WINDOW.

OK. Everyone stay calm. Calm. Peaceful. Calm.

OK. Whatever. WE'RE JUMPING THROUGH THE WINDOW!!! You know the window. The one that Gladney says is approximately 3 to 5 months long, where referrals are most likely to be handed out. You remember what a referral is, don't you? That ALL-IMPORTANT PHONE CALL we will get from Jessica telling us all about who our future daughter will be while we look at e-mailed photos of her. Wow.

3 MONTHS OFFICIALLY - DONE. DONE! We have completed 13 weeks and will now start week 14. Sweet!

Stay tuned!

Onward! smj

A Bright Sun-Shiney Day

Perfectly beautiful. That was today. 75 degrees and perfect for some quick yard work and our first lawn mowing of the spring! Whoo Hoo! It took a few tries but I finally got the mower fired up! Got a little sun burned even. Good times.

In adoption news - we are feeling good about wrapping up with week 12. Hard to believe we are entering the 13th week of waiting, which, upon completion, will take us to 3 MONTHS OF WAITING! "THE WINDOW" Oooooh, Ahhhhh. That exciting "window" of time where we could reasonably expect a call anytime! Stay tuned, people!

Also, GREAT news - we heard back from our very patient caseworker, Jessica on our necessary homestudy updates. We don't have to worry about updating our homestudy. She says, and I quote, "Our in country rep has informed us that dossier documents are good for two years in Ethiopia." YAY!

This week I will work on submitting our letter to USCIS requesting a new fingerprint appointment to keep our Immigration Approval letter current. This is the ever important I171-H from the US government saying we are allowed to adopt internationally. Our fingerprints expire in a couple months, and we MUST make sure this is taken care of - pray that there are no glitches with this. We can't bring home baby K without it!

Until we blog again - ONWARD!

SMJ

Eleven

We have waited 11 full weeks on the wait list now. And full they have been. On the "to do" list for this week will be doing some research on day care and pediatrician options. We will also get the taxes finalized and keep working on our basement. Chad has had his shots for travel, but I will need to get moving on mine this week as well. Some of the suggested vaccinations are yellow fever, hepatitis A & B, tetanus, and typhoid. I am also planning on reading "There's No Me Without You" - Chad's finished it, now it's my turn! There's so much more to do! Onward!

SMJ

Interesting Factoids

The capital city of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, is located at the foot of the Entoto Mountains, and surprising to most, sits at an altitude of about 8,000 feet above sea level. Addis Ababa is the 3rd highest capital in the world. Yes, it’s higher than the mile-high city of Denver!

This means the climate is quite mild. The average high temperatures Jan-Dec range from 65 to 72 degrees Fahrenheit, and the average low temps range from 51 to 58 degrees. The warmest months are March, April, and May, and the rainy season is July through September. We'll be taking our sweaters to Ethiopia!

The city rambles across wooded hillsides, gullies, and fast flowing streams, especially during the rainy season.

The population of Addis Ababa is 2.3 million. In comparison, the Denver metro area population is 2.4 million.

Regarding religion, 82% of the population is Orthodox Christian, 12.7% Muslim, 3.9% Protestant, 0.8% Catholic, and 0.6% followers of other religions.

So then...we are at 10 official weeks of waiting on the wait list. Whoo Hoo...time flies when you're busy with life! Had our State Health Department inspection at work last week (thus the lack of entries the last few days - I'm finally rested up and recovered!). Based on the average number of deficiencies cited in Colorado nursing homes, our results say we're better than average, with work to do still. It's been three months - I'm working on it and loving our residents!

NEW VOTING POLL QUESTION TO THE RIGHT! The answer to the average number of diapers a baby goes through in a year is allegedly 7,500 and, you guessed it, a baby is born in the world every 3 seconds.

Onward with the wait! -SMJ

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