Always Something New

When starting out on our adoption journey, I did tons of research in an effort to try and choose the best agency. Not only was I looking for an agency with a good reputation, but an agency that would be a good match for us. Agencies certainly are not 'one size fits all.' While we had some complaints about the agency we used for Lili's adoption, overall we were pleased. I did my research again this time around and we chose a different agency from the one we had used the first time. We submitted our application, but a couple month later changed our minds and decided to go with an agency that we felt much more comfortable using. So far we've been very pleased with our decision on many levels.

Each adoption experience is different, regardless if you're adopting from the same country or not. One difference for us this time around, is that Naomi will be coming from an orphanage setting. Lili came to us from a foster home. I have heard from other families who have travelled to pick up their children and they confirmed that the babies and children are well cared for and get a lot of attention from the nannies, other employees of the orphanage and of course travelling families.

The orphanage our daughter will come from is Le Toukoul. I will link a video of Le Toukoul on the right hand side of my blog page for anyone who is interested in taking a look at the orphanage. Le Toukoul was started by two people from France and while I knew there were some ongoing projects, I found out today just how much work they are doing for the children in Ethiopia and once again have gotten confirmation that we made the right choice in switching agencies. Don't get me wrong, other agencies are doing good things in Ethiopia as well. I'm just very pleased with the work being done at Le Toukoul.

For those who are interested, our agency is Tree of Life out of Portland, OR. They are a partner agency of Adoption Avenues, also out of Portland.

Please take a look at this website for information on Le Toukoul and the work that is being done there. http://www.sosenfantsethiopie.com/English/sosenfantsethiopie.html

This and That

While I don't have any 'big' news to report, I thought I'd give everyone a quick update on the happenings in our lives.

A year ago Friday, we boarded a plane in Guatemala City with our new daughter and headed home. It was a long day, but well worth every second. Lili was a trooper throughout it all.

On the adoption front - We're still waiting on our 171H from USCIS. I've heard the Chicago office is taking anywhere from 2-12 weeks, so I really don't know what to expect. It will be 3 weeks ago this Tuesday that our home study was sent to them, so obviously it's taking longer than 2 weeks at this point. It took 3 1/2 weeks when we applied for Lili's adoption, but it all depends on how many they are processing at any given time. Right now I'm being patient, but we'll see how I'm feeling in a couple weeks if I still don't have it.

In the meantime, I took our dossier documents to the Secretary of State's office and had everything notary certified. I sent a copy of everything to our agency consultant to look over. If anything needs to be corrected or changed, at least we can get it done now while we're waiting on the final document to arrive.

At this point they are still anticipating we'll have a 5-6 month wait for our referral once our dossier is registered in Ethiopia. Once we send our completed dossier to the agency, they will send it off to the Ethiopia Embassy to have all the documents authenticated. The documents also have to be translated before everything is registered. We can expect that part of the process to take about 3 weeks. So we're basically looking at a 6-7 month wait for referral once we send our dossier off to the agency.

Over the last week Lili's language has really started to emerge. I don't know if it will continue or not, but she is suddenly attempting to say a lot more words as well as more 2-3 word sentences.

The other thing that has emerged is more screaming. While her language skills are improving, they are obviously not where she wants them to be. Her way of dealing with that frustration is 'screaming.' Not mom's choice of communication, but communication none-the-less.

Yesterday Lili and I decided to go do a little shopping. We were in need of some grocery items, but I also wanted to get her some new activities for home. Knowing she likes puzzles, we purchased a couple more. An 8-piece puzzle of animals and a 26 piece alphabet puzzle. I had a feeling the 8-piece puzzle wouldn't cause her too much trouble and I was right. The alphabet puzzle was certainly more challenging for her. However, it wasn't nearly as challenging as I anticipated. She asked for help, but by that point she already had 3 or 4 of the letters in the right spot. Hum!!!! Some of the other pieces weren't in the right spot and were turned side-ways. However, what she had done was matched up the colors. The letters are either red, blue, yellow, green or purple and she was matching the colors, but not necessarily the letters. I sat with her for a few minutes to help and she started catching on. The child isn't 2 years old yet! What is she going to be doing in a year? And will she have completely out smarted me by that point? Ahhhh!!!! I really am happy that she enjoys so many different activities. Kids this age are little sponges and we want to provide her as many learning opportunities as possible.

