Today is September 29th which means the courts are officially OPEN!! OPEN, OPEN, OPEN, OPEN, OPEN, OPEN, OPEN!!! Although Almaz is still rumored to be on vacation I confirmed with AGCI that someone IS taking our file to the courts. And since the time is 10 hours ahead of us here on the beautiful Pacific coast this means there is a very good possibility that our file has already been submitted!! In 1-2 weeks we will be assigned a court date although this date will remain a mystery to us courtesy of AGCI. The reason they do this is because for reasons outside our control (usually) families often do not pass court the first time around and I guess this is one emotional roller-coaster they want to save us from experiencing. It is my understanding though that we will be given a vague idea of when our court date is. SO - things we can all pray for would be 1) to have a court date assigned to us quickly and 2) to pass court the first time around. These are the next BIG steps which will pave the way for the much anticipated travel dates!
Monday, September 29, 2008
Courts Are Open!
Today is September 29th which means the courts are officially OPEN!! OPEN, OPEN, OPEN, OPEN, OPEN, OPEN, OPEN!!! Although Almaz is still rumored to be on vacation I confirmed with AGCI that someone IS taking our file to the courts. And since the time is 10 hours ahead of us here on the beautiful Pacific coast this means there is a very good possibility that our file has already been submitted!! In 1-2 weeks we will be assigned a court date although this date will remain a mystery to us courtesy of AGCI. The reason they do this is because for reasons outside our control (usually) families often do not pass court the first time around and I guess this is one emotional roller-coaster they want to save us from experiencing. It is my understanding though that we will be given a vague idea of when our court date is. SO - things we can all pray for would be 1) to have a court date assigned to us quickly and 2) to pass court the first time around. These are the next BIG steps which will pave the way for the much anticipated travel dates!
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Brothers!!!
So - as promised I am going to tell you all why my Mom was in Ethiopia and able to buy me all sorts of cool stuff for the nursery.
The answer: BROTHERS!!!
Ok so here's how it all happened. Back in May I started really praying for one of the waiting children with AGCI. I can't really say I was "considering" him because I knew the situation wasn't realistic but my heart was very burdened for him to the point where I kept having dreams about him. I was telling my Mom how much my heart hurt for this little boy and how I wish so badly that he had a family. I secretly e-mailed our case worker to ask what the oldest age we could adopt was. After a couple days I heard back - 5 years old was the oldest. Now this boy was 2 and 1/2 times that in years. Since I knew a ten year age gap between parent and child wasn't "appropriate" I hadn't actually been considering pursuing his adoption but if AGCI hadn't said 5 yrs. old I might have really tried! I shared this information with my Mom. Meanwhile she was thinking maybe God was calling she and my Dad to adopt this little boy. I was thrilled! They prayed about it for a long time. There are currently 5 of us kids. I am the oldest and the youngest is 15. They obviously had a lot to consider. One morning they shared with me that they had finally decided that God was calling them to adopt this waiting child that had been on my heart and theirs for so long.
The next business day my Mom called AGCI back to let them know they had finally decided to officially pursue adopting this boy. What happened next was heartbreaking. AGCI's social services department had never had a parent and child pursue an adoption at the same time and when made aware of the situation did not agree. They were worried about the effects on the adoptive children and did not feel our family was capable of being 100% excited and invested into both adoptions at one time. They were also concerned that there would be negative effects on Brian and I if and when my parents traveled and completed their adoption before us. Despite arguments to the contrary, AGCI told my parents they must postpone their adoption until ours had been finalized for a year. Absolute heartbreak ensued. Was this God closing the door? How could they have such peace about something that was so wrong? This was not a quick decision but something that had been lifted up in prayer for months. One night my Dad told my Mom "maybe our son just isn't at HH." Not knowing what he had said, I told my Mom the same thing the next morning. My sister who was in Ethiopia at the time had e-mailed my Mom about the same time telling her maybe they should just pursue a different agency. The final decision was if they were making the wrong decision God would have to slam a door because they still thought this was the right decision.
