Gotta love yahoo groups

Through our international agency we have a yahoo group where you are able to email to others about adoption questions and everything from a-z about the adoption process. Recently I got an email from someone who was just at the orphanage where Fraole is. They were picking up their daughter. This is what she had to say about our little guy. Emails like this are priceless..........

"We didn't know his name, but we definitely remember that little boy in the Snapfish picture! I know what you mean about kids looking very different in pictures, but I would bet that if you see a picture that you *think* is of him, it is. Fraole has a very unique look and is totally gorgeous (I mean, all the kids at Wanna are cute, but Fraole is stunning), and I didn't see any other kids that looked anything like him. Striking enough that I remember my husband and I saying something to each other about him. We would describe him as cheerful and mellow/calm (with my husband emphasizing the "calm"- he thinks that's the best way for a toddler to be, of course :)). There were times he seemed kind of solemn but I wouldn't say he was unhappy. We saw him at mealtime during several of our visits, and he seemed like a good eater. I would guess his age range to be right around what you said, maybe closer to 2 than 2.5. "

welcome bag contents

We are encouraged to keep the gifts small and under $10, so this is what Jacklyn and I put together for the little guy :) We found out the meaning behind his name. It means "to make nice for friends and family" and is derived from NOAH.

this and that

Here is our placement agreement and the picture of his little family photo album and shirt that is being sent off for him to open next week. We signed our bigtime legal docs. Now we are waiting to get a court date. Hopefully we will hear about that sometime in mid Oct. It sure is feeling a lot more real now that we have a name and photo of our little sugar! Hard to believe he will be wearing his little shirt in a couple weeks :) Too cute!

The girls and I are on a mad rush to get our photo album put together to send to the little sugar. We have to have our welcome bag to Washington by Thurs. so the director can deliver it to him personally as she leaves for Ethiopia in about 10days or so. After taking about 60,000 photos, we narrowed it down to these 2 for the pictures of "MOM" and "SISTERS". We also have to take a picture of the house and his room. We already have a million pictures of Oscar and Bagheere and Belle, so they were saved from not having to be part of our photo party. We got little sugars blue plaid comforter last weekend to match Jaymies but we need to paint 2 of the walls in the "shared" room. We have his disposable camera that they will get back to us in the next weeks after they take some pics of him opening up his welcome bag and pics I believe just to help make the wait easier. (this gets sent back to us once our director flies back.) I am able to smooosh his blanket in the gallon size ziploc, and the Tshirt and toy still need to be purchased. I hope to have this all in the mail by Fri. for safe delivery to Ethiopia via our international agency. I guess our next big hurdle is to wait for the courts to open (oct. 7th) and see when we are assigned a court date. If we pass our court date the first time I'm pretty sure we will be able to fly before Christmas. Wouldn't that be just too perfect!!

Referral

The time was 12:24. (24 is my favorite # by the way) & I was sitting in the lobby at Jaymies school when my cell phone rang. The area code on it was a 360 area code, which is Washington where our international agency is. It was the director, Merrily. She asked if I had a moment and if I was sitting down. I think my heart pounded out of my chest! She said she had a referral for us of a 2 year old little boy. I had to cover my face and look down as the tears started rolling. Then of course I began shaking. So I had to walk outside for a bit to get it together and try not to speed home once I got Jaymie. Pictures and a medical report and background were going to be waiting for me on our email. Can I just say he is just a little sugar! We're in love already. I can't post pictures of him on our blog until he is legally ours. If you are interested in me sharing with you, send me an email. I can say that the medical report says he is a healthy little guy, can feed himself with a spoon, can walk up and down steps, plays well with others, and can kick a ball :) He was abandonded, but he is not alone anymore. It's time to go shopping for his little package families send once they get a referral. I've already got his blanket that I have been sleeping with to get my scent on it. I think he needs some trailblazers, cowboys and dodgers shirts. Well, I have to go stare at some photos and figure out how to make them wallpaper on our screen!

shots

Jeffrey and I are getting ready to visit the dr. to get some shots. I believe we will be getting hep A and B, typhoid, and tetanus. Hopefully there will be no side effects from the shots. jaymie took this shot of the newest members of our family. We are taking a trip to a new pet store today and may add some more fish to the tank.

a gift for myself

A fundraising gift to myself...........a lady on a website I was reading was selling these charms of Africa with a heart carved out in them and I thought I would support her fundraising of trying to earn $ to help pay for her airfare to pick up her adopted child. Isn't it neat. I have gotten quite a few comments on it and struck up some interesting conversations by wearing it from people who have connections to Africa. Too cool!

