Names

Well Matt and I have finally agreed upon the names for our children. His name will be Avery David Ethiopian nameand her name will be Isabelle Jane Ethiopian name. It has been a long and trying road for us to agree on the names. I'm guessing these two children will be our last simply due to the fact that we would never be able to agree on names for any more.LOL!! Well not much more to post at this point, when we have to tell I will definately post it. Til then.

more nursery pictures

Here are more, the blog is not letting me download more than 5 at a time. Sorry!

nursery pictures

Traveling update (Long)

We received information today from our agency regarding the new rules for traveling. If our court date does not come before the second week of May we will have to travel twice. Matt and I understand that there is nothing we can do about this new rule so we are just going to roll with the punches and do whatever we have to do to bring our little ones home. The money is the only thing that we are worried about and we are only a little worried about that because we know that we can do it. We have faith in each other that we can get through this as painlessly as possible because we are a team and we will do whatever it takes to bring the rest of our team home. On the brighter side we would be able to see our "chipmunk" and "bumble bee" sooner than we were expecting to. Plus we would get to do a lot more touristy things while in country than we would if we only traveled once. The reason being is that our first trip the children will not be legally ours so we will not be able to check them out of the orphanage so we will only visit with them when there schedule allows it. So that means while we are not visiting our children we can shop, go to the museums, etc. The second trip we will get custody of them and that is also a shorter trip from what I have heard. Only one of us has to go on the second trip, and if Matt is on a good job we will probably be looking for someone to go with me to pick up the kiddos so that he can stay here and make that much needed money. So who wants to go to Ethiopia with me to pick up our babies? Just leave a note in the comments and I will be drawing the lucky person's name later. LOL.

We will be taking donations for our garage sale also so if you have anything you would like to donate to us please either call me at 217-714-7932 or email me at jennifer_barbee@yahoo.com and we will come and pick the stuff up.

Thanks for all the prayers they are much appreciated!!


The following is the email from our agency:

Dear Families,

The conference of attorneys ended today and Abebe called Radu to inform him of the decisions and changes to the Ethiopia Program. Here are the findings.

Beginning the second week of May (the exact date is yet to be determined) families WILL BE required to travel to Ethiopia for the court date. The families (both parents, one parent, or an escort) will also have to travel back for the visa appointment. These two dates will be about 7-8 weeks apart.

In an effort to ensure that the court process will only require one appearance, it was decided that if MOWA does not have the required letter (often the reason for court dates to be rescheduled) , the proceedings will still occur, a determination will be made (regardless of the lack of letter), and MOWA will send the letter post-completion to the courts. The justices have said they will NOT be postponing court dates for this at all!

Additionally, it will be possible in some situations (Radu expects to have more details about this situations in the weeks to come.) for only one parent to travel for the court appearance if they have a notarized power-of-attorney from the absent parent. This does NOT affect the possibility of using an escort for the Embassy appointment. (But, at least one parent WILL have to be present for the court date.)

Finally, it was decided that the orphanages will have to obtain and produce a birth certificate for every child prior to the court appearance. In the past, sometimes attorneys had it and sometimes they didn’t (in the case of abandonment, for instance.) This birth certificate will state that this child “exists,” include basic data, and will be accompanied with a picture. (There is no expected additional wait time associated with this change.) Then, upon a successful court date, a second birth certificate will be issued by the Minister of Justice and will have the child’s family name. (The last name of the adoptive parents.)
Currently, there are two types of Visas issued by the US Embassy in Ethiopia for adopted children.
IR-3: Which generally means that the child is adopted abroad.
IR-4: The child is brought back to the US for adoption here.
With an IR-3, the adoption is processed in the country of the orphan. IR-3s Visa recipients are automatically considered citizens as they "immigrate" to the US (meaning when they cross to the US for the first time as part of a new family). This recognition only applies to the US federal government and does not carry over into state recognition (though, many states recognize the adoption based on the Visa type). To qualify for an IR-3 visa, BOTH parents (if married) or sole adopting parent MUST visit the child PRIOR to the Court.

This will mean that you might no longer need to “re-adopt” the child/children in the United States as they will have come home on an IR3 Visa. (However, each state has its own regulations, so check with your state immigration office.)

These changes, at the root, are to ensure authenticity of the status of “orphan” for these children. Yes, this may make it more complicated for some. Yes, there are some aspects of this change that may be questionable. But, at the end of the day, this will provide more assurance for the government of Ethiopia, for the citizens of Ethiopia, for adoptive parents, and for the adopted children that the adoption is ethical.

Two months down

Today marks two months on the wait list for our referrals. At the time it seems like it is taking forever for the days to pass, but as I look back I feel like it has gone pretty quickly. I guess that is the way it always is though. I'm hoping that we will not have much more waiting, but I'm also not holding my breath on it.

