Hodge Podge

We had a very busy weekend. Friday night we went to a Latin American festival where we met up with some other Guat adoptive families. We had some good food, the kids did some fun crafts, we had wonderful company and we ended the night dancing to a great salsa band from Puerto Rico. This was the 3rd year Dave and I have attended the festival. The first year we were just a month from going to Guatemala to see Lili for the first time and dreaming of the day we would have her with us at the festival. The next year that dream came true and on Friday night we once again took our beautiful Guatemalan princess to enjoy some Latin American flare. This has become a family tradition and one we plan to continue in the future.

On Sunday we headed to a local park and met up with some other Ethiopian adoptive families. The kids had a great time playing and we enjoyed a nice pot luck dinner. Not only did I get to see some familiar faces, but I was finally able to meet a couple people that I have chatted with via email and forums. One of the ladies, Jennifer, is using the agency that our agency partners with, so our children will be coming from the same orphanage. We've traded emails several times over the past few months and I had a great time chatting and getting to know her better. One thing I learned in chatting with her is not only is it important for me to regularly keep putting new information on my blog, but it's also very important to include photos with my blog posts :-) So, I pulled out my camera tonight and took a couple pictures of Lili just for her. Hope you enjoy them Jennifer!!!!

Lili is really starting to enjoy having her picture taken and obviously she enjoys trying out different poses and facial expressions:-)

Today was Ryan's official move-in date with the new agency. He was pretty happy on the drive and when we arrived to day training, he immediately went to his room, got out his favorite sensory box and made his way to a chair in his favorite corner of the room. He actually reminds me of a king sitting on his throne so he can see everyone who enters or leaves the room and can oversee everything going on around him. It's pretty funny really.

After dropping Ryan off at day training, Lili and I headed to Wal-Mart to pick up a few last minute items he was going to need and then took the rest of his personal belongings to his new home. I was actually more emotional than I expected to be. I'm so thrilled that he's in a good place, but at the same time having him 125 miles away from us is sad. What's most important is for him to be happy and successful. We feel a great deal of confidence that this new agency is going to help him find happiness and success, so the 125 mile difference will be well worth it.

With Ryan moved in and things beginning to settle down, I'm ready to focus on getting some things done around the house. I've really put a lot of things on the back burner over the last couple of months and need to start tackling some of those things. The office is in need of serious cleaning and organization; my entire house needs a good dusting from floor to ceiling and every where in between; the weeds have over taken my garden walkway and it's become very embarrassing; I have books that need to be taken down to the office and put on the shelves that Dave spent so much time building and hanging in the closet; of course I haven't even lifted a finger on Naomi's future room. The list just goes on and on and on.

Speaking of Naomi, I don't remember the last time I posted an update on our adoption. Our dossier arrived in Ethiopia 14 1/2 weeks ago or 3 months, 1 week and 4 days ago. Our official wait begins when our dossier is registered, but I've never been able to get a registration date from our agency, so I'm going by the date of arrival in country. We've been told for months that we should anticipate a 5-6 month wait, however, there are several families on our agency forum who have been waiting 6+ months now, so it's beginning to look like the wait times are increasing a bit. At this point, I'm really fine with a longer wait. We've had a lot going on recently and having a little more time to get things done at home and ready for our newest addition is okay right now. Our referral will happen when it happens and I'm going to try very hard not to stress over the wait. Now everyone has this blog post they can refer me back to when we hit the 5, 6 or 7 month mark and I'm stressing over our referral. LOL!!!!

One quick Lili story and then I'll close.

While eating dinner at the park yesterday, Lili tells me she has to go potty. So, we head to the bathroom where she proceeds to 'go potty.' We wash our hands and head back to the picnic area to finish our dinner and she announces to our table, "I poop." Just what everyone wants to know while eating dinner. Okay, she's 2 and she's proud of her bathroom moments. What more can I say?

I'm sure everyone is now thrilled that they continued to read this blog post to the very end :-)