Jaymie

OUR SECOND GRADER!!!!!!!!




check out this video of a toddler boy from Ethiopia who just arrived at OHARE with his new family. Too adorable!!!!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Re026MmrDz8

JACKLYN

OUR SOON TO BE MIDDLE SCHOOLER! TIME SURE DOES FLY, NOW IF ONLY IT WOULD FLY SO QUICKLY WHILE WAITING FOR A REFERRAL!!

Up North

A couple of photos of our trip "UP NORTH"!

Passports

Our passports arrived in the mail this week. We also got a note from our agency that some referrals were going to be made after labor day so that should get some of us on the waiting lists moving a bit closer to a referral....

Stu Stu

This is our hamster stuart who has been with our family for some time. Jaymie thought we should post a pic. of him. Isn't he adorable. Our most recent family members have been a variety of fish in a 29 gal tropical freshwater fish tank. My sister is moving so, we inherited their fish tank. So we have a couple of shark type fish and some leopard pattern suckers that are about 6 inches long, an adorable crab with one huge claw named Jacque'pronounced "Jock" and a variety of others. The girls sit and watch them for long periods of time. We introduced a couple of new fish to the tank today, and are hoping they come out of hiding soon. They are staying at the surface. I think they are a little intimidated by the sharkies. I'm sure Jaymie will be photograping the fish soon to post on here. If it were up to her I'd be posting to the blog twice a day....

Our Tennis Star

A couple shots of Jacklyn during a league match play>> she is our rising tennis star!

Aug. 11

Some photos of some summer fun. The fawns were in our neighbors yard down the road, and Jaymie is posing on my sisters mini horse Sugarbaby, and the other photo is of Jeffrey and his girls at Navy pier. Just thought I'd download some photos for some sort of change on the blog....WE got our passpot apps off in the mail today, so that is another item off the list.

We're still here

We are still here. Just no new news on the adoption front. I believe we are 10th on the waiting list for toddler boys and I dont know how many referrals have been made lately. Courts in Ethiopia close Aug 6th, but referrals are still made during that time. Courts will reopen in Oct I believe. We did finally get the girls their tshirts. I found a great website where you can tell the craftspeople what you are looking for and different people give you bids and send you examples via email on ideas they have to create what you are looking for. It is great for one of a kind items, like the tshirts I had designed above. Too cute heh? Summer has been going by quickly. Jacklyn spends a lot of time on the tennis courts. She has her dads talent and we are enjoying watching her improve her game all the time. She is on the courts daily and plays for our clubs team against other clubs. She is on the 13 and younger team and is seeded #1 at all the matches. Jaymie has been a trooper going to practices and such. She has had a lot of mommy time this summer. We got a scooter a couple months ago and she loves riding on the back with me to run errands. She has her moms love of motorcycles! It is a 150cc Honda, and it goes about 65mph, but on all the country roads around here we have it at usually around 35 or so. It gets about 70mpg, so we like the savings in gas $$ and the fun of running errands that it gives us! We leave for a 5day getaway up North today. We are renting a cabin next to family friends and will spend the next 5 days at flea markets, tubing, waterskiing, campfire marshmellow roasting and relaxing. We are looking forward to the getaway. I enjoy it even more knowing I get to take Oscar with us. He is pretty much by my side most of the time. He has been a great addition to our family and I'm sure our son will love him too! Jeffrey and I just celebrated our 15th wedding anni. We bought ourselves a car top carrier for the van. It doesn't get much more romantic than that!!! We get to use it today! Fun Fun. Until next time!

making a wish

Jaymie found some huge puff ball weeds in our field while we were walking Oscar tonight. She made her wish that her new brother was knowing we were coming to get him when he needed us. She's a keeper!!

Jacklyn and Jaymie

Monday eve.

