The Latest in Labonar Land!

Well we are feeling blessed this Thanksgiving weekend.  We feel even more so with our referral of our little boy.  We had an AMAZING Thanksgiving.  Len hosted, I take zero credit, and his mom and my dad whipped up a feast for 16 adults and 5 children.  It was served buffet style and was just scrumptious!  We had many family members and friends to share the day with.




It has been a whirlwind since the last blog update.  I have managed to get Len and I appointments with medical specialists in international travel.  Len's appointment is December 20 and mine is December 21.  We will be the human pincushions as we prepare our bodies for travel.

We have a travel agent now. Susan Parr Travel from the West coast will be helping us find airfare and whatever visas are necessary for both trips. 

We also have received our final packet from Dove, The Family Preparation Packet.  Good grief talk about heavy reading!  It contains general medical information regarding adopted children, post adoption resources on getting a US birth Certificate and social security card, child development resources and information on transracial and transcultural adoption.  We will be chatting with the Dove Social Worker regarding post adoption reporting.  Woo Hoo!  Got to learn how to burn a CD with a doc file and pics.   Oh Missy....where are you?

We are overwhelmed.  Emotionally we are sooooo excited but anxious.  We are hoping for a court date for Christmas.  I would love to hear very soon that our paperwork has been translated and all has been submitted to the court.  This would allow us to know when we are traveling.  We spent some holiday shopping time looking at car seats and strollers but are afraid to purchase anything.  We have our daughters names on the walls in the living room but are anxious to put Joshua's name up there.  It still feels sooooo far off and not real.  Sometimes though....to be honest.. I am in tears.  Is someone holding him when he cries?  Is he warm enough?  Does he have a clean diaper?  Has he begun to teeth?  Is he gaining weight?  He really needs to grow the poor little guy.

We have contacted our homestudy agency and they say everything is a go.   So now we wait...and wait.

Please continue to pray for our little one, his caregivers, those that handle our paperwork and his paperwork as they will meet in the court system.  Please also pray for the many children who wait for parents.  So many orphans in this world.  Just breaks my heart. 

It is off!!!

Yesterday, the girls and I dropped off the final payment, referral acceptance form and invoice to our local mailbox store.  They were so excited to be a part of the process that brings their little brother home.  As of this morning at 8am the envelope had left the Schaumburg Fed Ex facility on its way to Oregon.

I have a cute picture to add here....


This morning I will be speaking to our social worker regarding any details with Illinois and DCFS here.  Hopefully that will be smooth. 

We have a name!

Hurray!

Tomorrow we will be sending in our referral acceptance form and final payment.  Thanks be to GOD for answering our prayers and helping us find the last amount of money necessary!!! On the form, there is a space indicating..."  Name that you will be given your child if you will be changing them"

We can now fill that in with

Joshua (Ethiopian Name we cannot share) Labonar


We are soooo excited and anxious for the next step. 

I will be emailing our guest house tomorrow, YGF Villa and Hotel.  I will also be interviewing travel agents that specialize in working with adoption families.  I am not a travel guru unless it is Disney so I am all about keeping it simple and accepting all of the help I can get.

Also on my list tomorrow is a phone call to the health department in DuPage County.  They will be able to help me come up with a list of the vaccinations that Len and I will need for traveling.  I need to get that list to the doctors so they can order everything.  Then I will be the human pin cushion...so will Len!


Please continue to pray for our little one, Joshua, his caretakers and those that handle our paperwork.  May we have a smooth transition and bring our baby home soon!

Accepted into our hearts and home!

What a whirlwind week it has been at our house.  Referral, refinance, first Daisy meeting, tought times at work, Hannah's piano recital and Sarah has a slight cold and is not sleeping at night.

I am so thankful for all of it, to be honest.  I just need some down time to process it all. 

Here is where we are...the referral was sent to us on Tuesday afternoon.  By Wednesday, it was at the University of Alabama's International Adoption Clinic for review.  Thursday was spent shopping for a dryer.  How random that broke and died this week.  The lovely gentleman at Home Depot told me to wait for the one I wanted to be delivered.  Then he told me to go to the laundromat.  Can you believe that?????  We went to ABT picked it up and voila, Len installed it.

Thursday night was spent with little to no sleep.  Sarah is a bit under the weather and I'm so raw right now it is difficult.  Thankfully Aunt Lisa came by to make us smile and take a gander at the pictures.  :-D
I spent much of Friday morning praying for peace and wisdom and patience.  All were granted by the grace of God.

At 11:25, Len and I had a phone conference with our Adoption Director from Dove to answer any questions we had about the referral.  Len was hoping for more information on the little guy.  I was just hoping for some clarification on a few concerns I had.  42 minutes later we were satisfied and the converstation ended with discussion about how we plan to travel, vaccinations and where we plan to stay.  All of which need to be addressed in the short term now!  We wrapped up stating that we are waiting for the International Doctors to give their stamp of approval and we will get in contact with the Adoption Director immediately.

