Retail Therapy

So, what should a girl do when she's anxious and missing her new baby boy? (Besides pray, stalk the yahoo groups and rumor sites) SHOP!

Today Bill & I ran out to Target to get Abby her birthday gifts. We of course walked through the baby section. We are trying to decide on how to decorate Ethan's room. We talked about Owls. But then can not find any bedding that we like. Then we found PUPPIES! So cute! And in the colors that we like (blues, greens & browns). So we bought 4 receiving blankets, a nice, soft blanket, a blue fitted sheet and, the cutest bank ever (I think for a boy) A DOG! I'm so excited.

So this is his room theme. Puppies & blues, greens & browns. We chose paint colors but are waiting to buy the paint until we're ready to paint the walls.

I'm just happy to have finally found something we both like! :-)

Email from our Agency

The other day I emailed our Family Coordinator asking her if she knew if our dossier was translated & reviewed yet. This is the reply I received.

Debbie:

Good evening! I wish we knew that information to share with you. We don't get any news on dossier processing for any dossiers (reviewed or un-reviewed). We can see on the website that they are "in process." The wait from referral to RA (Referral Acceptance) is the longest and hardest for most families, especially those with un-reviewed dossiers. You have your child's photo and have to wait many months for the approvals, I can imagine it would create anxiety.

I wish the process would go faster, but it isn't. Recently our un-reviewed dossier families have been waiting 5-5.5. months on average, with the range being anywhere from 4-6 months. Also, unfortunately the Hague process is taking quite a long time for TA's. right now from RA to TA Hague families are waiting 7-10 weeks for their TA. We send 1-2 groups to China per month so as soon as the TA arrives we get families to China as quickly as possible.

I wish there was more I could do to speed the approval process along, but if you need anything else from me in the meantime, please let me know.



I honestly don't know why I expected anything else. It's frustrating to me that we can't find out the status of our paperwork. We have no idea where we are in this wait. I'm praying we do not have to wait 5.5 months for our RA. I think our agency is just being very conservative and so I'm praying that it's sooner. I've seen it happen with other families. We're just ready to go bring Ethan home! The unknown is so hard.

Until next time.....

A Preview

Today was my first day volunteering in the 1 yr old room at our church during the service. We have volunteered before, but always in the girls rooms. Well they have moved up to the Kindergarten class so I told the coordinator I would like to work in the 1 year old room, since this is the room Ethan will be in when he comes home. Today was "promotion" Sunday, so my first week to serve.

I am scheduled to work at 8 AM. We only had 1 child so they merged the class with another class and I went to the service. At 9:30, who was schedule to work was sick so I helped at 9:30. We had 8 one year olds. 4 boys and 4 girls. I have to tell you, I just watched the boys. And I loved it! They did not scare me off. LOL Just seeing how they are, and watching how they play, got me so excited for what is to come. It is also preparing me. These boys are so cute. They LOVED eating! It was funny, at one point all the boys were at the table eating Cheeriros and the girls were playing. I think we'll need a bigger pantry when Ethan comes home, if he's anything like these growing boys. :-) I'm excited and can't wait.

This weekend we also started getting his room together. We decided to move the girls back to their old room, so Ethan's room will be next to our room. The walls are so thin, I won't need a baby monitor. So yesterday and this afternoon was spent moving furniture and going through toys & clothes. We still have a lot to do. But we did make progress. The crib is set up, waiting for our little guy to come home.

Now we're deciding on how to decorate Ethan's room. I'm thinking about Owl's. But not sure. We don't plan on buying a crib bedding set, just sheets & blankets. I would like to paint the room, maybe blue & green. Not sure though. We're still thinking. Right now the room is PINK! I don't think that will work. :-)

Praying for several friends who are waiting for their TA (Travel Approval). They have been waiting way too long. They need the TA now in order to leave in a few weeks. If they do not get it soon, then they can't travel until November, since there is a holiday the 1st week in Oct (in China) and then there is the trade fair in China. It's very busy and agencies usually don't send travel groups during this time. So we're praying TA's come this week! (Of course it would be nice if our RA happened to be in the TA package too LOL).

