Why don't I drink coffee?

Well it's officially 5 a.m.. After tossing and turning until 1:30, waking up at 3:30 when I was half asleep "installing windows" and finally at 4 I rose from the dreadful bed. I can't sleep b/c my stupid mind will not shut off. I've got a gazillion things running through my head including; how are we going to be ready to move in 3 weeks? where are we going to live while we finish our house? what should we tackle at the house? should I go to the hospital to get medication for this god awful sore throat/swollen glands that make it incredibly painful to swallow? How am I going to survive tomorrow? and of course why don't I drink coffee? Since motherhood has become a little stressful these past few weeks I think I'm going to learn to like coffee. I figured out how to like beer in college so I can make this work. While all of this is going on I keep thinking "why did I have to visit my sister and swim in the bacteria bath of a swimming pool down there?" (no offense Amber). I just should have stayed at home and worked on the house. But instead I took a vacation and have landed a nasty infection, a terribly sick toddler, resulting in a impatient momma. Sorry, that's my 5 a.m. WHINE. I usually don't have anything worth whining about but I think the lack of sleep has made me reach out for sympathy (while my husband is lying in bed sawing logs).

Good Morning and Good Day! I will try to follow up with something a little more enthusiastic later.

Yes my son is drinking the nasty community pool water. (which resulted in an eye infection,
cold, cough, fever and god knows what else?). That'll teach him. And for those of you wondering, no I did not drink the water, just made the mistake of entering it. (shutter).

Oh Happy Day!!

It happened, it really happened, we got an offer on our house. We actually got it last night but the broker emailed it twice w/out attaching so I had to go to sleep last night w/out knowing what it was. This morning we finally got the word! Full price offer and we pick up closing and inspection cost up to $2500. No problem!! I'm so excited to not have to worry about selling this house anymore that paying the extra fees was fine by me. I will breath a big sigh of relief after they have the inspection and hopefully have no additional stipulations for us. They are preapproved, ready to be moved and hopefully all of this is a good sign. Please cross your fingers :).

So that is my reason for a happy day. Which also makes you a little sad. Our first home; lived in for 2 1/2 years, where little man was born and has spent 19 months of his life, and lots of memories to hold onto. We will take lots of photo's and video before we leave. Depending on the time of month I'll probably shed a few tears.

Lastly, this happy day brings FEAR. Less than one month to get moved out and somehow moved in to our "not so ready to be moved into" house. What??? It will all work out. Even if we have to borrow and live in Karen & Ron's popup for a few weeks. We can make it work :)

Happy Friday to anyone that happens to actually check out my blog today. Have a wonderful weekend and stop by again soon! After little man wakes up from his nap we'll be heading out to the "fixer upper" for a fun filled weekend of installing windows, closing all gaps that would allow mice to enter and maybe some wiring. And camping, we will camp out all weekend and I can't wait. I even bought some marshmallows :)

Tah Tah for now. More when I return home.

Shout out to the April/May b'day peeps...

Well I should have done this sooner but I've been a little scattered lately. Here we go!

First off, happy birthday to my little sister Meagan who turned 21 on April 29th. Happy 21st poe. Sorry we couldn't be there for the big night.
Here are a few things about Pity (Meagan) that you should know.
-She sucked her thumb (and possibly still does :)
-She once had a "fake" stalker (heeheeeheeee... we'll never let you forget this poe)
-She LOVES the environment
-She loves movies and has a habit of quoting them ALL the time
-She is a klutz (sorry poe it's true) and once ran her bicycle into our pop up camper (no her vision was not at all impaired). She's also wrecked her bike in front of a campus bus (LOL)
-She is one of my bestest friends (along with my five other sisters)
-She is laid back
-and lastly, she is beautiful!
Happy belated 21st Meag!!




Happy 28th Keely! Keely's birthday was May 6th. She is another sister (just 2 years older)
Here a few things you should know about Keely!
-She can make the ugliest faces of anyone I know (don't worry she takes pride in it. She's very pretty, she can just make very strange faces)
-She married her high school sweetheart
-She lives in the Rocky Mountains
-She went to I.U. w/Nathan for two years. They were/still are hilarious together
-She has a great body
-She was an adorable child (Keel - remember our conversation :)
-She can make me laugh at the weirdest moments (and inappropriate ones)
-She does not know how to _____ (keel, remember the mall incident - I almost put it)
-She would kill me if I finished the previous sentence
-She used to make fake bruises with black and blue pens in front of the mirror in our bedroom when Lee would hit her.
-She's possibly a little dramatic (see previous sentence).
-She is a great sister and aunt
HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEEL!!



