Family Pictures

This past weekend we traveled home to Liberty to have a friend of my sister's take some pictures of the 3 of us. I figure we should have at least SOME professional pictures of the 3 of us before we become a family of 4. Wow, 4....just saying that makes me nervous and excited all at once!

We had our pictures taken on Miami University's campus. It was a gorgeous day and we got some great pictures. However, I definitely felt like I had run a marathon by the time they were over. Grayson just didn't want to sit still...perfectly understandable for a 2 year old. Plus, he really doesn't like strangers getting really close to him and especially when they have hair clippers or cameras. But, Grayson eventually warmed up to Aryn and we played a little game where she chased him onto our laps and then would snap a picture! So, Grayson would come charging at me, I'd scoop him up, flip around, and smile! I felt extremely disheveled, but somehow we managed to get some good pictures! I think it's safe to say that it will likely be this time next year before we have pictures taken again!

Week 5 down!

We've completed week #5 of waiting! Number 5 on the Island of Sodor is James, the only bright red engine on the island! Time is still flying by for the most part. I really think that has a lot to with the fact that we're not in the 3-5 month window yet. I remember at this point in the wait for Grayson's referral I was a total mess! Up until that point, families had been receiving referrals for little boys in 2-4 weeks! When we reached week #5, I didn't think I would live to get his referral! We ended up waiting 7 weeks. Oh, what I would do to wait only 7 weeks. But, then again, I'm not ready for another little boy just yet. Grayson is getting closer and closer to being 2 everyday and it shows! I don't think I could handle another little boy on top of our multiple daily melt-downs! Hopefully we will have established a good time-out routine or maybe the tantrums will have lessened by the time we bring Abram home. But, however trying the 2's may be, they are also a whole lot of fun! Grayson is getting to the point that he is just so much fun to play with. Yesterday, he put Mickey at his little table and chairs and he sat down across from him and I got out the play food for him to play with. He had a blast getting it out and giving some to all of us and getting up to feed Mickey. He's just such a nice and caring little boy. Here are some pictures of him and Mickey.

4 weeks waiting!

That's right...we've been on the waiting list for 4 weeks now! The No. 4 engine on the Island of Sodor is Gordon, the strongest engine (and therefore a little arrogant) on the whole island! For the most part, time is flying by! We're staying busy playing, going to bible study, and going to campus to walk and play on the playground in the evenings. The wait is definitely the hardest on me. I asked Aaron the other day if he even knew how long we had been on the waiting list and he said, "no," just as I suspected. I think to him, and many men in his situation, it's just not real until the referral. He just kind of dives into work and home life and when we get a referral, great, but until then, no sweat. I think he's also still a little concerned about Grayson getting enough attention with another baby around. So, while I know he's excited, I think he's just trying to savor every minute of being a family of 3 while he can. Oh, if only I could be as calm as he is! I think it's just that I remember so well the feeling of getting Grayson's referral. Who wouldn't be extremely anxious to do that all over again? I'm also very curious to know how old our little guy is. He could be 3 months, or he could be 11 months. It's such a big age range when you're talking about infants. Will he already be crawling, or walking? Will he have teeth and a head full of hair? Will it be straight or curly? I try picturing him in my mind, based on pictures I've seen of other families who have received referrals, and I come up with a modge-podge of faces and eyes and hair. But, with all the uncertainties, there is one thing I know for sure. We will receive our referral in God's perfect timing, not a minute too soon or too late. And, when that day comes, that little boy will have been brought into this world to be our son. Or rather, we will have been brought into the world to be his mom and dad, just as we were brought here to be Grayson's parents. Oh, I can't wait to see my little Abram's face!

It's Monday and I'm Very Motivated!

Not sure what has gotten into me (maybe it was the lack of sleep last night) but I'm feeling really motivated today! Not like my typical, run around and clean the house motivated. This time it's more, I'm young and I need to being doing more to be a better person, motivated. I had seen a little blurb in our church bulletin yesterday about at Walk for Life being held here in Lafayette in a few weeks. It's a little late to get registered and get sponsors and do all that stuff. But, I did get online and look a little more in depth at the organization. It's a non-profit organization whose main goal is to offer pregnant women an alternative to abortion. I've always been pro-life, but feel even more so now that I have Grayson and another one on the way. What if my precious boys' birth mothers lived in societies accepting of abortion? Would they be here today? Their birth mothers chose to give them life despite all they had working against them - it's the kind of courage we need to inspire in expecting mothers in the U.S. So, I called about some volunteer opportunities. Sounds like they really need people willing to do pregnancy tests and counsel the women about the results. I would have to go through some training, but can do it at my own pace. I think this would not only be an excellent opportunity to help in the community, but also a way for me to feel like I'm having an impact on the world outside the home. It would also be a great resume builder and networking opportunity for when the time comes to head back to work. So, I should be receiving some additional information in the mail soon.

