Ready, Set...

The beds are made.

The hand crafted dolls by Crafty Mommy are done.

The dressers are built.

The shelf is hung.

The prints are up.

The peace flags are flying.

The dogs are saying, 

"Wait! What?? What do you mean this isn't all for us??"

And the Mom and Dad are just waiting to hear the word go...

One Step Closer

As most of you know, international adoption requires an inordinate amount of paperwork gathering, paperwork authenticating and unfortunately for some, paperwork updating.

When we started this process back in, oh, the last decade (ok, 20 months ago) the average wait times were estimated to be only 3 - 5 months so I didn't think we would have to cross this bridge of expiring documents. As it turns out, most of it hasn't been all that bad, but the timing has been somewhat nerve wracking. You can't update things in advance like I would have preferred so it's all going on now and I have had a few sleepless nights worrying that things won't happen in time, which would delay our ability to get these boys home.

Our recent challenge has been getting our CIS fingerprints updated. I sent in the request for our fingerprinting appointments as soon as we were allowed to, back in early November. Eleven days later we received our appointment date and all seemed to go smoothly when we showed up for our appointment on December 16th . But then we waited...and waited...our original fingerprints expired and still we waited. It only took two weeks for them to process our prints last year, and that timeframe included the Thanksgiving holiday, so when we hadn't heard anything after six weeks I started to get worried.

I tried emailing them...

Nothing.

I tried emailing them again with "URGENT PLEA FOR ASSISTANCE" in the subject line and an explanation that we had received our referral, were expected to travel to Addis soon, and that this delay could impact our ability to bring these children home...

Still nothing.

I got our case worker in on the act and she emailed them, and a week later emailed them again...

Still nothing!

On Thursday, Kristin (our case worker) and I emailed back and forth about it. I asked if she thought it would help if I physically showed up at their offices in Hartford. She said it might. I asked if she knew the address. She sent me the address and I replied to say that I would drive up there the next day. I hit send and low and behold, while we had been emailing back and forth, CIS had emailed Kristin to say that our prints had just been processed!

PHEW! And what crazy timing but mostly just phew! It will still take about a month for them to make their way to Addis Ababa so this really happened just in time.

The moral of the story? Don't be afraid to get your stalk on!

In spite of all this, I have been surprisingly at peace with this stage of the wait. I know it is the hardest part for most people, but we waited so long for our referral and those last two months were full of so much uncertainty, that this feels like a walk in the park. Something about seeing the boys' faces has made us feel like everything is going to be ok. And we have been overwhelmingly blessed with pictures and videos from traveling families, so we know that they are doing alright and are being well cared for.

Monday marks the completion of seven weeks waiting for our court date. The boys have gotten cuter and we have fallen more in love with every passing day. I have been trying hard not to think too much about our court date. Trying hard not to do what I did when waiting for our referral and get my hopes up too early. Trying really hard.

But I do hope it's soon...I do hope so, I do...

Wordless Wednesday

Mens Cross Country Skiing: Robel Teklemariam

A Dream

I had a particularly vivid dream about the boys last week. I was standing in our living room. The furniture was different than it really is, you know the way dreams do that. The boys were sitting on the couch in front of me.

I just stood there looking at them for a while, thinking about how gorgeous and sweet they are. Suddenly I realized that they would hear me if I started singing. I picked up a stuffed rabbit off the floor and started singing Little Rabbit Foo-Foo

(*Needle scratching on record sound*

I learned that song as a child at summer camp but I have NO IDEA why my subconscious mind chose it. Although it will be a great song to sing with them in a few years when they are a little older, it would not be my choice now! Anyway, back to the dream...)

They started singing along and I couldn't believe that they knew the words.

And then I realized that if I wanted to I could also hold them. All I had to do was walk around the coffee table and sit down on the couch. They climbed onto my lap and then…

The alarm went off!

Hoping some day soon all this is more than just a dream. Tomorrow marks six weeks waiting for our court date...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Wordless Wednesday

A Favorite Poem

The Place I Want to Get Back To ~by Mary Oliver

The place I want to get back to

is where
in the pinewoods
in the moments between
the darkness

and first light
two deer
came walking down the hill
and when they saw me

they said to each other, okay,
this one is okay,
let's see who she is
and why she is sitting

on the ground, like that,
so quiet, as if
asleep, or in a dream,
but, anyway, harmless;

and so they come
on their slender legs
and gazed upon me
not unlike the way

I go out to the dunes and look
and look and look
into the faces of the flowers;
and then one of them leaned forward

and nuzzled my hand, and what can my life
bring me that could exceed
that brief moment?
For twenty years

I have gone every day to the same woods,
not waiting, exactly, just lingering.
Such gifts, bestowed,
can't be repeated.

If you want to talk about this
come to visit. I live in the house
near the corner, which I have named
Gratitude.

Updates

Around the middle of every month our agency sends an update to families who have received their referral. This mid-month update consists of a photo along with current height and weight measurements.

Also mid-month, families who are adopting children 2 years of age and older are allowed to send a photo and a letter to their future children. We had the opportunity to do this for the first time a couple weeks ago.

At the beginning of the month our agency sends another update (have we mentioned lately how much we love our agency) with more pictures and a personality write-up on the children. We got our first update of this nature a couple days ago. Here's what they wrote (the boys names have been changed as we cannot post that information until they are legally ours):

"Dg and Dr were full of life and spice today, as always, and, as always, greeted me with mischievous grins.  They were busy eating a snack of bread which they kindly offered to me.  Dg also demonstrated a little Ethiopian shoulder dancing from his crib.  When we read them their letter, they listened and smiled wide as they heard about their new family.  They looked at the picture of their new mommy and daddy and almost got in a fight over who was going to hold the picture!  The scuffle was quickly worked out when Dg yanked the picture away and kissed it.  What delightful boys!"

Here is a cropped version of one of the pictures they sent. The piece of paper they are holding is the letter/picture from us. They do indeed have big smiles on their faces.

I think my heart just might burst!

Wordless Wednesday