We passed court today! The last MAJOR hurdle has been lept! It isn't exactly smooth sailing from here but the waters are much smoother now!

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We Have A Court Date...Back To More Waiting...

I feel like my life has turned into waiting, and then getting some news, and then waiting, and then getting some more news, and then waiting some more, etc. As suspected, the Ethiopian courts will be closing towards the end of August all through September. It was highly unlikely that we would receive a court date before that closure. But we had prepared ourselves for that. We received our court date of October 8th. However, 40% of cases do not pass the first attempt. I am trying to stay positive and believe that we will pass, but some people don't, and I don't want to get my hopes up. If we pass on the 8th, we could possibly travel around the first of November (just guessing, we haven't heard any tentative travel dates from our agency).

I feel like we get some news, and then it's back to waiting. We now have 2 months more to wait, to think about our court date coming up. Most days the waiting just goes by, some days are rougher than that. Because I am a first-time mom, I often times find my mind wandering to our son. What am I missing out on? How is he gonna look completely different by the next pictures I get? I will have already missed all kinds of stuff by the time I get to him. To help with this, we do get monthly updates from our agency and also the wonderful moms and dads that travel before us who volunteer to take care packages and pictures! We sent our first package for our baby with a travel group who left yesterday to pick up their children. So a big thank you to the Roger's family who will be doing that for us this week!

We're getting close, but then sometimes it seems we are still so far away. I am comforted by the fact that I know this is the son I was born to have. God picked him before I was even alive to be my son. So all things will work together for good. So until we get our next update, we will continue to hold to that hope and look forward to seeing our boy face-to-face...

On A Regular Wednesday...

"Nicole, this is Nicole...I have some exciting news for your family if you can give me a call back at your earliest convenience." That was the message I took from my phone at 12:53pm on Wednesday, July 22. I had been taking my phone with me everywhere and had it turned up at full volume. That day we had an inservice at work over lunch so I had turned my phone to vibrate, thus missing Nicole's (our family coordinator) call. I spent the next 5 minutes frantically trying to get her back on the phone. I was successful after what seemed like an eternity. She asked if my husband was somewhere where he could take a call. After conferencing him in on the phone call, she said "congratulations, this is your referral call." Wow, I can't describe what that felt like. To hear her describe the child that God had picked for us, I knew already I loved him. I hurried into work and as my co-workers looked at me funny (since I was crying)...through tears I said "we just got our baby." Unfortunately, I had to finish my day at work, which wasn't very successful because I was completely scatterbrained. So after months of paperchasing and waiting we have gotten our baby we have been so looking forward to adding to our family. The day was crazy and by the time John and I called our families and talked and looked over the pictures we received in an e-mail, I was worn out! It was such an emotional day. So much so, that it has taken me almost a week to post this blog. There have been so many emotions since that day, it will take another post to describe it all. For now, we wait on further news from our agency for things like a court date and travel dates. We are definitely excited to continue to prepare for our guy! He is absolutely adorable, however, we can not publicly post pictures until he is officially ours through the court documents. Oh, how we are waiting for that day...

Month 5 Down...

One more month down in the waiting process. New referrals are continuing to come in every several weeks. The last referrals were for people with DTE's of October. While we have been waiting this past month, we have been on both of our missions trips with our kids. The junior high students went to Dayton, OH for 5 days to serve at Gospel Mission doing some yard work, and cleaning up the grounds for their community night that was coming up. They also had a great time at Kings Island riding all the old stuff and the new coaster they have for the this summer. Shortly after getting back from that trip we packed up and headed south with our senior high students. We completed 2 decks for people in Tennessee in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. We camped for the week at a National Campground and tried to avoid the bears and ticks. All the kids learned how to rough it, including making all their own meals. On the last day there, we went caving in Buffalo Cave. It was a great time of crawling through tiny holes and in between huge rocks. All in all, it was a busy month. One that made the time fly by. Which is good, although John and I are no closer to having the nursery ready for Yoshi. We keep thinking we should start that, but apparently we are both better procrastinators than doers. Maybe next post I can post some progress has been made...

A Saturday Research Project...

