Official

Today was not the 25th but Dan and I got a wonderful Christmas and New Years present!

We are officially on the waiting list for our daughter!

Dan and I had a great Christmas!

We spent Christmas Eve with Dan's family. Opening presents, decorating cookies and enjoying everyone.

Bonnie was quite the magical elf and found a beautiful cross with Grace written on it! Beautiful!!

Christmas day we traveled to my parents house. We had a great Pie ambush ( Imagine if you will -- all the Ainsworth girls piling out of the red jeep in our Christmas pj's at the hospital with pie and cookies for the wonderful hospital staff. We then repeated this at the fire house and the police station)! I made the entire family watch the Celtics had a wonderful dinner and finally got to presents around seven pm. We will have to work on this time schedule for next year. Even though we had agreed on a small Christmas Santa Mary had other plans. She found some amazing gifts for me, my sissys, Dan, Paul and for GRACE!!!

I hope your holidays were as wonderful as ours.

I am so looking forward to 2011! It is going to be a great year!

Tis the season... to be very blessed!

Dan and I are so blessed, lucky and happy that our friends and family have been so supportive of us and Grace. It is wonderful to have such a strong support system even while we are only a family of two. Grace will not lack for love! Here are some examples of how we are lucky and loved. Every year my school plays secret Santa but due to our wonderful snow day "Christmas is canceled this year" well at least secret Santa.

Then came what would have been the first day of SS. There was a gift in my mailbox.

This beautiful angel! I assumed there had been confusion and I re wrapped the present.

The next day they gift was put in my bag while I was out of the room. Still being a dip I assumed there was something wrong and someone was not getting these presents. I put the present still wrapped in my drawer to save the correct owner. Monday, there was another gift in my mailbox so I decided I would just leave it there. Kim decided to help me and opened it. Saying she was just curious. She opened it and told me it said Grace!
My heart melted and I realized my secret Santa knew what they were doing! I showed anyone who would hold still! It was place front and center on our tree! Kim pretended to know nothing as did several other members of my wonderful floor. Then today... oh today!!!!!

Today I opened my present was this amazing beautiful angel!!!!!
Again, I ran around showing everyone when Terry (who was my mentor my first year) finally told me she was my secret Santa. I am so thankful I was hired at CNS many moons ago and I have had the opportunity to know such wonderful people! Thank you Terry -- Grace will love her first ornaments.
The wonderfulness did not stop there! Sue gave me this wonderful African calendar.
Amy and Mary put together an amazing collection of fun craft supplies for my trip in Feb!
Linda was up on the latest cool kids toys and found mess free/ minimal water Tie Dye for Ethiopia!!

Finally, thank you to all my wonderful family and friends who have purchased the Visiting Orphans beads. It is going to put a smile on many orphans faces.

Our documents are still in Washington but Dove thinks we will have them in Ethiopia before the first of the year! Fingers crossed!

Dossier is on its way :)

Today Dan and I sent off our dossier!

Step 1: We went to the syracuse court house. Difficult parking due to the winter wonderland but very nice and helpful clerks that county certified our documents.

Step 2: We (Dan) drove to Albany to the state office to have the last documents State Authenticated. Easy parking, no snow (big change from Syracuse) and wonderful people.

Step 3: We went to the Post office to mail our Dossier!!! Oh the poor man who had to work with me. Dan just laughed. First he suggested that we just fold the documents to fit in a smaller envelope. I would not let him fold them. Then he suggested we use a different envelope that would bend some of the documents to save money. I then looked at him like he was the crazy one and said " I don't want to save money!" Disclaimer: I like saving money but I was not folding my important documents. Once, we finally decided on the correct envelope I asked the next woman to take a picture. I explained what we were mailing and our mail man finally got why I freaked when he suggested folding.

1. Letter to Board of SOS EE DONE 2. Family Registration Form DONE

3. Financial Information DONE 4. Letter from Financial Establishment DONE

5. Criminal Clearance DONE 6. Letters of Reference DONE

7. Letters from Employer DONE 8. Medical Forms DONE

9. Marriage Certificate DONE 10. Birth Certificate DONE

11. Introduction Letter DONE 12. Home Study Report DONE

13. Home Study License DONE 14. Post Placement Agreement DONE

15. True Copy of Deed DONE 16. True Copy of Passport DONE

17. Power of attorney DONE 18. USCIS Approval (I - 171H) DONE

19. Passport Photos DONE 20. Family Pictures DONE

21. Adoption Educations Certificate DONE 22. Dossier Payment DONE

Mary even met us for a celebratory lunch at the cheese cake factory!
So now we wait -- Four to six months is what we have been told to prepare for. Then we will get a wonderful call from our agency Dove telling us our Daughter is waiting for us!!!!!!

Let's just fast forward six months!

I-171H is Here

December 6th is now a great day! It was a good day due to a wonderful one hour delay. It was a better day because my beads arrived from Visiting Orphans.

But... It is a Great Day because our approved I-171H is here!!!!!!! :)

This is the last piece we needed to complete our Dossier!

I will the document state authenticated tomorrow and then we will mail the entire Dossier to Ethiopia!!!!!! This is what it looked like here on the wonderful day -- a little different then it looks in Ethiopia!

This a a big, huge, wonderful Step towards bringing our daughter home!!!

Happy December

Happy December!

Very excited to get this holiday season started! Even more excited for next years Christmas!

Still waiting for the 171H! Everyday on my drive home I think -- It will come today! I haven't been right yet but I am staying positive.

Our simply love shirts came in and I love them. It was great to open the mailbox and see the big winner on the package. Who knew one shirt could change my whole world! So excited for February!