Dave and I also decided to make a purchase that would put more activity into our lives. Not that a toddler doesn't put more activity into our lives, because Lili certainly does that. However, we needed something that is going to put more aerobic type activity into our lives. We had been discussing various forms of exercise for awhile and finally settled on bikes. So, last weekend we hit the bike shop and each purchased a bike, plus child trailer. Unfortunately, the child trailer had to be ordered, so I left my bike at the shop so they could get everything set up once the trailer arrives. I should have my bike and Lili should have her set of wheels this week. 'Good bye flab, hello fab.' Okay, who am I kidding, I'm going to be in some serious pain for awhile. "Hello sore legs and derriere."

It's March 29th and we woke up to about 1-2 inches of snow this morning. Now the sun is out and there are just patches of snow on the ground. Got to love Spring in Illinois!!!! At least spring is back and I'm really going to want them once I get my bike.

For any of you who were planning to attend Re-Union '09 this year, the event has been cancelled. If you made hotel reservations, make sure you cancel them.

Since Re-Union '09 was cancelled, Dave and I made other travel plans. The event was being held in Tulsa, which is then a short drive to the Dallas area where we planned to go visit family for a few days. We are still going to visit family, but now we're going via Memphis. Okay, not necessarily a direct route from Illinois to Dallas, but we've never gone to Memphis. We'll go have some good BBQ, see some of the sights and then head to Texas. We have made the drive to Texas a few times, but never taken the southern route through Tennessee and Arkansas. A change of scenery will be nice!!!

GAFE is still happening this year and for those of you who have followed Guatadopt over the years, I just found out today that Kevin is going to be one of the speakers. There are other speakers and tons of activities planned, so I'm very much looking forward to this event.

There is also a Guatemala adoptive families weekend happening next month in St. Louis. It will include a trip to Grant's Farm and dinner together Friday and Saturday night. Last year we went to the zoo and had a great time, so this is another weekend event I'm very much looking forward to.

I think that about covers everything in our world these days. Not necessarily exciting, but sometimes that's a good thing.

Lilianaversary

It's hard to believe, but one year ago today, Lili was placed in our arms forever. Here is a little photo montage of our first year.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Hold Onto Your Hats

I'm actually posting again this week.

Actually I just wanted to share a couple photos of Lili :-) Spring has finally arrived and yesterday was more like a summer day here. We spent a lot of time outside, but being outdoors can be dangerous, especially when you aren't quite two years old and want to explore. She decided to try to work her way through branches of a Wisteria tree and lilac bush.

As you can see, the branches won. Fortunately she closed her eyes so there was no direct contact which would have been really bad.

Oh the joys of a beautiful Spring day!!!

Addition: Lili is standing on the bottom rung of a kitchen bar stool and peeking over the counter top. It allowed me to get a good shot of her injury.

A Huge Loss

While waiting for Lili I read book after book on adoption. So, while waiting on Naomi, I am reading even more books on adoption and also books about Ethiopia. One book I finished reading a few weeks ago is called "There's No Me Without You." This was a very eye opening story about a woman by the name of Haregewoin Teferra and how she began an orphanage in Ethiopia. I was amazed reading about this woman's life and just how instrumental she was in International adoption in Ethiopia.

Today I read the sad news that Haregewoin Teferra has died. This is a huge loss for the Ethiopia adoption community.

http://www.thereisnomewithoutyou.com/blog?op=view&id=64

If you haven't read this wonderful book, I would highly recommend it. It doesn't matter if you're adopting from Ethiopia, another country, or have no intentions of adopting, I think you'll be touched by this story.

Debbie

I Would Like to Announce

That we are now the proud owners of a new van.

Well, actually, it's a used Dodge Grand Caravan. It only had 12,000 miles on it and we got it for $10,000 - $12,000 less than the new vehicle price. It doesn't have a DVD player, which we really wanted for our road trips, but we'll take care of that one way or the other. The important thing is that I now have a set of wheels and can actually get errands run on my schedule instead of my husband's schedule.

Highs and Lows

The last 8 or 9 days have been full of highs and lows.

