Beautiful Beads...and a momma's hope.

So how quickly can you blow through $18? Seriously....five latte's or less..... not even a night at the movies with my kids.... maybe a Mcdonald's drive through run....

Well first....Read Katies blog Here (you MUST read it) I found out about these lovely beads..... Made by momma's in Africa to help feed their children........ Aren't they lovely??!!

And they are made from Magazines! Really! I just bought 10....some for myself and some to give as gifts....

Would you consider it? And help a momma far away!

Check them out here: http://147millionorphans.com/uganda-necklaces/ugandan-magazine-beads

Hiywot

I found out today....my "Mame's" name on her birth certificate is spelled

Hiywot

Not sure how you pronounce it. I have been told that it means "life", which I am confirming that and the pronunciation.

We have thought of her as "Olivia Mame" for so long...this will be a mental change.

I have been told that many of the older girls being adopted want an "American" name too. So we will see her choice....

If she wants to be "Olivia Hiywot" or Mame, or Hiywot Mame or ?

How much notice?

I heard from someone else today of a family that got one weeks notice before travel for them embassy date..... EEEEEK! I guess I better just get ready and start ordering those hair products!!

I need to have plans set up for each week it could possibly be!

Can you believe I am really at this stage????!!!

I can't!

Planning for school.....

I am so excited, after all the wait, to think about Mame getting to go to Summit school with her new brothers and sisters in the fall. One of the teachers, is also an ESL teacher, and we are meeting next week to put together a summer plan for Mame....that I can do at home and help her be ready for the fall.

And then, when she starts school this fall, this same, wonderful teacher, is going to help and put together a program for her, depending on where she is and how much she has learned.

What a blessing.

These are pictures of Mame and her "school" time at the orphanage. I can see they learned a little English alphabet and some words....I cannot wait to talk to her face to face...or at least try. It is happy/sad to think that all the other children in these photos are home with their new families....while Mame has waited and waited.

BUT...her wait will be over soon.

Pictures during the wait....

Todays picture comes from April 2009. Not normally in a dress, I am assuming this came in some donations....

My lovely daughter....

If a picture tells a 1000 words......

Then what does a 1000 pictures tell?



lol. Well, not quite a thousand.



But in waiting two years for Mame....I have collected quite a few photos....about a year ago, I counted them ...and I had 400...and I have some new ones since then of course! I have made her a scrapbook, that is up to 99 pages already...and I have to finish...before I go.

So I thought over the next two months...as I wait to travel, I will share of those pictures. And all those traveling families, who have gone before, you will recognize your photography. Thank you!








Today's favorite...Mame and her girlfriends....who have been home in the States for quite a while.

Finally, my daughter....

The journey of a 1000 days.....

......well actually 748! :)

Announcing my daughter:

Olivia Hiwot (Hewot?) "Mame"

as of APRIL 13th!

(I passed court 9 days ago, but no one told me..)

Jehovah be praised.....

watching the.....

tick tock tick tock tick tock....

(one burden lifted, I was worrying last night about funds for the trip...and time off work, and I had forgotten about some stock I had. ;) Cashed in enough for the trip and time off. what a blessing.....God provides!)

tick tock tick tock tick tock...

The week that changed our lives....perhaps....

There are some weeks....days..moments...that we hold our breath, as we realize...life will never be the same.

I don't know if this will be one of those weeks.....I have had four or five of them in my lifetime.....

hoping it will.....

waiting.....

Where the rubber meets the road.....

feeling anxious....

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
Phil 4:6,7

Counter's back up....9 days.....

Maybe the news on April 22nd will be an early birthday present.....

Did not pass....

I did not pass court. MOWA, who has to show up with their approval form...did not show up. My next (5th) court date is April 22.

Two nights.....

Just two nights.....two more nights....until I know. ..... For the first time this afternoon, it started to hit me... that maybe, this time, maybe it will happen. All the waiting will be over and I will be a new momma.....

Could it be? Wish it was tomorrow night already....

Numbers and dates

fourth court date, four days away

six to 8 weeks (if I pass) to embassy date

possible embassy dates every other Thursday: May 6, 20, June 3, June 17, July 1 July

7 weeks would be June 3rd.... my Nicholas' 12th birthday!

When will it be? It seems too.....unreal and scary that I might, after two years, actually be making a trip to Ethiopia....

To be honest...I feel nothing right now. I know, if I pass, I will be in tears and estatic..... I know if I don't, I will continue feeling nothing..... But I don't feel nervous or weary, or hopeful....odd.

Now wait and talk to me Monday night! lol.

Counting down....

9 days until court.... I wonder if this will be the magic one...

It almost scares me....

Eeeek.... after waiting so long.

Those who read and pray....pray not just that we will pass court, but that the timing of the embassy appointment and logistics for my children staying at home will reveal themselves. At the minute I have no clue how that will work out....let alone be good for everyone.

But God does.

I have a date!

