We're Approved!!!

WOOOHOOOO!!! We found out from our agency today that our application has been approved to adopt from Ethiopia!! We can officially start the paperchase!!! We've been told that the timeline from application to travel is 12-18 months. We'll let's just say after being told almost the same thing for China, I'll believe it when I see it.. haha but I've been doing alot of yahoo group searches and message board searches and hopefully 18 months will be accurate. I feel like I have soooo much to do now!! WOW. I'll be studying our dossier guide all weekend, getting prepared to start Monday requesting docs. I'll probably type up what I can this weekend too. I'm just a little excited!! Can you tell?

(Random Internet cat pic.. lol )

33 Months

It's been 33 months since we've been logged in with China. I almost forgot. I've been so preoccupied with this new possibility of starting another adoption. I can't wait till we hear something about our application, hopefully some time this week. I can't believe I am actually looking forward to starting another paperchase. I've already started spring cleaning, a little early. lol I'm just ready to get moving.

New Developments...

It appears that our first daughter won't be from China......







She'll be from Ethiopia!!!!



HOPEFULLY!! We mailed the application to our agency today to start a concurrent adoption through Ethiopia!!!! I may be jumping the gun a bit, but we spoke to our agency last night and I can't think of any reason why we wouldn't be approved so let's hope for the best!! I'm VERY excited to say the least!

I know I've been a pretty quiet blogger for a while now.. well first it was because I just couldn't deal with the wait. I was trying to keep busy with other things. Ironically to keep my mind off the China adoption, I started learning some scrapbooking design and started creating a China adoption related digital scrapbooking kit! Anyway, more about that in future posts as I'm still trying to add more items to the kit to make it packed full of goodies. :-)

Not too long ago, my agency started an Ethiopia adoption program, at which point I started to really start looking into the process. After much research and number crunching, we've decided to just go for it! We are still waiting for Raven in China, she'll just be our second daughter!

I haven't felt this good in a looooong time! I'm ready to dive into another paperchase. BRING IT ON!!

Referrals - April 1-3, 2006

Merry Christmas

RIP Jake

In June 1995, I found some stray kittens by my job. I took them and found homes for them, except for 2. I named those 2 Jake and Dusty. Dusty passed away at only a year old. Jake lived for 14 and a half years. 14 years seems like such a long time when I think back to all the things I've been through and all the changes in my life. At one point Jake was one of 6 cats I had. Then it was just him and Ebby for a long time. Ebby had to be put down due to a tumor in 2004, right before we bought our house. Then once in the new house, we got Goku to keep Jake company. Jake like to play fetch with little foam soccer ball cat toys. He'd bring the ball to me in his mouth and I'd throw it and he'd run after it and bring it back. Sometimes he'd play by himself, bringing the ball to the top of the stairs and letting it roll down the stairs and then running after it.. He could do this for hours, starting on the second floor and going all the way to the basement and then starting over again. It was the cutest thing. He liked to be held up to my shoulder while I danced around with him. He liked to drink water out of the bathroom faucet. At night.. he'd fight his way to get under the covers and lie right up against me. He answered to Jake, Jakey Poo-Poo and Booger. He was the master of the house, and even though Yoshi would chase him, Jake held his own. Last April he had kidney failure, and things didn't look good for him. The vet had us give him IV fluids every so often, not really expecting him to improve much or last too long. But he did great. He was running around again and playing fetch and we got to spend another year and a half with him. The vet was amazed. But for the past couple of weeks, he started to get run down and it was happening fast. He was having problems walking and wasn't eating. So instead of trying to prolong the inevitable (again), just to selfishly keep him with us even longer, we decided to take him to the vet today and let him go. I'm going to miss him.. but it was time and I'm glad he got to be my baby for 14 and a half years.

Who's my good boy!

32 Months

Referrals - March 29-31, 2006

At least we are into April now!

31 Months

30 Months

2 1/2 years!!!! Oh my.

Sept/Oct Referrals

March 25-28th, 2006. Either September was skipped or combined with October, not sure.

29 Months Waiting

Speaking of 29..the CCAA might get to the 3/29/06 LID people this month. That would be 5 days. Better than 2, not as good as 30. haha

I'm still thinking about a Plan B, but I really think we'll just end up sticking with Plan A which is to stick with China for first adoption and just continue to save as much money as possible, pay as many bills as possible in the meantime. That wouldn't have anything to do with having to call a plumber yesterday to come and unclog our cesspool pipes so we could flush the toliet (TMI?) and the $308 bill that went with that. Nope, had nothing to do with it. I suddenly started having visions of starting a concurrent adoption and paying fees and then having things start falling apart around the house.

So I need a new hobby. Something that doesn't give me any time to dwell on the wait or to think too much about Plan B. Maybe I should stay away from the computer for a while, which is hard to do when you work from home on 2 computers all day long. Maybe I should stay away from RQ, oh but I can't. haha I can't even imagine how this wait would be and is for those who don't visit RQ. I'd be completely clueless as to where we stand with this adoption. 14 months has now more than doubled to 29 months. But I won't go there.. again. haha

I'll try to be more positive on the next blog post.. working on it. haha

Sad News Program

I got this link from a post on RQ. I checked it out since it was about Ethiopia adoptions which I've been researching and blog reading. It's amazing and incredibly sad that these things happen and we know for a fact if we do decide at some point to adopt from Ethiopia, we will not be using this agency. It wasn't on my list anyway. I just figured I'd post this to spread the word. Very disturbing.

http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/

Click on "Fly Away Children" on the right.