I also decided today to sign up for Weight Watchers Online again. I did the program for about 4 months after Aaron and I got engaged and lost quite a bit of weight. I decided it was time to give it another try. With the stress of Grayson's adoption, I gained about 10 pounds. I really don't want to do that this time so I figure I've got to make a preemptive strike! Plus, it really wouldn't hurt to shed a few pounds and be in better shape before the next one comes home! I stay busy enough as it is...I can't imagine how physically demanding 2 boys will be! So, here goes nothing!

I'll leave you with a few pictures of Grayson from today!

3 weeks waiting....

That's right...we've been on the waiting list for 3 weeks today! We're moving right along. And, once again, we've enlisted the help of one of Sodor's favorite engines, Henry, to illustrate the number 3. I'm telling you, this Thomas stuff is addicting. I sometimes think I'm more into it than Grayson is.

Yesterday we went to Aldi's to pick up some groceries. When we got home, Grayson had a great time playing with the boxes we used to carry in our groceries. So, while he took his nap, I transformed one of the boxes into Thomas using some construction paper and markers. He has had a great time playing with his new Thomas box! Who needs to pay $275 for a battery-powered Thomas when you can use $1 worth of paper and make one!?! He has been doing everything in his box. He sits in it to watch TV, have a snack, or to play with other toys. And, he's been pushing it all over the house so he gets much more exercise than if he was riding around on a battery-powered one! It's definitely the best hour I've spent in a long time. Here are some pictures of Grayson and my Thomas box creation. We have another box just like it, but I think I'll hold off making another engine!

Dossier is in Ethiopia!

Aaron got online last Friday to pay some bills and noticed a FedEx charge of $30 and one for $140! I suspected the $30 charge was the cost of Gladney sending our dossier to the State Department in Washington, D.C. and then on to the courier who would deliver it to the Ethiopian Embassy. But, I was a little baffled by the $140 charge. So, Aaron logged onto our FedEx account and sure enough, there was the charge. He called FedEx and they informed him that it was our dossier on its way to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia! All 1.4 pounds of it cost $140 to ship! Holy cow! I guess I won't be shipping any little care packages over to our baby boy! But, the cool thing is that it only took like 5 days to get there! Sometimes it takes 5 days for Mom to send me a package from Liberty to Lafayette! The dossier went from D.C. to New Jersey to Paris to Dubai to Addis Ababa. How neat! So, this means our dossier arrived in Ethiopia on September 8th and is now being translated to Amharic (the language spoken by many Ethiopians). This will take several weeks as our dossier was upwards of 30 documents! It's comforting to know that while we wait, we're still making progress!

Big Boy Bed!

So, for a couple months now, Aaron and I have been debating on when to switch Grayson from his crib to a big boy bed. And then there is the question, do we go to a toddler bed or right to a twin? It becomes this big, life-altering decision of, well if we do this then we have to buy this, this, and this. But, if we do that, then we'll only be using this for a few months and so on and so forth. SO, after much debating on my part (I don't think Aaron cared one way or the other), we settled on going straight for the twin bed. This decision was made due to the fact that we were just given a twin bed (for free) by our neighbors this past week (thanks Herm and Carol). So, that meant no buying of toddler beds and freeing up both the crib and crib mattress for baby boy #2.

So, with that big decision behind us, I went to Target and bought some Thomas sheets. I thought for his birthday we could get his big boy bed all set up. Then, I found someone selling a bed rail for $8 on Craigslist. Well, with that taken care of, I couldn't possibly wait an entire month for his birthday to roll around. So, on Friday, Aaron took the crib down and carried up the twin bed. We then all went upstairs and started putting the bed together. When I started putting the Thomas sheets on, Grayson could hardly contain himself! He was soooo excited about his new Thomas bed that he got up on the bed, covered up, and laid down in the middle of the day! I didn't think we would ever get him out of bed.


That night he did really well going to bed. He laid right down and fell off to sleep within a few minutes. Nap time and last night didn't go as well. His first nap time he got out of bed two times. One time he must have gone right up to the monitor and yelled because it was EXTREMELY loud! He then stood on his bed and started taking things off of a shelf hanging above the bed (we take the things off the shelf now). But, he eventually fell off to sleep. Last night it took him about an hour to fall asleep. But, I think it will continue to get better and better as we go. A lot depends on how tired he is when he goes to bed. It wasn't unusual for him to take a long time to fall asleep in his crib - we just didn't have the worry of him getting out of bed!


