Twelve Months

Months on the wait list:

Current longest waiting family has been waiting for (months):

26

We were fortunate enough to meet another gladney mom a few months ago (hi Jean!). She has been on the wait list for a year more than we have and she told us that the way she deals with the wait is by looking at the adoption process in 3-6 month increments. That gave me an idea. Due to the one-year mark, I will include a more detailed post of where we are on the list and how long the longest waiting family has been waiting for, every three months. I think this can help our family better “see” where we really are in the process but not obsess over it. Thanks to my OCD, I will start with this month in order to have an even four detailed posts within the next year. 

 

There are currently 78 families ahead of us, 16 of which are waiting specifically for siblings. Therefore, we are about number 62 on the single child list. (Remember, this does not mean that after 61 we are next. We could be skipped or we could receive a call before the families ahead of us when we get closer.)

On our twelve month waiting anniversary, we relaxed by the pool and grilled some burgers. My sister graduated yesterday and my nephew's birthday is tomorrow. Therefore, we are spending the weekend with family in Kingsville, TX.

Happy twelve months waiting!!!

Hitting the One Year Mark

We finally hit the one year mark tomorrow!! It really did fly by. I will admit however, the first 2 months were emotionally difficult. It felt as if time stood still. But time did keep ticking and now we are 12 months closer towards meeting our son. Referral wait times are still increasing but everyone, from our agency to the embassy, is working their behind off in order to provide a more ethical and stronger adoption program. That does not mean that times have been easy. Some days I get sad, some days I get frustrated, but most days I am hopeful and excited. I know in my heart that things will start to stabilize. I see us with an Ethiopian little boy…I see it! I know it will happen, maybe not tomorrow, but it will happen. Why else would God plant this little seed in our hearts?

I am anticipating the day when we will meet our son and officially become a family of three. Oh, man I can’t wait for that day to come! To witness such a beautiful miracle unfold before our eyes is going to be life changing. The love that we have for our son keeps growing with every day that goes by. We are and will continue to thank God everyday for walking with us on this incredible journey. Waiting this long for our little boy can only mean that we will forever cherish and love him. That the day when we finally get to hug and kiss him will be even that much sweeter. Once he is with us and we begin to live THAT life, the one with homeworks, school recitals, vacation trips, soccer practice, family dinners..., we will absolutely, no question about it, appreciate every single second of it.  

I have never made a prayer request...until now. Will you please pray with us? Pray for the process to start stabilizing. For all of the families that are waiting with us, especially for the ones that have been waiting a lot longer than we have, to feel at peace during this hard wait. For the children to feel loved and protected while THEY wait to be united with their new family. Finally, for the birth families of these children. I can't even imagine what they must be going through. Pray for God to guide them through the most difficult decision that they will ever make in their lives. 

Special gifts our son has received so far

Celebrating Our Anniversaries

WARNING: Picture overload!

Last night we decided to celebrate both our 11 month waiting anniversary and our 10 year wedding anniversary. Because there were two different celebrations we went out to eat at two different restaurants. We couldn't decide whether to go bowling, visit a museum... but our love for food is too strong to pass a nice dinner. (Remember this?)

To celebrate our 11 month waiting anniversary, I chose the restaurant where we had a nice appetizer. I LOVE cheese, love it!! Therefore, we went to the Melting Pot and had a traditional swiss cheese fondue with a nice glass of red wine.

To celebrate our wedding anniversary, Rob chose the restaurant where we ate dinner. It was our first time to Tre Trattoria. It is a beautiful contemporary, tuscan-inspired restaurant. Rob had the slow roasted pork belly and I had the goat cheese pizza with pistachios...delicious!!!!

Ten things we love about us:

1. We have a good laugh at least once a day.

2. We are each other's best friends, by choice.

3. After all of this time, we still kiss with our eyes closed.

4. We tell each other "I love you" multiple times a day.

5. We have fun together. We will make a Saturday night watching a corny lifetime movie into an adventure.

6. We eat lunch and dinner together, email and text throughout the day, and we still miss each other when we are apart.

7. We are madly in love.

8. We can read each other's minds and emotions.

9. We respect each other.

10. We love our son, truly love him.

Here are ten pictures of us throughout the first ten years:

Our first dance as husband and wife

Celebrating our six year anniversary

First visit to Las Vegas

Celebrating New Years

Silver mine tour

First time hosting Thanksgiving dinner in our new home

Guanajuato, MX

Visit to Lake Tahoe

Haunted house

Sea World

All of the challenges that we have had to conquer together have brought us closer to each other. I love the life that we live. I thank God everyday for letting me be your wife and I cannot imagine my existence without you. You truly are the love of my life and I am so in love with you, ALL of you. I adore you and can’t wait to have our son be a part of our little world.

