The lazy days of winter...

It's only appropriate that we're going through all the paperwork and the home study process in the dead of winter. I like snow the first few times it shows up. A white Christmas in always something to sing about. But by February I feel like a zombie just getting through the winter days one at a time and trying to stay warm. That's kind of where we are in the adoption process right now - just trying to get through the steps one at a time.

Our CPR / 1st Aid class is this weekend, then we have home study interviews scheduled for the following 3 weeks.

My mom is helping me to create an adorable line of jewelry, which will be fun and give us a project to work on this winter. I hope to have some samples in about 2 weeks and will be sure to post some pictures.

Gosh, as you can see, there's just not much exciting going on right now so I'll leave you with some interesting Martha Stewart-ish tips that my momma-in-law sent me this morning:

• Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store so they don't ripen as fast.
• Store your cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and won't mold.
• Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating raw. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.
• Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.
• Reheat leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove. Set burner to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy.
• To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle them with cayenne pepper. It doesn't hurt the plant, but the squirrels won't come near it.
• Before you pour a sticky substance into a measuring cup, fill it with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry the cup. Then add your ingredient, like peanut butter, and see how easily it comes right out.

This is what my life has come to. Cooking tips from a girl who doesn't even cook!

Can I have some cheese with my whine?

Check out my fancy-schmancy new layout. Isn't it great? Know what's not so great? That when I switched it I lost aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaallll those blogs I had listed over there to the right. You know the ones that I was reading over the past month at work instead of working? So if anyone out there reads this blog (you know, other than my mom) puh-leaaaaase post your blog in the comments so I can find you again.

Sigh.

Rollin' rollin' rollin'....

I just can't get that song out of my head. We're really rollin' with this home study process! If you know me you know that I'm a completely obsessive compulsive organizer. I have a calendar with all our dates and appointments it in, they're programmed into my phone to remind me in advance and I have little lists everywhere too. It makes me feel happy and give me inner peace. Marc calls it "crazy". Or, as he told our social worker last night, he lets me do the worrying so that he doesn't have to. What a guy! I'm not really worried about any of this, it just makes me feel like I'm doing something.

Anyway...our first joint interview with the social worked was last night and it went very smoothly. She surprised us and asked if she could go ahead and do the home safety inspection. Since everyone usually has something that needs to be corrected, she said she might as well go ahead and do the first run now, let us know what corrections need to be made, then do the follow-up next time she comes out.

We hadn't child-proofed our house yet, which is amusing in a "please-don't-call-social-services, wait-you-ARE-social-services" kinda way. But Fletch doesn't try to each dish soap very often, so we haven't really gotten around to putting child locks on the cabinets yet. Besides that, there were a couple minor things like getting a ladder for the basement window, a child gate here and a fire extinguisher there...and we're good to go. Wow - now that was easy!

She is coming back 2/6 and 2/11 to do our final joint interviews and the final inspection, then Marc is doing his individual interview on 2/18. We need to get our doctor's appointments scheduled in the next few weeks, we get our CPR certification on 2/2 then attend Bethany's training class on 3/1 and 3/3. So, as I mentioned, we are rollin', rollin', rollin'.....

Insight...

Slowly but surely we've been telling our family and friends of our plans to adopt. It's different somehow than when we told them we were pregnant a few years ago. Of course most knew we were trying to have a baby, and most knew of the heartache we went through while trying. So when we were finally pregnant with our son, we knew that everyone would be happy to hear the big announcement.

Thus far we haven't heard any negative remarks about our adoption, so I'm not sure why I've been so apprehensive about telling people. I guess I keep expecting to hear, "Why would you want to do that if you can have your own baby?" And while no one has said exactly that, most people ask the more polite version of that question: "What made you want to do that?"

I think to truly understand and to really feel what we are feeling, one would have to read There is No Me Without You by Melissa Fay Green. It's a wonderful book that will make you laugh and cry, feel angry, and want to do something even if that something does not include adopting.

But our desire to adopt didn't begin with that book. I think that Marc and I both always felt led to adopt since before we even knew each other. In the time that we were trying to conceive a child we were sad to think that we might not be able to have a biological child, but also at peace and, in a way, consoled by the fact that we could still have a family via adoption. But when we were eventually blessed with our son, we still knew that adoption would be a part of our lives.

Many people say "Oh that's great of you to save a child." or something to that effect. While I appreciate their comments, I don't feel like I'm doing anything great. I think doing something great would be securing affordable ARV drugs so that the millions of people with AIDS who are dying would instead by able to live normal and happy lives. Great would be providing food and shelter to those who live on the street, starving to death. Great would be building schools that everyone could attend, schools with supplies and books and computers. Helping Ethiopia to recover from disease and poverty so that children could stay in their country, in their own culture, with their own parents and full little bellies - now that would be great.

What we're doing is just a tiny piece of sand in a large desert.