So, once again he is growing up too fast, but it is so exciting! Here are a few pictures of him in his new bed!

BSF and the YMCA

Today was the first day of Bible Study Fellowship! Until Grayson turns 2, he will be going to the YMCA while I go to bible study. Aaron and I were both a little nervous about Grayson being at the YMCA for almost 3 hours. I have to admit I actually had knots in my stomach on the drive there. But, he did extremely well. I took him in to the little toy room and told him I was leaving and would be back soon. He watched me all the way out the door but didn't cry! When I came to pick him up he was playing and was very excited to show me what he had been playing with. I thought I might never get him out of there! He was in a very good mood and "danced" all the way out to the car.

Since today was my first day of BSF, I was with a group of other newcomers and filled out registration cards and listened to the introduction of what BSF was all about. That part was a little boring since I knew a lot about it from Mom having gone for several years. I was ready to just dive in! But, it sounds like there will be room in the class for both me and Grayson and I should be getting a call from my small group discussion leader in the next couple of days. I'll have to say I was a little surprised that the average age of the women attending was much higher than I thought! It just really made me realize once again that stay-at-home Mom is becoming a thing of the past. I was, however, very pleasantly surprised to see my neighbor Laura! She and her family are one of the families in Lafayette adopting from Ethiopia! So, it was very nice to have a familiar face in the crowd.

Since I was busy filling out registration stuff and haven't yet been assigned to a group, I didn't participate in any of the small group discussions. However, I did get to stay for the lecture at the end where all the small groups come together. I couldn't believe my ears when the first verse we looked at was Genesis 12:1-3! This is the verse where God asks Abram to leave his country, his people, and his fathers' household! Wow, could it be any clearer that our next son should and will be named Abram? So, I think we're sold on Abram Beckett (insert African birth name) Jarvis!

So, I had a few minutes this morning before we left and snapped a couple pictures of Grayson. I know, it's not like it was his first day of school or anything, but a monumental moment nonetheless! Enjoy!

2 weeks...but who's counting?

Today marks 2 weeks on the waiting list! But, like I said, who's counting? To illustrate 2 weeks on the list is Edward, the kind, little engine.

As I mentioned yesterday, I have been working on a photo collage for the play room. I finished it up last night and will post a picture. I had one picture frame with 4 wallet-sized openings. I wasn't sure what pictures I would find of Grayson in black and white to fill that space, so I decided to spell the word, baby. We know Grayson is technically a full-fledged toddler, but we still refer to him as our baby and he in turn calls himself baby. We realize we will have to teach him to say Grayson when asked his name instead of Baby before his first day of school! But, until then, I'm Mama, Aaron is Dada, and he is Beebee!

Tomorrow is my first day of bible study and Grayson is heading to the YMCA. I hope he does okay with me being gone that long. The better question is probably will I do okay? Hehe.

Here's a picture of the finished photo collage.

Staying Busy

My philosophy on waiting for a referral is that the busier I stay, the faster the time seems to pass. And, I think it may be working so far, tomorrow already marks 2 weeks on the waiting list!

Today's project to keep me busy was in the playroom. I painted it a few weeks back and am now working on getting things on the wall. I've started a collage of photos on one wall, but am still waiting for a couple more pictures until it is complete. My other project was buying some cheap clocks at Wal-Mart ($3.77 to be exact) and making labels that say Guatemala and Ethiopia. I thought it was a cute way to incorporate these countries in the kids' daily lives. They'll always know what time it is where they were born!

The second picture makes the walls look a little brighter than they actually are! I'll post pictures of my photo collage once it's complete.

In other news, I'm really excited about a play date I'm hosting at our house next week! Me and 3 or 4 other ladies adopting from Ethiopia are getting together to spend some time together and to let our kids play together. I'm just so excited that there are other wonderful families in our area that are as excited as we are about adopting and realize the importance of networking with other adoptive families. I know that we will face some challenges as a transracial and transcultural family and I know that these relationships we are building will help us through those times.

Double Stroller

So, I think I made my first purchase for our growing family! I had been keeping my eye on a double stroller at Big Lots for a couple of months. When I went today, they only had the display left! Oh no! So, I looked at it really close, asked the sales associate about, and found out they would take 10% off the price since it was the display! So, it was only going to be $90! Quite a steal for a Sit n' Stand double stroller. For those of you not up on your stroller lingo, the sit n' stand is a model that allows your little one to sit up front and your bigger one to either stand on a platform on the back or sit in a little "jump seat." I thought it was a good model considering Grayson won't need a full-fledged stroller seat much longer.

