March 23, 2009

Spring is Here

Well our first weekend home in the past two weeks and the weather was beautiful. We were able to get much needed yard work done. I doubt we will win yard of the month but it looks good.

On the adoption front, things have been moving quickly. When we started the month we were told we were #12. The month of March has been really busy for referrals, so upon checking our number today, we were given the #5 spot! I cannot believe how fast things are moving. I hope they continue. The referral that was given out on
Friday was given to a family who was only waiting 6 months. We have been waiting for 5 months. As for the families waiting before us, one is for sure requesting a boy (our current #1 waiter on the yahoo group) and one is requesting a girl (officially given the #3 spot) - all are looking for infants like us. So there really is no way to tell for sure if we will get our referral in the next batch. I am holding out hope to get our referral in April since it is the month we got Aiden's referral, its our Anniversary month and also it would put us traveling in the late summer/early fall and before court closures. I still am feeling a lot calmer this time. I guess because I know this part of the process is out of our control so all we can do is sit back and wait and hope things continue to progress the way they have been. I will update you as soon as I hear of any more referrals. It is starting to get exciting though. Just think somewhere on the other side of the world our little girl may already have been born.......

March 19, 2009

Trip to New Orleans



Went headed to New Orleans for a long weekend with our friends, the Walters. David was coming to town for a conference and since it is just a short drive for us we figured we would meet them for some fun. The Walters got out there on Saturday morning. It was pouring! I mean buckets of rain! We decided to brave the weather and walk down to the restaurant Mother's that is famous for their ham and sandwiches which have something called "debris" on it. You may have seen the place featured on Food Network's show Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, that is where we all saw it. Anyway we waited out in the rain under some umbrellas and all got soaked but it was worth it. The "debris" as they call it, is the stuff that is in the bottom of the pan after the ham is done baking. I can describe the sandwich in one word "wonderful."

After changing out of our soaked clothes, we headed to Bourbon Street (relax people it was only 12 noon). We got some hurricanes to go from Pat O'Brien's and got the kids some virgin slushies from one of those Daiquiri places. We looked in the shops, bought beads, tried on silly hats, tried Pralines and took a carriage ride all in the pouring rain. We even were able to see some of a parade where the boys collected so many beads (I think like 50 each). Don't worry no flashing anything except their cuteness! We finished the evening with another wonderful meal where I had the best French Onion Soup I had ever tasted. One funny story to share; at the restaurant sitting next to us was a family with a little girl who was adopted from China. She must have been 5 or 6 and really cute. She had no beads so Aiden decided to give her some of his. I guess he was smitten with her because he was all nervous and stuttering and went up to her and looked back at us and whispered very loudly "what should I say?" It was so cute.

The next day the weather man, whose last name was of all thing Smiley, said that it would not be a wash out just take your umbrellas when you head out in case of a lite passing shower. We headed out and the sun was actually out so we went down to the River Walk and decided to get something to eat. After sitting through the longest lunch I have ever had (very slow service). It started to pour again. This was not a lite passing shower people it was pouring buckets! We took the kids on the street car and headed towards the garden district to see all the pretty houses. It poured the whole time.

David headed to his conference and we walked back to the French Market in the rain. One thing about New Orleans is the best way to see it and experience it is on foot but in the pouring rain this was just miserable. The boys were troopers though and we made it to the market just to find that everything was closed. We ducked into the first restaurant we saw to get out of the rain. I guess we should have researched this part a little better. Here we are in the city with some of the best tasting food ever and we end up picking one of the worst restaurants ever. The service was so slow and the boys were starting to get restless. Just when we were about to leave the waiter came over, was super nice and gave some sort of wonderful tasting punch and we thought okay maybe this won't be as bad as we thought. We finally ordered our food and while gone on a bathroom trip with Aiden, the waiter came back and told Eric that they had run out of what I had ordered. Eric told him that I would be right back and could he check back with us in a few minutes. Finally after everyone was half finished with their food, the waiter returned to take my order - seriously? I went with the special which was fried chicken figuring this would be fast since it was the special. It came quickly thank goodness, but it was more the size of a pigeon than I chicken I mean tiny! After leaving the restaurant starving we headed to Cafe DuMonde which was wonderful as always. The boys especially liked the powdered sugar. As you can see from the pictures they went a little crazy with it. After that we walked back to the hotel by the way of Royal Street which was much better for the boys as Bourbon Street was beginning to get crazy. After a major Aiden melt down we decided to turn in - hungry.

