I am not sure what to do....

So, Ryan and I need to decide what age range we are open to.  I really want as young as possible, especially considering it will  take 4 to 7 months to even get him home.  Younger is better for attachment, although to be honest, that is not my primary reason.  This will be our last child (unless God intervenes on like Biblical levels) and I kind of like the thought of doing the baby thing again, to some degree.  I feel pretty strongly about this.  At the same time, I want to be open to what God has for us.

Our wait whether we say 0 to 6 months or 0 to 12 months will still essentially be 2 to 3 months.  So, part of mean just says "request the younger age and wait a bit more."  The only problem with that is that court in Ethiopia closes for 6 to 8 week in August/September.  Our agency still makes referrals, but no court hearings are done.  So, if I request a broader range there's a chance I will get a referral quicker.  Right now we are at exactly 1 week of waiting.  If we wait for 3 months to get a referral, that will come mid to late June.  Court hearings are running 6 to 8 weeks right now, which puts us right there at court closure and it puts us with our beautiful referral waiting an additional 2 months!  Really, a referral 2 to 3 weeks earlier could get us in to court before it closes.

I am just not sure what to do.  I am going to pray about it some more though because we don't have to make a decision on this until we get a little closer to a referral.  Hmmmm.......

Julie   

Here Chickie, Chickie.......

Our baby chicks arrived early (like a call from the post office at 7:15) Wednesday morning.  We ordered 45 chicks and I think we actually got about 50.  I was shocked that they all made the trip.  They all seem to be doing well.  I will say that they are quite cute.  I especially like the little striped one in the first picture.  The chicks we will have butchered are already like twice the size of some of the other chicks.  All the chicks are pigs!  All they do is eat, drink and poop.  We are still having fun with them though.  They are just fun to watch.  The three little ones call them their "chicken nuggets."  Ummmmm, close.

We've been working on getting our chicken coop up to par.  We still have a ways to go, but it is coming along.  I am sure it will be ready when the chicks are.  We were out cleaning it Friday night and we found some old "US Poultry Association" certificates posted on the inside wall.  They were from 1947!  Pretty cool.

I also started our vegetable seedlings today.  I am a little late getting started and I am not convinced they are even going to work, but I am certainly giving it the best try I can!

Julie 

Why Ethiopia?

I came across this article on another blog I have just recently found.  It is a blog for a Christian agency working with orphans in Ethiopia.  I really think everyone one should read this.  For us, it is another solid reason for "why Ethiopia."

http://thatwemightbeadopted.blogspot.com/2009/03/where-have-all-babies-gone.html

This really just breaks my heart.  I really don't know what else to say......

Julie

PS  You will have to cut and paste the link, go to the effort.

Officially waiting for little bean!

Yes, we are officially waiting for little bean.  We pretty much have been since Monday, but I didn't want to overshadow our re-adoption/Logie's birthday post, plus I just talked to my new case manager today.

So, we are looking at 2 to 3 months still.  I guess they've had a lot of girl referrals lately so the wait time for girls had decreased to like 4 months (from 6 to 9 months).  Of course this is all subject to change as there's no way to know what is coming in.  I guess we are like 13th or 14th on the list for a boy, so if lots came in, well, we'd obviously be on the short end of the wait (here's to hoping).  As of 4 or 5 months ago our agency had essentially no wait time for boys......

I guess court dates are coming quicker, which is really nice.  Court dates use to run 4 to 6 weeks out, but in the last few months that has jumped to 10 to 12 weeks.   I guess now the courts have a judge doing just adoptions and that has really helped and court dates are running 6 to 7 weeks.  Another thing I talked to our case manager about the fact that 5o % of cases do not pass court the first time.  She actually brought it up to me because she said this week in court has been really promising, implying that more cases are passing the first time.  This all has a lot to do with how overworked the courts are and how prepared the documents are to be there.  If we don't pass court the first time we have to go back 4 to 6 weeks later to try again.  Pretty much all the cases get out, it just adds a lot of time to the waiting.  This is especially agonizing when you hold your little picture of your baby and documents are standing in your way.

