:

1. Playing in the bath and getting ready for bed.

2. Showing him off to everyone I've ever met.

3. Teach him silly songs and motions to go with them.

Also, the office of Homeland Security also sent our boy a present...

In the mail today, we received his FDL!!! YAY!!!!

Our baby boy can come home! 

In other news, one of the case workers for our agency was in Ethiopia all last week, and I think we might get some updated pictures this week. Yippie! I'm a little worried we won't recognize him, but I remain hopeful that we will. And I'm sure he's become even more handsome. I'm positive, actually. 

Happy three month birthday little guy! Only one more birthday and you should be home with us! Hallelujah!!!

fingerprint info -- Edited and Updated

Over the weekend we received information stating that Justin did indeed fail his second attempt at fingerprinting. I'm pretty sure we only received this info when we did because I've been calling the Senator's office as well as one of the state representative's office and they've in turn been hounding CIS for an update. I'm glad to see our tax dollars at work. 

Anyway. When you fail twice, the person in question must have a criminal background check performed by the police department where he's lived for the last five years. (We are lucky because if we got this only a few months earlier, we'd have to contact another city!) Today I went to the county municipal buildings and got yet another background clearance done on Justin. (This is at least the third I've had done. I thought for sure the lady would start to recognize me...)

Bright and early Thursday morning, Justin will head down to hand that in and make a sworn statement. I was told over the phone by one of the CIS case workers that we should be approved immediately after the paperwork is signed. This is good news, but I'm still not sure how long it will take for the approval to make it to whatever office it is that does the official FDL, which is what we need to bring our son back to the US.  Justin asked me to go with him to plead our cause and keep his attitude in check. He thinks I'll say things a lot nicer than he would. He's probably right. We'll see. I'll post when everything's is (hopefully) done.

In other news, our court date is approaching! Several of our friends had court dates 3/31 and all passed. I'm really hoping they will go and love on our little guy. None of the other families have been able to tell us much about him. We've heard twice that he was sleeping out in the sun, so until we have other news, that's his only hobby we know about! I know these other mommies will love on him lots for me. (You know who you are!!!) 

We have 32 days until our court date. The girls in my small group made a paper chain for me to count down the days. To be honest, I couldn't take them off at first. Things like "58 days till court!!!" weren't really very uplifting. Now we're half way though so I'm feeling much better. Plus, a month isn't really that bad, right? Here is the chain stretched across some shelves. One fun little piece of trivia is that the paper our chain is made of is the scrap left over from our wedding reception dinner menus that I made. Fun! 

I will be posting more pictures soon! I have shower pictures and I'm nearly done with the nursery, too...now if only I could say the same for the last of those thank you notes...

********************

We went to our fingerprint appointment this morning and after a small, but humorous situation (maybe a later post?) met with the CIS officer dealing with our case. She read Justin's background check, had him stand to swear an oath, and answer a few questions. He signed. She signed. That was it. We're done! 

She said she'd finish processing our paperwork today and we should receive our stuff in the mail next week sometime. Praise God, our son can come home! Praise the Lord who is Faithful! 

We give thank to you, O God, 

we give thanks for your Name is near;

men tell of your wonderful deeds.

You say, "I choose the appointed time;

it is I who judge uprightly.

When the earth and all its people quake,

it is I who hold its pillars firm."

Psalm 75: 1-2

promise

I realize there are no pictures. Boo. I promise to work on that soon. 

I'm a little busy. It takes time to contact senators and representatives. 

Our adoption case worker, Julie, suggested that we press on with this plan to get our stuff in line with CIS. We don't want anything to hold up our travel. 

If you don't mind, say a little prayer for us. I feel confident that God is waiting for the perfect time to make this an obvious display of His power and His grace, but some of us are having a harder time relying on that than others. : ) Please pray that we continue to feel His abundant peace in this process as we wait for court (52 days) and also for our CIS statements. Thanks for stopping by. I promise next time there will be fun pictures! I promise! 

WE HAVE NUMBERS!!!

And I want to tell you.
Really I do.

But we haven't been able to tell all of our parents yet...
so please,
be patient!

I promise you will know.
They are awesome-
by the way,
in case you were wondering.

(Shout out to Julie @ AGCI who looked at our stuff the moment it arrived and was able to get through it all - without laughing too long at our ridiculous pictures - and call me back with our fabulous numbers on Wednesday. Did I mention that the numbers are fabulous? Well, they are.)

YAY Day

That's right. It's a good day. Or rather, yesterday (Monday) was a great day...and today (Tuesday) has been pretty nifty, too.

Look! Here we are at our favorite neighborhood eaterie celebrating the completion of our dossier. Yep, that's right. I said (typed) completion!!! We spoke with one of the managers, Shane, who was so excited for us --we nearly fell out of our chairs with laughter when-- he squealed.