The only think keeping me from buying the stroller right then was the fact that it didn't have a manual. Double strollers are anything but simple and I didn't want to spend $90 if I couldn't even figure out how it worked! So I called Aaron, got his advice/approval and then headed home to see if I could find a manual online. Sure enough, I found one! So, I went back a couple hours later and bought it! It's official...we're ready for baby #2!

Here are a few pics of Grayson's new ride!

Story time and Baby names

Nothing too exciting to post. Grayson and I went to story time at the library downtown today. It was his first day in the toddler story time versus the baby story time. He did fairly well. He doesn't quite grasp the concept of sitting on the carpet squares. He preferred to stand. And jump. After each book he would clap and then say, "DONE?" I had to keep explaining that we weren't done yet. I think he was hoping for more of a run around the room and jump and scream free-for-all. But, he was very patient and listened to 3 stories and participated in the little songs and games. At the end of story time they have a craft. Today's theme was "Things that Move." So, we read books on cars and trucks and then made a little book with cut outs of different vehicles. He did pretty darn well for his craft time. He liked the glue stick. His cousin, Coleson, King of Arts and Crafts, would be very proud. I of course dated his little craft and intend to save it for the rest of my life.

I've been giving more thought to baby names. This is what happens once you're placed on the waiting list...you begin obsessing about all the details! Aaron and I both really like Beckett. But, my new favorite is Abram. I don't know if I would use it as a first name or middle name, but would like to incorporate it somehow. I was drawn to it in church the other Sunday. We were reading scripture from Genesis. In Genesis 12:1, God asks Abram to leave his country, his people, and his father's household and go the land God will show him. Abram up and leaves without questioning God. I think this is the kind of faith we are asking of the children we adopt. Without question, our son will leave his country, his people, and his father's household and come to live with us. So, I feel Abram would be very fitting. We'll see. Only time will tell!

One week down, several to go!

We've been on the waiting list one week today! And, in honor of Grayson's hero, Thomas the Tank Engine, we have used Thomas to illustrate the number one. So, we have one week down and, honestly, I haven't been thinking about our referral too much. More than anything, I think I'm just glad to be done with the paperwork for awhile.

We had a very nice holiday weekend. We started off by heading home to Liberty to see Aaron's family. On Saturday, we had a surprise party for Aaron's grandma's 70th birthday. It was really nice to see everyone. Grayson played very well with all his second cousins. He was so tired by the end of the day, but he was a trooper! On Sunday morning we headed down to Tennessee to Mom and Dad's boat. It was VERY HOT! We had a good time grilling out and relaxing on the new raft Mom bought to tie to the back of the boat. It has a little mesh area that Grayson could sit down in and play. He wasn't too sure about the cool water at first, but quickly got used to it and had a great time playing. We got back to Lafayette around 8 p.m. last night. Even though we were sad the weekend was over, it was nice to be back home. And, it's nice that it is already Wednesday!

I'm getting excited about starting my bible study class next week. Since Grayson is a month shy of two, we will have to take him to the YMCA while I am in bible study. Once he turns two, I can take him with me and he will go to a bible study at the same time I have mine. I think it will be great for him to have a couple hours a week of structured fun. I know he's only two, but I don't think you can begin teaching good listening and following direction skills too early. And, it is so nice that he will be learning the same bible stories I'm learning.

Well, I believe that is about all that has happened in week one of waiting. Here are some pictures from the weekend!

Long time, no blog

Wow, I can't believe how long it's been since I last posted! So, last time we had just received our approval from Immigration. I then took our entire dossier down to Indianapolis to have the documents authenticated by the Secretary of State. The next day I headed to post office to send our dossier to Texas. Talk about having trouble parting with all those documents! I had worked on those for the last 3 months and was terrified something may happen to them in the mail.

Gladney received our dossier the very next morning. However, we were still waiting on some documents from the Secretary of State's office in Texas. All documents have to be authenticated by the Secretary of State in the state the document originated. So, the adoption agency has some documents (they are in TX) that had to be authenticated as well. I was getting very anxious, but at the same time I knew this would give our coordinator plenty of time to look over our documents. She got back with me within a couple of days and let me know the dossier looked PERFECT! Wow! I was half expecting to have to redo at least one document.

I tracked our documents coming from the Sec. of State in TX and found out they arrived on Monday. So, I called our coordinator last night and she said the whole dossier would be sent out to Washington, D.C. today! This means we are on the waiting list as of TODAY! So, start counting...we will see our little boys face 3-5 months from TODAY! Honestly, it is really surreal and I don't think it's sunk in. It probably won't until we actually receive our referral.

