ON A LIGHTER NOTE...

Jazzercise was a blast! We had an amazing turn out! These are the brave souls who were willing to take a sweaty pic with me AFTER the class... I didn't really think that through. It meant so much to me that all these women were willing to take time out of their week to come and embarrass themselves and help bring our boy home. The drawing happens at the end of the month. I will let you know as soon as I hear! Thanks to all who came!!!!

WHAT TO EXPECT

I asked for this book for Christmas. I knew that we would miss the first several months of this boys life, but I thought it would be fun to read about his development and just learn what I can about babies, since you know... I've never had one. Last night, before bed I was thinking about our Arthur and wondering what he was doing just like I do every night. I looked over at this book and got excited to open it to the learn about what it says about his age. NOT a good idea! What was I thinking? It's hard enough missing out on his life without knowing every little detail. I've decided. I don't want to know. At least not right now. It hurts too bad.

I thought I would speak a little more about how hard this is right now. Adoptive parents, please chime in if you feel so led. So, here's the situation. I'm a mom. I have a son. We don't have a court date and he's not legally ours, but there is a little boy out there named Arthur and he's my son. Nothing could have prepared me for what I felt the day we got our call. No one could have explained the connection I feel to him and if they tried I wouldn't have believed them. So, how does it feel to have a son you can't touch, or comfort, or cuddle or know? IT SUCKS!! It's the hardest thing I've done and we're only in the first month! I know he's fine! I believe he's happy and healthy and loved, I just miss him. Any ideas about ways to make this wait a little less painful?

MORE NEW FRIENDS!!

Gosh! I just feel so blessed to have met so many amazing people through this process! I've recently been able to spend a little more time with my new friend Rachel, some of you may have met her at Jazzercise (which, by the way, was a blast!) Rachel and her husband, Landon have a beautiful baby girl who just turned one and started the process to adopt their second about 4 months ago. To help pay for their adoption, Rachel has opened up an etsy store with some very cool vintage and hand-crafted things! Go take a look! Read more about their story here.

NUMBERS

For all of you who have so faithfully supported us, I am very pleased to announce...

WE DID IT!

Wow! That's a grand total of $15,929 so far! And we've done it without a single loan or credit card.

You played a big part in this! THANK YOU!

...and here's what we have left.

I'm honestly not too worried ;) God is so good!

ARTHUR

I just have to point out something really silly. The week we got the call about our Arthur was the same week this movie came out. And, yes I did go out and see it, I mean how could I not? I actually got to go to Lubbock last weekend and seeing this movie was the perfect way to celebrate the week... even though I'm the only one who liked it. It definitely wasn't as good as the original, but Russell Brand did a pretty good job. Oh! and on the same day we got "the call" Arthur's theme song was released on itunes... go have a listen.

While we're on the subject of the name Arthur, I want to share a little something. Aaron and I LOVE this name and have loved it for a long time. It has been really good to have a name in place from the beginning. Calling him by name just feels good and I think it helped our family connect to him pretty early on. I probably don't speak for Aaron as much when I say that we were open to the idea of calling him by his given name. I just thought that if we heard his name and it was followed by this magical moment where we thought, "wow, that's beautiful and that's what we want to call him", we would keep Arthur as his middle name and call him by his given name. Well... that did not happen! While we love his given name and have so much respect for his family and culture, we just know that this little boy's name is Arthur.

Also, we've decided that we're going to keep his full given name (first and last) as middle names. Yep! He's going to have 4 names. There's just no way around it. Both of these names are just too important. One day I will be able to tell you the full name! I'm excited for that day!

COME TO JAZZERCISE AND HELP GET ARTHUR HOME!

My friend, Ashlee at work has been going to Jazzercise and she recently heard about an opportunity to win a $500.00 cash prize. The way it works is... for every person who attends a Jazzercise class, per Ashlee's invitation, she gets another name in the hat. So, we've decided that we're all going to go together on April 21st and you should come too! Ashlee has decided to donate the prize (if she wins) to our adoption fund! Amazing! Thank you so much, Ashlee. So, the more people we can get there, the better chance we have of winning. If you want to come, leave a comment and a way I can contact you.

HERE'S THE DEAL

Last time I updated you about the potential cut in inter-country adoptions out of Ethiopia, things seemed to be looking up. People making poor decisions were being asked to leave and conversations were happening to come up with the best possible solution for these children. Thursday we received more information. Our agency participated in a stakeholder meeting regarding Ethiopia adoptions with USCIS and the State Department. Here are some of the highlights.