Yep. Squealed. It was awesome.

Oh, and look. Here we are at Fed-Ex/Kinkos making our last copies and mailing our dossier.

Yes. We finally mailed our dossier.

Here we are laughing because Ken, the guy at Fed-Ex/Kinkos, was so deadpan hilarious. "Wow, I've never seen anyone so excited to send a package." And also, "I misquoted you, so I'll give you the discount overnight rate of $14.80 --because it's a good cause. And you can't stop jumping up and down." (This is because I asked my hubband if it would be ok to spend the (misquoted amount of) $25 to overnight the package...he responded, "With the thousands we've already spent, I don't see how twenty five bucks is a big deal." Also deadpan. Also hilarious.)

So YAY!!! We finished. And we mailed. And we celebrated. And today (Tuesday) at 6pm CST out "mail order baby" was picked up from Spring, Texas and shipped as fast as can be to Portland, Oregon. Because of our ridiculously long homestudy and dossier prep work (have I mentioned lately that it took over a year???) that our AWESOME case manager, Julie, said she'd look at it tomorrow instead of waiting until Friday like normal. Yay!!!

My next post

will for sure

for SURE

be

NUMBERS!!!!!

YES!!!

hip hip hooray!

First of all, I am so excited to see so many referrals lately. That is total awesomeness. Yes!

Second of all, my new friend Kim is beating me in the numbers race because she's already overnighted her dossier to AGCI.

But most importantly, our HOMESTUDY is COMPLETE and APPROVED and being mailed to me asap! Praise Jesus! Finally. Our dossier stuff has been ready and complete and just waiting to be mailed for oh...months now. But it's all good, because in God's perfect timing, our child will be home!

Now, onto the list!

Dear elusive Wait List,

We know where you are.
We're on our way to get you.
Don't be scared.
Just give us a number
and no one gets hurt.
Thanks.
See you soon!!!

i could scream...

because I am so excited!!!

Just kidding, I have been screaming. And squealing. And giggling. And definately crying!

This morning I received an email from our wonderful social worker stating that our fingerprints had been cleared! Yes, that's right. We are in the clear. Justin doesn't have to go back. Our homestudy is done!

Hip hip hooray!!!

For the first hour, all I could say between the tears and giggles was "Thank you, sweet Jesus!" This has definately been a struggle. I never would have imagined that we would work on paperwork for over one year! But the Lord is faithful and provides grace and mercy to all -- and has pulled me closer even still to his overflowing heart. God is good! Soo good!

I was on my way to lunch today (I was mostly done crying by then) and thought perhaps a song on the radio would help distract me. In case you were unaware, crying while driving is not the best option. Well, I turn on the radio and there's a song playing (of course) and I listen to the words and it went something like this...

"Because He is a loving and just and merciful God...

and all the children in Africa are His..."

I kid you not! So, there I am, pulling into Double Daves and blubbering all wet faced and sure to embarass my lunch companion. But I didn't care because it's true.

I'm saving my next post, which will be my 50th...for a great entry. Look for some great news sometime next week (I'm guessing).

Yay!!!

P.S. For those not in our blog community, we'll be sending out a letter of sorts to friends and family to let them know the good news. We need a great pic for that...so gimmie some ideas of how to let everyone know. My best idea is matching Tshirts that say "we've been waitlisted"...but I'm not thrilled with it. I need your help!!

one down!

Ok Gang, round one fingerprints: check!

Several of hubband's were rejected but they'll call and make him a new appointment and get that all taken care of --hopefully really soon. I am done.

In the morning I'll call and make new appointments for an updated doctor's visit for each of us for this week.

Our case manager said that I can go ahead and get our dossier mailed in and checked out so that the day our homestudy gets there everything is ready, set, go!

I'm pretty excited.

Also, it's 2:45am and I just got back from the hospital where I met Baby Sophia! She was born just after 1am after taking her sweet time. She is definately one of the pretties just-born babies I've ever seen. Lucky for me she lives right across the street. Lucky for them, I'm awake at middle of the night feedings. Yay for babies!!!

ten days are up!

(Thanks to the Furmans for reminding me to post!)

Ok, we had to reschedule (again) because of some computer malfunctions, but! Tomorrow we are doing fingerprints. Yay for that. I know that this is going to be a bit of a frustrating time for Justin so I'm praying that people are at least nice about it. I never realized it before, but it does kinda stink to have no fingerprints.

To review, our social worker said that this should take us around six weeks. We'll go in for prints tomorrow. Justin's will be denied and we'll have to make two more appointments for him. Apparently the state has to officially deny you twice before they will do a name check even if you've already been cleared by the FBI to be in state law enforcement.