So, now I just have to keep myself busy for the next several months. Which, won't be that hard to do. We have Grayson's 2nd birthday in a month and a half. Grayson and I start Bible Study Fellowship next month, then we get into the holiday season and that always flies by. It would be wonderful to receive a referral by Christmas, but I don't want to start getting my heart set on a particular day.

I am also going to keep myself busy by focusing on saving and raising money over the next few months to take to Ethiopia as a donation to the orphanages we will be visiting. So, I should definitely stay busy!

I haven't posted pictures of Grayson in awhile, so here are a few.

UPDATE!

Thursday evening when Aaron checked the mail, he found we had received our approval from Immigration! YEAH! The Indy office has been SUPER fast...we received approval only a little over a week after they had all our paperwork!

So, we are well on our way to submitting our dossier. We have all our documents done and are just tying up all the loose ends on our mound of papers. Monday I will run the whole stack of papers to Indianapolis to be authenticated by the Secretary of State. We are lucky in that Indiana does this free of charge! Some states charge from $5-$20 a document! Considering we have twenty-some documents, we're talking a lot of money.

After we have all the documents authenticated, we will scan them and burn them to a CD for our agency. This way they have a copy and if something were to happen to a document, they could help us out. We will then send the documents to our agency who will forward them on to the Department of State and the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington, D.C. The Ethiopian Embassy is not free of charge...we will be sending them a check for $189.60! Boo!

Once Gladney (our agency ) has all our documents, we will be put on the waiting list. We should have our dossier to them by Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. However, we won't be put on the waiting list right away because we are waiting on a couple of documents that Gladney has to send to the Secretary of State's office in Texas. So, it may still be 2 weeks before we are actually on the waiting list. Either way, it will be soon! And, that means we can be rid of all the paperwork for awhile! Yipee!

I can't believe we're getting so close to seeing our little baby boy's face!

Speaking of little baby boys, Courtney had her baby on Wednesday morning! She went into labor at 2:30 in the morning and I took her to the hospital since George is doing his training for the Navy. They gave her an epidural within an hour of being there and she felt so much better she was able to sleep from 6 am - 8 am! When she woke up at 8, it was time to push! She pushed for 10 minutes and Baby Henry came right out! I got to cut his cord! He has a pretty good head of dark hair. Very different than Coleson and Ellie. He still doesn't have a name (this is normal, Ellie was not named for several days), but their leaning towards Cooper Knox Henry. I'll repost if this changes! It was a really cool experience to be there for Courtney. I've seen/helped with many childbirths, but this was the first where I knew the person giving birth!

A child of our own

It seems that not a week goes by that we aren't asked, "when are you going to have children of your own?" These people are family, friends, neighbors, and strangers. They mean us no harm.

And, though I know that by "our own" they mean biological children, I cringe everytime we are asked this question. To us, and someday to Grayson, this implies that somehow he is not our own.

Just the other day, I witnessed my older sister give birth to my youngest nephew. I have seen many women on my trips to Africa give birth. Every childbirth I have witnessed is nothing short of a miracle. It is the most beautiful gift of all when God places a child in our care. I hear mothers talk about the discomfort of pregnancy, the pain of labor, and the rush of love they feel when they hold their child for the first time.

I have never given birth, but I too have experienced all these emotions and have been blessed with God's greatest gift of all. We were called on October 30th, 2006 and were told our son was 2 weeks old and waiting for us in Guatemala. We then waited nearly 3 months before we had a chance to visit him. When his foster mother placed him in my arms for the very first time, I knew in that instant, I would trade my life for his. At the end of our weeklong visit, we had to hand him back over to his foster mother, not knowing when or if his adoption would ever be finalized. That day, and in the three months to come, I experienced emotional pain so deep that there were days that I was physically in pain. One year after Grayson was conceived in our hearts, he was placed in our arms forever. I experienced love and joy so great that I swear it will never be duplicated.

After witnessing my sister's childbirth, everyone visiting the new baby made a point to ask, "do you think you'll have children of your own now?" We have not prevented pregnancy because I'm scared of being pregnant. When we began talking about adoption it was because that is what God had placed on our hearts. Now, with Grayson home for over a year, we're adopting again. Not because we have anything against being pregnant, but because the outcome of our first adoption was so precious and sacred, we'd be crazy to not want to do it again. For everyone out there that feels they have to know if and when we will have biological children, the answer is, we don't know. We will continue to follow our hearts.

In the future, when asked if we will have children of our own, I will say, "we can't imagine any child being more our own than Grayson."

Adoption update!