At 2:57, I heard from Dr. Chambers.  We went thru the referral very carefully.   She stated that she really wished he was a bit bigger, currently only a little over 9 pounds at 7 months.  But all looks good and we should proceed.  Well that was all I needed to hear!!!  I thanked her, called Len and told him that I wanted to make sure he was on board and I was going to call Dove.  Yah, I called Dove and got the voicemail. 

At 4:26 while in a meeting with some of my Oxford parents, Dove returned my call and we officially accepted the referral of our seven month old little boy.  We discussed the official paperwork that needed to be sent to Dove along with the final check.  Still praying on that one! 

My mom came up and took us out to dinner to celebrate Hannah's recital and the referral.   And yes, I was still up most of the night.  I would say I am getting ready for the next phase....but I need some sleep!

Now what?  I know that is what you want to know.  :-D  We will send in our official form of acceptance, invoice and final amount due.  All of that must be in Dove's hands on Wednesday.  In the meantime, he is having an additional HIV test and they are preparing our paperwork and his paperwork for court.  Out next big wait......a court date.  Once we recieve a court date we will receive our travel dates.  Then we book our trip, find someone to stay at our house and take care of every detail here at home and we go!  We expect a court date in February.  We are praying for February!!!  We will be given a months notice to two weeks notice to travel.  YIKES!  I guess I have lots of groundwork to do with a travel agent as well as vaccinations.  Maybe some sleep tonight.....I hope...if not there is always horsey therapy at the barn tomorrow that will help!

Please continue to pray for our little guy, his caretakers, our escrow (long story ask Len), and those handling the paperwork that they may do so in a very detailed way so there are no delays.

Thanks!

Hugs to all....... and blessings to Hannah today on her first piano recital.

Michelle

Referral!!!!!!--will add details as I continue to calm down and remember them.

At 3:10 this afternoon, I was checking my email!  My cell phone rang......

I was told that Len and I have a referral of a "really cute"  little boy.  He is seven months old and truly cute as a button.   I am REALLY paranoid about giving away identifying information so I apologize if this is not all of the details that you want.  His birthday is in April.  He was found by a man in his hometown.  Sadly, this means we will not have any information on his birth family.  We received his paperwork as well as two pictures that seem to be have taken just a few seconds apart.  He is in pink pants with a flower blanket.  Pretty funny!  I was told this was typical in Ethiopia for boys to be dressed in pink.  :-D

So what was it like when we found out?

Well for me.....I was sobbing and overwhelmed.  I sent Sarah to our neighbor and good friend, Shannon's house to come be some support for me.  She came down as well as her kids.  I had to jet off to pick up Hannah from Chess Club.  I called Len before I left, of course a sobbing mess.  The teachers in his department were concerned that someone had died I was so hysterical on the phone.  He was relieved to hear that...."We have a referral!"
He replied,   "OH, so you're happy ...oh ok."
I told him I would send him the information so he could see the pictures....then of course I left to go get Hannah.  Two friends that are adoptive moms were there to hug and cry with me.  Wow!  So thankful for them.  The best part was telling Hannah as she stood next to her good friend, who is adopted!  Wonderful for them to be able to share in that moment.

I came home and called Len back.  He was anxious for the pics so I sent them.  He and his friends and students were able to ohhh and ahhh over the pics.

Well....I managed to call another couple of dear friends and headed out to gymnastics practice for Sarah.  By this time...I was exhausted.

Len and I were so relieved to see each other.  We went home and called family and friends and looked at each other completely dazed.  The dinner conversation revolved around names.  The girls are going thru their bibles trying to come up with one.  We are keeping his Ethiopian name that he was given as his middle name.  First name options are:  Thomas, Noah, David, Daniel, Michael and Benjamin.

What is next you ask?  We are sending the referral info to an Adoptive Medical Specialist.  They will review the information and let us know their thoughts.  We will accept or decline the referral based on their medical recommendations.  We will overnight our official acceptance letter as well as the final payment. 

Court dates are currently looking like 3-4 months out so we will see.  :-)  Then 8-10 weeks from there and we will be home forever!  Wow!  Could this really be happening!

Four Months! We are in the "average zone"!

Well we have been waiting for FOUR months.  Yes, initally I was so glad to be done with the paperwork and just wait.  Second month....more of the same.  Third month....finally heard from Dove and was encouraged.  Now....tired of waiting.  Wondering if we are crazy.  If we get our referral in the next two months we will hopefully be all set to travel this spring.  But once again...if.  The "ifs" are so hard and the wait is starting to wear on us both.  We cancelled our trip to DisneyWorld in December this week.  Between the roof this summer and the hopefully upcoming trips to Ethiopia we needed to focus on paying off debt not spending.  So the House of the Mouse will wait.   :-(

I know this is all in the Lord's hands.  Wow this waiting stuff is hard.  It is like being pregnant with an elephant.  22 months gestation.  I think we might reach that soon! 

I have some friends who have adopted from Ethiopia, Russia and Guatamala.  I am blessed to be able to see their kids and think that maybe just maybe this will happen.  Somedays....are just so long.