Ramblings...

Lately I find myself pouring over the other Ethiopian adoption blogs, looking at all the pictures and wondering who our kids will be. I'm just so excited to find out. Will we have a little girl in our family? Or a house full of boys? I don't think we have any preference at all. But it would be sweet to have a little girl. Sigh.
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I know they're mostly volunteers and all, but is it that hard to reschedule a CPR class? No one at the Red Cross will call me back. And they've taken my money. Not nice.
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We're going out to an Ethiopian restaurant called Habesha on 2/23 with some other local adoptive families. I'm excited to meet them. But nervous too.

Interview this afternoon

I have my first individual interview with our social worker this afternoon at 3pm. I'm anxious and nervous all at once. I think I have an idea of the topics that will be covered, but I don't know exactly how in-depth (invasive?) the questions will be. Wish me luck!

I'll also be delivering our first big check. $3000 - Yikes.

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Update: The interview went really well. It lasted about 2 hours, which flew by, and our social worker pretty much asked the types of questions that I expected. She was a little less pushy than I thought she'd be. Wait - Not that she's a pushy person, I just expected that she might have to be for this interview. Next interview is scheduled for Tues 1/22 at our house.

Shoulda knocked on wood

We woke up at the crack of 7am on Saturday to make our CPR / 1st Aid class. Unfortunately, the instructor never showed up and they couldn't find anyone else to do it on such short notice, so it was cancelled. I know that if this is the worst hitch we run into in this journey we'll be very lucky. But it's still disappointing. Since we had a baby sitter all day anyway, we grabbed some lunch, saw a movie, then did a little shopping. That turned my frown upside down.

Just a nice day...

I'm at home with my sick little one today (the sick part isn't nice) and we've just had a fun day playing and watching too many movies. He's sound asleep in bed now for his nap, along with a giant Elmo, 2 tractors and some small farm animals. I guess there's just some things you can't part with.

We have our CPR / 1st Aid certification class tomorrow. It'll be a long day but it really is important info to know. How funny ("not funny ha ha" as Ellen would say) that any schlep (myself included) can have a baby with no credentials at all, but to adopt you have to have background checks and blood tests and training and and and... If everyone was required to go through that to be a parent, well the world might be a better (and less populated) place. Ha!

Anyway... there just seems to be so much going on. CPR class, home study interviews starting, and now we're scheduled at the end of Feb for a training class through our agency. I know, I know, I know that this is just the beginning. I know there's so much more paperwork to do, and hoops to jump through and, the worst part, waiting with nothing to do...but for now I'm going to allow myself to be excited about the progress we're making.

Oh, and the reason I even started this post today... I'm making all sorts of new friends in the Ethiopian Adoption community! I just found a fantastic blogroll of families adopting from Ethiopia as well as a great local Google Group. It's such a great feeling to know that there are others out there who are going through the same process and paperwork and frustrations and joys. It sounds like our kiddos will have a great little local Ethiopian community.

It's a good day!

Starting our home study!!!

I am so excited to say that we are starting our home study next week! I have my first one-on-one interview with our social worker scheduled for Tuesday the 15th, then Marc and I have a joint interview the following Tuesday the 22nd. I think there are 5 interviews in all, as well as the home safety inspection.

Before the end of the home study we need to have our doctor appointments done, so we'll need to schedule those sometime in the next month.

As long as we're keeping busy with paperwork and appointments and checking "to-do" items off our list I feel like the process is moving along. I know the hard part will come when our dossier is sent off and we have nothing to focus on except for each passing day.

A high note in an otherwise sickly week.

I want a refund on my flu shot! I've been down and out since....ugh a day or two before New Years maybe? I don't know, the days with my head in the toilet have all run together now.

But...........................I got a note from our social worker today saying that she should be able to get through the rest of our paperwork today and then we can "start the home study soon". Just hearing that we are moving on to the next step is so exciting.

Happy New Year!

I can't wait to see what 2008 brings for us. I'd like to think that our family is going to grow this year! We'll also probably be moving sometime towards the end of the year and, hopefully, Marc will have a new job as well. Lots of exciting changes for certain.

I've been lucky enough (insert eye roll here) to be sick in bed with the flu for the past 2 days, giving me lots of time to read There is no me Without You. This is a must read - for those adopting or not - to get a stunning view of what is happening in Ethiopia. The picture in my head of Ethiopia always was of Sally Struthers in a little remote village with tiny naked boy with big belly. This book tells of the chaos that the whole country is facing because of death and disease and lack of aid. It almost makes me feel...guilty?...for selfishly adopting children who I want to bring home with me and claim as my own. Like I should actually be providing them with a way to stay in their country with their families. Unfortunately most of them have no families due to AIDS and other diseases. I'd be really interested in hearing how others felt after reading this book (I'm only about 1/2 way through right now.).