Waiting to Travel

It has been almost 6 months since we accepted our referral of our son. With all the new policies that were put in place in January, we are still not close to traveling. It is very disheartening to think that our son is sitting and waiting for us. We have cleared all the hurdles on the US side of things now we wait for two Ethiopian Signatures. One from the regional director and one from the Minister of Women and Children. It is frustrating to know that our paper has been sitting on the desk of the regional director for a couple of months now. We pray that she will sign within the next week or two so that we can make it to Ethiopia before court closure in August. We are getting down to the wire. Please pray for our situation as well an many others who are exactly where we are in this process.

A Referral !!!

Yes finally the call we have been waiting for. I received the call around 10am on January 22nd. When I realized it was Sally, from our agency, it really did not hit me that she would be calling with a referral. A couple weeks before we had looked into a 7 year old boy that was on the waitlist. He was not "referral ready" yet but we were given some of his information. On Monday, Jan. 20th we found out that he was not 7 years old but much older. Somehow his birthdate was wrong on his paperwork so unfortunately we would not be getting him. So when Sally called two days later I was not expecting a refferal, I assumed she was calling about the 7 year old. So needless to say when she said she a little boy for us to consider I was over the moon. Madi and Ethan happened to be home from school that day, due to the recent snow, so they were able to see his picture and read about him. It was awesome to share that with them. Unfortunately, Dan has been working out of town during the week so he was not home with us. We did facetime that evening with him and agreed wholeheartedly as a family that he would be our son/brother. We had to wait a few days for the adoption contract to be finalized then all our paperwork was sent to USCIS. Now, we wait for a paper called a PAIR letter. Without this letter we can not travel for our first trip. Meanwhile we found out this past week that our Birthmom courtdate is March 10th. This court appearance is for his Birthmom to agree to us adopting him and taking him out of the country. We pray that she will have peace about this process.

David and Goliath

I am sure most of us remember the heartwarming story of David and Goliath. The little boy who defeats the giant with just a sling shot and a stone. I have always loved that story. It reminds me that you can accomplish anything not matter your size or strength. Well the last week and half, God has put the David and Goliath story in front of me four times. Isn't it amazing how he puts things in our path wanting us to study it and use it? Well I began to look at the story in a whole new light after the fourth time. It was talked about in a weekly bible study that I am doing with some friends. As I began to dig deeper into the story, I realized that there is some much more than the underdog beating the giant. It is also about David's lesson in patience. Wow! Did I need to hear that at this point in my life!! Isn't God awesome!! For about a week, I have been going through a sort of depression about our adoption, my bio kids, and some other stuff we are dealing. God knew what was going on in my heart and he placed  just the right story in front of me. When we started the adoption journey we were told 9 to 12 months. We were also told that once we were on the waiting list expect a wait time of 1 to 3 months for a referral. As of today our wait has been 4 and 1/2 months. We started at number 49 and we are currently number 38. Not much movement this last couple of months. With the court closure in Ethiopia, seems like the orphanges have kind of shut down as well. Courts should be reopening soon so we are hoping things will start to pick up. As for now we continue to wait patiently for our time when we can defeat our giant.

New Number

Each month the new updated waitlist comes out. It is usually the first day of the month unless it falls on a weekend or holiday. Starting at 6am on July 1st, I start checking my email. I know we are still far down on the list but it so exciting to see how many referrals and how many spots you move. We moved a total of 3 spots this month. So we are now at 46!! They had three referrals this past month. Kind of a downer since April and May there were over 20 referrals. But our agency continues to keep us in the loop by letting us know there are a 20 more referrals coming. They don't know when but we are all hoping this month.
So for now we continue to wait patiently!!