Low:

While I can't go into specific detail, I found out about a situation that has been pretty upsetting to me. A child was adopted by a family here in the U.S. and the family just needs to go pick up their child. However, there is strong indications that they have no intention of going to get their child and this child is most likely going to an orphanage now. With so many families "stuck in the system" in Guatemala who desperately want their children to come home, other families on wait lists to be matched with a birth mother domestically or referred a child Internationally, this situation makes me angry. But more than anything, I feel tremendous sadness for this child and the foster family that has so lovingly been providing care for this child. It's just beyond comprehension for me.

High:

Of course one of the highlights of the week was finding out our home study is headed to USCIS.

Low:

A family with our agency received devastating news when they were informed the little girl they were adopting had died from complications from the chicken pox.

High:

Always on the "high" list is catching Lili moments on camera. At least it helps me take the sting out of the lows.

A few weeks ago, one of Lili's aunts brought her a new puzzle. It's my understanding that a 22 month old child should be able to complete puzzles as big as 6 pieces, but our little girl is able to complete her new 12 piece U.S. puzzle in record time. Here she is as she fits the last piece of the puzzle in it's place.

Lili absolutely loves Jada and Lexie (our dogs). Sometimes they love Lili and other times they simply tolerate her. They obviously love her at meal time :-), but don't necessarily enjoy having her lay on them. However, they sure look cute together and here's proof.
Here's hoping for only good news for awhile.

Finally

After 5 months and 1 week, we finally received word today that our home study is being sent to the USCIS office in Chicago. All we need now is our 171H from USCIS and our dossier will be complete and ready to mail off to the agency. This is a big step forward!!!!!!

Favorite Photo Saturday

Again, I'm late getting out my FFF post. My excuse is that yesterday was an amazingly beautiful day here. Temps were in the upper 60's so Lili and I spent a lot of time outside cleaning the yard and playing.

Dave got home from work a little earlier than usual, so we headed out for the evening. We still haven't replaced our van which was totaled just over a month ago. I wanted to take a quick look at vans, so we drove through some dealership parking lots so I could take a peek. I was only able to look at the Honda and Dodge vans and can honestly say that vehicles are expensive. Next weekend we plan on going out to test drive a few. We have 3 road trips planned over the next few months and the first one is next month. We really want/need to have a new vehicle by then. Anyway, if you are a van driving mom (or dad), I would love to know what kind of van you drive and if you would buy another.

Sometimes I have a real struggle trying to decide what photos I want to post. This week was no different, so I'll just share some photos that I've taken over the last few weeks.

Lili is very uncooperative when it comes to getting her hair done. For a matter-of-fact, just brushing it can be a challenge. However, from time to time I try to get her to sit still long enough for me to try something new and different. A few weeks ago I decided to try the two pony tail look and here is what I got.

I realized recently that I've spent a lot of time trying to get really cute, smiley photos of Lili. Getting her to smile for the camera is not an easy thing to do. Most of the time I end up with a shot of Lili looking serious. She certainly has a serious side, but for the most part she is a happy, active little girl. However, there is another side of Lili that I really don't talk about often. Taking that first picture of her crying didn't make her happy at all. Fortunately, none of you can hear the volume of that cry, but I'm sure you can imagine.

Then there are the pictures I try to get that do nothing more than simply capture her in all her cuteness.

We are quickly approaching our 1 year Lilianaversary and I'm trying to put together a photo montage of her 1st year at home. I hope to have it done and posted within the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned.

Further Behind

I seem to get further and further behind on blogging. As expected, Lili demands more and more of my attention as she gets older, so something has to give.

However, I do want to keep everyone updated when I can so I'll try to get this posted quickly.

On the adoption front. We are still in wait mode. Of course the "wait mode" is common in adoption. What we're waiting on right now is our home study, approval from DCFS (a requirement in IL) and then our 171H from USCIS. We actually received our copy of the home study last week, but I discovered the notary commission on the home study expires the end of this month. Thus, the home study is no good to us. I contacted our social worker and made her aware of the situation. She apologized for not catching it and was requesting another home study notarized by the other notary. I hope to get the new home study within the next week and will then head to the Secretary of State's office to have the documents notary authenticated. In the meantime, we have about a 6-8 week wait until we have all the documents we need to submit our dossier.

Lili's new feat is climbing on the kitchen breakfast bar stools. Mom is not happy about this new feat because Lili isn't content to just climb up and sit on the stools. She wants to stand on them, climb on the breakfast bar, etc. AHHH!!! I know, I know, it's all part of her learning and development. LOL!!!

