It's not really ALL in the numbers

Several people have asked me what number we are on the waiting list so I finally caved and emailed our agency yesterday to find out. I really didn't want to do this for the fear that she would say "you're 106 out of 106". I was just really thrilled to be on the waiting list and didn't really want to know how far away we still are; but, she responded by telling me that we were 40 out of 43. Not too bad. But she also wanted me to know that the numbers don't really mean anything because everyone on that waiting list has different requirements of what they are looking for. We did see that they gave out two more referrals yesterday so does that mean we are now 38? I don't know and I really can't obsess over it. Right now I'm just happy that things are MOVING in Ethiopia and that we are a "waiting family".

Even though we are waiting, we are one tired family. One of the odd jobs that my husband took on to earn money was to paint my grandmothers house. She passed away in October and they are getting it ready to sell (boo!) and knowing that we are looking for any extra funds, my mom asked if we would be interested. Yes!! So the last couple of days Jerod has been spent hours painting the entire inside of this house a very clean white. I went over one night to help trim (my specialty) and last night all four of us went over to help. The kids helped with the big rollers and everything. :) Now, I do not mind painting...I even enjoy it especially when it's a nice clean white. It's an instant gratification thing for me. But....I'm not really enjoying painting this house because it means that Memaw is not there anymore and that is the sole reason we are there doing what we're doing and that is sad to me. I've started trying to just look at the white walls and not concentrate on the spot where her bed sat or where she spent hours looking at the computer hoping for emails that included pictures of her grandbabies. I know it has to be done but it doesn't mean I have to like it. I've wondered if I took a picture of orphaned Ethiopian

children and taped it to my ladder if it would help me remember why WE are doing this job and not someone else. I dunno. My body and my spirit are just tired. Luckily, we are almost done with school (YAY!!!) and so today I'm going to finish up a cross order and start on some more. I will go over at some point and trim some more but I need to do something to lift my spirits a little first. I have some really pretty crosses I'm working on and seeing them completed will be just what I need. Whether it's painting, staining or cross making, our entire family is working

toward one goal and I love that. The kids are always there willing to help and I love that they GET why we are doing this. Our new one will be SOO lucky to have the best siblings in the world. :))

I'm PG! Well, kinda ;)

Well since my last post we have celebrated Mother's day...(mine was awesome), finished track season, started soccer season, started swim lessons, had all our paperwork sent to Missouri to be looked over, sent to Washington, accepted and then returned, took another education class, watched my hubby get some odds and ends jobs to make some extra dough, worked on a cross order of 6 and then had our 3rd annual ranch day with our home school group. It's been busy! :) I will add pictures of ranch day later but for now I have two very tired kiddos asleep in my bed and I do not want to go in there to get my camera. They said they were not tired and didn't need to rest but that didn't stop them from falling asleep in all of 10 minutes. ;)

Right as our day was winding down yesterday and we were washed up, packed and ready to head home, I checked my email (gotta love smart phones!) and saw that Angie from our agency had sent us an email saying all our paperwork was back and that we are now an "official waiting family"!! I was so excited. I have been waiting to "wait" for such a long time. I really thought that we would be at this point so much sooner but now that it's finally here, I'm so relieved and excited! It means that all the time spent writing letters, filling out questionnaires, begging family and friends to tell these people how great we are, watching 15+ hours of education videos, mailing papers off, waiting for papers to come back, having papers signed, resigned and resigned again has all been accepted and we can just relax and wait for "the call."

It's almost like seeing the little pink line to appear after taking a pregnancy test. We know there's a baby coming sometime but we don't know much of anything else yet. Us moms laughed yesterday at the ranch because during the last two ranch days, one of our moms has been pregnant and at the end of last year it was the debate of the decade of who would be pregnant this year. I very emphatically said, "Not me! When you don't have the goods, you can't have the baby!" God has such a sense of humor. He knew just a few short months after my statement, He would knock us off our feet with this amazing call to adopt...again...but this time we said YES! :) Well, fast forward to this year and there isn't any pregnant mommas. Then someone said, "Yes there is! It's April!" So there you have it, I guess I can say that I am pregnant (without all the weight gain and hormones...I'll take it!)

Some referrals come really fast and some come really slow but the average wait is about 6 months. So I really don't expect to hear anything before Christmas. But what are we going to do while we wait?

Well, in the email we received, they recommended staying busy. Haha....that part won't be hard for us. Although it is almost summer, we already have several small trips planned with family and lots of camps to go to and I am considering signing up for a July 4th event to sell some crosses. We are going to start our Spanish curriculum and try and learn as much Amharic as we can as well. One of my "bloggy" friends at Fun Times with the Reeves Family just received their referral this week and I would love to go south to meet them face to face one weekend. Who knows? :) We will start finishing up our shots and we will just take life one day at a time. We will be enjoying summer but we will stay busy. I still can't shop for furniture or baby clothes yet but I'm going to try to convince the hubs that we can start putting up walls for our nursery. We'll see.

So another baby step taken but this one seems so much bigger than all the others. We are moving forward and after seeing all the action that took place this week with our agency (4 referrals and 12 court dates!!) it seems as though things are progressing over there too. That's a really good feeling after all the uncertainty of their changes. Life is good and God is greater!!

I have a part time job and it's all my fault!

And I'm okay with that. Since our open house about a month ago, I have received MANY cross orders. That. is. awesome!!! It's awesome because all the money I make off of my crosses goes straight to our adoption fund and I'm very close to making enough to pay for our dossier. Just in cross sales!! Wow! God is so good! Some of you may not understand but to turn in our dossier cost about $3500...and now we don't have to use as much of our savings as we thought to pay for it. I am pumped about this because it means we can enjoy our summer and not stress so much about every nickel and penny we spend and can maybe take a small family trip. This is fantastic news for a mama who loves her summers and wants her kids to get out and about during summer as much as possible. But I am trying to figure out how to fit everything in with this new "job" I've gotten myself into. I have an amazing husband who helps out so much and two of the best kids ever that do whatever is asked of them. (They are getting very practiced at sorting laundry and unloading the dishwasher :))

Annnyyyywaayyy, enough of that. Last week was a VERY busy week for us and it ended with the kids 3rd annual science fair. We've enjoy this project every year but maybe me more than them because I was a stud at science fairs growing up. Yes, I am a dork and proud of it! But since this year has been kinda nuts with all that's been going on, we chose very simple projects.

Princess did "What Makes a Rainbow?" and learned that sparkles are not always necessary to create a good rainbow. :)

Little Man did canned good races and learned about friction in the process.

(Isn't he the handsomest? I've been told that hat is a chick magnet...watch out girls!!)

So then on Saturday we had to replace two of our trees. While they were still babies, they were kinda hard to get out of the ground. The kids in the neighborhood loved watching hubby pull them out with his truck.

Then began the task of replacing them. We bought more mature trees this time in hopes that they may out live the nice spring wind we have here. Princess stayed by her dads side all day long and worked so hard helping him put the new trees in. She said many times how much she loves helping her daddy. Humm...sounds like another little girl I once knew....my dad could vouch for that. :))

So they dug and planted....

and then watered right at sundown. It was a day full of hard work with great results!!

And just because it's my blog and I want to, here is a picture of my most favorite cross to date. I made it for my chiropractors office and when I delivered it yesterday, she told me she wants another one! Yippee!!

And that's all. :) We are keeping ourselves busy as always but lovin' every minute of it. As of yesterday afternoon, our papers came back from the state all authenticated and stuff and now they will check things over for the quadruple time and then it can be sent to Ethiopia. Forward progress...baby steps but forward progress. :)) Enjoy your Friday!!