I went shopping with the ladies and look what we found at Marshalls. Jumping in the aisle did occur!

So much to be Thankful for..

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year! It was great to have everyone together! I am so thankful for our families and friends. Dan and I feel very lucky and blessed!

We watched the traditional thanksgiving day parade and also made a wonderful meal. Mary looked beautiful as she prepared her stuffing.

Ali and I took a slightly different approach. We had a lot of fun!
We went to lights on the lake opening night and loved it!
We were very excited to be together!!
Dan was awesome during the photo shoot.
Great Group Photo
That's where I am going in February and then again to get our baby girl!
LOVE TOMS

And it just keeps getting better!!!

We will be doing a Tom's shoe drop!

5000 shoes!

Great People

Fingerprints are done!

My beautiful shirt is in!

We met five wonderful families that have all adopted from Ethiopia at a get together this weekend. It was so great to chat with everyone about their experiences and see their beautiful children.

Keeping our fingers crossed that our I 171H comes super fast. I am hoping to be super thankful for it for Thanksgiving but I am ok with it being the best Christmas present!

Tomorrow is my first conference call about our trip to Ethiopia! I am very excited and just plan on being a sponge and soaking it all up!

Ethiopia -- here I come

What a difference a week can make. I really thought the best part of last week was finding out about our fingerprint appointments. I was so wrong. Kari of mycrazyadoption.com had different plans for me. On November 2nd she uploaded a video.. http://mycrazyadoption.org/winners-of-the-missions-trip-giveaway that changed everything. I was picked to go on a mission trip in February. Back story -- I had seen on another blog Kari was fundraising by selling adoption shirts to send someone on a mission shirt. It sounded like a good cause, we need shirts about adoption so I bought two, one for me and one for Dan. So imagine my surprise when my name was picked first and when it makes my winter break. I am needless to say overwhelmed but in a good way. I am so looking forward to this trip and all that I am going to learn from it.

Wednesday = fingerprints and then everyone keep your fingers crossed we get the 171H very quickly!! Last step of the dossier!

On a fun note I found the cutest Christmas outfit for Grace. Yes I am thinking a year ahead!

Wow

Wow I won a mission trip to Ethiopia in Febuary!!!

We have appointments

I went home this weekend to see my family. The bonus of the trip was I got to see Laura and her daughter Mekey as well. Mekey came home to her forever family in June and is just the most amazing little woman. Dan and I got to meet Laura and Mekey in July and we instantly feel in love. Laura has been so helpful with all of our questions. Thank you Laura!

Marissa made my day and swapped TOMS with me because out of all of us that ordered only hers actually said Ethiopia. Thank you Emmie.

Best of all -- when I got back to Syracuse waiting in the mail was our fingerprinting appointments for November 10th and they are in Syracuse!

Great weekend!

I - 600A

Big Day -- I came from work today and in the mail was the HOME STUDY. Anyone who happened to see me get the mail got a good laugh because I did a happy dance at the mail box. I immediately got back in the car and went to the post office. One step closer!!

Our Dossier checklist -- everything is checked except the power of attorney and the I -171H!

My last happy dance was over these awesome shoes. www.toms.com is making these limited addition shoes to build new wells in Ethiopia. Marissa was the first to order a pair of these awesome shoes. Dan and I have ordered ours too. I will have pictures with us in the shoes when they come in!

Happy Anniversary

Today is our fourth Wedding anniversary!

Time flies when you are having fun (or tracking down paperwork for the dossier).

I am very excited about how far we are. We have most of the requirements ready to go. We are almost ready to send out the I - 600A. Our home study is being approved by Dove as we speak. We have read it and it is amazing -- Thank you Kate! A very big step -- when this returns (hopefully 30 days) we can send our Dossier to Ethiopia!

I found a quote recently ( it was in my fortune cookie) "To achieve a great goal, one must begin with a small achievement." It has been my motto in putting the dossier together.

On special days like today, I find myself smiling and thinking.... This will be the last anniversary it is just the two of us :)

Melkam Addis Amet -- It's 2003 in Ethiopia!

Enkutatash / addis amet

ETHIOPIAN NEW YEAR

Meskerem 1st/September 11th

Melkam Addis Amet = Happy New Year

Ethiopia still follows the Orthodox Julian calendar which consists of 12 months of 30 days and a 13th month, Pagume, of five or six days, depending on whether or not it is a leap year. The Ithiopian calendar is seven years and eight months behind the Gregorian calendar, so September 2001 is Meskerem 1994 in Ithiopia.
The way Ethiopians measure time is also different from the West. The clock starts at 6am western time and runs until 6pm. Therefore 8o'clock in western time would be 2o'clock Ithiopian time. Because Ethiopia is close to the Equator the sun rises at around 00.30 Ethiopian time and sets at around 12.45 in the evening (6.45 western equivalent) all year round. Ethiopia is 3 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time).

http://www.rastaites.com/Ethiopia/newyear.htm

On our way

We have accomplished a lot in the last couple weeks.

Our contracts are in and we are waiting on the Dossier paperwork packet.

While we are waiting for that packet we completed our home study interviews. We are working with Kate Burns who is amazing. She is so helpful in answering my many questions.

Today we were fingerprinted, it was done with the biometric systems so it is already submitted to the state. Love technology!

Life will get more exciting once all the paperwork is done but until then we are getting to meet every notary in the county!! (All very nice)

BIG NEWS

Dad and I have big news!

We are starting the adoption process!

We are in the very beginning of the process but I want to have it all written down to share with you.

We have decided to work with DOVE agency and we are going to adopt from Ethiopia.