Patience

It is so hard to have patience!! I have had this problem my entire life. But God is in control. I have to keep reminding myself that it is his timing not mine.
As we wait for our son from Ethiopia, we are reminded again of this patience. I keep checking my messages (phone and email) for any correspondence from our agency. We have been on the waitlist a total of 2.5 weeks and I am expecting a miracle I guess. There are families that have been on the waitlist for over 16 months. Wow they must have amazing patience.
Dan and I have had many conversations about our son. We wonder what he will look like and his story. I can't imagine what his parents/grandparents are going through as they make it possible for us to love and provide for him the rest of his life. Deep down I wish there were no orphans in the world. That every child could be raised by their family but unfortunately that is just not true. So God has placed this situation on our heart and we are ready to follow him.
Adoption is not for everyone especially international adoption. But it is for us and so we are patiently waiting and waiting.

Officially on the waitlist at number ...........

Yep it is official. We made it to the waitlist at number ...................................................................
                                                                            
                                                                    49 !!!

Now the waiting really begins. At this point our prayer is that we have patience. God is in conntrol and we know that he already has our son picked out for us.

Name Change

As you can see I changed the name of our blog. It used to be called Booges and Bubba. Our bio daughter, Madi's nickname since she was born is booges. When our bio son, Ethan was born we asked Madi what his nickname should be and she said Bubba. So our blog has been named after our childrens nicknames.
With this new adoption in the works, I decided to add our adopted son's nickname of BB. Not sure why we call him that but whenever we talk about him we call him BB. Kind of a fun and personal way of conecting to him even though we don't even know what he looks like.
So our new blog shall be called Booges, Bubba & BB. Wouldn't it be funny if his real name starts with a B.

Moving ahead

I got some of our papers state authenticated yesterday in Richmond and then handed off everything in our Dossier to the Assitant Stork Courier service managed by Laura and her husband. It was hard to hand over those papers that I have slaved over and cried over for the last 4 months but I know that God is in control. He had a hand in everything yesterday. It was amazing to watch him work.
As we wait for our Dossier to clear the State Dept and the Ethiopian Embassy we silently perpare for the day that our name is added to the waitlist.

Our timeline that lead up to this day:
January 16 - Official Application filed
January 25- First Home Study meeting
Feb. 4th - Second Home Study meeting
Feb. 7th - Third Home Study meeting
March 20th -Picked up finalized Home Study and mailed into USCIS
March 28th - Received notice that USCIS received application
April 6th - Received notice of Fingerprint appt on April 24th
April 9th - Got fingerprinted (They took walkins)
April 24th - Approved for Orphan Visa
April 29th - Received I-171h Orphan Visa in mail
April 30th - Got Letter of Affidavit and Power of Attorney State Sealed
April 30th - Dropped of Dossier at Assitant Stork in Stafford
May 1st - Assitant Stork delivered Dossier to State Dept.

Our agency, Adoption Associates, has been very busy these past few weeks. There has been 13 new referrals. Woohoo!! How exciting for these new families. We are hoping and praying that this trend keeps up when we are added to the list.

Exciting times are ahead!!

As many of you know, we are in the proccess of adopting a boy from Ethiopia. It is an exciting but nerve raking time for our family. As of now we are not on the waiting list for  a child. That will change once our dossier(Paperwork) has been sent to our agency in Michigan. Why Michigan you ask? Well we did a lot of research with the different agencies our the US and felt a calling to go with Adoption Associates. They have an awesome group of people in their Ethiopia program. Also they have a very strong Ethiopia program. We wanted someone who was familiar with the country and its policies. Because as you can imagine each country requires different things. It can cause a few headaches but it will be so worth it in the end.
Our children are very excited about this adoption. Everynight our son prays for his little brother that he is kept safe and happy. It brings tears to my eyes everytime I hear it.
Our home study social worker commented to Dan and I that our kids were very well educated on the whole proccess. We told her that we have talked with kids extensively to make sure they were okay with this proccess and what it will mean when their little brother is here.
We have been blessed with very supportive friends. But not everyone has been over the moon about our decision. We have ran into some oposition from people. Mostly about our son being of a diffferent color than us. Well our theroy and our children's theroy is that GOD created everyone the same and we should treat everyone the same not matter what color their skin is. That is our belief. We have felt called to adopt from Ethiopia for a number of years now but God is telling us now is the time so we are jumping in with both feet.
We hope you will continue to join us on our journey!!

