Let's Review

Still no word on our court date. We are hoping to hear something any day now and are trying very hard not to feel frustrated or discouraged. Easier said than done! So for those of you who keep asking what's going on, let's review.

We are waiting to be assigned a court date with the Ethiopian government. On that day, our agency's staff in Ethiopia will represent us in court and here Simon's case and our petition to adopt him. If all goes smoothly and we pass court on this first court date, we will travel approximately 4-6 weeks later to pick-up Simon. There are several things that could prevent us from passing court on the first try: the electricity could be out that day, sometimes a person who needs to be in court that day is unable to attend, there's lots of room for error in translating our English documents into the Ethiopian language of Amharic, etc. But hopefully, our case is successful on the first court date and we will then find ourselves waiting for our travel call.

In the meantime, we have been keeping busy! Simon turns 17 months today. From the last report we received, we know that he looks very happy and healthy and our hopes and prayers are that this continues to be so. We are hoping to get another update soon. But even if an update doesn't come, we know a family who should be traveling in the next few weeks to bring their son home. They have graciously offered to take a package to Simon for us. They are hoping to be able to travel to his care center and meet him and take photos for us. Knowing that they could be seeing him soon is so comforting. Thank you, Tom and Stacy!

Here's a glimpse of the care package for Simon:






We included a soft blanket, a recordable book that we read for him, and a little car.

We've also got one suitcase packed and ready to go! It is customary to take gifts for the nannies and many of the other people we will meet who will help us while in Ethiopia. Here's a glimpse of our gifts for the nannies:



We also made a blanket for the family of the little boy we sponsor. I'll write more about how you might be able to help us with this project later. But for now, here's a photo of the blanket we made. I never realized how easy it is to create one of these fleece blankets!



So that's the latest from here. Waiting, waiting, and waiting some more. I had fun writing this post ... maybe I should do this more often and it will help to pull me out of the funk I'm feeling!

Well....I guess the wait CAN get worse.

Yesterday we saw a lot of the people with our agency start to get court dates. Some of the people who got referrals on the same day as us got court dates for NEXT WEEK!! Of course, we haven't heard anything yet. I complained about the wait in the last post, but it is a whole lot worse now. This is why I am glad that we were never at the top of the waiting list for a referral. Knowing you could be next...knowing the phone could ring any minutes is heart wrenching. Last night the phone rang twice and I about jumped out of my skin. We still have some hopes of hearing soon so please keep us in your thoughts. I am doing everything in my power to try and remain calm, but I am having very little luck. Hopefully we will have good news soon. I suppose the really bad part is how tormenting the wait is going to be on the day we ACTUALLY have court. We will DEFINITELY need some distraction that day!
~Mark

A Few Words about Patience.

I am not the one who writes most of our blog posts. I usually leave that to Wendi. However, I have been a little slow at work lately and have had time to do a lot of thinking. for the last several days I have been trying to compose a post in my head that sums up how our wait is going. We had a 9 month wait to get our referral for Simon and now we have a wait of unknown length until we have a court date, embassy date and can bring him home. Somehow that 9 month wait seems very very easy.
I would really like to write a post extolling the virtues of patience and how it will make that time we have together all that more special.
I would really like to say that we are so busy getting things ready for Simon that the time is just flying by.
I would really like to say that we are using our time wisely to do all those things that everyone else says is difficult, if not impossible, to do once you have children.
I would really love to be the person who can see all the positives in our wait.
HOWEVER....I cannot write a post like that because it isn't needed. I can some up everything about this waiting process in two words......WAITING SUCKS!!!!!!!
~Mark

An Ethiopian at the Winter Olympics

I love the Olympics! I am really looking forward to the Winter Games starting in Vancouver next week. When I worked at Manchester College, I got to travel to Vancouver for a conference and visited the Blackcomb/Whistler ski areas where I think some of the events will be held. Vancouver is such a cool city -- loved it!

Reading through different blogs tonight, this headline caught my eye:

Ethiopian cross-country skier laying down tracks

Here's a link to the article:

http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/crosscountryskiing/story/2010/02/01/spo-crosscountry-teklemariam.html

How cool is that!?!?

An update on Simon!

I couldn't believe it when I checked my e-mail this afternoon ... an update on Simon from Ethiopia! It came completely out of the blue! And the best part is that it included 12 photos!!! It is so fun to see his different expressions including one with a huge smile. It looks like he bites his lower lip when he is concentrating on something. And he has definitely grown! He's gained one pound in the last month and his two little teeth on the bottom are really showing now. And it looks like he will soon need a haircut -- wow!

Most of the photos are related to a developmental assessment and show him doing things like drinking from a cup and stacking blocks. But the social worker also said these wonderful things about him:

• "an adorable little boy"
• "has a very calm and cool manner"
• "According to the nannies he even sings songs at night but it is gibberish." (LOVE this!)
• "an affectionate child with a warm personality"
• "Once he gets to know someone he tends to respect and love that person."

Mark and I are thrilled with this awesome update! Simon looks very happy and healthy and from what we can see of the home where he is living, it looks very nice and well-kept. All of this together gives us so much peace -- and an even deeper longing to know Simon. We cannot wait to hold our little boy!!

