Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Teeny tiny baby step towards court date
We've now heard that the reps in ET have all the documents they need to file for our court date (apparently there was some extra effort needed in our case to collect everything necessary on their end). They are going to file for the date this week and *hopefully* we'll hear next week about when our first (and hopefully last!) court date will be! Fingers crossed for a speedy date!!!
Friday, April 11, 2008
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Nada
No news to report, except of course for the fact that nearly EVERYONE else has their court dates except us! ARRRRRRGGGGHHH!
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
REFERRAL at 15 weeks!!!
Hi everyone,
I know I almost never post here, but getting our referral seems like something worth my while! We got the call yesterday from Natalie, 5 weeks sooner than expected, for a baby girl! She's almost 4 months old and in perfect health. We are so excited!
The Call:
I was coming out of the bank with Evan and when we got strapped into the car I was going to make a call while Evan watched Elmo in the back. I saw that there was a message from an unknown number. Of course I thought that it could be Natalie, but I REALLY didn't expect it to be her. I listened to the message and all she said was to call her back. So I did, and the first thing I said was, "Hi, this is Jen Cantwell. You've GOT to be shitting me!!!" And she laughed and said no, that she had our referral! She asked about conferencing in Brian but I was in the car and that wouldn't do much good. She told me her age only and that she'd call me back at home in ten minutes so we could conference him in.
And so began a drive home that was very blurry. I have the flu, I should mention, and so there we flew down San Pablo Avenue, Elmo blaring, cell phone being used in ways that are the reason it will soon be illegal to use a cell phone in a car. I stopped calling Brian when I realized that I couldn't actually text him while driving and with a toddler in the back and had a rare moment of clarity that I was literally a block away from home and that the text message could wait.
When I got home I called Brian's friend, John, at work, but I had forgotten that John was out on paternity leave. So then again, the front desk to try to track him down (ILM doesn't have a paging system, the bastards). But then Brian got the idea when he realized that he had messages on every phone he owned and called me back just moments before Natalie called again (that was a short ten minutes, Natalie!). She sent us the pictures and medical reports and the rest is history!
So now we wait again. We're hoping that the outside wait is 3 months (hoping, hoping, hoping) before we travel. We will post as we go along (at least in theory we will!).
I hope this finds everyone well!
I know I almost never post here, but getting our referral seems like something worth my while! We got the call yesterday from Natalie, 5 weeks sooner than expected, for a baby girl! She's almost 4 months old and in perfect health. We are so excited!
The Call:
I was coming out of the bank with Evan and when we got strapped into the car I was going to make a call while Evan watched Elmo in the back. I saw that there was a message from an unknown number. Of course I thought that it could be Natalie, but I REALLY didn't expect it to be her. I listened to the message and all she said was to call her back. So I did, and the first thing I said was, "Hi, this is Jen Cantwell. You've GOT to be shitting me!!!" And she laughed and said no, that she had our referral! She asked about conferencing in Brian but I was in the car and that wouldn't do much good. She told me her age only and that she'd call me back at home in ten minutes so we could conference him in.
And so began a drive home that was very blurry. I have the flu, I should mention, and so there we flew down San Pablo Avenue, Elmo blaring, cell phone being used in ways that are the reason it will soon be illegal to use a cell phone in a car. I stopped calling Brian when I realized that I couldn't actually text him while driving and with a toddler in the back and had a rare moment of clarity that I was literally a block away from home and that the text message could wait.
When I got home I called Brian's friend, John, at work, but I had forgotten that John was out on paternity leave. So then again, the front desk to try to track him down (ILM doesn't have a paging system, the bastards). But then Brian got the idea when he realized that he had messages on every phone he owned and called me back just moments before Natalie called again (that was a short ten minutes, Natalie!). She sent us the pictures and medical reports and the rest is history!
So now we wait again. We're hoping that the outside wait is 3 months (hoping, hoping, hoping) before we travel. We will post as we go along (at least in theory we will!).
I hope this finds everyone well!
Friday, January 11, 2008
Obsession is the name of the game
So I think I've finally stumbled upon a solution to dealing with the dreaded "wait". In order to make the wait for a referral tolerable, one must find something else and completely new to obsess about. I've already done this (by happy accident) a couple of times during this adoption, and I can remember doing it last time, too. It really helps take the heat off of the wait. Examples:
During the wait for our referral for Evan, things were a bit complicated. We had been referred another child and then lost the referral due to circumstances in Kaz that were out of our control. Devastated, I went out the next day and brought home a kitten to foster from a local rescue agency. Over the course of the next few weeks several more kittens followed until we had SEVEN cats running around our house, pooping wherever they pleased. Stinky as it was, it was heavenly to have so many little fuzzies around. Of course we ended up keeping one, Cutie Pie.
Then, when we were in Kaz during the FORTY days that we had to visit Evan and wait to receive custody, we happened upon a tiny struggling kitten out in the hallway of our building. Long story short, yes we knew how stupid it was to get involved with an animal in a foreign country where customs were different, etc. However, I truly thought he would have died that night if it weren't for us. He was teeny tiny, skin and bones quite literally, and he came to stay with us for a couple of weeks. By the end of our time together he was fattening up and quite the snuggler. We paid our translator's family to take him permanently. $100 in Kaz is a LOT of money, but to us it just made us feel confident that they would at least try to keep him as a pet for a while. We named him Lucky.
This time around I've discovered two new passions/obsessions and they have served me well during this wait: diamonds and rock climbing. This fall I became unbelievably obsessed with everything to do with diamonds. I scoured the internet for hours EVERY night learning about diamonds, where they come from, where you can buy and then resell for a profit, where to get educated, all of it. It resulted in a few failed attempts at reselling stones on my part. However, though I've set this hobby down for the time being, in the future when money isn't so tight I will be picking it up again to continue to experiment and see if I can make some income to help support our family without me being in a regular workplace. If any of you need help shopping for a diamond, now you know who to call!