Quentin is the oldest of us 11 kids. He turned 32 May 8th. Happy Birthday Q!!!
What to say about Quentin...
-He likes to hunt
-He likes to fart (alot)
-He has actually found a girlfriend that lets him do this (strange, I know).
-He drinks milk ALL the time
-He is an electrician
-He can sleep anywhere
-He is a tightwad (something we share in common). We prefer "frugal" but the rest of the world interprets it as tightwad.
-He likes to fart (did I already say that?). He must be the only man in his 30's that farts at the dinner table (Sorry Q, It's no secret).
-He's a wonderful big brother and has filled the role like no one else.
-He may move to Kansas one day and I'm crossing my fingers b/c we would only be 3 hours away from each other
-He has a very nice girlfriend (who's smart, patient and funny)
-He has a BIG heart.
Happy Birthday Q!!!!!



Matt's birthday is May 26th so I'm actually ahead! Happy Birthday Matt
As for Matt:
-He is my brother in law
-A great one!
-He is a people person
-He got me the worst shot on my 21st b'day but drank one with me (I'll never forget it Matt)
-He has a Harley
-He loves warm weather
-He has been a great older brother to Nathan
-He is dating 'sweet Melissa'.
-He doesn't like french fries (seriously)
-He loves mac n cheese (seriously)
-He is a lot of fun!!
Happy birthday Matt!!


Lastly (for April/May b'days) is Kelsey! My little sister will be 23 May 30th. Hope it's a great one Kels! And for you...
-Her nickname is Mojo (compliments of our dad)
-She is the shortest of us girls (and there is a battle b/w her and my mom on who is shorter than the other)
-She has my dad's witty sense of humor
-She is at Purdue (along w/Meagan)
-We lived together one semester and she was my favorite roommate in my college career
-We played lots of Mario and shared lots of laughs (mario/shots/cheesesticks - remember?)
-She is funny
-She likes to argue (she'll be going to law school)
-Her farts gross me out more than anyones (sorry Kels, I had to put it LOL)
-She is a great listener
-She has awesome hair
-And beautiful
Happy Birthday Kels




No, I didn't forget my sweet husband. I will make a special post for him :)

Latest "fixer upper" photo's.

I was downloading pics from our camera tonight and decided to post some recent pics of the house. We finally have it completely gutted (nevermind, just looked at pics and realized we still have laundry room ceiling left, yuck). This weekend we will be installing windows and then we'll have to finish up the wiring and we can finally drywall. Yeah!! We also have our house in Nixa listed on the MLS and hope to sell that quickly (cross your fingers everyone)!

Here is a pic of one of the fields


And another



Nathan gutted the wall on either side of the fireplace (we still need to raise that ceiling)


Our bedroom


A working toilet


Our living area


The TV room (like father, like son)


Our dirty son running through the house


And his dirty butt (it's impossible to keep him clean).

Officially "official"

Friday around 2 pm we got the call that our dossier was reviewed, accepted and we are "officially" waiting!! Expected wait time until referral is 7 months which would put us at December 11th. But I'm preparing myself for late December, early January and then travel sometime in Feb/March. Regardless, it feels so good to be officially waiting. June 15th until sometime in Sept CHSFS will not be giving out any referrals due to court closures in Ethiopia so I know until Sept/Oct it's going to seem like we are not moving forward at all. So, that's the scoop for now. Woohoo!!

I can hardly stand the wait!!

Our dossier should be arriving to Minnesota by 10:30a.m., May 10th, 2007. Little man and I got up at 7:00 and this morning could not be going any slower. I know, I know, we still have a long time. But to be "officially waiting" is a really big deal so I can't wait for a phone call!!! And of course I had asked Alexa to call my cell phone which is NOT working. I may have to bite the bullet and go to Sprint and buy a new phone (and then tape it to my forehead). I've been so distracted this week I've lost my cell phone twice. It's not easy being a scatter-brained, busy and distracted gal.