-Heather-

New Year !!

Wow... I can't believe it has been over a year since I posted anything. As my children get older life gets more complicated. They keep Dan and I very busy mentally and physically. We are trying to stay one step ahead of them. LOL
Madi had her first basketball game of the season today. She likes basketball despite being the shortest on her team. She had three assists.
Ethan has started his swim lessons. There are two kids in the class including Ethan. Needless to say he is the star swimmer. It helps that the other boy doesn't speak any english. LOL He is doing well and the instructor said he will move up next session.
Dan is still loving his job and running. He is contemplating running the JFK50 miler again this year.
As for me, I am surviving. This time of the year I kind of get into a funk. It was this time three years ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I am cancer free now but it still hits home every year at this time.

Happy New Year !!!

What a year 2009 has been. We are anxiously awaiting to see what is in store for 2010. We hope all of you have a great year with much happiness.

Snow and Puppies

Wow, I can't believe it has been that long since my last post. Time seems to fly by without us noticing. So much has happened so here is the recap:

March 09 - Finally closed on our house here in Manassas, Va. We love it and the neighborhood.

April 09 - Celebrated Madi's 8th birthday at the Roller Rink. A great time was had by all.

May 09 - Still getting settled into the new house and starting some renovations (kitchen).

June 09 - Celebrated Ethan's 4th birthday at the all time kid hang out - Chuck E Cheese. He had to have his party there even though he is scared to death of Chuckie.

I started working part time at a hospital in Warrenton, Va.

July 09 - Still renovating the kitchen.

Aug 09 - Busy meeting neighbors and all the 19 kids on our cul-de-sac. The kids are having a ball.

Dan put in for a new position and got it. A lot of excitment.

Sept 09 - School starts for Madi. She loves her new teachers and friends. Ethan is adjusting very well to his new 5 day preschool.

Dan's parents come all the way from Montana for a month visit. They had a great time and are thinking of coming back in the spring.

Oct 09 - Dollie, our cavalier king charles, has three puppies.

Dan and I went to a B&B for our 14th anniversary. We toured Monticello and hiked up Crabtree Falls off the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Madi was a geisha girl and Ethan was spiderman with muscles for halloween. They enjoyed trick or treating with all the kids on our street.

Nov 09 - I ended up having to work Thanksgiving so we celebrated the day after with my parents.

The puppies are growing.

Today we have had about 12 inches of snow so far and it is only noon. It has been snowing since 9pm last night. The kids said it was too cold to play but the puppies had a ball. This was their for time walking in the snow. They will be ready for their new homes next week. We are going to be sad to see them go.

Bend it like Ethan

Ethan has really enjoyed his first year playing soccer. He is on the U4 Rush. His coaches are Tank and James. They do a great job coaching. They have 6 players including Ethan. All boys and one girl. Ethan is not sure of all the kid's names on his team so he just calls them his "boys". They have played 3 games so far and have won all three. He has scored at least one goal each game. Maybe we have a future Beckham on our hands.

Apartment Reveal #2

We have been getting slack from some people about not including more pictures of our apartment. So here you go. Now I know some of you were impressed with the Entertainment stand in our family room but this is one is even better. This stand doubles as a TV stand and a tool chest. It is very sturdy so we don't have to worry about the kids knocking the TV over.

I included this great picture because some have specifically asked to see our bargain lamp. It is a great table for a computer and doubles as our only light in the family room. Because we have such great window treatments, they keep our apartment kind of dark hence the reason for no lamp shade. We rescued this great piece of furniture from being thrown into our local landfill. Yes we had to modify it a little to get it to work but it has turned out to be a great asset to our apartment. I have yet to be called by HGTV but am sure once they see my imaginative use of many multi-functional pieces they will be begging me.

