Waiting Is Not Fun

Although it has only been a short three months since we began this journey, it sometimes feels like we will never get THERE. THERE meaning meeting our son. Holding, kissing, loving, hugging, and playing with him. I trust that God’s timing is perfect. I know that even if this process takes years, every single tear from the unknowns will be worth the wait. I know that God has already picked a child that we will be fortunate enough to call son. It is just a matter of time before we meet him.

But sometimes waiting is not fun. The unknown is not fun. When we began this process, the wait time for a child was 8 – 10 months. I remember thinking “can I do this? How am I going to wait THAT long?” Now, there are many uncertainties with the Ethiopian government and the wait time has increased to 13 months. This time can increase or decrease at any stage of our process. Because we are still in the “paperwork stage”, it could be another 16 months before we see him. I already know what everyone is thinking “time flies, before you know it…” But sometimes it is not that easy. It is not easy to wait for something you want so bad that it hurts. To wait for someone you love so much, not knowing who they are.

In the meantime, we will keep ourselves as busy as possible and pray. Pray - A LOT. I pray to stay close to God and keep feeling the love He has for Rob and me. Pray for strength, our boy, and for his mother. I pray for her health. I pray for her strength and for her courage. 

There is no one else I would rather have by my side than my husband. Thank you for making life fun!

Gladney Docs - Check!

We have submitted the last of the Gladney documents and the I600a application (the home study is still pending). It. Was. Insane!! I was frantically trying to finish a final project for school (due today) while working on the last documents needed for the Gladney application. If you were in my house today, you would witness this:

Me: "Babe!! Hurry, read and sign the documents I placed a post-it on!"

              After two seconds...

Rob: "I am done!"

              (We are yelling because I am in the office and he is in the dining room)

Me: "Okay, take pictures of the back and front of the house and the play area!!"

Rob: "What is a play area?!"

              I had no idea but I responded with a ...

Me: "The backyard, duh!"

He took the rest of the pictures we needed (stuffing the dishwasher and hiding the clean clothes in the closet) and set up an account with Walgreens. We then chose ALL of the 13 pictures needed and ordered them. He went to FedEx and made copies of the paperwork and on the way back picked up the pictures. We had to tape and label every picture on a piece of paper. As I took each picture and turned it over, I demanded he pass me a piece of double-sided tape (keep in mind, my project is due in a few minutes). So I would yell "more!" and he would hand me a piece of tape. "More!" Tape. "More!" Tape. Never speaking or making eye contact. He then rushed back to FedEx and mailed everything off and I rushed to class. Phew! Project complete. Documents submitted. Any who, dossier here we come :). (By the way, the reason we were determined to finish with this part of the process today is because we set our own imaginary deadlines.)

More paperwork

     Since we had to take pictures of the "play area" I noticed these changes:

:(

:|

:)

I can't believe all of that hard work has been paying off!   

(Oh, I sure hope this is the play area)

P.S. Thank you babe for all of your help. I love you!

Thank You Hugs!!!

I wanted to send a big, huge, shout-out to the five people we asked for a reference letter. Our agency received all five letters today and a request to complete our home study has been submitted to the Family Services Department. We should hear from them within the next 30 days. That puts us one-step closer to our baby.

Lorena – One of my sisters and best friends. Thank you for being my “private” counselor.

Father James – A wonderful priest and friend. Thank you for your prayers.

Leonard and Jessica – The best neighbors/friends anyone can ask for. Thank you for all of the good times we have had so far and the rest to come...

Claudia and Laura – You two make work enjoyable and exciting. Without you girls, work would just be………………WORK. I am so glad to not only have amazing co-workers but to have truly found lifetime friends.

Another big shout-out to our supervisors. When we asked our supervisors for an employment verification letter, they could not get the letters notarized, signed, and returned to us fast enough. Barbara (the most compassionate, understanding, and caring supervisor), THANK YOU!!! 

Rob and I are so blessed to have these people in our lives. We want to thank everyone from the bottom of our hearts. We know the letters were time consuming and yet everyone submitted them extremely fast. We cannot wait to tell our baby about all of the love and support we have been receiving. 

Overboard?

Have I mentioned that Rob and I are excited about adopting? If not, let me tell you, we are super excited!! 

I remember as a little girl coming home from school and thinking “ah, home”. It was comfy; it smelled like home-made food and it was always clean. I loved being home, I was comfortable. Rob feels the same way. We both grew up in a loving family that really cared about spending time together. Family dinner every night, attending mass every Sunday that followed with a fun event (the zoo, the park, you name it), and getting together with extended family for the holidays. Well, we can’t wait to provide that type of environment for our son. I want my house to always be clean, always smell good, and I want him to be so comfortable, he will not want to move out……EVER. OK, maybe for college, but I just want him to have that “ah, I am home” feeling all of the time. We want him to be truly happy and comfortable with us.

We are finally going to be parents and here are some things we have done so far in the last two months. (Keep in mind we both work full time and I am currently in school.) 