A court date, that is....for "Olivia" "Mame" Hiwot!

Yippeeeeee!!!!!

April 13th!

Maybe this fourth time is the charm! It will be a year and almost two months since our last (third) court date!!!


AND...I do not have to travel twice! What a blessing!!!!

What I found on the floor....

(N0, that is really not a picture of the floor of my car, or any floor in my house...hust a picture of papers on the floor, to illustrate a point...)

Junk mail and rapid schedules..... I get so much junk mail in my mailbox...those little newspaper flyers advertising this and that...and the mailbox is way down the lane, that I usually check it on my way driving in or out of our house....and then put it on the floor, to be dealt with later.

On Tuesdays I take the kids to a scouting program and the little boy, who is our new neighbor, goes with us. I had to give the van a good cleaning, putting back in extra seats since the move...so he would have room to sit. In the process, I saw this faded, flimsy little envelope with a forwarded mail label and barely visible stamped return address, underneath the Thomas Guide Map book and some junk mail newspaper ads.

Upon closer inspection, I noticed it was postmarked March 17, so not that old, and was from.....IMMIGRATION SERVICES??!!!!!!!

Quickly ripping it open, I thought, could this be my fretted over 171H..or a notice to get re-fingerprinted that I missed or ????. What if I had just grabbed it up with my junk mail and tossed it???!!!!

I had to read it twice and search the corner to find the form number and YES~ It was my new extended 171H sitting on the floor of my car for how many days???!!!!

EEEEEEEK..... sigh...but I have it. another milestone...and that much closer. So my side of the paperwork is allready.....

just waiting to hear of that new court date. (four more weeks of wait, by my guesstimation.) Maybe I will hear of my new date on my birthday.....and from all I am hearing, currently folks are not having to make the two trips..... The Ethiopian government has many details to work out first.....so praying I will make that window, before they get it all figured out and reinforced.

So a YIPPEEE day...I have my new 171H {barely!}

Hoping and a praying....

Feb 23rd is when I was supposedly filed for a court date, (although it may have been the week after)...and talking to other adoptive parents, they took 7 weeks between filing for the date and getting a date...

which would put me at my birthday week in April to hear something... and then their court date was a week after that.

So maybe the end of April, beginning of May.

There are conflicting reports that the two trip requirement has been rescended or put on hold....that too many questions and issues had not been figured out...other rumors that only if you hear about your court date before a certain date....

so who knows. nothing for certain. .... I am praying I will only have to make one trip (all I an afford)...and that we pass court on this next try.....

Would you join in with me? Sometimes all these logistics, plus, as a single mom, figuring out what my kids will do suring the summer, when school is out and I am working.....if the adoption time does not coincide......it makes my head swim. sigh.....

not the easiest of roads....but I wold not trade if for any others I have seen out there. :)....

because I love God and I love my kids....

Another bump in the road....

....looking for the blessing in disguise....

I just found out that Ethiopia has changed their adoptin regulations. They now require two trips in the adoption process. like many other countries do.

The first trip is at your court date, to give testimony as to your intent to adopt this child...in person. The second trip is for the embassy date to get your childs visa and bring her home.

I do not know if this goes into effect immediately or at some future date, but I am assuming it will impact me.

At first, I was heart sick, with yet another delay (perhaps) and more money to make the trip.

I have quickly moved to acceptance. (Although I HATE the more money part) and am trying to look at the benefit.I am hoping it will not delay my court date (we have filed for court am awaiting the date.) The only way I see it could, would be if this appearance is accompanied by more paperwork that needs to be done...or that the agencies need to figure it out first. Hoping there is not a delay.

There is the more money. Ugh. I hate to talk about money. It feels wrong to talk about money. But the money side of adoption is HARD, BIG, SCARY and often for many families, prohibitive. I am blessed that with some penny pinching, I should have the extra...... not what I planned on spending it on...(bye bye basketball hoop, laptop, camera and summer vacation trip).... but really, in the big scheme of things...the things are not important.

I don't like flying...so two trips away from my kids is a bummer...but I will just have to pray it all up. It is in God's hands, and He know all along this was coming down the pike.

So the good side:

Getting to see my Mame sooner and bringing her a suitcase full of goodies! Some clothes, and I will then be able to go back home and shop for her. Reassuring her of us....showing picture...visiting her country. I am hoping {thinking} the first trip for the court date could be shorter too....so maybe less expensive.... So that is a good side of it.

Also, with meeting her first, it changes what visa we bring her into the US with, and now, like Mary was, Olivia will become a US citizen the moment she touches US soil. So that is a good thing as well.

It will change my time off work..and give me one week less than what I had planned in the summer, but we can adjust to that.so...I am ok.

Thrown for a loop again....but ok.

I will wait and see what I hear from my agency.....I want that court date!

Another check mark on my road to being a mom of four....

Today I had my fingerprint appointment with USCIS...for my 171H extension! yea....another step closer...