In Between Trips to the Mailbox...

The past six weeks or so have been consumed with trips to the mailbox to see if our Immigration approval is here. To make a very long story short, our Immigration paperwork is in Missouri where Immigration is trying to create a central adoption department and our case is pending. I was assured yesterday that our case is one of the first they will process and to hang on for another month...this was great news after the lady I talked to on Friday told me to expect to wait another YEAR and completely ruined my weekend and poor Isaac had to deal with a weepy wife all weekend. We are still hopeful that we'll become parents next summer, but as the part of the process continues to be stretched into twice the amount of time we expected it to take, I'm beginning to realize that we might not meet our children until after rainy season next year...we'll prepare for the worst and pray for the best!

After a couple of weeks of no Immigration approval in the mailbox, we hit a major problem while trying to redo the flooring in our house...the manufacturer discontinued it and we did not have enough to finish the project! So, we had to travel to Miami to pick up 42 boxes of Brazilian Cherry laminate flooring one weekend in June. We decided to try to make this impromptu trip fun by staying the night at the Marriott on Biscayne Bay and enjoying a nice night out.

View from our room at the sun was setting Friday night. After we took this picture, we rode the metro to dinner after the recommendation of the front desk worker not to drive to Bayside because the parking was $10 but the metro was free. Not a good recommendation. We were the victims of reverse-racism on the metro and had to walk a block through bums to get to the entertainment area and then, my high-heeled sandal fell apart...needless to say, we paid the $10 for a cab ride back to the hotel! We did, however, enjoy a great dinner at Los Rancheros and music from a band that must have formed in the '80s while in high school and just never bothered to update their hairstyles...awesome.

Views Saturday morning from our balcony...


After taking the above pictures, we had another incident with the crazy people of Miami. Our GPS couldn't locate a satellite while in the parking garage, so Isaac just turned in the general direction we needed to go to pick up the Ryder trunk to haul all the flooring. We ended up in the projects and witnessed a homeless man and women get into a fight involving a 2x4, not pretty...and it was only 9am!

And the skies were blue and beautiful on Alligator Alley on the way back home and we were so ready to get out of Miami! Next time we go, we'll stick to the beach!

4th of July weekend we both had a long weekend to celebrate the holiday. It unfortunately rained most of the weekend, but we made it to Anna Maria one of those days.

We ate at the Rod and Reel Pier for the first time that weekend and hit the beach for a couple of hours...one of the many benefits of living in FL...quick trips to the beach!


On July 10, we celebrated SIX years of marriage! Crazy that all this time has already passed us by, but it has been filled with lots of love and good times! We stayed at the JW Marriott in Orlando for the weekend and it was wonderful! We can't wait to go back again!

Our room was very modern and we loved the decor.

View from our balcony of the pool and lazy river...we lounged at the pool both Saturday and Sunday...so relaxing.

View from my lounge chair...paradise! If you ever visit this hotel, the chicken nachos by the pool for lunch are a must and plenty to share!

We ate dinner at The Oceanaire restaurant...a lovely meal...they even personalized our menu with "Happy Anniversary" across the top!

After dinner, we went to see Cirque Du Soeil's "La Nouba". Fantastic show, and I must say that the cheapest seats are the best in the house because you can see the performers coming out of the ceiling without craning your neck! Overall, it was a great anniversary getaway planned by yours truly...I wonder what Isaac has up his sleeve for next year...

A Cousin is Coming...

Here is a link to our boys' cousin's parents' blog...We could not be more excited to be traveling this road to adoption with our best friends, Josh and Kelly! We might even be literally traveling to get all our boys at the same time-crazy amazing!

Read more about it: www.joshandkelly.blogspot.com

Their story is very different from ours, but powerful and a gift completely from Him. We can't wait to see Hallie Grace become a big sister! Much love and Many blessings to the Johnson family!!!

Gladney Approved!

Yesterday we were officially approved by Gladney Center for Adoption to adopt an Ethiopian child or children. The email made me laugh out loud because the first paragraph congratulated us on finishing this part of the long process, and the second paragraph asked us for our last payment and detailed instructions on how and when to send more money. Such is the adoption life! We are off today to have our financial statement notarized for our dossier as well as a referral letter for our children's newest Ethiopian cousin...details to come later!

Visit with Mom and Dad

On Thursday, my parents came over for a quick visit. They had been vacationing in Vero Beach and celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary. The same day our coveted notarized Home Study came in the mail! Mom and I mailed the Home Study to Immigration and to our dossier assistant, Kate, (along with our CPA's 4th letter-poor guy!) on Friday and then we headed down to the outlets in Ellenton to celebrate! In the words of my dear friend Erica, "we went crazy!"

