New Numbers!!!

New numbers....new numbers!!! Well...I thought I knew for SURE what our new #'s would be. I thought that we moved 1 spot on the boy list and 2 spots on the girls list. So...was pleasantly surprised to hear that we moved more than that.

People often ask me if I'm getting anxious & impatient. Obviously...we are anxious & impatient because we've been wanting a child for several years now. But, the past 2 months have honestly gone pretty fast and I feel that I've been pretty patient. So - I think I'm handling the waiting period "ok" so far. Ask me again in a couple of months and I'm sure I'll be singing a different tune. But...I think as long as there is some movement...I'll be ok.

Ok ok ok....I know you are wanting to know the #'s, so I'll shut up and post them!

For a Boy....


For a Girl...

Harley Riders

This past weekend was the 105th Anniversary for Harley here in Milwaukee. Tim had some family in town for all the festivities so we got together for a nice cookout on Sunday. Here are some pics of some pretty cute little Harley riders.

This is the first week of the month, so we will be getting updated #'s this week. I'm still waiting for the call, but I think we've only moved 1 spot. I'll keep you posted.

Changin it up

Don't go anywhere...it's still me!! I decided that my page needed a little change-a-roo... so.....TA-DAH!!! Like it?! I am so mad at myself though...in changing layouts somehow I lost our timeline. I'm upset because that's the only place we had it documented. I guess I'll have to go back and try to piece together dates...bummer.

New In Town

My sister in-law bought me this SUPER cute onesie last week and I just had to share it with all of you. It says "New in Town" and has little brown feet. Love it! Thanks Tammie!!

My friend Jenna also got me some cute baby stuff too. A little baby photo cube thingy that we can put pictures of the family in and it makes some cute little noises. I absolutely love getting stuff for the baby. I'm usually the one always buying stuff for other people's babies, so when I get stuff for OUR baby - it's very cool. Kinda makes it "real" on a whole different level. Know what I mean? Even though we don't know if it's going to be a boy or a girl or the exact age...it's just so fun. It's probably a good thing I don't know the sex and age because it would be so hard to not constantly be buying stuff. Everytime I go into any store...I must must must hit up the baby section. Just to browse...because I can!

I took Tim into Babies R Us the other day because I wanted to show him some bedding in there that I liked and they have some reserved parking spots for "Expectant Mothers". Tim says..."We should park there - you are an expectant mother". Hehe...we didn't park there, but I kinda wanted to.

~Dawn

Birthday Weekend

I LOVE birthdays, don't you?! My birthday was on Saturday and I had a wonderful day! Friday night we had our kickball team over for a cookout to celebrate being in 1st place! Woohoo - go team! It was a nice cookout...lots of good food and some good fun. And I received some wonderful & thoughtful gifts!! Here are a couple of pictures from Friday night...

Then on Saturday we woke up and took the train down to Chicago with our friends Casey & Cara and just spent the day walking around, eating at my favorite pizza place - Giordanos, people watching, and catching some of the Air Show. It was a good time.

Today I caught up on some much needed sleep and just relaxed most of the day. Tim and I went on a nice long bike ride today and enjoyed the weather.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

~Dawn

Blessed

I feel SO incredibly blessed to have some of the best friends I could ask for! It's been a tough year or so and they have all been so supportive to me. Whether it be calling and asking how I was doing, just having fun without talking, relating to my issues, trying to understand all of the meds and procedures we were going through, or simply sending a card to say you were thinking of me. THANK YOU! There is no way we could have gone through everything without all of our friends and family.

I received a very nice phone call yesterday from some close friends of mine and they informed me that they have planned a fundraiser for Tim and I to help raise money for the adoption! I was speechless and trust me that does NOT happen often. (I'm a chatty patty) Although, Tim and I do feel somewhat awkward accepting this, we know that people want to support us and so we keep trying to remind ourselves of that. I don't know all the details about the event, but I do know that they are working very hard and knowing these girls I know that it will be AMAZING. I can hardly wait! So to all of my friends and family that are helping with this....THANK YOU...from the bottom of our hearts....thank you.

