Adoption report

No news here- though this extremely busy time of year has made the time fly lately. I have a feeling that once I get back to work it will become a little harder. The good news is that I have yet to become obsessed with my phone. I figure we still have a bit of time to wait before that all important referral call comes in. My ringtone is currently Toto's song Africa though...just in case! I imagine that the waiting period before the call is a lot easier than waiting after we see that sweet face. I'm daydreaming about that face all the time. I know we said either gender but based on the current waitlist and my very strong gut feeling I think there is a little boy in our future. I'd say that is what I'm looking forward to the most in the new year. What about you? What's your hope for 2010?

December update!

This month has been so busy that it has flown by! I cannot believe that we are welcoming in 2010 in a matter of hours. Here are a few things that kept us busy this month...

We had a Christmas dinner for all of our Make Your Mark families. We've gotten to know the kids well over the last year but we want to know and love on their families too. And since our theme for MYM this year has been serving, we helped the kids to prepare a dinner for their families. They cooked, served, cleaned up and presented their caregivers with a gift of homemade goodies that we baked the night before the dinner.







And a few days later- still working on serving others, Make Your Mark delivered over 700 stockings to kids around Charlotte who would have little to nothing for Christmas. It was amazing spreading joy to kids and their families. I don't have any pictures from that day- but this is a look at a portion of what we handed out.



We went home for a quick Christmas visit. Ross has had a to work a lot lately so we were only there for 2 nights but we had a nice time and received way more goodies than we deserved. We went to the Laniers Christmas night and played such a fun game! We were all given a persona that we had to act out and Ross had to guess who everyone was. It was hilarious. I had to act extrememly hyperactive and then completely lethargic a few minutes later, Dad had to act like he had gas and was having a hard time passing it (really out of character for him!), Debbie was the grinch, Danny only answered questions with a sentence starting with a vowel, etc. It was so much fun...




And the last two days I went back home to catch up with a few of my best friends. I don't have any pictures from the first night but Carly, Jean, Caroline and I met at Papa's and Beer in Asheville for dinner and caught up. The food was amazing- I'd heard all of they hype and it lived up to it's reputation for sure. So great to see those girls too. Yesterday I met up with Melissa, Kylie, Ashley and newly engaged Sarah (!) and we spent a few hours together. We took our obligatory Christmas picture in the Christmas trees on dispaly at Sears. Love these girls and our all too infrequesnt time together.



We're wrapping up 2009 with some friends tonight. This year has been incredible- we're so blessed with great health, jobs, families and friends surrounding us but more than that a Lord that loves us immeasurably. We cannot wait for 2010 and the challenges and celebrations it will bring.

1 week down...

We've been on the waitlist for one week. We're still at the very beginning... I am officially stalking the "unofficial" Gladney FBI list. It's a list of about 75% of the families in our program who are in the process. Gives dates for their milestones (paperchase, waitlist, referral, etc.) and links to other blogs. I love this list! I love feeling connected to strangers who are going through some of the same things we are.

What is tough is that right now we are the 1st people open to a little boy 12-24 months old! (a few families have requested girls in that age group). Why is that tough? Because who gets a referral after only being on the waitlist for a week or two?! Those chances are slim to none. There could definitely be people not on the FBI list who would accept this referral. But my mind can't help but wonder.

Luckily for my sanity, I remember that God has had this child picked out for a very long time...whether that referral comes in 3 weeks or 3 months it won't matter. I'm so grateful that I'm not in charge of this scenario- or my life- because I could so easily screw it up!

WAIT LIST!

As of today, we are officially waiting for our son or daughter! The average time for a referral for a child 12 months or older is 4 months. We are waiting for a child either gender, 12-24 months, or twins 12-24 months. I have a feeling we will only be referred 1 child but we didn't want to be closed off to the option of two in case that's what God has for us. We are just so excited. Hopefully it will be at least a few weeks before I have my phone surgically attached waiting on that call!

We're making a list of guesses for the referral date to keep the wait interesting and show our child one day how anticipated they were. Leave your guess in the comments and we will add it to the list!

My guess is boy, 23 months old, on February 15th.

Let the waiting, and the guessing, begin!

We received our CIS approval Wednesday! It was such an extra blessing to receive it the day before Thanksgiving. I've been saying since we began the paperwork that it would be awesome to have it wrapped up by Thanksgiving- but feeling complete peace with God's timing. Well, it was the day before Thanksgiving and our last piece of paperwork arrived! We took it all to Raleigh to have it authenticated yesterday. It was a marathon of a day- beginning at 5am and finishing everything up last night about 10pm. Right as we were finishing our friend Jessica called to say she was dropping something by. Turned out to be a bag of Starbucks' Ethiopian blend! Such a sweet friend and treat at the end of the long paperchase. Everything was FedExed to our caseworker this morning- we'll be on the waitlist soon!


Sorting it all and triple checking everything!




Our tasty gift