We were also advised to schedule another set of health/doctor appointments because our others are from so early in the process. Our agency rep said it was best for things to be in "fresh ink" so that's one last thing. I figure we'll schedule those in the next few weeks also so that everything will be done at the same time.

The best news is that when we finally get those fingerprints...and we get the new dr. notes...we can turn in our dossier and homestudy and finally...

JOIN THE WAITING LIST!

(Can I get an amen?)

Some more good news is that our friends (and across-the-street-neighbors) went in tonight to start the baby drugs. That's right, even though they stole our baby name, we're thrilled because little Sophia Grace Elam should be here sometime tomorrow! Yay!

See, great news all around!!!

check check check

Hip hip hooray! Our home study was sent to All God's Children for review today (5-7 business days) and a completed, signed, and notarized copy of our home study should be mailed to us anyday to send to USCIS.

I'll mail the rest of our dossier this week (still having issues with pics) and then I'll be done.
Just waiting for CIS.
And then waiting for the wait list.
And then waiting for our baby.

At the Galindo house, we love The Office. I especially love Dwight's Beet Farm (and Bed and Breakfast). Today at Wal-Mart there was this little bright green onesie with a big red beet. It reads "and the beet goes on". I know it doesn't really represent The Office, but I feel like it's close enough for me to giggle at. And, I mean, come on! It's a cute onesie. I bought it in size 3-6 months. I realize that was really optimistic...but here's hoping. That's not the first onesie I've purchased, but there are definately not even a week's worth in the baby's closet, ranging in size from 3-6 months to 18 months. My dorky hubband makes jokes that our kid can "wear something once and just throw it away" implying that at my purchasing rate combined with our families'...that kid will have more clothes than Mariah Carey. And I pose the question, "what's so wrong with that?"

Update on bedding: it's coming along. My grandfather says "well, it looks like something alright". And my grandmother has made several comments about how dizzy she feels from looking at the fabric all the time. I can't help it. I like things a little modern, a little edgy, a little funky. Well, my kid does anyway. I'm still working on myself. (I've always had the soccer mom/kindergarten teacher issue.)

Thanks everyone for all your well-wishing and encouragement. It's meant more than you know!

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!

do the dossier dance...

Yesterday our dossier packet came in the mail. Yippee! So now I've got something to do over the holidays besides shopping, decorating, and wrapping. This list is crazy. I have so much admiration for all the families who have completed this step because it's massive.

Also massive these days:

-the amount of love I have for my hubband. Everyday I feel like I couldn't love him more.

-the realization of how wonderful and precious my dear friends are.

-the amount of thankfulness I have as I look around at my home, my family, and my future in Christ.

Tomorrow brings about a lot of food--and a lot of driving for us. Both of us have two sets of parents who are spread out so we start off with Justin's mom's family for big lunch. This is where Justin does most of his eating. Then we have dinner across town with my mother's family. This is where I do all my eating. We have attempted to make a late night snack/dessert run to Justin's dad's family...but that doesn't work out well. We'll probably slide over on Friday to eat lots of leftovers and hang out. Maybe even do some Christmas decorating.

Speaking of which, since Thanksgiving is tomorrow, that means I can finally put up our decorations without too much grumbling. Yay! I've been waiting all year for this!

Wishing all my readers (2?) a very happy and safe Thanksgiving.

Give Thanks!

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.

ooops, already behind

Justin and I have decided to keep the very beginnings of our paperchase a secret. Everyone (family and friends) know we are adopting in the upcoming year, but are expecting things to start around the summer of 2008. We're hoping to sneak in and surprise everyone. Currently, besides this blog, only two couples know we are doing this already. One, Brian and Angela, know because she is our notary...so we visit together quite often. The other, Dave and Gloria, are preparing to be missionaries in Dubai with their darling Aliza. I'm telling Glo in an email about our secrecy for the moment, and this was her reply:
"I was so excited about your big secret that I posted it on my blog and my facebook and forwarded it to everyone in my address book. Hope that's ok?"
Isn't she a hoot! (She's just joking.)

Tonight we're attending a costume party where I will be wearing my prom dress and going as the Tooth Fairy...and Justin is going to be a dentist. I can't wait to get all costumed up. Be on the look out for pictures!


Oh, and adoption awareness for today:
- I have two cousins who are adopted and Justin has one sibling that's adopted, all domestically.
- There were 6,493 immigrant visas granted to adoptees from China in 2006 (the #1 country) and 732 from Ethiopia (#5 country).
- Half the profit from the sale of this onesie is enough for 16 doses of medicine that keeps HIV from spreading from mother to infant.