I did get all of my papers faxed in last night so we can get our house listed on the MLS. So this weekend the house needs thoroughly cleaned and I have to get this baby SOLD!

Hubbies parents should be getting into town in one week so that will be nice. We will have a babysitter!! Yeah :) We will be installing windows next weekend with the help of the MTA guys. And after that we get to drywall. Woohoo...

It's 9:30 pm and I just realized I never finished this post. The day went quickly, CHSFS never called, I could not get Sprint to successfully transfer phone service to another phone so I finally searched the house for my missing phone. Found it, switched service back to it and now have a cell. Went crazy a couple times and hubby wasn't here to keep me sane (I miss you honey). But Little man went to bed well although kicked around in there for a while. I have to give him credit, he knows he has to stay in there and doesn't put up much of a fight.

Tomorrow morn I think we will get up and drive to Texas to see Amber, Brian and the kids. Little man will have fun! Hubby won't be back until Tuesday so we need to get out.
Happy Thursday!

Almost there....

We are getting closer to "officially waiting". Yesterday Nathan and I met for lunch at the bank and had all of our dossier documents notarized and then last night I compiled all of it and made 2 copies (one for the agency and one for us). Whewww... I was tired.











Then today all I needed was to get 3 documents certified by the state (luckily there is a local office) and I could send it in the mail. Well, not so quick, I called the local office and they were closed for Truman Day. Whatttttt??? I was so crushed. But in the adoption world you get used to telling yourself that everything happens for a reason. So, today I neatly organized all the dossier documents and tomorrow we will swing by the Secretary of State office and overnight "the official dossier" to Minnesota. Yippeeeeee, almost there...

Catching up...

Another month has come and gone (again). I can't believe how fast April went. We left on April 4th for Flordia (more on that later), then to Indiana for a reception, and ended up their longer for Gpa's funeral. That was very sad but it was also a wonderful time because I was able to see all my siblings. That was fun!! So left on April 4th and didn't get back until late April 20th, finished up all my homestudy work and before I know it the 27th is here. Wow!

Florida was awesome! The campground was pretty much a parking lot jammed pack with RV's and pop ups but we had a great view of the Santa Rosa bay (I'm not sure that's what it was called). The weather was nice the first couple days and then it go very, very cold. I'm talking 30's at night (mind you, we were in a tent). But the best day was when we drove to Destin, FL to Henderson Beach State Park (where we will stay next time) and we took little man to the ocean. He loved it!! First we were up on the beach flying kites and letting little man play in the sand. Then hubby took him down to the water and the fun began. See pics.

Thankfully I'm a master packer and fit everything in the Subie


Our dandy little campsite


Our view from the site


Destin, Fl


Kite flying (which little man still talks about "dad, kite, fly"


Little man being onery





Little man checking out the girls with G'pa's binoculars


Little man's first swim in the ocean (and loving it)




Air Force Museum where little man said "Pane, Airpane" about 1000 times


Thanks G'ma and G'pa for spoiling me. I loved the ocean!! Love, little man

Where does the time go?

Well it's 11:15 a.m. (been up since 6:40) and all I've accomplished is breakfast and dishes from last night. Some days are much more productive than others. Right now I'm catching up on adoption stuff and watching little man take all the contents of my wallet out and is now shoving them under the couch cushions. At least he is entertaining himself and is happy! It is so funny watching how seriously he is taking all of it and his intense concentration.

Amber, Emily and the kids passed through last night on their way to Texas. They showed up a little before 10 pm and we let the kids run around and burn some energy. Being the "cool" parents that we are we allowed little man to get up and play with his cousins. At first he was cranky for being woken up but then he was running around, playing swords and crawling on the floor laughing with them. We had little man back to bed and the kids settled for a movie by midnight. When I went to bed at 2:30 Cadyn was still roaming around. Apparently spending the day in the car had not stimulated him enough so he was wide awake. Then back up at 6 this morning. CRAZY. That kid has an insane amount of energy. I only wish I had some of it. Anyway, we visited this morning and they were off by 8:30. Little man and I watched PBS and I cleaned the kitchen. Since then, not much of anything. Ready to tackle lunch and get little man down for a nap.

