From Our Family to Yours

Wishing you and your loved ones all the wonder and magic of Christmas!

Merry Christmas, 

Another One Bites the Dust

Another month has come and another month has gone. We have officially been on CHI's wait list for ...

MONTHS

Every month that passes we ask someone close to us on our adoption journey to help us celebrate. This month we asked our close friends Mike and Amanda to help us mark the special occasion, this was their festive holiday creation.

Thanks Mike & Amanda!    

Amanda has been my "wing-girl" throughout our adoption journey! She generously held two Pampered Chef fundraisiers to help us cover our adoption fees; solicited donations for our silent auction; volunteered to make our Adoption Benefit a success; and drove to our house with a box of wine, twizzlers, whoppers, and Doritos when I needed it the most. She has been there for us from the very beginning and will no doubt be there waiting for us at the airport when we come home. Thanks for being such a great friend, Amanda!

Mike is the talented artist that I've featured on our blog from time to time. He donated his artwork to help us reach our dream of becoming parents. He has also been drafted on several occasions to help Bret complete a few of my many home improvement projects. I'm not sure where we'd be without you and your tools Mike (lol). Thanks for being such a great friend too!

Thirteen. This has always been a lucky number for Bret and me. I was born on Friday the 13th, Bret and I were married on the 13th, my wedding band has 13 diamonds in it ... let's hope that 13 continues to be a special number.

We are more than ready to see our precious gift.

Merry Christmas,

Move Over Bob Vila!

Last Spring Bret and I were rudely awakened by a horrible smell. Our Corgi Gracie had gotten sick in the worse place imaginable - under our bed. While still wiping the sleep from our eyes, we tried to disassemble the bed to clean-out underneath. Our heavy king size bed was too much for my tired arms so I asked to rest it on the foot board and when we did - SNAP! The wooden foot board snapped in two and the bed broke. 

When we started looking at replacements we were shocked at the prices. We had bought our bed from a friend so it was a fraction of what king sizes beds normally cost. So, Bret decided to build us a head board and buy a new bed frame instead of purchasing us a new bed.  

We started out with this: 

If you're in the market for an old door and live in/around Lexington, KY. We scored this door at one of our favorite places, the Cowgirl Attic. An endless day of discovery - a true picker's paradise.

We transformed the door into this: 

 sanded and with crown molding added ...

Patched.

First layer of paint and first layer of GLUE.
HINT: The fireplace in the background is our next project!

First layer of ivory paint over glue.

It's coming together ...

Here it is folks. Our new bed! Thank you to my very talented hubby!

Adoption Update: there has been no movement for us on the wait list since our last blog post. Thankfully there have been referrals but the majority of them have been for boys (my friend Anne recently got the referral of her son. Yeah Anne!). Two girl referrals were given for a 13 month old and a 7 year-old. We're still sitting tight at #10 (unofficially #6 for a girl).

In the meantime, we're trying to stay busy. Onto the next home improvement project ...   

12 Months Waiting ...

My friend Ashley and I have been best friends since high school. She was my Matron of Honor in our wedding and her daughter Abby was our flower girl.

Ashley has been there for me through so many BIG and small moments in my life. She lives in a different town now and has been blessed with 5 amazing children (4 girls and a boy), all of which keep her very busy. Even though we don't see each other that often, we talk to each other every week.

No one understands me and my crazy family better; no one (except Bret) knows all my flaws and loves me anyway; no one else can I speak so openly to without judgement; and no one else knows how badly I want to be a mother. Ashley, thank you for being such a great friend and a great example of what a devoted and loving mother looks like behind-the-scenes.

Ashley and her girls celebrate our LONG WAIT on the wait list, Amharic style:

There it is folks, we've been waiting 12 LONG MONTHS.

Thankfully there have been referrals since the last time I blogged. Two of my wait list buddies got their referrals this week! I am happy that the wait for them to see their son's faces is finally over! I am hopeful that our wait will be over soon too.

Thankful Thursday

I'll admit it ... I have been in a funk this week with our adoption!

I went from accepting that our referral would take 12-18 months (from the 7-11 months we were originally quoted) and not thinking of our adoption every waking moment; to feeling like it could be any day; to now feeling like it's an eternity away again. All of these thoughts have taken place over the course of two weeks - talk about a roller coaster!

Why the sudden change of heart? Well, on Monday another referral was given out (YEAH!) for a 6.5 month old boy and the family waited 11 months. This meant that no one under us on the wait list requested a boy, which means that everyone under us is more than likely waiting for girls. We know 1-4 are waiting on siblings but we never thought that 5-9 would ALL be waiting for girls.

