Baby B's Christmas Presents

Christmas was great! Our son received his first Christmas gifts :). We had already decided on a safari theme for what will be his bedroom. Therefore, he received his first:

Giraffe stuffed animal

Lion socks

Monkey blanket

And we bought him a little present from Mexico 

Wooden elephant pencil holder

Thank you Jesus for blessing us with great family and friends.

Crying Is Good

Our agency has monthly conference calls. That is their way of providing us with any updates about the process. Lately, they have a guest family speak at the end of each call (love it). On last month's conference call one waiting mom explained that the way she copes with the wait is by giving herself time to cry. That granted me permission to cry and to tell everyone about it. I was afraid to tell family and friends that I have cried during this process. Afraid that they would come to the conclusion that I wished our situation was different. Since I stopped holding back the tears, I just forewarn Rob with an "ok I am fixing to cry in three, two, one..." and he just hugs me. Sometimes he is driving but the support is still there.
So there you have it. I cry. I cry a lot. Not because I am mad or disappointed but because sometimes I want to put a face to the little boy I so pray for every day. Sometimes from the overwhelming feeling I get from the thought of how blessed we are to be experiencing such a wonderful journey. The journey of adoption. Sometimes I cry for two minutes and sometimes I need the whole evening. But I now know it is ok. I am not the only one and I have a lot more crying to do :). I hope I don't run out tears. I mean, I still have many more emotional experiences coming up: the referral and meeting our son. :) :)
 

Cousins/Friends

You know that cousin/friend you can talk to about anything? Sadly, mine lives many miles away. I remember as little girls we would stay up until sunrise just talking about "life".

December 2000

After nearly ten years, she finally came to visit us and boy was it nice catching up.

 

December 2011

Pop-a-lock

I love Fridays! I always wake up in a good mood and yell throughout the morning “TGIF! TGIF!”. Today was especially great. I finished my last final exam on Wednesday and I knew this weekend was going to be full of goodness without a worry about homework. I woke up, made coffee, blow dried AND flat ironed my hair (never have time) and headed off. I get in my car and notice I need gas. As I am singing to Christmas songs I stop at a Sam’s gas station. I was pumping gas still humming Christmas songs in my head thinking of what a great day today was. When I finish and try to get in my car I notice my keys, wallet, phone, jacket, and coffee all inside my LOCKED car :(. Right away the gentleman who works there lent me his phone as he nodded his head at me and handed me a pop-a-lock business card. I call Rob which of course asks me to stay where I am at and heads out my way (he works 40 minutes away). I walk to Sam's and knock on their sliding doors and ask kindly if I can wait by the hotdog machine for my husband. About ten different employees asked me “what happened? You locked yourself out?” um, “yes!” and they nodded their head as they walked away. I sat there for an hour, rob got there with a slim jim and tried to break into our own car (he refused to call someone for help and pay an “outrageous” amount of money for something he can do himself). He did not succeed. The same gentleman who lent me his phone gave it a shot.. nothing. (By now it is 9:45). FINALLY we call pop-a-lock and a man with torn jeans, three missing teeth, and a cigarette in his mouth came to our rescue. He opened my door within seconds and the “outrageous” amount that it cost us was a whopping $35. I ended up getting to work with my beautiful hair in knots (from the 2-mile walk through the Sam’s parking lot in the winter wind) and extremely late. At 10:45 am to be exact.

Happy Friday!

First attempt

Second attempt

Success!

Four Months

Months on the waitlist:

Current average wait time:

17

On our four month waiting anniversary, we picked out a tree and decorated it while we drank eggnog and watched Saturday Night Live reruns.

Happy four months waiting!!!

Trip to Mexico City

We visited Mexico City this past weekend for my grandma's birthday party :). We love Mexico; the culture, the food, the people, the music...

Ahh Mexico! The only place where you can find

And finally,

Thank you Albarran family for showing us a good time and sharing some much needed laughs :).

Christmas Gift Exchange 2011

My family has a gift exchange every Christmas. We always make that "don't say who you got" promise but it never fails that within ten minutes, not only do we know who is giving a present to who but we already told them what we want for Christmas. Ha! After decades of this tradition we still make that promise then quickly break it. Since we saw my sisters this weekend, we decided to draw names for the gift exchange. They decided to include our son. I suggested otherwise because of the emotional roller coaster I have been riding but they reminded me that although we don't know how much longer the wait will be, he IS on his way. (They also promised to cry or laugh with me when I open his present.)

These past few months, Rob and I have been thinking and talking about what we should name our son. We have narrowed it down to a few names but have not been able to settle on one. For the gift exchange a name was needed and both Rob and I said the same name. At the time we did not realize that we had just, possibly made a decision on a name. It is such a long wait that I don't want to tell EVERYONE what the name we chose is yet because we want to be 500% sure about it (right now we are at 382%). For now, we will call him baby B :).

My emotional support for the 2011holidays

Baby B?