Jaymie went to a bday party at libby lu and got the royal treatment of an updo and glitter! Right up her alley! I think one of the Libby Lu shots will be added to Juniors album so he sees how beautiful his 7 year old sister is! Tonight Jeffrey left for Boston on business. It just so happens game 6 is there tomorrow night and he had a connection and got tickets. So look for him in the crowd tomorrow as he cheers on Boston with Boston fans to take the series! He will be in heaven tomorrow. His job really has some perks.

news

In the blogger world, you start up friendships with people who have been there, are there and are just starting out their journey. You find people adopting in the same state as you, and talk with others who are using the same agency. Well, one gal I have been emailing back and forth with who is using the same agency as us and is also waiting for a toddler boy just got a referral 2 days ago for a toddler boy. I believe our app. was in a couple weeks after hers. So we pretty much are right up there on the list of a referral of a toddler boy I believe. Her app was only in for 6 weeks. So.......you just never know when you get that call. WOW!
In the near future you will most likely be seeing pics of the girls flipping on a trampoline. Jeffrey and I picked one up last night and the girls are going to be surprised when we pick them up from their friends houses today (they spent the night at our old neighbors!) We got the trampoline off Craigslist! What a bargain! I have to go into work today because of a makeup snow day, so we will see how far along they are in putting it together when I get home. So, just wanted to celebrate the 6 week referral of my email friend!

photo album

So now that the wait has begun, what does one add to their blog to update people on the latest. I suppose tell them every detail, no matter how small of a step about the adoption. So, yesterday, Jacklyn and I purchased our small photo album that we get to send over once the referral is accepted. We will fill it with photos of us, our amimals, our house, etc..... They share this with the little one as a way to introduce us and so they can recognize us a bit when we get to the orphanage. I know the older children like to show their friends their new family and such. So we have 24 photos to fill to give him a first impression. Thank goodness for digital cameras.

We're paper pregnant!

Well...........we got our email from our international agency that our dossier left for Ethiopia on Friday. This means we are OFFICIALLY on the waiting list. They are now referring families who have the same requests as far as age and gender and such as ours who submitted their apps. in Aug. So, a bit of a wait, but also included in the email was something to the fact that referrals should be moving a bit quicker in the near future as the director is their now working on something. Some of the things that take such time are the fact that they only have electricity a couple times a week. The rainy season occurs sometime I believe in Aug/Sept. and this closes the courts. In the meantime, I believe our little guy will come into our lives when he is hand picked from God, and we will welcome him with open arms.

JAYMIES FIRST RECITAL

JAYMIE HAD HER FIRST BALLET RECITAL LAST NIGHT. SHE DID GREAT. I THOUGHT SHE WOULD GET STAGE FRIEGHT AND END UP NOT COMING OUT ON THE STAGE, BUT SHE SHOWED UP ON THE STAGE WHEN IT WAS HER CLASSES TURN TO PERFORM AND DID HER DANCE WITH ALL HER LITTLE FRIENDS AND DID GREAT.

NO NEWS YET...

AFTER ALL MOM, THEY DO CALL IT A FLOWER "BED"..........
WELL NO NEWS THAT OUR DOSSIER HAS BEEN SENT, SO I DO NOT KNOW WHERE WE ARE ON THE WAITING LIST YET. ANOTHER WEEKEND OF NOT KNOWING. OH WELL, IT IS A GOOD TEST OF PATIENCE. I'LL UPDATE THE BLOG AS SOON AS WE GET NEWS. HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND. OSCAR IS OFF TO A GOOD START WITH FINDING SOME COZY FLOWERS TO SETTLE IN FOR A NAP IN.

JC

enjoying the weekend

Touches the heart!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSdP6PqsbJY
Something worth watching!

Getting the room ready

I finally found the loft I had been looking for on Craigslist and it was even located inOconomowoc so we didn't have to go far to pick it up. So Jeffrey, Jaymie and I spent the evening figuring out how to put this loft, that the previous owner made from scratch, together. I will admit, we had to flip boards around more than once after we had them screwed in and unscrew some bolts more than twice, but the finished product turned out perfectly and Jaymie was thrilled. We plan on having "jr" share a room with Jaymie after he sleeps with Jeffrey and I for a year or two or three! For those of you who know me well, you know I practice that attachment parenting pretty intensly! :) Anyhow, Jaymie decided to go with a pink plaid comforter and Jr will have the same in blue plaid. So i will have to paint 2 walls in the colors of jr's comforter, and Jaymies 2 walls are already in the colors of her comforter. So the nesting has begun. I added a pic of Oscar. Doesn't he just look like he needs another kid in the house to play with? He is such a good boy!, except for the fact he does not like the command "come". We continue to work on that.

update

Our paperwork is now on its way to the embassy and state. This will have a 2 week turn around and then it will be mailed back to our international agency. There is a 1 day turn around at our international agency and it's off to Ethiopia. Then we are OFFICIALLY on the WAITING LIST. I'll let you know when I find out what our agency says we can expect as far as a referral time.

signed, sealed, delivered

Well, Jeffrey and I and the girls mailed off the dossier today. It was a huge weight off our shoulders! It wasn't too difficult to get together, just a lot of keeping it all organized. Once our international agency gets the package, I'm sure they will let us know what the next step is and what our referral wait time looks like for a toddler boy. I'll keep this blog posted!!

