Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
Long overdue adoption update
So apparently people (I mean Leah) still read this blog and informed me that I changed my side bar to say we are officially waiting yet failed to blog about it. So here it is.
On May 10 we were officially put on the wait list for Korea. Right now the timeline for waiting for a referral is as such
0-3 months for a boy
4-8 months for a girl
Once we accept our referral, we will do an acceptance dossier. No worries not nearly the amount of paperwork involved this go round.
From there we wait for a visa and then travel clearance. Here is where the long wait comes in. It is estimated that it could take as long as 14 months from time of referral acceptance until travel clearance.
So far the longest wait I have seen is 10 months. During the wait to travel we can send 2 care packages and request two updates on top of the other updates we will receive.
We are currently on the wait list for a boy or a girl. We know that we will likely bring home a child closer to 2 in age so a full fledged toddler. We are both excited and nervous about this.
In the meantime we are trying to learn as much as we can and wait for that phone to ring. It could be tomorrow or it could be August or heck it could even be December whatever is meant to be will be and we are at peace with that.
At last check there were about 18 families waiting for girls and 8 waiting for boys.
So there you have it.
Stay tuned for Wordless Wednesday...pics of Kiya and Badger just for you Leah :)
On May 10 we were officially put on the wait list for Korea. Right now the timeline for waiting for a referral is as such
0-3 months for a boy
4-8 months for a girl
Once we accept our referral, we will do an acceptance dossier. No worries not nearly the amount of paperwork involved this go round.
From there we wait for a visa and then travel clearance. Here is where the long wait comes in. It is estimated that it could take as long as 14 months from time of referral acceptance until travel clearance.
So far the longest wait I have seen is 10 months. During the wait to travel we can send 2 care packages and request two updates on top of the other updates we will receive.
We are currently on the wait list for a boy or a girl. We know that we will likely bring home a child closer to 2 in age so a full fledged toddler. We are both excited and nervous about this.
In the meantime we are trying to learn as much as we can and wait for that phone to ring. It could be tomorrow or it could be August or heck it could even be December whatever is meant to be will be and we are at peace with that.
At last check there were about 18 families waiting for girls and 8 waiting for boys.
So there you have it.
Stay tuned for Wordless Wednesday...pics of Kiya and Badger just for you Leah :)
Sunday, May 22, 2011
A day at the farm
We took Kiya to a farm today. She wasn't in the best of moods so our trip was short but she did like riding the little tractors.
And the baby cow :)
She was so sweet and just liked petting him. It was cute.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
2 years later and still in awe
Two years ago we walked up 4 flights of stairs to find this little one. She was 5 1/2 months old, tiny oh so tiny and scared yet she had this strength about her. She weighed about 13 lbs and truly was my little peanut. I will never forget the moment I laid eyes on her doing tummy time on the floor with the other babies.
And here is my little peanut 2 years later. She is more like my little string bean now as she is so very tall for her age. She is full of life. She loves to laugh. Is bossy, dramatic and just darn near perfect.
I look at her and still have to pinch myself. I am her mom. She is amazing. I have so much I want to share with the special woman that gave birth to the magical little girl. This year Kiya day and Mother's Day are the same. We met Kiya on May 8, 2009. I also spent my very first Mother's Day on a bus to Hossana where I was blessed enough to meet the woman that gave birth to Kiya. I got to talk with her, cry with her and share a hug that I still feel today. This woman's sadness and loss led to my joy and to me being a mom. Thank you just isn't enough.
I know the Kiya gets her strength from Zinash. I know she has her mom's eyes. I want so much for Zinash to see all that Kiya is now. I want for her to hear Kiya's infectious laugh and oh so sweet singing voice. I want her to meet her daughter. I dream that one day this just might happen.
I look back at these last 2 years and just how much being a mom has changed me. It is everything I hoped for and more. Sure some days can be frustrating and we have been thrown a couple of curve balls but most days are truly wonderful. Kiya lights up any room she is in and yet she can still be shy. She is a girl that knows what she wants and how she wants it. She is wise beyond her years and oh can she be stubborn. And yet she can come up behind you and give you a big hug when you least expect it.
Nothing slows her down and I love that about her. She just today and for the first time climbed up on the couch all by herself cast and all. Our couches are really tall and don't have removable cushions. She would always climb on her chair and then onto the couch. Today she said "Watch this. I climb on couch." And sure enough she did it.
I am truly blessed. I am in awe of my little girl and I love being her Mom.
Friday, May 6, 2011
What to say....
Two years ago I was preparing to board a plane that would take me 7000 miles away to Ethiopia. I was finally going to meet my daughter.