~Dawn

new numbers

We got our monthly call from Julie today and our new #'s are.....





for a boy.... and #24 for a girl still. We don't expect to move much more the next 2 months with the courts closing, but happy to see some movement in the last month. :)

Only in Wisconsin....

Last night I went to the State Fair to see Vanessa Hudgens & Corbin Bleu. NO....I am not a fan of High School Musical - I've never even seen the movie. My friend Deanna asked me if I would go with her to take her daughter Aaliyah. Ok...sure....why not. Well, I think I might possibly be deaf in my right ear from fifty gazillion 4-15 yr olds screaming their little heads off, but it was all worth it because as we were walking out Aaliyah says "Mom - that was the best night of my ENTIRE life". Hehehe...I replied with "Oh man - ME TOO!!". While it may not have been the best night of my entire life...it was close. Because of the teeny boppers? no no no.... because of this....


Friends...let me introduce you to the deep fried smore on a stick. Yes, you read that right. Only in Wisconsin do we take a perfectly delightful treat...deep fry it and then slap a stick in it. Somehow that seems to make EVERYTHING better. Well, they sure did get it right with this one. It was SOOOO good. I should have taken a picture of the inside of it, but I was too busy devouring it. It was nice and warm with a crispy...yet soft shell with lots of ooey gooey marshmallow & chocolate inside. I would love to know who invented this...they really truly deserve an award. And I would love to express my gratitude to them. So, for those of you who live in WI...go to the fair and get one!! Ok, I think I have rambled on enough about that.

Happy Wednesday everyone!

P.S. Here's a picture of Aaliyah at the concert. Let me just tell you - she was dancing & singing her little heart out. It was pretty cute. And little does she know...I have some video of her that I think will haunt her later in life.

Remember the Mayo Jar

I'm sure some of you have seen this in an email forward at one point. I remember getting it a couple of years ago, but a friend just sent it to me again last week and for some reason this time it just seemed to hit a chord with me (and Tim to0), so thought I would share it all with you. I'm now referred to as one of Tim's golfballs. hehe

The Mayonnaise Jar and 2 Cups of Coffee

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle,when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 cups of coffee.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golfballs. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.
The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.
The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous 'yes.'
The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.
'Now,' said the professor as the laughter subsided, 'I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life The golf balls are the important things---your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions---and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.
The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job,your house and your car.
The sand is everything else---the small stuff . 'If you put the sand into the jar first,' he continued, 'there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.
Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Spend time with your children. Spend time with your parents.Visit with grandparents. Take time to get medical check-ups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golfballs first---the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.
One of the students raised her hand and inquired what thecoffee represented. The professor smiled and said, 'I'm glad you asked.' The coffee just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend.'

Marriage Certificates & Target

Guess what came in the mail today? A big check? Nope...I wish. Our marriage certificates from Jamaica that we ordered 3 months ago. No - that is not a typo - 3 months. R-I-D-I-C-U-L-O-U-S. We have been calling and calling and calling to get copies and if we were lucky to get someone to pick up we would hear excuses like "it's being sent to the printer" or "our shipping machine is broke" or "no worries - you will get them". When we ordered them we were told 4 weeks...well that turned into 3 months. We were tired of waiting for our copies to come in, so we ended up sending in our original marriage certificate with our dossier, which I didn't want to do. But, I'm SO glad we did - because look how much longer we would have waited. Ok, just had to vent on that.

And ok...I just have to ask this question. Is it possible to go into Target and buy ONLY what you went in to buy for? I don't think I have ever...and I mean ever gone in and came out with only what I originally intended to buy. Why is that?!?! I went in for dog food, toilet paper and napkins. While I did buy all of these things, I also came out with a gift bag (it was only $1 and it was cute - so I HAD to buy it), also came out with a shirt (it was on sale and again cute - so HAD to buy it), oh and I picked up some shower gel, some handsoap, paper plates, and a toy for Addy. I think next time I will make it my mission to go in and stick to the list. Although I don't have high expectations for that one. :)

Unofficially #20...