Bad Frustrated Blogger

Or maybe that should be "Bad Frustrated Wanna-be Blogger" because I don't consider myself a blogger anymore. I've been sort of living by the rule "if you don't have anything nice to say.. etc". Hence the lack of posts. I have nothing to say, nothing positive to say anyway. Pity party? Yup. Big a$$ extravagant party too! Ok maybe not so extravagant. After all, I can't afford extravagant.

I've been researching Ethiopia adoptions. I would LOVE to start a concurrent adoption from Ethiopia if I could. From the agencies I've looked at so far, there has to be a 40 year difference (I believe) between youngest parent and child. I'm 41, so right off that bat we only qualify for a one year old child, which is fine.

Dexter got neutered a couple of weeks ago (OUCH, both for him and our budget) and then 4 days later (on the weekend) he tore out his stitches and had to go to emergency vet to get stapled back up and get a plastic "funnel" (no idea what that thing is called) so he couldn't do it again (OUCH again since it was just as much for the neutering as it was for 4 staples and the funnel, but I don't play when it comes to my babies).

August Referrals

And 2 more days.. March 23rd & 24th, 2006. Only 388 LIDs to get through. I tried to explain this to my 81 year old Mom for probably the 10th time. I tried to use something she could relate to... the deli counter at the supermarket (which I've heard someone else use as an analogy). I told her to pretend she wanted some bologna from the deli counter and she went up to pick a number and her number was 390. After getting over the fact that the deli counter tickets don't go that high, I told her to imagine that once a month the guy or gal behind the counter calls out a certain amount of numbers and then that is it for the month. I told her that for August, they only called people who had the tickets with number 1 & number 2 and they aren't going to serve anyone else till next month, and then next month they may serve people with numbers 3, 4, 5 & 6, or maybe they will just call out numbers 3 & 4, it's up to them. Her response, "That's gonna be a loooooong time to wait for bologna!" Yea Mom. That's a really long time.

28 Months.

Is It A Sign??

Maybe I am just looking for any glimpse of hope during this looooong wait for our daughter, but who knows, maybe it IS a sign, even if a small sign.


Yesterday my sister came by my Mom's apartment so after we took my Mom grocery shopping (which I bring her every week) we headed out to the mall afterwards. As we were walking to the entrance there was this large black bird in this small tree making alot of noise. It was the only bird in the tree. As we walked past it I had said something about maybe it being a "Raven" (our daughter's name) although I don't think it was and I don't know enough about ravens to know where they are found. But it sure was making alot of noise, almost like it was trying to get our attention (I know I am stretching it here... lol ). ANYWAY, then afert he mall we hit the Barnes and Noble for a few.. and on the way out I happen to glance at the display right by the entrance/exit and saw the following book on display, "Ravens", by George Dawes Green.



Anyway, I just thought it was kinda funny and thought I would document it. I don't think our daughter is born yet, but you never know.

Also my sister gave me this cute photo album before we left for the mall, since she knows I have this ladybug obsession.. lol Thanks Kathy!




Let's see... what else is new.. Not too much... lol I did start working on putting our blog into scrapbook pages for a "Journey To Our Daughter" 12x12 photo book. I'm doing each month with a different digital scrapbooking kit (different colors/layouts, etc). I'm also adding some things I didn't blog about as I think of them. I'll end this photobook maybe with a referral picture! Then start a new one for from referral to meeting our daughter, or something like that. All I can say this is going to be one HUGE book as each month will have several pages, depending on how many posts there was for that month. Here is what the cover looks like, unless I decide to change it. I even ordered a single 12x12 page from Snapfish just to see how it would look full size. I really like how it came out. This is the low resolution version.

Random Pics

July Referrals

2 more days... March 21 & 22, 2006

27 Months...

Can you believe it?

Had to bring Goku (younger cat) to the vet today. Noticed yesterday that he was limping around holding his front paw up in the air, he wouldn't put any pressure on it, but he let me touch it and feel around adn it didn't seem to hurt him, only when he walked he was not using it. Doc said didn't feel like anything was broken and he could of just strained it and to see if after the weekend he starts using it before we do an xray. While at the vet he put him on the floor to watch him limp... and of course he didn't, he put pressure on it and found a corner to try and hide. As soon as he got home, limp limp limp. I think (hope) it's just a sprain from Yoshi chasing him. We have a little doggie door we put on the basement door when we moved in for the cats to get into the basement. Sometimes Yoshi, being the instictive hunter he is, will watch the cats come downstairs, wait till they are in between 2 "safe zones" (stairs going up and away from him and doggie door to basement) and then he'll chase them as they dive thru the doggie door trying to get a piece of cat leg or tail. Sometimes I hear then crashing thru the doggie door and tumbling down a few steps to get away. And then there are times where Jake can come up on the sofa with Yoshi lying there and there is no drama. Go figure.