Sisters waiting for their brother

Here is a photo too cute to not post! Just a couple updates. ... we got our paperwork in the mail from the U.S. citizenship and Immigration Services today. This is a good thing. They determined that Jeffrey and I are able to furnish proper care to an orphan or orphans. They are advancing our application, and it has been forwarded to the national visa center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Just a couple more things have been completed for our Dossier. We will mail it off on Friday. I have completed the DVD series, and Jeffrey is completing his part tonight. The last portion of the test is hand graded so we will receive our results in a week. The wait for our referral begins once our dossier is approved by our agency and it is shipped off to Ethiopia.

Jaymie

Jaymie wanted a pic of her on here, so here is the princess with my sisters goat "TEX"

making a list and checking it twice

Dossier Cover Documant (check)
Notarized adoption homestudy (check)
Notarized police clearance (check)
Notarized medical statements from both our drs. (check)
Notarized bank statement (check)
Notarized employment letters (check)
Family letter to Ethiopian Government (check)
1 notarized ref. letter (check)
Notarized power of attorney letter (check)
I-600Petition to classify orphan as immediate relative (check)
Post placement agreement(check)
8 passport photos of both Jeffrey and I (check)
Fees and costs disclosure (check)
Statement of understanding(check)

Our only items not completed is the notarized copies of our birth and marriage certificates. That should be done on Monday! We also need one more letter of rec. that should be done by this weekend.

So, as you can see, our dossier should be completed soon and signed, sealed and delivered! You have to be a fairly organized person to keep all this in order, Thanks goodness so far I have been able to stay on top of it all....

How will he adjust to the Wisconsin winters?

Jaymie asked me the other day if it snowed in Africa......"ummmmm no honey" I said. "Well will our brother know what snow is, cause we sure have a lot of it in WI?" I told her he won't know what snow is most likely, but he will surely learn quickly if we have a winter like this one. Then she proceeds to say......I think he might want to stay in Africa, we just had too much snow this winter! So I thought I'd post a pic of Jacklyn and her friend in the snow. We will include one like this in the scrapbook we are creating to send to him once we get a referral :)

Because they waited

Because they waited is a DVD series that is part of the requirement of our international agency. Jeffrey and I need to have 18 hours of education before our dossier will be sent to Ethiopia. We started the dvd's last weekend and then took tests on line. We are 100% for the first 2. Only 2 more to go. The information contained is pretty informative, so I'm glad they require it. I'm also listening to a great book on CD in the car while I go to work and back. It is called there is no me without you. So far it is really, really good. It is about an Ethiopian woman who took in over 60 orphans........ Now I'm a fan of listening to books on CD's. My letter from my Dr. and 1 letter of rec. have been dropped off to check off the list. My hubby comes home today and he has a nice stack of papers on his desk with sticky notes all over them on where he needs to take them. There is an Online friend of mine who is in Ethiopia right now picking up her kids. It is interesting to see how they are attatching and reacting to certain things. It brings tears to my eyes every time I read her emails. Happy tears! Well, thats the latest.

It Arrived!!!!!!

Wow! We've completed fingerprinting, passports photos, and now the dossier paperwork arrived in the mail today. That really makes it feel official. The cover letter stated they are ready to proceed with the next steps of our adoption. Yikes! We have to have the documents pretty much prepared exactly how they want them with a lot of them notarized. Of course Jeffrey would be leaving for AZ on Sunday for a work /golf/look at investment properties trip. Not good timing dear... So, I'm on my own for starting the gathering of documents worded in specific ways. I already have a lot of them in hand. Im giving myself 2 weeks (since Jeffrey is gone otherwise it would be 1). Jacklyn, Jaymie and I found some adorable shirts on line that said "My Brother is waiting for me in Ethiopia" I'm thinking that will be a good purchase! They think so too!

