MIA

In the interest of minimizing duplication of work (and maintaining my sanity as we wait for our daughter's referral), I posted portions of our lastest entry (edited for name appropriateness) from Big Brother C's blog here (hope this isn't too confusing for you - we use initials for names!).

Wow, how time flies when you're having fun. Since we last blogged (interesting that this word is now ingrained in our vocabulary, eh?), we've had several very interesting adventures. Big Brother C finished preschool. On the last day, E took pictures of C w/ his "buddies", J, M, and A (the boys). Here they are invoking their inner Spidermen and Supermen:

When looking at the pictures, it was interesting to note that E even was able to include a picture of the "big truck" which was the subject of many conversations (pretty much on a daily basis) after preschool. After naptime, C and J (sitting next to C) raced to the playground - the winner received the spoils of playing w/ the big truck (instead of the small truck). C informed us each day regarding whom won the race (either being elated from his victory or upset that J did not share the big truck).

It's amazing to realize how much C has grown (both physically and developmentally) since August. Language skills alone are astounding. Many thanks to Ms. Janice and Ms. Melanie (yes, *gasp* names are included) for all they did to help C grow as a preschooler. He'll miss you when he starts class in the "green school" in August!

Here's Ms. Janice and C:

and Ms. Melanie and C:


In addition to finishing his first year of preschool, C enjoyed his first beach vacation. Opa and Oma (E's parents) joined us as we traveled to one of the beaches in SC. We stayed in a very nice location (think timeshare and hotel combined) with private access to the beach and a private pool. C was fascinated by the tide and most enjoyed the puddles of oceanwater that formed when the tide rolled away (but, alas, we weren't sittin' at the dock of the bay). C pretended to swim and wanted us to call him "turtle." Let's just say we've created a beach bum! He also unleashed his inner Tiger Woods and had several hole-in-ones on the local miniature golf courses. C was most fascinated by the "big sharks" and "turtle" at Ripley's Aquarium in Myrtle Beach (alas, Mum-mum was not able to convince C that the turtle was a female named "Gabrielle" - according to C, it was a boy turtle like in Nemo...). Toward the end of the week, we had dinner at an excellent restaurant named "Pacino's Mediterranean Grille." The owners took C under their wing, had him draw a picture, sign his name, and place it in the kitchen - oh, yes, and the food was absolutely FABULOUS!

We've also had our fair share of doctor visits. After his hospitalization, C had two flare ups of respiratory symptoms (wheezing and fever), so we've visited a pulmonologist (lung doctor) and allergist (Dr. Maeve O'Connor - we highly recommend her!). C survivied his PFT (pulmonary function test) and allergy testing (ouchies which earned him a trip to Ben & Jerry's for "brown ice cream on a BIG cone"). So, C is now a seasoned pro in using his inhaler w/ spacer and taking his "yummy medicine" (aka Zyrtec). Oh, yes, let's not forget his visit to the optometrist - C will soon be the proud owner of glasses that will need to be worn when he's watching TV or reading books ("Just like Ba." C stated).

Just like any good big brother, C has started using "baby sister" as his alibi when he's caught committing infractions ("I no do it. Baby sister do it."). However, Big Brother C showed his tender side when discussing all the things he wanted to do for his baby sister (feeding, changing diaper, rocking or "woking" as he calls it). He said, "I love Ba, Mum-mum, and Baby Sister."

On the bright side, C loves giving kisses and hugs at bedtime (and will let you know if he hasn't been able to do so). Just in the past week, C has independently begun saying "Yes sir" and "Yes ma'am" (with prompting from Mum-mum to help him understand when sir and ma'am should be used - and no, I can't receive any credit for this one...he started this on his own).

Our neighbor S finished painting the kids' bathroom. I'll post pictures once I discover the location of my camera (MIA or AWOL at the moment - waiting for the ranson note to appear). As for the "theme" - let's just say we brought a little bit of the beach home to Charlotte.

On a final note, we've begun the wonderful joy of nighttime potty training (no more diapers for our big boy). On a positive note, we have had a few (stress the word few) treasured dry-sheet and jammies nights (thanks to a nighttime wake up and emptying of the bladder). On the flip side, this means we've had a many days of waking up to the sounds of "I wet" and even more laundry cycles for Ba. If all goes well, we'll have one fully potty trained, just in time to begin diapers for #2!

