A life changing experience, a new tattoo, and a change of plans.....

A lot has happened since my last post. I am not that great at keeping up with this blog. I promise to do better!! We finished our Home Study in January and it was sent out to be certified by the state. They made a mistake and it had to be sent back. I was pretty bummed because it was our final step in order to send our paperwork to USCIS. They corrected it and we are waiting for the LAST form to complete our ET dossier. As soon as we get it back we will send our dossier to AWAA and officially start the wait.

I started researching mission trips for May as JD (my boss), was going to be out of the office for a few weeks and I thought that it would be a perfect time for me to go on my first mission trip. I was having a hard time finding a trip to coincide with his and I gave up the search. The next morning I saw a post on the AWAA web page about their trip to Haiti. It happened to be the EXACT days that JD was out of town in April. I emailed Michelle, at AWAA, right away. She had me fill out the application and I was accepted to go on the trip. Most of my family and friends were afraid that I would go to Haiti and never come back. I told everyone that Haiti was "the safest" place for me to go because Jay and I do not meet the qualifications to adopt from there. I decided to fly to FL a few days early to spend some time with my family. That did not leave much time for me to get ready for the trip. I had to get all of my immunizations done in record time!

 I had an amazing time in FL. It was so great to spend some one on one time with my way.too.cool Aunt and Uncle. I also got to see some of my cousins that I have not seen in years. Love that! My Aunt Lorilyn totally rocked and drove me to the airport which is 3.5 hours from her house. It was so nice of her. She will never know how much it meant to me. She gave me a great pep talk and sent me on my way.

The AWAA group met up in the Ft. Lauderdale airport. There were 12 of us. I knew right away that this was a group of amazing people. I could not wait to get to Haiti. I sat next to a Haitian man on the flight. He was so nice. My four years of french came in handy......sort of. He told me a lot about the beautiful country that he calls home. I fell in LOVE with Haiti on the first night. The beauty of the country and it's people are indescribable. We spent 4 amazing days loving on kids at the orphanages. We made peanut butter sandwiches, played baseball, skipped rope, did mani/pedis, colored, told Bible stories, sang songs,and hung out on the porch. Hearing those beautiful children sing Jesus Loves Me in Creole would melt the hardest of hearts. These four days were some of the best days that I have ever had.  I started a journal, but is was hard to put into words how I felt. I am overcome by emotion whenever I talke about Haiti. I have never felt God as much as I did in Haiti. Every time those kids smiled I felt like it was Him smiling. Leaving Haiti was so hard. I was planning my trip back before I even left!

I landed back in FL and to my surprise, my Aunt Lorilyn was waiting for me at customs. She drove all the way back to Ft. Lauderale to spend my 6 hour layover with me. We had lunch at the Hard Rock and I shared my experience with her. I told her that I wanted to get a tattoo as a reminder of my life changing trip. After lunch we were walking around the casino and there happened to be a tattoo artist there. So, I got one! la vie est belle (life is beautiful in french). I love it.

While in Haiti I discovered that it is possible for Jay and I to adopt. As soon as I got back from Haiti Jay and I filled out paperwork to do a concurrent adoption. We were approved and have begun paper chasing for our Haitian adoption. So, we are officially adopting from both Haiti and Ethiopia. I fell in love with two sweet babes while I was in Haiti. I pray for them and the people of Haiti every day.

We are so excited. I whole heatedly believe that God sent me to Haiti for a reason. He has a plan. We cannot wait to find out what it is.

Second Home Study



Second Home Study Appointment

We had our second home study appointment last night.This one was in our home. We spent the last week preparing for the visit. Looking back it was funny how nervous we were. We had no reason to be. Trina is great. We talked about our reason for adopting, feelings toward the birth parents, and a lot about our relationship and parenting techniques. Casale was quite the charmer. He layed right next to her the entire time and rolled around on his back demanding attention. When that wasn't enough.....he farted. I totally started laughing. I had to explain to her how rude English Bulldogs can sometimes be LOL!! After our discussion we took her on a tour of the house. That was it. Easy peasy.

We have one more home study appointment. We each have to meet with her in a few weeks to  discuss our family history.  After that she will write our home study and submitt it to our family coordinator and the State of Arizona for approval. Her target date is the end of the year. If all goes well we will be DTE (Dossier to Ethiopia) some time in late January or early February. We are so excited. DTE means that we are officially on the list to be matched with our child/children!!!!

