All things Official...

Today felt like, maybe, we are getting somewhere towards our Ethiopian adoption. Our immigration paperwork was recieved last week by immigration officials in Texa, and our official fingerprints were completed today. They go overnight to our state Capitol so the officials can officially find us to be clear of any criminal charges....and then, our dossier is nearly officially complete.

Once our official dossier paperwork is in order, and sent to Ethiopia for translation, we will become an official "waiting family."

Let it be known by all that I am officially tired of all the official stuff.

From what I read from other prospective adoptive parents, I am not alone. A human pregnancy takes 9 months. This paperwork pregnancy has now officially been 13 months. It feels like even more. I am grateful for the opportunity to have had 3 successful pregnancies in my life, but I sure to wish our adoption experience could have been less stressful and gotten our children home by now.

This week, I am working on switching four bedrooms around. The official nursery is lavender, but if we get a referral for a boy, that is a quick fix with paint. At least everything is set up. Mere and Bella got the bigger of the rooms at the back of the house, which makes for a nice morning when Bella sleeps in because she is farthest away from the morning noise makers. Nicole felt like her life was too chaotic, while Nelly was tired of Nic's nagging, so a good fix became putting Nicole in her own room, so Nelly and Tara could be in the other room together. Nelly said she LOVES sleeping in a room with Tara, mostly because Tara falls right to sleep and Nicole had a tendency to continue talking well past the lights out time. Good solution there.

Tommy has not changed rooms yet, but we have plans to add an egress window in the basement next to Tyler's room, so we can move Tommy down there. It is called the "boys quarters" already, and once Tom's room is completed, it will be a perfect place for him to have his own space. That also frees up one of the bedrooms on this lower level so we can spread out some of the younger kids as they age...

Ashleigh was here this week, going over our bedroom changing plans. After assessing our situation, she says, "Gosh mom, we have to add on." Finally, we have a house that is not in a state of remodeling, and the obvious option is to add a few more rooms...Ok, that's possible. Until then, we continue to make the most out of the 2800 square feet that is complete.

Since we started adopting 8 years ago, people never fail to ask us how many more children we plan to add to our family. We always answer the same way - we don't have a plan. When we got Nicole, we wanted to be parents and struggled with our decision to start over since our biological kids were heading out on their own. We wrestled with knowing that cruises, quiet walks in the park or easy vacations would not be a part of our future. We determined that our goals in life would change by bringing in a young daughter again, but over the prayers and thoughts of it, we were delighted to begin the adoption process. We have never looked back.

Now, we've added 7 additional kids to our family tree. We are looking at two more children from Ethiopia, or whom ever God decides to bring into our home. It has always worked that way for us anyway. We want to be faithful to His calling, we open our home, we make a welcoming bedroom and we wait to see what blessing God brings our way.

I still don't know when to say "we're officially done." It's not a clear cut answer.
But I do know, OFFICIALLY, I am ready for the next one, and God will have to shut the door if He doesn't want anyone else in our home.

Officially, this is the best part of the whole process...waiting for the next little blessing to come through our doorway. Thank you, dear Father, for the blessings you have already given us, all 10, and thank you for trusting us with another.

Officially, God, in the words of my teenage blessings, YOU ROCK!!