OH. MY. WORD. God, you're blowing our minds, once again!

Words don't even begin to describe our night. There is SO much to say, yet I haven't quite wrapped my head around it all. I will write more tomorrow, but here's the nutshell version.

We thought we were having dinner with some friends of ours. Instead, we walked into a room full of all our friends and loved ones, saying "Surprise!" We weren't sure what we were supposed to be surprised for...not our birthdays or anniversary, finally we saw gigantic balloons spelling L-U-C-Y across the room...and realized our friends were throwing us a surprise bash/auction to benefit our adoption...It was almost like our wedding reception! It was beautiful, all of our loved ones, fancy hor d'orves, desserts, beverages...centerpeices, slideshow, decorations,programs...it was amazing. There was a silent auction and a live auction...totalling $11, 208.00!! Seriously...pretty much funded our remaining adoption expenses in about 2 hours.

We are overwhelmed, and so so blessed beyond our imaginations. God continues to show up in our lives, and Lucy's. There is NO DOUBT the Lord has a plan for this little lady to be in our lives. He continues to make the path smooth for us to bring Lucy home to our family. We are blessed, blessed, blessed.

We feel so stinking loved, we don't even know how to take it in. Literally, our friends handed us the envelope of money as we walked out the door. We have in our possession, the means to finish this adoption!! God is so so good.

Earlier this year, the Lord gave me a verse, and I had no idea what it would look like. I felt he was saying to me, "get ready, Lady. I am about to do something BIG." Joshua 3:5 says "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you."

Indeed he has. And he's not even done. Thank you, Lord, for including us in your big story!

p.s. Someone also donated buddy passes for us to use when we travel. So, from our hometown to Washington DC is paid for!

It's Official!

We are officially on the waiting list for our baby girl from Ethiopia!

We expect to wait about 8 months for a referral...but who knows what God has planned for us. We trust that his timing is perfect and he already has a daughter in mind for us!

Can't wait to meet her!

Dossier, I shall miss you!

Ok, not really. For those of you non-international adoption obsessed fans, here's the definition of Dossier.

dossier

Pronunciation: \ˈdos-yā, do-sē-ā\
Function: noun
Etymology: French, bundle of documents labeled on the back, dossier, from dos back, from Latin dorsum
Date: 1880

: a file containing detailed records on a particular person or subject


My Dossier is currently en route to Fort Worth Texas, to our agency, Gladney. It left portland at 8:34pm tonight, to be exact and should be delivered to our agency tomorrow morning. It will visit with Natalie, our caseworker, for a few days, and then move on to Washington D.C to be authenticated. Then it will go to the Ethiopian Embassy...then, to Ethiopia! We hope to be on the waitlist sometime next week. (We are officially placed, when Natalie sends it off to the courier in WA DC)
(my helper, above)

It was bittersweet to send of my french friend. I made her pretty, since I had to look at her so much. It was really weird to box up my stack of paperwork that I've labored over for months, and trust some stranger to make sure that it gets where I NEED it to be. I almost wanted him to personally promise me that nothing would happen to it! What if the driver spills his Pepsi on it and it soaks through the box, and wrecks all of my original papers? What if the plane crashes and goes down in flames? I mean, even though it's insured...it would cost me time and money to do it all over again!! (Um, yes, I know, it sounds a little obsessive).

Nevertheless, me and Dossier have become close. Very close. I almost know exactly the wording of each item , how many pages it has, when the notary will expire. How much it cost me to get it, authenticate it, and ship each item.

It feels like a huge load off to say BUH-BYE to her. Hayden helped me make my final copies (he made sure that each paper came out that big machine that makes "coffees". He made the final hand off to the FedEx guy. It was a big moment...the guy looked at me weird when I said, don't put it in the box yet, I need to get my camera and take a picture, this is a BIG day!"

We celebrated at Chevy's with a tasty strawberry raspberry margarita and tasty eats with our family. I felt that I deserved a tasty relaxing beverage after hours of pouring over papers.

BTW-to anyone who's considering doing thier own dossier, you can totally do it! I won't lie, it's alot of paperchasing. But, at the end, I'm really glad I didn't pay someone to do what I could totally do. If you can follow directions and be organized at all, you can handle it and save yourself quite a bit of $.

Good night!

I'm in shock!

Yesterday I thought, I should really check my mail, I'm waiting for some important stuff...authentications, FBI background letters, my USCIS approval. So, I got my authentications (birth certificates from other states) and our FBI background checks...