Well, since I blogged last a few things have happened with our adoption process. Our social worker made the necessary changes to the home study and mailed our final copies to Gladney, Immigration, and us. Gladney looked over the final copy one more time and officially approved us! We have now moved on to our dossier coordinator. We officially have all our dossier documents complete and we have sent them to our coordinator for review. There are about 40-some pages so I know it will take her awhile to go through them all. If she finds any errors, she'll let us know and we'll work on getting them fixed. We're praying that any errors are with documents that will be easy to fix!

While waiting for our dossier documents to be approved, we are also waiting on our I-171H (our approval from Immigration). It seems the Indy immigration office has been moving pretty quickly so I hope it won't be long before we receive our approval.

I think that is about all as far as adoption news goes. I am beginning to get more excited at the thought of being put on the waiting list, but am really at peace with the whole process. I'm going to really try to focus on getting things accomplished on the house during our 3-5 month wait for a referral.

Home study review completed!

I received our revised home study from Judy (Gladney) today! She will send it on to our social worker who will make the necessary changes. At that point, our social worker will send the final copy on to Gladney, us, and Immigration. Once Gladney approves the final copy we will officially have Gladney approval. WHEW! Finally!

At that point, our file will be sent on to our dossier coordinator, Jessica. This is the person that will be working with us through the rest of the adoption. She will help us with our dossier (hopefully not much more to do), call us once we have our referral, keep us updated on our court date, and help us arrange our travel.

I'm starting to get very anxious to get on the waitlist!

Loving Summertime!

No movement on the adoption front as our home study is still being reviewed by Gladney. I hope to hear from them early this week and if all goes well we will get it forwarded on to Immigration by the end of the week.

We really haven't been focusing on the adoption too much and have just really enjoyed the nice weather. On Saturday, we went to Drew and Trini's for a cookout for Trini's birthday. It's soooo nice to have them back in Indiana!

We went to the little water park here in Lafayette yesterday. Aaron had a good time going down the slides and Grayson and I enjoyed the lazy river and the kids wading areas!

We've also discovered that Grayson LOVES corn on the cob. Here are a few pictures from the other night!

Not too much to report.

Well, since we've been home from Orlando we have made a little progress on the adoption front. Our home study agency has forwarded our home study draft on to Gladney. Gladney, our adoption agency, will take 10 days to review it. At that point, our social worker will make any necessary changes and send it back to Gladney. At that point, we will receive our final approval from Gladney. We will then forward our home study on to Immigration. We are keeping our fingers crossed that it will only take a couple of weeks for them to issue their final approval.

As far a the dossier goes, we are making great progress. Aaron and I took a huge stack of papers to the bank the other day to be notarized. So, with one trip to the bank we finished up our financial statement, bank letter, FBI clearance packets, and power of attorney. I believe we are only a couple documents away from having our dossier completed! I can't wait to get on the waiting list so I can sit back and relax for a few months!

In other news, I signed Grayson up for a class at the YMCA called Munchkin n Me. We had our first class today and he really seemed to enjoy it. There are 4 other kids in the class and he was acting a little shy at first, but it didn't take him long to get warmed up. So, this will give us something to look forward to on Wednesday mornings.

Home from Orlando!

We made it back to Indiana on Friday evening after a long, hot, fun-filled week in Orlando!

Grayson and I had a wonderful time during the day hanging out at the pool with Erica, Madi, and Braden. One day I took Grayson to a model train exhibit. He seemed to really enjoy looking at all the trains and following them around the track.


On Tuesday, we went to Disneyworld. Supposedly, it's the happiest place on Earth. But, when it's 95 degrees and there are thousands of people walking all over you, it feels like Hell on Earth! We toughed it out and got to see the parade on Main Street. That was by far the best part of the day. We then moved on to riding Dumbo. After waiting close to an hour in line, we got on the ride only for it down pour on us through the entire ride. After a couple of minutes on Dumbo, we were all soaked to the bone. The good part is, the rain really cooled things off and the rest of the day was very pleasant. Another highlight of the day was Grayson getting to meet Mickey and Minnie. He really loves Mickey so we were excited to see his reaction. Surprisingly enough, he wasn't scared. But, he did get very shy. We stayed until about 10 p.m. I was very surprised we all were able to hang in there that long, but we did and we had a GREAT time!


We didn't really do anything else that was too exciting. We did attempt Sea World on Thursday; however, it rained the whole time. We got to see a few exhibits and the whale show and that was it. I once again spent the entire day soaked!

As much fun as it was, it was very nice to get home on Friday.


