Five Months!

Five months on the wait list!

And since it has been a year since we started our adoption we have to start redoing a lot of the paperwork. I had my physical today, got refingerprinted for the FBI as required for State Licensing (not same as CIS), sent in forms for criminal clearance and child abuse history clearance, sent a check for an updated home study to be performed, and started working on our financial statement. Frank and Jamie also got refingerprinted today. Time to take a deep breath and just tackle it as it comes. I was stressing at the thought of having to redo the paperwork that expired after a year but I must say it's not that bad.

Check back with me when I have to reapply for CIS fingerprints though. Who knew some fingerprints cannot be read? I have fingerprints - I can see them myself. How can they be unreadable? That's a story for another time - a story I will tell in about 3 months when I have to reapply. A process that cost us almost 6 months of our adoption journey. Just thinking about it makes me want to cry so I will not think about it until I absolutely have to. Until then I will continue to stalk blogs and daydream about that referral call!

One Year Ago Today

One year ago on this very day Frank and I were on vacation in Cape May, NJ with Koen. It was this day we decided to start our adoption from Ethiopia. This was also the day we met a couple who were on vacation with their daughter Hannah. Hannah was from Ethiopia and was united with her forever family 2 months prior.

Frank and I started discussing adopting from Ethiopia several months after we lost our daughter Sophia on November 6, 2008. Each month we would revisit the idea of adoption but the pain of losing Sophia was still unbearable for me. I couldn't even look at another baby without running away in tears. But on the day we met Hannah - I took one look at her and I did cry but these tears were different. I knew I was ready; Frank new I was ready. We went back to our hotel room, got online and got started. I remember that day like it was yesterday. Thank you Hannah - my little divine intervention.

So here's what we've been up to this past year:

September 2009 - Cape May NJ
Dutch Wonderland season passholders . . .

Our new puppy - Lulu . . .

October 2009 - carving pretty cool looking pumpkins . . .

Dressed up for Halloween looking like the cutest Peter Pan ever . . .

Went apple picking . . .

November 2009 - my boys baked an awesome chocolate cake for my birthday . . .

November 3, 2009 - celebrated Koen's 3rd birthday . . .

December 2009 - it wasn't easy but we made our first gingerbread house together . . .

Celebrated Christmas . . .

Celebrated Hanukkah . . .

January 2010 - Went to the Baltimore Aquarium and B&O Railroad . . .

February 2010 - Built snow people with best friends . . .

March 2010 - Took some ice skating lessons . . .

April 2010 - Easter bunny hid Koen's basket in his tent . . .

May 2010 - Celebrated Frank's birthday in Times Square, New York . . .

New York has some really good Ethiopian restaurants . . .

June 2010 - Did a little surfing at Franklin Institute, Philadelphia PA . . .

Flew some helicoptors at the aviation museum . . .

Vacationed at Cape May - love Cape May! . . .

July 2010 - rode this real scary roller coaster at the Apple Dumpling Festival . . .

July 4, 2010 - Koen's first sparkler . . .

Made our own Hershey chocolate bars at Chocolate World . . .

Held a baby chick at Chery Crest Adventure Farm . . .

August 2010 - Fed hungry goat at Lake Tobias Wildlife Preserve . . .

Took rides on daddy shoulders at the Poconos with great friends . . .

September 8, 2010 - Koen's first day of preschool . . .

And so much more! We'll keep on keeping busy until we bring our brown-eyed girl home from Ethiopia and then I guess it gets crazy busy!