Wordless Thursday

Wordless Wednesday

The Greatest Gifts

Today is my birthday. On this day for the past several years, our lack of children was the first thing to enter my mind.

This morning I woke up sandwiched between my two sweet and super snugly little boys. Before my eyes were open, before I even uttered a sound, my sons sang Happy Birthday to me. I couldn’t believe it! My joyful surprise was reflected in their smiles, as they beamed with pride at making me so happy.

Best birthday e.v.e.r. and it's not even 9 o'clock yet!

Wordless Wednesday

Happiest Halloween

Last year on Halloween we had been waiting almost 11 months to see our children's faces. You can click on the Halloween label below to read my post from two years ago, and see how long we thought we would be waiting to become parents!

On most days I was still feeling fairly strong but all the Spidermen and fairy princesses got the better of me that day. Mark sat alone and uncomplaining on our front steps passing out candy, while I changed into my pj's and sulked off to bed to live vicariously through other people's blogs. This post in particular stood out, and inspired both hope and tears (although now that I look at the date on Julie's post, I can see that it was written a few days after Halloween, so I must have been in a multi-day, pj-wearing, sulk!)



This year Halloween started with two excited, smiling boys in skeleton jammies.

Before 9 AM, the adventures of Shark and Giraffe began!

Shark had a face to face encounter with his archnemesis, Clover the Cow...

...and he carefully chose his favorite food for dinner.

Giraffe helped pick out the fruits...

...and veggies, as Giraffes are inclined to do.

Then they went on a hayride and posed for the gratuitous pumpkin shot, but smiles were hard to come by due to a man in a cow costume that was causing some distress.

Scary cow-man was soon forgotten with the push of a ghost button!

After nap we attended a costume party with the neighbors, where there was a lot of running around and general excitement! Hard to get pictures of them in motion and we left before the group shot due to another grown-up in a scary monster costume. I felt no need to push them out of their newly achieved sense of security by forcing them to confront their fears, so we left when tears became the dominant theme.

Finally it was time for the long awaited trick-or-treating. Pictures do not accurately depict the abundant cuteness that ensued!

Finally it was time to survey the loot and choose the one allowed piece of candy. My boys are no dummies and choose the largest, stickiest piece of ooey-gooey goodness! We never give them candy so it was interesting to see the sugar take affect. It really DOES make them bounce off the walls!

What a difference a year makes!

I hope you had a happy Halloween too. If not, keep the faith. Dreams do come true, and I hope yours comes true very, very soon.

Happy Friday

Here We Go!!!

The car to take us to the airport arrives in 5 minutes.

In two weeks, little tummies will be fed at this table.

Little art projects (or big messes!) will happen at this table.

And little boys, our long awaited beautiful, beautiful sons will be sleeping in these beds (or not!).

Words cannot describe the joy and gratitude that I am feeling right now!

Thank you for all your love and support!

XOXO,

Heidi, Mark, Derebe & Degaye

Lasts

The packing is done.

The house is mostly clean.

Mark is at work, so today is my last day at home alone with the dogs.

All I can hear are the sounds of my laptop fan and the birds outside. It is a beautiful spring day, full of sunshine and soft breezes, and my roses have started to bloom. I can see bright pink blossoms from where I sit.

I am drinking it all in, the solitude, the silence, while I can.

I am going to spend this evening putting together a little table and chair set, imagining the many art projects, snacks, pretend train rides that will happen there.

Soon I will no longer have to imagine.

Tonight is our last night at home without our sons.

It's Really Happening!

Our tickets and rooms are booked! Now all I have to do is get home from this business trip and start packing.

Yes, once again I got the good news while traveling. I have done a lot of happy crying in public places this year! This time I was in the quiet car on the Amtrak train. Thank goodness for being able to share the news with everyone over the internet or I think I would have burst! You all are awesome, by the way. Your support continues to move and floor me!

I am a planner by nature and we have been planning this trip for two years so I think we are in good shape. We have just about everything we need, maybe one more run to a store or two, but mostly just need to figure out how to stuff it all into suitcases! To those who have given us tips and advice, THANK YOU!!!!

We will be flying to Dubai, spending the night there, then spending one day/night in Addis before driving down to Awassa and the surrounding area where the boys are from. We will be back in Addis on Sunday and that's when we take placement of our sons!!!!!!! We will spend a week getting to know each other before flying back home!!!!!!!

It is hard to believe that this is really, finally happening!!!! We're coming boys and we already love you with all our hearts!!!!!!!

Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!

FIVE DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SIX DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!

All the worrying and waiting and wondering about when is over!

We leave in SIX DAYS!!!!

SIX DAYS, PEOPLE!!! Can you believe it???

Finally, on this last important step of the process, we fall into the BEST CASE SCENARIO!

Hallelujah!!!

Holy cow!!!

SIX DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SOMEBODY PINCH ME

We passed! We passed we passed we passed we passed !!!!!!!!!!
I can hardly believe it but they are OURS and we are THEIRS!!!!!!

HALLELUJAH!

It is with overwhelming joy that I introduce you to our boys.

OUR SONS!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

AT LAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today was the day we finally saw their faces. They are the most beautiful faces I have ever seen. Faces that are almost identical, except for a tiny little scar on one beautiful chin and a teeny little mark on one completely smoochable neck.

They are twins!! 28 months old!! A boy and a boy!! Brothers who have had each other through everything. Brothers who will continue to have each other and who, God willing, will have us very soon!!