Thanks for the suggestions on the books everyone. This week I am getting ready for our rummage sale that we are having this weekend. I'm doing one with my sister in-law and I'm hoping to make some extra moolah. I went through my closet tonight and I never realized how much clothes I have (some with tags still on - ssshhh don't tell Tim). So, felt good just to get it all out of the closet! And my parents dropped off a bunch of stuff for us to sell too - so thanks Mom & Dad!

We received word that our dossier is now being sent to Ethiopia early this week. Whoop whoop! And also...in doing some blog stalking... I believe we are #20 on the boys list already. Moving 2 spots in 2 weeks is pretty darn good I'd say. However...those are not official #'s, but I'm pretty confident. I was so happy to meet some new people online this weekend that are RIGHT by us on the list. So, it will be fun to get to know them and go through the journey together because most likely we will be traveling together to get our babies! How exciting!

Ok...off to bed now. Nitey nite!
~Dawn

Looking for some books...

Ok...looking for some suggestions from anyone out there. I'd like to get some good books on transracial adoption and also some books on Ethiopia and it's culture. Please let me know which books you've found useful.

Thanks!

~Dawn

1 week and waiting...

Well....it's been 1 week on the list now and it feels great to be where we are. Lots of people are asking us now when we will get another update on #'s. We won't get another call from our agency until September (UGH!!). They used to do monthly calls and they have just changed things and are going to do calls every other month. So, we have awhile to wait and we most likely won't move much anyway because courts in Ethiopia close for the months of August & September. So...there should be a little movement, but not much. However, we can do lots of blog stalking and try and see what movement is looking like with other people and you can kinda guage where you should be at.

Here are a few pics from this past week and what we've been up to...

My friend Jenna & I at a work party


My friend Sandy & I at a work party

Ava (my niece) & Levi (my brother in-law)


Tammie & new baby in the belly (sister in-law), Ana (niece) and me

Our new nephew Ethyn - he's so sweet

Ava enjoying her cake!

WE GOT OUR FIRST NUMBERS!!!!!!

Got the call we've been waiting for today!! We are very happy with our first set of #'s!!

We are.........(drum roll please)........#22 for a boy and #24 for a girl!!

So....while we were in Mexico, our friend that was with us woke up on Thursday and said "I had a dream last night that your # was 22." I said, "well that would be nice, but I don't think it will be that low." WHO WOULD HAVE KNOWN!!! Thanks Casey!!

I hope those referrals keep coming!! There have been so many lately!

going....going....GONE

Yes - that's right - dossier is in the hands of AGCI - praise the Lord!!! Tim and I are going to Mexico tomorrow (I know...dirty job - but someone's gotta do it), so we won't be here to get our #'s. Julie is going to call us though, so we'll let you all know when we get back on the 4th! So stay tuned for our #. We are VERY VERY excited!!!!!

Congratulations to everyone who got referrals this week! Hope everyone has a great week!

P.S. Did I mention that we are SUPER excited?!

P.S.S. It feels SO good to have all that paperwork OUT of our house...UGH - I was getting sick of looking at it all. Ok...maybe the pictures is a TAD bit exaggerated, but you get the drift.

Evening at the park

Tonight I had the pleasure of having ALL 3 of my nieces. Tim had 2 softball games tonight, so I took them there thinking we could watch him play....ha! They were not so interested in watching softball. So, we went and looked at ducks, and played on the swings, and went for some walks. Here are a few pics.

Good Weekend

SATURDAY
Tim and I have been saving the $ in our change jar to get a new camera. Well, we are wanting to make the switch from a point & shoot to a SLR, so obviously we'll need to put some money with the money in our change jar, but we're hoping to have a big chunk of it already in that jar. So, Tim had the idea that he wanted to count all of the money to see how much we had. I suggested just taking it to the bank because it's much easier and faster. No, no no...I can do it. Uhhhh....ok. Well, after 1 hour of counting he gave up because he only got through the quarters. I bit my lip, but wanted to say "I TOLD YOU SO!!". And now the money is sitting on the kitchen table waiting to go to the bank.

