6, 5, 4, and 3!!!

It seems like just yesterday I received word we moved up to #5 on the baby boy list; it was actually 2.5 weeks ago... I was going to post immediately, but got carried away with life and now, now we are #3! We are also #6 on the sibling list and #7 on the baby girl list. So what does this mean??? Well, first off, it's looking pretty promising we'll be bringing home a little boy! Still, only time will tell, however we have a feeling we could receive a referral much sooner than we had originally anticipated; maybe even as early as August. We still then have to then get a court date, pass court, get an embassy date, travel to pick up our Little One, and a lot of other small details in between. With all that said it feels like we're so much closer!

Being #3 makes this adoption process feel so real. Initially Dave and I said, things will start to get really exciting when we're above #5. Then when we went on the list at #6, we thought, "Okay, I guess things will get "really exciting" when we're #2 or #3... Well here we are, and yes, things are indeed "really exciting"! I told my mom I found myself gasping for air when I got the e-mail from our coordinator with the news this afternoon... I think it was an attempt to fight off the tears of happiness and excitement. A little piece of me can only imagine the feeling and reaction I'll have when we get "the call". The call that tells us there's a little one over in Ethiopia waiting to become a part of our family... I can only imagine and I can't wait! But for now I will do just that... Wait... Wait patiently and with excitement...

Weekend Fun

A couple of weeks ago my mom told us about a ride in Colorado Springs called the Starlight Spectacular. It's an event to benefit the Trails and Open Space of Colorado Springs that started at 11:59 pm with either a 14 or 24 mile loop and ended with breakfast. We thought, "That sounds like fun, but can we stay up that late?!?!" In an effort to prove we're not complete old folks, we registered and decided to go for it. Well... It was a blast!!! There were so many people and it was such a beautiful evening we were completely energized and forgot it was so late.

Here I am. You can't tell, but I had my bike tricked out with battery powered, LED Christmas lights...


Each of the aid stations had a theme... the one we stopped at was the Wild West; complete with a tipi, campfire, and covered wagon.

Full of pancakes and tired from a 24 mile, surreal ride in the dark, we crawled into bed at 3 am...

We had so much fun, we decided this will become an annual event... Next year will be complete with a bike trailer and bambino in tow!

Let the Waiting Begin!!!!

Well, it's official, we're waiting!!! We received our certified documents back from the state on Friday and were added to the official waiting list on Saturday after our final parenting class. We are on three waiting lists with our agency: baby boy, baby girl and siblings. We had anticipated going on this lists some where between #10 and #15 and were very pleasantly surprised to be added as #10 on the baby girl list, #9 on the sibling list, and #6 on the baby boy list!!! So, what does this mean... we're actually not real sure. We still anticipate it will be 5-6 months before we receive a referral, but maybe, just maybe since we're entering the lists so much higher than we anticipated it will be sooner. Please, please, please let it be sooner rather than later. With that said, I know I need to begin the exercise of practicing patience and living in the moment, but it won't be easy. A quote that Dave's mom put in my birthday card will be my mantra as we wait...

Nature does not hurry, yet everthing is accomplished. -- Lao Tzu

Pathetic Blogger and Other Updates

So the biggest news flash, that you have all figured out by now, is that I'm a pathetic blogger! Yes, it has really been 2 months since I've posted anything. It's not that nothing is going on, or that I don't have time. I think it's just that I feel like every time I post it has to be something big and earth shattering, which I guess defeats the purpose of blogging. So, here's to turning over a new leaf and posting more frequently...

On the adoption front, we have made a lot of progress. We officially passed our home study and our dossier documents are in the process of getting certified as we speak! So, we should officially be on the wait list the middle to end of next week! And you bet there will be a post when that happens!

So, we made it through the scary home visit with no problems. Our cute little house passed as a fit place to raise a child, the dogs behaved beautifully (quite frankly this was my biggest source of angst, since they usually do nothing short of back flips due to excitement when new people come over), and the 3rd interview in which they interviewed Dave and I separately went just fine . Other than that it's just been pulling together stacks of paper... We sent 1 document to Michigan, 1 document to North Carolina, and 21 documents to Colorado to get certified. Once I got my system down (excel spreadsheets are my friend) the paper work became much less daunting. We also attended our last 3 parenting classes, actually the last one is this Saturday. Much to our surprise, they've been really helpful and well worth our time.

On other fronts, Dave and I continue to fill our spare time with cycling... This past Sunday was our 6th anniversary and we celebrated by riding 62 miles in the Elephant Rock ride and buying each other new bike helmets (old helmets pictured below, picture of new and improved coming soon). We were supposed to do 100, but I had a nasty cold and Dave was on his back the day before with a fever and still felt pretty rotten on Sunday morning so we decided to take it easy on ourselves. We're registered for 3 more centuries this summer, so we'll have a chance to redeem ourselves...
We also bought my mom a new bike for her 60th birthday... It's 3 months early, but we wanted her to be able to get use out of it while the weather's nice. Everywhere she goes, so does her Boston Terrier, Zoki. Here he is in his side car sporting his riding goggles. This picture makes me laugh every time I look at it.

Home Improvements

It's amazing how an impending visit from a social worker to see if your home is "fit for a child" can motivate you to complete things on the home "to-do list". I haven't blogged in awhile because we've been busy having new dry wall put in, painting, cleaning and buying new carpet. All things that have been our "list" since we closed on our house in November and by next Friday will all be complete.

