Katie, Tim & Cale Nester...

...would love it if you would follow along as we record our adoption journey. We feel blessed to be called to adopt a son from Ethiopia!
About our journey:
- We requested "either" gender, 0-18 months.
- We received our referral of Megersa on Nov 5, 2009; he was 2 months old.
- Megersa's name is pronounced "Meh-gur-sah."
- Our case was submitted on Dec 18, 2009 and our court date was Jan 27, 2010. We were fortunate to pass court on the first try!
- Tim's mom and I left for Ethiopia on March 8, 2010 for an Embassy appointment of March 10, 2010. We passed!
- Megersa met the rest of his family in the US 3.13.10.
- When we re-adopt him, his full legal name will be Megersa Jace Nester.

Saturday, October 31, 2009

8


Care to guess what this post is about?
Yep. I won a game of poker with this hand! Isn't that great? :)
NOT!! (by the way - I think we should bring "not" back!, haha)

We made it to the 8 month waiting mark...almost 12 months overall. It's getting very very hard. We're so close to the top (at number 2 on the list), but I can't get my hopes up, because we only moved up one spot in one month. We could get our referral in a few days, or it could be a few more months. There are no solids at this point. I dont have much else to say about it. I could tell you exactly what I found out at our check-in, but...I'm not even sure who reads this anymore. ANYWAY. Trick or treating was fun with Cale today. It was pretty chilly, so I dressed him in a long sleeved shirt and a fleece jacket underneath his spiderman costume...he looked a little bulky, though he didn't seem to mind. It reminds me though of Jerry Seinfeld's stand up rountine about Halloween though - it's hilarious! :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M523VCKvCVo

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

7 1/2+

Believe it or not, it's been over 7 1/2 months of us just WAITING. We're coming up on our year mark in about a month or so. After we announced we were adopting we've had friends tell us they were pregnant, and have had their babies already. It's just craziness. I was really feeling hopeful that October was our month, but now that we're hitting the halfway mark, I'm starting to lose that hope.
We've been told that there are MANY many toddlers waiting, but that doesn't really affect us, since they consider "toddlers" to be 2,3, and 4 year-olds.
We're planning to visit family for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I just can't face another family function without any news of our baby! It's TORTURE! I soooo want to have good news to share!
Prayerfully, we will!

Monday, October 5, 2009

Mr. Cale

Lets have some fun. Adoption aside, let's talk about Cale.
Here are some things about him you may or may not know about him:
1. He is OBSESSED with plugs. Plugs, ipods, dvd players, fans, wires, etc...anything electronic, you name it...he LOVES it. We have a gigantic playroom filled with all kinds of toys, but what do we find him doing? Carrying around an old ipod that does work, and some earphones that only have 1 functioning ear like a security blanket. It's bizarre! It may be too early to predict, but I think we have a mechanical engineer on our hands. :)
Sure, I took these pictures today, but it's indicative of the everyday occurrences.I actually took this one first but he couldn't even look up to say "cheese" because he was engrossed in the plugging of the plugs.
2. He has no problem when I drop him off at the nursery. Outside of our own church nursery, I do childcare for 2 big churches, and Cale is in a separate classroom from me; but even without knowing the kids, the teachers, or being familiar with the room, he marches right in and doesn't look back. Sometimes when I come to pick him up he tells me he's not ready to go home yet. There are good and bad points to this of course....the good: I don't have to drop off a weepy, screaming mess, and he always gets good reports from anyone who watches him. The bad: I don't think he has developed "stranger danger" yet.
3. I don't think he looks like either one of us. I mean, sure...the blonde hair and blue eyes lend people to think that he looks more like Tim, but really, I don't know. Tim's eyes are much lighter and his hair is much darker. Cale has Tim's ears...that's definitely all Tim!! His size though he gets from my side of the family. My largest uncle is over 300lbs and is 6ft 5in. The rest of the men in my family are various degrees of huge as well.
I mean, look at the stats:
Birth - 7 lbs (and 3 1/2 weeks early, at that!)
2 months - 14 lbs
5 months - 21 lbs
1 year - 27 lbs
2 years - 36 lbs, 3 ft
2 1/2 - well, i don't know yet. He just turned 2 1/2 today!! :)
I'm sure the measurements are monstrous though!
I actually did a little predictor of Cale's height (something on babycenter.com), and at age 18 he's suppose to be like 6ft 2in. CRAZY!!
Anyway, here is a family pic of us taken in June. You tell me who he looks like.

4. His hair is INEXPLICABLE!!! I mean it...and if you've seen him, you know! It doesn't lay down. It doesn't grow down, it grows OUT. I mean, it's insanity. He looks like he has been sticking his fingers in those plugs (which he hasn't...they are plugged up...I am a responsible parent). When we go out in public, that's the first thing that people comment on. "Whoa, nice hair!" chuckle, chuckle. Yeah, yeah. Why not buzz it? Well, he sported that look for the summer, but we're trying to see if it'll lay down if it had some weight to it...and it's much colder now.
Yes, he looks hilarious...I found it very amusing to draw on his face with chalk, and he let me, so why not? :)...but, note the hair:

I feel like I know what you're thinking: put some gel in it, or hairspray, ANYTHING! Well, I must tell you I've tried it all...gel, hairspray, wax, mousse, even baby oil (I AM a hairdresser people...product was the FIRST thing I thought about).
He's still cute though, right? :)

5. Lastly (and I'm choosing this to be last...I really could go on forever!...perhaps on another blog post), he is LOUD. I mean it...he has 2 volumes: off and LOUD. There is nothing in between. We've tried to teach him to whisper, but lets just say it's wasted effort.
I mean, folks, he's doing it right now. He's sitting across from me, shirtless, with an empty Airwick air freshener and he's yelling "I FOUND BIG PLUG MOMMY...MY PLUG IT IN?" He says "my" instead of "I"..."my mow the lawn," "my take a shower," "my sit there!" It goes on and on.
Ahhh....that's my guy. Well...one of them. I will soon have 3 guys and I LOVE IT!!