Until next time.....

More purchases

I'm trying not to go overboard here with shopping. But some things are hard to resist. The other day we were at Target getting school shoes and I passed the baby section. I found this owl PJ's. I just loved it. I almost did not buy it, but could not help myself. I like owls right now. They seem to be everywhere.

Then I received an email from Babies R Us telling me that the All American Bib I registered for is being discontinued. So I wanted to run out and get it before they were gone. While we were there, I found this bathing suit. It was on clearance. Since we have a pool I figured Ethan should have a bathing suit. :-)

Trying to be patient during this wait. I hope within 2 more months we'll hear something.

Until next time......

Quilt

More fabric came today! I'm so excited. And the envelope was addressed to Ethan. His first piece of mail. :-) Thank you Jocelyn & family for your fabric & wish. We appreciate it.

We still need more fabric & wishes. I want to fill up a book for him with good thoughts. Please send in your fabric & wish soon. Thank You!
Debbie

Ethan is 10 months old today

Praying and thinking about Ethan today as he turns 10 months old.

Happy 10 month birthday sweet boy. We can not wait to meet you.

Love, mommy

More fabric from friends

Fabric has been coming in slowly, but it's coming. :-) I'm so thankful and excited to see Ethan's quilt come together. This weekend we received fabric from 2 close friends. The McIntosh's and Whitten's. THANK YOU. The fabric you chose means the world to me. And your thoughtfulness means so much! I can't wait until the quilt is put together completely and until Ethan is wrapped up in it.

I know more fabric is coming. I can't wait!

No news from China. Still praying things will go faster than expected. God is in control!



Until next time....

Tickers

I have removed the tickers. I don't like how the tickers read. For example, it said it has been 1 month and 1 week since referral. Well we got our referral on a Tuesday. Not a Friday. I like to do the count by weeks, not by date. I wish it would say "5 weeks, 3 days since referral".

So I took it all off. I'll keep track on my own calender.

As of today, 4 weeks since PA. I received an email yesterday from our new FC saying the wait for RA could take 6 months. Of course I did not like reading this. BUT, I need to remember, our agency is very conservative when it comes to giving out a time frame. I do believe we'll have our RA in maybe 2 more months. I'm starting to think we'll travel in Jan or Feb now. We'll see. God has a plan. He already knows when we'll be traveling. It's already worked out! We just have to wait.

Thanks for waiting with us. Thanks for praying for Ethan. I'm curious and also scared to see how big he's grown. Scared because it's the reality that he's growing up without us. Right now I have photos of a 5 month old baby. He's almost 10 months old now. I wonder if he's sitting up, crawling, trying to walk. Once we get RA, I'm going to find out.

UPDATE: Since I typed this journal, I decided to just keep my own dates above. I'll keep updating them.....

Until next time.......

Trying to Educate Myself

I'm so new to the life of a cleft child. I have no idea what things mean. Someone will ask me something about "is it this or that?" and I answer "I don't know".

Today Bill & I drove to Tampa and met with the Cleft Team Nurse that we plan on using for Ethan's medical needs. She was super sweet! The clinic is about 40 minutes from our house. Not too far. She showed us before & after photos of children with cleft lips. The surgeries were amazing. She feels Ethan has a complete unilateral left cleft lip & palate. But of course, we won't know for sure about his palate until we get him home.

She went over how the team works. She told us what to expect for the surgeries. She calmed a lot of our fears and answered a lot of our questions.

We plan on meeting the whole team in November, when they meet again. If by a miracle we are in China, then we will meet the team in Jan.

I feel so much better having met with Heather today. I have met a few others who will be there to assist us. I have a peace over me now, knowing I have people to turn to in the medical field. And I know that I can contact them if we have questions or concerns while we are in China.

I still have a lot to learn. I hope to be prepared when we do meet Ethan. Bill is also preparing himself too. So we'll make a good team.

No news from China. We're still very early in our wait. I hope and pray we hear something by the end of September. But it could be longer. Just keep praying.

Until next time......