... one & one-half months & we begin our journey to the second phase of our adoption timeline : )
so where exactly are we in our adoption process?
it has officially been 1 year since we made our decision to adopt from Ethiopia.
we made our decision in jan., 2010. as everyone is aware that was when the economy was in the 'eye' of its' flop. this affected our decision to postpone getting started, slightly; because one of our steps toward our adoption is refinancing our home to use some of our equity. well, with the market being at a standstill at that time we decided to focus on another project, which was to finish reconstruction of our garage into a bedroom. our bedroom; as our 'old' room will now be for our son. so, we spent a good part of 2010 working on the room. it was a step toward being prepared for our home appraisal as well. it must be completed first. and i am happy to say our room has been built; which included some sore muscles and some sweat on our part which involved constructing an entire new floor base, removing all old interior trim that had once been part of the garage (thanks B) hanging new drywall, taping & mudding it, two coats of paint, creating a closet and now... as of Monday , we will be able to pay off our carpet which is being held hostage and get in down in our room. we have done all of this with our own two hands. wouldnt have it any other way. so what does this mean. well, it means that the appraisal is just around the corner (originally we had hoped to get it done by the first of the year, but with property taxes, bills, paying off the carpet, and christmas, well, it had to be postponed a bit longer, since the appraisal itself it not cheap). the market is picking back up and we are ready to go for it. with the economy it is a guessing game, but we know whatever part of our equity we can get back, is better than none and will enable us to start with our homestudy plus get some agency fees paid. i continue to do seasonal fund raiser projects. we both have concrete faith that we need not worry about the lot of adoption fees ahead but rather be firm in our belief that God does provide. our purpose is to adopt our little boy from ethiopia, keeping him safe, and we firmly walk hand and hand knowing that one day he will be here with us, cozied up under a safe fuzzy blanket, cuddling his parents; and if truth be known he will probably prefer to stay in his mom & dads room for some time as we adjust , the one that was built toward the dream of his homecoming, versus his own room. and , well, that is just a-okay with us! a-okay X a zillion. because mommy cant wait for all those snuggles & hugs, looking around our room remembering our goal, and realizing it has come to be while snuggled within my arms .