Good news I have had chicken pox. Yes my doctor says contrary to what my family has told me that I have had chicken pox. This is good news if you don't think about the fact that no one can remember any of the major illnesses I have had. Also this is just a reminder that I had to use my brothers baby picture for my senior yearbook baby picture because we couldn't find one of me.
This chicken pox news came out in my adoption physical with all the extensive blood work that was done.

As for the adoption we are just waiting......waiting......waiting. What we are waiting for at this point is our 171H, our approval from the US government to adopt internationally. We did get our biometrics done last weekend so we are one step closer. We expect to get approval within the next 4-6 weeks. We don't officially go into the waiting for child pile until that gets done. The time frame after that is 1- 3 months for a referral, however presently there are waiting children that fit our criteria if we ended up choosing waiting children that referral time is virtually non-existent. After the referral, if we accept it we go into another waiting period of about 4-6 weeks until we travel.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a patient person but we are sure all the waiting will be worth it.

MitchellMania
Thanks for your comment James, now I know for sure at least one person has read my blog......Okay the latest info is we have sent off our I 600a application to the US Citizen and Immigration office, if we check out okay we will get a I71h which is like gold and we will be set to go to Ethiopia. Our expected time for travel is sometime in 2006, okay okay more like sometime in April or May of 2006. We will be expecting a referal of two children sometime within the next 10 weeks or so. The referal comes with pictures, videos, a medical history and a family history if available. The video and picture will be taken to an international adoption doctor that we have already selected here at childrens hospital for a review and advice on any issues that may be apparent. You would be surprised what they can find in a video. We will definately let everyone know how that goes.
I did find a bed and breakfast in Addis that has three bedrooms and offers a maid and driver for around fifty US dollars a day. Ethically I thought there was something wrong with hiring the maid to cook and clean for us, but in talking to some of my ethiopian friends realized, that it would be a beneficial situation for everyone involved.

I have decided that I will offer a movie suggestion since we often watch movies that can't be seen at the mainstream movie theatre, I am hoping to do this on a regular montly basis or whenever I feel like it....probably just whenever I feel like it.
My current reccomended movie is
Tibet Cry of the Snow Lion
I especially think James, Mary and Mom will enjoy this one......I was crying in the first 5 minutes, there is a lot of good info along with beautiful scenery shots.

Well this is where we are at…..
So far we have an almost complete homestudy, which means that an outsider has met with both Mitch and I and decided that we are good enough, or with the 24 hours of parenting classes that we will be good enough to adopt two more kids. Basically the homestudy consisted of conversations about adoption, the process and a discussion on our views of adoption. The social worker also visited our home to make sure we would be able to provide decent shelter for these kids (I didn’t mention I lived in a closet as a kid) and we would provide a safe and loving environment. Roman and Sierra got to talk to the social worker and Roman requested that he talk to her alone….Scary. Any way it went well until she was about to leave and all of the sudden yelling from upstairs filled the house “ROMAN, STOP IT” Slam of the door “SIERRA YOU ALREADY GOT TO PICK WHAT TO WATCH” crying exaggerated yelling and screaming continued…the social worker Brenda just looked at us and said “ the perfect family crumbles” (exact words). All I could think of is I am going to kill those kids and I hope I didn’t clean the house for nothing!!!! It turns out other families fight also and we were still okay, plus the added bonus of a clean floor for a couple more days.

Here is my first attempt at blogging......we will see how this goes.
I really wanted to be able to keep everyone we know in the loop about where we are in the adoption process and be able to post photos for everyone to see.