Happy Easter!!

Hello and Happy Easter (okay, a bit late... deal with it gracefully please)!!!

So, I hope you all had a great Easter and all that jazz.   Jaime and I had a good one.  We ended up attending church at Angel Stadium, it was Saddleback church's 30th anniversary celebration and Easter service all in one.  We went with some family who attend the church regularly in Lake Forest.  The pic below is the view we had from where we were seated.  It was a good service, although we had to miss the Easter service at our own church to go. 

We went to lunch with a LARGE group of family members and then headed to my grandfather's place to hide Easter eggs for the kids.  But, before we hid eggs some family members gave Jaime and I some Easter gifts that they had gotten for our children.  We are still waiting for our referral call, so at this point we don't even know who our children are...but, they have plenty of gifts waiting for them when we finally get to bring them home!

The lighting in the pic below isn't great...apparently my halo was shining too bright - which really distorted it.  It's actually quite a common occurence.   :-) 

Last year we didn't seem to have all that many eggs to hide, so this year everyone overcompensated (by bringing too many) and we had way more eggs to hide than we had places to hide them. That led us to some more artistic (and not so "hidden") places to hide eggs. Once our creativity waned we just started throwing them on the grass. Below is some of our more interesting hiding places.

Someone decorated my car...

So, I took the liberty of creating a "wheel of many colors" out of my sister's car.

At least the hidden egg matches the wiseman's ring and collar of his robe.  Yes, there is one of the wisemen out in the yard, and no I don't know why.  Thanks for asking.    ;-)

Well, that's it for the egg hiding. 

Now, to the update portion of the post.  It's been 5 months and 3 weeks since we have been awaiting our referral.  We have no news yet....we are still waiting.  Hopefully we will hear something soon.  Guess that's it for now.

Have a good week everyone!

Sean

Adoption Alert Information

Hello Everyone!

Thank you for your continued prayers relative to Sean’s and my adoption journey. The latest change to the Ethiopian adoption process (effective Wednesday, March 10, 2010) is that Ethiopia is now a two-trip country meaning that Sean and I will both have to travel to Ethiopia to attend the court hearing for our children. We will probably be there about a week, and we will get to meet our children, but we will not be able to bring them home with us. Then, depending upon when we pass court, we will travel there again (possibly 2-3 months later) to pick them up and bring them home.

Please pray for the extra finances as this extra trip will cost us more than we had “budgeted.” We will also both miss an extra week of work which will take up more of our vacation time and lessen the time we will have to bond with them when we bring them home on the second trip.

Thank you so much for your continued prayers and support! Sean and I greatly appreciate it!

Jaime

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Hello All,


Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and All That Jazz! 


We have been horrible about updating this blog, but we have been pretty busy. 


First, Adoption Process Update:
     Our dossier has been in Ethiopia for nearly 10 weeks!  We are awaiting our referrals. The referral call could still be a few (or several) months away...or it could come this week - ya just never know!
     On December 9th we had another conference call/ "training" session with our agency.  This was to go over a sample of the referral form we will receive for each of our children (just so we know what information we can expect... medical and social history etc.) and to give us an introduction to traveling to Ethiopia.  This was just an overview, but it certainly does get our minds prepared for when we do actually get our referrals and then get to the point where we have to think about traveling and all that entails.
     I have been working some in the kids room over the holiday break, so although there is much to do.... progress is being made and it doesn't feel so overwhelming now.  That is a good thing!
     I guess that's it for news in the adoption... I am (of course): still reading adoption books and magazines, researching online, a part of several (Ethiopian adoption specific) yahoo groups, blog-stalking multiple families who have adopted from Ethiopia or are in the process of it, and chatting with new friends (who have adopted or are in process) I have met since we began our own adoption journey.  I can never seem to have enough information... I'm always looking somewhere else or talking to someone different.  I have to, in order to feel somewhat prepared. 
      One last adoption-related thing!!  We asked my sister (Stacy) if she would like to go with us to Ethiopia when we travel to pick up our children... she said yes, is thrilled to do so - and has already gotten a passport and taken steps to be ready for the trip when the time comes.  That will be such a blessing for Jaime and I....as having another adult with us in the airport, in country, in flight etc.. (with two children that don't really know us or speak our language!) will be a great help indeed!!


What's been going on in our lives....