Mom could not resist these cute swim trunks with matching hats and T's for the boys from Gymboree. They are going to look precious.

As you can see, we scored some great deals and found some really cute outfits. I bought clothes for once they are forever home and clothes to leave at the orphange with them after our first trip.

Friday evening, we all went to Bern's Steakhouse for a fabulous dinner.

I always have food-envy when dining with Isaac...he almost always orders a better dish than me so I let him pick dessert. The Bananas Foster prepared tableside was awesome!

Notice that I am very happy with Isaac's choice.

We enjoyed our coffees and desserts in an old wine barrel in the dessert room.

On Saturday, we went down to Anna Maria to enjoy the beach. It was a beautiful day.

Isaac, Dad, and Mom chilling under the umbrella.

Adoption update: We expect to be "Gladney Approved" this week which means that all of the paperwork for the adoption agency is finished. Immigration will probably take around 3 weeks to approve us to bring international orphans into the USA. Once approved by Immigration, our dossier should be complete and ready to send to Ethiopia by way of Washington, D.C. And then finally, we will be on the waiting list where we will remain for the next 8-10 months approximately, maybe longer. That means I have plenty of time to do some more shopping!

Homestudy Complete!

After the worst morning I believe I have ever experienced at my job, I received the phone call I have been waiting on for a month...the Homestudy is complete and approved by Gladney! I never thought that I would tear up over our Homestudy being finished, but it was just such a welcome happy moment amidst a terrible day. Once all of those documents arrive at Gladney along with another outstanding document that we are taking care of tonight, we will be Gladney approved as well. I'm hoping to get our notarized Homestudy by Friday so that I can send it on to Immigration-the last piece to the puzzle before sending our dossier to Ethiopia. We are almost to the paper finish-line and almost officially paper-pregnant! This month has been full of highs and lows. In my previous post, I talked about a financial blessing that didn't turn out as I had been told...the math was not correct and a major let-down ensued the following week when we realized that the adoption is not completely covered. However, we continue to praise God for blessing us with the finances needed for the immediate future and beyond. Isaac's career has taken a turn for the better, and we know that He has great things in store for our family.

Full of Praise!

As many of you know, our adoption costs have increased since we started the whole process...partly because of our own doing by deciding to adopt two instead of one and more significantly due to the extra trip half-way around the world! Let's be real, adoption is expensive and many families including us have worried about the cost. We've been praying and trusting the God would provide the last amount needed to fully fund the adoption and he answered that prayer yesterday. My boss called me about another matter, but told me on the phone that my end-of-year bonus (which is May in my contract) is going to be a certain dollar amount...after taxes and all that, we believe it will be almost exactly the amount we've been praying for! I hung up the phone, said, "Praise you, Jesus!" and sat down on the couch and cried tears of joy for about 2 hours. This crazy adventure has truly increased our faith and the Lord has been so merciful to confirm over and over again that we are on the right track even when the paperwork and wait list seem insurmountable. Thanks for your prayers!!

More Paperwork and a Child's Prayer

I feel at times like I am chasing an endless paper trail.....

The good news is that our homestudy is almost complete and the written words completely reflect who Isaac and I are and our life together almost as if I had written it myself. The not so great news is that we found out that we have to get a KY child abuse clearance in addition to our FL child abuse clearance because we have not lived in sunny FL for over 5 years. The wonderful KY people are going to expedite this for us...no wonder Gov. Fletcher called KY the "Friendliest State." This process has made me really appreciate people who are just kind because they care.

And, thank goodness for our dossier assistant because she caught some mistakes that we obviously didn't know were mistakes in our stack of papers (pictured below) and now we have to correct those and start having everything notarized again by us as the custodians of the paperwork. I think this is just the beginning of the last paper chase and I plan to chase that paperwork all the way to Ethiopia as fast as I can!!!

As I've been losing my mind over all these little details, I've been reading a book by Melissa Fay Greene called There is No Me Without You. This book is a must-read, in my opinion, for Ethiopia adoptive parents and their families. This prayer from the lips of an adopted Ethiopian little girl puts it all in perspective:

"Thank you, God, for my mom. She's a good, good mom. She knows how to be a good mom. Even when I mad, she love me. Even when I sad, she love me. Even when I do bad thing, she love me. My mom, she so cute. My mom, she not ugly. But she ugly, I still love her. Even if she ugly, I still love her. Even if she really, really ugly, I love her. And she love me, if I ugly. But she not, she cute. Thank you, thank you, God, for good and cute mom."