Matt and I worked on the dresser Saturday but unfortunately it was too cold to do anything with it Sunday. We are stripping the old paint off of it and staining it. So far we have one drawer and the dresser itself left to strip, they are partially stripped which is good. I stained 3 of the drawers Saturday but was only able to get one coat on them so Matt was hoping to get the second coat on them today, but it is not supposed to get too warm today so that might not happen. I wish the weather would cooperate with us so we can get this done and get the dresser out of the garage and be able to put both cars back in the garage. And so I can the dresser organized with our diapers. I bought the curtains for the nursery on Friday and I am hoping that Matt will be able to put up the rod so we can get those up. We bought a roller shade for the window also, but Matt is hoping that he doesn't have to put it up and that the curtains will suffice, but I want the room to be blacked out so we will see who wins this battle. (Me). I really am hoping to have pics up soon. Well that is all for now. Till next time, thank you for all the prayers and well wishes.

One year

One year ago today we had our first home study meeting, which started our journey to International Adoption. At that time I was really hoping we would be a lot closer to our babies than we are, but God had other plans. I trust that He will do what is right for us and our family.

There are rumors going around in the Ethiopian adoption world that we will now have to take two trips to Ethiopia for our adoption instead of the one trip consisting of 7-10 days. Now as of right now our agency is saying that they will not be implementing this to their clients, but if it becomes a law there is nothing they can do, we will have to take two trips. As you might realize this will be more added expense to the already expensive journey of ours. It could possibley run us an extra $5000.00 to $6000.00, but I know that we will be able to do it, God can move mountains and in comparison this is just an ant hill. We would appreciate to be in your prayers in this time of unsurity as to what is in store for us financially. We know that the children God has planned for us are in Ethiopia and we will do whatever it takes to get to them.

Last night my mother-in-law and I went and picked up the dresser we will be using as the changing table. So this weekend Matt and I will be sanding and staining it. We will also be getting the shelves hung and the blinds. I'm still looking for brown curtains that I like. If I can't find any I might look for fabric and see if my grandmother, who happens to be an awesome seamstress along with other things, will make us curtains. After tax season I will be helping my grandma make the baby wipes and washcloths. I would love to learn how to sew, so maybe this will help me get on my way. In high school I took home ec and sewed shorts and a sweatshirt but I have totally forgotten everything I learned. Hopefully after this weekend I will have more pics of the nursery to share.

Some nursery pics

Her bed is on the left, his on the right. Above her crib are pics of a baby zebra and a baby giraffe, above his are pics of two lion cubs and a baby elephant.

A close up of Africa. I was going to put a heart where Ethiopia is but I like it better this way.

So last weekend Matt and I painted the nursery. My friends were giving us one of their cribs so we wanted to get the room painted before they dropped it off. Then this past week I did this I painted Africa on the wall. FYI I had help with a projector my SIL borrowed from the school she teaches at, I am not that talented. It took me most of the week to get it done and I love the final result. I hope the babies love it too. I bought a dresser off of craigs list today to be our changing table but we won't be able to pick it up until Thursday night, it needs some freshening up but it will work great. I had bought a changing table early last year but I decided that a dresser would work out better, this way we can store all our cloth diapers in a more convenient space.

Matt had been in Florida visiting his best friend. We figured it will be his last man trip for a very long time. Once our babes come home he will not be going on a trip without me. LOL! It has been very boring without him here yet very peaceful at the same time. The dogs really miss him, of course I do too but at least I know he is coming home. He will be home Tuesday night late, so I won't probably get to bed til after midnight but it will be worth it to see him.

One Month Down

So as of today we have been officially waiting one month for our referrals. So far so good. As I have said in previous posts, our agency told us that the wait is around 5 months right now. Hopefully the rest of the months go as fast as the first one did. Once the weather gets warmer they will probably fly by, which is fine by me.

Well I got the okay from Matt last night and I bought the rest of our cloth diaper stash, plus the wet bags and diaper pail liners. So unless they come out with some cuter styles we shouldn't need to buy any more diapers, at least I hope not anyways. We now have a total of 56 diapers for two infants, that should be enough I would think. We have 27 bum genius', 8 smart pants, 8 soft bum covers w/20 snap in liners and 4 gro baby covers with w/4 snap in liners. If you are wondering how I came up with 56 diapers is because of the soft bums, each snap in liner is considered one diaper.

Next weekend I'm planning on painting the nursery and we will probably have our second crib by then also. I'm hoping that my SIL will be able to borrow a projector from her school so we can do the pic of Africa we are planning to paint on one of the walls. So hopefully by the first week of March I will have pics to post of the nursery. Until then have a blessed couple of weeks.

Passing the time

So now that we are officially waiting for our referrals I wanted to find things that I could do to pass the time, besides shopping that is. Then I remembered a book that I had read and that I had copied pages from it (I borrowed the book from the library). The book is called The Complete Book of International Adoption by Dawn Davenport, I recommend this book to anyone that is contemplating International Adoption. Here are things that she recommends to do while waiting for your referral.