After he finally gave up on counting all the money, we decided to go mini-golfing. Although I had 3 hole-in-ones, I still lost to Tim. Here is a picture of me on my 3rd hole-in-one, I was pretty excited!

After mini-golf, Ana got into her swimsuit and wanted to go in Addy's pool with her. Yes, our dog is a weirdo and LOVES the water. She wants to be in it as much as possible!

SUNDAY

Sunday was our 6th wedding anniversary! :-) We had Ana until mid-afternoon and then had kickball in the evening, so we made plans to go to dinner on Monday night. But, we still enjoyed our day with Ana and won both kickball games. Although I am dealing with shin splints right now and it is incredibly painful. So, as I'm blogging I'm icing both legs right now. Hopefully they are good to go for next Sunday. I thought I'd post a couple wedding pictures of us since it's our Anniversary. (we got married in Jamaica - for those of you that don't know)

MONDAY

We were expecting to receive our notarized versions of our home study today or tomorrow. And we are very disappointed that it won't be happening. :( We were REALLY wanting it in this week because we are on vacation next week and wanted to leave knowing that we were on the list and we could just relax because everything is in. To make a long story short...our social worker needs to have her boss sign it as well and he is in a different state and there's a notary issue, so not going to happen until next week Monday. However, she will send everything out for us while we're away. But, still wanted it this week. Oh well, not much we can do about it and there are people far worse off so I don't feel I can complain too much, just frustrating.

Tim and I went to dinner tonight up in Milwaukee to an Italian restaurant that we really like and it was delicious! Afterwards we found this little gelato place and stopped in to take a peak. The guy that worked there was VERY passionate about his gelato. He was pretty funny and was making us sample lots and lots of flavors. So, of course we had to get some then. It was soooo good. Here is their website - you should check to see if there is one in your area. I definitely recommend it! http://www.paciugo.com/

Good night everyone, hope everyone had a great Monday!

P.S. please say a prayer for my aunt who is having surgery tomorrow to remove a lump in her breast. She was diagnosed with breast cancer 2 weeks ago. She is doing really well so far and has a great attitude and I know she'll do great. Love you Debbie! :)

Night at the Zoo

We are watching our 6 yr old niece Ana this weekend and we went down to the zoo tonight to watch the movie Surfs Up on a big outdoor screen. We were only down there for 1 hour because the rain started to come, but got a couple of pics in.

TGIF!!!

ALMOST THERE!!!!

I am SOOO excited!! We should be sending everything in Monday or Tuesday next week - YAY!!! I can NOT wait to get on that waiting list. Although I think that will be the hard part. At least now we've been busy gathering paperwork and having appts and then we will just be waiting and waiting and waiting some more. But I still cannot wait.

I have to tell our fingerprint appt story because it was pretty funny. So, we get to our 8am appt and get in pretty much right away. The guy is doing all of my prints and he starts doing some of them over...and over....and over again. And he kept looking pretty confused. He then says "what galaxy are you from"? I said "hmmm...thats a good question". Well, he said that in all of his years in doing this that he has never come across someone like me. Apparently my fingerprints on both hands are exactly the same. Usually people have some variances or different lines...nope not me. I have twin hands!! So...that's my funny hand story.

Tim and I have been so busy lately, so feel like I'm blog slacking so I'm really going to try and be better! I'll post some pictures of what we've been up to lately.

We had two of our nieces for the weekend 2 weekends ago and here are some pics that we took.

We've also been to a couple of Brewer games...

That's all I have for now. We'll be busy with another one of our nieces this weekend, so I'll be posting more pics soon. Tim and I are so blessed to have the BEST nieces in the whole world. We love them so much and feel so blessed to be able to spend so much time with them and be involved in watching them grow. And we are very excited about our new nephew Ethyn and can't wait to meet him when he makes the trip from Minnesota to Wisconsin!

Heartbreaking...

