Our Holiday Email Blast!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS to ALL!

This weekend, we are sending out a holiday email to let all of those important people in our lives know of our plans to adopt a baby from Ethiopia in the coming year. Anil and I are very excited to share this news officially with all of our friends and family! Some of them have heard, some haven't, so it'll be a fun way to bring in the upcoming year.

We will also be letting them know about this blog, so that they can follow along on our journey if they'd like. Since I'm hoping that means that we will see more visitors curious about what we're up to, I was planning to post something here explaining a little bit more about our decision to adopt and our process.

We're adopting because we want to be parents. And we are following our hearts to Ethiopia. Anyone that really knows us knows that we don't jump into any decision, especially one that is this important, without very careful consideration, research and planning. So here we are, in the midst of the greatest experience of our lives thus far! And we couldn't be happier!!!

Adoption is a roller coaster ride for sure. We are doing our best to take it all in stride and even with all the mixed emotions that come with our decision, we are incredibly hopeful and feel like this path was meant for us and will only lead to greater, more amazing and life-changing decisions down the road.

Adopting internationally, and specifically adopting from Ethiopia, has opened up a whole new world to us. We have made many great friends through this process already, and know that we will meet many more cool people who share our experiences and passion and who have children for ours to play with! Please take time to check out the blogs I have posted on the right side of this blog - and let those blogs lead you to other blogs. The community is endless and it's incredible to be a part of it. Adoption and adopting can feel like a lonely road at times, since not many have experienced it, and it's difficult to understand the journey unless you're in it, so we are beyond grateful to have met some wonderful people with whom we can connect, to learn from and share with as we continue on our path.

The blogs are also a lot of fun because as you will see, getting that referral call, when you learn about your baby for the very first time, is truly the most surreal and emotional experience - and many of these bloggers have already received that call - those posts are the BEST! Loads of pics of some BEAUTIFUL children!

Tomorrow marks 4 weeks waiting for us...so far, so good. We are going to ring in 2008 with a bang, knowing that we will become parents to a beautiful baby and start a whole new adventure. We look forward to sharing it with everyone!

2 weeks down!

Not much to report lately, just hard to believe that we already have 2 weeks of waiting behind us...it has gone by fast. I think we were fortunate to go on the wait list just before the holidays, it's helping us get a quick start on the wait.

I'm constantly following everyone's blogs and hoping for referals for all of those families that are close. I think I have yet to NOT tear up upon reading a 'referal call' story. They are just so emotionally charged, it's hard to even imagine what that must feel like. I guess one day we will know, for now we can truly only imagine and feel the elation for all of these great people learning of their son/daughter for the very first time!

My husband and I have decided to send out an 'announcement' over this holiday season to let our friends & family know of our adoption. Many of them already do but many don't. We've been apprehensive about 'going wide' with the news for fear of something going wrong or getting messed up, but we've found enough strength and encouragement that we're ready to spread the great news!

So expect to see another blog entry from me shortly. I want to post something for the new visitors that might come to the blog after seeing our email announcement, letting them know a little bit about our plans and our decision. I hope some of you won't mind if I link to your blogs...I've found that others have said it much better than I think I ever could on topics such as 'why Ethiopia'...'how it all works' and other important topics. Rather than fumble through it myself, I'll likely just borrow from my wise blogger pals.

In fact, if you have tackled one of these topics and feel like letting me know where I can find your entry, I'd love to hear from you! Otherwise, I'll be searching far and near this week to find those posts I've seen in the past to help me out!

I hope everyone is having a great HOLIDAY Season! :)

Small World

Here we are in our first week of waiting and we are really enjoying it...it's just weird not to have to think about which piece of paper to chase next or who we can call to try to get things moving quicker. I'm not sure what to do with myself at this point. Time to focus on other things, clearly, but what??

Well, for me, I think it will be my husband, friends, family, Georgie, work, play, the holidays, reading, educating myself as much as humanly possible for our new arrival, and this amazing community that has been formed by the commonality of international adoption. I am seriously and constantly just floored by this awesome world of internet groups, blog pals, regional get togethers, and the outpouring of support that comes through all of this, making me feel like I'm not alone. It's incredible, invaluable, and truly something I'm still a little baffled by, but could never take for granted. It's wild to me that not even a year ago, I had no idea that this world even existed...and now I'm immersed in it and enjoying it and appreciating it more than I can even describe.

And now, on top of all that, just this week, Anil and I discovered that there is another couple in our area, whom Anil has known for many years, who is also adopting from ET through Gladney and they are very close to us in process also. He had not spoken to this couple in quite some time but happened to have lunch with someone that works with them. And the subject came up. So wild! And they are fantastic. Since finding out, we promptly made a plan to get together this past Saturday night. We went to see a documentary in Irvine about an Ethiopian adoption and we had such a good time, marveling at the 'coincedence'...

And on top of that on top of the other stuff, my friend who lived here and worked with me just a few short months ago who has moved back to Chicago emailed me and said that he just found out that a couple he knows is also adopting from ET and he had told them about us and asked if I would email them. Well, of course I did and found out yesterday that her parents and brother have moved down to the SMALL town near St. Louis where I grew up and where my parents and sister and most of my aunts, uncles and cousins still live! WEIRD.

It's a small world. It just is. And getting continually tinier with each day.

WAITING!

Here is the email we received from Gladney on Friday:

Dear Anil and Angela,
Kate has informed me that your dossier is ready to be sent to D.C. for final authentication! This means that you are officially placed on waitlist to receive a referral! Currently, families have waited anytime up to three months to five months to receive a referral on average. Please keep in mind that this timeline is subject to change at any time. Congratulations on making it through the tedious dossier process! You made it! :)
As you know, I will be in touch with you as soon as a referral is ready for you. I ask for your patience during this time and completely understand that “waiting” is probably the most difficult (yet exciting!) part for most parents. While you are waiting, it will be a good time for you to complete your required continuing education requirements for Hague. You will only be required to watch Ethiopia Training, Parts 1 & 2, as the rest has been covered through Adoption Learning Partners. Please visit www.haguetraining.com for this course that is available to you through Video on Demand. You may put the code: gladfam.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
I am so excited for you!

Best,
Mary
Ethiopia Program Caseworker
The Gladney Center for Adoption

So we are officially waiting and officially excited to know that somewhere out there, our baby is also waiting for us! We hope upon hope that this baby is doing well, and his/her family is doing well too, and everyone is cared for and safe and sound.