Hello Blog (and blog readers - if there still are any left)!!
Given that it's been about one month since my last post -and a busy one too - I have no idea how to even begin writing a post to catch up.... As always seems to be the case, I've got a million thoughts and ideas floating around in my head, but not so much the [insert one: time/ patience/ words/ patience] to get it all out. So bear with me for a short-hand version of an update post, in the form of rants and raves (by the way, I feel like have I done this before, but I do not have the [insert one: time/ patience] to look back to be sure... at the very least, I'm pretty sure I've thought about it).
So here we go:
Rave: (why not start on a high note?)
In the month since I last posted, we've celebrated a number of milestones and events: my birthday, 13 months on the waitlist (now inching towards 14); the 3rd anniversary of the date the Ethiopian courts declared that we were a family....
Rant:
We never thought we'd get to 13 months (not to mention 14 and probably 15) on the waitlist for a referral.
Rave:
The adoption process seems to be slowly settling into a new normal. Things are so different than they were when we adopted Simon... and even from the day in Feb. 2010 when we started the paperwork for adoption round 2, but after a period of a lot of uncertainty and heightened emotions and fears, we finally feel like we can see the end in sight (and maybe even have an idea of when that might be - give or take a few months).
Rant:
Famine in East Africa. And the fact that it does not get the world attention it needs. Please educate yourself. And please help if you can.
Rave:
It's Summer time! Okay, technically this happened longer than one month ago, but it finally feels like Summer. And that is a very good thing!
Rant:
Paperwork revisited. It's happening. Our adoption paperwork is expiring and we have to start redoing things. Already down: doctors appointments and CIS fingerprints; yet to come: homestudy visit (and all accompanying documents), updated CIS approval.... Ugh.
Rave:
Having a three and a half year old. Challenging: yes. But so much fun. The things he says and does are endlessly entertaining - and completely fill my heart.
Rant:
Having a three and a half year old who has more energy than I ever did (e.g. during pre-bed storytime last night, he looked at me, jumped out of bed and said, "I have to dance" and then he did just that). Exhausting!!
ps Rave:
Pictures! I have many from this summer. They are coming. Soon.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Monday, July 11, 2011
on this day...
...three years ago, we received the greatest call of our lives and opened an email to see this face:
we couldn't take our eyes off of him then... and we still can't today. it's been a wild ride since that afternoon, and we suspect it will be getting even crazier. but this smile will keep us going through it all.
we couldn't take our eyes off of him then... and we still can't today. it's been a wild ride since that afternoon, and we suspect it will be getting even crazier. but this smile will keep us going through it all.
Friday, June 24, 2011
five words
Five words: one year on the waitlist.
Five words we didn't really expect to be writing here... hoped not to be writing. But that is what today marks. One year on the waitlist.
The good news is that things are moving. Slowly, but they are moving, and we are starting to feel like maybe we have an ever-so-slightly better idea of what to expect in terms of timeframes for the next stages of our adoption process.
The bad news is that those timeframes are a lot (A LOT) longer than we ever anticipated. As in you will probably be reading about our 13 and 14 (but we hope not 15) month anniversaries on the waitlist and keeping your fingers crossed with us in the new year (yes, the 2012 new year) for a successful court date. Not exactly what we had planned, but so it goes.
It sometimes amazes me how crazy and emotional (and frustrated and drained) we often got during Simon's adoption process (just look through guzo posts from the first half of 2008 - I haven't counted, but I'm pretty sure there are a zillion references to the emotional roller coaster ride that is international adoption). His whole process from start to finish was about 11 months. How ridiculously short that seems in hindsight! We are now about a year and a half into this adoption process - a year of that just waiting for a referral. With probably a good 7 or 8 months or so to go. And yet somehow we actually feel less crazy this time around. Guess there is something to be said for experience, huh?
So that's it.
One year waiting.
And now we wait some more.
Five words we didn't really expect to be writing here... hoped not to be writing. But that is what today marks. One year on the waitlist.
The good news is that things are moving. Slowly, but they are moving, and we are starting to feel like maybe we have an ever-so-slightly better idea of what to expect in terms of timeframes for the next stages of our adoption process.