On the adoption front, we received the draft of our home study. I reviewed it and sent it right back to the social worker. She will then send this on to Gladney who will take about 10 days to review it. I wish it was faster, but I know that this review is to ensure a smooth process later on in the adoption when it really matters. We also received our FBI clearances that we will include in our dossier. My goal over the next couple weeks while we wait for our home study to be completed it to get the remainder of the dossier documents done. I think we are still on track for being on the waiting list by middle of August. Let's keep our fingers crossed! I have to admit I'm getting very anxious to be done with the paperwork and on the waiting list. However, I know that that's when the hard waiting begins!

Paperwork update and then off to Florida!

Well, we had a wonderful five days at home! We spent the weekend with Aaron's family and had a great meal on Saturday and went to the park on Sunday. Aaron headed out to New York early Monday morning and I stayed behind to spend a couple of days with my family. We had a Father's Day get-together on Monday and just relaxed for the most part.

But, we are now home and life has gotten back to it's crazy, hectic self! We have two days at home to get things together before we leave for Florida on Saturday morning! Aaron is going to Orlando for a work conference and we are tagging along. We are planning to go to Disneyworld one day and Sea World another. Other than that, we plan to hang by the pool and relax!

On the adoption front, we are still making progress. We almost have everything we need to complete our Gladney application and gain Gladney approval. I have to send a few more pictures of extended family and get them a copy of our home study. The home study draft should be finished tomorrow and hopefully it will be to Gladney to review by sometime next week. If everything goes well, we may have the completed home study by the end of June! Wow! I better get moving on the rest of the dossier! I can't believe we're going to placed on the waiting list soon!

Well, that's all for now, I really need to start getting things together for Florida!

Grayson and Ellie riding the Big Wheel together.

Progress and Weekend Plans

This afternoon we head down to Indy for our Immigration fingerprint appointment. Once we are fingerprinted, Immigration runs a very thorough background check. If the background check comes out okay all we have to do is get them a final copy of our home study (we're hoping by mid-July). At that point, we just wait for them to issue our final approval, or our I-171H. This piece of paper says we are approved to adopt an orphan and is necessary before we can be put on the waiting list. So, our goal is to have the rest of the dossier done before we receive this piece of paper. We are making great progress!

On Tuesday, we went to the Sheriff's Department to be fingerprinted so we could send off the fingerprint cards for an FBI clearance. Yes, another FBI clearance. This time, it will go in our dossier. So, after the Sheriff's Department, I ran to the post office to get the money order that we needed to include, and then went to FedEx to overnight everything. Grayson did so well while I ran my errands. In FedEx he sat and looked at a fish tank. I told the guy that worked at the store that I was so glad they had the fish tank to entertain him. He said, "yeah, he liked it so much he went to sleep!" I looked down and Grayson was asleep in his stroller. I can't tell you the last time he fell asleep somewhere other than his bed or the car. I felt kind of bad for having him out all morning running around. It makes me feel even worse when he is such an angel! If only he knew this was all to bring him home a little brother, he probably wouldn't be so cooperative!

I'm looking forward to the weekend and taking some time off from the paperwork, although it always bothers me to take too much time off. We're heading home for Father's Day and then on Monday, Aaron is leaving for New York with Katrina and Drew to help move them to Lafayette. Yay! So, I am going to stay with my parents with Grayson for a couple days to relax while Aaron's loading the moving truck!

Ethiopia Adoption Group in Lafayette

I'm so excited to say that someone in Lafayette started a Yahoo! group for those of us in the area who are adopting or have adopted from Ethiopia! It just got up and running this afternoon and we already have 5 or 6 different families logged in. I was very excited to see that there are others in the area who have or will have Ethiopian children.

Anyway, so I posted a message on this Yahoo! group and introduced myself. Just a few minutes later, someone posts and says my name sounds really familiar. I get this a lot even though the name Jarvis isn't that popular. So, I didn't think much of it. Then I realized her name sounded really familiar. As it turns out, it's our neighbor. Her, her husband, and their 3 kids live just across the street! I met her when a package for Grayson was accidentally delivered to her house instead of ours. She brought it over to us and I remember thinking how nice she was and that we needed to get to know each other better over the summer. And now, we are going to have so much in common! They are requesting a little boy between 0 and 24 months. So, chances are, he may be really close in age to Grayson and not too much older than our new little one.


I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of Grayson!

Second home study visit

We have our second, and final visit with the social worker this afternoon at 3. I will update everyone on how that goes sometime tonight or tomorrow. I expect that this time it will be a lot of gathering information. How many siblings do we have, what do our parents do for a living, how would we describe our childhood, how do we plan to discipline our children, etc. So, nothing too exciting, but necessary none the less.

