What's Yours?

I want to compile a list of several "Favorite" moments surrounding your adoption journey. If you don't mind send me an email or add a post listing some of your favorite moments from your adoption! It could be a "first" event, or the time you received your referral, or when you stepped into the orphanage...whatever it is...I'd like to know...and in the future I'll compile a list!

Some of mine: eating Ethiopian food, this blog, the community of adoptive parents in the blogosphere, being told of our newest nephew saying his first prayer in English, the Maru Grocery, having our dossier completed, sent, and waitlisted....just to name a few.

How about you?

Its been 4 weeks...

We have now officially been on the waitlist 1 month! Hopefully things will proceed well and we'll only have 2 (or so) more months to go before we get our referral!

Roses

My husband and I were shopping the other day and one of the guys from the store kept ending up in every aisle I was in. I thought it was a little weird but it wasn't a very big store so I just ignored it. We got what we needed and headed up to the cash register and the first thing the guy (that has been everywhere in the store that I have been) says is"It's you". Well I had NO CLUE what he was meaning and I am trying to think of the million things he could be referring to but nothing stuck out. Then he says "I could smell you through out the store". I am starting to get a little offended and am really confused b/c I had just taken a shower before we went to the store. I am sure I have a funny look b/c then he says "No! You smell like a bed of roses. I have been walking down every aisle, b/c it smells so good, trying to figure out where it came from. What kind of perfume is that?". (As my husband told me) I turned about 3 shades of red and the funny thing is that I wasn't wearing any perfume, just lotion. But I think that is one of the nicest/craziest compliments I have ever got from a cashier! Oh, and I have been wearing that lotion a lot more- what can I say "I smell like a bed of roses"!

Oh and I thought of something the other night when it was 8:30PM and it still felt like it was 100 degrees, our quarter of an acre lawn was a foot and a half tall, and I was seriously wishing for a self propelled lawn mower... the wind started to blow a little bit and it was SO nice b/c I was ready to stop at the back yard and forget the front. But that breeze helped me get the job done. I just thought to myself that's God. He is the breeze in our lives- He gives us that extra oomph when we want to give up. He is all we need to get through the tough times.

TAG!

Wow! I was looking through some old e-mails and realized I had been tagged a month or so back and didn’t even know it. I know it’s late and probably lame but am going to post because its exciting for me to be tagged! So here you go Nasim. Sorry about the delay! But what’s a month, right? Plus, I have no news on as far as the adoption front goes!

5 things I’m passionate about:
1. God & Jesus
2. My best friend and husband David
3. Adoption
4. The great outdoors
5. Family & Friends


5 things I want to do before I die:
1. ADOPT- at least a couple of times –hopefully an older child but just getting this first one finalized and in our arms would be GREAT!
2. Go to Utah (Arches National Park)- it looks SO pretty
3. Go to Bora Bora and sleep out in a bungalow house- So it’s a WANT!
4. Do some kind of work with orphans- help people find out more about God/Jesus.
5. Go on several good hiking trips and spend lots of time outdoors!


5 things I say often:
1. Right/True (there interchangeable)
2. For peat sake!
3. What’s his/her bucket (not good w/names)
4. Yeah… (and then interject)
5. That’s great… (after something funny is said)

5 Random things:
1. I love organizing. I will organize an area until I am happy with it and then a few days or weeks later I will get tired of what I did and organize it again to try to make it look and work even better.
2. I can’t smell skunks. I have tried several times and have asked several people to let me know when they smell them so that I can try to smell them but I can’t smell them. We had lots of skunks on campus when I was in college and I was afraid one would spray me and I wouldn’t know!
3. I don’t own a cell phone. I HAVE owned one while in college but when I owned it I was always frustrated by how many times I was stuck with fees for dumb things (ie: an incoming text message from a friend that I never opened but got charged for ). The company also ended up signing me up for a two year contract instead of a one year and “couldn’t do anything about it”. So I decided after I was done with that contract I would never own a cell phone again. So far I have stuck with it!
4. I hate to complain or argue with people. I will every once in a while when I get too fed up with things- but to me it’s just not worth it. I would rather just go on with life and write it off as a bad experience. I hate wasting energy with things like that. I might mention a few things and see what happens- if it turns into too much of a commotion I will just drop it and give up! Plus a lot of times the person you want to get mad at isn’t even the one who has anything to do with it (ie: problems in a store- you want to get mad at the cashier b/c that’s the person who is right there but it should be a manager, owner, etc.)! I admire people who have the ability to “get what they want when they want it” for lack of a better term!
5. I hate rubbing sounds (the eraser on a chalk board, someone sanding something, someone rubbing their foot on carpet, etc.). I have no problem with nails scratching a chalkboard (not that it’s a favorite noise of mine or anything) but I get the creeps and HATE the noise when people erase chalkboards!

Hold Pattern

You may have noticed that we're on a hold pattern for the time being. It has been 3 weeks since we were put on the wait list to receive a referral. Good, bad, or indifferent, we're trying to learn to deal with the many nuances of Adoption. Let's just say we're growing in ways we didn't anticipate, appreciating God's timing even more than ever, learning patience, and enjoying our time together in preparation for our new addition. More to come...

Monster in moonlight

I was walking down the hall tonight and I thought I saw something big move. I could have sworn I saw something the size of a small mouse move but wrote it off that I was just seeing things. Well I get to the end of the hall and feel like I should turn around and there in the middle of the hall is this huge spider (which I have named spiderzilla) making its way down the hall. Wow MONSTER spider. I go to step on it and its 1 1/2 inch legs (yep I measured) spring it into the air. I swear it knew I can't stand spiders b/c on its 2nd spring it sprang toward me. So I am standing there screaming as all 5 pets come rushing to my aid only to want to play with it or lick it. Yeah there is an idea love it to death (a lot of good they are). I know I have mentioned it before but I HATE spiders so to all of you out there who keep them alive- way to go. I CAN'T they creap me out too much. I once let a garden spider stay on the porch for a summer until it built this giant egg sac in the window. That's the best I have ever done. My husband had to do a bit of relocation! Anyway I can feel my heart beating like crazy and I go to step on it again hoping that it stays in one place long enough for my foot to kill it and it starts scaling the wall. I am freaking out & really worried now b/c I don't think this thing is going to die. If I leave to get spray it might sneak under a door and I might never find it until it has babies... So to make an end to my over dramatic story I stepped once more missed and stepped fast several times finally getting it on one of the last fast steps.

FYI I measured a leg after it died the rest were curled up with the body.

Another bump in the road

Ethiopia is in a serious state of emergency. They are going through a severe drought.

On another note, scroll down for 3 sets of pictures (the last set is of our new messob)!

Fun day...

We now have a baby swingset we picked up this weekend! We are really excited about it. It was REALLY cheap and it has a slide and a swing! On our way to picking up the swing set we went and ate at our favorite Ethiopian resturant and shopped at the Maru. We ended up finding a Messob!