Simon is 16 months today

Hard to believe but it has been three weeks since we first saw Simon's precious face and today he turned 16 months old. We think about him all the time. We talk about him all the time. We wonder about him, share our hopes for him, imagine our life with him and make plans for the things we will do together as a family of three. Looking back, the nine months we waitedto learn about him seems to have gone by in the blink of an eye! It sure didn't feel like time was going by quickly; August and November were particularly difficult months. But now it feels like we've known his face forever. We have memorized every tiny feature. It feels as though we know his pictures intimately yet we long to know him in person ... what his laugh sounds like, what makes him smile, does he ever feel sad, does he understand the huge change that will happen in a few short months, who does he play with, what are his likes and dislikes, what are his mannerisms ... these and many more questions keep rolling through our minds.

We got a note on Friday that said that our paperwork is on the way back to Ethiopia. That paperwork included a little photo album for Simon with photos of me and Mark, our parents and Simon's room. We labeled them and his caregivers will tell Simon about us and show him our pictures, probably sometime later this week! We realize that he's probably too little to understand but it's exciting to think that they will begin working with him to help with the transition. We even tucked a little note behind one of the photos ... it's in English so I'm not sure if any of the nannies will be able to read it to him but some day he will know what it says and how much we are longing to have him home with us.

There's a family that I met through the extra classes I took at our agency ... they passed their court date on Friday and are hoping to travel in February to bring home their son. They have offered to carry a package to Simon for us! We don't know if they will get to meet him or not -- the boys are in different locations -- but at least our little package will get to Simon via our agency's staff. We are so grateful to Tom and Stacy for helping with this! We have been sleeping with a little blanket between us for about a month. This might sound strange but one thing we were told was that if we can send something with our 'scent' on it, it could help Simon to not be so afraid of us; that we could at least 'smell' familiar to him. So we will be sending the blanket and a little car.

A fun thing happened today ... the local newspaper featured Mark and his Ailor Photography blog as their 'blog of the week.' The article appeared today and the post they chose to highlight was the one from receiving our referral titled, "It's a BOY!" So fun! Our realtor even called and left a message for us here at home when she saw it ... she was glad to see we were adding some children to the house. Guess she thought we'd be lonely here as a family of two!

Simon, you are already so loved and anticipated! Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, playmates and especially Mommy and Daddy ... we love you so very much!!! We pray for and hope for your health, safety and happiness. Keep growing strong and be a good boy and we will keep working towards the day that we can hold you in our arms and tell you in person how much we love you!

Adoption Update

Things are finally settling down again at the Ailor household. It's been 16 days since we first laid eyes on Simon and I feel as though we have memorized every detail of his smiling face. We talk about him all the time and dream about what life will be like with him in our home as our son. We can't wait to become a family of three!

Over the last two weeks we have done more paperwork -- the official paperwork to accept his referral. This paperwork is sent to a variety of places and will start the process of getting a court date in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa. So we are back to waiting again! We will wait to hear from our agency about our court date. On that day, our agency's staff in Ethiopia will represent us in court and if all goes smoothly, we will legally become Simon's parents on that day. Most families pass through court on their first assigned court date. However, sometimes, it takes a few tries to pass through court -- not because anything is necessarily wrong. We'll let you know as soon as we receive word about our assigned court date.

Once we pass through court, we will wait again for our travel call. This usually happens four to six weeks after passing court. Most people get about two weeks notice before they need to be in Ethiopia. We hope that we'll be traveling in April or May. We'll let you know our plans!

In the meantime, we have been busy preparing other things for Simon's arrival here at home. We had fun registering for all kinds of fun things to help welcome Simon home! It's kind of overwhelming but in the end we had a good time with it all. We've also been organizing and cleaning out closets. I love the end results! We also spent some time in Simon's room, taking stock of what we have and what we need.

It's also been fun to celebrate the news of Simon with our friends! On the Friday after we received our referral, a number of families from town who are part of our Ethiopian adoption group came over to our house to celebrate Ethiopia's Christmas. It's just a great group of people and we simply enjoy their company! We always look forward to these gatherings, especially because we get to see their kids having fun and playing together -- always leaves us with a sense of hope!

Later that weekend, we drove to North Manchester to go to church and to share the good news with our friends there. We are so grateful for the support and friendship we continue to receive from the Manchester CoB! Fills up my cup. Wish we could have visited longer that day but next we were off to visit Mark's family in Peru. It was so fun to share in their excitement for us! Simon will be the first boy in Mark's immediate family in 40 years ... since Mark was born. His Mom is over the moon excited to have a grandson!

Then on the following Tuesday, we enjoyed getting together with two families from the Ethiopia adoption group, the Mroczeks and Modesitts. We shared an Ethiopian dinner together, pot-luck style. Let me tell you -- our friends are wonderful cooks! And you know how much Mark enjoys cooking. It was a delicious meal. And then just this past Saturday, our adoption support group hosted a gathering complete with a cake that said, "Hurry Home, Simon!" Too cute! Thank you, Brigitte and Todd, for planning this celebration! (And they just brought home their newborn son about 12 days ago -- they were so brave to have us all over to their house!)

And if that wasn't enough partying, we met our friends Kent and Denise in Indy for lunch at Major Restaurant, one of the three Ethiopian restaurants in Indy. This was Denise's first experience with Ethiopian food and we are so glad that she liked it! It's always fun to catch-up with them.

So after all of this celebrating, we had to get back to the business of preparing for Simon. Today, we had an appointment with the Travel Clinic to start our immunizations. It wasn't as bad as I had feared! The nurse was very kind and gave us some great information. Our arms are a little sore but not too bad.

And that's the update! I've still got a ton of e-mails to catch-up on but I think that my feet are finally back on the ground. It feels so wonderful to know Simon's face and that it's him we are preparing for. Thank you again for your continued support and encouragement! It is both felt and appreciated greatly!