Everyone says that it happens when you least expect it but I honestly thought that was impossible. I have been thinking about this call for eighteen months and expecting it almost every minute of every day for the past FIVE. How on earth could it come when I didn't expect it?

Well, it did. Today was an unusual day because I had to leave for an out of town business trip. I procrastinated over the weekend and had a lot to do so I was at my desk working hard by 6 AM. Mid-morning I sent our case worker an email with my schedule for the week, having given up on getting the call that morning and knowing that I would be hard to reach over the next few days. Then I packed a suitcase and headed for the airport.

By the time I got to the airport I had stopped thinking about getting the call completely, since it was already past the time I told Kristin she could reach me. I had about an hour to kill so I popped over to Brookstone to look at their carry-on bags. We’ve had one for several years that we really like and have been thinking of getting another one before our trip to Ethiopia (just because I stopped thinking about the call doesn't mean I stopped thinking about our adoption!). I called Mark and asked him to order it online so I wouldn’t have to drag it all the way to Denver and back. Then I walked over to the security line.

Just before taking my shoes off I looked at my Blackberry and saw an email from Kristin. I didn’t get excited. We’ve been emailing a lot over the past few weeks and I figured it was just her reply to my earlier email. But when I opened the message my eyes flew to the words:

“...your referral is READY” and “I think you are on a plane but call or email me if you get this...”

WHAAAAAT????

I didn’t even read the rest of the email. With tears streaming down my face and very shaky hands I somehow managed to type something like:

“NO I AM still HERE at the airpfrot for an hoiur call me!!!!”

Then I called Mark. That conversation went something like:

Mark: "Yeeees?" (Wondering why I was calling again since we had just hung up about the luggage.)
Me: "ARE YOU READY?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" (Very high pitched and much too loud. Incidently, I have no idea why I choose those words.)
Mark: "Ready for what?" (Probably still thinking about the luggage and wondering if I had finally lost it completely.)
Me: Blubbering and crying now. Must have said something about the email and our referral being ready. In any event, he figured it out.
Mark: Laughing and laughing and then “Where are you?”
Me: "Just about to go through security. I’ve stepped to the side."
Mark: More laughing...
Me: Laughing too now...
Me: "Why are we laughing?"
Mark: Still laughing..."We can’t do anything the easy way, can we? We can’t even get our referral like normal people!"
Me: "I KNOW! Look, let me get through security and get some place where I can boot up my laptop. I have 45 minutes before my plane boards. Maybe she can at least send us a picture or two before I get on the plane!"

Somehow I made it through security. The guard had to stop me first because I tried to walk through while responding to Mark’s text message telling me to hurry, then because I forgot to take off my sweater (really don’t understand what sort of terrorist plot could start with a sweater but ok) and then because my bracelets set off the alarm. SHEESH! Finally I got to the bench where you put your shoes back on and even before putting my shoes on I called Kristin.


Voicemail


Managed to put my shoes on and not forget any of my belongings. Then I walked over and sat down at gate C4. Realized that my gate was actually C14. Started high tailing it to C14 all the while trying to respond to several text messages from Mark and forward him the original email from Kristin. Somehow I made it to my gate without running anyone over in the process. I am sure I looked like a complete and utter lunatic.

There were about a million people in the waiting area but I found a seat in a corner way off to the side. Took a deep breath. Decided to read Kristin’s email in its entirety and started booting up my laptop. Then I called Kristin again.


Voicemail


So I called Mark instead and we just sat there laughing and crying and staring at our email inboxes hoping something would appear. I sent Kristin another email (poor Kristin!). Then after about 15 minutes we decided to hang up so that we wouldn’t waste our batteries. I think I called Kristin another 3 or 4 times, each time getting voicemail (POOR Kristin!!). The flight attendants started pre-boarding and I resigned myself to the fact that I was going to have to WAIT until I got to Denver. Before shutting down I decided to try calling one last time and there was Kristin’s sweet voice on the other end saying:


“Heidi?!!!! Can I send you an email? Wait till you see them, they are so precious!!!”


Oh my heart! I managed to open her email but then she started telling me their names and my brain turned to complete mush. I just sat there dumbfounded, having completely forgotten how to download an attachment. Really, for the life of me I couldn’t remember how to access the pictures (did I ever mention that I work for a SOFTWARE COMPANY?! Technology is kind of my THING!). Kristin kept saying, "Have you opened them yet?", which somehow snapped me to and then there they were! Two precious little boys. Looking more beautiful, and sweeter, and cuter, and funnier, and chubbier and sweeter, and more beautiful then I ever imagined! There they were smiling, and waving, and running, and wiggling around on the ground like little rascals! Be still my heart!

I really needed to get on my plane so Kristin agreed to call us tonight with the rest of the referral information after she puts her own children to bed (POOR WONDERFUL KRISTIN!!). I called Mark briefly so I could tell him how to pronounce their names and hear how happy he sounded. As I was walking onto the plane I emailed a few pictures to my mother. She called me in tears just as I got to my seat and we had a couple minutes to cry and rejoice together before they made me turn my phone off.

I wrote all of this while I was sitting on the plane, wishing I was celebrating with my family instead of squished into a tiny seat with a glass of apple juice, but at least I had the faces of my future sons to keep me company! I have looked at them about a thousand times already. Oh me, oh my, I am in love!!!!!!

P.S. For those who don't know, we aren't allowed to post pictures or their names on public internet sites until we pass court and they are legally our children (more to come on what that means). For now you will just have to take my word for it...they are gorgeous!!!