Another new thing is that the US Embassy in Ethiopia is overworked and are only doing adoptions 2 times a month.  They use to do them 4 times a months.  So that might add a little time after we pass court.  Also, some new TB testing thingy is being required and it is unclear as to all the ramifications of this.  This could possibly add significant time if a chest x-ray verified TB in our child (which fortunately doesn't happen too often).

So, those are the facts......  A little boring I am sure for most, but necessary information in my opinion.

Julie

Re-Adoption!!

Yeah!  Yesterday we had a re-adoption hearing for Anna and Gideon.  This hearing is a step in the process to getting Anna and Gee US Passports and birth certificates.  In my book though, it is more significant than that.  It was a very special time of officially recognizing Anna and Gideon as our legal children, although they were legally ours the minute their feet hit US soil.

Anyways, the hearing was very quick and our judge was a sweetheart! 

Yesterday was also Logan's 9th birthday.  Ryan took off work early and we went to Dave and Busters to celebrate.  It really was a nice time and I think everyone had fun!  Oh, and my baby being NINE!  Well, it makes me want to cry.  I love my sweet Logie and I can't believe how old and mature he is getting.

The picture are from yesterday.  Some are of the kids waiting to go in to court (hey they got to entertain themselves somehow), some are of dinner and my favorite is of all of us with the judge.

I love my Grandma!

My grandma is the greatest. She has been by my side since birth and I have always been close to her. She is strong and encouraging and she loves me unconditionally. She has had some pretty serious health concerns and in general she is not as healthy as I wish she were. With that being said, she has certainly been enjoying some more stable conditions lately (thank goodness). Grandma lives a nursing home and everyone there loves her. We try to go and see her every other week, plus we get to see her at most family gatherings. The kids love to visit her. It isn't always easy to keep the kids in check while visiting, but the nursing home has some nice open spaces, including a wonderful courtyard when the weather is nice. Last week when I visited I decided to take some pictures. I am glad I did, they turned out so nice! The last (ish) on is my favorite. It is just grandma and the beautiful smile that I know and love!

Finally some pictures......

Well, if you followed my old blog you will know that I cannot figure out how to get my pictures to not be all wonky, Yes, I am VERY computer illiterate. So, here are some recent pics, you just have to play a little "match the picture to the title." That sounds fun eh?

So, the one of Gee in the swing/hammock shows what a little ingenuity can do! I tied my baby wrap (for carry little ones) to our dining room table for a swing for the kids. It has been great for them. They have spent countless hours on it, especially in days it is too cold to go outside.


Of course we have a "Gee on the potty" picture.

The one of just Anna is funny because she dressed herself and came downstairs and told me she was ready to go. Notice her vest is on backwards (not to metion she is not wearing a shirt underneath) and her boots are on the wrong feet. Shouldn't there be like a 50/50 chance that Anna would put her shoes on the right feet? No way, she probably puts them on the wrong way atr least 75% of the time. It is crazy!

Let's see, we have Anna and Madeline making playdough. Gee made it also, but didn't make this picture. I'd never made playdough with the kids before. It was super easy and we still use it occasionally.

We've got a cute picture of Leah and Logan and my niece and nephew (Ethan and Sophie) at the Casting Crowns concert last Friday.

A good picture of Ryan and Gee.

Oh, and the last (ish) picture is of the kids yesterday at Lehmans Hardware in Amish Country. That store is so much fun, but we had to get creative with the carts!

Branching out this year.....

So, I am so ready for spring.  I love my seasons, but I am so done with this cold weather.  Plus, I have a million projects that I want to get started outside.  It helps that today was around 70 degrees and beautiful.

This year we are "doing" chickens.  This is definitely a step outside my comfort zone.  I have been known to say that "I would never keep chickens, they are so dirty."  But, you know I am really excited about it and now I have made a complete 180 and think it is silly we've not had them before (maybe I'll feel differently once we actually have them).  There are numerous reasons we want them, but they all pretty much circle around the desire to be a little more self sufficient and to teach our children a little more than "eggs come from the store."  Getting hormone free meat and eggs is just an extra bonus.  Actually, the hormone thing is more than just a bonus.  Ryan and I have been moving more and more toward eating more healthy and really watching what we feed the kids.  At home we are pretty strict with what the kids eat. Getting chickens just really allows us to control a pretty big protein aspect of the kids' diet and I love that.  I also love that we are teaching the kids a skill (I guess we are teaching ourselves a skill also, especially me) that they can carry with them. 

