Adoption Update

At last!

We heard from our agency on Wednesday ... our dossier will be sent to Ethiopia on Friday, March 27.



Hooray!!!

Let the waiting begin. (insert long sighs from Wendi and Mark here)

But do you know whose waits are coming to an end?

Three Lafayette families are currently or will soon be traveling to meet their sons.

Triple hooray!

The Whipple's left on Wednesday to be united with Isaac.

The Gutwein's leave on Saturday to finally meet Taye.

And the Modesitt's leave on April 1 to bring home Ashenafi.

We are celebrating with these families and can't wait to meet their new children! Seeing them all come home gives us hope and inspires us to know that we will be in their shoes someday soon. Congratulations to all!

A Day in Wendi's World

Haven't had much urge to blog lately but then I saw another blog that just showed 'a day in the life' kind of photos. It inspired me to give it a try. I didn't choose the most exciting day to do this but here's a taste of my daily life.

Don't know what kind of flowers/weeds these are but they've popped up outside our kitchen. I check on them every morning. Loving the signs of spring in our neighborhood and yard!

If you look closely at the door in the parking garage, you'll see that I'm parked on level 3. If I'm just 10 minutes late, I miss out on parking on the more desireable level 2. Must have been one of those mornings!

This is my desk where I spend my days. I love this time of year because I get the morning sun through my windows. No, my desk is not always that messy. Well, ok, maybe it is but April is approaching and we have a lot of events coming up!

I usually pack my lunch and eat with my co-workers in the office. But on this day, I met my friend Chris for lunch. We walked to Flatbreads in the Union and got little pizzas for lunch. Delicious! It was nice to catch-up with Chris.

This is my building, Matthews Hall. It's one of the older buildings on campus, built in 1925. It's in a great location -- close to the parking garage, near a small park and fountain, and a quick walk to the Union.

One Wednesday each month, my colleague Teresa and I meet with our college's student ambassadors. It's always a lot of fun ... the students are great to work with.

And here is my view at the end of the work day as I head back to the parking garage and home to Mark.

Mark and I will often sit down for a few minutes and review the day with each other. Now that it's warming up outside, we've opened up the sun room again. It's our favorite place to sit and relax. And yes, that is a hole in Mark's sock.

And every Wednesday and Sunday, and sometime in between, I talk with my parents in Pennsylvania. This phone call was especially important because we're making plans for Mark and I to visit over Memorial Day.

So there you go! A day in Wendi's world. Maybe some of you will share a day in your world too? I'll be watching your blogs to see!

Feeling Sad

Hargewoin Teferra has passed away. She is the woman who Melissa Fay Greene wrote about in her book, There Is No Me Without You. Her story and life are very inspiring to many who have adopted/are adopting from Ethiopia. I'm feeling sad for the many children she has cared for and those she left behind. You can read more about her at the link below.

http://www.thereisnomewithoutyou.com/the_foster_mother

Thinking of our friends who are waiting to travel ... those who are home with their children ... and those who are waiting ...

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.