Leaving Saturday!

We leave next Saturday to bring Alicia Jokopio home! I still can't believe the time has finally come! She will be home for Christmas!

Introducing...

Alicia Jokopio

Our paperwork was submitted to the US Embassy in Ethiopia this past Wednesday so hopefully we will hear in 1 to 2 weeks whether we are cleared to travel back to Ethiopia to pick her up or if they will require more paperwork first. YAY!

WE PASSED COURT!!

WE HAVE A DAUGHTER!

We passed on the day of court (Wednesday 10/19) as the MOWA letter was already there!

More to come..

Ethiopia Court Trip - Day #1

We are in Ethiopia! We arrived this morning (ET time) about 7:45AM, got visas, got baggage and i even think we went thru customs, lol I don't quite remember which line what which! LOL

Arrived at the guesthouse (Addis View), experienced the driving culture in Addis Ababa, and our driver didn't hit anyone or anything that I know of. And I thought driving in NYC was bad! We had some lunch at the restaurant there and tried to take a nap after that LOOOOOONG 13 hour flight from DC. The flight itself wasn't bad, but squeezing our size &#%#@ butts into those size 2 seats, well let's just say I am going to be working out SUPER HARD when we get home.  Mostly we just relaxed, also had dinner and so far met one fellow-waiting family(husband) who has sent us pictures in the past of our baby girl and told us a little more about her personality which was awesome to hear! We skyped with our friend who is house and dog sitting for us and called (thru Skype) my Mom.

I am pretty sure that tomorrow we will get to meet our daughter!!!!!  To say I CAN'T wait is an understatement!  Going to try to document the days because I don't want to forget ANYTHING!

Off to bed for me now so I can get up early!!!!

And We're Off!

In 5 hours we will be on a plane to Ethiopia! Well, technically we'll be on a plane to DC but you get the point... HAHA WE ARE READY TO GO!

Shots, Earthquake, Re-fingerprinting, Big Girl Room, Hurricane

Whoa what a title! OK I'm playing blog catch-up right now trying to keep everything documented... lol So many things going on.. lol

Let's start with Thursday (8/18). Hubby and I went to get our travel immunizations,  6 shots each, 3 in each arm.. OUCH!  We got Hep A, Typhoid, Polio booster, Tetanus, Yellow Fever & Meningitis. We also got Malaria meds to take and an antibiotic. And can't forget about my motion sickness patch!! Hopefully that will get me through the 13 hour plan ride!

Speaking of motion sickness, I have just realized that I am not a fan of earthquakes. Experienced my first and hopefully only earthquake on 8/23, where I could actually feel the earth...move.. under my feet (yes, I was attempting a musical joke there). I was home, sitting at my desk working and all of a sudden the whole floor started rocking back and forth. Not good. Found out pretty quickly that it was indeed a 5.9 earthquake centered in VA which was felt along the north east coast and certainly felt here in NY. I repeat. Not good. It felt like my house was on a boat, a small boat. Ok so that was that.. moving on..

Had to get re-fingerprinted for USCIS (again) on 8/25, fortunately for free since our fingerprints expire this month. Fun.

Here are some pictures of the "nursery" turned into "big girl room" or somewhere in between anyway. Now all we need is the little one this room belongs to! :)

And finally, Hurricane Irene last weekend.. because you know, the earthquake wasn't enough. And of course.. the reports all showed the eye of the hurricane going right over Long Island. In the end it did go just a bit to the west, but still lots of downed trees and such. Had no power from last Sunday till Thursday afternoon. Had to go out and buy a generator which we were lucky enough to actually find one, so at least the food didn't go bad and I could still work. But no damage to the house and more importantly, to anyone.

Phew! I really need to blog more regularly. LOL  

Flights Are Booked!

I can't even believe that we actually booked our flights today! In a little over 2 months we are going to ETHIOPIA! We will meet our daughter! WOW!

Her bedroom furniture came today too.. it is sooo cute! I'll have to take a picture once I get some bedding on the bed (on order already heehee)! I started going through some of the things I have in her closet that I haven't looked at in a while, I have some clothes that are probably too small for her, which I can probably donate to the care center or orphanage. I found things I forgot I had packed away, picture frames, hair accessories, dolls. It was like going shopping without leaving the room! 

Now I think some additional outside shopping/retail therapy is required this weekend as well! WooHoo!

COURT DATE!

We officially have a court date!!! October 19th we will be in Addis Ababa for our court date! I can't even process that right now! It was a surprise to say the least to hear from our coordinator today. All of a sudden I have a TON of things to do! LOL That's less than 3 months from now. WOW! I better get busy!

While we wait...

I know I know, I haven't written anything since our referral.. there is sooo much going on in my head! LOL I'll throw some things out here real quick as I want to try to get to bed early today! 

I think I have posted that we had chosen an American name for baby girl (can't use her ET name here), which is Alicia and we'll probably make that her first name and her ET name her middle name, but that's not decided yet. So I'll call her Alicia on the blog for now, but I also have several nicknames using her ET name too, which I won't use here yet.

So now we are waiting to get our court date. I believe the courts are closed for the rainy season from August 9th thru Sept 18th (give or take a few days) so it would be awesome if we found out what our court date will be before the rainy season, assuming it will be in October some time. I hope we hear something soon!