Lili also has continued her love of books. I regularly buy her new books and recently purchased some books that I really like.

- Whoever You Are by Mem Fox

Every day all over the world, children are laughing and crying, playing and learning, eating and sleeping. They may not look the same. They may not speak the same language. Their lives may be quite different. But inside, they are just like you.

- The Skin I'm In by Pat Thomas

Imagine a world where only people with blue eyes could go to school. Or a world where only people with brown eyes could get a job. If we lived in a world like this many people would be treated unfairly. They would miss out on the chance to learn and work and feel good about themselves.

- A Mother for Choco by Keiko Kasza

Choco is a little yellow bird who lives all alone. He wishes he had a mother, but who could she be? One day, he decides to search for a mother. First he asks Mrs. Giraffe, but she is not Choco's mother - she doesn't have wings like he does. Then he asks Mrs. Penquin, but she doesn't have big, round cheeks like Choco. None of the animals seems to be right for Choco. Will he ever find a mother?

- Sesame Street - We're Different, We're the Same

We're different. Our noses are different. We're the same. Our noses are the same. They breathe and sniff and sneeze and whiff. Our hair is different. Our hair is the same. It grows on us in several places. It warms our heads and frames our faces.

Yesterday, Lili got some of her book off the shelf, got a blanket and crawled up on the sofa to read. A short time later she was sound asleep. However, before she drifted off I did get some pictures of my little reader.

FFF - Lili Likes Socks

For quite some time Lili has gotten excited about socks. She loves to pull them out of her dresser, pull them apart and try to put them on. Of course she hasn't had any success with the putting on part yet, but recently she's discovered that once they are on her feet she can pull them up. Since we weren't leaving the house yesterday, I put her play clothes on her and we started our day. Later that morning she decided that her socks needed to be pulled up and this was the result.

What a fashion statement!!!

I wanted to get a picture of her standing up, but the moment she saw the camera she ran and jumped up on the chair.

I Have a Really Good Life

When I read stories like this, I'm reminded of just how good my life really is. I hope you'll take the time to read this story and consider helping out this family.

http://www.mayanfamilies.org/News.aspx?id=711

You can also check out another story and video posted by my blog friend Emily.

FFF and Family Trips

I'm going to primarily focus on Favorite Foto Friday, but wanted to draw everyone's attention to some additions I made to my blog page. If you'll look on the right hand side of the page you might notice that I've added a section called "Adoptive Family Events." As I get information during the year on different events across the U.S. I'll be adding them to this section and encourage all my adoptive family readers to check them out and consider attending at least one during the year.

Now onto FFF!!!!

Lili recently started doing this little face pose and yesterday I was able to capture it on camera. She usually has a much bigger smile on her face, but sometimes you take what you can get.

Lili loves the guitar or as she would say, "gar." Lately she's been sitting on daddy's lap and he's been teaching her the proper way to finger the chords and strum the guitar.

She actually strums quite well for having such little hands and fingers.

My little rock star!!!

Exciting Week with Adoptions

Some of my blog friends have gotten some exciting news over the last few days. I don't know if any of my readers ever check the blogs that I have posted along the right hand side of my blog page, but there is some exciting news from Bianca Adventures and Grace and Haven. Also, Love Ya More Than Cookies is awaiting some good news as well. If you have time, please check out these blogs.

Now onto what's happening with us . . . . .

If you've been reading my blog over the last few weeks you are all aware that we received some scary news when the company my husband works for announced they were cutting 5,000 positions. As a result of this news we decided to end our Ethiopia adoption and to look into other possibilities for adopting #2. We felt that the foster-to-adopt program would be a good option for us, but as I continued to research this program I was feeling less and less comfortable with the program. Dave and I discussed my findings and both decided this really wasn't the direction we wanted to go.

I then received an email from another adoptive mom who suggested we consider adopting either an AA or bi-racial infant domestically. As I looked into these programs I discovered that there are agencies who have developed programs specifically looking for adoptive families for AA and bi-racial infants because "they are more difficult to place." This was difficult to hear and both Dave and I were sadden to know that the color of a little baby's skin would be cause enough for a family to say "no." I started requesting information from some agencies so we could gather information in an effort to determine if this was a possibility for us.

