Update on Closures

Our agency sent us the information that the courts in Ethiopia will be closing for the rainy season on August 21 and will reopen during the first week in October. The most likely scenario is that we will be delayed by the court closure, that is IF we get our referral before the first week in October. If that is the case, we are looking at travel in November or December. Right now, my wish is to travel in 2009 and that we don't have to wait until the new year to travel.

In the meantime, I have called our insurance company to discover, and it is no surprise, that travel vaccinations are not covered. With that knowledge I don't have to get our general practioner to order the vaccinations and can go to the travel clinic at our local hospital and start the shots asap.

Oliver's 1st Gift

My friend Johanna and her family sent a surprise gift for Oliver this week. It is the first present we have received for Oliver and it is even more special because Johanna, the thoughtful, organized and on the ball person that she is, was the first person to send a present when we were waiting for Chloe.

Thank you Johanna and family. You made our day!

No Court Closings?

Ninety-nine percent of the information we have learned and receive on Ethiopian adoption has come from our Ethiopian adoption agency. The other 1% has come from reading other people's blogs on their adoption story and process and usually that is just limited to their own personal experience.

Last night, though, I read an Ethiopian adoption blog that had word that the Ethiopian courts would remain open during the rainy season instead of taking the customary two month hiatus. What does that mean? If the courts remain open, then adoption cases will be heard during August and September, and people won't have to wait an extra two months for the courts to reopen in October before their case can be heard. In the past, people have had to wait for the courts to reopen after the rainy season to have their adoption case heard and approved. Its after the approval that you officially become the parent(s) and can then make arrangements to travel to Ethiopia.

Our agency has not confirmed this to be the case. But doing a quick Goo*gle search this morning I came across a blog which is the motherload of information/rumors for Ethiopian adoptions. This blog was began in May as a resource for those adoptive parents who were affected by the shut-down of the courts in hearing cases of abandoned children in Addis Ababa. Its a good resource to know about and I am glad I found it.

If this latest news is a fact and not a rumor then it should impact us if we get our referral in the next month or two as it means our case will get heard during the time the courts would have been closed for the rainy season. In other words, we would travel sooner rather than later.

2 Months Down

Official Start of the Summer & Waiting

Chloe is finished with pre-school yesterday---it's the official start of summer at our home. Our first couple of weeks are filled with guests, that's a great thing about living in such close proximity to NYC, lots of company. We then have a swim camp and a summer camp. Our summer is pretty full so we shouldn't be bored. We have plenty to do. I don't wish for summer to speed by and for fall and the start of school to come, but I am hoping that the waiting for Oliver will go by quickly.

I know from experience that the waiting game is hard, but I also know that once we get the referral and see Oliver's photo that the wait to actually travel and see him in person is even harder. As the rainy season approaches in Ethiopia, if we get our referral within the given timeframes, I know that the government shut-down that occurs will lengthen our wait to meet Oliver. I look back over our paperchase and think, "I could have done that more quickly to avoid the rainy season."

And again, we know from experience that it will all fall into place and it all happens in good time and that it all happens at a certain time for a certain reason and the child that will be referred to us was destined to be our Oliver.

Yes, but then again, it's just hard to wait....

Compassion

Since adopting internationally we have always given to an international charity that works with orphaned children. About a month ago at church there was a presentation for Compassion International, a child-sponsor program. I signed our family up to sponsor a child. In honor of Oliver, we chose a child in Africa. We were assigned a three-year old girl living in Ghana.

This is the second child-sponsor program in which we have participated, the other is in Asia. We have received photos of our sponsor child in Ghana and she is precious, her photos are also heart-breaking. I can't wait to get our letters and reports.

If you are interested in sponsoring a child, you can click the link to Compassion International above.

Making Plans

What's that saying about the best made plans?

When we started this adoption journey, we thought we would be moving to a larger home this fall. Selling one home and moving to another is easier said than done now right now. When we moved from Dallas to northern NJ, it was a big and costly move and quite frankly, sticker shock. It was insane when we moved to NJ in 2006, the height of the market. In our desirable town, we bid on 3 houses and 3 bidding wars before we were the winning bidder on the house we live in now. I can hardly believe the insanity of what I witnessed purchasing a home in 2006 in NYC suburbia. The people we bought our house from lived in it for 2 years and they made a profit of what our home in Dallas cost. Our realtor told us we could live in our little house for two years and then we would move on up. I knew it was too good to be true, but you have to live somewhere and we didn't want to pass us the tax break.

Now, times have changed and its a great time to buy, not a great time to sell. Adding to the trouble, because of the cost of housing in our area, its all jumbo loans, right now, every lender wants 20% down. That's a sizable chunk of change, especially when you factor in the amount it would take to unload our house. So, we are revising our plans. We're staying put for the forseeable future. That means I finally have to downsize our furniture and all the stuff we have had taking up space in our basement for the past three years. We moved from a 3000 square foot house to one almost half the size. Add to that the massive amount of children's paraphanalia and I have some purging to do.

We toyed with the idea of purchasing a cosleeper and having Oliver sleep beside me at night. We were thinking of doing this so we could continue using our guest bedroom as a guest room. But we decided the other night that after our summer guests leave, the guest room will go to a storage unit and it will officially become Oliver's room and he will sleep in there. Chloe has a queen bed and when guests come, they can use her room. Trust me, she's in our bed most nights anyway so it won't put her out.

Matt says he and Chloe are picking the paint color. That means I need to get going picking out the bedding so he will have some inspiration (or should I say a strong hint) at what color to pick. In two weeks I am going to the Po*ttery Ba*rn outlet and am hoping to get some ideas.

In the meantime, the list of to dos is growing. Its raining today, so I guess its a good day to get started.