This is good, I thought to myself. Now, I will be totally ready when my "golden ticket" arrives from USCIS. I NEVER thought it would come this quickly! God is so good.

I was making dinner, and my hubby came in with the mail, holding a little envelope marked U.S Dept. of Citizenship and Immigration...I thought, "no way!...this cannot be what I think it is!!" I ripped it open, and sure enough...9 days after fingerprinting, Our I-171 arrived!!

Tomorrow, I'm off to Olympia to authenticate all of our remaining documents! Then, hopefully Monday I will overnight it to Gladney!!

thoughts on Mother's Day

I spent today with my lovelies. My fellas made french toast (my fave) today for breakfast, and we scrambled into church late, as usual. After Hayden decided to take the vacuum apart (which dumped nasty dustbunnies and cheerios all over him and the carpet) and Jack fell down and bloodied his knee...we finally got into the van. The 15 minute black hole time warp...gets us every sunday!

We spent all afternoon with my parents, and my brother and his family (like we do every sunday) BUT the men cooked...I confess, my hubby is an awesome cook, much better than I am! He made homemade fettucine alfredo AND Creme Brulee for dessert! Delish, thanks husband! You are the best!

We had a special speaker today at church, Diane Moore, who is a local Parenting expert and Mom, radiotalk show host, author...funny lady. I enjoyed her alot. She talked about 2 Thessalonians and Motherly Love, not just for/about moms, but how God created motherly love for all of us to have, and how much it's lacking in our world. We hear the phrase "fatherless" alot, but equally, many in our world are motherless, and as she put it "God made 2 flavors of Love". Both are needed. I cried a bunch, thinking about all the little people in Ethiopia who are waiting for Motherly love to come take up residence in their lives. I thought about the daughter we are still waiting to meet and what her birthmother is dealing with today...this minute. It made me love on my boys a little more, savor their hugs a little longer, and be so grateful that they've made me a mom.

It also made me really really REALLY appreciate my own mom, and her loving presence in my life...always. I can't think of a time when I needed her and she wasn't there. Every play, every birthday, every special day, every sporting event, every dance, every thing I thought was important that really wasn't.Even the non important days...we've spent them all together. My highs and lows, she's loved me through all of them, and I'd dare say, she already loves our Lucy as much as we do. My boys would take her over me just about any time...they ADORE thier Grammy. When I make them mad, they want to go to Grammy's and Hayden often says, I want to live with Grammy forever. Of course I tell him, no, I would miss him too too much and I would cry every day if he wasn't here. That usually makes him laugh long enough to get over the fact that I'm ripping hime away from Grammy's house. She listens and laughs when I email her pictures of the lastest greatest plan for Lucy's bedroom and bedding for the 10,000th mind change. She makes me feel important, strong, and loved. She showed me that being a Mom is THE best job in the world. In fact, I never knew how hard it would be. I grew up knowing that all I wanted to be, was a mom. That was the best job I could ever have, she made it look easy. I was a little surprised by reality, when I had my second babe...but she has been there through that too. MOM...I love you so much...I am who I am because you and dad have loved me and lived by example of how to love and serve others...you have been the best example of Motherly Love a girl could ever wish for. I love you!

On a funny note, you gotta look at this! A gal in SoCal(and adoptive mom) has a blog I like to read for good laughs about motherhood, I visit Kristen at http://thehowertons.blogspot.com

She posted this video, which cracked me up!I LOVE mama confessions, they just make you feel normal...One of the reasons I enjoy not me mondays...



What is your mommmy confession this week? I pretended I was asleep on Wednesday morning, a little too long. When I got up my boys were COVERED in bandaids. Seriously, probably 10 each. They have gotten clever and realize this time (when I'm pretending to still be asleep) is their chance to get into my high cupboards, where I keep the good stuff. To be clear, they weren't hurt...just like bandaids!

Gladney Approved!

Another little milestone today...we got word that we're "Officially Gladney Approved" .....This is the kind of email that makes me feel like it's actually all going to come together!

Snippet from the email today:

Subject: Ethiopia-Congratulations!

Congratulations, you are now Gladney approved and ready to begin the dossier and ultimately the referral phase of your adoption process. I am mailing you both an approval packet with your approval certificate and quarterly training information for your “approved and waiting” period.

Music to my ears! I am so happy to be moving into the new "approved and waiting" category!

USCIS Road Trip

We started out by dropping our kiddos at my mom's last night...which allowed us a 24 hour date-like day!We went for frozen yogurt and a great night sleep!

