POEM ON ADOPTION

I read this poem today on another adoptive mother's blog and felt I needed to share it with you to help you understand what I've been feeling from day one.

Song of the Waiting Mother

I'm pregnant, but my tummy isn't growing.
And no one ever calls me "Little Mom."
The public simply isn't overflowing
With questions that I'd handle with aplomb..
There are no special clothes to mark my waiting.
Nobody stops and smiles as I pass by.
The absence of a due-date is frustrating
And looking at the nursery makes me cry.
When I'm overdue no one will worry.
The phone won't ring and ring as friends check in.
I can't induce my labor in a hurry,
My new life as a parent to begin..
Adoption is a worrisome endeavor
,And waiting all alone is not much fun.
To be "with child" a year seems like forever.
Dear God, we're ready! Please send us our little one!

A HOPE FOR CHILDREN

Here I am wearing my "A Hope for Children" tshirt, I got Chris and Kaysen one as well.

here a small blur of what "A Hope for Children" is all about.

AHOPE for Children is a non-profit organization whose mission is to serve the children of Ethiopia, with a primary emphasis on caring for orphans infected with HIV.

In Addis Ababa, AHOPE's two pleasant, well-staffed Children's Homes care exclusively for orphans who are HIV+ and have no extended family to care for them. Many of these children are now finding their forever families through adoption.

AHOPE's Community Outreach Program enables orphaned children to remain within their extended families and culture, while receiving medical care, education, food, and other services.

If you would like to support this charity feel free to click on the link on the right side of my blog.


Here is a picture of Maddux with his favorite toy. It only last a few weeks as it gets ripped but my mom always buys him a replacement every few months and every time it's like it was always there, it makes the noise of a duck and he loves it. Thanks MOm

Boys playing at the park,

Here are some pics of my boys playing in the park.

My 1st Montage

I have seen on many blogs some montages of families and I had to try it. This is a quick one with no theme or thinking involved but I still think it's super cute. Hope you enjoy.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

What a great day.

I woke up this morning nice and early and went to town to meet my mom and sister for breakfast. We then went and did some shopping. Mom has to leave as she was headed to camp with my dad so Ren and I kept shopping. We took our time at Costco and looked at everything, something Chris hates to do when he's with me, we then went to Starbucks, sat by the fireplace (no fire) and enjoyed a coffee. I then came home, had an early dinner, took a nap and went out for a walk with the dogs. Fall is my favorite time of year and walking the dogs in this weather is the best. They got new toys today so it was fun to see them fighting to play with them. Unfortunately, this women came to the park and chose to walk directly towards us with her little dog which then made us leave. I just don't get it, this field is extra, extra, extra large and there is plenty of room for everyone, so why did she have to walk near us and get the dogs all excited and place us all in a situation where one dog can get hurt (sorry just ranting as it's the one thing that upset me today). Ok, back to my great day, we then came home relaxed on the sofa, watched tv and now i'm catching up on episodes of Days of our Lives. I'm off this weekend as well which is making it even better.

The one thing I love about being back home is being able to spend time with my mom and sister, we have such a good time together. My sister has been working most of this year and she has been missed, she now has a job that allows her to still have the freedom to hang out with us. I'm so happy she is back. I used to dwell on the fact that I didn't have a "best friend" to go to when I needed anything, but since i've been back home I realize that I do have a "best friend" I actually have two, my mom and my sister, they are always there for me and although, my sister and I sometimes argue, we always forgive and forget and no matter we know we are always there for each other.

Ok, I know, just going on and on and probably boring you all, but they are important and they make this journey somewhat easier.

Somewhere over the rainbow

Again, I was reading someone else's blog (Sebrina and Mike) and she had this beautiful song in heres. It doesn't only have one of my favorite songs "Somewhere over the rainbow" but it also has the song that I danced with my father to at my wedding "it's a wonderful world" I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do.