It's absolutely beautiful outside today. I was going to load little man and the car and head out to the house and mow but I'm afraid on 4 hours of sleep I'd be dead tired and regret leaving the second I pulled out of the driveway. So I'll push, push and push away tomorrow mowing the lawn. It took me 6 hours last time to most of it so maybe I'll break it into 2 days.

Little man is 18 months today! I can't believe how quick it has gone by. He was eating his lunch today, then spitting it out and laughing so hard. It really was hilarious watching him. He's some pics of my guy.



Have a happy weekend everyone. I hope Lee's new job is going well, Samuel's interviewing is successful and Keel & Brian's inspection Monday is good. More news later,
Chatter

One step closer!

Well after JUST entering the last post I figured I'd better do a follow up with something a little more up beat!! So I will talk about the fact that we are one step closer to bringing home our next little one :). I faxed over the homestudy to CHSFS today. It will be reviewed and if all looks well we can finish up our dossier and send it in to our agency. Once they receive it we will "officially" be waiting. I'm so excited for that day!

The house is slowly coming along. Right now it's just studs but hopefully in the next 4-6 weeks we will start drywalling. We are installing windows the weekend of the 19th (May) with the help of the MTA guys again. Jeanne and Tom will also be showing up that weekend. A big Thank You to them! It will be nice to have the extra hands. Maybe we can pick up the pace a little come the month of May and June. Here are some recent photo's from the house and property. It's so peaceful out there. I can't wait until it's officially our home!

It's just one of those days...

Since I started researching adoption (nearly one year ago) there are certain days that I feel emotionally overwhelmed and to say I feel "sad" is an understatement. Today was one of those days. It started as a happy day because we faxed in our homestudy to CHSFS and once that is approved we can send in our dossier and "officially" start the wait. However, sending in my homestudy has me wondering if we are making the right decision on age, choosing the right country, should we have requested siblings...??? I think about all of the countries in the world with children in need and it makes me so sad. Should we adopt older? What about those waiting? But I know with an 18 month old and only being 26 adopting an older child probably isn't the way to go right now. Maybe in the future...

But back to the day, then I watched American Idol tonight because the episode was geared towards "Giving It Back" and they were raising money all night for charities in the US and Africa. Well they showed footage of Africa and it just broke my heart. It's so sad that people have to die, every second, of every minute to AIDS. Or that a 12 year old boy and his 7 year old sister have to live by themselves because their parents died. Or that children even younger that that are orphaned every single day and living on the streets. What about in America? They did a segment on a family in Kentucky and the mother can't even read. It just breaks your heart. And days like today I can hardly handle...

With that I will try harder to become more frugal, give back to others, educate people around me and most importantly be a better person and mother. I read a blog tonight from a young lady that is a senior in high school with seven siblings. Me trying explain it would not do it justice. You can check out her blog at http://afamilyoften.blogspot.com . I hope I can raise my kids to have such compassion for each other and the world.

Sorry to be a downer tonight. Normally I keep these days to myself but I thought I'd share tonight. I'm going to try to write more frequently because it feels good to get my feelings out.

With that I had a WONDERFUL time seeing my family back in Indiana. I can't believe how much closer we all have gotten as we've gotten older. Not that we weren't close before it's just that the intimacy is changing. Thanks to all my siblings for being such a LARGE part of my life. I wouldn't be me without YOU!

And of course to my wonderful husband, who has a way of making the aches and pains more bearable and for walking down the path of life with me, specifically parenthood. You are such a wonderful father and husband. It's been amazing watching you with little man and I can't wait to see you with the next. I know, life with you, only gets better! I love you!!! thanks for all you do for us.

My Autobiography

Well last night I finally sat down to write my autobiography. Before I knew it I was on my fourth page. I still have one of three sections left (Marital section) so who knows how much longer it will get. Anyway, the section on childhood was pretty fun to write. It took me back in time and I think I smiled most of it because memories came flooding back. So I thought I'd take a little clip from it for your enjoyment (mostly siblings). Please ignore grammatical errors as I have not proofread the document. Also, I had to leave out all the gory details about the fist fights, "I hate you's" and karate chops seeing as this is for our homestudy.