Although my sister was in Ethiopia at the time, that was just for a short layover on her way to Burundi. She was planning on going back to Ethiopia for all of 2009 though and suggested my parents look into the organization that she was planning on working with. What they found out quickly confirmed God's plan. At an orphanage in a very rural part of Ethiopia there were 150 boys ranging in age from 3-15. The organization sponsoring the orphanage experienced some turmoil which led to the 150 children being supported by the adoption agency who was having trouble finding families for older boys and having a hard time financially supporting such a large facility. Somewhere along the way 1 boy turned to 2 boys :) and the paperchasing began. Through a secure site for adopting families my parents were able to see photos and some bios on the 150 boys. How would they choose only 2? The director of the adoption agency was going over to Ethiopia for business and asked my Mom what she wanted to know from the children they were considering. My Mom explained that picking your children from photos was difficult and she just wanted to know their personalities. The director semi-jokingly said "well you should come with me then." We had assumed all along that no one could travel until the adoption was finalized. We quickly found out this was not an Ethiopia rule just an agency specific one. After a phone call to my Dad my Mom was on the phone with a travel agent buying a ticket to Ethiopia and departing 3 days later.
She flew to Addis and was there for 12 days. In the middle of the trip they made the 14 hour trek to the orphanage that my brothers were at. She spent a few days there with the children and made the decision of which boys would be added to our family. This was a very difficult decision as we can all imagine. She said there were many we would have been blessed to welcome into our family. Her stories and photos of Ethiopia were wonderful to see. The best part though was learning about the two soon-to-be additions to the family. We think they are about 8 and 10.
Soon the paperwork will be at the courts and we will all be closer to bringing the newest boys in our family home! We can't think of a more wonderful experience for our baby than to have 2 uncles who can tell him all about Ethiopia.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Nursery Know How
Due to popular demand :) here's how we did the more creative elements of the nursery -
1) Fabric Canvas Collages (for Adanise) - we bought canvases and fabrics from the clearance section at Joanns. I thought I was buying small sections of fabric but ended up with tons left over so buy really really small amounts. Without trying to sound stereotypical we just picked fabrics that we liked and looked "African" to us. We stapled a piece of fabric over the whole canvas. The fabrics on top (the shapes and letters) were just hot glued on. It was really easy. The most time consuming part was cutting things out. The harder things (like the letters) we did by printing out the shape, hot gluing that to a swatch of fabric and cutting out with an exacto knife. The CHOSEN and elephant canvases I did after my Mom suggested I use wonder under. The process of getting them ready for being cut out took longer but overall it was much easier using the wonder under than hot glue and exacto knife. I had never done anything like this before and somehow got this idea in my head. Very beginner friendly.
2) The Amharic on the wall - hmmm. I googled Amharic Bible and was able to locate the verse I wanted thanks to the references also being in English. At first I thought I would freehand two verses. Um, no. I decided two verses was pushing over-achiever status and I needed to bring it down a bit. The Amharic letters are very detailed. Stencils would have been nice but how do you make Amharic stencils anyway? Again my Mom who didn't want to get within 10 feet of this project suggested the easiest thing to do. We borrowed an overhead projector from church. We then tried printing on the transparency (didn't work) and tried to print out the letters to the perfect size to trace onto the transparency (didn't work). Finally we ended up getting the perfect size on the computer screen and very gently tracing directly from the screen onto the transparency with a marker. Good thing Brian wasn't home or we would have not been able to do that. We then projected the writing onto the wall (in sections because it was too long to all be projected at once) and used tiny paintbrushes to color in between the lines. The wall texture did not make it easy. Overall it took about 4 hours (including prep time) for one short verse.
For Renee - the children's stool is small but surprisingly comfortable for us bigger bottomed people. It fit lying down on its side into a standard size suite case. It is solid wood so no fear of it breaking during transport. My Mom also said they had larger "adult" stools too.
It was all well worth it!!
1) Fabric Canvas Collages (for Adanise) - we bought canvases and fabrics from the clearance section at Joanns. I thought I was buying small sections of fabric but ended up with tons left over so buy really really small amounts. Without trying to sound stereotypical we just picked fabrics that we liked and looked "African" to us. We stapled a piece of fabric over the whole canvas. The fabrics on top (the shapes and letters) were just hot glued on. It was really easy. The most time consuming part was cutting things out. The harder things (like the letters) we did by printing out the shape, hot gluing that to a swatch of fabric and cutting out with an exacto knife. The CHOSEN and elephant canvases I did after my Mom suggested I use wonder under. The process of getting them ready for being cut out took longer but overall it was much easier using the wonder under than hot glue and exacto knife. I had never done anything like this before and somehow got this idea in my head. Very beginner friendly.