Here are a couple pictures of our experience at Ras Dashen! In the first picture is our food/table. Traditional Ethiopian eating is done around a basket holding the pizza pan size dish you are served. Each person orders an entree which is a meat of some sort. Then, as a table, you are served 3 sides and also extra injera, which is the bread with the meal. The food is served on a flat layer of injera. This is a very spongy, sour tasting bread. Not a bread that I would eat by itself (although I'm sure Ethiopians do and love it), but the injera serves as bread and utensil. As you look at the picture, in the "6 o'clock" position is one of our sides. It is buttermilk cheese, very good and soft. Definitely a homemade cheese, not bought in any dairy section! The dark brown meat to the top of that is John's beef entree. It was a traditional spicy Ethiopian dish that made John's nose run:). To the "3 o'clock" side of the cheese is some of the injera. My lamb entree is above John's beef. I ordered a dish that was not labeled as spicy although it still had some spice to it, which I believe most Ethiopian food does. To the left of the lamb is a lentil/pepper side dish and to the right is green bean/squash

side dish. Everything was very good. As you can see from the next picture, everything is eaten with your hands. No utensils, no napkins! It's one thing to eat a hamburger and french fries with your hands...it's another to scoop up saucy meats and small sides with a piece of flimsy bread. It's not pretty, but then again, everyone else in the restaurant is doing it as well. At the end of the meal you do get a wetnap:) All in all, it was a great experience. Hopefully one we will get to do again at some point before we travel. I have hoped to cook Ethiopian at least 1 night a week once we have our child. After being at the restaurant, I am encouraged but also realize it might be quite a task to master. The good news is our child will have never actually eaten Ethiopian food before he comes home to America with us. So, hopefully, we will be able to convince our kid that the food I cook tastes "just like authentic Ethiopian food". We'll see how that goes...

I Should Have A Baby Bump By Now...

We are now 4 months along in our waiting. The last group of referrals given out were for people with DTE's in August. Our DTE is in February, so according to that timeline we will have to wait for the people in Sept-Jan to receive their referrals before we will. We received an e-mail update several weeks ago with some disturbing news from Ethiopia. Apparently, the government there caught a police officer turning in children to orphanages stating they were "abondoned children". This was not the case, as some of the children had homes with families that had not, in fact, abandoned them. Unfortunately, this has led America World (our agency) to no longer refer any of the children in their system labeled as abandoned. We were not led to believe that this is a forever situation but until they can review and investigate the children they currently have, they do not want to put families into a situation where they are referred a child, and then the court does not pass the adoption due to the abandonment question hanging over children's heads. America World stated in the e-mail that up to 25% of their children come from "abandonment" so we are expecting a decline in the number of referrals for the coming months. However, we are still encouraged as referrals are still coming out and we are moving up on the list.

On a brighter note, John and I recently had our first authentic Ethiopian experience. We drove to Chicago over the weekend and ate at Ras Dashen. Pictures and more explanation to come!...

In A Holding Pattern...

May 5th marked the end of month 3 of waiting. April had a total of 28 referrals for infants, toddlers and older children. So, congratulations to all the families who have recieved word that they will soon bring home their children to their "forever families". John listened to the latest conference call for all of us still waiting. Right now, America World is saying the wait for infants will not change. Even though there have been many more referrals in the past couple months than even they were expecting, that will not change the infant wait time of 9-11 months. Furthermore, they explained that court dates are taking anywhere from 8-16 weeks to receive once your referral is obtained. So, once again it looks like our "best case scenario" is being pushed back. Although, we are dissapointed that it could be even longer before we bring our baby home, we are becoming better at waiting. This past month, John put in an attic ladder so that we can start moving things out of the office and we can actually start putting the nursery together. I figure at the rate we are taking care of that, we will still be waiting for the paint to dry by the time we get our referral in 6 or 7 months!:) So, to answer everyone's question of "How's the adoption going?" We are waiting and still waiting and still waiting. Much like an airplane circling in the air...we're in a holding pattern...

A Lesson In Self-Control...

Well, month 2 of waiting is over and done. As spring is getting closer, it seems the days are going by a little faster. The waiting hasn't seemed so unbearable this month. Since the first of April, I have been checking the AWAA website to check on the status of the Ethiopian referrals. I checked on the 1st of April, and then told myself I would not obsess about it, and I would wait to check back for at least a week. That lasted a couple days until I reasoned with myself that maybe on the 3rd (since that was a Friday) they would have posted new referrals for the end of the week. There was nothing there so I told myself that I would wait until the following Friday to check again, knowing that the days will certainly drag by if I keep checking every day. That lasted until Monday when I had the thought that it was the beginning of the week and they might have new information. There was no new info. Today, being the 7th, I thought, "Well, there has been a full week now in the month of April, so there might be something new." I sat at the table checking my facebook trying to forget about the fact that I was thinking I should check the AWAA website. I wrestled back and forth and then thought "What will it hurt?".

