We are here! We are here! We are here! We are here!

When I was thinking of how to start this blog, the above repetitive phrase from Horton Hears a Who seemed quite appropriate. Life has just felt overwhelming as of late. Not in a about-to-have-a-nervous-breakdown sort of way, just in a can't-keep-up-and-not-feeling-overly-motivated-to-try kind of way. Thus, the silence.

But tonight I am sitting in front of a softly glowing fire, enjoying the solitude and my spinach pomegranate salad. In this moment, life is good, life is quiet, and there's no where else I'd rather be (except, perhaps, Ethiopia picking up a special someone).

Mmmmm!!!! I love this salad!!!! I wish I could share it with you faithful readers...wait. That was a lie. I'm glad no one else is here so I can gobble every last piece of it up. By the way, did you know pomegranates are only available here November through January? So, the obsession is very short lived and you have to grab all the gusto while you have the chance. As one of my boys recently said, "My mom's crazy about pomegranates."

The phone is ringing and there is almost nothing that will make me move from my spot right now and answer it....even when it's my mother-in-law (sorry, Mom :) )

Okay, enough tangents and on to the good stuff. First, an update on Miss Selah. We have gotten TONS of great pics from recent traveling families. We have compiled a "short" photo album that I carry with me, and a much larger album where I keep every pic we've ever received (even if just part of her head happens to be in the corner of someone else's baby shot or the photo is so blurry you can barely make her out!) In that album, I think I have about 30 pictures. It's so wonderful! Oh, you guys! She's incredible. I cannot WAIT to meet her. Hutchinsons delivered her first care package two weeks ago where we crammed an outfit, a stuffed giraffe, a blanket, and our family photo album (the great cloth kind babies can chew on and treat really rough) into a gallon ziploc. On December 21, another group of five families leaves to meet their little dears, and on December 27, the Tennants will be leaving to pick up their son and will be taking Selah her second care package. This one is more practical: a pants outfit, an adorable little dress with the bloomers from baby Gap (on clearance for $9.99!), a shirt that says something about loving lots of kisses, an age-appropriate little toy, and a Christmas ornament I had made for one of her nannies with her being held. Hopefully, this will be easier to cram in. There are three other families also hoping to travel December 27th (although two of these families have not passed court yet), and then the next tentative travel group with four families is scheduled to leave January 17. According to the YG list, we are 7th on the list of families waiting for tentative travel dates after the January 17 group. We are really, really, REALLY hoping to travel in February, although we know that nothing is certain. To put it in perspective for you non-adoptive readers, of those ten families who were most recently trying to pass court, four of them did not for various reasons. It is very possible this could also happen to us. Court days are filled with mixed emotions for those of us watching: extreme joy for those families who now "officially" have a son or daughter and extreme sadness for those families who are told something wasn't right, they will need to wait yet again. I think this past court was especially emotional for me for three reasons: 1. Many of the families that I have followed most closely because of their dates being so close/the same as ours did and didn't pass. 2. The Joners, who have been through so much after losing their precious referred daughter, Julia, in August to pneumonia, failed to pass court. Fortunately, they will not have to wait as long to go before court again and may still be traveling December 27th along with the Savages and Tennants. 3. In my mind, the results of these court dates directly impacts our future travel dates.

As November 19 was the day of our referral, I'm really hoping for an official update from America World sometime in the next couple of weeks. Selah was very small at the time of our referral (although "moderate" by Ethiopian standards) and I am hoping to see she's gained weight as they are very scheduled about the babies feeding times, even waking them in the night from what I've heard. We are supposed to get updates every month with new weights/heights/etc., but according to families in front of us, this is not a guarantee. That's why these pics from other adoptive families are such a lifeline. My friend Shelley commented that she only had one (I think!) picture of each of her adopted boys when they were in Africa and how her one son would just love some pics now. I feel very blessed for the commitment of these other families to painstakingly photograph all of our kids at the Transition Home. THANK YOU GUYS!!!!!

So, how is that for updated info after almost a month of silence? I guess I had more to say than I thought. Speaking of that, tomorrow (I promise. Really.) I will post week three comments/questions of the Hope Lives study I was so passionate about. I think I'll do most of it tonight, but I don't want to overwhelm and thus make people miss all the good info in this post because of the other one, so I thought I'd wait a day. Grace and peace to you.



Red Letters campaign- Adoption Journal