Here is the breakdown:

Tool Chest/Entertainment Stand: $59.99 at your local hardware store

Lamp/Computer Table: FREE from the neighbors trash

Time spent with two kids and a husband 24/7 for 30 days in a 350 square foot apartment: Still Priceless

Our apartment's big reveal

Some of you have waited so patiently for the big reveal of our apartment. Finally it is here. I am thinking about taking a job on HG.TV to be a "Stager". I think they will be begging me after they see how great our apartment looks. My favorite find for our apartment was the great window treatments. They were bargained priced at 50 cent at the local thrift store. I think they really open up the space. I would have to say my next favorite piece is the nice sage green entertainment stand. It was a bargain find from our local Wal-mart. It is a multi-functional piece that not only serves as a TV Stand but also a storage unit.

Here is the breakdown:

Window Treatments: $.50

Multi-functional Entertainment stand: $5.00

Time spent with two kids and husband 24/7 for 30 days in about 350 square feet: Priceless

Visit with Santa

Every year we go through the same routine of getting a picture with Santa. Madi is such a good child and loves sitting on his lap year after year. On the other hand there is Ethan. Ethan is scared of anything wearing a suit i.e. Santa and Mickey Mouse to name a few. So needless to say it is not a fun time trying to get his picture with the big jolly red guy. So this year I held nothing back and threatened him with no presents if he did not sit on his lap and let me take a picture. So with that being said he ran as fast as he could and jumped on his lap smling for his picture before I could even get Madi's coat off.

House in Manassas, VA

Here is a picture of the house in Manassas that we fell in love with. We still do not know if we got the house and will not know for probably a couple of weeks. It is your typical 4 bedroom 2 1/2 bath with a full, unfinished basement.

We are on the move.....

As many of you know, our time left in Pierre, South Dakota is slowly coming to an end. We have had some awesome opportunities while living here. Our family has bonded over many a nights camping around the states of South Dakota, Montana and Wyoming. We have meet some great friends that we are truly going to miss, who know that they are welcome anytime at our new house. We also have gotten the chance to spend as much time with Dan's family as possible. These are just a few of the many wonderful experiences we have had here. But as our departing time draws closer we plan to spend as much time as possible doing the things we have come to love about the small town of Pierre, South Dakota.

Trick or Treat

The kids had a great time trick or treating this year. Madi went with some neighbor friends all over the neighborhood while Dan and I took Ethan on our street. He loved getting all the candy and was so excited to be trick or treating "outdoors". We are not sure what he meant by that. To aleviate some of the stress off Dan and I, we allowed Ethan to take his John Deere tractor to ride on. It was so funny. At first we thought we would put the candy in the bucket on the front. Well that lasted about 1o minutes before he dumped it all out and laughed as Dan and I picked it up. Not funny!! So needless to say we put a stop to that and decided to carry his bag for him. Overall we all had a good time and got lots of candy.

Ethan, my fire marshall

Ethan has become a fugitive wanted by the federal law in town. Here is the story:
On Monday, Ethan and I headed into the local federal building/post office to mail some packages. Everything was fine heading into the post office. We got our packages mailed out quickly as no one was in line. Heading out the door on the way to the car Ethan is trailing behind me. Halfway out the door I turn around to see my son pulling the fire alarm. I proceed to freak out and reprimand him right there on the spot. He doesn;t cry but has a terrified look on his face as the alarms and flashing lights start going off. I proceed to grab him and take him back into the post office to tell them what just happened. I told the man behind the counter and he takes off running. I guess this is protocol when the alarm has been set. So I proceed with Ethan to the car. Once safetly inside the car I proceed to call Dan at work. His office is on the third floor of the building. He starts laughing hysterically at what his son has just accomplished. I am mortified at this point and continue to reprimand him as we are driving away from the scene before the fire trucks show up. About fifteen minutes later I receive a phone call from Dan stating that the maintenance guy from the building came looking for him. He needed to get Ethan's information for the fire report. Also the federal security agent for the building caught the whole thing on tape. I asked for a copy for Ethan's baby book but they said they can't release it.