Passing the time

Since the waiting period has begun i've been trying to find ways to keep busy. One thing I started to do was scrapbooking, when I think of taking pictures of my projects all post them. I hope I don't bore you all but from this point on, or until I have news I will post things that I find on other blogs that will mean alot to me one day when I look back on my blog and see how things have changed. Needless to say, if you are only looking for updates, please do skip these post that are simply to keep my busy and my mind on other things.

(I took this one from Sebrina's blog)

Four

4 jobs:
Real Estate Agent
Customer Service Manager
Customer Service Rep.
Waitress

4 movies:
Grease
Chicago
Beaches
Dirty Dancing

4 places i’ve lived:
Val Caron ON
Acton ON
Mississauga ON
Chelmsford ON

4 TV shows:
Days of our Lives
The Office
Grey's Anatomy
Roseann

4 Vacations:
Boston
New York
Punta Cana
Toronto

4 dishes:
Sushi
Pasta, any kind
Steak
Pizza

4 sites:
Yahoo
facebook
CNN
TMZ

4 places i’d rather be:
in Ethiopia picking up my son
in a tropical area
in Ethiopia picking up my son
in Ethiopia picking up my son.

Ziggy

I just couldn't help by share this picture with you all. It's my dog Ziggy watching me get ready in the morning. He sits on the toilet and just watches. If I don't place him there he keeps scratching my legs until I pick him up. Enjoy.

Adoption Poem

I was reading another adoptive parents blog today (shannon and matthew) and saw this great poem. I wanted to share with you all and hope they don't mind me copying it.


Not flesh of my flesh,
Nor bone of my bone,
But still miraculously
My own.
Never forget
For a single minute,
That you weren't born
Under my heart,
But in it.

Author Unknown

Awaiting approval

Just wanted to let you all know that as of September 18-2008 our dossier has been in the hand of the Ministry of Child and Youth Services. It should be there for the next 8-10 wks awaiting approval from a minitry worker. Once we have that approval we move on to Ethiopia. I'll keep you posted as I get more news.

5 mths already

According to my little counter at the top of my page we've been doing this for 5mths already. That is great news as it seems like it wasn't that long, here's hoping the next 8-10mths are just as fast.

Quick update: I emailed my adoption practioner today and she said she has already mailed out our package. I'll be sending our agency (IA) their cheque tomorrow and I think that's about it for now.

Thanks everyone for your support and thanks to everyone in advance for puting up with me for the months to come.

HOME STUDY COMPLETE

YEAH!!!!! Our home study is finally completed. To keep you up to date with the last post, within 48 hrs of calling our local MPs office, we had our checks done and letters in hand. I still can't believe how a few phone calls can change the way some things happen. Needless to say I went and picked up the papers on Friday and met our adoption practioner Saturday morning before leaving for my brothers. Now according to that last meeting our Home Study dossier with all our paper work will be sent out to our agency worker tomorrow, Tuesday September 9th 2008, from there our worker will review it and make sure it's not missing anything. It will then take approx. 8-10 wks for them to receive our letter of approval and then 2-3 wks to get our dossier off to Ethiopia. If all the time lines work out our dossier should be in Ethiopia a few weeks before Christmas. At that time we will be waiting approx. 6-8 mths for our referral. I know I repeat myself with the time lines but they do change and as the steps get completed I receive more information. Now the waiting begins.

Chris and I went to a football game in Buffalo NY yesterday. They were playing Chris' favorite team the Seattle Seahawks, it was my first time at a live NFL game and we had a blast. It was raining like crazy but in the morning we had time do some tailgating, and make breakfast and walk around before the rain really fell. Seattle did lose but it was fun as the Buffalo fans were going crazy the games atmosphere was pretty amazing. Here is a pics of us at the game.

Causing issues....

