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.

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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.
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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).

Nana

It's hard to believe but little man will be 10 months on Sunday. And boy is he doing a lot. His official first word is "bird". He points to them when he sees them outside and says "bird" as clearly as he can. He loves to be outside so I can't say that this surprises us. He has said "truck" on occasion and babbles the rest of the time. He also gave his first kiss to Keely and has been giving them to hubby (so cute). He is getting more and more steady when standing by himself so the steps may soon follow.

Hubby and I had our two year anniversary on Monday (I missed it). We have had a busy two years and married life is treating us wonderfully. I'm lucky to have such a great husband. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't know how blessed I am to have him in my life. Thank you honey!!

We returned from Colorado Tuesday. Little man was wonderful in the car, both flights and the whole time we were out there. I was shocked. He had a great time at Nana's and seeing Wayne and Peggy, Tanner and Leah, and Jody. He crawled all over the kids and played with Nana's walker (her Cadillac as she calls it). And of course he had a wonderful time with Aunt Keely and Brian. Thanks again for the hospitality! We have plenty of photo's documenting his second trip to the rockies.









Well the weekend has started and we have lots of work to do to get ready for the camping trip next weekend. Tonight our end tables and coffee table arrived so little man spent some quality time with dad putting together the furniture. Too cute!

Time to get off the computer and spend some time with hubby.

Here we go...

This is the official start to our family blog. I just learned about these recently and thought it would be a great way to keep our family up to date on our lives. I can post photo's, share little man stories and keep in touch with family. I hope everyone finds this interesting enough to check it out. I'm not sure how often I will post but for now here is our update....

Little man is 9 1/2 months and becoming very ornery. He is walking all around the furniture, pulls himself up on everything and is starting to get into trouble (tonight he spilled water, soda and dumped some popcorn). You can't take your eyes off of him. He giggles and grins all the time and wants to talk but it's coming out as a foreign language to us. He is becoming quite the daddy's boy and gets very excited every time he comes home from work. I just got my Ergo carrier in the mail and I love it. I put him on my back and off I go. I can get dishes done, sweeping, trips to the store, etc. He seems to like it for now. I'm sure his mood will change.