1. USCIS and State support the continuation of the

intercountry adoption program in Ethiopia while also

seeking to address specific problems and concerns.

2. Procedural changes will protect the integrity of the

adoption process while providing better safeguards

for PAP's and children.

3. Adoptive Service Providers need to take more

responsibility for ensuing due diligence and careful

case preparation

4. The US government will continue to refine the

analysis of adoption case information at US Embassy

Addis Ababa as a toll to help guard against unethical

or fraudulent practices.

This is all great news! I'm really proud to be adopting from a country who loves it's children!

Now this is the part that is a little hard to swallow... especially considering we JUST got our referral and the more we look at that sweet face, the harder it is to wait to meet him!

Ready?...

For families who have not received their court date yet,

delays are expected as MOWCYA will begin processing

only 5 cases a day after they complete their review of the

expedited cases. What kind of delay can families expect?

No one knows at this time. CHI will keep all families

informed of the new timelines once we receive court dates

for the next set of families. It will only be at that time that

we will be able to offer our waiting families any indication

on what they can expect to experience. The approval

number has been decreased due to the large number of

cases being presented to the MOWCYA and the lack of

current time/resources to review all of these cases well

with the due diligence that is needed.

A lot of the families waiting for court dates are very hopeful that this will not go into effect. That it wont take long for them to realize that a cut like this will create MANY problems that they don't have the resources to deal with. I'm encouraged by their positive attitudes, but also just trying to keep my eye on the bigger picture. I am all for this kind of change if it's what's best for these kids. I can wait longer to bring my son home if it means that the things that have been overlooked in the past are not overlooked anymore. We want to keep the bad people out and far far away from these children!

Arthur,

We WILL bring you home! We know it will be sweet and magical and perfect. We just don't know when it will be. Keep smiling, little bundle! We love you!

HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED

I was at work and Aaron was working from home. We were both convinced that we would get the call that week. We couldn't really think about anything else. Aaron texted me a couple times around lunch time to see if I had heard anything... to which I replied "uh... trust me, if I hear something, you'll know!"

It was about 2:00 when Aaron sent me this message on AIM. We literally got the call minutes after he sent that first message. Too funny.

I answered the phone and Ashley already had Aaron on the line. She began to tell us about our boy. His name, his story, his birthday. We were both crying and shaking and so excited! After we got off the phone we received an email with all of his information and a photo.

Aaron came to pick me up from work and we went home to call our family and share the news!

Wednesday morning we contacted a pediatrician who specializes in International Adoption to review his records with us and share any concerns she had. She called us Thursday night and I was very pleased with the amount of information she was able to give us. After talking with her, Aaron gathered the documents necessary to send off and officially accept the referral of this beautiful baby boy.

Now we wait for a court date! It seems that the change I told you guys about a few weeks ago is going to go into effect after all. This might mean that we wont be able to lay eyes on little Arthur for months, but we're so glad to know who he is and we're believing in God's perfect timing.

THE WAIT IS OVER... SORT OF

We got THE CALL yesterday! Our son is so beautiful! We are rejoicing and at the same time we are saddened to hear his story. Please be patient with us as we cannot share details just yet.

MY DREAM

Last week Aaron woke me up at 6:00 AM and said,

"Herdle! (as he affectionately calls me) I just had the craziest dream!"

It took me a minute to gather my thoughts, but as soon as I did I thought... "no way! He had a dream about Arthur too!"

He shared his dream with me and I shared mine with him. We talked about how cool it was that we were both dreaming about our boy at the same time.

This is only the second dream I've had about our little one. The first one was the morning of December 1st. I dreamed about his birth and woke up wondering if maybe he really was born that day.

This time we were in a dark garage or warehouse. Looking around the room I saw all of our friends and family excited and ready meet our son. Then I saw Aaron holding little Arthur, making his way to me. I reached out to grab him and brought him close only to discover that he was burning hot with a fever. I looked up and this time saw the faces of scary men all over the room. I turned to Aaron and tried to signal to him that something was wrong and we needed to get out of there ASAP. We started to make our way out and one by one our family and friends fought off these men until we were out the door. safe. and finally a family.

As we get closer to meeting our son we feel the support of our community and know that people are fighting for us and praying for us daily as we walk through this process. Thank you for loving our almost family!

oh! and Friday we moved up another spot! #5... for real this time!