Lafayette Ethiopia Adoption Group Gathering

Friday night was lively on Cedar Lane! We hosted many of the families who are adopting/have adopted from Ethiopia. This was the second gathering that Mark and I have been a part of and I think the fourth or fifth gathering for the group. We had a blast!! I think we counted about 20 adults and 10 children. The house was full of laughter, conversation, good food and lots of fun -- we loved it! In fact, it seems rather quiet around here today.

Three of the families have passed court in the last week. That means within the next month, they will each be bringing home their children -- all three are boys and boy oh boy are they CUTE! Can't wait to meet them in person. Here are the three families posing with the cakes we had to celebrate. (Note: this was a carry-in and several of us had the same idea -- cake to celebrate all the good news!) From left to right: Kevin and Laura, Jenny, Janet and Ben.

Sarah (second from left) returned from Ethiopia in January with her son, Tegegn. Here, she is showing photos from their time in ET to (l-r) Amber, Rita and Janet. Amber will hopefully be traveling later this spring to pick-up her two sons, Rita is waiting for a referral for a little girl (anyday now!), and Janet just passed court on Friday and will travel in about two weeks to pick-up her son, Isaac.

A good time was had by all on Friday night! But a few lonely items were left behind. Here is the lost and found: a spoon (left at the Gutwein's gathering last summer), a penny found on the floor, a knife, a pair of sunglasses, and a pair of children's socks. Please let us know if we can return any of these items to you. : ) Thanks again for coming over last night!

Project People

So our friend, the fabulous Christina, once called me and Mark "project people." I kind of like that 'tag' and think it suits us well. We proved Christina's point this weekend with another home improvement project.

Last week, we were lucky enough to babysit for the very adorable and very active David. Isn't he sweet?

Mark and I truly enjoy spending time with David and are grateful when his very fun and gracious mother Denise, asks us to babysit. This time, we tried to pay special attention to all of the things that David likes to get into at our house. Mark and I had been talking about replacing the railing at the top of the stairs with a solid wall so that we can use a baby gate there when Baby Ailor arrives. Watching David this week confirmed for us the need to do that because he tried to stick his head in between the railings. Can't blame him ... looks like something fun to try to see the stairs from a new perspective. I've thought of trying it myself, but I digress ...

Here is this weekend's project in pictures. We're so glad to have this one crossed off the list! It also involved painting the last of the walls ... no more depressing gray and stark white -- yay!

Mark is going to stain the wood that frames the wall and then it will be complete. In the meantime, we are enjoying having another project done before Baby Ailor arrives on the scene. Next on the list: getting grass to grow in the front yard!

Signs of Spring

It was a wonderfully warm weekend here in Indiana. We turned off the furnace and opened some windows on Saturday morning. We also opened up the sun room again -- we have really missed sitting in the sun room this winter.

I noticed some tulips popping up at the end of our driveway. And then I noticed that our rhododendron has buds on it!

We were sitting in the sun room this afternoon and Mark saw a bald eagle flying over the house -- how cool is that!?! I've seen a bald eagle on my way to work each of the last two weeks. We knew from watching the news that there were several in the area but how exciting to see them with our own eyes. Reminds of visiting the Middle Creek Wildlife area with my Nanny and Grampy and family when I was a kid.

And my favorite sign of spring happened this morning ... geese in our driveway! It looked like they were going to just march up to our front door but I think that I scared them away. It's been fun to see many more ducks and geese on the ponds in our neighborhood.

Gotta love spring!

Dossier to DC

Just a quick adoption update ... we received news today that our dossier is on its way to Washington DC to be authenticated. YAY! One more step towards sending it to Ethiopia.

Sorry that we haven't been very good about posting lately ... I'll try to post some more this weekend.

(Almost) Paper Pregnant

Well, we're almost officially "paper pregnant!" After a day that included a car that wouldn't start, two trips to the Secretary of State's office, and 30 minutes of copying at Staples, we have turned in our dossier to our agency! Wooo whoooo! I think that we're both feeling a little bit stunned that we're finally at this point in the process. Here's a taste of our day today ...

I was in my car to leave for work and I couldn't get it to start. Huh. It was parked in the garage and was running fine for me on Saturday. We didn't drive it on Sunday. But I couldn't get it to start for me. I could tell by the sounds that it was making that it wasn't the battery. So I went back inside and had Mark come down to listen to it. He thinks it sounds (and smells) like something with the fuel line. We had been planning to take my car to Indy today so we had to go to plan B.

Mark showered and got ready for the day and then drove me to work. I had to ask my supervisor to re-do my employment letter for our dossier because we saw an error on it yesterday. So Denise and I walked over to the Purdue Union building to have the letter notarized. Denise is also an adoptive parent and understands all the paperwork and how precise everything has to be ... I was especially glad for her good-humor and willingness to help.