Here's a video montage of our trip. Hope you enjoy!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Eight months

Well, eight months have passed since we found ourselves attaining waitlist status. As with international adoption, timelines are subject to change (well, IA in general is a fluid, dynamic process...expect the unexpected). Fortunately, big brother C has been keeping us busy with his antics (guess it'll be time to update his blog as well...a project for another day).

I was looking back at C's blog and realized that two years ago on the 26th, we received C's referral. Wouldn't it be interesting if we received our daughter's referral this month as well? Speculation, of course (perhaps more wishful thinking than anything).

The understanding and perspective of time is extremely helpful. Simultaneously, it feels as though we've been on the waitlist both a brief moment of time and an eternity. I've seen our name move up the unofficial list and hope that, in another brief period of time, our process will take the next step.

Waiting is never easy. But, I do remember the wait seemed so minimal when the referral call took place. I hold on to that thought as the days continue to pass. It's not a matter of if the referral will take place, it's a matter of when...

So for now, I sit here listening to the sounds of silence (with the exception of the drumming of the keyboard) and remain hopeful the call will be received soon. I gained renewed joy as I read updates on blogs and hear about other families who have been waiting longer (and sometimes shorter) receiving their referrals, passing court, and traveling to be united with their precious bundles of joy.

Life is good...

Sweethearts

With Valentine's Day approaching, I spoke w/ C to help him understand the concept of Valentines and "sweethearts." I told him that Ba and he were my sweethearts and that he and I were Ba's sweethearts. So then, I asked C who his sweetheart was. He smiled and said, "My sister."

Tonight, as we were helping C prepare for bed (as per our usual routine) and asked C which books he would like to read. He looked at us, pointed to the small books in his bookcase and said, "small books for baby sister."

There are times it seems that time is moving at warp speed. Counting today, we have been on the waitlist for 134 days -or-

4 months, 11 days -or-

19 weeks -or-

3,216 hours -or-

192,960 minutes (Hopefully we won't reach 525,600 minutes!) -or-
11,577,600 seconds (but who's counting?)

Based on new estimates from our agency, families are waiting (on average) 6 1/2 month to receive a referral. So, we hope to receive a referral sometime between E's and my birthdays (March 25th and April 25th).

Gladney Family - October 18, 2008

Warmest wishes and congratulations to our ET Gladney families who either received court approval, court dates, or referrals this week. We look forward to joining your ranks in the near future when the time is right to be united with our DD!

Two weeks down, countless others to go...

Inquiring Minds Want to Know...

So, now that we are officially on "wait list," I thought it would be fun to ask you all to make your "referral predictions" about the referral date and age of our DD.

So put on your prognosticating hats and bring on the predictions! I'll post the list under the adoption time line.

Waitlist!

A, our ET caseworker, informed us today that we have officially been placed on waitlist. What does this mean? Elementary, my dear Watson...our dossier is now complete and has been submitted to DC for authentication. From there, our dossier will be sent to ET, translated into Amharic (the native language of ET...yay, more new words to learn), and held by the agency's in-country reps.

So now, the fun begins. Currently, families have waited for approximately four to six months on average to receive a referral. But, as we are well aware with int'l adoption, this is only an estimate. Our wait could be shorter, or longer. If all goes well, hopefully E (aka Ba - yes, since C already calls E "Ba", our DD from ET will learn that name as well) will receive a wonderful birthday present in March 2009 (but, we are open to that wonderful call coming earlier, ya' know...).

Unlike our last adoption journey, we now have C to keep us preoccupied and entertained. There is nothing better than the giggles of a three year old to brighten your life after a long day of teaching. We look forward to growing our family to four and know our DD will be united with us, when the time is right!

Seasoned Pros

It's interesting...

How similar, yet different, our second adoption journey is shaping itself to become. In less than three months, we find ourselves where we were at the six month mark in our first adoption. I'm also amazed as how calm and peaceful I truly feel. Part of this may be attributed to the fact that we're (apparently) "seasoned pros" or that we have C to keep us occupied with his daily antics and the new discoveries that each day brings.

We had our CIS appointment on June 24th, as scheduled. I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly we completed the process that day (E and I had brought reading materials with us, just in case). The staff were very pleasant. And now, we wait for the wonderful I-171H approval, which signals the final step in the dossier collection process. From there, our documents will be authenticated & sent to ET (and we'll be on the official "wait list").

I suppose it helps to have summer vacations and travel plans to help the time pass more quickly. I'm enjoying the summer break from my teaching schedule (the downside to time passing more quickly means August 18th will arrive before I know it!).

