Today I heard...

that Gladney approval was "on the way!"

Now if we could just get that darn fingerprinting appointment.....

Happy Holidays!

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Feeling Low...

I've been feeling low about this process lately. We've been waiting on the the darn doctor letter for my husband for well over a week. I keep calling and calling. Under Important Dates, I wrote that we would have our application complete tomorrow. I'm trying to be positive and assume that I can send it on in tomorrow and then have a nice Christmas knowing that Part 2 of 3 of our long process is over with.

On the good side, we have already submitted our FBI Clearance fingerprints and our homestudy is on its way to CIS so hopefully we'll get that fingerprinting appointment from them one of these weeks!

Trying to stay hopeful....

Charity Water

This is a very important cause to support. The video of the drilling in Ethiopia is amazing.

FACT:
There are more people in Ethiopia without clean water thanany other country in Africa. 75% of the country lacks access to clean, safe drinking water.

1 in 4.
Only one in every four people in Ethiopia have access to clean water while just 13 percent have access to basic sanitation.



Check out the facts HERE

What's left?

So in order for us to be finished with our Gladney application, we have to finalize up our references, get FBI clearance and get those health forms filled out. Unfortunately, with Pete's schedule at the hospital I can't get him to the darn police station or to the doctor this week. ARGH. At least our I-600A is out there. I guess we'd have to wait for that appointment anyway, right?

Thankful

Well we're almost off for our 16 hour car ride to New York with the 189,000 mile Subaru and a 65 pound excitable dog. Hoping to get to Toledo tonight and the rest of the way tomorrow. I can't wait to see the family and FINALLY meet my new niece.

Part of me keeps thinking that if all goes well, next Thanksgiving I will have something that I will be beyond thankful for - a baby.

Happy Thanksgiving!

First Snow!

We awoke this morning to a couple of inches of snow. I can't tell you how beautiful it was walking the dog in the park. We made fresh tracks. All of the trees were covered in a gorgeous way.

Chewy LOVES snow. She eats it, buries herself in it, flicks it around, and dives in it. She was in heaven. Here is a post snow picture of a happy dog.

Holiday Gifts

I hope ALL of my relatives don't mind getting one of these awesome t-shirts! This site is so cool and most of the money goes to clean water funds, food funds, and malaria prevention.

Click HERE to check it out.

Fewer International Adoptions

There is a story in the WI State Journal today about how 2007 was the lowest level of international adoptions since 1999 particularly because of cutbacks in China, Russia, and Guatemala. Ethiopian adoptions were the largest increase.

I totally understand that it makes the most sense for countries to encourage adoption internally. However, I don't understand why a country wouldn't want good people, who would respect their adopted children's connection to their homeland, from adopting.

I remember after they had that huge cyclone in Myanmar and they finally got some tv footage. Over 100,000 people died and so many children were left totally homeless and destitute. My husband and I turned to each other and thought that it was so sad that because the country was so closed off from the outside world, they would never let us adopt any of those kids. So they will suffer and many will die. I just don't get it.

I feel like we are proving ourselves as good strong people going through this process. We are proving our financial stability, emotional stability, good health, etc. All we want to do is love a child and provide them with a great life.

Off the soapbox now. Have to go get my Hep B shot, second in the series and drop off doctor forms.

Starting the Journey

I feel like I should start contributing to this process after stalking other people's blogs for the last couple years. Since we've started the journey of adopting from Ethiopia, blogs have been a valuable learning experience and a place for me to realize that we're all going through the same thing here! So here I go...