     Well, on December 19th (one of my nephew's birthday) - Jaime and I participated in our graduation ceremony.  I have completed a Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership, and Jaime has completed (well, has a few weeks of class left, but has just about completed...) a Master of Arts in Human Resources and Organizational Development.  It is nice to have that over with!

     Then there was the holidays to keep us busy!  The picture below if Jaime and I with one of my adorable nephews at Thanksgiving.  I actually meant to put a Christmas picture here...and totally didn't realize, until after the fact, that I had put one in from Thanksgiving.  Oh well, it was a better picture than the Christmas ones...so, deal with it gracefully!  :-)

     We had a good Christmas.  We stayed in California this year, which means we did not get to see Jaime's family  :-(   and Jaime had to pretend it felt like Christmas with no snow (and it being 80 degrees here)! But she managed, and our plan is to visit her family on the way back from Ethiopia (at an unknown date...hopefully soon!!). 

     We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my family.  There's lots of them!  We ate, exchanged gifts, ate, played games, and ate some more.... I think we're all still full even a week later!! 

     We haven't even been referred children yet, and therefore don't know their ages/sex etc... but they still raked in quite a bit of stuff from my family for Christmas!  There is a pic below of some of what they have received thus far. 

     We didn't have any guests over (to our place) for the holidays this year... well, except for Santa of course.  We tried to wait up for him so we could have a chat, but he's a sneaky little buggar!  Anyhow, he did seem to enjoy the milk and cookies we laid out ... 

     Jaime thought it odd that he makes his "S"s similar to mine.  But, I think it's just a pretty common way to write them... no biggie!   :-)

     That's All Folks!  Happy New Year!!  Hope it's a great one for you all! 

Sean

No New News...

Hello Again,

Well, just wanted to give an update...which isn't much.  Our dossier has been in Ethiopia for three weeks as of yesterday.  No real news.  We will have a phone training/conference call with our agency the 2nd week of December to go over referral and travel information - so we are prepared when the time comes. 

We are both keeping busy with work and school.  We will both complete graduate degrees mid-December, so we have plenty to do and keep our minds occupied while in this stage of "waiting."  There are lots of unknowns in international adoption, but if our particular case ends up falling into the "typical" category for our agency...we may receive our referrals in the next 3-5 months (since we have nearly 1 month down already). We could get referrals much earlier than that time frame...or later, but that's at least a rough idea of what we are expecting.

I guess that's it for now.  I should really get to my final project for my M.A., which is on coaching others through procrastination.  Hmmmm... as I sit here writing this post, procrastinating from finishing up my research ON procrastination.  Guess I picked a good topic...something that resonates with me! 

Anyhow, I hope everyone is doing well.  Have a great Thanksgiving if I don't get back on here and write anything further before then!

Oh yeah, almost forgot... I think I fixed the comments thing on this blog.  It wasn't working for a while, I apparently messed it up a while back when I changed to this new background and was fiddling with all the settings.  It should work now.   :-)

Sean

Our Dossier is in Ethiopia!!

Yay! Our dossier arrived in Ethiopia today and was signed for at 7:59am by Tilahun!!


Jaime

We are awaiting our Referrals!!!

Sean and I are VERY excited to announce that we are now awaiting our referrals! We just got an email from our agency on Friday, 10/23, and they informed us that they just mailed our completed dossier to Ethiopia! They gave us the DHL tracking number so that we can track our dossier's trip and rest assured once it arrives at its final destination. We are so very thrilled to tell you that we are currently waiting to see who God blesses us with to increase our family. In case we haven't already mentioned, we are "requesting" a baby boy, age 0-18 months and a second child, age 0-3 1/2 years. Yes, you heard right! We are doubling our family! Sean may have already mentioned that, but it bears repeating. We will soon be welcoming two children into our family, and we could not be more excited. There is plenty to do to get ready, but we are counting down until we make the long and much-anticipated journey to eastern Africa! Thank you for your continued support and prayers! We are very grateful, and we will continue to keep you posted!!


Jaime

Dossier Delivered!

Today we received a confirmation (via e-mail) from FedEx that our dossier has been delivered to our adoption agency! So, now we wait to see if we turned in everything and did it correctly...... Will keep y'all updated once we actually know something!

Have a good weekend everyone! We will be resting and trying to get over this cold/flu...or whatever it is we have had for about a week.

Sean