The liquor store

So, I was in a local mom n' pop liquor store yesterday. No, we don't frequent those routinely, but we were looking for a couple good bottles of wine to sip....Anyway, as I was leaving, I was interested to see if my suspicions would be confirmed, so I asked the store owners where they were from (a husband and wife). I, of course, wasn't surprised when they told me - Ethiopia! So I told them we were adopting from Ethiopia and they told me all about how wonderful Ethiopia is. They told me about how Ethiopia has always been independent, and that it's history goes all the way back to the days of Jesus. They said the country has never been colonized, no slavery, and that the people there are very shy, but respectful of foreigners. The people are gentle and kind and I parted with them saying to me, "bless you". I was instantly drawn to them, hard to explain. So...I am now committed to start sharing with you great information about the land where our future daughter will come from.

We'll start with the map of where exactly Ethiopia is.

Bring on week ten!

SMJ

More than education

This morning we completed our final adoption education class with our educator, Laura. It's more than education, though. It's hearing first hand stories of real adopted kids and families helping to make our process more real than ever - Laura and her husband have five adopted kiddos. We appreciate her insight, compassion, and understanding of the entire adoption process. It was a wonderful two and a half hours well spent this morning, a true blessing. Thank you, Laura! She told us about this video that we thought we'd share with you all. ~Peace.

So much love...

So much love from the residents at the nursing home where I work! Today, Mary, our activities director, helped the residents lovingly make the most adorable baby blanket for us. It is so soft, cuddly and was made with so much love! I love our residents!
Well, we have completed two full months on the wait list, finishing up week 9 in a couple days. My how time flies! Tomorrow we're off to our last adoption education class. We've been reading our books - tons of great information. We'll share some tidbits with you when we're finished.

Onward,
SMJ

Havin' Fun!

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We're working on week 9 so we thought we'd join in the fun and dance the weeks away!

As an added bonus we will finish our last adoption education class this weekend.

Onward.

Process update...

We watched our Ethiopia specific training video, and passed the test - that part's done. One more class in a couple weeks and we'll be done with all of the training.

We made it to the police station today to get our fingerprints re-done for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation clearances that we need to renew.

I also got our new doctor's examination forms in their envelopes to send off to our docs tomorrow for homestudy updating. Since we just had our physicals re-done in January, we don't have to go in again, just need to have them complete the appropriate forms for homestudy updates.

I'll also be sending our Colorado Child Abuse registry clearance form off tomorrow to have that updated and current as well.

In reading all the blogs out there, LOT's of people got referrals this week, after a period of not hearing much of anything, with the time frames still falling within the 3-5 month wait list time. Very exciting for them all! I love to read (and join in the excitement) of how others' got "the call". When you have time, check out some of their blogs listed in the "other blogs we follow" section to the right. We're in for an exciting, life-changing phone call sometime in the next several weeks! Wow.

Wow.