Checking off the list

Well, we were down at the office of homeland security today and all went well. Now our fingerprints are being sent off to the FBI to check for any criminal activity in our past I guess. Jeffrey was able to have his middle digit printed with no problem. It showed up a little shorter than the rest on the 4 finger print, but I thought it looked adorable. He's unique! The fingerprinting is quite high tech these days as it is all done on the computer. I was expecting to walk out with ink all over my fingers, but not the case! We also got our lovely passport pictures taken at the Waukesha AAA. Saved some $$ there by being AAA members. Jeffrey's stitches from his surgery last FRI show up on that picture. For those of you who don't know he had a spot of skin cancer above his left eye. 99% cure rate so it was the good kind to have if you have it. I'm just getting my passport just in case I go. Jeffrey said he is going to knock me out with some good drugs to get on the plane. My girlfriend June may be joining us on our trip to Ethiopia, so that would be helpful. She is in the airforce reserves so she can keep telling me over and over again how safe planes are.....

After our fingerprinting Jeffrey took me to have lunch at an Ethiopian Restaurant downtown. If you have never had Ethiopian food before it is quite different. They did have a nice selection for vegetarians, so I was happy to see that. So... they serve it to you on the round Ingerra(not sure of the spelling) bread. It is like a spongey tortilla and they plop your order (kind of like a stew) on the bread and then next to it are these little rolls of Ingerra bread that you unroll and use as scoops to pick up the stew like item you ordered. I like the idea of no silverware. Less dishes! So our little guy is going to have to be patient with me and the creation of this bread. So, that was our morning /afternoon and our update for the latest! Thanks for checking our blog and for all of you who have expressed so much support on this journey! I'm currently reading Toddler Adoption and am learning a lot. Until next time!

fingerprinting

We got our fingerprinting appointment earlier than expected. Jeffrey and I are getting our fingerprints done on April 8th. I hope we don't have any problems with Jeffreys top half of the tip of his middle finger missing. We also just got a huge packet of reading materials in the mail from our international agency. Our dosssier paperwork should be here in 2 weeks and I should be able to have that completed in a few days as I have been given a heads up from many people on what I will need. I'm thankful Jeffrey has a Notary Public at his office. It makes it a lot easier for us to have her be there to notarize our paperwork. Another step in this adoption process will be completed. It feels good to check them off one at a time as we move forward.

child request

Jeffrey forgot to mention that we are requesting to adopt a boy between the ages of 18mo and 32mo at time of referral. Usually after the referral we will be able to travel within 2mo.

Our Journey Begins

We are very excited to announce our decision to adopt a child frm Ethiopia! With two beautiful daughters -- ages 7 and 10 -- and our 40th birthday's this year, we both felt like we had much love to give, and weren't ready to move into the "easy" life quite yet! We started by doing some research -- speaking with friends who have adopted, floating the idea by relatives, hours and hours of internet research and correspondence. After a few months of that, in January 2008 we met with a local homestudy adoption agency, who helped us choose a country, and educated us on the process.



For us, we started out looking at Haiti. However, in the end, Ethiopia was chosen for a few reasons. First and foremost, the agency had very positive things to say about how the orphanages are run overseas. Ethiopians place strong emphasis on family, and are very loving people who hold their children constantly. This seemed to be consistent with our parenting style. Once the child is placed in the orphanage, the orphanage workers continue this type of upbringing, as they create strong bonds with the children. While there is never any guarantees, our feeling was Ethiopia gave us a good chance for a child who is able to accept our love. The agency seemed to have had quite a lot of experience with adopting Ethiopian children, with positive results.



A second reason Ethiopia was selected was timing. For various reasons, we did not want to be in a situation where we would be waiting 2-3 years for some bureacracy overseas to sit on our paperwork. We have heard this can be case with countries such as Haiti, Guatemala and China. For Ethiopia, we are being told both by our agency and several adopting parents whom we've chatted with that we can expect a timeframe of 10-18 months to bring our new child home (starting in January).



A third factor was simply need -- Ethiopia has a high degree of need for adoption due to it's poverty, and the high mortality rate of parents, primarily due to AIDS and related illnesses. We will be welcoming a child into our family. We believe he will add more to our family than we can ever imagine.



A couple of other factors played into our decision -- only one trip to the country is necessary, and in some cases can be eliminated all together. With Susan being unsure if she could make the trip (she's very much afraid of flying over oceans -- more on that later!), we wanted to keep our options open. And finally, the children from Ethiopia are absolutely beautiful!



Please check into this blog periodically for updates on our life and the adoption progress!