Dossier Submitted!

Well, it's official. We have submitted our dossier, and a whole lot of money (!!!). This is what we've been working on for the past 3 months. We took a little longer than anticipated, with Luke's 3 knee surgeries and all, but we're finally done!

Our dossier consists of paperwork that tells everything about us (from family photos, a study of our home and relationship, medical records, blah blah blah) each notarized, then given the state seal, all in triplicate. Lucas and I both had a HUGE sense of relief when we completed the final organizing and stapling of papers:

So now what? Our precious precious stack of papers will make it to Washington DC sometime early next week, and then forwarded on to Ethiopia. Sometime during this period, we'll officially be put on the wait list for a little boy and a little girl! (related or unrelated, both under 24 months)

And now, the real waiting begins.

Ahem... NOT twins.

So, this week I've been a little heart-broken.

We got news that adopting boy/girl twins had an indefinite wait. (Partially my fault for assuming, but I also thought that waiting a "little longer" meant a few months and not a few years.) It turns out that Radu, the man who oversees matches in the orphanages our agency uses, said he has only ever seen 1 set of girl/boy twins, translating to years of waiting... IF we were the first in line to request this. Twins, boy/boy or girl/girl, would be about 18+ months for a referral (which doesn't include travel or the wait time for processing the visa and all legal matters).

So- no twins for us, unless we decide that is the only way we'll go. And it isn't.

Right now, we are deciding between adopting 2 unrelated children (approx 6-8 month wait for a referral... although one can never be sure) or going back to our original plan to adopt 1 child.

I know we'll make the right decision. Thanks for your thoughts.

Luckily, my husband knows how to cheer me up by delivering these beautiful flowers to my work by sis Sari at Ladybird Poppy:

Cute, huh?

Traveling to Ethiopia info session

On Friday, Lucas and I attended a session provided by our adoption agency about traveling to Ethiopia. Of course, we are still many months away (we are guesstimating about 6) from actually travelling, but our agency invited all families who were waiting for matches. We learned a lot from a few couples who have just completed their first trip (remember, there are 2 trips we all must take before we can bring kids home). They had a lot of great information about visiting the orphanages, seeing the kids and their living conditions, where to stay, what to eat, and a little bit of what to expect. We saw pictures and learned a little more about how things are done in Ethiopian orphanages. It made it much more real for both of us. Please feel free to ask us about it, as I'm not sure I'll get to write it all here.

We met new people (couples and single moms), had wine, and ate great catered Ethiopian food from Abyssinia restaurant. We also got to spend some time with a few friends we had met at the first adoption training, and another couple we had met at the Ethiopian cooking class we took back in March. It is so comforting to know we aren't in this alone and we're developing a local support system of friends who are also adopting from Africa.

3rd Time's a Charm

Lucas is having #3 knee surgery today. His last incision became infected, so they are cleaning out the wound to make sure it doesn't spread to bone or blood. The surgeon is optimistic that this will be very minor and it won't disrupt his physical therapy or recovery time. Let's hope this is OFFICIALLY the LAST surgery for him. We've got bigger things to move on to, right!?

Twins!

Almost there... just a few more pieces of paperwork to gather together and we will officially be put on the waitlist... for TWINS!

After a lot of thinking, and through the thick of the adoption paperwork, Lucas and I seriously began considering adopting 2 children. We discussed with our adoption agency and found that we were only approved for ages 0-2 years through our home study. So, without a lot of extra paperwork to expand the age range so we could find siblings in Ethiopia, we decided to request twins. We thought this could slow the process down for finding a match- but it turns out that there is an abnormally high rate of twins in Ethiopia, and that we could even be matched sooner than waiting for a single child. I won't hold my breath on that, but knowing the wait time wouldn't be significantly different was good news.

Yes, we may be crazy.

Pictures from our Alaska trip - May 2011

cousin Adrienne and her groom Casey!

Lucas' cousin Corey and his wife Defne

Luke's Uncle Craig with his daughter the bride

rugged.

boat faces

Cousin Jerred

starfish in the crab pot

Dungeness crab

Lucas is a sure shot. Shooting driftwood on an island after we reeled in the crab.

Aunt Hilary, with her boys Henry and Bernard

fish sticks guys

Creek Street in Ketchikan AK

BALD EAGLES!!!

on the float plane

The room where we stayed in town. The Preachers House.

The happy couple.

Sad News

Late Wednesday night, Lucas re-broke his knee. This is really sad because he had been walking without crutches for almost 2 weeks and was healing well. He was so excited to be getting back to normal, when he slipped while walking Josh in the rain. It broke in the same place, and he had surgery again on Friday morning. This time with screws + cable instead of pins + wire.

Back to square one.

He is pretty bummed, so send some love.

On the bright side, we had a GREAT time in Ketchikan, Alaska. Will post pics soon.