So the chicks are getting delivered early next week.  We got 20 hens for eggs and 20 chickens for meat.  Right now we are pulling together all the stuff we need, like feed, a brooder box, etc. We will keep them in the garage until it warms up and they get bigger.  Then they will go our to our chicken coop.  Our chicken coop is totally not ready for chicks yet.  It is a great coop, nice and big, but it is in SERIOUS need of repair, which we are working on.  It should be ready when the chicks are.  We are also going to fence in an area off the back for them.  We would like for them to be able to be "free range" during the day some, but we will see how that goes.

In addition to doing the chicks we are thinking we are going to grow our own seeds this year for our garden.  I have been looking on line for some good prices on some heirloom quality seeds, but I haven't found what I want yet.  I think we are going to check out a couple nurseries this weekend to see what they have also!

Julie 

My dossier is off to DC!

Well, I overnighted all my documents to a courier in Washington DC today.  Yikes!  That is a big step!   The courier will take them to the State Department (hello Hillary) and then over to the Ethiopian Embassy.  My documents should be back to our agency by Friday.  Yehoo!  I "think" that is when we officially go on the waiting list!  

I am just glad to have the documents away from me, although it is scary that they are in someone else's hand.  I will certainly be the happiest when they are sitting in Ethiopia!   It has been tons of work to pull all this together as fast as we did and I am exhausted.  Very exhausted.

Julie 

Muhahahahaha.......

I am so mean.  My uber sweet 2nd oldest struggles to get his little hiney out of bed in the mornings.  So, me being the sweet, caring mother I am, I send 2 or 3 of the little ones upstairs to wake him up.  They resort to measures that I would never have the energy for.  Basically they jump on him until he wakes up!  :):):):):):)  It makes me happy to just think about that.

Yesterday was my birthday and I have the sweetest kids EVER!  It was really a great day even though we didn't do anything super extreme.  The morning was spent out in the garage cleaning up and organizing some of the kids' clothes.  I had the three little ones and Ryan had the two older ones with him.  They were at the flip house painting.  Anyways, I put the kids down and Ryan and the two older ones got home about 1:30.  Leah and Logan surprised me with $40 (yes, that is a lot of money for them) and a trip to Goodwill.  Not only is it sweet to for them to offer me their hard earned money (I tried to get them down to $20), but the fact they know I enjoy the Goodwill and they wanted me to have fun, well, I thought that was so very sweet.   So off I went.  No kids, just me and my $40.  I ended up going to Goodwill and JC Penny's.  I got a GREAT table at Goodwill for $15 and a few others things.  Then, Ryan brought all the kids to meet me and we ate out at Tumbleweed.  Leah and Logan had helped the little ones make me cards (I had convince Madeline for like 2 hours to actually give me the card).  And then when we got home, Leah and Logan had cleaned up the whole house!  How cool are the they????  The rest of the evening was spent cleaning out our chicken coop (super disgusting!), but I was glad to get that started and we were done in time for The Amazing Race (we are so reality TV junkies this season).

Well, I am hoping to get lots done this week.  Paperwork wise I am still planning to get overnight our docs to the courier tomorrow (maybe even today if possible).  I want to get lots done around the house/outside also.  I have been bitten by the spring bug and I have tons I want to do.  Plus, we really want to get home schooling done.  We still have a little while left in that, but one of the great things about home schooling is the ability to complete thing earlier than the norm.  Then we can focus on more "interesting things." 

Julie

How the week turned out....

Well, my end of the week didn't go totally according to plan.  Thursday and Friday ended up being extremely long.  On Thursday we drive over an hour (one way) to pick up our home study documents.  There was a lot of confusion, but we ended up getting what we needed  and we got home around 3:30.  Poor Leah and Logan, they had to miss their home schooling co-op classes. But the were troopers and I was proud of them for being so mature about it.

