wait and wait ...

well, 2 of my friends have just delivered healthy babies, and two more are pregnant with their second. We tell people of our paper pregnancy, but it's a shame it doesn't get a bigger excitment level than if we told them I was pregnant again. I think adoption is still a little misunderstood. People seem happy for you but immediatly ask "why" and "where" and kinda think we're crazy. more like off the rocker, a screw loose, few cards short of a deck... no one asked "why" or "how" or thought we were crazy when we were pregnant with our perfect little girl. Still, we wait. Still, we follow God's call. I know when we hold this child in our arms we will know we're doing the right thing, making the right choice, and follwing the right trail, even if it is the one less traveled.

So, wait we will. Our friend Tina who adopted a son from Rwanda as been sending us updates on paperwork and we have contacted the embassy to make sure we're doing the right things with our paperwork, just waiting on a reply from them.

We are waiting 4 weeks on saturday for USCIS approval.

Presents for Elijah

Well, I was at the mall today with my little gal and I had a gymboree coupon burning a hole in my pocket, (moms, you know what i mean) and alas, nothing for Emila there. BUT i did come across and adorable pair of bluejean overalls with a turtle in the pocket and matching turtle onesie. I had to think of Elijah. But how big will he be? what season will he finally arrive home? I figured 18-24 months (so he can grow into it) and at least overalls can be summer or winter, if you use them with or without the onesie. (That is the name I am calling my "unborn" (or perhaps born?) son to be. Who may turn out to be a daughter but you never know God's plan. Bill has no such neurosis yet. He is always the logical one. It gets worse, I even now admit I bought him a picture frame at Christmas. I saw it on ebay, and it was made from recycled materials by a Christian artist. The name was ELIJAH just sticking out at me. It practically jumped off the page and I shoveld out too much money and bought an Elijah frame. If Elijah turns out to be a girl, so be it. But if it's a boy, Mommy's getting ready! It may seem funny to spend money on something that may never come to be, for so many reasons, but it makes me feel connected. Otherwise all I have is a string of money orders, notarized forms, signatures, and family member apathy. I need something tangible. So Elijah, you have a name, a picture frame, and a pair of adorable turtle overalls. Now all we need is you!
I felt the same way when I saw my daughter's ultrasound picture. All that vomiting was making sense, finally. Something tangible in an otherwise intangible, mind boggeling process.

I also got some encouragment from a friend at Widow's of Hope in Rwanda where we sponsor a school child. My friend Robinson told me he knows several people at the Ministry and will do anything he can to help us out. Praise God! I will also be so excited to finally meet him and Dorothy, our sponsored school child.

updates and waits

Well, still waiting. But it's only really been 15 days, and only 5 days since USCIS was mailed our homestudy. A watched pot never boils, so I'll not dwell on that. I did update our adoption paperwork time line with financial time line as well. We are still expecting to pay a liason in Rwanda $500, plane tickets and travel (I shudder to think...$) and now I think we may have to get all documents approved at state level which may be another 500-700$ and also at the embassy which will be another several hundred dollars. Our friend Tina is helping us figuure out if we REALLY need state approval. Pray NO because it takes $ and more importantly precious time.
In other news, Emilia and I had a fun day today, with her watching me get my teeth cleaned at the dentist. she freaked out seeing the "la-la" (or lady, =dental hygenist) approach mommy with a mask and spinnign whirring dental instruemtns, but luckily she was so tired she promptly forgot the trauma and drifted peacefully off to sleep the whole time. I was going to drop her at daycare, but I'm really glad I didn't. even mundane moments with her are fun. While we were waiting in the waiting room of the dentist office she loved tolook at a picture of a baby alligator hatching from and egg and read the magazines with me. It seems insignificant, but every min. w/ her is awesome. even if it involes me having to get my teeth cleaned. any lying that I floss everyday. Acutally, I didn't even bother to lie about it, I knew the hygenist knew the truth. Some days, i'm just lucky if both shoes match. so sue me if dental floss is used more often in more arts& crafts projects than oral hygene in our home.
I can't wait to spend little precious moments with my son, wherever he may be. (or daughter. but I really think it's gonna be a boy, Elijah.)

making progress

well, on Feb 7th at 8am we had our USCIS fingerprint appointment and on monday we got our completed homestudy report in the mail! So now, we need to send the homestudy report to USCIS, and... wait. But that's good, I feel like we're making progress, really! I'm gonna call the embassy of Rwanda in DC tomorrow and see if we can take the paperwork there in person ,and maybe make a cherry blossom/adoption paperwork short trip soon.
Sorry I've been off of updates, we've all been sick and tired and lazy-feeling. I have strange foot/mouth blisters that I must have caught from Emilia- she started her 1st week of daycare at the church last week and it didn't take long to spread the associated germs around. It also breaks my heaart to send her!!

moving along...

Well, we got our fingerprint appointment for next saturday for USCIS and our premilinary home study report came today, awaiting still bill's dr report and 2 rec letters. But things are on the move.! Elijah, we're coming slowly but surely! In other news, we took emilia to the aqwuarium today to see her beloved hippo and our friend wendy and baby delaney. Then, dinner with daddy downtown at Parc, a really great french bistro. it's so darn cold though-- spring, hurry up!!

Then a miracle occurs

my wordier earlier blog got deleated so here's the low down:
10 simple, easy to follow steps left till our family grows and God blesses us with a second "greatest gift!"

1. finish getting 2 final letters of recommendation
2. get bill's dr letter notarized after 3 failed attempts to get dr to fill form in first place!
3. get fingerprint appt w/ USCIS and approval of fingerprints. shouldn't be hard, since 2 other vast computer networks already have "approved" my fingerprints...
4.submit remaining documents to social worker for homestudy
5. get USCIS approval
6. send dossier to Rwanda embassy for notarization
7. send dossier to Rwanda
8. get approval from ministiry of gender and referral from orphanage
9. then a miracle happens!
10. Baby!

Home Study over, sort of...

Well, I'm a little behind but we did have our homestudy on the 29th of December with Megan Rasmutten and it went very well, but she did say we have too many pets (is 3 cats and 2 dogs too many? :) But I think it's ok :) But we didn't have all of our documents together yet so we need to get her more things before she can write our reports. Bill's state fingerprint clearance arrived about a week ago, which was good. The homestudy was WAY less involved than I imagined. We cleaned frantically and installed missing cabinet locks (that we should have anyway!) before she came, but she really just wanted to meet us and see our motivations for adoption. I'm feeling sluggish in the paperwork again. I have to go get a money order for the I-600 and I've been waiting to do it for almost 2 weeks now. I also need to : Get my midwife to sign off on all my test results, get A letter from E's pediatrician saying she's healthy and receives regular exams/care/etc, write my autobiography, write a letter of intoroduction to the Rwanda minister, dig out two of my recent paychecks, get Bill to get 2 letters of reccomendation, pick up my notarized letter from my regular physician, bring bill's physician letter back to the doctors since she never signed it either, and also arrange the notary to come and notarize it, go get the money order for the 1-600, and i think...thats....it....for....now. You can see this is A LOT of paperwork. I get so overwhelmed instead of doing one or two I want to do them ALL, then that is too overwhelming so i do NONE. Sigh. I need some motivation!
In economic news, i'm sad to say I think we;re going to lay off our nanny and put E in day care to save some money and pay off bills. Yuck. now she's gonna get sick all the time. If you know any nice, cheap :) nannies in philly, let us know!!