Insert -
Childhood description:
(taken from somewhere in the middle)
As far as how I get along with my parents and siblings that is easy; they are my best friends. I think I talked to my mom at least 3 or 4 times today (it was her day off) and three of my siblings. I talk to at least 3 or 4 siblings a day. You can imagine what Nathan thinks (“you always talk on the phone”). Hey, it’s hard to keep in touch with that many people. They are my bestest friends and I get homesick certain days missing them. So when that time comes I plan a road trip or book a flight. Next to hubby and little man, they are the best thing that ever happened to me.

To have been a fly on the wall at our house would have been interesting. Yes, it was chaotic but somewhat of an organized chaos. For instance, when I was in high school we all knew the order of the downstairs shower (we only had two bathrooms). Yes, when someone missed their turn b/c they were sleeping and thought they could cut in line, all hell broke loose. But we got through it. It was chaotic, full of laughter, sometimes tears, definitely not serious and NEVER a dull moment. And when we all get together still, it’s the same old crew, but just a “little” more mature. I would say we’ve only grown closer.

What was it like growing up in our family? We lived on one acre but it felt like so much more because we had a huge field behind our house and woods behind that where we spent much of our time. If it wasn’t storming, blizzard conditions or the middle of the night, we were outside. We didn’t have cable, we were in very few sports (swim team every summer) and my parents did not let us stay the night anywhere. We were stuck with each other. So we made do with that. We invented lots of games, played outside and if we fought, we were quick to make up, because we couldn’t stand solitude. Dinner every night was the kitchen table (which my dad made eventually; two long benches on each side and a chair at each end). Bedtime sometimes included hide’n’seek upstairs (depending on whether or not my folks where in bed yet) and trying your hardest to tiptoe around so they didn’t hear you. Some nights it was giggles and getting yelled at to go to sleep and other nights crawling into bed together because you were scared (Keely J). We all shared rooms with different siblings and by my senior year I actually had my own room (woohoo).

Family activities would have consisted of board games, yard games, holidays or a get together with extended family. And to be perfectly honest every family activity included at least one fight among the siblings. With eleven kids I guess that’s pretty hard to avoid. But again, it was “forgive and forget” shortly after.

I would say my mom was the disciplinary for the family especially since she was with us most of the time. As far as punishment or discipline goes I remember as a child standing in the corner and as I got older not being allowed to socialize. Oh, and there was the wonderful punishment of writing sentences. For example, we would have to write 100 times “I will not play on the propane tank”. I never liked that one.
End Insert

Busy, busy, busy...

I finally did taxes last night. I'm not sure why I wait until the last minute because I actually don't mind doing them (freak) and who doesn't like money coming their way? Anyway, so aside from a couple things those will be complete today or tomorrow.

The house is slowly coming along. We have it completely gutted except the laundry room (which won't take long). I like it gutted. It feels so open and much bigger. And clean! It will be weird when we start putting walls back up (no time soon I'm sure). The current goal is to change out the plumbing in the bathroom to PVC and get the actual bathroom finished. Also we are working on getting all of the electric roughed in. When we bought this house we had no idea how much we were actually going to be doing. Luckily this house is fairly small (I can't imagine doing a bigger home). Thank you to Kelsey, Meagan and David, Mark and Scott for all of your help!!







Homestudy time!! Liz is coming over on Saturday for our homestudy. It is one of the final pieces of the puzzle. Of course we also have to wait on a couple more letters of recommendation. I'm proud of myself for getting through all of this so quickly. We have gotten our fingerprints done, child abuse clearance, bank letter, employee letter, local police clearance and more. I want to have everything in order by the time we leave for Florida. If we can get the homestudy sent in next week we'll be good to go. Of course I just called about fingerprints b/c they had told me 7-10 days and when I called this time they informed me an average of 3 weeks. Grrr.... Well I'll cross my fingers for them to arrive by next week. In the meantime we need to do our autobiography and With Eyes Wide Open.

Texas!! Trent and Karen are driving down on Saturday. Then Sunday we will head to Amber and Brian's for the week. Yeah! That should be fun and a break from the madness. And I get to see little baby Morgan again and the rest of the clan. It will be fun for little man to hang out with his cousins again. I'm so glad they live so much closer now. From Carthage it will only be 7 hours :).

