Another Week Goes By . . .

Well, tomorrow is already Friday. I spoke to Kurt today and he still has not heard anything concrete about the courts in Ethiopia reopening. Here's hoping that next week we get court date information.

I want to say congratulations to the Kikstras and the Bryants on there recent acceptance on their referrals this week.

Besides that there is a lot going on right now. This weekend I will be in Wisconsin for my adoption shower. I am pretty positive that I will be coming back to Michigan with a van full of stuff for the boys. Next week, I have to do some major cleaning as I will be having the carpets washed on October 13 and I want everything to ready for the boys come home, which I am hoping is before Thanksgiving (a girl can hope, right?). Then I have a wedding to attend and another adoption shower at the beginning of November.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Worth the Wait!!!!

Today, I have received some pictures of Kaleab and Yitbarek from Beth's trip. They were definitely worth the wait. The pictures showed a little bit of each of their personalities. However, it would have been nice if Kaleab didn't have pink pants on and Yitbarek wasn't in a butterfly & flower sleeper. I would like to share them with all of you however, I think it is best to wait until the court process is over and they are "legally" ours. If you have children at the Enetalem Orphanage and Beth has not e-mailed you the pictures, let me know and I will forward them on.

Stay tuned as I will have several more posts in the upcoming days.

Patiences - some have it and some don't

If you ask anyone that knows me they would say that I fit into the second catergory. I have been trying to be patient since Mark and I got married four years ago. We knew right away that we wanted to have kids right away, obviously that is not what God had in store for us. That is when I figured out that I did not have the patiences I once thought I did. Once we decided to start the adoption process, I began to pray to God to help me become more patient. It took 4 months 5 days to receive our referral and 3 weeks to receive additional medical information on Yitbarek. Now we are waiting on a court date - how can the courts in Ethiopia not know when they are going to reopen? So now we wait once again God is giving me plenty of oppuntunties to develop my patiences, As I am also waiting for Beth to e-mail me pictures of our two little boys from her recent trip to Ethiopia.

I am grateful that Beth and her family were able to spend time with both my boys. Kaleab was extermly shy and timid would not go near them. My poor little boy, the loss that he currently feels is only the beginning. I can not imagine what is going through is little mind. From his referral pictures I could tell he was shy, scared and sad - I wish I could just hold him in my arms. Also from talking to Beth she said that Yitbarek is a typical little boy, happy, content and interactive. Now if I could just see some more pictures of them.

HELP!

This is for all of you who blog. Ok, now that I have the basics on this blog, how do I get a clock or all the other elements typically found on a blog? That is my goal for the weekend to add to the blog.

Thanks in advance for all the input.

Congratulations to all

My last entry for the night. It seems that Adoption Associates has given out numerous referrals already this week. CONGRATULATIONS to the following people:

Marissa and Marvin on their referral for 7 year old girl and 6-1/2 month old boy!!!
The DeYoung's on their referral for an infant girl
And to the Danielle & her husband on their referral for a 2 year old and an infant girl!!

Who knows we may all be travelling at the same time.

Vaccinations - Travel Doctor

It seems like the big question for a lot of people going through this process is what vaccines should we get? So I thought I would post about our visit to the travel doctor, hopefully we will be able to save some of you money.

Yesterday, Mark and I went to the Travel Doctor located in Grandville. It was a very educational, however I personally would recommend saving your money and going to the health department - I can share the information that we received with you if you would like.

The vaccinations the travel doctor recommends besides, Tetanus, Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B are Polio, Meningococcal and Typhoid. Out of those three he said if you could only afford to get one to get Polio. If you plan on spending a lot of time at the orphanages then he would recommend Meningococcal, and only if you were planning on eating at a lot of traditional Ethiopian restaurants or homes to get the Typhoid. Well, Mark sort of surprised me he said that he plans to go to several different orphanages while we were in country to play with the kids and bring treats so he felt it was best that we get all the shots to be on the safe side. However, we past on the Yellow Fever shot.

Here is the break down: Consulation Fees $90 per person (for 2 people, $50 for each additional person after that), Hepatitis A - $95.17 (at the County Health Department $36.00), Hepatitis B - $97.54 (Health Department $35.00), Tetanus- $43.00 (health department tetanus-diphtheria,measles $51.00), Polio - $51.01 (Health department $32.00), Typhoid - $73.89 (health department $55 for the shot or $45 for the pill - note shot is more effective), Meingococcal $130.61 (health department $92.00). Not getting sick with two little ones to take care of PRICELESS.

Anyhow after one visit to the health department and yesterday's visit with the Travel Doctor I am ready to board a plane to pick up our little ones.

Better Late then Never

Finally, I have decided to start a blog. Mark and I are nearing the end of our adoption journey - we have accepted our referral for two little boys - Kaleab and Isaac. Kaleab is approximately two years old and Isaac is now about 4 months old. Llast weekend we have been asked numerous times when do you get to go get them - my answer to everyone is I wish I knew. At this point I would say waiting for the referral was much harder then waiting for a court date but give me a couple of weeks and that will more than likely change. But for now I know I have two sons waiting for us to bring them home.

Let me take you back a little ways. Ever since Mark and I began dating we talked about how we would have two children and then adopt a 3 to 4 year old boy, but God had other plans for us. After two miscarriages in 7 months, numerous tests to determine why the miscarriages to a little over a year of infertility treatments we decided that we would adopt first. The question for us was where from - I was leaning toward Haiti and Mark was leaning toward China after much research and prayer we decided to adopt not one but two children from Ethiopia.