Wow! Have we been busy since we got the call! We have sent in our acceptance letter, another signed agreement and payment. We've contacted an international doctor to look over baby H's medical forms. We've shared her pictures proudly with lots of people and made copies and framed them. We've contacted a family traveling next week to ET and sent them a signed photo consent form so that they can take pictures of H when they are there. We did buy a few toys for her that we will send with another family going in early December. We've also had Ella's 3rd birthday since then, continued doing our best to nurse Katie since her tonsillectomy and tried to work in there somewhere. Has it only been 4 days?

Our agency posted this update on their website. Note the infant girl referrals dated DTE 1/9/09. One of those is us!!!


Ethiopia Referral Update!
November has kept the Ethiopia program busy with a total of 11 referrals so far! Congratulations to these families! Find below the list of these children and the DTE dates of the families. Please keep in mind some of these referrals may be sibling sets as well as children with special needs.

Age and Gender of Child
DTE Date

7 Male Infants
1/16/2009

6/12/2009

6/19/2009

6/26/2009

7/2/2009

7/17/2009

7/24/2009

2 Female Infants
1/9/2009

1/9/2009

1 Male Toddler
8/28/2009

1 Female Toddlers
8/28/2009

Due to the recent trends of received referrals the wait time for an infant male is now currently 4-6 months, while the wait time for a female infant remains 9-11 months. This trend is based on recent history, but is subject to change.
We are excited to watch and see what the Lord has planned for the Ethiopia program for the remainder of 2009. Your prayers are truly appreciated!

It's so wonderful to start a new rock color in our "waiting for baby" project. We are now entering into the "waiting for travel" stage, which will be at least 2 months, but could be longer. But, at least while we are waiting, we now can look at our beautiful, little girl's face.

Today was the day!!! We got our referral!!! We got a call at 10:22 a.m. that we are the proud parents of a 2 month old baby girl. She is absolutely beautiful and looks great! I was at work and Mark was at home tending to Katie (who had surgery yesterday). I quickly had another teacher take my kids and we did a conference call with Mark, Katie and me. It was very exciting. I cannot give details about her or post pictures just yet, due to agency policy, but I will as soon as we are allowed. Just for the record, she is adorable. She has big, beautiful eyes and is very little. We love her already.

Next step...sign the acceptance and wait for a court date!

An infant girl referral was given out today to our DTE buddy, Kara Z! How exciting for her! This makes us really #1 on our "unofficial" list (and not tied for #1, either). I really am hoping our call will come in the next few days. But as we know well, with international adoption, nothing is certain.

Ouch! That's the word to explain what's coming up for Mark and me. It's time for shots. Since we went to China, we are up-to-date on some of the recommended immunizations, but there's more to look forward to for Ethiopia.

Here's a list of what's recommended....

1. polio
2. yellow fever
3. meningitis
4. flu - (Jenny got hers yesterday)
5. typhoid
6. Hep A. - just Mark

They are also sending us with Cipro (antibiotic) and Malaria pills.

The yellow fever is only recommended if we travel outside Addis Ababa. If we choose not to do any addt'l travel, we will probably opt-out of the yellow fever. The side effects can be bad.

We've been putting a colored rock in this glass container for each day that we've been waiting for our daughter. The bottom layer is our "paperwork stage", the second layer is "waiting for referral" stage and the third layer will be "waiting to travel" stage. These rocks are daily reminders of our little one and are covered with kisses and prayers.

There's not a lot of room left in the container for the "waiting to travel" stage, so I guess we'd better hurry up and get our baby!

We're number 1! We're number 1!

Number one in line for an infant girl!

Actually, we are tied for number 1 (details, details) and that's according to the Yahoo group, which we know is not 100% accurate. But, let's focus on the positive. That's reason to celebrate!

Join me as I hum the Jeopardy tune...

Today we have officially waited 9 months! Yeah! As I look back to when we started this process, which was well over a year ago, the time has gone by surprisingly quickly. I'm looking forward to getting "the call" and seeing my baby for the first time, but the wait has been o.k. I think that the hardest part for me will be the waiting period between referral and travel. Once I see my daughter and hear her story, I will want to go and get her right away. It will be difficult to wait what could be months.

No news. Patiently waiting for the phone to ring with a 703 area code! :)

On-deck!

We received our "On-Deck" e-mail this morning. This is an e-mail from our agency just letting us know that we are getting close to a referral. It also goes over the referral procedure, acceptance letter, payments, request verification, etc. Here's part of the e-mail..."While there are many unknowns in the referral process, and this email gives no dates or guarantees, America World anticipates that your family could receive a referral within the next one to three months. Referrals arrive sporadically throughout the month. For this reason, families with the same DTE date frequently do not receive referrals at the same time. America World issues referrals as soon as a child’s paperwork is completed."

According to our Yahoo group (which we know is NOT an official list), we are tied for #2 in the "waiting for an infant girl" line.

Maybe tomorrow, maybe next week, maybe by Halloween or Thanksgiving we will have a picture of our sweet, baby girl. Until then.....we wait as patiently as we can. Hang in there, sweet one.