Eleven Months and Ten Years

Months on the wait list:

Current longest waiting family has been waiting for (months):

25

I feel awful, awful, AWFUL that I have not posted anything about our 11 month waiting anniversary. I feel like a bad mom, but trust me, we have been talking nonstop about our son. This last month flew by. On Thursday, I had a project due and an exam for my final class. Also, my family from Mexico arrived to our house that night. Therefore, on our 11 month waiting anniversary (last Wednesday), both Rob and I worked and I spent the evening studying like crazy and Rob spent it cleaning like a maniac. We did not even have time to take a picture of the madness. Plus, I don’t think anyone would like to see Rob sweating trying to finish up and me pale, freaking out in front of the computer. We did however, have lunch together on that day but of course, I left my phone in the office.

On Friday, we celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary. Ten years!!!! Holy moly macaroni, when did this happen? Rob and I typed up a list of ten things we love about our relationship to post on the blog that Friday but I underestimated the ease of being a good host to 20 people. Good times :).

On Friday, we just hung out and played catch up with my family. Some of them had not visited us since our wedding day so it was neat to spend our anniversary with everyone 10 years later in our home. On Saturday, we all went to Schlitterbahn Water Park. I have not laughed/giggled so much in a very long time. Sunday and Monday were spent at the mall and they all left Tuesday morning :(. Then at 1 am today, our niece was born!

As everyone can see, this last week has been very exciting. We are planning to celebrate both our 11 month waiting anniversary and our 10 year wedding anniversary this Friday coming up. I will post pictures of the celebrations with our list then to keep this post relatively short. Meanwhile, here are some pictures of the fun past few days.

My beautiful aunts and cousins

My silly family (I miss them)

Eating pizza at the water park

Photobomb (my nephew)

Everyone in the water is part of my family

Eating breakfast on Sunday

Our cute niece, Annalise


Happy eleven months waiting!!!!

Ten Months

Months on the wait list:

Current longest waiting family has been waiting for (months):

24

To help our family and friends better understand the process, I will talk about how our agency handles referrals. The wait list consists of all the families in chronologic order by the date each was placed on the list. Every family submits a child preference profile form stating their gender and age range preference. For example, a family could be requesting a girl between 2-3 years old or like us, a boy 0-6 months old. Once the agency has a referral ready, they basically go down the list (by date) and find the perfect match. That family then receives the call we are all dreaming of. This means that when we get closer, if there are many little girls ready for homes, we will probably get skipped. If there are many boys and the families ahead of us are requesting girls, they get skipped. Got it? Get it? Good.

As of May 2012, the current longest waiting family has waited 24 months for a referral. There are approximately 87 families ahead of us, 15 of which are waiting specifically for siblings.

As everyone can see, we still have quite a while to go. Only God knows when we are next. So for now, we celebrate.

On our 10 month waiting anniversary, we went to work and decided to have Mexican food for dinner. We had chicken and beef fajitas with rice, beans, guacamole, and pico de gallo.

Thank you Mr. Waiter for including your index finger in our picture.

We decided to take a slightly better picture than the one above :). 

Since it is currently 98 degrees Fahrenheit, we found it appropriate and necessary to have frozen yogurt for dessert. We went to Orange Leaf and ate our yogurt outside to watch the sunset.

We could not decide on one flavor and ended up mixing them up.

Can you guess which one is Rob's?

Happy ten months waiting!!!

We love you so much baby boy!

Nine Months

Months on the waitlist:

Current Average wait time:

21

When we were placed on the wait list in August, I knew immediately that if we did not receive our referral by April, our 9 month waiting anniversary would fall on Mother's Day weekend...Really?..Really?! My plan was to sit in front of my computer with a glass of wine and write a long post as the tears rolled down my face on the differences between a pregnancy and adoption. BUT for one, I do not have children and therefore, do not get the privilege of comparing one to the other. Two, God would not allow such a pity party in my house ;). 

My commencement ceremony was on the day before our waiting anniversary. My family and I celebrated with a nice dinner. The day of our waiting anniversary, we headed out to a lake house. We spent all weekend celebrating mother's day and my graduation. We ate, laughed, danced, ate, slept, did some fishing, and ate some more. The neat part of the whole weekend was that we were able to spend it with both of our families. I'm talking sisters, nephews, nieces, parents, and grandparents. All 22 of us had a pretty good time. 

It was raining so hard on Thursday, I think this is the only picture we took

My cake with one of my nephew's finger (busted)

9 months closer!

My dad with his grandchildren

Rob fishing...

Rob's fish

Me trying to fish

With Rob's family (our 3 nephews, 2 nieces, and brother in law are missing :( )

Has anyone seen my grandparents?

Me with a cowboy

Mom and sisters

Rob and I with our mothers

Our beautiful mothers

Happy mother's day and happy nine months waiting!!!

Eight Months

Months on the waitlist:

Current average wait time:

20

On our eight month waiting anniversary we went to work plus I had my evening class. Don't be jealous that we live such an adventurous life. Rob worked late and I didn't get out of class until 8:30. We both pulled into our garage at the same time and gave each other an "I am so tired" look. We laid on our new couch but quickly decided, we HAD to do something to celebrate. We ended up going to the nearest restaurant that is open past 9 pm. At Cheddar's we had a good ol' chicken sandwich with fries. We cheered our water glasses to our son and talked about our day :). 

Doesn't Rob look like a fortune teller in this picture?

Happy eight months waiting!!!