10 Month Mark

Today marks our official 10 months on the wait list!

And (not so coincidentally), we just finished painting our nursery and now have a crib, dresser and changing station in place just waiting for our baby boy! The room has begun its change . . . we used to call it the "extra room," but have changed over to calling it what it will be: the nursery. N.U.R.S.E.R.Y. Yup, it's official. The furniture is no longer just large boxes taking up space. They represent what will be: the place to keep all the cute clothes that I've just had stored in bins in the closet. The resting place for our baby boy and a place to put the beautiful blanket Gwen knitted 10 months ago. The place where we'll change diapers and begin bonding. It feels real.

We also found out today that there was a referral. A couple waiting just over 11 months received a 9 month old baby girl and her 7 year old brother. We are now #38 on the overall list of waiting families. Courts open in just about 2 weeks and the feeling out there is that there are lots of children/toddlers/ babies just waiting for the courts to open so they can be officially placed.

We're ready . . . after all we've had (more than!) 10 months to prepare for this!!

Whole Lotta This . . .

Who needs to think when you can look at this instead?

Sunshine Therapy

Kyle and I just returned from a much-needed 8 days of basking in the Hawaiian sunshine. I shut my brain off the entire time we were there and found myself not worrying about anything. Ahhhhh. Glorious. Of course we saw so many adorable babies and toddlers playing in the sand and surf, and imagined doing the same next year on our annual sojourn to the islands!!

When we returned we discovered two baby boys had been referred while we were gone. The families waiting 11 1/2 and 12 months, respectively, for their referrals. That means . . . drum roll please . . . that we are now #39 on the list! We get to finally use the "3" on our keyboard as we count down!!

Once we've had a chance to unpack and settle in, I'll post a few pictures from our trip. But meanwhile I REALLY need to get some groceries . . . . all we have is popcorn and iced-tea in the house!!

Fluctuations . . .

It goes up. It goes down. Peaceful calm feelings followed by complete, utter anxiety. Joy and hope. Worry and trepidation. Exhiliration. Then exhaustion. It's been 4+ weeks since there's been a referral. This has happened before. It'll happen again. I am usually successful in my attempts to be Polly Sunshine through the whole messy mess mess, but for some reason today I'm having ONE OF THOSE DAYS.

Blech.

Securing the Courtroom Doors

Well, folks, as of today the courts in Ethiopia are closed until approximately the first week of October. Not to worry -- this happens every year during their rainy season, and actually this year it happened about a month later than normal due to the back-log of cases the courts had to hear following the debacle in May. Referrals still do trickle in during this time, but as I've posted previously, it slows down substantially. Although there haven't been any referrals for the last 3 weeks, so I don't know how much slower it could possible get. I'm just saying . . . !!!

On this coming Monday the 24th, we will have been officially on the wait list for 9 months. And as many people have commented, I'm carrying the pregnancy really well and you can hardly tell I'm pregnant at all! All jokes aside, it is a curious thing, this waiting. No, I'm not pregnant. And along with that comes no weight gain, no morning sickness, no swelling ankles, etc. But I think the proper term to use is that I am an expectant mother. Yes, I like that. Kyle and I are expectant parents. Has a certain ring to it, don'tcha think?

On the crafting front, I have finished a small quilted bag that I was originally going to use as a diaper bag (picture below). As is typical, I didn't really pay attention to the "finished project" size information, and it's way too small for a diaper bag, so I've picked up another pattern that is quite large and will spend the next month or so working on a REAL diaper bag. I guess the one I just finished can be considered a trial run . . . or it can be a supplemental diaper bag. Who knows? It's cute nonetheless so it'll get used!

I'll continue to post as anything new happens . . . say when the baby furniture arrives, or we've finally painted the nursery, or any referrals come and we move up on the list, etc., etc.

Signing off for now . . .

Not Much . . .

Not really anything to report. So why am I posting? Um, perhaps because I'm slightly embarrassed that my last post was just adding pictures of my dogs to our blog. Ahem.

So . . . no referrals last week (did I mention it was a slow news day before?). Although there WAS good news in that a TON of families passed court both last week and today . . . I think it's up to like 12 families by now. Those were a bunch of families held up by abandonment issues back in May/June.

Still crossing fingers for referrals this week . . . would love to exit the 40's on the waiting list. Not that it's really any big deal. Just movement. Feels good to see movement.

Here's my short list of stuff a'coming:
* Court closes in 2 weeks until the first week of October. Referrals still happen but at a much reduced rate.
* We leave for Costa Rica in 3 weeks. We'll be gone 2 weeks. Hopefully the sun comes out again here before we leave so we can touch-up the tan a smidge. If not, the 70+ SPF baby suntan lotion might come in handy.
* Gonna finally paint the nursery when we get back. Plus, we should get our baby furniture sometime in September. Yippee. Makes it feel real, huh?

Oh, yeah, before I forget . . . I've gotten email from a few of y'all that you've tried unsuccessfully to leave comments on the blog and aren't able. I'm not sure what's wrong, but that's ok. Even if it's user error (eeek gads, really?), I still know you're out there!!

Hugs and kisses all around for now.

Oooo, found better pictures of "da boys"

I know, I know . . . slow news day around here. But I found some better pictures of our boys that I thought I'd post. I'm a dork. I know. (And yes, I ALSO know, I have more pictures of my dogs than my husband and daughter on this blog). Maybe next slow news day I'll randomly put some photos of them up here too! ;o)