We're going for it! (still)

We got some good news this week. Sounds like MOWA (The Ministry of Womens Affairs) in Ethiopia is back to processing up to 20 cases a day- which is great news for us on our wait time. This news comes at a good time, since now is the time we have to put down some serious money and we were starting to get hesitant about going forward. We decided to go for it, trusting that this is how it's meant to work out, and that we have a little person waiting for us who is predestined to be in our family.

Now that our home study has been finalized, we're able to apply for adoption loans and scholarships. Cross your fingers that we'll be able to find the money that it takes to complete this process. Lucas's knee surgery has put a slight crunch on the money we had set aside for adoption... and we've yet to see the entire bill or how much our insurance will cover.  But again, we're trusting that this is the way it's all supposed to go in the grand scheme of life, and we aren't bothered in the slightest!

This week we submitted our home study, birth and marriage certificates to US Immigration Services. Once this is approved, it will allow us bring our baby home as a US Citizen.

Stellar Patella(r)

Lucas and I read this post from a blog I follow while we sit in the hospital, waiting for his knee to go under the knife. It is very touching and makes me both happy and sad, and is beautifully written. This family just got home from their first visit to ET. Please read: Valuable

Update on Lucas's patella: Right now we are waiting for surgery. Lucas is in his gown with his leg shaved and being hydrated through IV. In about half an hour, he will go under general anesthesia, get 2 pins in his kneecap, with a thin wire wrapped around the entire cap to hold it into together. Ouch.

4 Updates

The first update is a good one. According to our agency, the blip in the processing in ET will not likely affect us. This is a temporary situation while they investigate one agency (not ours!) and the statements made by officials were exaggerated. In fact, the man who reported the "only 5 case loads per day" has lost his job for giving mass misinformation. I am grateful that ET takes allegations of child trafficking seriously, so all-in-all, this is good news. I'll post more updates as I hear them. Thanks for keeping us in your thoughts.

Next update: My DC trip was a fun one (although a bit exhausting!) Seems like I've just been going going going. (but update #4 seems to be helping with a slow down). I really like DC, with great food, cozy bars, great public transportation, cute neighborhoods, H&M, and my office headquarters. On this trip, I was able to get to the Hill, making visits to our Senators and House Representatives to tell them about Colorado's badly run school and summer meals programs for low-income children, as well as SNAP participation. Colorado ranks 51st in the nation- this is bad news and means Colorado is missing out on hundreds of thousands of dollars that are already set aside for these programs. ANYWAY, off my soap box... I think anyone who gets a chance should go to Capitol Hill at some point in their lives. Its a pretty great experience.

Update 3 is that we completed 8 hours out of 16 of our core adoption training yesterday. We learned a lot about child trauma and attachment disorders, as well as disciplining an internationally adopted child which is actually quite different than what most families do or what you find in a typical parenting book. This will all be a challenge, but the bright side is that we can reverse effects of any trauma and neglect the child may have been exposed to, and our baby can grow up to be a happy healthy person. Overall it was sobering, yet empowering. We also met families going through similar processes, although no one from Denver!! Families came from Durango, Grand Junction, Greeley, Lamar and other remote areas.  We were hoping to make some friends closer to home, but we have met some great families none the less.

Tough Guy with Busted Kneecap

Update 4 is that we only completed 8 hours of 16 of our core adoption training. After our training last night, Lucas was asked to be an alternate on our friends' indoor soccer team. He gladly accepted... but about 10 minutes into the game, Lucas made an unfortunate movement which literally snapped his patella in half. He was ambulanced to Swedish Hospital where I met him and waited to get results. In extreme pain, we were sent home with Vicodin and surgery scheduled for this coming Monday. He is doing well, considering the pain, and Lucas's sister Audrey is helping find a good orthopedic surgeon. We had to cancel our next day of adoption training, but our social worker assured us this won't affect our process. More than anything, I think Lucas is just bummed about what this will mean for driving, work, music, sports, and everyday life in the coming months. Send good thoughts.

Alert

Just learned about this today. Trying not to get too upset until we've talked with our agency. More to come...

Eyes on the Prize

We finished our 3rd and final pre-adoption home study last Thursday. Everything seems to be moving along nicely, and our social worker says we'll be great parents! We are pretty excited to have this part out of the way. Next steps:

• Physicals
• Taxes (so we can submit our most recent financials)
• 16-hour training at the agency
• another 8 hours of online courses
• submit dossier to DC
• WAIT
• find funding for the biggest expense of submitting dossier to ET, plus travel there (x2)
• WAIT
• submit dossier to Ethiopia
• WAIT
• receive a referral of a baby!
• WAIT
• Travel to ET for court and meet baby!
• WAIT (I assume this one is the hardest)
• Travel back to ET to bring baby home!
• Post-adoption assessments

So as you can see we have a ways to go. But, we're happy and excited and keeping our eyes on the prize. Baby prize.

I'm headed to DC this Friday through Tuesday for the National Anti-Hunger Policy Conference. I'm looking forward to it, but it's always hard to leave for 5 days. DC is a great city, although I have to admit that I've passed up monument and history tours to shop at H&M... whoops.