Thank you all for your prayers and support. It means a lot to us.

Fundraising

A lot of you have been asking when we are going to start fundraising. I have not really put a lot of thought into it. I joke about how I could fund our entire adoption with my shoe collection. It is probably true! I have started cleaning out my closet and will start listing stuff on Ebay soon. The great thing about Ebay is that you can donate a portion of your sales to a program called Heart for Ethiopia that is raising money to provide sponsorship for orphans and needy children in Ethiopia. How cool is that?!? Not only do I get to clean out my closet and raise money for our adoption, but I am also able to support a great cause! Keep checking our blog.....who knows maybe some of my Louis Vuitton collection will end up for auction.

Our First Homestudy Appointment

Jay and I had our first Home Study appointment last night. It was the first of four meetings with our Social Worker. We were fortunate enough to have scheduled the appointment with another couple that is adopting from Ethiopia. It was great to be able to meet another couple in the same stage of the adoption process. We look forward to getting to know them. Our Social Worker said that it is quite possible that we would be travelling to Ethiopia together. How cool is that?!? Our Social Worker is totally awesome. She definitely eased any anxiety that we were having in regards to the Home Study process. We scheduled our next appointment in a few weeks and hope to be DTE (Dossier to Ethiopia) sometime in January! That is super exciting because that will get us on the waiting list for our child/children!!!

Vacation

We just got back from our annual trip to MA and NYC. We took both of our nephews with us. I had planned on getting some stuff done for our home study but the time went by so quickly. It is so nice to spend time in MA. We get to do a lot of things that we do not usually do in AZ. The boys went fishing, we played games, had a fireworks show in my Grandma's back yard, saw Cars 2 with my cousins adoreable twins, had several trips to King Kone, went on a hike and saw a beautiful waterfall, and spent a lot of time with family. We got to see a cousin of mine and his family that we had not seen in years. The annual picnic and Fourth of July parade were great too. NYC was as amazing as ever. We spent three days in the city. We spent some time with my cousin and his wife and learned a lot about the city. They have lived there less than a year and he knows so much already. We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge for the first time. That was really cool. Jay and the boys went to the premiere of the new Transformers movie in Times Square. They had a spot right up front and got to see all of the actors in the movie walk the red carpet. They had a blast! They are lucky to have such a great Uncle. I would have NEVER waited in that crowd for three hours. I opted to people watch instead. The highlight of the trip was getting to see "The Bear."  I have been waiting four years to see the bear that frequents my Aunt and Uncle's house and we FINALLY saw him. He is the cutest thing! I named him Hefty since he likes to get into the garbage.

Sorry for the long post about our vacation. It is something that we do every year and we enjoy so much. We are already planning our next trip. My family ROCKS! They always make us feel so welcome and we have so much fun with them. Some of my best memories are from our famly trips "back east." I cannot wait for our child to experience what I have for the past 32 (did I just say that?!?!?) years. I spent a lot of time thinking about how it will be when our little one gets to see where Grandma grew up, goes to Angelina's with Grandpa, sees the parade, meets all of the family at the picnic, has a King Kone, goes fishing with Aunt Lorilyn, walks the tracks with Uncle Champ, plays with all of Aunt Pam's toys, is in awe of all of Great Grandma's glass, and slides down the hill at Clapp Park. I cannot wait for Jay and I to be able to experience all of these things with our child. That brings be back to the paperwork....I better get moving on it!!!

We are making progress!!!

We had a busy day today. We went to the Vital Records office and got our birth certificates and to the court for our marriage certificate. Jay applied for his passport today as well. I went to my Docs office for my physical. I had the works! They had to draw 5 tubes of blood, a TB test, test my hearing, and my vision. My Doc is super cool and is totally excited about our adoption. She told me about a recent visit to the hospital and the Ethiopian nurse that her boyfriend had. The nurse told them to research Ethiopia and visit there instead of Europe. They are going to check it out. Jay and I are headed to our favorite Ethiopian restaurant to celebrate our progress.

The Paper Pregnancy

We received our paperwork from our Social Worker yesterday and our Family Coordinator today. It is A LOT of paperwork!!! They were not kidding when they said that it was a "paper pregnancy."  As I am going thru it all I see why it will take several months to complete. I do not really feel overwhelmed. Actually, I enjoy paperwork.....for now. I am sure that I will not be saying that a month from now.  I am so excited to start this paper chase. Every piece of paperwork brings us one step closer to bringing our sweet baby home!