Mark and I both worked until noon and then he picked me up at work to go to Indy. We went directly to the Secretary of State's office to get the last paperwork state sealed. Then we drove to our agency on the northeast side of the city. There, the assistant for the International programs went through our dossier to make sure that everything was correct. Wouldn't you know it? The first document was state sealed incorrectly! Ugh. The good news, however, was that that was the only error she found! Hooray!

So we jumped back in the car at 3:20 to get to the Secretary of State's office one last time (fingers crossed, please!) We arrived at 3:45 -- they close at 4 p.m. I dropped Mark off at the front of the building -- he made a mad dash into the building and returned at 4:00 with the corrected document. Double hooray! My Mario Andretti driving skills were put to the test today!

We drove back to the northeast side to a Staples near our agency and made the final copies we needed. We then walked to the Panera across the parking lot to grab some dinner before returning to our agency with our dossier and four copies. Here are two photos:

See all the gold seals? That's what the State Seals looks like. We learned that if we do this again, we will definitely make most of the copies before we take them to be state sealed!

We also attended our first adoption class tonight. This one was specifically about Ethiopia. It was very informative. There were about a dozen families there but only one with their referral and court date. Mark and I were pleasantly surprised to find that we're ahead of nearly all the other families in terms of our paperwork. (This isn't said competitively ... we've just gotten used to being behind!) We were also glad to meet another couple from Lafayette who are actually adopting from Rwanda and another couple from Kouts who both grew up in West Lafayette. We hope that both couples might connect to our Lafayette group.

It was very interesting to hear from the pastor of the Ethiopian congregation in Indianapolis. He was very friendly and we enjoyed listening to him talk about how other Ethiopians view adoption. He invited all of us to worship with them and we hope to attend church there sometime.

All in all, I think that our heads are spinning -- it's been a whirlwind day! Now we just wait to hear from our agency's headquarters, hoping that they don't find any problems with our dossier. They will let us know when it's on its way to Ethiopia. Stay tuned!

Taste of Ethiopia Night

On Saturday night, we hosted a "Little Taste of Ethiopia Night." Mark and I wanted to share our excitement about adopting from Ethiopia so we invited some of our family and friends to attend one of three Ethiopia nights in our home. As you all know, Mark loves to cook and experiment in the kitchen and I love to host/entertain in our home. We thought that this would be a good way to combine both of our interests while sharing some of what we've learned about Ethiopia and international adoption. Plus, we both agree that by tasting the foods of another culture, you begin to get a sense of what life is like there.

Mark is shown serving Dora Wat to our friend Christina. Luckily, Christina likes spicey foods! Christina is one of my co-workers at Purdue. You may remember her from the chocolate fountain pictures back in November.

Here is another one of my co-workers, Debbie. She is studying the Ethiopian nativity that Mark gave me for my birthday back in December. Debbie likes trying new things, too. I have wonderful co-workers! I've been very fortunate to work with fabulous and fun people at both Manchester and Purdue.

I have to admit ... it really helps to just talk about Baby Ailor and what the next year will bring. It makes the whole journey feel more real and tangible. So thank you to all who attended both in January and February. We've got one more in March and we're already looking forward to it!

Our friends Jenny and Maria made the snowy drive from North Manchester to attend on Saturday night. I think that they were glad for a 'girl's night out' and we were glad for their company! Our new friends Ben and Janet are on the other couch. We met them through the Lafayette Ethiopia adoption group and have really enjoyed getting to know them better.

Thanks again to all who attended on Saturday night! Especially to Mark's family who made the hour long drive to be here with us -- thanks for being here!

It's here! It's here!

Finally! Our I-171H arrived today! The last piece of our dossier. Yes! We will be completing our dossier over the weekend. Basically, we need to have the I-171H notarized. Then, we will take it and a few other documents to the Secretary of State's office to be state sealed on Monday. We will find a copy shop in Indianapolis after that, make 4 copies of our entire dossier, and then turn it in to our adoption agency. We already had plans to travel to Indy on Monday for our first 'adoption class' -- this one in particular is about Ethiopia and is required before we can travel there. Hopefully, we'll be traveling in early 2010 to pick up Baby Ailor.

Mark and I have been anxiously checking the mailbox each day to see if our I-171H had arrived. It has been just over three weeks since we were fingerprinted. I got home first today and found the big envelope from Homeland Security -- I ran into the house to open it. Mark was just as excited as I was when he got home a few minutes later. Here are some photos to show you just how happy we are!

Another step completed on our journey to bring home Baby Ailor. Thank you for sharing your support and joy with us!