We have a new ET caseworker through the agency, A. We're looking forward to working with her and have enjoyed discovering commonalities. She, like E, was born in PA and lived here in NC before moving to TX (and, sounds like she's a Tarheel fan...we'll get along just fine :D ).

As with our first adoption journey, we won't prepare our daughter's room until after we receive a referral and are closer to court approval and travel. Unlike C's room, it won't have to be painted (it's already a very pretty shade of pink) - and the house is already child-proofed! We'll also wait to see our beautiful daughter & learn her ET name before determining whether we will keep her ET name or have a blended name (like we did for C).

On Friday evening, an African Children's Choir will be performing at a local church. I look forward to attending the event with my family. We're also planning to have dinner at a local ET restaurant very soon w/ friends (B teaches African politics & spent a year teaching in Kenya). I've had the pleasure of eating there before and look forward to returning for more delicious cuisine.

All for now. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers!

Another step forward...

To our surprise, we received a FedEx package from the FBI today. We are cleared by our fine agents in Clarksburg. We also received a draft copy of the homestudy yesterday via email for our review.

Another step (and 1/2 forward)...

Moving Right Along...

The peace and stillness of nightime hours allows me opportunities to reflect upon how wonderfully blessed we truly are. I am filled with a sense of amazement and wonder of the miracle of parenthood, of how truly special it is to receive this responsibility of nurturing our children and assisting them to develop into the adults they will become.

We've begun talking with C and telling him that he will be a big brother. I've enjoyed seeing him look at me, make a rocking motion with his hands, and say "baby." We're very fortunate that C was the oldest child at his care center in VN. While at the care center, he lived with six infants & was indeed their "big brother." He was a great help to the nannies (within the scope a 2 year old can provide) and will be a great help to Ba and Mum-Mum.

Since the last post, we've continued to move along the paper trail. Our home study (hs) was completed on the 8th. We enjoyed meeting S., the SW from our agency and were quite happy to learn that our hs would be completed in one visit. She's now working on writing the report and hopefully we'll have an initial draft by the end of next week. After the hs is finalized, our file will be reviewed to receive "agency approval." Another big step!!!

Kudos to our agency (especially JW & JB) for their willingness to answer the many questions I have and always doing so in a warm, caring, and timely manner!

We're also moving right along with collecting our documents for the dossier. It's been a tremendous stress reliever to have decided to use KBS Dossiers to help prepare our ET dossier. K has been great to work with and is very timely in sending updates. Currently, we only have a few outstanding items (once K receives the forms I mailed to her today):

1. FBI results (which can take up to 6 wks to receive)
2. Homestudy documents (see above)
3. CIS approval (see below)

Speaking of CIS, we receive our appointments today in the mail. We're scheduled for June 24th! Yay, that's 10 days from now. It will probably take around 3 months to receive our approval but once K receives our last few items, the dossier will be reviewed by JB at the agency. Afterwards, our dossier documents will be certified and authenticated. After authentication, the dossier will be translated and sent to ET (we'll officially be DTE - "dossier to Ethiopia"). That will place us on the wait list for a referral!

As I've said before, each day (and small step of achievement) brings us one step closer to being united with our daughter!

On the move

Every day brings us one step closer to our beautiful daughter. It's quite interesting to see how much progress we've made since April 25th. So far, we've:

• Completed our Gladney application
• Made our first payment
• Sent in a lot of forms to Gladney and KBS Dossier
• Requested certified copies of several documents for the dossier
• Become very familiar w/ the Automated Postal Service machine at our local post office
• Completed our ET training (fortunately our preparation for C's adoption was counted toward our Hague training)
• Sent (and resent) our I-600A application and payment (**note to future adoptive parents - make sure you read the instructions carefully...your payment needs to cover both the main application fee (currently $670) PLUS $80 per adult for biometric fees**)

Tomorrow (well, technically today since it's after midnight), we're off to have fingerprints taken for our FBI clearance request, passport pictures made, and more forms notarized!

As I finally grow tired for the night, I am truly amazed at how tranquil and calm I feel during this process. We are working steadily to complete our Gladney application and the dossier. Perhaps these feelings stem from having an incredibly strong support network of family and friends (and having gone through the process once before) and knowing that we will be united with our daughter when the time is right.

We don't know whether our daughter has been born yet but I am already growing a strong bond of parental love for this child who will one day in the near future be united with her family.