As a friend recently pointed out ... 5-9 could be waiting on siblings or girls 0-6 months old. This could all be true because we don't know with 100% certainty what the families have requested but for now the signs all point to girls. All week I have been in a funk thinking there have to be 5 more girls referred before we get ours and how much longer is that going to take?

So today I am sitting here laughing at myself ... I am so flipping impatient that I have refused to see the positive side of all of this - we are only 5 girl referrals away from seeing our daughter AND for someone who started at #53 on the wait list 12 months ago - that is an accomplishment!

I am thankful and hopeful that we are closer to seeing the gift that God will place in our lives. I pray that God will allow me to continue to see the positive side, opposed to the dark doubtful side, and as always I continue to pray for patience.

Please keep us in your prayers too,

Making a House a Home.

If you're an avid reader of our blog then you're aware we've been impatiently waiting for "God's perfect timing". 

During the long lull in referrals our agency recently experienced, we decided to turn our anxious energy into making our house a home. Our focus has been to make our house more culturally diverse (art, knick-knacks, photos, etc.), baby proofed, child friendly and filled with things that make us happy. 

One of our projects was to turn these Ethiopian coffee bean bags into valances for our living room. 

I bought these on ebay.
You could make them into pillows, seat cushions, use them for sack races, etc.
( I kept a few for some good ole fashion sack races). 

Bret built these valances and I covered them with the coffee bean bags. 

Click HERE to learn how to make your own valances.

These are the finished products:   

We really like them! They're a conversation piece, kinda artsy, and something about them brings me comfort during the wait ... I think maybe it's because Ethiopia is always on my mind and in my heart ...   it's nice to see a representation of that in the place we love the most - our home. 

Top Ten

The Top 10 Reasons Why ... 

Being #10 On The Wait List Rocks!

10. We moved up another notch on the wait list. Whoop! Whoop!

9. According to our "not so official" wait list spreadsheet: 1-4 on the wait list are waiting for siblings/multiple children; 5-10 are waiting on single children so that really makes us unofficially  #6. 

8. The family that received their referral today waited 12 months. We've been waiting 11 months, 16  days, 1 hour and 30 minutes BUT who's counting right? 

7. CHI families are rejoicing! We have connected with some wonderful CHI families and it is a joy to celebrate good news together!

6.  The "referral high" is back and we love it!

5. After a 4.5 month referral drought, there have been 2 referrals in one week!

4. CHI's Ethiopian Adoption Team had good news to share! Not being able to give out referrals has not only been hard on CHI families, it's been hard on staff too.

3. Did I mention we're one step closer to being a party of 3?! 

2. A family that waited 12 LONG MONTHS to add a child to their family, saw the face of their 5 month old daughter today!

1. A child will soon be an orphan no more! Praise God!  

Thankful

Today I am thankful for thoughtful friends who bring you gifts,
"just because". 

We love gifts (who doesn't, right?)
but we especially love gifts in honor of our daughter.

Isn't this Christmas ornament adorable?!

Can't wait to put it on our Christmas tree. 

Only 53 Days til Christmas. 

Thanks friend!

Finally!

I cannot express in words, how badly we've wanted to post a new number for us on the wait list. It has been 4.5 months since we last posted a new number. Talk about challenging!!!

Well, today is the day folks! We are officially:

I felt this picture to be appropriate given the current speed of our adoption. LOL.

 NUMBER 11

We are hopeful that this is just the beginning and that more referrals will follow in the days and weeks ahead. 

The family that got the referral today had been waiting 19.5 months for 2 children (the wait is longer for multiple children) and had recently switched to a single child. Their referral was for a 5 month old baby girl. Congrats to the family and to all the waiting families (I know you're celebrating the news too).

Please keep us and our daughter in your prayers, 

Letting Go!

In honor of our friend Cyr's 30th birthday


The Birthday Boy (Cyr) and his girlfriend Lindsay

AND our 4 year wedding anniversary we decided to go ziplining with Red River Gorge Zipline Tours in Campton, KY (near Natural Bridge State Park).

Me and the hubs

When we agreed to go we thought we'd just be zipping from tree to tree ... and it was kind of like that for the first two zips.


My first zip:




BUT then things got a little more intense on our 4th and 5th zips:





This is not a video of us. We went ziplining at night under the stars so it was hard to take pictures or video after the sun went down BUT this is a video of the 4th zip.

