Dossi-YAY!

"Pardon me, would you happen to have any Grey Poupon--and a notarized document for my dossier?"

Here's the dossier for your next mission: Ride an emotional rollercoaster for the next 8-15 months, then travel to Africa on 2-4 weeks' notice to bring home your third child.

Are we the only people that feel a little snooty or secret agent-ish every time we say the word "dossier" to anyone not familiar with adoption lingo? And what's the official pronunciation anyway? Even with the professionals, some say dah-SEE-ay, others say DOE-see-ay. There's also the Georgia peach pronunciation (my Mama comes from a long line of southern belles) of DAWL-see-yay.

Whatever you want to call it, however you want to pronounce it, we are so excited and relieved to say Glory Hallelujah, Praise the Lord IT'S FINALLY DONE! What a relief! We had our first "adoption curve ball" thrown at us in mid-February when we ran into some unexpected snags which resulted in a frustrating delay. With the hand-off of our package to the FedEx guy, we're officially putting it behind us and excitedly looking forward to the rest of our adoption journey. We know God has already chosen our next child. We have placed the process in His hands and believe that when we look back, we will see that the timing was perfect.

Here's what our "collection of documents required to be submitted by prospective adoptive parents in connection with an international adoption" looked like:

It's all photocopied, tied with a ribbon, sealed with a kiss, and ready for the afternoon FedEx pickup.

What's next? Well, the entire package will arrive at our agency's Portland office on Monday morning. It will be be reviewed by our agency (PRAY with us that nothing needs to be re-done), forwarded to Washington D.C. for authentication by the U.S. government, and then forwarded on to Ethiopia, where it will be translated into Amharic. It will then be held until our court date when it will be presented to the Ethiopian Court, together with the file for the child we get matched with, for review by a judge whose decision to grant or not grant the adoption will forever change the course of our family's and one little girl's lives.

How long will this all take? We have been approved for a girl, age 0-24 months. We've been advised by our case worker to anticipate waiting approximately eight months to get matched with a baby girl in that age range. Why so long? Although there are over 4 million orphans in Ethiopia and many that are 0-24 month old girls, there are comparatively few Ethiopian case workers and adoption judges. They can only handle so many cases at a time. So we will have to wait our turn. Once we are matched, we will be placed on the docket for adoption hearings. Since there are only a few judges that hear adoption cases, and since the courts often close for months at a time during the "rainy season", our court date will likely occur several months after our referral. Because these judges realize how much weight their decision holds, and because the Ethiopian government is very concerned with keeping their international adoptions ethical, it is not uncommon for additional documentation to be requested (which may require testimony from a relative or retrieval of additional documents from a far off village to confirm the child's orphan status or that no coercion was involved in his or her relinquishment) and a second court date to be scheduled, meaning a couple of more months of waiting. As soon as the adoption is granted by the Ethiopian court, Diamond will be legally ours and we will quickly schedule travel to Ethiopia to bring her home. We would love for all of this to take place within the next 12 months, but it could potentially be substantially longer. And although this wait will undoubtedly wear on us, any difficulty we experience in the process will not hold a candle to the agonizing decisions that some woman or family somewhere in Ethiopia will be making and the emotions they will be experiencing.

"But these things I plan won't happen right away.

Slowly, steadily, surely the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled!

If it seems slow, be patient!

For it will surely take place.

It will not be late by a single day."

Habukkuk 2:3

Let the waiting begin!

Mama Said There'd Be Days Like This...

We're at our wits' end.

We thought this was the easy stage. Busy, but (emotionally, at least) easy.

We thought our adoption paperwork was done a month ago. Certified, notarized, photocopied and ready to go.

Seems that with every day that passes, another delay presents itself. Things that should be simple are becoming unnecessarily complicated. All we want is to get on the waitlist!

Ugh!