During this same time Dave received some positive news regarding the security of his job and we were feeling more comfortable about our financial future.

The information I requested regarding AA and bi-racial adoptions started to arrive, so Dave and I began to discuss our options at this point. We were very intrigued and seriously considering that this may be the road to our next child, but there were still a couple problems. The money we would put toward a domestic AA or bi-racial adoption would be the same amount it would cost us to complete our Ethiopia adoption. The second problem was the fact that our hearts were still pulled toward Ethiopia. So after much discussion and the comfort we were feeling that Dave would be keeping his job, we decided to continue our adoption from Ethiopia.

Lili's adoption was certainly a roller coaster ride of emotions and we anticipated that this adoption would be as well. What we didn't anticipate was that the ride would be so intense this early in the game.

So, here is where we are right now . . . .

- Our home study is complete and being approved by our social worker's supervisor. We anticipate having it back sometime within the next week.
- Our dossier documents have all been collected and we will get everything notarized Thursday or Friday of this week.

Here is the remainder of the process and an approximate timeline . . . .

- Once our home study has been approved, our social worker will send us our copy and a copy will go to USCIS. (1 week)
- When we receive our 171H (approval to adopt a child from Ethiopia) from USCIS, I will take all the documents to the Secretary of State's office for notary authentication. (4 weeks)
- Several copies of our dossier will need to be made and then everything is sent off to our agency. (2 days - I'll work very quickly at this point)
- The agency completes some additional paperwork and then sends everything to the Ethiopian consulate for authentication. All the paperwork is translated and sent to Ethiopia. (4 weeks)
- Once the Ethiopian authorities receive our paperwork, we will officially be on the wait list for an infant girl. (5-6 months)
- We receive our referral, complete the necessary paperwork and send it off to the agency accepting our referral. (4 days)
- The wait begins again as we go through the Ethiopian courts to have our adoption finalized in Ethiopia. (2-4 months)
- Our case is complete and we get ready to travel (2-3 months)
- Our baby girl comes home!!!!! (1 week)

As you can see, we still have a long way to go. We don't anticipate getting our referral until sometime in the Fall or Winter of 2009 and will most likely travel sometime Spring of 2010. The bottom line is that the process of completing an adoption from Ethiopia is getting longer all the time, but we are feeling much more confident now that one day we'll bring little Naomi home to her forever family. Let's just hope the rest of our journey has less pot holes and speed bumps.

FFF and Other Stuff

Sorry I haven't posted more this week. Unfortunately, I came down with either a flu bug or had food poisoning. I'm still not quite sure which, but I am feeling better, although not completely back to normal.

So, what's been happening on our lives?

First of all, we're going to be vehicle shopping. Our youngest son, Ben, borrowed my van and was in a little accident. He hit a patch of ice and the vehicle slid into a parked pick-up truck. He's okay, the van is not. The repairs were enough that it totalled the vehicle. Of course that's what happens when a newer model vehicle hits an older model truck.

We're living life with one vehicle right now, which works out okay since I don't work outside the home. Still we would like to have two vehicles as I do need one from time to time during the week. I'm not really sad about the van. It's was just a vehicle after all. What's makes me sad is that we actually have to start shopping for another vehicle. I really dislike vehicle shopping. For a matter-of-fact, I would have to say I "hate" shopping for vehicles. Not that I don't enjoy having a new vehicle to drive around, but the entire process of getting that vehicle is a horrible experience for me. We probably won't be looking for another week or two since we still have some things to settle on the van, so I have a little time before we start the entire process.

On a brighter note, we've had a couple memory milestones. It was one year ago on February 8th that I called PGN and was told "You're approved." It took another week, but on February 14th our file was finally released to our attorney and we were officially out of PGN. That was one of the most awesome feelings in the world. We had no idea that less than 5 weeks later we would be in Guatemala picking up our beautiful baby girl. Wow!!! The past year has really flown by.

Earlier today I took some pictures of Little Miss Lili. She wasn't being the most cooperative subject, but once again they show some of the many sides of her personality.

Lastly, things are still moving in a positive direction with adoption #2. I still can't give any details because there are a couple things that need to happen before I feel comfortable saying anything. However, I also don't have any reasons to believe this isn't going to happen.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!