1.  We have dogs that love to dig holes in our backyard. They want every neighbor that is outside watering their grass to pet them. Rob wanted to fill in the holes and I strongly agreed. So what did I find on the driveway one day? Seven, yes, seven TONS of dirt!! Rob really, really wanted to fill in the holes to prevent our son from tripping and falling. Therefore, after two weeks of manual labor and some physical therapy (I am not kidding, Rob is currently going to physical therapy due to back pain), we filled in the holes plus planted a tree and a few bushes.

2.  We have upgraded our pest control contract from Regular to Platinum. Our baby will not see a bug in this house.

3.  We shampooed the carpet twice. Keep in mind, we used to shampoo it about once every six weeks; sometimes.

4.  We are buying a bookshelf that will cover a wall in the living room. For what you may ask? For our son’s books and pictures :).

5.  Lastly, we have bought a dining room set. We went from having a two chair dining room, to a hand me down four chair set, and now because there will be three of us, we bought a NINE piece set! It took us months to decide on which table to purchase but in the process of deciding, we considered our family. Our family has been waiting for a grandson, nephew, cousin,…. from us for a long time, so we are assuming they will be coming over to the house more often. Hence, the nine piece dining room set.

I still have a two page list of what we want done to the house before the baby arrives. My question is: are we going overboard? (My sisters think our child will be like the boy from The Little Giants movie. The one that shows up to football practice practically wrapped in bubble wrap. At first I thought ridiculous and laughed. Then I immediately came back with “oh, football is so dangerous”. )
 

Our dogs

The dirt

My masterpiece

The old dining room table

The beautiful, spacious, new table. (Two chairs are currently missing but they should arrive tomorrow)

Final Decision: It's a Boy!

I have always lived my life the "right way". Actually, I have been writing my own life story. I graduated at the top of my class in high school and married the man of my dreams soon after. I attended college while Rob worked, graduated, found a job, and began a career. Then Rob went back to school and graduated last year.

The desire of wanting children always existed but we knew we were "too busy". I trusted that God knew how busy we were and therefore didn't think twice on why, after seven years, we had not conceived. It was Rob's last year in college and that is when the light bulb went off: why DON'T we have any? Our plan was to have a child after buying a house, owning our cars, finishing college, and getting out of debt. We bought our house in 2008, we have two dependable vehicles, graduated from college, and seriously, who is debt free? Then we found out: we can't have children.

We were heartbroken at first but soon after, we felt at peace. It was like we automatically knew there was something special waiting for us. Someone meant for us. So what did I do? I put my pen down and let God take over. He is writing our story now and we are following His journey. Isn't that amazing? We feel happy, anxious, humbled, and blessed with the decision we are pursuing. We have never been a stronger couple. We are more in love than ever and we understand and support each other. And now I get it, our child is going to be born across the world and we could not be more excited to meet him! Cannot wait to meet our baby boy.

On Friday we mailed most of our Gladney documents. In the envelope is the Child Preference Profile form. We are requesting a 0-6 month old boy. Trust me, we prayed long and hard for this decision. And yes, the FedEx employee thought we were silly for wanting a picture with an envelope.

Our Adoption Process

I love lists. I mean love them!! I make lists for everything. Sometimes I even make a list of my lists. I know, weird. This next one is probably the most important list of our lives. It looks simple and straightforward, but don't let it deceive you. This is not an easy one. It is a challenging, time consuming list that will lead us to our child.
Our adoption process is composed of the following steps: 

1. Formal application for Gladney: Our agency is kind enough to divide the documents needed into three different groups and suggests submitting one “group” per week. 
2. The home study: This part is basically an intense interview about us. This helps the social worker better understand us and our background.
3. The Dossier: This is another packet of documents that are sent to Ethiopia. We have contacted KBS Dossiers to help us authenticate our documents. 
4. The Waiting List: Basically, we are in line to receive a referral for a child from Ethiopia. 
5. The Referral: This is the call we are currently dreaming about. We receive medical information, a picture, and any history known to the child. Once we accept…
6. Trip 1: Court in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We travel to Ethiopia and stay for a week. Come back home and wait for a date to go on a second trip. (Yes, we have to make two trips to Ethiopia :) )
7. Trip 2: This is where we pick up the baby’s visa and complete more paperwork. Only this time, we bring our baby home.
8. Start our lives as a family.

This is what we did all day on Sunday: paperwork :)


In case you have not heard: We are expecting from Ethiopia!

Food Lovers

Rob and I love food. I mean, love it! We love to go to new restaurants and try the “weird” dishes and the daily specials. That is what we do. We do not go to night clubs or bars, we do not go to the movies, but we sure do love to eat out.

We have been married for 8 years and 9 months and frankly, we are getting tired of getting the small table by the bathroom. The table where only one person would fit if they were drinking a soda and nothing more. We usually walk in a restaurant and get a table much faster than anyone else. Why? Because there is only two of us! So now, we are counting down the days where we can walk into a restaurant and proudly say "Delgado, party of three". (Someday four, but for now, three will make us very happy.)