January 29, 2009

Just need to vent...

OK, so I have been majorly venting on the yahoo group today, it felt good to just get it out, so I thought I would continue my pity party here. We are coming up on a year since we started the adoption process. We never thought it would take this long. When we started we were told we would be home by the end of the year with a baby. We had major problems with our CIS office and set backs with our Dossier. This caused the waiting list to get longer and longer ahead of us. I am just getting frustrated and feeling like the day will never come. I know it will but it's so hard waiting. I have actually done pretty good about waiting until now. I guess I am thinking about it too much. During our long wait for our CIS approval I really tried to think very little about the adoption. I have been thinking about it A LOT lately and I am driving myself nuts over it. I am such a pre-planner and just not knowing when we will travel, what age she will be, etc.... This is very hard for me. I guess this is one of Gods little lessons in life, he is trying to teach me patience and not to be such a control freak. :) The thing I am most worried about is more set backs. With the longer wait times for a referral and the longer wait times for a court date once we receive a referral this process could get REALLY long. Courts close again in August for the rainy season. It is taking 4-4 1/2 months right now for families to get court dates. It could get even longer... This means in order to get a court date before they close in August we MUST get a referral by the end of March or first of April. Even then we will be cutting it close. We can still travel during the rainy season it is just getting that crucial court date before then. Plus with the increase in adoptions from Ethiopia the court dates will just keep getting pushed back further and sometimes court dates are rescheduled. Also our CIS fingerprints and approval are going to expire and have to be redone. I honestly don't know how long our home study is good for. Wow, I really hope we don't have to do the whole thing all over again. The upside is our agency has been getting a lot of referrals lately. Hopefully they will keep rolling in. I personally hope they get a few toddler referrals in so that will boost us up the list in that age range. I totally don't care if we get a 2 month old or a 3 year old.

Earlier this week our agency received a referral for a little 5 month old baby boy who had been found abandoned and was severely malnourished. It broke my heart to hear his story. I would have gotten on the plane that day to go get him if I could have. They are considering him special needs and trying to find a family for him that would be prepared to take on his possible disabilities and medical care. Nick and I have been considering requesting to be considered to adopt him but they are very unsure how he will grow and develop due to everything his little body has been through. It's a hard decision. You just never know, he could end up catching up on his growth and development with the proper care, medical treatment, and time. Then again he could have a lot of permanent disabilities. There are just so many unknowns with him. There is NO health guarantee on any of these children that are referred. They usually know very little about their background and really all of the children have been malnourished to some degree at some point. Of course his case is more extreme than the others. We decided to wait and see if anyone was matched with him. We would have to get our home study updated to say boy or girl, since we had requested a girl. The agency really wants a family that is totally ready to go so they can get him in the States ASAP and get him the medical care he desperately needs. I am dying to know if anyone has been matched with him. I hate bugging our social worker but I may just have to give her a call today and find out...

January 16, 2009

Adoption Update

Well, it looks like we will have to wait even longer to bring our daughter home from Ethiopia. It stinks but I am trying really hard to stay positive. I guess it gives us more time to get ready. Originally the agency was getting court dates fairly quick and you would travel to pick up your child 2 to 3 months after receiving you referral. There are now so many people adopting from Ethiopia that it is flooding the system and they just can't accommodate so many applications so they are now pushing the court dates back further and further. They are now estimating after receiving a referral we will have to wait 4 months or more to travel. I hate the thought of seeing her face, her name, and knowing I can't hold her for 4 months! I would rather wait longer for a referral that wait longer to travel. I am glad so many people are adopting from Ethiopia, there are so many kids there who desperately need a home. I am just praying that they will add staff and judges in Ethiopia to speed up the process and bring these little ones home. There are so many documents that will probably now expire and have to be redone due to the longer wait times. Hopefully we will get our referral soon so we will not be too far down the waiting list for a court date. Realistically it will still be a while though. I am not sure how many are ahead of us on the waiting family list requesting a female in the 0-4 age range. I know there are a lot waiting on infants. I am really just holding onto the fact that it is all in Gods timing and it will happen according to his plans for our family. Period...

January 07, 2009

Grand Marnier AKA "Ginger"


Christmas weekend we added a new family member, a retired racing Greyhound. Her racing name is Grand Marnier but we decided to call her Ginger. She is 3 years old and did really well in her racing career. She raced a total of 47 races in less than a year, winning 1st place in 4 of the races. She is such a good girl and has adapted well to life off the track. Ginger is a huge couch potato! :) When she gets comfortable laying in her doggie bed and we want her to get up we literally have to pick her up and make her stand up. It's like trying to move a mule. We are really enjoying having her as part of the family. She is such a sweetie!