New Hair do....

Oh, we all love a new DOOOOOOO!

I saw some new pictures of Olivia (from a couple families traveling to gather their little ones...) and I noticed she had a new do. Zizagged part and three braids on each side. Very cute!

So I am going to have the fun of learning a whole new set of hair dos. Fun... SO I do some hair-do surfing...and here are some I came across. No none of these pictures are MY Oliva...but lots of pretty girls with pretty Hair dos!

She Knows.....

News from Ethiopia.

Below is a snippet of an update from a mom who is over in Ethiopia getting her daughter. She visited the orphanage where Olivia Mame, our dear one is, and gave her the little package we sent her, that includes a little photo album of us. This is a snippet of what she wrote in an update to our yahoo.group:

Forgive me for not remembering...but whoever has Mame...ohhh she is SUCH a sweetheart. We gave her the package and showed her the pictures and got it all on video. She was so excited and kept saying Mommy??!!?? With a huge smile...you will cry when you see it.

Isn't that awesome? Precious? She now knows of us and that she has a family! Yes, I am a mommy again!

Home study, home study...wait wait wait.

So, an update:

I was hoping the actual writing of my homestudy would take less than the 2 months that my social worker predicted. (One month for her to write it and one month for the home office to review it. )

I gently, kindly, showed her pictures of my sweet Oliva Mamea in Africa, and told her the only little thing we are currently waiting on to move forward is......well......her to write the homestudy. Since I had my homestudy with them when I adopted Mary, it was an update really...not having to start from scratch and decipher the history of my life.

So, with the last visit on April 4th, the one month, for her part, would be May 4th. So I thought, at half way, I would just gently, kindly inquire as to the progress, hoping, knowing that she was the only thing between me and moving on, knowing it was an updating, knowing Olivia is waiting and we want to get there before the rainy season...(yet knowing, I am just "another case" in an overloaded caseload).... hoping to hear good news. Friday, I heard. "I have not started yet..."(had it for 15 days and have not typed one word of it??!!--thought, but not said). " But I plan to start next week and should be able to have it done by the end of the month." 4 days. Maybe 4 days earlier than the one month prediction. :(

sigh...not the answer I was hoping for, but at least I know. Then it goes to their head office, and I know there is no hope that it will go quicker than 30 days there, when the pleading eyes of a waiting mommy and waiting daughter to a social worker had no impact. Why would another packet of papers in a stack of many draw attention?

So..there is where we are.....waiting mode.

I am ok with it....God has his timing and I am ok with it. Was just hoping for some happy, quicker news.!

On another note, a mother from Oregon, Denise, has left for Ethiopia to pick up her children. In her luggage she has a package for Olivia, including a photo album of us. Olivia will find out for the first time either today or tomorrow, that we are her family and what we look like.

I covet your prayers for her as she adjusts to these thoughts. I pray the very thought will be a blessing and hope for her. Pray Denise has a smooth and fruitful journey. (She is still waiting for one piece of paper from the states, to be able to bring her children home, but stepped out on faith, since she has an Embassy appt in Addis Ababa on Friday.)

2 1/2 hours until our Home Homestudy visit....

Update: We survived...and all went well! Whew! What a day, braces for Nick, walk-thru on a possible bigger house, Home Study Visit.

Now...time to unwind!!! Lookout Nim Island, here we come!

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Well the house it is as clean as it is going to get. My mom and dad came over yesterday when I was at work and mopped and cleaned from top to bottom. Isn't that a blessing????

Since then I have only allowed my kids to sit and walk as tin soldiers and eat while standing in the bathtub. haha. Justk idding. Well, ...almost. :) Do you know that pull-ups almost fit a Yorkie, if you don't want himto have an "accident" on newly mopped floors?

sigh....

So, learning from a painful lesson on my first go round adoption,have some engaging project for the kids to do while the socialworker is here. So they don't sit so nervous that when she getshere they lose all reason, and cognitive thought and act like wildalien spacemen without parents. :)So I have set up the watercolors, paint brushes and art supplies onthe kitchen table and they do not get to start until 5 minutesbefore her arrival.

Is that staging? LOL!

They really DO like painting and we REALLY have done it before!!!!

Pray for us.

We may celebrate (or console ourselves) afterwards by going to the movies to see Island of Nim.