In a couple of weeks, we'll be having our third and final home study visit which will take place in our home. I love our little house and know it will make the perfect home for our child, however, there is something very nerve-wrecking about having an almost stranger come in and check it out. Our social worker has assured Dave and me that it's "not a big deal"; they just want to make sure we have space for a child and it is safe, you know, no guns above the fire place or sewage in the backyard, etc., but it still makes my blood pressure rise when I think about it. I'm sure things will go just fine...

One of the rooms we've been working on is what will be the baby's room. We had some dry wall redone in the room which led to the perfect excuse to paint. We decided a while ago that we were going to do a "Children of the Globe" theme, if you will, in the nursery. I have to give my mom credit for this one as it was her idea. Dave and I LOVED it and have decided to roll with it. Several years ago on some travels in Central America my mom bought me a Mola that was obviously made for a baby. Molas are fabric artwork, created by the Kuna, who are the indigenous people of Panama and Columbia. Molas can also serve as traditional costumes for the Kuna.

Here is a picture of the Mola that has served as the inspiration.



We've also started collecting other traditional baby clothing from around the globe, pictures of children from different countries and other cultural trinkets that will all be used to decorate the nursery. We think it is unique and will be a great way to celebrate the diversity that exists throughout our wonderful planet! Stay tuned as we post more pictures in the future.

On other fronts, we continue to make progress on our paper work. The big thing is waiting for our finger prints which should be about another 2-4 weeks. Our goal is to have all of our other "ducks-in-a-row" before they arrive so we can submit our dossier and home study documentation which means we'll officially on the waiting list! So hopefully, in a few weeks we'll officially be "waiting"...

Slowly But Surely...

Dave and I continue to make steady progress on our stack of paper work that has to be completed. All of the items that take awhile to process, like birth certificates and finger prints/background checks, have been requested. The progress forward makes me a little less overwhelmed every day. We also had our first home study visit... I was nervous walking in, but it ended up to be pretty fun and interesting. We talked about things it seems all couples should before having children... fire escape plan, guardianship, family history, our roles in our relationship, religion, discipline, etc. Our next visit is in mid-April and then our final visit which will take place in our actual home will take place shortly there after. That pretty much covers the logistical side of things for the time being...

On the fun side of things, Dave started to practice cooking Ethiopian food for the first time. I was on business travel, so he decided to take couple of hours to begin to learn the ropes. The first item he made was Nit'ir Qibe, or herbed butter. I haven't had the chance to taste it yet, but it smells amazing and Dave says it tastes wonderful! This is a basic ingredient in authentic Ethiopian dishes, and whenever a dish requires butter, this is the butter you use. When Dave was cooking, he just got some recipies off the internet and then added an Ethiopian cookbook to our "wish list" on Amazon. Well they very next day that very cookbook arrived in the mail! He was so confused as he didn't order it, but as it turns out, our kind friends Kate and Paul sent it to us along with a couple of childrens books to support us in our adoption process... Thanks so much Paul and Kate! We'll be cooking you an Ethiopia feast soon!

Paper, Paper, Paper!!!!

Before we started the adoption process, I knew there would be a lot of paper work... Little did I know how much paper work there would really be!!!

I remember closing on a house, both buying and selling, and thinking, "Man, this is a lot of paper! I'm glad all I have to do is sign my name 100 times; I pity the poor soul who has to pull all of the documents together." Well, that poor soul is now Dave and me...

Yesterday consisted of reviewing all of the documents we need for the home study and dossier and coming up with the game plan. Having a game plan made me feel a lot better until I realized not only do 99% of the documents have to be notarized, they also have to be CERTIFIED!!! I didn't even know what the heck a certified document was until today. To get a certified document, you first have to have it notarized, then once you have all the notarized documents you need for one state, you have to send it to the Secretary of State for the state in which is was notarized in and have them certified. This means once we get all of our various documents from banks, police station, employers, doctors etc, we have to put them in mail and send them off to get certified to the appropriate states which at the time will be CO, MI, and MN! No wonder they say getting your home study and dossier together can take 3 months... I'm still hoping we can pull it together in 4-6 weeks. :-) Okay, I warned you in my initial posts that some times I would just need to vent... well, today is the first day of that, and I'm sure it won't be the last.

On a fun and exciting note, Dave and I attend our first of 4 parenting classes on Saturday. It was fun to meet other couples going through the same process we are. I think there were about 13 other couples adopting from Ethiopia in the room with us! We also got to meet a sweet little girl who was adopted from Ethiopia about 7 months ago... So cute! To top it all off, we learned about traveling to Ethiopia, raising a child of a different race, and care for African skin and hair. Obviously some topics were lighter than others.

Moving on... Thanks so much to everyone for your e-mails and comments regarding our journey. I've only received one question so far...

Why Ethiopia?
I figured this would be one of the first questions. :-) I guess the question before that might be, why international versus domestic? Well, that decision came about after loving the idea of being able to bring the baby home as a newborn which often comes with domestic adoption, but not being able to stand the idea of a mother or father choosing to parent after choosing us as the adoptive parents. We also decided to adopt internationally after discussing and loving the idea of bringing a child of a different race and ethnicity into our family. For those wondering, we'll be a transracial family (I wasn't sure what the appropriate term was when we first started). This is something not to be taken lightly. In true Darcy and Dave style we already have 4 books on hand to begin to explore the issues that both we and our child/children will be faced with. Okay, I digress... We were drawn to Ethiopia because most parents adopting from Ethiopia have their children home within about 12 months of starting the process, the children average 8 months of age upon coming home, there are approximately 2 children to one nanny in the orphange, women are rarely exposed to alcohol and drugs during their pregnancy, and children are valued overall in the Ethiopian culture. So there you have it... the reasons we chose Ethiopia.