FINALLY! An update on the adoption process & stuff.

Hey everybody!

Okay, so I know this is WAAAAAAAAY overdue. A few months ago, we had another fundraiser yard sale, after which, I planned to post a blog entry about it. But life got in the way, and updating the blog kept getting bumped down the priority list and shelved until the next day. And a day turned into a week, which turned into a month. Ergh.

But I actually have a few minutes of free time right now before Ash gets home from work and we head out to do a full evening's-worth of errands, so here I am. Where do I begin? A lot has happened since we last updated.

First of all, we owe a HUGE heartfelt thank you to many people who have donated money, time, resources & items for our last sale. Chip & Holly Seelig: the result of your stealth fundraising work on our behalf was a surprise that moved us to tears, as did your words of encouragement. You two are so unbelievably awesome - we love you guys. Grandma & Pappy (Don & Shirley Kuhn): another surprise; your donation in a beautiful hand-made card means more to us than you could possibly know. We miss & love you and can't wait to get up there again. Thank you. Kathryn Finn: what you're doing with your jewelry sales for us was unexpected and is SO appreciated, as were your donations to our yard sale. So glad we could be a part of your wedding. Duane Brewer & Alberto Villalobos: you two could have easily sold your big-ticket items on e-bay or craigslist, but instead you donated them to our yard sale. You both rock. Thank you so much.

The amazingly cool thing is that our little boy is someday going to learn how many people wanted him here, and how many people gave of themselves to help make it happen. All of you are playing a huge part in this endeavor; we could not do it without you.

I don't have any photos from that last yard sale (I know, you're probably horribly disappointed - no pictures of strangers sifting through odd things strewn about our driveway). It was successful, even if I don't have any visual evidence to prove it. Emjae manned the ship again, and artfully so. We raised a little under $200 that day for the adoption fund, and we still have a few bigger items that didn't sell which we plan to put on craigslist as soon as this crazy holiday season is over.

The biggest news of all regarding the adoption is that we found our social worker and had our home study. For those of you unfamiliar with such things, a home study is a fairly elaborate process whereby your medical & financial records are combed through, your house is inspected, a whole slew of forms must be acquired and/or filled out, etc. It's a basic "get to know you" situation with your social worker, requiring a few meetings and a lot of paperwork.

Ashley was pretty nervous leading up to the first meeting, fearing that we would be discovered to be unworthy for one reason or another -- perhaps because our social worker would detect a broken part of our fence that hasn't yet been fixed, or maybe she'd think we could have done a better job of cleaning the upstairs toilet and thus mark "FAIL" on our papers. We cleaned the night before with a fervor that some might characterize as borderline obsessive (and by some, I mean me). Fortunately, she turned out to be a wonderfully sweet and talkative older lady who had lots of stories and was full of warmth, smiles and laughter. It felt like grandma had come over to visit. Totally not intimidating or stressful in any way.

And the best news of all: we passed with flying colors. We still are waiting on a few pieces of paperwork before she can submit it all, but it's looking good.

The next big hurdle is $3,000 due to the agency. Once we've gathered & saved enough to pay that, it's hurry up & wait for the next steps in the process and the next big chunk of money due. I have determined that it's a wiser move to let Ashley handle the specifics of the process -- she's absolutely GREAT at researching and planning. Me? Not so much. She knows all the details, I speak in vast generalizations about this whole thing. :) I'll have to ask her to post a more detailed account of what's going on than I'm capable of doing. What I do know (other than how much money we have to save and raise) is that there are some really exciting things that should be happening for us in 2011: our dossier, a referral, and two trips to Ethiopia. The 2nd trip will be to bring our baby boy home. I can't even fathom what an amazing year this is going to be; gives me the chills just thinking about it.

I'm much more aware of parents and their young children now than I used to be. I'm distracted by any example I see of a dad experiencing a moment with his child. I noticed a dad teaching his son to play checkers outside of Cracker Barrel. I noticed a man about my age with his wife and three young children at the tree farm looking for the perfect Christmas tree to cut down. I see dads all the time now, and I wistfully imagine myself in their shoes. I can't wait. It seems so far off, so unreal to me still. Sometimes it's hard to believe it's ever going to actually happen, but I have faith in God and know that our patience will be rewarded.

Hopefully, if all goes well, by this time next year, we'll be receiving the best Christmas gift we could ever hope for.

I'll try to do a better job of keeping the blog updated after the holidays.

Until then,
Merry Christmas and God bless.
JJ