I Need Africa...

While We Wait: My First Purchase

Now, that we've been on the wait list for over two months I can't help but look at the baby stuff when I go shopping. I don't know why I do it b/c I can't buy anything. We don't know if we're having a boy or a girl or an infant or a toddler. Both Brent and I think it's going to be an older boy since everyone seems to be requesting infant girls. But, God could have a surprise for us. However, the other day at Tuesday morning I found this diaper bag and I bought it. It was only $9.99 and came with many cool accessories, as you can see. I figured it was a pretty safe buy b/c it could be used for either gender and I'm pretty sure our child will still be in diapers when we get them (at least for a little while). Of course when we get our referral I will have Baby R's name monogrammed on it. We're not 100% on names yet. We're pretty well settled on the boy name but not sure if we'll use the same name for a girl. Anyway, here's what will probably be my only purchase between now and our referral call.

Speaking of referrals: 5 families made it through court on the 19th and at least one referral was given on the same day. I'm praying for Justin, Kendall (they used to go to church with us) and Baby Ewan who have their court date on the 23rd. Their blog is posted on the right.

Week 9

Not much to report in week 9. I FINALLY added our blog to the FBI list for Gladney adoptions. It's an unofficial list run by a fellow Gladney family that shows about 50-75% of the families in process. So far we're pretty far down on the waitlist.
Go here to check it out:http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=ppHBvDAxQ8m6D9u0lLFvNIA

Yummy Valentine's Recipe

This has nothing to do with adoption, just random...If you know me at all, you know I'm not so into cooking. But I do enjoy baking and I recently found this recipe on another blog and then tracked it down to this blog below:

http://bakerella.blogspot.com/2007/12/red-velvet-cake-balls.html

I made them this week and they are so yummy! I didn't cool them long enough which made them harder to dip but they were still delicious. I think she has other versions that you can make as well with different types of cake and icings.

During Week 8 we celebrated Miley's First Birthday. We had her party with her best friend, Oliver, who was turning 3. The humans ate mexican food while the doggie table was filled with dog bones, cookies and even a birthday cake. I know I'm crazy but I have been known to throw a party for my Cabbage Patch dolls back in the day. I do have the photos to back it up (coming soon). A good time was had by all!

Week 7

Week 7 of the wait brought with it a conference call with all Ethiopia Gladney families. We love Gladney. I really appreciate their desire to keep us informed about what is going on with the Ethiopia program. The latest news is that the new wait time from waitlist to referral is on average about 6 and a half months. Then it can take anywhere from 3-6 months for a court date to be scheduled. Court dates are scheduled about 8-10 weeks out and then you travel another 3 weeks after that. This was not earth shattering news as far as we were concerned. But I do expect the wait to continue to creep up as the months go on. So we're probably not looking at traveling b/f next Fall or Winter. The good news is that more and more families are interested in adopting orphans from Ethiopia.

We also attended our first Austin Ethiopia Adoption get together. It was so fun to actually see all the Ethiopian cuties in person. It made it much more real to us. Brent and I just kept looking at them and thinking, "Wow, one day this will be us." It's an amazing group and I know they will be so helpful in sharing advice. We already heard a few horror stories about the 18 hour plane ride home.

Finally, the most exciting part of Week 7 was that Miley Ryan turned one year old on Sunday. We are officially celebrating her birthday this weekend, however. It seems like just yesterday that she was our little terrior terror: biting everything in sight, growling while holding onto our pants and chewing our brand new base boards! We don't miss that part but we do miss her little white puppy self running around like a banshee when she had her crazy puppy freak outs after 8pm. She's still a little crazy at times but thanks to Lee Mannix Miley has definitely calmed down. She even graduates from her intro. to agility class on Wednesday. Here are some pics. of the pup over the last year.