As Tim and I are deciding what to make for dinner we get an email from a friend of ours with the video, which is linked below. As we watch this video it is heartbreaking to see the devastation the people of Ethiopia are facing. And to think we are going back and forth, on our many options, of what we should eat for dinner and all these people want is any bit of food they can get.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7444753.stm

~Dawn

Home Study - DONE

We had our last home study visit this past week, so now we are just waiting for our first draft which we should be getting next week. We are very excited to get that in our hands! We have a few more things left to do on the dossier. My goal is to have everything sent in by the end of the month. The only frustrating thing that we have run into is trying to get copies of our marriage certificates from Jamaica. They are in NO rush at all. We put the request in about 5 weeks ago and they still aren't sent out yet. So, we've made several calls and we keep getting "it's no problem man." And it WILL be a problem if we don't get them soon! So, praying we get those by the end of the week so I can stop worrying about it. We also have our fingerprint appt on Monday morning at 8am. That's pretty much all on the adoption front. We are still enjoying reading all the blogs and following along with everyone's journey!

~Dawn

Memorial Day Weekend

Ok...online classes - DONE! Thanks for the tip in printing everything off Amy - that helped a lot. We are getting ready for our homestudy visit at our house next week Monday. Of course I want things around the house to be perfect, so I'm driving Tim a little nuts. We also received our fingerprint appt in the mail today. So, we'll go to Milwaukee on June 9th to have that done. We feel so blessed to not have hit any major bumps yet, things are really going smoothly.

A friend forwarded this article to us today and well it's interesting and frustrating to say the least. Check it out...

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/05/27/tranracial.adoption.ap/index.html?iref=newssearch

Here are a few pics from this weekend. We had Tammie, Levi and our adorable nieces over for a cookout and some smores.

Ava "roasting" her marshmallow that is nowhere near the fire. hehe

Marshmallow in one hand...chocolate in the other...

Me & Bayli

Tim & Ava (best buds)



I hope everyone had a nice long weekend! I'm very happy to have a 4 day work week! :)


~Dawn

4th homestudy visit

We had our 4th homestudy visit tonight, so only 1 more to go. Tonight was more of an educational session. She was informing us of a lot of issues that could come up and just basic info we should know. We really enjoyed the session tonight. She will then come to our house in 2 weeks for our final visit. This gives us some time to get a few things done around the house and gives our references time to get their packets sent in. We also need to get started on our on-line classes. So, we will continue to be busy the next few weeks in getting everything done. That's it for now....off to watch American Idol!

Slacker McSlackerson

I know I know... I haven't posted in 1 1/2 weeks! It's been a very busy 2 weeks. Tim was in Seattle for a little over a week for work and I had lots going on and still trying to do as much paperwork as possible. We've done really well in getting stuff done. We have almost all of the homestudy paperwork in...just a few things left to do. We had 2 homestudy visits last week and have another one this Tuesday. After that one - we'll have just one more left. Then it's finishing up the dossier work and awaiting for our fingerprint appointment. We are just trying to take it one day at a time. We're SO excited about all of the referrals that were given out and for all of you that have moved down that list now! And also for all of the families that just came home this past weekend. Can't wait to read all about it and see lots of pictures!

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Dossier

We received our dossier in the mail today - YAY!! Now I can REALLY get started. I also talked with Martha (Ethiopia Program Director) on the phone today and she assigned Julie as our caseworker. I should be talking with Julie soon to meet her and go through all of the paperwork. Ok, I'm off to do some reading!

Please say a prayer for the Gresham family as they are traveling in a few days to Ethiopia to pick up their son! How exciting!!

~Dawn

1st Homestudy Visit Done!

We had our 1st homestudy visit tonight and it went really well. We went through lots and lots of paperwork and then started the interview process. Our socialworker is really nice and very easy to talk to. Tim and I both felt very comfortable talking with her. We now have lots of paperwork to go through, read and fill out - we'll get started on that right away. Our next visit with her is on the 15th and then again on the 20th. She said that we should be done by end of May or first week in June. So, we're hoping that we don't hit any bumps so we can indeed move that fast. We are really excited because we were a little nervous going in for our first visit, but it turned out to be just fine. We are hoping to get our dossier in the mail next week, so we can start checking stuff off the list. I'm a big list person - love them, so very excited to get that started. We are learning new stuff everyday and are loving all of it.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

~Dawn