I can tell you when I legally became a mom, April 3, 2009. I can tell you when I held my sweet little girl for the first time, May 8, 2009. And yet I can't tell you when I actually felt like her mom. I knew I was her mom but it took some time to really just feel it.
Does that sound weird? We didn't share the same space for 9 months. We were jet lagged, over whelmed, fragile, and pumped up on adrenaline when we met Kiya. It was everything I hoped for and more yet it was strange too.
I wanted nothing more in my life than to be a mom and 2 years ago that journey began. I look back at where I was then and where I am now and I truly 100% feel like Kiya's mom. In the beginning I was doing all the mom things that you are supposed to do but that overwhelming don't mess with my kid instinct took some time to show up.
I can't tell you an exact date as to when I really became a mom. I know I felt it though. When I left her at daycare and she cried and screamed and I knew then that she needed me just as much as I needed her. I felt a tug. An instinct kick in that said I have to fix this. This is my kid and nothing and no one is going to mess with her.
The biggest compliment I ever got, came from a woman I now call a dear friend but at the time was someone I had just met. We were in the hospital waiting for Kiya's first cast and all the emotion that came with that day and she said to me later that day that you couldn't even tell that Kiya was adopted. That she looked at our family and saw true unconditional, parental love as we tried to be strong for our scared little girl. My friend has no idea how much those words meant to me.
I knew I was Kiya's mom through and through but for someone else to see it. To see that my adopted daughter was just as much of part of me as her son was a part of her. It was amazing.
I have had plenty of people ask if it is possible to love an adopted child as much as your own child. To that I say Kiya is my own child. I love her with all my heart and soul and will stop at nothing to make sure she is happy and healthy. She is my miracle. She is my dream. My love for her runs deep through me. I couldn't imagine loving her more than I already do.
So as I reflect on life and love, I take pause to be grateful for all the blessings I have in my life. I am truly one lucky Mom. I have this amazing daughter. I don't have the words to express how grateful I am to Zinash. Her sadness led to me being able to parent this wonderful little girl. I want so much to share all that Kiya has accomplished with Zinash. Someday I hope this dream will come true.
For now it is back to reality and life with a very active toddler.
I can tell you when I legally became a mom, April 3, 2009. I can tell you when I held my sweet little girl for the first time, May 8, 2009. And yet I can't tell you when I actually felt like her mom. I knew I was her mom but it took some time to really just feel it.
Does that sound weird? We didn't share the same space for 9 months. We were jet lagged, over whelmed, fragile, and pumped up on adrenaline when we met Kiya. It was everything I hoped for and more yet it was strange too.
I wanted nothing more in my life than to be a mom and 2 years ago that journey began. I look back at where I was then and where I am now and I truly 100% feel like Kiya's mom. In the beginning I was doing all the mom things that you are supposed to do but that overwhelming don't mess with my kid instinct took some time to show up.
I can't tell you an exact date as to when I really became a mom. I know I felt it though. When I left her at daycare and she cried and screamed and I knew then that she needed me just as much as I needed her. I felt a tug. An instinct kick in that said I have to fix this. This is my kid and nothing and no one is going to mess with her.
The biggest compliment I ever got, came from a woman I now call a dear friend but at the time was someone I had just met. We were in the hospital waiting for Kiya's first cast and all the emotion that came with that day and she said to me later that day that you couldn't even tell that Kiya was adopted. That she looked at our family and saw true unconditional, parental love as we tried to be strong for our scared little girl. My friend has no idea how much those words meant to me.
I knew I was Kiya's mom through and through but for someone else to see it. To see that my adopted daughter was just as much of part of me as her son was a part of her. It was amazing.
I have had plenty of people ask if it is possible to love an adopted child as much as your own child. To that I say Kiya is my own child. I love her with all my heart and soul and will stop at nothing to make sure she is happy and healthy. She is my miracle. She is my dream. My love for her runs deep through me. I couldn't imagine loving her more than I already do.
So as I reflect on life and love, I take pause to be grateful for all the blessings I have in my life. I am truly one lucky Mom. I have this amazing daughter. I don't have the words to express how grateful I am to Zinash. Her sadness led to me being able to parent this wonderful little girl. I want so much to share all that Kiya has accomplished with Zinash. Someday I hope this dream will come true.
For now it is back to reality and life with a very active toddler.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Updates galore
So my blogging time is limited so this post is some updates as to what is going on with Kiya, scoliosis and our pending adoption.
