Our Numbers

Just got our May update from our agency.

We are

#45 on the Boys list and

#57 on the Girls list.

We also received word that we should now expect to wait 12-18 months from receipt of our dossier to referral.  I expected that so it really wasn't "news' to me.  We have now been on the wait list for almost 6 months. 

It's just wait and see mode now.  No one knows how the changes in Ethiopia will affect families from receiving referrals or bringing their children home.  I'm trying to stay busy and not think about when we might receive a referral for our little one.  So far I have been completely unsuccessful.   I try to stay positive.  It's hard though.  I won't lie.  I remember back 10 months ago when we worked our butts off to get all our paperwork notarized and ready only to sit back and wait almost 3 months for our homestudy to be drafted.  And it would have taken longer but I fought (yes a few angry emails and calls to our local agency) for it to be completed.  Once we were on the list I told myself ok relax.  Just chill and enjoy the time to do couple things - vacation, movies, eating out.  But I haven't been so good.  I have my moments.  I look at the toys and books and clothes I have been given from my nieces and sisters and I wonder, when. 

I know this next year of waiting will be excruciating.  Even more so than taking the bar exam......or having a kidney stone....(although now that I think about it, I was young, single and the ER doctors and nurse resembled McDreamy, McSteamy and oddly enough, C*urtis Stone.....)

I just hope this journey doesn't turn me bitter or into a weepy depressed mess.  I hope I can muster the strength and grace so many others who have waited so long have shown.  I hope my faith will sustain me and in the end I will be a mom. 

Excited About our Upcoming Vacation!

Very soon we will be here,

seeing this

and this,

and swimming or something like it, in this

Every year my husband and I take one or two "big" trips.  It usually involves foreign travel and we are so fortunate to have visited some amazing places.

Several years ago I promised my oldest niece that when she graduated from high school I would take her on a vacation to the country of her choice. She had a tough time narrowing her choices down to about 5 places: Egypt (too hot in the summer and thank goodness we nixed this early on); Japan (again thank goodness); Prague, Italy and Australia.  I was torn between taking her to Italy, which is just an amazing country - and not just because of the gelato - and Australia - a place I had always wanted to visit.  After discussing with my husband we decided to take her to Australia, because as we thought at the time, with a little one on the way, taking a trip like this (15 hr+ plane ride) might not occur for many many years.

Well somehow the trip evolved, or rather the guest list evolved.  I couldn't take one niece without taking her sister.  After all, they are quite the entertaining package.  Never mind that this is supposed to be a graduation trip and the younger sister is years away from graduating. And my other niece was not about to be left behind.  So am I brave, naive, or delusional for taking 3 young ladies to Australia along with my husband? Oh we can count the white hairs when I return and find out. 

So off we go.  Now I am so busy confirming reservations, packing, catching up on work (why do we spend so much time trying to catch up on work to go on vacation, only to come back and be so far behind? Maybe we should forgo the catching up - after all we are only going to be behind anyway). 

Such fun - If anyone has ever been to Australia and has any travel tips or suggestions, please share!

Yes!

2 referrals were given out by our agency yesterday for infant girls. Need I say more other than

So happy for these families!
Praying they are able to bring their babes home soon!