Zipling under the stars was amazingly beautiful!

It helped with my fear of heights because it was difficult to see how high up we were but it was still scary because you couldn't see where you were headed when you jumped off the platform into the pitch black darkness. As you can see from the video we zipped quite a ways - 1 minute to be exact at 50-60 mph.

Throughout the 3 hour adventure I thought about our adoption journey and how similar it is to ziplining ... the fear of the uncertainty that lies ahead; the faith it takes to leap off the platform; the guiding light that leads you through the darkness; and screaming - lots and lots of screaming (Lol!).

It was a great night and therapeutic too. We enjoyed our time with great friends and it felt good to scream out loud! I definitely relieved some of my frustration about the adoption and I think Bret did too.

Reality Check!

Last week our agency had a conference call with waiting families and families compiling their dossiers.

We weren't sure what to expect from the call ... at first we were really nervous because our agency hasn't had any referrals in 4 months (it feels crazy to even type that, I can't believe it's been so long!) so we were a tad worried that it could be bad news ... like the program shutting down or our agency being investigated ...  my mind automatically goes to the worst case scenarios (thank goodness Bret's doesn't).

Turns out that it wasn't either of those but it wasn't necessarily good news either. The short of it is ... the Ethiopia Program is slowing down. The US Embassy is asking for more paperwork and clarification than ever before. Which means that agencies are now trying to collect all this information up front, to ensure the likelihood of getting an interview with a birth parent, family member, etc. on the front end as opposed to several months after the child has been relinquished, orphaned, etc. This is causing referrals to be delayed but the hope is that the process will be quicker when we get to Embassy.

We were also told on the call that our window for a referral has expanded. When we joined the Ethiopia Adoption Program in July 2010 we were told that the estimated wait time for a girl 0-12 months old would be 7-11 months. Now we are being told that a referral can be expected in the next 12-18 months. Given this new wait time we decided to expand our preference from 0-6 months to a 0-12 month old baby girl.

We would expand more if we had been approved for a higher age range but the truth is (according to our agency) they are seeing less older children being referred and instead are seeing more infants and toddlers. Our home study will have to be revised in January, if we have not received a referral by then, and our fingerprints will also need to be redone so at that point we may expand our preferred age range further, just to increase our chances of getting a referral that much sooner.

In a way, we feel like we're starting the wait all over again, knowing that it could be 7 more months (or longer before we get our referral). Today we celebrate being on the waitlist for:

 11 Months

This is my brother and sister in-law, Brandon and Lisa. They will be a great aunt and uncle! They have been so supportive of our adoption journey - thanks guys!

Here's to hoping that we see our little girl's sweet face in 1-7 months from today!

We're still here for you, baby girl!

We will not give up on you!

Mommy and Daddy, will do whatever it takes to make you an orphan no more! and bring you home to your forever family!  

God Gave Me You

Happy Anniversary to the Greatest Husband a girl could as for!   I am blessed!

Four years ago today ... we said, "I Do".

We got married at Camp Crooked Creek

My cousin Katie sang this beautiful song by Patti Griffin.

                              

It was perfect! She's so talented!

   It was a HEAVENLY DAY!

Our Ring Bearer : "Wally Wallister"

My Uncle Steve married us. Such a great honor! We love him so much.

  One of the GREATEST days of our Lives!

I would not want to walk this crazy journey with anyone else! Our daughter will be blessed to have you as a daddy!

Wishing, Hoping and Praying

Everyday I do dishes or pass through our kitchen this always catches my eye (and my heart) ...

A sweet handmade gift from a dear friend.

It's a daily reminder of where our hearts are and where they'll remain until our daughter is home with us forever. 

The Insider

This is how we feel on the inside ...

and it's starting to show on the outside.

No referrals + no explanations + delays at the US Embassy + a full transition home + courts still being closed + unanswered emails = one emotionally exhausted couple!

In the beginning, we humbly came before our family and friends and asked for both your emotional and financial support to help us create our family through adoption. You were AMAZING!!! I mean SUPER AMAZING!!! Through your overwhelming generosity we raised over $20,000 in 6 short months. WOW!! I still get chills just thinking about it ... who says there aren't angels among us?!

These days we find ourselves in need of hugs ... LOTS of HUGS, shoulders to be used as snot rags and warm bodies to hold our punching bags. We may not have a lot to say because frankly there isn't a lot of information being relayed but we could use the warmth and love of our friends and family just being there. We're in a rough spot right now ... we feel so close but in all reality we're still so far away.