Three Months

Months on the waitlist:

Current average wait time:
16.5

On our three month waiting anniversary, we packed our bags and drove a couple of hours to Corpus Christi.

The boys waited...

While the girls got ready

Finally we saw the comedian George Lopez perform at the American Bank Center

Happy three months waiting!!!!

Two Months

Months on the waitlist:

Current average wait time:

16

On our two month waiting anniversary, we decided to do something we have not done in a while...go to the movies! After a long day at work, we headed out to the Bijou Theater.

(Please excuse my zombie looking eyes)

We quickly realized we were the only two people that watch a movie on a Tuesday night. Seriously, we were the only ones in the theater!!! We caught ourselves whispering to each other and realized we didn't have to :).

We ate "dinner".

Nachos and popcorn at the theater.

Took a picture in front of a King Kong poster.

And noticed the resemblance between this painting (located in the theater):

To this painting (located in our kitchen):

(I am aware it is a Vincent Van Gogh painting)

Happy two months waiting!!!!! 

Packages And Goodies

Yesterday I received a package in the mail from my sister. It made me so happy that it brought tears to my eyes. I know for a fact that our family has our son in their hearts but this was a tiny way to remind me how much he is loved by everyone. 

So to the handful of readers out there, I would like to take this opportunity to show y'all some goodies that we have received. :)

My little sister Daniela bought us t-shirts for our birthdays:

Rob's has the Ethiopian flag with "Ethiopia" written in Amharic.

Mine has a heart inside the shape of Ethiopia with the words "There is nowhere on earth I wouldn't go to bring you home to me". Very true!!!! (Can you tell I wash and wear then wash and wear it over and over?)

From grandma and grandpa Delgado and aunt Gina:

Bib and spoon from their Youth Group trip to Portugal. I will confess, the spoon will not be used because it is too darn cute.

From aunt Lorena:

A flat cap and a card written just for her nephew.

From mom and dad:

We decided to buy our son something every month and last month we bought these two books. Both of them had me and my family crying like babies...goodness!

So, there you have it folks!!! Our son is spoiled and loved :). 

For my future little reader, I don't know where you are but we love you so much, pray for you constantly, and can't stop talking or much less thinking about you. I also can't wait to see you in your cute caps and your bib. And I CANNOT wait to read to you every night. 

One Month Waiting Anniversary

Yesterday, I posted a cool, orange number 1 at 7 am (I was excited). After Rob woke up and had something to eat, he suggested we should post what we did on that special day. Pregnant women take cute pictures of their growing bellies and record the symptoms they are experiencing every month. Obviously, this is different. So what we decided to do is write down a quick "what we did on our X month waiting anniversary" with a picture attached. We don't know when our son will be born until we receive the picture with his gorgeous face on it. So, this will help us go back in time and remember what/where we were doing when we do know his date of birth. So here goes (clearing my throat):

Yesterday we went to church, ate brunch (didn't take a picture of that because that was before Rob's suggestion), took a nap, and went to a concert. Who did we see? None other than Michael Franti and Carlos Santana :).

One month waiting.

Our awesome neighbors. We hung out with them all day long (other than nap time). We went to church together, tried to figure out what the difference is between a muffin and a cupcake while eating, and took this picture after the concert. I don't know why we decided to take it in front of this truck. Maybe because it was black and shiny?

One Month

We have been on our agency's wait list for one full month. The current average wait time for a referral is 15 months. But you never know. Therefore, happy one month waiting XX more to go :).

Garage Sale Weekend

Our weekend started off here:

And ended here:

Thank you again to everyone that was a part of this weekend. You know who you are and WE know who you are :). Thank you to my sisters, mom, and dad for standing in 100+ degree weather with us all day on Saturday. We are so lucky to have such a supportive family. Although our little one is still months away from being home, he is already loved by many.

Garage Sale

We have had a busy week collecting items for the garage sale we will be having tomorrow. So many people donated for our sale. It makes my heart smile to see friends, neighbors, coworkers, and family take the time to gather things for us :). We are so grateful to have these people in our lives and so blessed to see so many support us.

We are towing a Uhaul trailer because the garage sale will be in Brownsville. That is where my family lives and they will be helping us this weekend :).

Waitlisted

Aaaaaah! That is my sigh of relief. We are so done with the paperwork part of our process. We received an email stating we have been officially placed on our agency's wait list. I have never felt more honored and happy to be on any list. This is the last step before seeing a picture of our son for the first time. Our hearts are over flowing with joy. We are super excited! I can't even describe the feeling. The current wait time is 15 months. Therefore, we are about 15 months closer to finally being parents. These next few months will be speant dreaming of seeing our son's beautiful face for the first time. We have a lot of waiting and praying to do! Let the countdown begin :).

Words cannot describe the love that we have for our little angel. We are coming baby boy!

Rob got back from Houston today and surprised me with these Ethiopian presents.

He also brought back Ethiopian food and wine to celebrate :).