The next day we headed to Daisy Duke's for breakfast. A little dive place the hotel recommended. We then said goodbye to our friends and headed to the River Walk to take the Street Car down to the French Market. Guess what? Even though the weather man, Smiley, said it would be a beautiful day - it was raining again! Not drizzling but raining sideways - ugh! I looked at Eric after getting soaked again from our morning walk to the street car and said, "I want to go home."

When we got back from New Orleans some friends of ours left us a message asking if we wanted to take a trip with them for a long weekend in April to you guessed it - New Orleans! Eric and I just looked at each other and were like "we'll pass!" I still love the city but it is just no fun in the rain! I am sure we will go back but I need some time to dry out.

March 10, 2009

Trip to Atlanta



We traveled to Atlanta this past weekend to see our niece get baptized. We were so glad to be a part of Caitlin's important day.

After the baptism we took a trip to Stone Mountain Park. It was opening day and packed. They had an exhibit called Snow Atlanta where they had snow making machines and the kids could slide down the hills and make snow balls and play in the snow. It was weird to see the snow since it was 80 degrees outside! Although this looked like a lot of fun we didn't have gloves with us so we opted out of this activity and decided to do the train instead. This was right up Aiden's alley since he has a obsession with Thomas and everything train. He loved it! We then did something they call Sky Hike where they suspended wooden planks and rope that you used to hike around in the sky basically - it was neat - I had never seen anything like that. They had something set up for the littler kids where they could participate but not go up so high. We were astonished at all the things Aiden could do. He even did the "Tarzan Rope" thing where you hold on and swing across on a cable. What a difference a year makes! The last thing we did was a Barn that had tons of activities inside different ropes and slides you can go down. Also, you collect balls and bring them to the top and shoot them out at people which Aiden loved.

We had a great time in Atlanta and were so happy to see the family and spend time with everyone. We also were honored to be a part of Caitlin's special day.

March 5, 2009

The Wait List

I finally broke down and e-mailed our agency to get a definite number of where we stand on the wait list. We were told that our family is number 12 in line. As we move closer to the single digits it gets more exciting! It has been reported that our agency is expecting a package in the mail next week from Ethiopia which probably will have some referrals in it. When they receive the package our agency will have to review the files and match families with the children. Usually there are multiple referrals made in the same day but I doubt that our referral will be included in this package as most if not all of the families above us are also waiting for infants. Our agency has informed us that their has been a slow down on assignments currently because there are so many children being brought into the center that they have had to increase their staff and they are focusing on training them. If our referral is not included in this package it would mean another 4 to 6 weeks wait until the next batch of referrals come in. In the meantime we will just hope the people at the top of the wait list will get some good news next week. Some of them have been waiting for 8 months!

March 4, 2009

Cupcakes



Today was Aiden's turn to bring in cupcakes for his school. He really loves Thomas the Train and wanted Thomas cupcakes. I found some cute Thomas Cake rings on line. We used different color frosting and put the rings on top of the cupcakes. They came out kinda cute - definitely look homemade. We also added sprinkles and writing icing to some as well. When I dropped them off this morning the kids were so excited.

In adoption news there has been no movement on the list. There were no referrals made for the month of February which was kind of disappointing. When we originally started this process we thought we would get our referral around March. The longest waiters are now going into their 8 month of waiting, so it looks like wait times are certainly increasing. There has been a lot of movement with court passings and travel. Nine families picked up their children last month alone! We are still handling the wait better this time. Probably because we know that we cannot control this part of the process and also Aiden keeps us very busy. We did go to a local baby store last weekend to look at bedding and furniture. I did not fall in love with any furniture but did find a bedding set I like. It is bright and cheery with polka dots and butterflies. I was originally thinking about getting white nursery furniture but most of what they had was dark cherry, espresso and black. I was leaning more towards the espresso but am undecided. I talked to the woman in the store and she told me to allow 6 - 8 weeks for delivery of the furniture. I still would like to wait until we receive our referral before doing anything with the nursery just yet. We did get some news from our agency about what kind of things the in take center needs donation wise. I will post some of the things they need soon. If you would like to contribute, please contact us and we would be happy to arrange to get the items from you. We would bring them with us when we travel to pick up the baby.