Christmas Came Early

Our Christmas wish for 2008 came early. Since we started the adoption process we've been telling everyone that we would really LOVE to have a baby in our arms for Christmas 2009. We figured in order for that to happen we would need to have all our paperwork in order by January 1, 2009. Well, thanks to the hard work of my wife, great support from friends and family, an amazing agency and some help from the Assistant Stork, and lots of answered prayer we got a great Email this morning. Our Dossier has been delivered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Here's the path it took: Springfield, Missouri >>> Alexandria, Virginia >>> Wilmington, Ohio >>> New York City Gateway, New York >>> Leipzig, Germany >>> Frankfurt, Germany >>> Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
12.23.08 - 2:36pm - package delivered

Merry Christmas to US!
Hope all of your Christmas wishes come true like ours did.
rog

Christmas Giving

As Christmas quickly approaches, I find myself reflecting on how much I have to be thankful for, more this year than probably any other year. Even though we are all aware of the economic situation in our country today, we are still so incredibly blessed with basic necessities that are sometimes easily taken for granted: a roof over our heads and electricity to keep us warm, more than enough food and clean water to keep us fed, advanced medical care to keep us healthy, jobs to keep us prosperous, and loving friends and family that surround us. I found an unread email in my "extra" email account from World Vision and it kind of hit close to home. I invite you to take the time to read it and learn about it and consider making a donation. Along with providing food and nutrition to feed a family, the gift of an animal(s) gives children the opportunity to make money to pay for their schooling and basic necessities along with providing hope for a better future. I really believe this is a gift that keeps giving. You can learn more about this humanitarian aid program by clicking on the title of this blog entry, "Christmas Giving." Roger and I wish everyone a blessed Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

Expecting from Africa

This is the necklace I got for Abby. It's beautiful and really sparkles when she wears it. We got it in the mail yesterday. If you want to find out more about it, or look for other great jewelry, please check out this site -- JUNKPOSSE.

On another note Abby and I got an awesome email last night. The "Assistant Stork" emailed us that our dossier is complete and has been shipped to Ethiopia. Yes, we've been online 4 times today tracking the package. (It left NYC @ 1:11pm) We're hoping it will be there on Christmas Eve. We'll keep you posted.

A funny thing happened last night. As we were reading the email from the "Assistant Stork" the song HOME by Daughty came on. Of course, that led to one of Abby's famous "Demi Moore in GHOST" tears....you know, where she's smiling and a single tear runs perfectly down her cheek. Yes, life is good.
rog

"Such Small Things"

"For a long time there were only

your footprints & laughter in our dreams

& even from such small things, we knew

we could not wait to love you forever."

This is a precious gift my friend Kelly from Iowa gave to me and Roger back at the beginning of November. It still brings me to tears sometimes when I read it; it's so accurate in capturing what it feels like to wait for your baby. The artist's name is Brian Andreas and his collection is called StoryPeople, if you'd like to see other pieces.

Ethiopian Poster Child

This is our friend Caden. He is 2 and from Ethiopia and is going to get a little brother sometime very soon who is also from Ethiopia! Roger and I joke he could be the poster child for Ethiopian adoptions; he is so ridiculously cute! In the photo he is showing Roger his "tootie," aka cookie.

Baby Room

Me. Baby furniture fully assembled. That's about it, besides the closet behind me becoming increasingly full of baby clothes and toys. I spend quite a bit of time doing exactly this. Standing in the middle of the room absorbing the reality of it all. It feels good.

7,990

7,990. That is how many miles there are between Springfield, MO, and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This is the T-shirt Roger and I designed for ourselves, friends, family, and anyone who is or has adopted a child from Ethiopia. If you are interested in purchasing this shirt, you can for a mere $15.oo. They are unisex and come in heathered green (as shown above), heather gray and heathered red. (Roger is wearing a Large shirt in the photo above -- they run SMALL!)Whatever profit we make will be donated to the orphanage from where we will receive our child.

Officially Waiting

Yesterday we FedEx'd our dossier to Ethiopia. Well, actually to a courier, Assistant Stork, in Virginia and then she will ensure it gets sent on to Ethiopia. It feels awesome to be done with the paperwork, yet unnerving because everything is now out of our control. It felt strange to put that stack of paper in a box and let it disappear after all the hours we put into getting it ready. I guess it kind of feels like an extension of our baby. We just hope it gets to to where it needs to go all in one piece. So we are now officially waiting. There is nothing else for us to do -- except buy more baby stuff!

Roger in "Dad" mode

Okay, so we're a little delayed in getting these pictures posted. We actually put together all of our baby furniture two days before Thanksgiving (the day of and the day after it was delivered). It's a little premature, we know, but we're just so dang excited, as you can probably tell. It was the funnest, bestest Thanksgiving so far. We decided next year will hopefully be the best ever because if we're very, very lucky we will have a baby by then. We had a great time working on this project, though. The fact that Roger is good at following directions (mine and the furniture diagrams) is probably why it was such an enjoyable experience.

The picture below is Roger putting together our Quinny Buzz stroller that we ordered off of eBay. We were a little concerned when we received the box. It looked like IT had traveled to Ethiopia and back. But the stroller was unharmed and in brand new condition, so all was well. It's super fun; bright orange and red. Our baby is going to look so cute in it.

KC Masterpiece

This past Friday we made our journey to Kansas City for fingerprinting. It doesn't sound like much, and in fact the whole process took less than 15 minutes, but this is a big step that we've been looking forward to for a long time. When you start the adoption process (at least in the Southwest Missouri area) everyone talks about going to KC to get fingerprinted. It seemed like a long way off, but now it's done and behind us. We are collecting our final letters and triple-checking to be sure they are notarized correctly (sorry Lea Ann!). Our hope is to have everything done and sealed by the end of this week. Then we'll officially be "waiting".

Abby has promised to write more after we enter the "waiting" phase.

rog