Coffee fundraiser

A family that I've met in Lawrence that is also adopting from Ethiopia is raising money for their adoption by selling coffee.

http://www.justlovecoffee.com/TheLovins

Coffee is the biggest export out of Ethiopia so this ties in nicely with adopting from this country.

If you read the About info on this company, the guy who owns it also adopted from Ethiopia.

http://www.justlovecoffee.com/about.htm

I love this idea and just had to share! I will definitely be purchasing my coffee here.

You can also purchase just one bag one time if you click on the image of the coffee you want and ignore the membership portion at the top.

Happy coffee drinking!

A little practice never hurt anyone

This weekend we have taken on an adventure. My niece and nephews have stayed with us. We've had them since 4:46pm (exactly :) on Friday and they will be going back this evening. Normally, we only take them for 1 night at a time, but we were up for the challenge of a 6, 8 and 11 year old all weekend. Well, technically we only had Jake (11) for 1 night. Generally, I'm ready for them to hustle out the door when my sister picks them up. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore them, but in the past I'm just ready for "ME" time again much sooner after a night with the kiddos. This time around it's different. In all my preparation to become a parent, I've just naturally accepted this weekend as real life. A big "WHAT IF?" Being older it's much easier as they can keep themselves busier than an infant would, but I've found this weekend to be a delight. Yes, a delight. I've answered about 536 questions on every topic imaginable. Then, sit back and giggle as they come up with their own answers.

I would have to say that given the situation, if we get referred more than 1 child, we could and would definitely do this. My niece and nephews make me enjoy the little moments more. Take yesterday for example. A day out at the dog park. A 2 hour adventure in nature. We hiked, we jumped over mud pits, we climbed rocks, caught frogs...just stopped living any other moment than what was happening. Right then, right there. There I was sitting on the rocks by the water, the sun warming my face and the sounds of them..."Look I caught another one!" It was a glimpse into my future. A glimpse that made me forget about work, about a messy house, about email and ReLive products...just a sunny Saturday afternoon and I loved every moment of it. Every.

Deep in thought

Confused. Deep in thought. Biting my lip. This is how I'm spending my Sunday evening. I just read some posts on our Yahoo group from other families with our agency. So many are waiting to bring their children home. They got referrals quickly, but then spend months and months waiting to bring them home. The court system is getting slower and is bombarded right now after being closed for a few months. They are hearing court cases in no particular order, which means all the families that had open cases before courts closed in August are not necessarily getting assigned court dates first. Frustrating! We are not at this point yet, but it looks dismal from here.

Some wait for 9+ months only to find out a family member to that child can not be found. Family has to appear in court if the child was relinquished. If not, then at that point, sometimes a child will not be able to be adopted.

I don't want to get caught up in worrying about this now. I want to think about the excitement and positive outcome that will occur from our journey. But today, right now...my forehead is creased with lines.

We think it's a boy

I think we are getting a boy. THINK. We pretty much thought there was a higher chance for this because there are lots of waiting families for girls, but now I am about 85% sure. But, this is an adoption which means anything goes.

Last week our agency called and wanted to know if we would consider twins with a 5 year old sibling. Umm...WHAT? Luckily, they called Josh at work. I may have just said yes without thinking. He called me and we were both just a bit thrown off. 3 children! As much as I would love to scoop them all up, I know that we couldn't be the best parents to them. Going from zero to 3 at one time... as first time parents?? A bit overwhelming. We had to tell them that's not really what we are capable of parenting right now and we don't want to get in over our heads and not be able to be the best parents we can to them. Let's just say this really really sucked. I felt selfish and well...just wrong to say no. Somehow, they read our home study preference wrong and thought we wanted to adopt a few children at once. Talk about a paperwork mistake!

Anyways, we got everything cleared up and our agency told us that because we are open to a boy or a girl, that they think our wait will go quickly as there are 8 families waiting for a girl...so that's gotta mean less families, maybe considerably less, waiting for either a boy or either gender. A boy...a son. Wow.

My nesting is actually turning out to be quite a productive activity for the Hunt household. Everything is finding a place, a need and if not then it's being donated. I would even donate "the evil cat" if Josh wouldn't notice he was missing. Okay, okay...he is kind of (and I'm really stressing kind of) growing on me. I moved my ReLive business to my house this weekend so that I can be set up at home and be near my family when I'm working on my products and orders (although I must admit I would like to be working on a LOT more orders). Looks like next up will be a bathroom remodel (on a tight budget I might add) and then the baby's room once we get a referral.

Ethiopian courts opened today after the close for the rainy season! I'm excited to start seeing a lot of families getting court dates and passing. I'm seeing so many families not passing court the first few times and even going into 3, 4 and 5 times before passing! The online adoption community is becoming my strength and guidance needed to keep me balanced during this wait. I hope and pray that we get a referral before the end of 2009. I'm shooting further out there in hopes we get one soon. Very soon.

Spinning with questions

I think I'm "nesting." I want to rearrange, organize, get rid of stuff we don't use...get MORE space! Granted, I've always been a little (or a lot) like this. I would rearrange my bedroom as a girl until I moved furniture around so much it would barely stay together. This went on as a teen, in college and so forth.

Now, I'm looking around our house imagining where everything is going to go. And, there's so much to do! So many home projects that need to actually come to life. Now is the time. The time to jump on this before we have a little one. Ah...I wish we could take off a month and do all these little projects now before we bring someone new home.

I do suppose all these things will keep us busy. And, I need busy. I need something to take my mind off of the wondering and the flow of questions that constantly surround us. When are we going to get a referral? How long will it take to get a court date? How many times will we have to go through court before we pass? How long will we wait to travel? And HER??? Who is SHE? What's her story? What will lead her to give up her baby? Does she know right now...right at this moment... that this is what she or her family will decide? Will we meet? I find myself always wondering about her. This person, this family. This woman that will change so many lives forever.

I'm checking our Yahoo adoption group several times a day. I want to see other families getting referrals...something that gives me HOPE that ours is coming soon. Yes, we have not been on the list even a month yet, but we really have felt we would be oh-so fortunate and have a short wait. I better get this waiting thing mastered. My heart goes out to the families I'm reading about that have waited weeks, months and years. I could not even imagine.