1.) GET IN SHAPE. I joined a gym and am trying to go to classes 6 days a week. Key word is trying.
2.) CHOOSE A PEDIATRICIAN. This we still need to do. Any suggestions, we go to Christie Clinic?
3.) GET THE REQUIRED IMMUNIZATIONS. This one we have started.
4.) PREPARE A WILL OR REVIEW YOUR EXISTING ONE. We have talked about making one but have yet to do.
5.) FIND OUT YOUR EMPLOYER'S POLICY ON ADOPTION LEAVE. Check
6.) GET BOTH PARENTS UP TO SPEED. What she means by this is that usually one person does all the paperwork, research, etc. (i.e. me) and that that person should let the other person know what is going on, which I do, so...Check.
7.) MAKE SURE GRANDPARENTS AND CLOSE FRIENDS UNDERSTAND ATTACHMENT AND BONDING TECHNIQUES. By letting those close to know about this you are less likely to offend them when you don't let them hold your child(ren) for long periods of time when you are working on the bonding/attachment with your child(ren).
8.) READ ADOPTION BOOKS AND ARTICLES. Have read some and still reading as much as I can.
9.) LEARN AS MUCH OF YOUR CHILD'S BIRTH LANGUAGE AS POSSIBLE. This one is a little more difficult because Amharic is not a language that they have a lot of information on, we did buy a translation book and a CD to teach us a little, but only to speak to children not to the adults. Meaning that you say "Hi" to a child differently than you would do an adult. Still more to learn on this.
10.) READ CHILD-DEVELOPMENT AND PARENTING BOOKS. Still need to do.
11.) CHOOSE A NAME. In our case names. We have a girl's name chosen and it will Mya her Ethiopian name Jane, of course Mya could become something if once we see her face and we feel that she is not a Mya, so I guess we will see when the time comes. Coming up with a boy's name has proven very difficult. I like Solomon and Tyson but Matt can't decide for the life of him, we are hoping it will come to us once we see his face. We do know that he will have two middle names and they will be his Ethiopian name and David. So come on referrals so we can finally choose a name.
12.) PAMPER YOURSELF. Do this every chance we get.
13.) START A JOURNAL. Hopefully a blog counts.
14.) WRITE YOUR PARENTS A THANK YOU LETTER. Will need to get on this one.
15.) ORGANIZE YOUR CLOSETS, DRAWERS AND CUPBOARDS. Waiting for the nesting period to kick in on this one.
16.) CHILDPROOF YOUR HOME. Have bought the gates, still need to put up.
17.) TAKE A CHILD CPR COURSE. Really want to do this one and probably will once the class comes up to take.
18.) LEARN TO TAKE DECENT PICTURES, ESPECIALLY OF CHILDREN. Need to buy new camera first.
19.) PREPARE YOUR PETS FOR THE BABY'S ARRIVAL. Starting this one.
20.) TACKLE YOUR "SOMEDAY" LIST.
21.) TAKE CHILD CARE CLASSES AT THE LOCAL HOSPITAL. Looked into this one and our hospitals don't offer any classes like this.
22.) BUY A COOKBOOK FROM YOUR CHILD'S COUNTRY. Probably won't be doing this since Matt and I do not care for Ethiopian cuisine.
23.) LEARN A FEW LULLABIES AND BOUNCY GAMES. Check
24.) SHOP GARAGE SALES FOR BABY ITEMS AND TOYS. Oh I started this a looonnnggg time ago and I am still doing it.
25.) BUY A FEW FAVORITE CHILDREN'S BOOKS. Check
26.) LEARN BABY MASSAGE TECHNIQUES. Still need to do.
27.) SEND A TRANSITION OBJECT OR PHOTO ALBUM TO YOUR CHILD(REN). Will be doing this once we get our referrals.
28.) BEGIN PREPARING A LIFE BOOK FOR YOUR CHILD.
29.) PRINT YOUR POSTS FROM ONLINE FORMS. I do do this and I have a three ring binder to put them all in, in fact I am going out today to buy a bigger binder.
30.) GET A LOCAL OR NATIONAL NEWSPAPER FROM YOUR CHILD'S BIRTH DATE. Again, will have to wait until we get our referrals for this one.
31.) COOK AND FREEZE MEALS FOR THE FIRST WEEKS BACK. Planning on doing this plus the baby's food when we get a lot closer to traveling.
32.) DECORATE THE NURSERY. Have started on this one.
33.) BUY BABY ANNOUNCEMENTS AND ADDRESS THE ENVELOPES. Will do this once we get home with the babes.
34.) BUY GIFTS FOR YOUR CHILD'S CAREGIVERS AND GUEST HOUSE EMPLOYEES. Have started this still need to get a few more things but we have time.
35.) BUY AND READ TRAVEL BOOKS ON YOUR CHILD'S BIRTH COUNTRY. Check
36.) MAKE COLOR COPIES OF YOUR CHILD'S PICTURES. Waiting for them to come to us.
37.) LOOK INTO DAYCARE. Have started this one.

So there they are some things to do while waiting on your referral and while waiting to travel. I'm hoping that that can keep me busy for a month or two and then I'll have to find something else to do after that. At least it will be spring/summer by then and it will be a lot easier to find things to do by then.

Hopefully I have been able to give anyone who is also in the waiting phase some ideas to keep sane until that moment we get to meet our precious child/ren.