Well, we don't really have anything new to share (and what could top our last post, right?) We are still completely in love with our sweet girl. Her picture is on our frige, and we look at it all the time. I keep a copy in my purse as well, so feel free to ask to look at it if you see me. I LOVE to show her off!
We told the boys the big news the very next day after we got our referral. Because the call came at night, they were already asleep. We both wanted to be there to tell them, so I had to wait the whole long day and not say anything to them! After Griffin got home from school, we sat them down and showed them her picture, and told them, "This is your baby sister!" We wanted to be sure they understood that even though we know her face now, she still doesn't get to come home to us for a few months, and I think that tempered a little of their excitement. They looked at the picture and then said, "Oh, good." In her picture she's wrapped in blankets, and Griffin was happy she might be able to bring us some blankets when she comes. I think a little was lost on them, but they are super excited. Griffin talks about his baby sister from Ethiopia all the time, and Cooper calls her "my baby." So sweet!
We sent off our official acceptance of our referral last Wednesday (as if, after seeing her sweet face, we ever could have said no!) So now we wait. We are keeping busy, and I hope the time passes as quickly as possible. We are currently working on rearranging rooms and getting things ready for her. We painted our master bedroom last weekend, and now we can move all of the things from my scrapbook room into there. Then we'll work on Cooper's big boy room, and finally make a pretty room for our princess.
Now that I know her age, I can shop with total abandon! I've been pretty good so far, just buying a clothing items here and there, but our big Children's Sale is coming up, and I do intend to go crazy :) Last week I bought a few things on super clearance at Gymboree and got a winter coat for her for next year. So fun!
The thing we are struggling with the most right now is a name for our sweet baby girl! You would think, given the fact that we've had two other kids and had to have girl names available with each of them, that we would have some clue, but oh my, has this been difficult! We have a list currently of about 6 names. I have two that are my favorites, and Chad likes them both, but isn't quite convinced either of them is IT. He also thinks her name might be French (like the name that she is meant to have). Um, sure... She does have a name now, of course, and it is actually quite cute (we can't share it on here unfortunately), but I have always dreamed of naming a daughter (I did not dream of having to contend with Chad, apparently), so I don't really want to miss the process of picking the prettiest name we can for her. We may keep it as a middle name, to keep a part of her heritage. It's a tricky thing. I think it would have been easier to choose before we saw her, but now we want to try every name on with her face in mind, and that makes it harder. And to make things even worse, Chad doesn't see the need to rush. I do! I want to be able to call her by name!
So that's what's happening around here. Hope all is well :)
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
The Best Valentine's Day Gift Ever!
I don't even know how to start...our lives changed, forever, on Sunday night at 9:02 pm. Chad was out for a run, and I was watching the Grammys. The phone rang, and I saw that the caller ID said it was from a cell phone in Kentucky. I could not think of anyone we knew in Kentucky who might be calling us, so I almost didn't answer it. Good thing I did! I recognized the voice on the other end as our program coordinator, Lesley. As soon as I realized it was her, my heart began to pound. I couldn't think of any reason other than our referral that she would be calling from her home on a Sunday night (and can I just say how sweet it is that she did that. She wanted to make sure Chad would be there too). She said she had some "news," and I started to shake. I wanted Chad to be there, but I also (selfishly) couldn't wait one more second to hear what she had to say! Then she said, "I have your referral!" (Those are some of the best words ever, FYI!)
She started to tell me a few details like her name, age, and what region of the country she is in now. I was trying to take notes, but my hands were shaking! Just then I heard the dogs whining and knew Chad was in the front yard, so I ran and got him and whispered that this was IT, our referral call. Poor thing, he was all sweaty and the dogs were jumping on him, but he got settled with lightning speed. Then she e-mailed us her referral paperwork. This included the same details she had gone over with us, her birth certificate, her medical exam, and her picture, and we went over that with her on the phone. Let me just tell you, she is the most beautiful baby! Obviously we are biased, but she is just gorgeous! We can't post pictures on here or facebook until she is legally ours (though if I know you in real life I would be thrilled to show you her picture). I can say she has huge brown eyes, big squishy cheeks that I just can't wait to kiss, perfectly plump little lips, and a full head of fine black hair. We opened her picture, and I instantly started crying (to go along with the shaking I was already doing!). I just kept saying, "Oh, she's so beautiful!" She is amazing. We have stared at her picture for, oh...hours since Sunday night, so I can say this with certainty.
Because she is not "ours" yet (except in our hearts), we can't share too many of her details with you. I can say that she is 3 1/2 months old. She has to be in the orphanage a little while longer before we can go to court, so we are looking at two to three more months before we can travel to meet her and go before the judge (when she will legally become our child). Then we will have to leave her, and travel again 6-10 weeks later to bring her home. All worth it!