We left town about 8, stopped in Hood River for some really good coffee at Dog River, it was excellent!


We rolled into Yakima about noon, and met up with a life long friend and his sweet wife and littlest kiddo for lunch. Jason and I have been friends since birth, really! Our dad's grew up together, and our grandparents were neighbors in the 50's...so really, LIFE long friends. We did family vacations together, camping, beach, visiting back and forth. In high school we wrote letters back and forth, and stayed in touch during college over new technology of the 90's...EMAIL. We lost touch after that, each got married to our spouses, and oddly led simlar lifes. He was a youth pastor, I was married to one. Both had kids...

One day, when I was blog hopping, I recognized on someone else's blogroll "Jason and Kala"...usually Kala, is spelled "KaYla"...so I thought, hey, I know a Jason and Kala" and so I clicked, and it was them! They are also adopting from Ethiopia! Again, our lives have intersected in a really fun way. So, since we were in Yakima, where they live, we met up for lunch...I got to meet Kala for the first time in person (we are blog-friends already) and little Mikey. It was fun to reconnect and hang out.

THEN, we thought, hey let's head over to USCIS early and see if we can get in. I was totally organized and ready for our appt. The security guard at the door says, "I need to see your ID's please" Me: "....UM, I don't have mine". Where is it you ask? In my gym bag with my gym membership card....IN VANCOUVER. Seriously, I have a meticulously organized 3 ring binder of all our USCIS paperwork...drove almost 4 hours to get there. Matt took a day off work...and I FORGET my ID!!! Thankfully, the nice guard told us where the nearest DMV was, and we had 40 minutes until our appointment. We raced over the DMV, praying that they would not ask for any other ID to issue me a new drivers license...we walked in, and there was only one person in line ahead of me. When it was my turn the nice man said, "how can I help you?" and I told him I needed a replacement...no questions, whipped me up a new driver's license and we were on our way in 20 minutes from walking in the door. We made it about 6 minutes before our scheduled appointment. We thanked the Lord all the way to USCIS! From there it was a breeze.

Matt said, "we drove this far for a one hour appointment?" (it was actually about 45 minutes) and I reminded him how many weeks of waiting we were saving our selves. It was totally worth the drive! We dropped off the homestudy, got fingerprinted quickly, and were on our way! Our approval letter will hopefully be here in 2-4 weeks.We drove back home, through Goldendale WA. There are all these new "wind farms" going in to generate power. My brother spent several months last summer/fall working on this project, it is pretty amazing. They are HUGE.

I couldn't believe what a dork I was, forgetting my ID. But, God was good, crisis was averted and USCIS...CHECK! We're done there. Hopefully.

Next up, authentication and waitlist!! Thanks for your prayers, and Mom, for saving us from dragging our kids on a 8 hour misery drive! (actually, the drive was really beautiful up the Columbia River Gorge, but kids dont' really appreciate the pretty views)

Homestudy is on it's way to our agency, and I own my very own copy!

I am sitting here, still glowing in the presence of my homestudy! My sweet social worker met me this morning to hand over my copies for USCIS, our Dossier, and my very own to frame and keep. Maybe I should hang it up next to Matt's BA and Master's degrees. I feel as proud of this as I think I would of a college degree (If I had one). I began working on this notebook of stuff September 20, 2008. SEVEN months ago. It feels SO good to have it done. done, done, DONE.

I had a quick moment of "it's not fair" while blog hopping tonight. I'm over it, and 100% believe in God's perfect plan and timing for our girl. BUT...I saw a blog, of a family that started out with the agency we originally were planning to use as our placing agency. They started the process in August, just like we did and found out today, that they PASSED COURT and will soon be traveling to pick up thier sweet 5 month old baby boy. We are SURE that we are where God wants us with Gladney, and many things have confirmed that. They also were recieved a baby boy referral, which tend to come quicker than girl referrals. Many things, and I felt jealous, and a moment of "what could have been"...until the Lord reigned me in. We are where he wants us, in his timing.

We are looking forward to a road trip Tuesday to USCIS. We are meeting up with some family friends in Yakima for lunch. They will be leaving in 2 weeks to get thier little boy in Ethiopia too! It will be a date day for Matt and I...a road trip, lunch out, my mom is taking the kids for the day...it will be great! And we get the bonus of being fingerprinted to top it off :)

Thanks for all the encouragement today, and doing the happy dance with me! I will go to bed with a smile on my face tonight and not be wondering when I will see my close friend, the homestudy with her final stamp of approval on her...it's DONE! Yippee!!