And the new obsession: rock climbing. I bought Brian a gift certificate for the two of us to learn at our local climbing gym for xmas this year. We are both totally into it and it is so fun! It's challenging, mentally and physically, and there is plenty of information and experiences for us to learn from for a long time to come. It's a good obsession to have, generally speaking, and it is serving to fill in for these last few weeks before we get to see our baby girl's face.
Things are starting to get harder as we narrow the gap between no baby and baby. But a healthy obsession sure helps take the heat off and put your mind towards something other than a baby you've never seen but will see very soon.
I've tried to convince Brian that we need to make it the status quo that each time we're waiting for an adoption or, hopefully someday, a biological birth we need to add a kitten. Sadly, I think the stench from the poop of seven kittens is etched in his memory and it will be a long time before I'll be able to make him forget!
The yummy fuzzy babies
Little Lucky with Brian in Kaz
Lardass Cutie Pie these days
During the wait for our referral for Evan, things were a bit complicated. We had been referred another child and then lost the referral due to circumstances in Kaz that were out of our control. Devastated, I went out the next day and brought home a kitten to foster from a local rescue agency. Over the course of the next few weeks several more kittens followed until we had SEVEN cats running around our house, pooping wherever they pleased. Stinky as it was, it was heavenly to have so many little fuzzies around. Of course we ended up keeping one, Cutie Pie.
Then, when we were in Kaz during the FORTY days that we had to visit Evan and wait to receive custody, we happened upon a tiny struggling kitten out in the hallway of our building. Long story short, yes we knew how stupid it was to get involved with an animal in a foreign country where customs were different, etc. However, I truly thought he would have died that night if it weren't for us. He was teeny tiny, skin and bones quite literally, and he came to stay with us for a couple of weeks. By the end of our time together he was fattening up and quite the snuggler. We paid our translator's family to take him permanently. $100 in Kaz is a LOT of money, but to us it just made us feel confident that they would at least try to keep him as a pet for a while. We named him Lucky.
This time around I've discovered two new passions/obsessions and they have served me well during this wait: diamonds and rock climbing. This fall I became unbelievably obsessed with everything to do with diamonds. I scoured the internet for hours EVERY night learning about diamonds, where they come from, where you can buy and then resell for a profit, where to get educated, all of it. It resulted in a few failed attempts at reselling stones on my part. However, though I've set this hobby down for the time being, in the future when money isn't so tight I will be picking it up again to continue to experiment and see if I can make some income to help support our family without me being in a regular workplace. If any of you need help shopping for a diamond, now you know who to call!
And the new obsession: rock climbing. I bought Brian a gift certificate for the two of us to learn at our local climbing gym for xmas this year. We are both totally into it and it is so fun! It's challenging, mentally and physically, and there is plenty of information and experiences for us to learn from for a long time to come. It's a good obsession to have, generally speaking, and it is serving to fill in for these last few weeks before we get to see our baby girl's face.
Things are starting to get harder as we narrow the gap between no baby and baby. But a healthy obsession sure helps take the heat off and put your mind towards something other than a baby you've never seen but will see very soon.
I've tried to convince Brian that we need to make it the status quo that each time we're waiting for an adoption or, hopefully someday, a biological birth we need to add a kitten. Sadly, I think the stench from the poop of seven kittens is etched in his memory and it will be a long time before I'll be able to make him forget!
The yummy fuzzy babies
Little Lucky with Brian in Kaz
Lardass Cutie Pie these days
Monday, December 31, 2007
Hopping on that bronco again...
Alright. It's time. I've been harassing my fellow adoptive families to provide me with blog addresses so that I can stalk them. For whatever reason when you get to this point in an adoption you NEED detailed information from other families to maintain your own sanity: dossier submission dates, referral dates, court dates, travel dates. The more info you get from other families going through the same agency, the closer your calculations can get to determining when the beloved "phone call of a lifetime" will come through for YOUR family.
So, I figure since I rely on others' blog posts that perhaps I should get off my duff and start posting again myself. Of course, in the end, the majestic phone call, when it finally does come, wipes out all need to check others' blogs and the whole wait goes up in a big poof of smoke as if it happened overnight in our memories.
Sigh.
All I have to report is a fun holiday. And we lost our passports. And Brian lost his wallet and his iphone in a snowbank somewhere in Oregon. Hopefully the passports won't mess us up too much, but we're already busting patooty to get the new ones so here's hopin'.
We're at 8 weeks waiting today and hopefully not more than 8 weeks left to go! Happy New Year!
Monday, August 6, 2007
Where we're at...
Yes, I must admit that this time around we're not being so great about posting to our blog. I suppose having a toddler already is excuse enough for that! We're about 1/3 of the way through this adoption at this point. All of our major paperwork is completed, and we're just waiting on our homestudy (the official document that the social worker writes) to be penned so that we can send everything off to immigration and then Ethiopia. We are still hopeful that we will travel as early as this fall to pick up our little baby girl! People in our community are getting referrals, and the kids are just so CUTE that it makes me crazy! I know there's a lively little one out there waiting for us, and I can't wait to meet her and bring her home!
In the meantime, our five year anniversary as well as Evan's 1st Gotcha Day have come and gone. Unfortunately I was VERY sick this weekend with the stomach flu, and so I missed both anniversaries... But we did manage to get a picture of Evan. Isn't there a huge difference between a year ago and now? It blows us away.
If you want to learn more about Ethiopia this week, I highly recommend visiting the site: http://thereisnomewithoutyou.com . The people whom this book is about are truly amazing!
Jen
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)