Got the Mojo Magnet

What a treat today as I opened the mailbox to find an envelope addressed to me from a familiar name in the adoptive blog world. I knew exactly what it was as soon as I saw it and I laughed out loud. My neighbors thought that I was crazy before but even more so now. I could not even make it into the house before opening the manila envelope marked fragile. I knew that this envelope held power. MOJO! This item has some history. Another adoptive mom was so sweet to mail this to the couple that was in front of us on the waiting list. She posted a post about the magnificent magnet and the next day, she got her referral. So I emailed Meg and told her to hand it over. I NEEDED the mojo! I was kidding, kinda. She was sweet enough to get it in the mail right away. So, I am posting this hoping that tomorrow is our day. I would be more than happy to pass this back or on!

I love the spelling words in the picture. How about I use them in a sentence. Meg, the teacher, might like this :)
I can not wait for the sight of our referral!
I think about the kids nightly.
A referral would bring such delight.
The chances of us getting a referral are brighter.
We are so ready to take a flight to Ethiopia.
This wait will no longer frighten me!
Ok, enough already. :)
Follow the magnet below!
http://by-dirigible.blogspot.com/
http://kwatkinsinfl.wordpress.com/

Many Signs

There are many signs that lead us to believe that we may be next on the list for a sibling pair with our agency. We are so excited but trying to keep ourselves contained. We realize that there could be any number of people in front of us that are unaccounted for. They seem to sneek in without anyone knowing about them. However, we are hoping that this is not the case. With that being said, we are sending out a cry for your prayers. PLEASE join us in praying for a quick referral. We are so anxious to get our children home. We feel we are very close but want to also keep things into perspective. So quit reading and start praying, please. Any and every prayers is accepted. I am praying that I can post this week that we got good news. Nothing is too big for God! Thanks for lifting us up!

My Funny Valentines and the Igloo

Just a few picture updates on what has been going on with us. First we had a great visit with Chris's sister and her family. With all the snow "uncle" Chris decided that he would recruit some help to build an igloo. It was really cool but it only lasted for a day since the temps got above freezing.

Next are a couple of pictures from Valentines Day. We had a great dinner as a family. I sure love my family!!!!

If you want to watch the video, go to the bottom of the page and stop the music.

Well today I realized we have entered into the Groundhog Day phase of our adoption process. Not only do I wake up every morning and wonder if today will be the day, but we have started to repeat things. We are at the stage in our process where our paperwork is expiring which means we have to repeat all of the fun. First up on the list, our fingerprinting in Indianapolis. Next will be our home study, followed by our dossier. Maybe this will give us the opportunity to really enjoy this part of the process this time around:) Since the first time around we were just wanting to get on to the waiting list, which feels like the black hole. We get to enjoy that fact that we can do something again, even if we are only pushing paper. At least we feel like we have a little control again. It removes the daunting fact that time seems to be standing still. So if you have not seen the movie Groundhog Day, I would encourage you to watch it. Just be careful though because you may wake up one day and find yourself in the middle of Groundhog Day. Especially if you decide to adopt.

Adoption and Football - 13 Months Today

I will start off by telling you that today is 13 months since we officially went on the waiting list with our agency. We began this journey February 21, 2009. For those of you who are not counting like I am, that is 2 years. Or in the land of adoption, FOREVER! So with all of this brewing in my brain as I watched the Super Bowl last night, I could not help but find some similarities in adoption and the game of football. Let me just say that this is my way of dealing with the wait and is my attempt at finding humor is this emotional process. Please do not find offense in some of my analogies. So here you go:

At the beginning stages of our process it was a coin toss as to what country and what agency we would end up with. We did not want any false starts, so we researched countries and agencies for about 4 months. After alot of huddle time we chose WHFC and Ethiopia as our game plan. So the ball was punted and the game had begun. Our team was doing well. We were in great shape, we had conditioned and we were strong. Our offense and defense looked great until we hit a mound of paperwork. We felt like we had taken a loss of yards at this point. We knew we had to call a time out and evaluate what our strategy was going to be. This proved to be helpful because we continued play and aggressively barrelled toward the first down. We began to make a lot of forward progress until the first penalty flag was thrown. Off sides was the call and the penalty was that the Ethiopia Program fees would be increased. This penalty hurt but our determination never faltered. On the very next play we experienced a very painful blow. We were sacked and not only were we sacked but it caused us to fumble the ball. There was a penalty called on this play for unnecessary roughness. We were informed that a new rule had been put into place and we would now have to travel to Ethiopia twice now instead of once. We were definitely ready now for our pep talk at half time. We needed to be re energized and find the determination to win this game. I think Laura even needed a bit of oxygen at this point. Back on the field we go and we get a call that we finally think is in our favor. Our agency called us with a possible referral. Not a typical call but one we had to evaluate and make a decision about. After much deliberation and prayer we decided that this play would be too risky for our team. After a lot of blood, sweat and tears we decided to stick with our original game plan. We felt like we had just thrown an incomplete pass. It looked good coming out of the quarterback hands but the timing was off and the ball was sure to be intercepted. At this stage of the game we are determined to continue to rush down the field. We have the end zone in our sights. We feel it is now time for a big play, maybe a quarterback sneak or an onside kick. We are beginning to get tired and we are praying that there are not too many penalties or commercial interruptions to endure. We are looking forward to a long awaited touchdown. And I must warn you, there will be penalty flags flying for the excessive celebration that will follow. I know that our team is going to win this game! We are just hoping this game does not go into overtime!

Thank you so much for being our fans. We could not continue to fight as hard as we have without you. You make every yard worth it and we love seeing your excitement as we continue to move the ball. I know it has been a long game but hang in there with us and we will be victors. What a celebration it is going to be! We LOVE our fans!

Thanks for humoring me! :)

~7~

Well, it is hard to believe that my little boy is 7 years old. So much can happen in 7 years. Since this sweet little boy was born, I decided to leave the world of banking and become a stay at home mom, moved from Louisville to Fort Wayne, decided to add 2 more little ones to our family.

So to celebrate 7 years of sweetness we took Max to Legoland in Chicago. He had a great time. It was Star Wars weekend at Legoland, talk about double bonus. Once we had seen all the legos we could we ventured to downtown Chicago. We toured Michigan Avenue, which included a trip to the Lego store. After shopping we went to the Navy Pier. By this point we had worked up a big appetite. We decided to catch a limo from Navy Pier to our car. Max thought this was so much fun! We left and went to Giordanos - our favorite Pizza place in Chicago.

We spent the night in Chicago and woke up early so that the kids could swim before we started our trip back home.

What a weekend to remember!! I do not think Max will forget it anytime soon!