1 month update.

Well, the first month went by pretty quickly. Only these last few days that I have been waiting to say "one month" has it gone a little slower. I was so excited to email in (to our agency) for our "official" one month update! I wrote them this really pretty email asking for any information available: where we are on the waiting list, how much longer is our estimated wait, what DTE dates they are doing now, etc. And I was really looking forward to the email response, however, it was pretty anticlimactic:
There hasn't been a lot of movement. A few babies have been offered to families who have been waiting on the list.
Hmph. Needless to say, that wasn't the exciting news I was hoping for. I don't know why I thought the news might be exciting, but the fact that we are 1 month closer to our baby was pretty exciting to me!
Oh well, maybe we'll know more next month.


On another note, I had a funny dream last night. In my dream, I was giving "plumpy nut" samples to people I know, trying to encourage them to make donations for this product to our orphanage. Weird, huh? Well, not so weird if you know what "plumpy nut" is, but weird if you don't. So, I'll enlighten you.

Plumpy'nut is a high protein and high energy peanut-based paste (PB) in a foil wrapper. It tastes slightly sweeter than peanut butter.

Plumpy’nut requires no water preparation or refrigeration, making it great because the water isn't always clean, even when boiled. It treats severe acute malnutrition! The packets have a 2 year shelf life when unopened, so shipments can be sent in mass! The product was inspired by the popular Nutella spread (which Tim, Cale and I love!).

The ingredients are: peanut butter, powdered milk, powdered sugar, vitamins and minerals. (looks good right?...seems like it tastes good too!)

Plumpy'nut contains vitamins A, B-complex, C, D, E, and K, and minerals calcium, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, zinc, copper, iron, iodine, sodium, and selenium. Packed full of things these babies and children need, but might not get otherwise!! AWESOME, isn't it?

Click on the word-link above to watch the newscast report. It's about 10 minutes, but it's very cool. Most of the babies in our orphanage (especially those who have been abandoned) are eligible to get this supplement. It has done wonders! One parent has said that her baby has gained a pound a week!

Anyway, I was reading about that stuff alot last night, so that's probably what spurred on my vivid dream. Researching this has also made me VERY hungry for peanut butter! Go figure. Well, here's to hoping this month goes quickly as well.

My first son

Well, it's been awhile since I really mentioned much about Cale. I know this blog is about our family's journey to our Ethiopian baby, so I can't forget to mention my first baby.
Mr. Cale is full of life! There is a whole other side of him that has come out these past few days. I think partly because of the weather, and partly because it's suddenly hit me, that I'm going to have a 2-year-old in a couple weeks. 2! It really seems like time is going by so fast. Tim and I were talking about our next adoption. Yep, we were family planning. We would like to adopt a little girl from China, but you have to be 30, and I'm only 25. I was commenting to Tim on how long 5 years sounds, and I actually said to him, "whoa, in 5 years, Cale will be 5!" To which I was corrected, "No, in 5 years, Cale will be 7!" My baby, 7? No way!
So, on that note, I thought I'd "time capsule" some of the things he's been up to before he turns the ripe old age of 2:
Cale LOVES to be outside. Now, I understand this may be true of most children. But since the past 2 or 3 days have been so nice, we've really spent almost every waking minute outside. We've gone to the zoo, the park (a dozen times at least - there is one right behind our house), played in our backyard, went for walks, really anything with fresh air...and it has been awesome! Cale is a climbing maniac! He really has no fear of heights whatsoever. He will climb to the highest slide and zooms down without coaxing. There is this rock wall kind-of-thing (it's got holes for your feet and hands) at our neighborhood park that I've been helping him up, and today he ran over there and climbed up it himself! I was stunned!
Cale likes to paint and color. He's becoming very artistic. But he can also kick a soccer ball around the house...and he doesn't miss, so he's also athletic. What a kid!
He's now stringing together 3 and 4 word sentences at random. I was playing Monopoly on the Wii and I traded one of the computer players for a monopoly and I shouted "Mommy made a deal!" And Cale repeated it. It was very cool. He has been saying "please" for quite awhile, but today he said "thank you" unassisted. Yesss!! My boy with the manners. Awe.
Well, that's enough of me gushing...you might think, yeah right...he can't be that cool. But he is, and here's some pictures and videos to prove it:

Artistic Cale

Climbing Cale
Fearless Cale
Mommy's BoyAnd here are some videos:
Painting for Mommy.



Enjoying the park.

Fundrasier

We had our fundraiser last Saturday! We had such a wonderful time! Thanks so much to all of my friends who organized it and contributed it. Definitely want to shout out to Patty. She is awesome, and let us have the event at her house ON her birthday!
Our fundraiser consisted of raffles and silent auctions with and added bonus of a gold-selling party. Everyone knows that gold is at an all-time-high right now, right? ;) Well, there are actually consultants that come to your house for a party and pay people cash for their broken or unused gold. (And I dont just mean jewelry, we actually had people selling gold pens, and gold TEETH...ahhh!) Plus, you, as the host, gets 10% of whatever was made at the party, so it was really nice. Such a fun day, I wish more people were able to come and enjoy!
God definitely was in the room...there was so much love for our baby.
We are hoping to do a garage/bake sale this summer to raise more support.
Anyway, the fundraiser kept me so busy that these past 2 weeks have flown by, but now I'm not sure what to do with my time. I also have more of it because I got 'let go' from my salon job. The economy is bad, and I wasn't able to give them any full-time hours. Well, my full-time job is still "Mommy," and that's one I'm not willing to part with.
At any rate, please continue to pray for us. We are so excited to be on the waiting list and are pretty pumped that there have been referrals going out to families in 3 months or so! We may be getting a referral late May! That would be wonderful.
Our agency sent out a newsletter to waiting families. This was in it:
"Regarding referrals, we are not offering babies to families who want baby boys and whose dossiers went to Ethiopia in early December. Many dossiers were sent in December and January, so families whose dossiers went then or in February (like ours!) will still likely have to wait awhile. For baby girls, we are still offering babies to August families. To give an idea of how the waiting list looks, of the 20 longest waiting families, 16 want girls (mostly infants), one is waiting for a boy in a particular age range and three are hoping to adopt young siblings."
It is definitely nice to have an update like that, so we can be prepared time-wise.
We are so ready to welcome another little man in our family! God has truly blessed us with Cale. He is the light of our lives and I know he is going to be a great big brother soon!
Congrats to my brother-in-law David, and his fiance' Amber, who set a date for their wedding on June 13, 2009. It's so awesome to see families grow! I know right now I'm thinking about our second addition to the family, but I can't even imagine how many more family members we'll have in 50 years!
We're praying that we have a picture of our baby to show everyone at the wedding!

date change

Hmmm...I guess there was a tiny bit of confusion with the date that our dossier was sent to Ethiopia. I got another email saying that it was Fed Ex-ed out on Feb 27, 2009. Soo...I guess we are DTE 2.27.09. There you have it.

Hoping Time Flies

Well, since I just posted that our dossier was sent out a week ago...you wouldn't think I'd be too excited about anything just yet. But, I am! It seems like the wait is getting shorter for referrals!! I was checking my email and it turns out that 4 baby boy referrals and one baby girl referral went out this week! Looks like the date is up to December 1st, for boys (waiting list-wise). And if you add the estimated wait up to where we are at, 2.25.09, (I know adoption math is confusing)...we could be looking at an end-of-May referral!! How exciting! This past week has actually gone by pretty quickly...and before we know it it'll be one month, then two, then three (and maybe four). But therein lies the magic number. We are preparing ourselves for a June referral, but we will NEVER underestimate God's blessings!!