Kiya
She is FANTASTIC. We enjoyed our week of squishy hugs and bubble baths. She is officially in pull ups during the day and diapers only at night. She is doing just awesome in the potty training department. She still sometimes wets in her pull ups and we are getting there with the whole poop thing. She did go poop on the potty twice yesterday but had started to poop in her pants. She told us though that she wanted to go to the potty so off we went and sure enough she finished pooping on the potty. She gets one star for pee and 2 for poop and when her reward board is full which it is she gets a prize. Her first prize is a playdough filled back pack with accessories that we are going to play with today.
Kiya still loves to sing and dance. She talks all the time. She has a tendency to be very bossy so we are working on using nice words and respect. Telling mommy to walk away tends to be a favorite. Or she will yell at the dogs to do something and poor Sebastian is pretty deaf so we have to remind her that his ears are broken.
She is now sporting a super cool blue cast. She for a week said she wanted a pink cast but they showed her the colors and she immediately said blue. We asked her if she was sure and she said "Yes mommy, blue cast." She bounced back VERY quickly. We thought we would get one night of her staying in bed all night and sure enough she got up once. The saddest part was the morning after when she said "bubble baths all gone" followed by "cut cast. cut cast off mommy". Broke my heart that she is old enough to understand all of that. We just told her that cast had to stay on and she seemed to get over it.
Scoliosis
Tuesday was surgery day. She did great. The doctor gave us a chart of her progress that showed her numbers out of cast and in cast. Her out of cast numbers started at 40 which was her initial measurement back in June of last year. She was 52 right before her first cast. She went up to about 64 after the 2 month break at the end of last year. Tuesday she was about 61/62 so we got a small amount of correction. Her cast numbers have always been awesome. She was held at about 15 in first cast, 16/17 in second cast and just under 15 in her 3rd cast. She is super flexible which is good. In talking with the doctor, he isn't worried yet. He said it often takes 2-3 casts for kids to show real progress and we really need to look at this as cast number 2 since she had such a long break after cast 1. It makes sense so we are sticking with it. We are so very grateful to have Shriner's hospital and Dr. H. to treat Kiya.
We also discovered that Kiya weighs 29lbs and is just under 36 inches tall. Yup my little string bean :)
Adoption
We are still waiting on our Adam Walsh clearance from California. All other paperwork is in and has been reviewed. Just one piece of paper holding us back from being officially waiting. Sigh.....
It will happen soon I hope but for now we just wait.
So I think that is a long enough post for today. Need to focus on our post placement report that is due next month.
Kiya
She is FANTASTIC. We enjoyed our week of squishy hugs and bubble baths. She is officially in pull ups during the day and diapers only at night. She is doing just awesome in the potty training department. She still sometimes wets in her pull ups and we are getting there with the whole poop thing. She did go poop on the potty twice yesterday but had started to poop in her pants. She told us though that she wanted to go to the potty so off we went and sure enough she finished pooping on the potty. She gets one star for pee and 2 for poop and when her reward board is full which it is she gets a prize. Her first prize is a playdough filled back pack with accessories that we are going to play with today.
Kiya still loves to sing and dance. She talks all the time. She has a tendency to be very bossy so we are working on using nice words and respect. Telling mommy to walk away tends to be a favorite. Or she will yell at the dogs to do something and poor Sebastian is pretty deaf so we have to remind her that his ears are broken.
She is now sporting a super cool blue cast. She for a week said she wanted a pink cast but they showed her the colors and she immediately said blue. We asked her if she was sure and she said "Yes mommy, blue cast." She bounced back VERY quickly. We thought we would get one night of her staying in bed all night and sure enough she got up once. The saddest part was the morning after when she said "bubble baths all gone" followed by "cut cast. cut cast off mommy". Broke my heart that she is old enough to understand all of that. We just told her that cast had to stay on and she seemed to get over it.
Scoliosis
Tuesday was surgery day. She did great. The doctor gave us a chart of her progress that showed her numbers out of cast and in cast. Her out of cast numbers started at 40 which was her initial measurement back in June of last year. She was 52 right before her first cast. She went up to about 64 after the 2 month break at the end of last year. Tuesday she was about 61/62 so we got a small amount of correction. Her cast numbers have always been awesome. She was held at about 15 in first cast, 16/17 in second cast and just under 15 in her 3rd cast. She is super flexible which is good. In talking with the doctor, he isn't worried yet. He said it often takes 2-3 casts for kids to show real progress and we really need to look at this as cast number 2 since she had such a long break after cast 1. It makes sense so we are sticking with it. We are so very grateful to have Shriner's hospital and Dr. H. to treat Kiya.
We also discovered that Kiya weighs 29lbs and is just under 36 inches tall. Yup my little string bean :)
Adoption
We are still waiting on our Adam Walsh clearance from California. All other paperwork is in and has been reviewed. Just one piece of paper holding us back from being officially waiting. Sigh.....
It will happen soon I hope but for now we just wait.