So yep, here I am causing issues again to make sure all goes well. This is the "coles notes" version. Our adoption practioner told us that the Children's Aid of Sudbury was not processing our child welfare checks for both Chris and I, and she didn't know when this would happen. Well being the type of person I am, and seeing as that is the absolutely last piece of paper needed for Chris and I to send out our documents to the ministty I contacted our local MPs office and voila, within a few hours CAS was on the phone with me trying to get to the bottom of things. Well it looked like they had a mix up with my adoption practioner and she only verbally requested the checks, so she got in some kind of trouble for me contacting the MPs office. Needless to say I feel bad for getting her in trouble, but how long would I have waited had I not done anything right??? So within 24 hrs of my phone call, I have them working on the checks and will receive them within a week. Once I get those we are done for now. Our adoption practioner will then send the documents to our adoption agency, who in turn will send it to the Ministry for approval. Hopefully we will have an approval by Christmas and our documents can be off to Ethiopia by the NEW YEAR... here's hoping anyways.

I know I should have maybe let them do what they had to do, but I feel i'm waiting long enough for Kaysen to come home and every day with a delay is a day further from our baby....

PRIDE Training

Chris and I just returned from Cambridge, for a week of intense PRIDE (Parent Resources for Information Development and Education) Training. Wow, what a course. Prior to this week I thought, "ok, just go and take it as it's something that needs to be done" and figured I knew everything....well I was WRONG. Chris and I learned so much this past week. We were in a class of great people with great teachers who we planned to stay in touch with throughout our journey. The training allowed us to learn and open our eyes to many different challenges that may come along once our little guy gets home. Prior to the training I felt very treatened by the birth parents in all forms of adoptions, I now realize how truly important they are to the process and would love to explain it to you all should you want to discuss further. We also learned that it is okay for our son not to "Fall in love" with us right away, I mean he won't know who we are at all, and that is okay, we will simply have to do different things with him to allow him to feel comfortable with us and eventually with a lot of hard work and commitment and consistency our family will be just as bonded as a birth family. I just can't wait to put it all together and share the events with you all. There is so much about this training that I could go on for days, but I won't. I just want to say that I truly feel it is a very important course to take and will be a forever advocate of future adoptive parents in taking this training. I would like to take this moment to thank our trainers for the wonderful teaching they provided us this week.

We had our FINAL home study done this morning as well. It was short and sweet, just as I like it. We are now reviewing the home study report, well what is completed so far anyways, and once our adoption practioner is done completely we will review it again, sign the paper work and off it goes to the Ministry for approval. We hope to have it sent by the middle of this month and then hopefully it is back to us by mid Nov..

I do feel sad at this point as I feel I no longer have any control of the next years mild stones. At least when we had the home study I had certain dates to look forward to, now I have a 6-8 week or 6-8 months and that's it. as all of you who know me well, I will find it quite hard not to know when things will happen. The good thing is, that I realize now that I am not the only one going through this and with the support of our new adoptive families and our family and friends here, i'm sure things will go easier.

I'm guessing i've said enough for today.

Amazing

I found this song on another adoptive family's blog and had to add it to mine as it truly explains what I feel inside and look forward to have the same happy ending.

Enjoy...a few tears never hurt anyone.

Baby Room Projects

Chris and I were busy last weekend creating a few baby room projects. We have decided on a Baseball theme for his room and I found a great book case at a yard sale for 50 cents. I sure wish I had taken a before picture as it was covered in oil and paint and looked like hell, but with a little TLC, and hard work I have created a cute bookcase to be proud of. We have also made a coat hanger and a book shelf for now. I'm planning on one more bookcase and at least a few more little projects. I'm trying to hold off on painting the room and redoing the floor in the room until winter as I will be very bored if not but i'm not sure i'll make it. Again, I have attached pictures below for you to see our creations.