I hope to share more news with you soon. Right now we're anxiously awaiting the courts to reopen, praying for families to pass Embassy, and REALLY hoping that our agency gives out referrals soon. The most heartbreaking thing about all the waiting is that the need for forever families has not changed ... orphanages and transition homes are still full of orphans ... the sad truth is that a mountain of bureaucracy is just standing between the two.

"Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." Matthew 11:23-24 


Praying,

Tenth Month Waiting

Last week our agency announced in their weekly update that they are still within their projected wait times for referrals. We were told when we signed up with Children's Hope International (CHI) that the average wait time for a female 0-12 months old was a 7-11 month wait time. I pray they're right because that would mean that our referral is getting close because TODAY marks our 10th month waiting. YEAH!!!

Two of our favorite people, Aunt Vivi and Uncle Jim celebrated our 10th month waiting on a recent trip to Louisville. Both Vivian and Jim have been so supportive of our adoption, we are forever thankful for their love and support throughout the process.

This picture was taken in Costco ~ they're brave souls.

I also wanted to share this extra special gift Aunt Vivi recently gave us to celebrate our adoption. She purchased it at August House Studio in Chicago which hosts the annual Dumela Contemporary African Art Show in her local neighborhood. The artwork comes from Africa and is created by African artists (this piece was hand painted by an artist from Ghana).  We are in love with this painting, it reminds us of HER and her birth mother, it's beautifully done and warms our hearts, we'll treasure it always! Thank You Aunt Vivi!

Last Friday marked 3 months with no referrals given out from our agency. GEEZ! Talk about challenging! Our patience have been tested BUT we are in a good place (emotionally speaking - at least for now anyways) and hopeful all this waiting will result in us seeing our little girl's face sooner than later.

Please join us in praying for the CHI Staff and everyone involved with Ethiopian adoptions, the orphans waiting to be referred and matched, their birth families, and all the other waiting families across the world longing to have their children in their arms forever. It's a hard battle to fight but worth every stresser and heartache encountered along the way.

Marcus Samuelsson Rocks!

Has it really been almost a month since the last time I blogged?! Oops.

Guess we've been too busy hanging out with our new friends ...

Yes, we're besties with Ryan Seacrest and Julianne Hough these days! No, not really but we did run into them in Chicago and they were kind enough to chat and pose for this picture with us. They're a really cute couple.

Bret and I snuck in a Labor Day getaway to Chicago by piggy-backing on a work trip I had to the Windy City. We spent time touring the city, eating, shopping and hanging with our Aunt Vivi. We had a fabulous weekend!

We started the week out right by visiting Ethiopian born Chef Marcus Samuelsson's C-House restaurant located in the Affinia Hotel in downtown Chicago.

Date Night!


Here is just a sample of our yummy cuisine:

Gunthorp Farm Pork Chop ~ roast summer squash, white peaches, and crispy polenta

Red Snapper ~ tempura fried squash blossoms, maitakes, broccoli, and basil

Mac & Cheese ~ pork sausage and goat cheddar

We had never heard of Chef Marcus Samuelsson until about a month ago (where have we been?!) ... we were milling around the house watching HGTV and they were featuring famous celebrities homes (HGTV's version of "Cribs"), when I saw Samuelson point to an Amharic Alphabet and then explain he was born in Ethiopia and adopted by a Swedish couple.

Bret and I stopped what we were doing and instantly started paying more attention to the t.v. We seem to have super sonic hearing when it comes to words like: "Ethiopia", "Adoption" and "Africa" - they tend to peak our interest and divert our attention. We looked into Samuelsson a little more after the show and discovered that he had two restaurants in Chicago - where we were headed in a few short weeks - YEAH! His food was absolutely FANTASTIC!

Marc Burger was his other restaurant that we visited. It was located in Macy's food court in downtown Chicago and it was delicious.

Bret, embrassed of me taking his picture in the food court.

Smoky BBQ Burger with paprika, applewood bacon, and homemade bbq sauce

Classic Cheeseburger with homemade slaw and pickles

Strawberry Custard Shake

The Decor`

We are officially Marcus Samuelsson fans! Now, if we can just make it to New York to visit his Red Rooster Restaurant in Harlem we'd be in good shape.

Thanks for staying tuned. We'll try to be more active on our blog in the coming months. Hopefully we'll have some good news to announce before 2012.

Thanks for your continued love and support,