Name change...

Since we changed countries, we never updated our pet name for the baby. Well, the search has ended, and we've landed on Opie!

No, not like Opie Taylor. More like Ethi-Opie.

Deep, I know. Aren't we clever?

thing 1, thing 2

Ahhh.... still no signs of our paperwork from CIS. *sigh* BUT! I've kept myself somewhat distracted with projects over the last week or so.

I've been into sewing lately, and I found this cool pattern on chickpeastudio. And we just found out some of our friends are expecting twins! So I whipped up these #1, #2 bibs. The most exciting part for me was learning how to incorporate snaps, since I had never done it before. It was surpringly easy, and I'm a little giddy now that they're done!

Now, how to decide who wears #1?

V-day Buffet

Well, we're waiting on one final form before our dossier is complete—the revised approval from CIS. Then we'll be on our way to D.C. for authentication! Hopefully we'll get the approval this week.

Eric took me out to eat for Valentine's day. It was a place called Abyssinia, where they serve authentic Ethiopian food! The lady who served us was from a part of the country called Facil. (We could not find it on a map, so maybe that's a local name or something.) She gave us recommendations on what to try, and we ended up getting a huge sampler tray of food. It was so spicy and delicious!! They serve it with this funky bread, called injera.


I've heard injera described as a spongy pancake, but Eric and I thought it looked more like a wet blanket. Somewhere between pudding and bread. Appetizing...right? Actually, it's awesome... with a sort of sourdough flavor, and it's used as an eating utensil, since everything is eaten with your hands. (This primitive form of eating seemed to suit Eric very well.)

After 3 refills on the bread, and countless glasses of water (that'sa one spicy meatball), I tried to stop myself from eating anymore, as my stomach stretched to dangerous levels... but I continued to nibble until I was in a food coma. The bread... oh! so good! The spicy sauces...so addictive! We tried our best, but could not finish the last bit, and finally had to call it a night.

Needless to say, it was a delicious meal, and I think it made us look forward even more to our trip to Ethiopia! Beautiful babies and scrumptious food... heaven on earth!

pluggin-n-chuggin...

Just a quick note to say that we've working hard on our new application, and things have moved along incredibly smoothly. *knock on wood*

We're waiting on our revised CIS approval for Ethiopia, and then we'll be on our way to D.C., baby! Woo hoo!

In the mean time, I'm gonna have to think of a new name for the blog. Finding Baby Borat was soooooo last week...

Adoption: Part 2

This has been a difficult week for us. For a while now, we have been contemplating whether or not we should keep our application in Uzbekistan. Our agent wasn't giving a clear answer on when to expect referrals, and the information we were getting about UZ seemed to be getting less and less clear.

In an effort to get more info, Eric contacted an agent at another agency this week. She told him that the minimum wait for a child in UZ is now 1.5 years, and that each agency will only be getting 5 referrals per year (an UZ quota we didn't know about). She suggested Kaz or Russia would be easier for us and that if we did them concurrently, UZ would likely be our second and not first child adopted.

Considering that we're technically not even "in line" yet, and that this is much different info we received than when we began this process, we became very discouraged. All of this, in addition to dropping 2 trips on us—I began to wonder if we weren't being tugged in another direction.

After a long week of taaaaaaalking, researching, meeting with our agent... and of course, PRAYING—we have decided to withdraw our application from UZ, and apply to another country.

We started over on our dossier last night.

Adoption: Part 2

I hope this doesn't discourage those of you waiting on referrals in UZ. I know there are many beautiful children waiting there for you, and we'll be praying for your families. Besides, we figure with our luck—as soon as we jump out of this line, it will start chugging along. So really, better for all of you, right? :)

Hang in there, and we'll keep you posted on this new chapter in our journey.

thrift shop project #5324

The adoption blogging world is quiet lately, so I had to break the silence and make a posting for my most recent thrift store find:

A wooden high chair, complete with removable tray! It needs some sanding and refinishing, but that's just another project to add to the distraction list. Maybe I'll monogram Borat's initials on it too...just maybe. :)

Oh, and we found out our dossier is now being translated. One (teensy tiny baby) step closer...

gone, gone, gone!

I finally got an answer about the dossier yesterday! It's officially on it's way to Uzbek. My agent will not give us a tracking number, because "in the past the families did use the trucking information in order to call the facilitator in the country directly asking him/her questions"

Hmmmmm, tricky. It's almost like he thinks we're crazy?!?

Anyway, I've written a poem to celebrate the dossier's journey:

Where have you been,
my sweet dossier?
you've been on my mind
every night and day

When will you arrive?
only Brown knows.
I feel so deprived—
your journey so slow.

Arrive there unscathed,
and translate in a fury,
So I can be ready again,
to wait....and then hurry.