So I think that is a long enough post for today. Need to focus on our post placement report that is due next month.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Adoption update
Okay time to spill the beans on what we are up too.
First let me say that it is with a heavy heart that we have decided to leave to Ethiopia program. It was all becoming just too much. The corruption, the changing timelines, the lack of timelines....it was not settling well with us to just sit at the bottom of this long waiting list. We were waiting for an orphan to be made. We had no end in sight to how long that wait might be and given the current vibe of adoption from Ethiopia we couldn't be sure it would be in the next 2 years or so. That and all the talk of corruption and massive slow downs, etc. It just didn't feel right anymore.
It breaks my heart to leave behind a culture and country that gave me my beautiful daughter. We know we will visist but it does sadden me that my children will not share this beautiful heritage. I know a piece of my heart will always belong in Ethiopia.
And it will also now belong in South Korea.
We are officially making the switch. We have sent in all the updated paperwork to both our local agency and CHS. Why Korea? Well, there are orphans that need families. There are kids in the system waiting for a forever family. We searched our hearts and truly feel we can be a family for one of those little ones.
The other big change is that we are likely adopting a toddler. Given how the timelines work in Korea our child will likely be over 1 year and possibly even as old as two at homecoming. We are excited about our new journey.
Our Little Man may turn out to be a girl which we are fine with as well.
This was not an easy decision for us. We truly wanted to adopt from Ethiopia. We were excited by the two trip rule as that meant we could spend more time in this country that we love. I am sure some will say we are jumping ship because Korea is faster. And to that I say mind your own business. We shed tears about this decision. We second guessed ourselves. Long before we settled in and found Korea we were looking at national domestic adoption agencies and other countries. Korea hadn't even been brought up but was mentioned to us as a possibility.
We did some research. We did some soul searching. We talked. We thought. We talked some more. It felt right. It made sense. We envisioned our future son or daughter. We couldn't stop talking about Korea. About learning about a new culture about traveling to Asia and Africa with our kids. It fit into our future.
So there you have it. There is the news. We should hopefully fingers crossed be officially in the Korea program before the end of April. We are waiting on Adam Walsh paperwork to come back from California and yet another fingerprint check. And then we settle in to wait with the news of our future child. We don't know how long that will take. It could be a month, it could be 6 months, it could be 8 months. From there we could wait for as many as 11-12 more months before we would travel to Korea. Either way our hearts our open and we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our child.
First let me say that it is with a heavy heart that we have decided to leave to Ethiopia program. It was all becoming just too much. The corruption, the changing timelines, the lack of timelines....it was not settling well with us to just sit at the bottom of this long waiting list. We were waiting for an orphan to be made. We had no end in sight to how long that wait might be and given the current vibe of adoption from Ethiopia we couldn't be sure it would be in the next 2 years or so. That and all the talk of corruption and massive slow downs, etc. It just didn't feel right anymore.
It breaks my heart to leave behind a culture and country that gave me my beautiful daughter. We know we will visist but it does sadden me that my children will not share this beautiful heritage. I know a piece of my heart will always belong in Ethiopia.
And it will also now belong in South Korea.
We are officially making the switch. We have sent in all the updated paperwork to both our local agency and CHS. Why Korea? Well, there are orphans that need families. There are kids in the system waiting for a forever family. We searched our hearts and truly feel we can be a family for one of those little ones.
The other big change is that we are likely adopting a toddler. Given how the timelines work in Korea our child will likely be over 1 year and possibly even as old as two at homecoming. We are excited about our new journey.
Our Little Man may turn out to be a girl which we are fine with as well.
This was not an easy decision for us. We truly wanted to adopt from Ethiopia. We were excited by the two trip rule as that meant we could spend more time in this country that we love. I am sure some will say we are jumping ship because Korea is faster. And to that I say mind your own business. We shed tears about this decision. We second guessed ourselves. Long before we settled in and found Korea we were looking at national domestic adoption agencies and other countries. Korea hadn't even been brought up but was mentioned to us as a possibility.
We did some research. We did some soul searching. We talked. We thought. We talked some more. It felt right. It made sense. We envisioned our future son or daughter. We couldn't stop talking about Korea. About learning about a new culture about traveling to Asia and Africa with our kids. It fit into our future.
So there you have it. There is the news. We should hopefully fingers crossed be officially in the Korea program before the end of April. We are waiting on Adam Walsh paperwork to come back from California and yet another fingerprint check. And then we settle in to wait with the news of our future child. We don't know how long that will take. It could be a month, it could be 6 months, it could be 8 months. From there we could wait for as many as 11-12 more months before we would travel to Korea. Either way our hearts our open and we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our child.
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