2) The Amharic on the wall - hmmm. I googled Amharic Bible and was able to locate the verse I wanted thanks to the references also being in English. At first I thought I would freehand two verses. Um, no. I decided two verses was pushing over-achiever status and I needed to bring it down a bit. The Amharic letters are very detailed. Stencils would have been nice but how do you make Amharic stencils anyway? Again my Mom who didn't want to get within 10 feet of this project suggested the easiest thing to do. We borrowed an overhead projector from church. We then tried printing on the transparency (didn't work) and tried to print out the letters to the perfect size to trace onto the transparency (didn't work). Finally we ended up getting the perfect size on the computer screen and very gently tracing directly from the screen onto the transparency with a marker. Good thing Brian wasn't home or we would have not been able to do that. We then projected the writing onto the wall (in sections because it was too long to all be projected at once) and used tiny paintbrushes to color in between the lines. The wall texture did not make it easy. Overall it took about 4 hours (including prep time) for one short verse.
For Renee - the children's stool is small but surprisingly comfortable for us bigger bottomed people. It fit lying down on its side into a standard size suite case. It is solid wood so no fear of it breaking during transport. My Mom also said they had larger "adult" stools too.
It was all well worth it!!
Monday, September 22, 2008
Kick A$$ and Awesome
According to Aunti Em I had to title this blog post just as I have because this is exactly what she thinks the nursery is. Since she did a lot of the work with Brian and I, she gets to have her say for the title. What I was going for with our nursery was simple, or maybe not. I wanted bright colors but I definitely wanted it to have an ethnic/Ethiopian flare. I wanted our nursery to be completely unique. The pictures don't quite do justice to the brightness of the colors (the blue is a more tealy blue) but it will give you an idea. Here it is, the big reveal:
Yes those are cheetah print sheets but it was a small enough amount that Brian allowed them into our son's room...
The writing on the wall is 1 Samuel 1:27, "For this child I prayed and the Lord granted me what I asked." It is painted in Amharic. Emily and I did this on Friday night. At this point braggers might tell you it isn't as hard as it looks. Well, I'm all about being humble and truthful (ok so maybe me saying that reveals the truth :) ) so I will tell you it was in fact difficult. About 45 minutes into the logistics of it all I was beginning to question my own ability and whether or not my creative ideas are realistic. Luckily Emily kept reminding me it would look really cool when it was done. We worked through blood, sweat, and tears (ok maybe just sweat) and I am so glad we did.
These pictures are authentic Ethiopian banana leaf art work. My Mom went to Ethiopia a couple weeks ago and brought back so much cool stuff for the nursery. Why was my Mom in Ethiopia you ask? Well getting things for my nursery was only a smaller side-mission (since she hates shopping more than ANYTHING), the real mission will be revealed in a future (soon) blog post.
The mobile was a gift from Aunti Em. She bought it on her mission trip to Burundi in May. Brian thinks the birds are scary and will give our baby nightmares. I think the fact that it is hand-painted Burundian craftsmanship makes it awesome and it HAS to go in the nursery.
This children's stool also made it back from Ethiopia.
These fabric canvases are handmade by Brian, Emily and I. Yes, Brian crafted with me in between soccer games. Who would have thought? I guess having a baby brings all sort of surprises. I don't think I'll ever be able to get him to scrapbook though. We'll see, maybe one day he'll cross over to the dark side.
This last one was inspired by Michelle's necklace.
Notice the Ethiopian drum, Brian's favorite toy car, and the basket with both Brian and my first teddy bears. The giraffes are from (you guessed it)... Ethiopia.
Here are pictures showing the details of the shelves. The figurines and painted bowl are from Ethiopia. The amharic coke can was purchased online because all during the olympics we just kept getting Thai cans (thanks, Em and Mom cause I'm pretty sure she used your credit card...).
On this shelf again the figurine is from Ethiopia. The stringed platter is a Burundian instrument, and the elephant and giraffe are from (shhh, don't tell) Joanns. And yes the checker girl at Joanns told me she normally likes zebras but she didn't like this one cause its neck was so long. We had a good laugh at her expense. Who tells a customer that they think what they are purchasing is ugly anyway? Geesh.