After we got off the phone with Lesley, we stood there just staring at her picture for a good long while. Then we made roughly a million calls to friends and family. By the time we were done with that, we were exhausted. I printed her picture so Chad could show her off at work (I think we are both carrying her picture around with us at all times, just in case we should run into someone we know...definitely proud parents!) By the time we actually laid down in bed, we were both just completely drained, but so, so happy. I just kept getting teary eyed everytime I thought of her. We have a daughter (almost). I laid awake for several hours, replaying the whole evening in my mind. I prayed. I smiled. I remembered her sweet face. And I thanked God for the miracles he creates everyday, including our new daughter.
She started to tell me a few details like her name, age, and what region of the country she is in now. I was trying to take notes, but my hands were shaking! Just then I heard the dogs whining and knew Chad was in the front yard, so I ran and got him and whispered that this was IT, our referral call. Poor thing, he was all sweaty and the dogs were jumping on him, but he got settled with lightning speed. Then she e-mailed us her referral paperwork. This included the same details she had gone over with us, her birth certificate, her medical exam, and her picture, and we went over that with her on the phone. Let me just tell you, she is the most beautiful baby! Obviously we are biased, but she is just gorgeous! We can't post pictures on here or facebook until she is legally ours (though if I know you in real life I would be thrilled to show you her picture). I can say she has huge brown eyes, big squishy cheeks that I just can't wait to kiss, perfectly plump little lips, and a full head of fine black hair. We opened her picture, and I instantly started crying (to go along with the shaking I was already doing!). I just kept saying, "Oh, she's so beautiful!" She is amazing. We have stared at her picture for, oh...hours since Sunday night, so I can say this with certainty.
Because she is not "ours" yet (except in our hearts), we can't share too many of her details with you. I can say that she is 3 1/2 months old. She has to be in the orphanage a little while longer before we can go to court, so we are looking at two to three more months before we can travel to meet her and go before the judge (when she will legally become our child). Then we will have to leave her, and travel again 6-10 weeks later to bring her home. All worth it!
After we got off the phone with Lesley, we stood there just staring at her picture for a good long while. Then we made roughly a million calls to friends and family. By the time we were done with that, we were exhausted. I printed her picture so Chad could show her off at work (I think we are both carrying her picture around with us at all times, just in case we should run into someone we know...definitely proud parents!) By the time we actually laid down in bed, we were both just completely drained, but so, so happy. I just kept getting teary eyed everytime I thought of her. We have a daughter (almost). I laid awake for several hours, replaying the whole evening in my mind. I prayed. I smiled. I remembered her sweet face. And I thanked God for the miracles he creates everyday, including our new daughter.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Fundraising and Money
It dawned on me that when I first started this blog (and we first started our adoption process), I made a very comprehensive post detailing all of the awesome fundraising ideas we had in mind. And then it dawned on me that some of you might be wondering whatever happened to some of those awesome ideas. So I thought I would take a moment to explain where we are at, money-wise, in the process, and what we have lined up still to do.
We (I) had some great ideas for fundraisers, that just ended up being a lot harder/more time-consuming than I expected. My mom was going to make dolls for us to sell. She made a few (and they were really cute), and we realized that by the time we paid for materials and looked at the sheer time it was taking her to make them, they were horribly cost-ineffective. I wanted to make a cookbook (and still think it's a great idea!), but I don't have any graphic design/publishing knowledge, so I was going to be bugging friends to put it together for me, and that didn't feel right.
And then our garage sale was so much more successful than we expected, and a very generous and wonderful relative gave us a donation, and the money was just there as we needed it. So far, much to my absolute shock and amazement, the financial aspect of this (hands down our biggest fear as we started) has not been an issue. I can only attribute this to God. One of my favorite quotes as we started was this one by Martin Luther King Jr.: "Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase." Faith is something Chad and I are both constantly struggling with, and it has been so amazing to see our financial leap of faith working out, at least so far.