We pretty much new we weren't going to be able to get everything done Friday morning while we were in Columbus.  I didn't have all my dossier documents.  So, we got up early and went to our fingerprint appointment.  That went smoothly and we were home by 11:00 ish.  Well, about a half an hour later Mr. UPS man brought me the rest of my documents.  We already had a sitter scheduled to come around 3:30.  I called her and she we able to be by to the house by 1:00.  So we left the 3 little ones with her and Leah, Logan and I took off back to Columbus.  We literally went right past the building we had just been in that morning.  We were able to get our documents authenticated at the State Department and be back home in time to go see Casting Crowns (great concert btw).

So, this is all good.  We did hit a couple glitches though.  One of the documents from our home study agency has to be fixed.  It states we are requesting two children and our actual home study states we are only requesting one.  Those must match.  That is something that should be cleared up on Monday.  Also, we had to get a notarized statement from our bank.  Well, the notary crossed out a date and wrote in that days' date and you cannot do that.  So, both things should be minor and easy to clear up, but they are an unwanted "hump." 

Right now my plan is to overnight our complete dossier to a courier on Tuesday.  That courier will take our dossier to the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington DC and get it authenticated one more time.  Then the courier will overnight the docs to CWA.  CWA will then forward everything to Ethiopia.  We will pay a large lump some and then we will be on the waiting list for our son!!!  Maybe even by the end of next week!

Julie  

Ok, so not totally diaper free.....

So Gee has pee'd the bed the last two nights.  Aaaah, that's ok.  To be completely potty trained in a week, well, that might have been a little much.  But he is still doing excellent!  Besides at night (which I would totally expect in a 2 1/2 yr old), he hasn't had an accident.  Even at church Sat. night, he told the nursery worker that he had to go potty (and went).  I am very proud of my little guy and pulling out one diapie a day is a far cry from where we have been!

Still, a crazy week this week, adoption wise.  Our caseworker is not in until tomorrow apparently and I know her Wednesdays are packed.  I am worried that she will be able to get everything done and out in time for Friday.  SIGH.  I am not giving up yet, the plan is still Friday, but things look a little sketchy at this point.......

Julie   

DIAPER FREE.....and an adoption update!

Can we say diaper free?????????  Holy cow, this is exciting.  Gideon has done wonderfully!! Today marks one week since we really started working with him on potty training.  I seriously was not giving the boy enough credit.  Gee has not had a peeing accident since we started up again last Sunday.  Poo is a little more troublesome.  Sometimes he still kind of gets started a bit and then realizes, "oh nuts, I need to go" and then he still does most of his business on the potty. Sometimes though he totally catches it.  So, he doesn't really have an accident, kind of like an almost accident.  But besides that he is just doing amazingly.  Get this, he is even staying dry during naps and at night.  Now, I was impressed when he would do naps and stay dry but I was not expecting night time dryness to come for a long time.  Well, he has woke up every morning with a dry diaper and goes right to the potty and does his thing.  Last night I just left his undies on and yep, still dry this morning.  So, I am officially declaring us diaper free!

Our adoption paperwork is going beautifully.  I don't know if anyone has ever noticed, but I tend to be a little "focused" when I get something on my brain.  Some call it "tunnel vision," others might call it "out of control," but I certainly prefer "focused."  So we have officially been signed on with both our agencies for a little under 3 weeks and our paperwork for both our home study and our dossier is DONE.  I am not trying to toot my own horn (toot, toot), but 3 weeks is very fast when all this work usually takes 2 to 3 months.  I will say though that our home study agency has been extremely accommodating to my craziness and they have moved at lightening speed.  

This is kind of a big week though.  My case manager at CWA (Christian World Adoption-our international placing agency) has to look over all our paperwork and a few things need to fall in place just right this week.  Friday we have to get fingerprinted in Columbus at 9:00 am.  This is required for the US government part of our adoption.  Once the USCIS has our documents (our completed home study, our birth certificates, our dollar bills, etc) and our fingerprints they will issue an 171H.  That is kind of a big deal and it is pretty exciting that we are going for our fingerprints.  Well, the State Department is few blocks from the fingerprinting place and that is where we have to go to get all our dossier documents authenticated.  So, our prayer is that all our paperwork is totally ready by then.  And, like I said, a few things need to fall into place for that to happen, so if you wouldn't mind saying a little prayer for us, that would be great.