Well that wraps up the most recent events. Hubby has been busy with work. We've been doing some time at the house when we can but I'm becoming more patient and realizing there is only so much we can do with the time we have. We will slowly chug along. It's a beautiful day today so I think little man and I will go spend some time outside. It will make his day. Happy Thursday! For you Grey's Anatomy fans, new episode tonight!

F.A.Q. section

I created this blog back in August because we wanted an easy way to keep our family posted on our lives. But more specifically we wanted to share our journey of adopting through Ethiopia. We talked about adopting back in college but started thinking more seriously after having little man. We knew at the end of 2006 that is how we would bring another child into our family and it became official February of this year (07). We sent in our application to CHSFS out of Minnesota and met with our social worker for our first homestudy visit. Woohoo! So I want to shout it out to the world but for now we are treating all of this like the first trimester of our pregnancy and keeping things to ourselves. We still need to complete our homestudy and gather all of our documents for the dossier (the "paper chase" as people call it). So, here we go! I want this blog to serve the purpose of sharing our journey to Ethiopia with you as well as updates on our wonderful life with busy, busy little man.

Many people wonder how we came about adopting from Ethiopia. We hope to explain the process below.

Why adoption? We have always discussed adoption and after little man we thought "why not". Yes, it is that simple. It's another way of expanding our family and VERY exciting

Why International? We briefly discussed domestic adoption but decided against it after thinking about the roller coaster ride that comes with it. Point blank; you risk becoming emotionally and financially attached to a potential birth mom with the risk of her changing her mind. And it does happen! We decided we would rather pay the set fee associated with a more stable, international program and know that little man would have a sibling in xx months.

Why Ethiopia? We were very open to researching all countries for adoption (although drawn to Africa). After doing lots of research it became clear to us we were only eligible for a few countries due to our age, length of marriage and length of travel required. At that point we took into consideration the following factors; cost, length of the process, and how reputable the program was. Africa became very clear to us at that point. Next was choosing a country. Zambia, Lesotho, Liberia and Ghana were all options but are very new programs and with that you have MANY unknowns (especially length of referal until you can pick up your child). With that, we followed our hearts to Ethiopia, where it is well established and predictable (more to come on that).

How we chose our agency? When we started researching Ethiopia there were approximately 6 agencies licensed in Ethiopia and that has grown to over 8 or 9 agencies. Of those, three are very reputable and I've received very positive feedback. So we decided we would rather go with the older, more reputable agencies. The agency we chose has a wonderful care center (wonderful care ratio and model center). We will stay at the guest house while we are there. We have been very happy with them so far. There is also a forum on their webpage to keep in touch with other families. Everyone is very helpful and friendly.

What age and gender we chose? With all agencies you can chose an age range that you are looking for. Some agencies will let you be gender specific. Nathan and I decided we wanted to follow the recommendation of following birth order so we chose 0-12 months. Secondly we decided to request a boy. Girls are more requested and we liked the idea of a little brother for little man.

How the Ethiopian adoption process works? Instead of summarizing all of the information I copied the process from CHSFS webpage http://www.childrenshomeadopt.org/Ethiopia_Adoption_Process.html.

Adoptive parents complete a home study before being accepted to the Ethiopia program. While waiting for home study completion and CIS approval, we provide instruction as to how to compile the dossier for Ethiopia. Once the dossier is complete, adoptive parents may receive a referral. Upon acceptance of the referral, the dossier and the referral paperwork are presented to the Ethiopian government for review. Our representatives in Ethiopia oversee the process from government approval to court, where the adoption is granted, and onward until child travels home. From accepting a referral until child travels home, it takes approximately 2 to 4 months. Parents can choose to travel to Ethiopia or arrange for an escort to pick up their child (escorts are available for children 12 months and under or in special circumstances).

Since we requested a boy, 0-12months, the wait is 4-6 months (we are preparing for at least 6-7) and hopefully we'll be surprised. The wait for an infant girl is 6-9 months.

So there you have it. Once we have our homestudy approved and our dossier documents completed we will officially be waiting. The goal for this is mid April (hopefully before we leave for Florida).