As of this moment, I believe our adoption fees are accounted for. When we get our referral, we will have a LARGE lump sum payment due, and at this point, we have that money tucked away and earmarked. I can't believe that. So the costs we are still trying to cover are our travel expenses. Originally, Chad and I were both going to go on our first trip for court and to meet our daughter (if we both meet her before court, she gets to come into the US on a different Visa and that's a good thing). The plan was for just me to go back to bring her home. However, through the wisdom of friends who have done this before, we are realizing that traveling for 24+ hours with an infant on a plane around the world by myself might be impossible. And honestly, neither Chad nor I want for him to miss what will surely be one of the greatest moments of our lives. Plus, the more time we get to spend in Ethiopia, the more connected we will get to be to our daughter's first home. So we are in agreement that we both want to go, both times. We are figuring our travel (x2 trips) will be around $10,000. This is the amount we are still trying to make magically appear in our bank accounts :)
So...all of that is to say that we have two fundraisers lined up for the next few months. The first is a Spring Family Dance that we are co-hosting, along with our fabulous friends the Taylors. My respect and love for them is a whole other blog post, but for now let me just say that they adopted their gorgeous daughter Mia from Ethiopia in 2009 and are working on adopting a son this year. Sarah had the brilliant idea for a dance, dessert buffet (yum) and silent auction as a fundraiser, and we are super excited to being doing that with them. That will be April 9th. If you own a business, sell something, make something, etc. and would like to donate an item/service for the silent auction, please let me know!
The other idea I had was for Chad to run the Indy 500 Mini-Marathon (13.1 miles) and have sponsors pledge per mile run. (Don't you love how it was my idea, but Chad has to run?) We have tons of family and friends who have been so supportive, but are not close enough geographically to participate in any local fundraisers. We thought this might be a good way for them to support us if they want, and the beauty is that people can give as much or as little as they want or are able. That will be May 7th. So far Chad hasn't trained one bit, so who knows? Pledgers might get off easy!
Whew! I have been meaning to write all this money stuff down for months, but have you ever noticed how unenticing discussing finances is? Anyway, just wanted to fill people in as to where we are in the process, from all angles :)
We (I) had some great ideas for fundraisers, that just ended up being a lot harder/more time-consuming than I expected. My mom was going to make dolls for us to sell. She made a few (and they were really cute), and we realized that by the time we paid for materials and looked at the sheer time it was taking her to make them, they were horribly cost-ineffective. I wanted to make a cookbook (and still think it's a great idea!), but I don't have any graphic design/publishing knowledge, so I was going to be bugging friends to put it together for me, and that didn't feel right.
And then our garage sale was so much more successful than we expected, and a very generous and wonderful relative gave us a donation, and the money was just there as we needed it. So far, much to my absolute shock and amazement, the financial aspect of this (hands down our biggest fear as we started) has not been an issue. I can only attribute this to God. One of my favorite quotes as we started was this one by Martin Luther King Jr.: "Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase." Faith is something Chad and I are both constantly struggling with, and it has been so amazing to see our financial leap of faith working out, at least so far.
As of this moment, I believe our adoption fees are accounted for. When we get our referral, we will have a LARGE lump sum payment due, and at this point, we have that money tucked away and earmarked. I can't believe that. So the costs we are still trying to cover are our travel expenses. Originally, Chad and I were both going to go on our first trip for court and to meet our daughter (if we both meet her before court, she gets to come into the US on a different Visa and that's a good thing). The plan was for just me to go back to bring her home. However, through the wisdom of friends who have done this before, we are realizing that traveling for 24+ hours with an infant on a plane around the world by myself might be impossible. And honestly, neither Chad nor I want for him to miss what will surely be one of the greatest moments of our lives. Plus, the more time we get to spend in Ethiopia, the more connected we will get to be to our daughter's first home. So we are in agreement that we both want to go, both times. We are figuring our travel (x2 trips) will be around $10,000. This is the amount we are still trying to make magically appear in our bank accounts :)
So...all of that is to say that we have two fundraisers lined up for the next few months. The first is a Spring Family Dance that we are co-hosting, along with our fabulous friends the Taylors. My respect and love for them is a whole other blog post, but for now let me just say that they adopted their gorgeous daughter Mia from Ethiopia in 2009 and are working on adopting a son this year. Sarah had the brilliant idea for a dance, dessert buffet (yum) and silent auction as a fundraiser, and we are super excited to being doing that with them. That will be April 9th. If you own a business, sell something, make something, etc. and would like to donate an item/service for the silent auction, please let me know!
The other idea I had was for Chad to run the Indy 500 Mini-Marathon (13.1 miles) and have sponsors pledge per mile run. (Don't you love how it was my idea, but Chad has to run?) We have tons of family and friends who have been so supportive, but are not close enough geographically to participate in any local fundraisers. We thought this might be a good way for them to support us if they want, and the beauty is that people can give as much or as little as they want or are able. That will be May 7th. So far Chad hasn't trained one bit, so who knows? Pledgers might get off easy!
Whew! I have been meaning to write all this money stuff down for months, but have you ever noticed how unenticing discussing finances is? Anyway, just wanted to fill people in as to where we are in the process, from all angles :)
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