I found out something pretty exciting this week regarding our soon to be son.  We might get our referral a little sooner than I was thinking.  After our dossier has been state authenticated if has to be couriered to Washington DC to be certified yet again (that takes 2 to 4 days).  After that our dossier goes back to CWA and they send it over to Ethiopia, at that point, we are put on the waiting list for our son!  I thought it would have to go through translation in Ethiopia and some other things.  I also thought that we might have to wait on our 171H to be complete (which could be another 4 to 8 weeks).  But nope, we could be on the waiting list in like 2 weeks!

CWA is estimating 1 to 3 months for an infant boy referral.  After you accept your referral, you get scheduled a court date in like 2 to 4 weeks.  Right now court dates are running 2 to 3 months out.  That might change a bit though.  Ethiopia was down to only 1 judge hearing adoption cases and now they are back to 2.  So, the hope is that we will see a pick up in wait times for court.  Anyways, CWA clients are passing court only 50% of the time.  Usually, you don't pass for some minor document problem (ick, that feels very familiar to our Guatemala adoption and getting kicked out of PGN).  If you fail court the first time, you just keep going back until you pass.  There's usually 6 to 8 weeks in between additional court dates.  (Just FYI, that is going to be agonizing for me).  After you pass court, the child is legally yours.  Most families travel to Ethiopia 3 to 4 weeks after court.  That is how long it takes to get the child's visa, etc ready.  The pick up trip runs 4 to 5 days in country plus travel.

So, let's look at best case scenario.  If we are put on the wait list at the end of March and it took 6 weeks to get a referral, that would be the beginning of May sometime.  Best case scenario court date would then be probably mid August (if they stay like they are).  Now apparently the Ethiopian courts shut down for the rainy season.  I hear that is like for 6 to 8 weeks in late August/September/early October?  If we passed court the first time and didn't get caught up in all of that, our little guy could be home sometime mid September.  Now, I realize that would be best case scenario and a lot of things would have to happen perfectly for it to go that smoothly. And, as Ryan and I know, nothing in international adoption goes as smoothly as you'd like.  But you know, I am going to be optimistic and pray our little guy home in September. 

Ok, one more thing.  This is also VERY exciting.  Anna and Gideon's adoption are going to be finalized March 23rd (Logan's birthday).  Although Anna and Gee are legally our kids we cannot get them US birth certificates until we finalize here in Ohio.  Plus there are lots of other things that need to be done with them(social security numbers, legal first name change, etc.) and it all starts with this finalization.  We actually go before the judge all official like and it is kind of a special thing.  I think we will probably even go out and celebrate afterwards.

Sorry to get so windy, I just had a lot to update I guess.

Julie  

 

Why Ethiopia?

I have already been asked this question a number of times, so I thought answering it publicly, might be a good idea.

Here is the practical side:

When Ryan and I were confident we wanted to adopt again we really looked at all our options. We are a little bit limited in the country we could choose because of our large family size.  The main countries however were still open to us and we initially narrowed it down to Russia, Ethiopia and China (doing special needs).  We also briefly considered doing a domestic adoption.  I contacted our previous home study agency (and the one who is currently doing our study) and asked them what were the top countries right now in regards to operating smoothly. Ethiopia was her top pick and then Russia and then China (again special needs).  We pretty much decided Russia was out because in Ryan's words "it is so 2006."  Russia is very expensive and involves a lot of travel.  And I just think we are still burnt out on that beautiful Eastern European country.  Special needs China sparked our interest, but the time frame still would have been considerable and the child probably would have been a little older than we liked.  It just seemed like Ethiopian was a good fit for our family.  Reasonable travel times, the ability to get a relatively young child, the price, all those things just worked for us.

Here's probably the more emotional side:

Over and over again while we were trying to decide where to go, we kept asking ourselves "where is the most need?"  We came to the conclusion that there's no exact answer to that. Because really the "greatest need" in my humble opinion, is an older special needs child (from any country).  So, we had to combine the desire to go where we felt the need was, while at the same time, being realistic about what we felt open to as a family.  Truth be told, while Ethiopia seems like a very needy place (and obviously in general it is), there is a waiting list for adoptable children, especially infants (which is what we are requesting).  That means that if we weren't in line, our spot would quickly be bumped to the next eager parent.  We of course feel that we have lots to offer a child, especially the opportunity to bring a child to a relationship with Jesus.  Maybe the "next eager parent" couldn't offer that and that fact is something else that we considered.