So I checked...and there on the front page of new information was congratulations to the families that have received referrals for Ethiopia! So I quickly scanned the list and there have been 14 referrals with this new batch. That includes 6 for infants. I quickly tried to figure out which of the families from our yahoo chat group would have received referrals (they don't post names, only age and sex of baby and the DTE's they were matched with), so we could think about where we are in line (even though we know nothing for sure and it's really just guessing). Anyway, we are excited about these new referrals and are hoping for even more the rest of the month.

What I have learned from the last week is...not only am I learning a lesson in patience through this whole process (which I am not happy about, still), I apparently am also learning how little self-control I have. Eating well and healthy (most of the time:))...check, getting up at 4:30 in the morning to go to gym...check, refusing to eat the donuts that my co-workers bring in...check. Not checking the AWAA website everyday...not so much. Leave it to a little baby to undo everthing...

What a gift...

So I figured that I (John) should add a post every now and then. Up to this point my contribution to this blog was just setting it up. So here goes....

Yesterday I listened to the monthly conference call. Our adoption agency does these monthly conference calls for everyone who is in the waiting stage. It is a chance for us to hear what is going on with our agency, the children's home in Ethiopia, changes in government procedures and so on. We call in and then hear the updates and then have a chance to ask questions. I missed the live call but they record it and send a link of it for those who couldn't call in live.

Nothing new really to report other than it seems like the 9-11 month waiting period from our DTE might actually drop into the 8-11 month range. Small blessing but a blessing never the less. The agency worker did not say this for a fact but I am drawing that conclusion from some of the comments and the fact that their have been so many referrals this month. I am not getting my hopes up though. She mentioned that it was pretty safe at this point to add nine months to your DTE for when you can expect your referral. That puts us in the first part of November. Then she mentioned that you can add two months from then for a court date. That is about how long it has been consistently taking from the time you agree to adopt the child to get a court date in Ethiopia. So that puts us traveling in the first part of January.

I am hoping that it is a little bit quicker. As I process it, I think it would be pretty special to travel around Christmas. Talk about a gift huh! We celebrate the amazing gift that humanity was given in the form of baby Jesus at Christmas. How awesome would it be for Nicole and I to be given an amazing gift in the form of baby Yoshi! I am not getting my hopes up but it is fun to think about!

For now...back to waiting.

Patience being fertilized by hope...

So I decied tonight that I should write another update to our blog. Although the only real thing to keep updating people on is that we are still waiting. I was going to blog about the fact that we found there had been 6 referrals in early March. I decided to check America World's website before I started my blog for the night. Much to our delighted surprise we found the website to have an update on 11 more referrals!! That brings March's total to 17 referrals!! America World was hoping for 10 referrals a month, so this is even more than they would have expected, I'm sure. We are mindful to remember that not every month will be this good, April could possibly only have 3 or 4. But for this moment, it is exciting to think that so many families have gotten the word that they have been matched to their child(ren). And it also means we are that much closer to getting that call ourselves. Although we haven't even reached our 2 month wait since our DTE, we are still encouraged to keep waiting. The families that received their referrals this month have been waiting 10 months...so we have a ways to go, but we are learning a lesson in patience anyway:)...

1 down, 8+ to go...

So today marks the first month of waiting being over. Although the month went by as any month does, whenever I thought of the adoption, it seemed to drag by. Honestly, when we originally got our DTE and found out it would be 9 months from that date, I was so depressed, I didn't want to talk to anyone about the adoption. People would ask how things were going and I would brush it off by saying "fine, just waiting." If people prodded anymore I would try to find a way to change the subject so as not to have to go into details about how long it was going to take or when we expected to hear anything. Even though I knew "everything is in God's time" (which some friends tried to remind me of), I didn't want to think about that. But of course, God reminds you of these things Himself.

Something we have had to be thankful for is my job situation. Over the summer I decided to try to work "as needed" for several different places in the area. One place in particular decided they could use me up to 20hrs a week (which worked out to be more $ than working 40hr weeks at my current place). Although I have enjoyed the flexibility that the schedule has provided, this past week they decided to offer me a permanent full-time position. Which I accepted...praise #1.

Then last week, we got news back from our tax guy. Because John had graduated from Anderson University in May with his Master's Degree, and AU's county had been declared a federal disaster area from a storm that went through, we ended up with a bigger return that normal. Which will allow us to pay off all remaining debt, including the last of John's student loan...praise #2.

Most of you may not know that John and I currently live in Elkhart county, which as of last month has the highest un-employment rate in the country at aprox. 15%. I feel blessed to have a job where I enjoy working and my field is doing well enough that they wanted to hire me full-time. (Mainly because a robot can't do my job...and there's baby-boomers everywhere just getting older:))...praise #3. However, several weeks ago, we found out that the church (John's employer) was going to cut a position. This was very upsetting to John and I as we will miss the friends we have made in Steve and Jenny and also their kids that we have grown to love who are in our youth group, Elise and Anthony. While we know that God has a plan for Steve and Jenny in their ministry, it is still hard to face the reality of the county we live in and wish somehow it could have not had to impact our church family.