We are still working away on the paperwork. I've gotten the pictures together that we need to send. We have to send in pictures of the house as well as pictures of us with Grayson and "special" family events. I'll post a few pictures of the house that I'm sending to our agency. Aaron also received his employer/insurance verification letter from Purdue today. As large as Purdue's HR office is, I was very impressed with how quickly they worked and how willing they were to do everything to meet our specific needs.

I was reading some posts on an Ethiopia adoption forum last night. Someone had posted that they had just gotten court approval and that their little girl was coming home soon. They attached a couple of pictures of the cutest little baby girl! I have to say that those pictures got me very anxious for the day that we receive our referral. I clearly remember the evening we received Grayson's referral. Our coordinator called at 6 p.m. so we knew she had to be calling about something important. She got on the phone and asked us to sit down and then told us she had a little boy for us! She told us his name and birthdate. I remember when she got to the point where she told us he weighed 5 lbs. 7 oz. I just started crying! He was sooo little and precious! She told us all this information and I asked her to repeat something and she said, "aren't you writing this down?" We were so excited we didn't think to write it all down! But, like all mothers, I didn't need to. He was my son and I remembered word for word everything she told us as if I had been right there in the hospital when he was born. Our coordinator said she'd email a couple of pictures and after waiting a half hour to receive them we were DYING! She had forgotten to send them and went home for the evening!!!! Luckily, she realized her mistake when she got home and asked someone else to send them. Finally, we got to see his precious little face! The next day we were to receive a FedEx package with more pictures and all the details. Aaron stayed home from work to wait on the package with me! It was certainly the most exciting time of our lives and I can't wait to get to experience it all over again with this little guy!

We've also been thinking about baby names for a couple of months now. I have always said our second boy would be Anderson Isaiah Jarvis. But, I have heard another name that has made it to the top of our list. So, for all you out there that may be having little boys soon, we have staked our claim on the name Beckett. I'm not thinking of a middle name at this point because we hope to use one of his birth names as we did with Grayson. We want the naming to be completely equal. We will pick their first names, their middle names (1 or 2) will be part of their birth names, and of course their last name will be Jarvis.

Here are some newer pics of the house:

And the paperwork keeps rolling in!

I got a call from the doctor's office this afternoon saying I could come by and pick up our paperwork today. As you remember, there were very specific forms that needed to be filled out stating we are clear of certain communicable diseases. Of course these forms then needed to be put on office letterhead and notarized. The letter head at the doctor's office has a big band of gray that goes down the side of the paper. That I guess caused some problems and the forms had to be carefully copied. Then, we found out that the entire office building is without a notary! They used to have two working in the building but neither work there any longer. Luckily, our doctor's office has a wonderfully helpful and caring staff! They got the paperwork copied on letterhead, filled out, and arranged for a notary to come to the office so the doctor could sign! I was still holding my breath when I looked at the paperwork, just waiting to find a mistake. But, to my relief, everything looks PERFECT! And, even the notaries commission is far enough out to not give us any problems. Whew! That is a huge relief. It's always hard to relinquish that control and trust other people with your adoption paperwork.

I also dropped off a medical form for Grayson's doctor to fill out. This is part of our Gladney application. They are really good about getting stuff done so I hope to pick this up sometime tomorrow. So, I will be able to send all our medical reports to Gladney for our application, to Children's Bureau for our home study, and we'll keep the originals for our dossier. Things are really starting to come together!

One home study visit down, one to go!

Today we had our first home study visit with our social worker from Children's Bureau. She is very nice and everything went very smoothly. She was here about an hour and a half and we covered all sorts of things such as why we're choosing to adopt, why Ethiopia, how did we know we were ready for another child (do you really ever KNOW), do we think we'll face cultural and racial issues, etc. I felt like everything went very well and we were certainly very open and honest about all our hopes, dreams, and uncertainties.

After we answered many, many questions, she took a quick tour of the house. Grayson was very happy to show her his playroom and his bedroom. Each time he ran into the room, threw up his arms, and yelled, "YEAH!" He knows these are his rooms and he is so proud to show them off.

We asked the social worker a few questions about what to expect as far as how long it will take to get a draft of our home study and then the finished product. We were very pleasantly surprised to hear that once she does our second visit and has all our other paperwork (which she has most of), it will only take her a week to do a draft. At that point, her supervisor has to check it, we check it, and our adoption agency checks it. Then, any corrections that are needed are made and we get the final copy! I'm really hoping that if all goes well, we should have the final copy by the end of June or beginning of July! This all keeps us right on track for getting our dossier into our agency by the middle of August (if not sooner).

S0, we have our second home study visit on Friday! Yay! We are really making progress - very exciting, kind of scary!