Coldplay

Chris and I went to the Coldplay concert in Toronto this thrusday, It was a great day. First we stopped at Vaugh Mills and checked out all the cute baby clothes. Chris mentioned he no longer wants me to purchase clothes here in Sudbury as they are much cuter out there, so a few road trips a year and my boy will be styling. We then headed to Toronto and took a walk down from the Eaton Centre to the lakefront pier where we simply relaxed and took in the scenery. Then we headed to the concert, it was more than I could have imagined. I've wanted to see Coldplay in concert for years now and it was great, they are suppose to be coming back next year so hopefully we will be able to go again. I have attached a few pictures of our day out.

What luck!!!!

So I'm sitting here in my office waiting on a beautiful Saturday morning. What am I waiting for you may ask??? Well, i'm waiting for my parents to pick me up as I have locked my keys in the car. I know, what and how. So this is the story, my honda tends to lock the doors on it's own should you not open the doors fast enough when you unlock them, so i unlocked the doors, set all my things in the car, threw my keys on the drivers side seat and closed the door, only to come back and all the doors are locked. What kind of stupid invention is that, I mean I did open the passenger car door, therefor it should have stayed unlocked, no??? Needless to say i'm not impress, I have no idea where my spare key may be, and i'm not sure what to do.

Just a little venting as i'm patiently awaiting a ride home, thank god for my mom and dad being around.

News from Ethiopia

We received great news from Ethiopia this weeks. Looks like the adoption Agency we are using has opened up a new 6500 sqft, home for babies only and they have purchase 40 cribs. So what does this mean to all of you.... well it means that there is now a home dedicated to babies only, meaning that the turn around in this home should be faster as babies are a higher demand, therefor as babies come and go more babies will arrive. We are all hoping this will make the referral process shorter. I guess only time will tell.

We have most everything we needed now. The only thing missing is our employment letters, which are on the way. I went and visited my lawyer this week to have 8 documents notorized, our letter to the Ministry of Women's Affairs in Ethiopia has been written and the photo album we must send them with pics of us and our families is almost complete. Now we just have to do the PRIDE training and then complete the home study and our work will be done and the waiting begins.

2 down 2 to go

We had a our second home study this morning. It went very well. We mostly discussed our familys and our childhood. We have rescheduled our next visit to be done right after the PRIDE training, which will be Aug18-22nd, so our third home study will be Aug 23rd, and she said she will have most of it done by our last one on Sept 6th. She also gave me a better time line, and said we should have our dossier back from the ministry within a month or so and then off to Ethiopia, so hopefully our dossier is in Ethiopia by the end of November which could mean a referral as early as March/09, that would be amazing. Earing this news made me tear up.... I know it doesn't take me much, but to know that we may have Kaysen with us a few months earlier than predicted is a great feeling. I have been so excited since our first home study visit. It's as if I feel more confident of the outcome and can now fully picture my family with Kaysen in it. I can't wait to be able to see his face and actually have a face to associate the name to.

We were at a ball tournament this past weekend and there were so many little ones running around, I kept thinking how nice it will be to have our little one running around in a few years as well. I highly doubt we will have Kaysen home by next years tournament but soon he will get to play baseball with all the little boys as well.

I have also started doing a little bit of shopping. It's hard to purchase clothes for him, since we don't know what size he will be or what season he will arrive in, I have been busy purchasing 12-24mth old sleepers and onesies, as I know he will need them and a season is not a factor. I have also purchased a few sippy cups/bowls/bibs/spoons...ect. This week I started buying baby shampoo, oils, lotions and stuff. I figure, why not buy some know, it will save me the cost then. I swear, by the time I have Kaysen home we may need a whole other room just for his stuff. I would rather be prepared now then have to buy everything next year. My parents, and sister have also be buying things here and there which I love. Gifts are great, but when they are for such a special person they are even better. I also purchased the flooring for his bedroom this weekend, as it was on sale. We will be painting the room first and then installing the laminate flooring. We chose a dark wood look. I know that carpet is more comfy to crawl around on, however with the amound of hair we have in our home, laminate will be easier to keep clean. Don't you agree?