Which brings me to my next point. Even though waiting 9 more months for a referral seems like an eternity at this point, it will allow us to do several things. 1.) Save enough money to hopefully be able to pay America World our final payment when it is due at time of referral (aprox. $12,000) without having to go into debt. 2.) Maybe even have enough to redo the flooring in the upstairs of our house which I wanted to be able to do before Yoshi is here. 3.) Get the nursery (and house) ready (and have the money to do it). 4.) Research and educate ourselves about the things to expect in Ethiopia, the rest of the adoption process and what to do with a 6 month old:)

So, look at that, I guess everything does happen in the timing that is best. I will feel free to re-visit and re-read this blog next month (or next week) when I am questioning it again!...

I'm sorry,...what did you just say?...

So now we have our DTE (Dossier to Ethiopia) date. This date determines your place in line along with all other waiting families from America World. We received our DTE date as 2/6/09. It's from this date that we will now wait aproximately 9 months to receive our referral. Which seems like an eternity but all we can do is wait. I forgot to mention an important part of our journey along the way. One Sunday morning after we had told all the kids at the church about the adoption, some of them wanted to discuss names. They were very helpful and suggested things like Mario, Banana, Luigi...and so on. One of the girls decided that she was going to start calling the baby Yoshi, stating that it was easier to say that than say him/her all the time (since we don't know for sure the sex of the baby). That seemed funny at first, but it has stuck. So much so that whenever anyone refers to the baby, that's what they say. Prompting a lot of people to say..."I'm sorry, did you just call your baby Yoshi?"...

Police Reports, Immigration and Chasing, Oh My!...

So we entered our "paper chase" phase. Wow, it took awhile but over the next several months we were able to collect a LOT of paper. Which included: an application letter to the Ministry of Women's and Children's Affairs in Ethiopia, original birth certificates, marriage certificate, physicals from our Doctor, proof of life and medical ins., proof of employment, our Home Study, 3 letters of reference, USCIS (Immigration) approval, and a few more things. All in all, it took about 4 months to collect and 2 trips to Indianapolis to get everything certified by the state of Indiana. In January 2009 we sent it all to America World to be authenticated in Washington D.C. And then we waited to hear...

The Home Study Process...

Meanwhile, we had picked an agency to complete our Home Study, which basically entails a social worker coming to the house and interviewing John and I. While we were in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for the Junior high kids mission trip, I was on the phone with Jan from Gateway Woods...a lot. I set up our Home Study in August when we returned home from the trip. Everything went fine with the interview process and Jan assured us that there wouldn't be a reason at that point in the process that we wouldn't be able to receive a child. So we made the decision to start spreading the news...

San Antonio, Milwaukee, and somewhere in between: adoption...

In June of 2008 John and I officially decided it was time! We researched adoption agencies and picked America World. The most important factor was that they were a Christian agency, but when I called for some information, I knew they were the ones we would trust this journey to. I like to say that we picked Ethiopia because Ethiopia picked us. There are many qualifications that each country states that adoptive parents must meet. We met all of the criteria for Ethiopia and were excited when we decided on the country. We applied to America World in June and waited to hear something. We got the call we had been accepted in July while we were in San Antonio, Texas for the International Youth Convention of the Church of God with all of our senior high kids. Since John and I had decided not to tell anyone of our plan to adopt, we celebrated quietly by enjoying breakfast together in the hotel one morning before all the kids got up. The rest of the trip I spent slipping out to make phone calls here and there to continue the process, hoping no one noticed I was on the phone quite a lot...

Let's go back a few years...

Our journey to Yoshi started several years ago when I (Nicole) first brought up the idea of adoption to John. We weren't planning on starting our family for several more years so it was a short conversation, but it got us talking. Over the next couple years we discussed it more and more. Each conversation becoming more detailed...when, where, how, what:). It became increasingly more important to me to adopt first, knowing that we would never have the money to do it after having children naturally, and also so our Yoshi would know he/she was picked FIRST. Our conversations didn't become actual action until later...

So it began...

This is an account of the journey that we both started on several years ago toward baby Yoshi. We are keeping this blog to keep you all informed as to how this journey began, what has taken place, and where we are on the journey. It has had it's ups and downs to this point and we are sure that it will have more. We know that in the end, it will be worth it all. Thanks for coming along on this journey with us!