It’s FINALLY Finished!

Our dossier, that is.  🙂

We waited months (no, I’m not exaggerating) for U.S. Bank’s corporate bureaucracy to deliver us a simple four-line notarized letter confirming our account with them.  But it is in hand now, as are the re-done criminal clearance reports and medical reports (all of which needed new notary signatures with 2012+ commission expirations).

So, this morning we picked up our last document at the hospital (thank you, Dr. Zart!) and drove straight to our adoption agency to hand in the final documents to complete our dossier.  Whew… now that was a great feeling.

Within just a few short days, the stack of paperwork we tirelessly compiled will be sent off to Ethiopia, where it will be translated to Amharic in preparation for our eventual referral.  How cool is that?!

We’re allowing ourself a brief moment to do a happy dance… and then we’ll move on to the next set of paperwork:  Grant applications!  🙂

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The Adventures of My Wonderful Absentee Husband

My sweet, amazing, wonderful, ridiculously hard-working (and did I mention HOT?) husband has been relatively absent from the homestead lately.

From working on a deadline for a $500 million dollar construction project for which he’s managing all the structural engineering, to working even later — and earlier — hours on side jobs that are basically paying for each adoption agency invoice that comes through the door, to climbing two Fourteeners last weekend, to creating a comprehensive Bible Study curriculum from scratch for our church‘s men’s ministry on the definition of a Godly man (which he presents this weekend at our church’s men’s retreat)… he has been one busy boy.

For many days on end, he has gone to bed well after everyone in the family, and has gotten up for work or meetings well before dawn.  Uck.

Thankfully, his climbing trip last weekend offered at least a brief respite from the harried schedule he’s been burdened with lately.  Only while at 12,000 feet can you wake up at your remote campsite to something so reminiscent of Middle-Earth (the two mountains he climbed that day, Blanca and Ellingwood, were shrouded by the morning clouds in the background)…

… with your own natural infinity pool…

… where your tent shares space with such majestic — and curious — onlookers…

… and where you climb some crazy steep 14,000 ft high rocks (he tells me it wasn’t as bad as it looked in the picture… um, sure… he was on one peak, then traversed ACROSS that picture, just below the ridge, to get to the other peak in the background)…

… just so you can get a picture of yourself at the top.

Must be a guy thing.  That’s all I can say.  🙂

I am so grateful for that man.  I’m thankful he lives to tell the tales of these daring feats, and that he chooses not to do the most dangerous ones (even though he wants to).  I definitely don’t deserve him, and I thank God that He let me marry him anyway.

And I can’t wait until September… when most of these long hours and trips will be behind us.

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It’s That Time of Year Again…

A peek into my family room from last weekend…

I’ll give you one guess re what they’re all watching so intently…

or, more specifically:

A heartfelt welcome to Denver, Tim Tebow.  You already have a small fan club (specifically, the Starr boys and one wee little girl who apparently likes the color of your jersey) about three miles due west of Dove Valley*.  We can’t wait to watch you in action this season!

Oh, and we’re really, really glad we can actually cheer for you now, because… well, you’re no longer wearing a horrible, yucky Florida uniform.  (Nothing against you, but we’re Buckeye fans over here.)  🙂

*for those of you unfamiliar with the Broncos, Dove Valley is where their headquarters are located, in the suburbs south of Denver.

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Randomness and Numbers Update

I’m really tired.

I promise that at some point — hopefully, prayerfully in the very near future — I will be able to arrange coherent and engaging words from the crazy mess of conscious and unconscious thought currently running around in my brain.

In the meantime, here’s a little news from the adoption front:

1.  After only 1 1/2 weeks on the infant girl list, we have moved several spots to #56.   Pretty darn cool, if I say so myself.

2.  We waited two long months for them to get their act together — and to be honest there were times I was contemplating a very public display at the corporate offices in downtown Denver — but U.S. Bank finally mailed our dossier letter to us.  It was about stinkin’ time.

3.  We’re hoping/praying for $830 to come in ASAP so we can submit our I-600a application. We thought we had it — Bryan got another side job out of nowhere — but alas, every single cent of the money from that job is going to our local car mechanic to fix up our old Escape.  We need that yellow baby to run for many, many years, and there were many, many repairs needed… and of course, they all needed to happen at the exact same time.

Sigh.

So would you please pray?

I leave you with a picture of our super-cute and super-flexible third child, whose recent weight gain warranted her yet another reprieve from the evil RTA medication.  In case you’re keeping track, Annie is now a whopping 17 lbs 14 oz at 16 months old… and her latest tricks include climbing stairs and pulling herself to her feet in her crib.  Step by wee little step, my sweet girl.

Yes, I know she’s ridiculously flexible (some of you even noticed that from our first “numbers” picture!).  Our pediatrician actually x-rayed her hips a few weeks ago to see if they were developing properly, and I’m happy to report all is well.  Oh, and she (our pediatrician, that is) heartily recommends that Annie enroll in dance and gymnastics class as soon as she’s able to walk.  🙂

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Perhaps he’s on to something…

Bode (age 3) thinks himself quite the master pianist already… despite not yet having taken a single music class.  He concentrates extremely hard, and is very serious about sitting down to the piano, setting up his chosen music, and beginning to play.

Hmmm… Should I tell him his music is upside down?  🙂

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Big News!!!

Let me just start out by saying that it has been one LONG month.

LOOOOOOOONNNNNNNGGGGGGG.

While I can’t go into further detail due to persons/circumstances beyond my control… you get the idea.

You may also have had the idea that I would never again write on this blog.  Alas, you would mistaken.

Hopefully you’re happy that I’m back.  🙂

I do have some pretty huge news to share, news definitely worthy of breaking the ol’ bloggy fast I’ve been on as of late.

Are you as excited as I am???

We still have a few things to wrap up, but our home study has been approved and as of today…

WE ARE ON THE LIST!!!

(insert happy dance here)

Now settle down and settle in for a nice long wait, because… (drum roll)… we are number:

on the infant girl list.  🙂

Disclaimer: That doesn’t necessarily mean that we must wait until 63 baby girls come through the orphanages with which our agency works.  Many families are on multiple lists (infant girl, infant boy, toddler girl, toddler boy, siblings), and the infant girl list is the longest of those lists; therefore, lots of families accept referrals off other lists and are removed from the infant girl list at the same time.  So while we really have no idea how long we’ll be waiting, we’re optimistically expecting to receive the referral for our daughter (daughter!!!) about a year from now.

All good things come in God’s perfect timing… so while we wait, we trust that:

He knows our daughter.

He knows her first mother.

He knows the difficult path that will lead her mother to an excruciating choice.

He knows her broken heart.

He knows the orphanage to which she will be brought.

He knows the day she will arrive.

And He knows the day she will be available for adoption.

The day #64 becomes #1.

And until that day, we will trust in His sovereignty.  We will pray continuously that He will hold her and her first momma in His loving, merciful hands.  We will pray for the remaining funds (all $20K of them) to be provided, and quickly, so that when we do receive our referral we can move forward immediately.  Please join with us in those prayers.

And break our hearts, Lord, for what breaks yours.

Baby girl, Mommy and Daddy love you already… and we anxiously await the day when you’ll come into our family forever!

UPDATE (8/10):  We’re actually #62 for an infant girl… our agency hadn’t updated the lists after all the movement last week.  Ya hoo!!!  🙂

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