The bad news is that those timeframes are a lot (A LOT) longer than we ever anticipated. As in you will probably be reading about our 13 and 14 (but we hope not 15) month anniversaries on the waitlist and keeping your fingers crossed with us in the new year (yes, the 2012 new year) for a successful court date. Not exactly what we had planned, but so it goes.
It sometimes amazes me how crazy and emotional (and frustrated and drained) we often got during Simon's adoption process (just look through guzo posts from the first half of 2008 - I haven't counted, but I'm pretty sure there are a zillion references to the emotional roller coaster ride that is international adoption). His whole process from start to finish was about 11 months. How ridiculously short that seems in hindsight! We are now about a year and a half into this adoption process - a year of that just waiting for a referral. With probably a good 7 or 8 months or so to go. And yet somehow we actually feel less crazy this time around. Guess there is something to be said for experience, huh?
So that's it.
One year waiting.
And now we wait some more.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
crazy-ish
Where do I begin?
Every time I sit down to write a blog post - and I realize it's not that often that I do - I feel like there are a million things I need to share, and yet at the same time, I have no sense of how to organize my thoughts, condense a month's worth of madness into a few paragraphs, and, oh, keep it (fairly) interesting.
And it shouldn't be that hard... We've had a crazy month. A lovely family vacation to the Turks and Caicos, Mother's Day celebration with family, a business trip to Germany (me), a few birthday parties, a business trip to Tanzania (Ryan (totally beats Germany, right??)), reached eleven months on the waitlist for a little girl, and did I mention the EJ incident? That being the day he decided to break into Simon's babysitter's bag while they were at the park... the bag that had an easter chocolate bar for Simon? a chocolate bar that was then devoured by EJ (chocolate being toxic to dogs)... yeah... that incident. The one that happened the day before we left for the Turks and had me racing to get him to the vet for emergency (read: ridiculously expensive) treatment.... So, yeah... like I said, it's been a little crazy here.
I guess that's a good thing too. I'm exhausted and already in need of another vacation (note to Ryan if you are reading this - I do have a birthday coming up ;) ). But, it also means that eleven months on the waitlist have, dare I say it, gone by fairly quickly. Mind you, I would be a zillion times happier if I never had to write the words "eleven months" on this blog, since we never really anticipated waiting this long for a referral. But here we are, and we are trying to see the bright side of things.
To that end, we are happy to report that things do seem to be moving in the Ethiopian adoption programs. Slower than they were. And it seems that they will continue to move slowly. But they are moving, and I think we can probably say with some confidence that we are within a few months of referral. Perhaps another birthday referral for me? I could live with that....
So that's the good. Unfortunately, we learned today that the slow down in Ethiopia's adoption process (and, I'm sure, the overall continued difficult state of the US economy) has had a real impact on the amount of humanitarian aid going to Ethiopia. As the program has slowed down, families have pulled out - often looking instead to domestic and international programs that they perceive as more stable or simple or whatever. And that means the aid they contribute as part of the adoption process moves with them. It's not all bad, especially if you assume that in many cases their resources are still going to places that need them. But, still, a difficult thing to hear... Anyhow, that's my not-so-subtle way of saying that there is great need right now in Ethiopia (other places too), especially for orphaned children, and if you have the ability to give a little something, well, you should do it.
ontheirown.org
hannasorphanage.org.uk
gladney humanitarian aid
worldwide orphans
Every time I sit down to write a blog post - and I realize it's not that often that I do - I feel like there are a million things I need to share, and yet at the same time, I have no sense of how to organize my thoughts, condense a month's worth of madness into a few paragraphs, and, oh, keep it (fairly) interesting.
And it shouldn't be that hard... We've had a crazy month. A lovely family vacation to the Turks and Caicos, Mother's Day celebration with family, a business trip to Germany (me), a few birthday parties, a business trip to Tanzania (Ryan (totally beats Germany, right??)), reached eleven months on the waitlist for a little girl, and did I mention the EJ incident? That being the day he decided to break into Simon's babysitter's bag while they were at the park... the bag that had an easter chocolate bar for Simon? a chocolate bar that was then devoured by EJ (chocolate being toxic to dogs)... yeah... that incident. The one that happened the day before we left for the Turks and had me racing to get him to the vet for emergency (read: ridiculously expensive) treatment.... So, yeah... like I said, it's been a little crazy here.