Something else with Ethiopia, it appears to be very adoption friendly right now.  Our international agency (Christian World Adoption) is very big into helping the families and the communities of the countries they work in.  Right now in Ethiopia they have started their biggest "mission's program" to date.  It is called Acadia village.  The president of Ethiopia sits on the board of that program.  That is really cool I think.  Anyways, Ethiopia doesn't seem to have the negative undertones that many countries have right now in regards to international adoption (maybe it's because the program is relatively new).  That is refreshing to us.  No adoption is glitch free, but we are optimistic that Ethiopia will offer us a process that is relatively smooth. 

What about the "black issue"?

I really hesitated to even address this area of the whole thing.  But, I know people will wonder this and we have already been asked this question in some form or another.  The simple answer is "there is no black issue."  At least not for Ryan and I.  Obviously, anyone wanting to adopt trans racially should consider the effects it will have, most of all on the adopted child, but also on the adoptive family.  But I guess this is no different than 2 1/2 years ago when we decided to adopt Anna and Gee.  We briefly thought about the "Hispanic issue" and said sign us up.  Now that is not to say we are naive about things.  We may have some adopted related things to deal with as our soon to be 3 youngest get older.  And, we will deal with that when and if the time comes.  The bottom line is that Ryan and I have complete faith in God and our family in all this.  The same thing (or should I say person) that gets us through the rough spots we currently encounter, will get us through any rough spots to come.  It is all good!

Julie 

New Blog!!!!

So, welcome to my new blog address!  I plan to keep my old one up for a while, just so others can be linked here.  I just felt it was time to have a "family blog" and not just an "Anna and Gee" blog.  From now on out this will be the place I will post about our daily lives and I will keep you all up to date on our adoption.

Adoption Update.....

We are moving right along.  I am actually very happy with where we are at.  Pretty much I have or will have all our documents for both the home study and our dossier by Friday.  That is a HUGE accomplishment.  I think we've only been official clients with our international agency for like a week and a half or so.  I did some minor things before we even decided to adopt for sure a few weeks ago because I knew they could take a while.  The rest, well, I have just been plowing through.  Fortunately I am surrounded by an awesome home study agency and friends and other agencies that have been very accommodating.  I will say though, I am feeling the stress.  I tend to put immense pressure on myself to do everything in my power I can possibly do.  This is good, because I get things done, this is bad because I tend to be stressed and a little intense.  If you think about it, say a little prayer for us.  Next Friday we have our fingerprinting appointment for our 171H (the main document we need from the US government to adopt).  Ryan and I have to go to Columbus to have this done and I would like to have all our dossier paperwork done so we can just hop over to the state department and have all our documents authenticated.  For those of you unfamiliar with what a dossier is, it is just the compilation of all your official documents that go to your chosen country.  I think our dossier has 15 to 20 documents (our completed home study is just one of those).  Each of those documents must be signed in front of a notary, then we have to go to the county that each notary is certified in and get a "county certification."  Then we have to go to the State Department in Columbus and get each county certification, state certified.  Then I think they are sent to the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington, DC to get the state certification authenticated.  Then they can be sent to Ethiopia and translated.  It is a bit crazy and maddening, so yes, some prayers that we can pull this all together quickly would be much appreciated.

Potty Time update......

Gee is doing pretty good.  He was sick off and on for like 5 days, so we didn't even bother with it, but we've really been working on it since Sunday.  I "think" he has the peeing thing down.  He will pee when he sits on the potty immediately and he is even starting to tell me when he has to go, so that is very good.  As for the pooping on the potty, well....... not as impressive.  I think he is starting to get it because he gets panicky when he has to poop and he will even say he has to go poopy, but usually by then it has already begun.  Fortunately Gee's tell tale loose and frequent bowels have been very solid and infrequent over the last few days and we've saved ourselves from some really bad messy.  But, he will get it soon.  In the meantime we will kept lavishing him with praise and chockies (he gets a piece of chocolate even time he does his business on the potty) and hope the desire to fully be a "big boy" will win out in the end.

Ok, enough jibber jabber for now!

Julie