Our Adoption Journey

Finally I post some pictures!!

2009-06-09T17:23:00.000-07:00

Simon my little puppy, isn't he cute..

2009-06-09T17:22:00.001-07:00

2009-06-09T17:21:00.000-07:00

Simon and Adam

2009-06-09T17:11:00.000-07:00

David Wendy and Simon at the Dimitri Hotel in Ethiopia

Ethiopia

2009-06-09T17:10:00.000-07:00

2009-06-09T17:07:00.000-07:00

Alex, Simon and Adam having a sleep over!

Here we go AGAIN!!

2009-05-30T22:48:00.000-07:00

So while we were in Ethiopia we met a beautiful 13 year old girl. She had something special about her from the second we met her. I spent a lot of time getting to know her while we were in Ethiopia. She wasn't in school so she was around all day each day. David and I left the orphanage each day thinking that we needed to find such a special girl a family.
With lots of thoughts, prayers and answers straight from the lord we have decided we are the perfect family to adopt her. The boys are so excited. Its crazy to go from 2-4 children in the house in a years time!!
So our home study is being updated, then we will file a new I600A and then leave it to Abebe in Ethiopia who hopes to have her in Utah before the courts close in August!!

We are so excited!!

Not The Best Blogger

2009-05-30T22:25:00.000-07:00

So when I last posted we had just passed our court date. I fell off the blogging wagon I guess you could say! We received our travel date which was April 4-11. It was a crazy week packing and preparing to meet our new son. We flew United Airlines/Ethiopia Air, our travel time to Ethiopia was about 26 hours there and 31 home. We arrived in the evening. My husband said my eye's were as large as silver dollars when we left the airport in Addis Ababa! I guess I could say I was a bit nervous and a bit out of my element. However we were both so excited. We went to our hotel Sunday evening. The Dimitri, which was very nice and I highly recommend to anyone staying in Ethiopia.
Monday morning we went to the orphanage to meet Simon, he was so beautiful and so sweet. I worried he would cry when I first held him. He didn't though he just smiled and sat there so sweet. Within about 2 days Simon only wanted David or I to hold him, it was amazing how quickly the bonding process took place. The trip was a bit of a bitter sweet one, so wonderful to see the orphanage and all the wonderful workers and children, yet we are so spoiled in America. We spent everyday at the orphanage playing with all of the children, we also met another family from Utah that was adopting a 14 year old boy. It was great to get to know them and their wonderful new son.
We went to the Embassy on Wednesday which was very simple, we also visited a Ethiopian hospital while we were out that day. I could not go in, however David did and he came out with tears in his eyes. We were excited though as he was able to get pictures of a little boy for a family. Always a great feeling.
Well we are now home and have been home for over a month. Simon started sleeping through the night 8:30-8:30 two days after being home. He has adjusted so well. He loves his two brothers, and fits in as if we have had him since birth. We have been to an infectuous diseases Dr. and Simon is perfectly healthy, we also just started immunizations, which wasn't so fun for him.
May 12 we celebrated Simon 1st birthday, he was so excited about the chocolate cake, he had it everywhere, I can't say the presents were a hit, but the tissue paper was!!
What a blessing he is to our family, we are so grateful to his mother for doing the best thing for her son.

We Passed!!

2009-03-08T17:24:00.000-07:00

Thursday March 5, 2009, we passed our 2nd court date.
What a nerve racking time, we did not find out until Friday the 6th and can I just tell you that was a very hard wait! Thursday night I was up every 15 minutes looking at the clock and counting 10 hours ahead wondering what time it was in Ethiopia. It also didn't help that we were in a hotel in Phoenix for Alex's baseball tournament. Aneata from our Adoption Agency called us at 7:00 am to tell us the wonderful news. We are so excited to soon be bringing Simon home to his forever family.

We now know where we are staying in Ethiopia, "The Dimitri Hotel". Flights are figured out. If you need a great travel agency, Susan Parr has been wonderful so far.

Now to pack and wait just one more time, for our Embassy date. We should find out what our Embassy date is 4-5 days before we travel.

