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Monday, June 30, 2008

Back to worrying

Once we finally got a court date, I was able to breathe a sigh of relief and I have had a few relaxing weeks of not thinking too much about the adoption stuff or at least worrying about it. But here we are two days before our court date and all of us sharing the date are pretty much starting to freak out.

You see, many folks have not passed court on the actual day. Seems like more often than not they don't pass. There have been major issues (discovered a sibling in the picture that the family decided to adopt, missing a key piece of paperwork, rule changes...) and minor issues (govt. agency forgot to print out the approval, power outages, judge took the day off...). I hope we buck the trend and pass on the first day. For sanity sake, if we don't pass, I really hope it is something minor that will be corrected in a few days.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Blast from the past, aka Jellies make a comeback

I may be dating myself but I remember Jellies well. They weren't quite as cool as Kangaroos but they were the cheap footwear of choice when I was a young kid and came in a variety of soda pop "flavors".

So I'm on Facebook and a banner ad pops up adverstising Kate Spade jellies. I normally ignore banner ads but in this case I just had to look. Yep, sure enough, Kate Spade has a line that includes several styles of jellies. Alas, at $60 (for plastic shoes, yikes!), they are no longer a cheap choice and they also don't come in cool colors like grape soda, 7-up and root beer.

Now I'm remembering all the cool toys I used to play with and I'm thinking we should start a retro toy collection for Fiori. These are some items that pop into my mind. What other toys do you remember?

  • Sit n Spin
  • Baby Alive
  • Holly Hobby oven/Betty Crocker microwave
  • Light Bright
  • Hula hoop
  • Big Wheel/Green Machine
  • Spyro-Gyro

Monday, June 16, 2008

Time off from waiting. Kind of.

It is such a relief to have received a court date. Now I can relax - at least until right about July 1. Then the stress starts again. But it is so nice not to be glued to my phone/email hoping today will be the day to receive news of a court date. I've been dealing with that for the last three months and let me tell you, it is no fun.

I have, however, been somewhat glued to the computer as several traveling families have brought back info and pictures of our little girl. We've been really lucky as we've gotten lots of pictures in the last several months from traveling families so I am able to vicariously watch her grow up.

Couple of things...

1. I'm not one of those people that thinks every baby in the world is cute. To be honest, I think many of them are really funny looking. However...Fiori is one of the most beautiful babies I have ever seen. Really, I'm not biased. Even my mother says so. :-) But seriously, the camera loves this girl. I am not sure what I think about the industry, but this kid could be great in print ads (I'm thinking college fund, yeah baby). Matt's in the biz - I wonder if he could cast his own daughter in a commercial. Hmmm.

2. She's pretty much been laying there like a (very cute) blob or is always being held and while she's beautiful, she hasn't shown all too much personality. Until now! In the most recent pics we got, she's sitting up for the first time. And there is a good one of tummy time and she's holding her head up and looks strong and happy. Also, in every recent picture, she is pretty much staring directly at the camera and almost always smiling. Everyone that comes back says what a happy baby she is so let's hope that continues once she gets home. Please, please, let that continue.

3. She is a giantess. Well, not exactly but she looks really big compared to the other babies. So while I am sad that she won't get to wear all the cute 3-6 month old outfits that Matt's mom got her, she looks really healthy.

4. Seeing the personality come out has made me really melancholy since we are missing it. So our court date came just in time as I was nearing the end of my tether.

Anyhoo, if anyone wants to see the latest, check out our Snapfish album or if I haven't already done so, send me an email and I will invite you to view.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

All better now


So the call came at 8am. Our court date is July 2nd!!


Since I am planning to go a bit early to either stop over along the way and/or spend some time traveling in Ethiopia, it means we'll be leaving around mid-July as long as we pass court. Because Matt recently started a new job and I need him to take some time off when she gets back, he'll be staying home and my mom will be coming with me. Plus, I'd rather travel with someone who knows a thing or two about infants since I kind of have no idea what I am doing. Matt's mom would be great too as she is a neo-natal nurse but she has to request vacation a year in advance. Drat.

Are you kidding me?

So I'm sleeping with my cellphone beside my bed in case of an early morning call with court news as I know Grace will call as soon as she hears something.

6:40 am (which is earlier than I normally wake up) the phone rings and I am immediately fully awake and excited. Pick up the phone, answer it and there is no one there. I check caller ID and it is a blocked number and not Grace's.

What kind of a cruel world is this?

Monday, June 9, 2008

Friday, June 6, 2008

No news yet

Despite my pessimistic outlook, I was really hoping to have news of an actual court date this week. Well, seeing as it is now 2 am in Ethiopia, I don't think we'll be getting any news today - boo. The four of us in my agency that were filed together have a bet going on which day we would get notified of our court date. Since I chose today, I've already lost. :-(

The bet was local beers and Ethiopian pizza when we go to pick up our kids. I'm not quite sure though how it works with four people in on the bet - does the winner buy for everyone or does everyone else buy for the winner? Who cares, I'll happily buy for the whole restaurant if it means I'm in Addis picking up our baby girl.

We have another bet going on which day will be our actual court date. We've all chosen within the range of June 30-July 7 although I'm secretly hoping it will be earlier. Hey, you can't fault a girl for hoping!

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Minor update

Still no actual court date but we did get confirmation that the papers were filed. Yeah!! Hoping for the court date this week but with the power outages, holidays and flash floods, I wouldn't be surprised if there is a delay in getting a date.