I guess that's a good thing too. I'm exhausted and already in need of another vacation (note to Ryan if you are reading this - I do have a birthday coming up ;) ). But, it also means that eleven months on the waitlist have, dare I say it, gone by fairly quickly. Mind you, I would be a zillion times happier if I never had to write the words "eleven months" on this blog, since we never really anticipated waiting this long for a referral. But here we are, and we are trying to see the bright side of things.
To that end, we are happy to report that things do seem to be moving in the Ethiopian adoption programs. Slower than they were. And it seems that they will continue to move slowly. But they are moving, and I think we can probably say with some confidence that we are within a few months of referral. Perhaps another birthday referral for me? I could live with that....
So that's the good. Unfortunately, we learned today that the slow down in Ethiopia's adoption process (and, I'm sure, the overall continued difficult state of the US economy) has had a real impact on the amount of humanitarian aid going to Ethiopia. As the program has slowed down, families have pulled out - often looking instead to domestic and international programs that they perceive as more stable or simple or whatever. And that means the aid they contribute as part of the adoption process moves with them. It's not all bad, especially if you assume that in many cases their resources are still going to places that need them. But, still, a difficult thing to hear... Anyhow, that's my not-so-subtle way of saying that there is great need right now in Ethiopia (other places too), especially for orphaned children, and if you have the ability to give a little something, well, you should do it.
ontheirown.org
hannasorphanage.org.uk
gladney humanitarian aid
worldwide orphans
Thursday, May 5, 2011
ten and a half-ish
Hello there readers (are there any readers left??).
It seems that my ability to blog gets worse and worse, even as my intentions to blog more frequently get greater and greater. Alas, life is often crazy-busy, the adoption process is sometimes emotionally draining, and I can't seem to find more than 3 minutes at a time to spend at my computer.
But here I am.
As per the (not so original) title of this post, it's been almost ten and a half months since we were officially put on the waitlist for a referral. You remember, right? Back in the days when referrals were expected approximately 8-9 months from that exciting day when one was officially "on the waitlist" (which, ironically seemed soooo long in light of the 3-4 month wait we expected when we were put on the waitlist in 2008 and even compared to the 5 1/2 it actually took for Simon's referral). Oh how things look different in hindsight!!
Well, 8-9 months clearly was not to be. And neither was 10, and now we don't really expect 11 to be it either.
The good news is that things are starting to move again - more slowly than in the recent past, but not as slowly as we had started to fear. And while we expect delays to continue and suspect additional changes will be made to the Ethiopian adoption process, it does continue to be a strong and viable program, and for that we are grateful.
So maybe we will celebrate a year on the waitlist (though I'm hoping maybe we won't celebrate 13 months) and quite likely we will have to wait until 2012 to travel to Ethiopia. But somehow that actually seems okay right now... believe it or not, even pondering 8-10 more months in process doesn't seem so bad (I'm not saying it's great, but...) and we can actually see the end in sight (okay, just barely, but we can).
It seems that my ability to blog gets worse and worse, even as my intentions to blog more frequently get greater and greater. Alas, life is often crazy-busy, the adoption process is sometimes emotionally draining, and I can't seem to find more than 3 minutes at a time to spend at my computer.
But here I am.
As per the (not so original) title of this post, it's been almost ten and a half months since we were officially put on the waitlist for a referral. You remember, right? Back in the days when referrals were expected approximately 8-9 months from that exciting day when one was officially "on the waitlist" (which, ironically seemed soooo long in light of the 3-4 month wait we expected when we were put on the waitlist in 2008 and even compared to the 5 1/2 it actually took for Simon's referral). Oh how things look different in hindsight!!
Well, 8-9 months clearly was not to be. And neither was 10, and now we don't really expect 11 to be it either.
The good news is that things are starting to move again - more slowly than in the recent past, but not as slowly as we had started to fear. And while we expect delays to continue and suspect additional changes will be made to the Ethiopian adoption process, it does continue to be a strong and viable program, and for that we are grateful.
So maybe we will celebrate a year on the waitlist (though I'm hoping maybe we won't celebrate 13 months) and quite likely we will have to wait until 2012 to travel to Ethiopia. But somehow that actually seems okay right now... believe it or not, even pondering 8-10 more months in process doesn't seem so bad (I'm not saying it's great, but...) and we can actually see the end in sight (okay, just barely, but we can).
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