CRANKY!

Today marks five weeks of waiting since we passed court and nine weeks of waiting since we met our sweet boy. NINE WEEKS! That sixty-three days! Two months of growth and development we've missed out on.

I'm trying to be careful and really think about what I say and what I post on facebook. In the past 24 hours I have posted and deleted two different comments! ha! I don't want to be negative or complainy... I'm just SO CRANKY.

One of the comments was about maternity leave. It's been a frustrating topic since day one. Frustrating and just so complicated it's hard to even explain. In my personal opinion, every mama, adoptive or not should get six months paid maternity leave with their child. Sound good?

When I step back and take a deep breath I can see clearly how lucky I am...

I work for a company who offers adoption assistance! wow!

I have a husband with a very flexible schedule (allowing him to watch Arthur when I go back to work)

I have a debt free life (if you don't count our house and one car)

A debt free adoption (with help from all of you lovely people)

Oh! and the most beautiful son in the whole world. I'm going to stop complaining now.

Hoping to share good news soon!

KIDS JAMBO

How stinkin' cute are these little ones in their JAMBO shirts!!! Thank you, friends, for the pictures!! Makes me smile :)

UPDATE

I know you've all been wondering... "why is this taking so long" and "when are you going back??" These are the things we wonder EVERY DAY! I feel the need to explain a little bit about what's going on right now. You all know we passed court on July 20th. Here is a list of things that have to happen before we can go get him...

1. The adoption decree is written by the judge naming the adoptive parents as the legal parents of the child. DONE

2. The child's birth certificate is filed for DONE

3. The child is taken to have photo taken for passport. Passport is created. DONE

4. Child has visa medical exam. DONE

5. All documents (along with any supporting documents) are submitted to the US Embassy in order for a visa interview to be scheduled. NOT DONE

There are twelve different families from CHI who sort of went through all of these steps together. Last thursday the staff in Ethiopia gathered all the documents for these twelve cases and took them over to the US Embassy to be submitted and something really stupid happened.... they turned them away. Apparently it was too late in the afternoon, even though they went around the same time they had gone previously. From what I understand the staff pleaded and did everything they could it was just not going to happen. The thing that really bums me out about this happening is that Thursday is the only day that cases can be submitted to the US Embassy, so we have to wait a whole week to try again! BOO!!

After our case is finally submitted, we will start receiving emails from the Embassy regarding the progress of our case. It's not uncommon for the Embassy to request additional documents or interviews with the birth parents. From what I understand, it typically takes a week or two to be cleared. Once you get clearance from the Embassy your visa appointment is scheduled and it's possible that you could travel that same week!!

So, yes, this is taking a little longer than we expected, but if all goes smoothly from here on out, we could be traveling in mid September.

OK! OK! THE CRAZY WEEKEND...

So, the weekend in Lubbock was filled with great times with family, sad times with family, busyness and just a lot of little obstacles Aaron and I had to face together. But, the craziest thing that happened was on the drive home. When we got to Perry, Oklahoma we drove right into a dark and very scary storm. We decided to pull over so Aaron could drive. I was scared! We were under an overpass about to switch drivers when 90 mph winds threw gravel and rain at our back window, shattering it and breaking it in. The rocks continued to fly into the car breaking our side mirrors and rearview mirror (yes! the rearview mirror INSIDE THE CAR!) The dogs were with us. Poor Peaman was so scared he threw up and I somehow managed to catch it in a towel. Does that mean I'm ready to be a mom?

Here are some pictures of the damage.

And this, Ladies and Gentleman is why we have insurance!

MORE PICTURES

I started to write about my crazy weekend and then thought... you guys probably don't care... you probably just want to see more pictures of Arthur. How about these?

Theses are pictures of Arthur pretty soon after he was placed in the orphanage (I'm guessing). We're really lucky to have these pictures. A travel buddy just happened to have them after she requested photos from Numan orphanage. She recognized Arthur and sent them to us! Little bitty baby Arthur... so sweet!

WOW! IT HAS BEEN A CRAZY COUPLE OF WEEKS

I want to tell you all about it, but while I recount and gather all the pictures I will leave you with this sweet message I received this morning.

I have the best friends!! Thank you Leslie for sharing! This is just the sweetest!

TODAY ARTHUR IS 8 MONTHS OLD!

It's been about six weeks since we were in Ethiopia meeting our boy. When we left we talked about what he might be doing when we saw him next. It was hard to think about the things we might miss, but knew it was good for him to grow!

A sweet family from CHI was kind enough to take pictures for us while they were at House of Hope meeting their little girl last week. While it was sort of sad to see the pictures and learn how's he's changed, I am SO PROUD of this boy! Look what he's doing!!

And look at all that hair!!

So ready to go and get that boy!