checking things off...

i should have known when the time came tim would get things done. we have our first meeting with the social worker scheduled for next weekend. following that visit will be the home visit. we are putting a door on what will be the baby's room and replacing our steep staircase with a circular one. i'm feeling so good about our progress. btw, i posted an inspiration board for the baby's room here if you care to take a look.

also, i ordered this book about a week ago and it arrived today. i first heard about it here and was reminded of it while searching for adoption books on amazon the other evening. i'll let you know what i think once i finish it. it has amazing reviews.

little adventurer tees!

our fundraising adoption tees are here! actually they've been here for a while... i'm just now posting them on little adventurer. if our son is anything like his future pops, he will love animals! i'm a bit in awe of all the different types of animals that are indigenous to uganda. they says its the home of over a thousand different species of birds as well. :O so that's what inspired our adoption shirts. go check them out here. also, i'm waiting for some fabric to come in with the above design to make into pillows. when they are ready i'll add them to the little adventurer fundraising shop as well.

the home study begins...

we now officially have our social worker. her name is sarah and we have yet to have our first meeting. we can't meet her until we finish our 11-13 page autobiographies we are each writing. as soon as we got the huge list of questions to complete, tim sat down at the computer and began writing for the rest of the evening. we knocked out most of our papers right away, but for some reason are now having a hard time finishing them up. tonight is the night though. we aren't going to bed until they are complete!

along side the home study we are also trying to gather all of our dossier documents. i think we've come to the point where we realize this is no easy feat we are endeavoring. never-the-less, i've picked out a name. but i can't share until tim comes around to loving it. i just have to let it sink in a bit.

also, the last post was about gifts, and i forgot to mention a wonderful gift we received from tim's parents- plane tickets to pick up our son and bring him home! what a blessing. :)

gifts.

tiny toms

we got a surprise package in the mail the other day...an adorable pair of classic red tiny toms from our little boy's aunt rachel, nana and poppie (sp?). i just can't wait to put these on those little feet. 

tim and i have begun our online education courses and any day now we will begin the home study. so far the courses have given me some great advice and ideas. i enjoy them. :) its very important to expose our son to his birth country and the culture of his ancestors. one idea was to buy little gifts from Uganda during our stay to save for his upcoming birthdays. what a cool idea, huh? its nice we will be in Uganda for almost a month. that will give us time to take lots of pictures and soak up as much culture as we can.

Spring

If we were adopting a girl I think I'd name her Spring...its my favorite time of year and I have some of the best memories from Springs past. Tim is doing such an amazing job landscaping our place. Its taken several years to get things as nice as they are because he does everything himself...and he's a pretty busy guy. He's been killing out all the stickers and getting the grounds ready to seed grass. I hope we can bring our boy home this time next year. I know that is wishful thinking, but it would be so nice to be able to take him outside to play on days like today. We can play with Nellie and Oliver (our beagles), water the plants, pick zinnias, harvest peaches, and lay in the grass and look up at the clouds! Maybe he will be too little for all this. Maybe he'll just want to take naps and eat. ;)

So where are we in the process? Well I called the agency last Thursday because it had been over a week since we had mailed in our contract and big check. They said they hadn't received it yet and I began to panic a bit. But by Friday they confirmed they had received it and we made contact with our adoption counselor Claire who will be guiding us through the dossier part of our adoption. We are waiting to be matched with a social worker to work with us on the home study portion. I cannot wait to get our dossier sent off. It seems at this point to be the hardest part of the whole process. Our plan is to not procrastinate and get this over with asap! I'm dying to find out if we will be required to make any modifications to our home. I'm afraid it will hold things up quite a bit. Luckily, our families have a knack for construction.

looking forward...

For those of you unfamiliar with the adoption process...there is A LOT of waiting involved. The best things in life are worth waiting for right...ugh what a cliche. I tend to be a very impatient person by nature. I feel a constant pressure inside myself to accomplish things and make things happen in my life. I think some of this is good, but I often take it to an extreme.

When a couple finds out they are pregnant the baby is right there with them. You can see him or her grow each day as your stomach gets bigger and bigger...not so with international adoption. Our baby is half way across the globe. So if you hear me talking about Africa a lot its because it makes me feel closer to our boy. I'll try to keep it to a minimum. ;) I recently acquired a extra large vintage globe. I've been looking at it often. It has awakened my desire to travel and to experience different cultures. I think that is one of the reasons we choose international adoption. We want to experience and learn about our child's culture and we want to show him ours.

So while adoption is much about waiting its also about looking forward to something new, exciting, and wonderful! I have quite a bit to look forward to in the nearer future too. I want to focus on enjoying my life here and now. So I made a list of things I'm looking forward to in the next year and a half.

1. Traveling to Portland and San Francisco with Tim including a trip to the Alameda Antiques Faire
2. Our first crop of peaches and our second of blackberries
3. Learning how to screenprint
4. Renegade Austin
5. Driving to Chattanooga, Tennessee with Tim for an art show
6. Beach trip with the Bobos
7. Meeting my new niece/nephew this September!
8. Getting the baby's room ready and possibly adding on to the house :O
9. Getting our refferrel
10. Traveling to Uganda!

finally...a worthy cause.

Tim has been filling up this corona money jug since high school. He is an expert money saver and has been known to throw a well earned $50 or $20 in the jug as well as loose change and one dollar bills. "One day," he says, "I'll break it open and spend the money on something special." "Portland/San Fran trip?" I asked. "No," he says. Then I asked, "What about that caribou hunt you've always wanted to do?" Again he replies with a negative.

Yesterday I found the jug by the front door. When Tim got home from work he asked if I wanted to help him break it open. I guess in this adoption he found a worthy cause to finally break open that jug. :)