Yes those are cheetah print sheets but it was a small enough amount that Brian allowed them into our son's room...The writing on the wall is 1 Samuel 1:27, "For this child I prayed and the Lord granted me what I asked." It is painted in Amharic. Emily and I did this on Friday night. At this point braggers might tell you it isn't as hard as it looks. Well, I'm all about being humble and truthful (ok so maybe me saying that reveals the truth :) ) so I will tell you it was in fact difficult. About 45 minutes into the logistics of it all I was beginning to question my own ability and whether or not my creative ideas are realistic. Luckily Emily kept reminding me it would look really cool when it was done. We worked through blood, sweat, and tears (ok maybe just sweat) and I am so glad we did.These pictures are authentic Ethiopian banana leaf art work. My Mom went to Ethiopia a couple weeks ago and brought back so much cool stuff for the nursery. Why was my Mom in Ethiopia you ask? Well getting things for my nursery was only a smaller side-mission (since she hates shopping more than ANYTHING), the real mission will be revealed in a future (soon) blog post.The mobile was a gift from Aunti Em. She bought it on her mission trip to Burundi in May. Brian thinks the birds are scary and will give our baby nightmares. I think the fact that it is hand-painted Burundian craftsmanship makes it awesome and it HAS to go in the nursery.This children's stool also made it back from Ethiopia.These fabric canvases are handmade by Brian, Emily and I. Yes, Brian crafted with me in between soccer games. Who would have thought? I guess having a baby brings all sort of surprises. I don't think I'll ever be able to get him to scrapbook though. We'll see, maybe one day he'll cross over to the dark side.This last one was inspired by Michelle's necklace.Notice the Ethiopian drum, Brian's favorite toy car, and the basket with both Brian and my first teddy bears. The giraffes are from (you guessed it)... Ethiopia.Here are pictures showing the details of the shelves. The figurines and painted bowl are from Ethiopia. The amharic coke can was purchased online because all during the olympics we just kept getting Thai cans (thanks, Em and Mom cause I'm pretty sure she used your credit card...).On this shelf again the figurine is from Ethiopia. The stringed platter is a Burundian instrument, and the elephant and giraffe are from (shhh, don't tell) Joanns. And yes the checker girl at Joanns told me she normally likes zebras but she didn't like this one cause its neck was so long. We had a good laugh at her expense. Who tells a customer that they think what they are purchasing is ugly anyway? Geesh. 
And here is the hard working crew after a frustrating turned fun night of painting Amharic on a nursery wall. And yes we had a milkshake break to keep us motivated.
So, in conclusion, I would like to once again thank the parents for the beautiful furniture, Mimi for all the awesome stuff from Ethiopia, Aunti Em for the birds that scare Brian and also for helping make our nursery...Kick A$$ and Awesome! Colorful, Ethiopian influenced, unique nursery...CHECK! Now all we need is our baby...
Friday, September 19, 2008
Congratulations!
Thursday, September 18, 2008
What's In A Name
Well as expected I have had many questions about baby Gossetts name. Brian and I had not picked a name as we were waiting to hear what his Ethiopian name was. Now that we have that information we have finally decided what to call our son. Yes, we will be incorporating his Ethiopian name. And, no, I can't tell you what his name will be. Not only can we not share his given name before he is legally ours but we have decided that until he is ours on paper we won't be sharing the name we have picked either. This was not an easy decision but I do respect the fact that Brian is wanting to be conservative with the information we share until we are certain that this little boy we already love is in fact baby Gossett. So - don't ask because I am a bad liar and I am not allowed to tell you! Hopefully December/January comes quickly!
Still Flying High
Well we are still thrilled and flying high! It has been hard to sleep and focus on other things since we are so excited to be parents. On Tuesday my Aunt Tammy came by the office to congratulate me.
Wednesday afternoon we received our referral packet. This is another (smaller) binder of paperwork to be filled out saying that we are officially accepting the referral of baby Gossett!
I started working on it right away! I want my paperwork there on the 29th when the courts open so no way am I going to waste time.
Today is a big day for us. We have a phone call to go over the referral packet with Christy. Then we have a phone call with the Family Education Coordinator to discuss a transition plan. Since just those phone calls won't get my paperwork to AGCI in record time we are also having our international pediatrician consultation today.
It is really nice to have something to do again - something that we can somewhat control to be able to speed the adoption along. And the greatest part - we now have a name and a face for motivation!
Wednesday afternoon we received our referral packet. This is another (smaller) binder of paperwork to be filled out saying that we are officially accepting the referral of baby Gossett!I started working on it right away! I want my paperwork there on the 29th when the courts open so no way am I going to waste time.Today is a big day for us. We have a phone call to go over the referral packet with Christy. Then we have a phone call with the Family Education Coordinator to discuss a transition plan. Since just those phone calls won't get my paperwork to AGCI in record time we are also having our international pediatrician consultation today.
It is really nice to have something to do again - something that we can somewhat control to be able to speed the adoption along. And the greatest part - we now have a name and a face for motivation!
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