I know, I know...I've pretty much fallen off the face of the earth! This summer has been INSANELY busy (a wonderful thing, because it's kept us busy and given me lots of distraction from missing my girl). Just to give you an idea what we've been up to, we left for Ethiopia the day after Griffin's last day of school, and things haven't let up for a second. We've had:
-a week of basketball camp for Griffin
-a week of soccer camp for Griffin/VBS for Cooper
-a week of VBS for both boys
-summer reading programs and activities at our library
-3 weeks of swim lessons for both boys
-class picnics and birthday parties for Griffin
-the 4th of July and block parties and fireworks at the lake
-Cooper's 4th birthday and his big party
-a weekend away for Chad and I to celebrate our 10th anniversary
-lots of trips to the zoo and Children's Museum
-afternoons at the Y pool
-a week in the Outer Banks
-camping trips
Whew! We have 10 more days before Griffin's first day of 1st grade (my baby is a 1st grader...boo hoo!), and we're still trying to pack in a day at the State Fair, one more camping trip, two days at Holiday World, a day trip to see my high school best friend and her kids, another birthday party, one more trip to the lake, and getting haircuts and new shoes and all that other "back to school" stuff! Seriously, I have never enjoyed a summer more, and as much as I miss Gabby every minute, it's been really enjoyable having two older kids who can play all summer long! They even gave me the great gift of getting along most of the time (although all bets have been off the last week or so...pretty sure it's time for school to start back up!)
So that's what has been keeping us going. And like I said, it is a wonderful blessing that we have been so busy, because we've spent the last 2 months just kind of biding our time, adoption-wise. We returned from Ethiopia two months ago today. We got the news that our MOWA recommendation was in on June 17th, and since then we've been waiting, and waiting, and waiting, to be submitted to the US Embassy.
I am not an expert on the process by any means, but my rough understanding is that after passing court, we needed a court decree, birth certificate with her "new" name (her Ethiopian first name and then Chad's full name), passport, and medical exam in order to be submitted to the US Embassy in Addis. Every adoption agency has their own day of the week to submit families, and ours is Wednesday. Last Monday we were told that everything was pretty much ready, we were just waiting on translating, and odds were good we could sneak in. Then we were told on Wednesday that it didn't happen. I was SO disappointed. There was a lot of crying and despair and being mean to Chad because the poor man is stuck with me.
Then the next day, my best friend Jen gave me a gift. It's a beautiful silver bracelet, hand-stamped with "so blessed" on the inside. She gave it to me to cheer me up, and it did. I began thinking of all the blessings I have in my life. Three wonderful children, a stellar husband, great friends and family... And I began thinking in bigger terms too. I am so blessed that I have never had to face the heart-wrenching choice to give up a child because I can't afford to care for them. And as much as I mourn how much of Gabby's first year I am missing, I know that I will have the rest of her life with her. And her birthmother can't say that. Blessed...
And right as I was all proud of myself and my newfound maturity, I got an e-mail on Tuesday morning from the US Embassy, requesting additional documentation for Gabby. I was so confused and excited, and after some clarification, it turns out that we somehow were submitted last week after all-a miscommunication between our agency's in-country staff and US staff. It wasn't the best news we could have gotten (that we were approved to travel), but given where I thought we were at, it was a great surprise! The document they requested is pretty straight-forward, and is expected to be there early next week. At that point, we will either be approved, or the embassy will ask for still more documents. The embassy staff changed in July, and they seem to be requesting TONS more info from everyone, so we'll see what happens. I am trying to be patient and calm, and convince myself that even if there are more weeks of embassy review it won't be too bad. We'll see how long I keep that up :) If, by a miracle, we are approved next week, we could be traveling in the next few weeks. That would be amazing!! My birthday is September 7th, and ALL I want for my birthday is to celebrate with my baby girl.
Hopefully this update makes up for the total slacker I've been over the past couple months. I still have two days of our trip left to write up, and I do still plan to do that. I better get on it, since I KNOW :) we will be going back in just a few weeks!!
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