The Little Everglades Steeplechase

Back in high school, I knew Hus-B was the guy for me by his willingness to clean stalls after school and give up his weekends to accompany my family to horse shows, toting around my grooming box all day and serving as a pin-cushion during those tense moments before I entered the show ring. I loved horse show weekends. Grooming my horse to perfection--from her braided mane to her polished hooves--getting up before sunrise to load up the horse trailer (and the hilarious antics of Mama trying to talk some sense into the horses when they didn't cooperate), Daddy polishing my boots the night before and packing up his hammock and a cooler full of more snacks than we could possibly eat in one day. Horses occupied much of my free time, certainly kept me out of trouble, and taught me responsibility--but they're not a cheap hobby. Years later, Hus-B took Daddy to lunch to ask for my hand in marriage. What were the first words out of Daddy's mouth? "Are you going to take the horses, too?" Yep, that was the deal. My two horses were my dowry. And never once has my sweet husband complained. Not in those first years of marriage when monthly barn board and training cost us more than rent and utilities for our little apartment (and no, the horse stalls did not have A/C or cable). Not when we had to take out a second mortgage on our house only a month after we moved in to pay for emergency colic surgery. He's grinned and borne every equine inconvenience being married to me has brought. Though I know he doesn't share my love of horses, he's always supported my passion for them and I don't tell him enough how much I love that about him. My high school and college competion horse died a couple of years ago (at the ripe old age of 27 with me hugging her neck as she took her last breath) and my other horse is pretty much a big, spoiled pet these days--she loves to get brushed and fed carrots and doesn't get ridden nearly as much as I would like. Our girls love to accompany me to the barn and I hope that as they grow up, horses will be a shared interest.

Me and Lacey:

We spent last Sunday at the Little Everglades Steeplechase with Daddy, my Brother B and his friend Ms. S. It was a beautiful day and a great event benefitting several wonderful charities. An afternoon in the country was so relaxing after 9 days of Strawberry Festival craziness.

Strawberry Festival!

As mentioned a few posts ago, our little Mayberry-like community is celebrated as the Winter Strawberry Capital of the World! And our Strawberry Festival is the biggest event of the year. It's been a local tradition since 1930. The festival was founded by Albert Schneider, the first mayor of our town, who organized its first Lions Club for area businessmen and who built our house in 1902 for his bride, Annie.

Our whole town (including schools, banks and City Hall) closed on Monday for the "Grand Parade" and family day. Along with traditional festival-fare (think funnel cakes, cotton candy, Italian sausage and buckets of fries), the Strawberry Festival features all sorts of strawberry-based delicacies, including St. Clement's strawberry shortcake, chocolate-dipped strawberries and strawberry-cream cheese pizza. There are rides, livestock and horticulture shows, crafts and our girls' favorite attraction--Robinson's Racing Pigs.

Each year we get tickets to see big name performers on stage just down the road from our home. According to town legend, Bing Crosby was one of the first big name performers to visit our town and, after his performance, he joined the Schneiders in our kitchen for strawberry shortcake. We had a great lineup of performers this year--including Third Day, Taylor Swift, George Jones and Randy Travis.

Taylor Swift

Third Day

The little-named performers were just as good, especially Miss M's dance class:

And we always pull at least one late-nighter building our obligatory "Baby Parade" float(s). The Baby Parade is an annual event as old as the Festival itself. When we announced our first pregnancy to our neighbors, the first thing out of their mouths was "oh--you HAVE to put your baby in the baby parade, anybody who is anybody in this town participates". Well, we were relatively new to town and of course didn't want to be thought of as "nobodies", so thus our float-building ritual began. And every year we've managed to snag a 1st, 2nd or 3rd place award, which means that we now have a reputation to uphold, as people hint to us how they are looking forward to our entry each year. For fun, here are the themes and some pictures from Baby Parades past:

75 Years and Still Jammin': Miss M and Elvis (Daddy B) and our "Rock and Roll" Float:

More than Just Shortcake: Cowgirl Miss M and me on our "Livestock Show" Float:

Lights, Camera, Action!: Miss M and Paparrazzo Daddy B on our "The Red Carpet" Float (complete with paparrazzi with flashing strobes on their cameras):

Lights, Camera, Action: Miss A on our "Let's Go to the Movies" Float:


This year's theme was "Hometown Salute to America." Miss A, riding our Sweet Land of Liberty float, won a 3rd place Most Personality ribbon.