Waiting and Waiting

2009-02-19T15:49:00.000-08:00

Well we are 2 weeks from our second court date. This has actually been the worst wait of all. I am told the wait between passing court and travel is even worse!! I can't imagine it being worse than this. What a true test of patience. Simon's bedroom is ready, we have bought clothing, diapers, toys and all sorts of things!! I need to stop spending money....

I was given some advice to read up on attachment between baby and new family, so I have just ordered two books, "Taming the Tiger" by: Nancy Thomas and "Attachment in Adoption" by: Deborah Gray. So I will read to keep myself busy.

I've got our flights figured out for our travel and I am in the process of deciding on where we will stay in Ethiopia. I need a guest house close to Sele' Enat. That is the orphanage where Simon is.

One family from our agency is traveling right now and I am in hopes that they are able to bring a photograph home of Simon. It may not happen as, they are going to a different orphanage. We will see.

I'm hoping the next time I post will be to tell everyone we passed and we are traveling!

Unsuccessful Court Date

2009-01-21T16:24:00.000-08:00

Well today January 21, 2009 was Simon's court date and we did not pass. One piece of information was missing from his adoption paperwork. I'm told it used to be very unusual not to pass through court the first go around. Now it is very unusual to pass court the first time. The Ethiopian government is becoming pretty strict about passing adoptions without all of the proper paper work.
So today I have passed through many phases, I have cried, I have been mad and now I know there is nothing I can do about it, but wait until March 5 for our next court date.
This is a true test of patience.

New Pictures Of Simon

2008-12-22T15:45:00.000-08:00

Today IAN emailed 2 new pictures of Simon. It is amazing what a difference a month and half makes. He looks like he is getting so big. He is so beautiful. I thought for sure Simon would look unhealthy in the new pictures, I've had it in my head since day one that the children in orphanages are not fed well or taken care of well. I was wrong, Simon looks so healthy and happy. They are taking wonderful care of him. I felt great after seeing his new photo's other than he is growing so fast and I'm missing out on time with him. I can't wait for the court date to arrive that will put us within weeks of traveling to Ethiopia to pick him up. Speaking of traveling, David and I went to the health center to get immunizations the other day. Wow, do I feel lucky to live in the USA. So many diseases and things that I have never even heard of, so many things we never even have to think about living in the US.

Simons Court Date

2008-12-03T10:26:00.000-08:00

It is December 3 and I just received an email from Andrea at IAN. We have a court date scheduled for Simon...
January 21, 2009 is the lucky day!!
Very exciting news for a Wednesday. I'm beginning to see light at the end of this tunnel.

Sele Enat

2008-12-02T08:33:00.000-08:00

Still no word on our court date. I know when we are able to pick Simon up the wait will be forgotten. However, the wait for different things throughout this process is a killer!
We did find out recently that Simon is in an orphanage in Addis Ababa, called Sele' Enat pronounced (Seal-Nat). The word Sele' means "in place of" and the word Enat means "mother". I did see pictures of the orphanage and from what I am told it is the bigger of the two orphanages.
My next step while we wait is to find out if we can send formula over for Simon in hopes that he stays nice and healthy!

Hawaii 2008

2008-11-24T11:54:00.000-08:00

We just spent 8 fantastic days in Hawaii. We stayed on Oahu, it was so beautiful. Wow is it hard to come back to reality. Lots of rest and relaxation and a whole lot of food eaten!! We had so much fun! I thought the boys just might turn into fish they spent so much time in the water.
Now it is back to real life again! Dang it!
No changes on the baby front we are still just waiting on a court date. Hopefully we will find out soon.

Our Family Trip To San Diego

2008-11-05T08:58:00.001-08:00

Dr. gives his stamp of approval

2008-11-03T12:18:00.000-08:00

October 27, 2008. I took our babies records to the Dr. today. Luckily he was able to look over them and get back to us all in the same day! I noticed on the medical report there sure isn't a lot of information. The Dr. said the baby looks healthy from what the Ethiopian Dr. has stated. That is just what we wanted to hear. From here we will officially except our baby with IAN and we will now wait for Abebe to get us a court date in Ethiopia. Hopefully this wait will go quickly, now that we have seen our baby it is going to be very hard having him over in Ethiopia and us in Utah.
I hope they take good care of him!