Yesterday we purchased the bedroom set for Alicia's room! We ordered a twin sleigh bed, dresser and nightstand in an off white color. It's soooo cute. I've changed my mind so many times on the bedroom set that it feels good to have finally settled on one! Here's a link to the picture of the set.. we can't get the mirror for the dresser though because it won't fit in the room with our lovely second floor cape style ceilings.. bummer. But I'll find another option for the mirror.

http://legacyclassickids.com/furniture/furniture-collections/?cat_id=30&sub=all&page=2 

The furniture gets delivered in about 3 weeks! I figured we'd get the twin bed because she is probably going to be over 2 1/2 by the time she comes home, and if she does need to be in a crib (I think she may be in one now) then we can get a crib till she's ready for the twin. I also need to get a bed rail for the twin.

We received some additional pictures of our little one and I can't wait to go scoop her up!!!

Ok I can't stop yawning so it's bedtime!  Good night!

REFERRAL!!!!!

WE ACCEPTED A REFERRAL TODAY!! She is a little over 2 years old!!! I can't post any identifying info until we pass court - SORRY! But she is adorable and I can't wait to go get her!!!!! Since the courts are going to be closing for the rainy season we probably won't travel for court till October or November, HOPEFULLY!

I's still in shock! We didn't think too much of it when our coordinator called us yesterday to get some info, although she did say we were getting close but as much as I stalk the agency's blog I had an idea of where we were and I was even off by one of each list. Then today, I took a half day from work and right after I signed off the phone was started ringing with a 303 area code (agency) and hubby thought it was a referral because he thought it was strange she was calling again after we spoke to her yesterday, but our coordinator just wanted a copy of some paperwork. After that, hubby seemed to think that we were going to get a referral either today or next week because of the way she worded things, like if we could fax the paperwork to her right away it would be good.. LOL  I wasn't about to get my hopes up and just KNEW that we weren't THAT close to getting a referral. Sure enough, the phone started ringing again a few hours later. It was our coordinator AGAIN! WITH THE REFERRAL OF OUR DAUGHTER!!


To be continued...

Correction..

Just spoke to our coordinator and we are still # 10 on baby girl list (7 families on hold) and #7 on toddler girl list (4 families on hold), so just documenting that here since I thought we were a spot lower on each, but still that puts us at unofficially #3 on both lists!!!  She just wanted to confirm our age range/preference, which is the entire range we are approved for by USCIS of 0-36 months.

And on a side note, I was very calm when the phone rang and I saw it was a 303 area code (our agency #). Although now, after the fact, I'm kind of freaking out!!!  LOL

MORE Ethiopia Wait List Movement

I think these are our numbers as of today. When hubby spoke to our coordinator today right after the blog update she said we were still 10/7, but there was more movement today so I think we just asked her too soon.. LOL (or it's wishful thinking lol)   I am a little speechless right now. I can't wait to find out who our daughter is and it seems like the end of the road is rolling up on us soooo fast this week. We still have a few more spots to go (unless some families come off of hold, but even then..we're almost there), but it could be soon, very soon, or it could be several more months. WOW!

MORE Ethiopia Wait List Movement !!!!

There have been sooooo many referrals this week I can't keep up!! We spoke to our coordinator today and confirmed our numbers and was also told that on the baby girl list there are 7 families on hold and 3 families on hold on the toddler girl list.. OH MY.. That unofficially makes us #3 on baby girl list and #4 on toddler girl list. WOW! I can't believe that we went on the baby girl list on May 10th last year and are down to #10!!!

We also have to go get our "new" I171H certified again because of a little USCIS glitch, but we're working on that now and hopefully will be able to send that off to our agency next week. All of a sudden I feel an urgent need to get that done! LOL

Wait List Movement!!

Ethiopia Wait List Movement

Wait List Movement!!

Wait List Movement!!

Woohoo! Finally after a few weeks of no referrals, we have some movement! SINGLE DIGITS BABY!!!!! We are now #9 on the Toddler Girl List! O....M....G....! :)

4 Years Oh My & Ethiopia Status

 

It's been 48 months since we were logged in with China on April 17th 2007. W.O.W.   This time last year the CCAA, now apparently the CCCWA had referred up to 4/17/06. As of today they've referred up to 6/15/06.  Only 306 LIDs to go.

For Ethiopia, we are moving right along.. Found out last week we are actually #18 on the Baby Girl List, so I must have missed a referral somewhere in my wait list stalking.. haha!  Still #10 on the Toddler Girl List. As of today we have been on the Toddler Girl list for 7 months and have gone down 12 spots. We've been on the Baby Girl list for a little over 11 months and have gone down 32 spots.

Not much else to write about right now. Been working on the basement, redoing some walls, painting and such so it'll be a nice playroom/TV room once the little one gets here. It's starting to feel more real now! #10 woohoo!

Ethiopia Wait List Movement

Another Move!!

More Wait List Movement!

More Wait List Movement!

Wait List Movement

Wait List Movement

Wait List Movement

General Stuff

I haven't actually posted anything in a while except for updates every time we move up on one of the wait lists. I haven't had too much to say really and I felt like I needed to distance myself a bit from the blog world for a little while. I don't know if it's information overload, tired of some of the drama out there or a little of both. I think maybe it's also just wanting to not spend every waking minute thinking about the adoption, hoping things will just move forward and before you know it we'll be there at the top of one of the lists. Which doesn't really make any sense since I do stalk the agency's website to look for list movement! LOL  Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. I can't be the only one.. you know who you are! LOL

Baby Girl Wait List Movement!

WOW! Still moving!

 

I can't believe all the movement this week!

Another Move!!

More Wait List Movement!

Wait List Movement