Monday, November 24, 2008

Too Cute

Kristen, my sister in law, emailed me tonight about some photos and such. Then she "said" that Kendyl (our insanely cute and crazy 4 year old niece) was upset the other night and shed a few tears because she has not got to see her baby cousin. Kristen assured her that we feel the same way.

I think it is great how excited she is. At first we tried to explain little things to her: the baby is coming from Africa, she (or he) will be brown, the baby is not in my belly (although it may look like it soon). She just wants to know how soon the baby is arriving. ME TOO! Kendyl has also made a few pictures for the baby. One is hanging above the changing table in the babies room-the rest I will add to the scrapbook (that I intend to start any day now).

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Great Weekend

We allowed ourselves to take a bit of a break this weekend. Friday we had dinner with Emily and Tim. They adopted their beautiful little girl from Liberia and are awaiting THREE boys.

On Saturday we went to Paige & Albert's to take the perfect family photo. And as many of you know it is so easy to get that perfect family portrait when a two year old is involved (HA!). Astrid & Elliott have to be too of the cutest kids ever. Now if only Astrid would sit still and not eat her shoe (or pick her nose) we would be all set. The photos were a lot of fun. Afterwards they made us dinner (the grown ups did-not the kids). We stayed and played cards until midnight.

We are so lucky to have made some wonderful new friends. It is great to talk to other mom's about the process. Its hard for people to truly understand all that goes into inter country adoption unless you have been through it. Our husbands also seem to enjoy making fun of our insanity as we go through this journey.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Oh I forgot to mention

We got that final piece of paperwork in the mail (we had been waiting for over a month).

Great Meeting: IFIF

We attended our first IFIF (Interracial Families In Friendship) meeting on Saturday. It was great to meet so many wonderful people.

The families that we met had adopted from Ethiopia (yeah), Liberia (W. Africa), Guatemala, and many domestic adoptions. The kids ran around screaming and having a great time. I love the idea that we can get together with other families that have white mommies and/or daddies and brown babies. Hopefully our peanut will see our family as normal (well as normal as this family is going to get anyway).

What is IFIF? Just a group of interracial families that meet once a month for dinner. That's it. So simple but such a huge benefit. In the winter they meet at a church community room. In the summer they have different outings at parks etc...

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Oh Happy Day!

I have had the song 'Oh happy Day' stuck in my head all day today or atleast the little bit of the song that I know from watching Sister Act as a kid. Well it has actually went back and forth from Oh Happy Day to Today (smashing pumpkins...today is the greatest day i've ever known, can't wait for tomorrow...) . I admit it is an odd mix of songs.

I am slightly in shock. I forgot that sometimes we actually know who the next president will be on election day. I am so glad we don't have to spend days waiting and recounting.

I am thrilled that we will bring our peanut home the same year that our first African-American president takes office. This gives me great hope and joy.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Just 45 more weeks!

I can't believe at this point we are still 45 weeks (roughly) away from receiving our referral. We're 7 weeks in and it is already making me crazy. I thought by the time we got on the wait list I would be fine. God knows we are so busy its not even funny but I am still going a little (ok a lot) crazy. I would like to by stuff for the baby. It is hard enough to do that when you don't know the sex of the baby but we don't event know how big he/she will be.

It occurred to me that I will be 32 on Christmas-can you believe it??? This was supposed to be my deadline for babies. Yep, by 32 we were to be done having children. This had been my plan since I was a teenager. The thought that I may be 33 by the time we bring home our first is hard to swallow. Part of my thinking as a teenager was that they would be out of the house by the time I was 50. Joel, in his great wisdom, joked 'we can just adopt older kids next time'. It made me laugh.

Next week we are going to an IFIF (Interracial families in friendship) meeting. It seems like many of the families are adoptive families (and some have adopted from Ethiopia). I am looking forward to it. One of the moms is a wedding planner at a church we have been to several time. What a small world.
Lilypie Waiting to Adopt tickers