"Our Referral Came"

2008-10-31T14:41:00.000-07:00

October 24, 2008, our referral finally came!! What a great day.
I left the house to run some errands for work today. I arrived home and the first thing I did was check the caller ID, like I do everyday! This time IAN had called and Andrea had left a message to call her. I called and it went straight to voice mail, that did not work for me so I just kept calling back, I knew Andrea was going to tell us our referral was here. Finally after call 15 Andrea answered the phone and said, "Hi Wendy, I have some great news for you, your referral is here! Andrea said she would email me the information on our child and 4 pictures, as she was emailing she was telling me about our baby, he sounded so sweet and just perfect. Once the email came through Andrea and I hung up. I immediately called David screaming down the phone, hurry you have to come home NOW!!! The boys happen to have early out that day so David picked them up. I called my mom and she rushed down. We all sat circled around the computer waiting for the email to open, when it opened we were all so excited, he was the cutest most sweet little baby boy ever. He was just perfect.
At this point I can not post his picture because he is not officially our baby yet. His first name is Simon which means "Obedient" and his last name is Alemayhu which means I am Happy". These are biblical names in Ethiopia and they fit his face perfectly! What more could you want an obedient happy baby!!
I am so sad that he is an orphan and that he won't be able to be with his mother, but at the same time I am so excited to be his new mother.
What an exciting day we had!!
Now we will need to take his records to our doctor and have them read.

"Still Waiting"

2008-10-14T15:26:00.000-07:00

It is now October 14 still no referral. IAN says it will be soon. I know one family received their referral for a baby boy which moves us to number 2. The first thing I do each day is turn on my email in hopes for the, "Referral Email" until then I will continue to keep myself busy with work and my family. I've started to buy baby things now, however I'm not buying clothing yet because I don't know how old our baby boy will be. Well, hopefully next time I post it will be with referral news!!!

"One Small Change"

2008-09-16T16:43:00.000-07:00

September 9, 2008

Every time I get an email from IAN I am positive it is our baby!!
Each time it is not I am completely let down. Luckily I have David, my mom and some great new friends that are on the yahoo adoption forum. We all try to keep each other up on what is going on.

The email I received today was just to tell us that Aneata (the person we were working with) will no longer be working with IAN. That makes me a little nervous as she has done a great job.

We will now be working with Andrea. Andrea says there are no referrals coming in right now as the courts in Ethiopia are closed and they will re-open October 1. Then hopefully we should see our referral. I am a bit frustrated as most of the families I have met that have worked with IAN waited about 2 weeks and had their referral. I think I might be driving David crazy as it is the only thing I talk about.
Alex and Adam have one standard question, everyday after school they ask, "do we have our baby yet"? We are going to be so excited the day we are contacted and they will be too.

I 171H

2008-09-16T16:41:00.000-07:00

September 9, 2008

We received our 171H. We are approved to bring a child home!!!

It came 1 week after finger prints. It was supposed to take 5 weeks, how great is that!!

Now we wait!!!

"Dossier Complete"

2008-09-16T16:33:00.000-07:00

August 27, 2008

Our dossier is complete, it has been sent to Ethiopia and we are number 3 on the list for a baby boy!!! I think we may have broken a world record for the quickest finish on a dossier. From start to finish it took us barely 1 month. Aneata at IAN couldn't believe it.

We now enter in to what they call "The Wait Game"!!

I don't think I am going to like this I don't wait well.

We still need to receive our 171H. This is an approval to bring a child to the United States from Ethiopia. In Utah they say it takes up to 5 weeks for this to arrive. Aneata has told us to put that we would like more than one child. She says it is very hard when you get to Ethiopia to see all those children without a mom or a dad.