Court Date!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our court date is set for March 5th.We got the email at 5pm tonite as we sat down in church(thankfully john has a blackberry)Two months away I better keep busy 2 months is a long time.We also found out baby girls name Tingirt now I need to find out how the heck to say it!!We are so thrilled this was the best christmas gift ever!!!

Referral day story

Okay so here's how it played out.
I woke up Friday morning with a very strong feeling we were getting our referral that day. I was suppose to be off from work but was called in to sub. John was working from home and I was sooo mad cause I didn't want him to get the news before me. I texted him every hour on the hour to see if there was any news and of course there was none. I came home around 2:30 and hit the computer to see if there were any referral announcements but there was nothing. I continued to check for the next 2 hours. Around 4:30 I came to the conclusion today was not the day. So I left the house to take Zack to his guitar lesson. I usually come home after dropping him off but instead I decided to drive to the bakery to pick up some things for the party we were having the next evening. As I was ordering a few items I received a text from John saying"Are you almost Home" I texted him back saying "no".Then he texted again "Come Home". I texted "Why". His response was "Please come home". I then tried calling him but he didn't answer.I will admit I was not thinking referral I was thinking the kids needed something and I was feeling like gosh I cant even step out for a minute. As I was driving home now in the middle of rush hour on a very busy road, I still wasn't thinking referral. Then it hit me could this be it,Oh it better be it the way hes texting me. So i started to speed up praying I would make through every light before turning red. As I reached the corner I nearly plowed down my neighbor and didn't stop to apologize(John went over later and apologized). I can not express the thoughts going through my mind,was this really it???Could it be the day we waited for?? If not I am going to kill John LOL!!!! As I entered the house John was standing in the kitchen tears streaming down his face. I kept asking Did they call? He couldn't even answer me he just pointed to his laptop. I turned to look and there she was the most beautiful little girl. She is so perfect,so amazing and ours! We both cried for a bit before we went to tell the other kids. Oh and poor Zachary yeah, still sitting at the guitar store waiting to be picked up oops! So that's it that's how one of the most amazing days in our life happened!

REFERRAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay no time for details but she is amazing and only 6 weeks old

Peaceful

Yea thats how I feel peaceful. I know our referral is only days,weeks away not months , so I am kinda in this peaceful place as far as adoption. As far as everyday life ,My house is a disaster my trees are not up ugh. I have been working everyday things are nuts.I really dont want to miss the holiday season , but its coming too fast, slow down please, I want to enjoy.

Black Friday

Thanksgiving was fun and crazy.My Turkey took way longer then I expected so no nap for me.I headed out with my friend felicia at 10:30 Pm to the outlets that opened at midnight.It was cold,crazy and so much fun.The lines were huge,the sales were amazing and we were there til 4am. The longest line I saw was victoria secret it was about a mile long so I opted not to wait.I broke down and went to gymboree despite the fact John banned me from going til we have a referral.Gymboree had 25 % off your total purchase even clearance it was crazy!!!Then we headed to Kohls which opened at 4.Not so good deals but I got a few things.Then it was onto Taget which opened at 6am. Target was very organized this year and it made shopping very easy for those doorbusters I needed. Then we headed to the mall and believe it or not the mall wasnt so bad. I think Felicia could have kept going but I was getting delirious so at 11am we decided to call it quits. So now I am sooooo exhausted but so happy the bulk of my shopping is done. I took a 2 hour nap and I am trying to pull it together to meet some friends for drinks at chilis.

Tagged!!!

Okay not sure how this tagging thing works.I see people get tagged all the time so I guess I get to join the club. I feel so special. Thankyou Theresa So if your interested heres 6 quirks about me:

1- I am addicted to Rubbermaid containers and labels LOL. With four kids you gotta try and be organized right?? My kids think I am crazy, but if everything has its own place then you shouldn't lose anything right? A label maker for Xmas would be perfect, hint hint to my family

2-Christmas is my favorite Holiday- My family thinks I am insane I have 7 full size xmas trees,each having its own theme.I decorate them all myself with the exception of my family tree. We have the family tree which goes in the family room, NY giants tree in the upstairs hallway, gingerbread tree in my kitchen, silver tree in dining room, gold tree in the formal living room, rustic country one in my room and a shopping theme tree in Caitlyns room.Yes I am insane

3-I buy myself a bouquet of flowers every week.I love fresh flowers and it makes me feel good.So every week while food shopping I buy flowers

4-I am addicted to gymboree but I think everyone knows that already. I have no clue how big Kennedy will be but she has a full closet of gymboree clothes.

5-I am a slob when it comes to my car.LOL my house I am fanatical about keeping clean but my car is embarrassing.We are always on the go so the car just gets a beating

6-I must start my day with starbucks!!! At $5 a coffee I work just to pay for my coffee. I will drive 15 minutes out of my way to get it.

Okay so thats it I guess I have to tag 2 people now hmmm who shall it be?????
I am going to tag Holly
and jen

have fun ladies
Here are your rules. 6 quirks, no tag back, link to the person who tagged you, and leave them a comment to let them know you've tagged them.

Choosing agencies

Well we all know we switched agencies a few weeks ago.
However when we began this journey I did sooo much research that brought us to Childrens home society. I still believe they are a great agency they love and care for these children,they take the time to make a wonderful lifebook,they are very well established. What they lack on is communication.They are really good at beating around the bush and not answering your questions.I believe they mean well but its very frustrating for their families.I will admit it I switched to BFAS because their wait is much shorter but as I have been with them a few weeks now their best asset is communication. I didn't even know an agency could be this open about everything. They have a yahoo group that BFAS responds on all the time(even weekends).They also let us in on inside info like this week they posted they have referrals in hand but the computers are down in ET so they are waiting to get pics and medicals.They are so open and honest anytime I call and answer every question I have. So forget the short wait,the communication alone was worth it. I was keeping BFAS to myself for selfish reasons but as one of the BFAS staff put it we want these children to find homes.So feel free to email me if you are still considering an agency dawndangelo@optonline.net

Doing the happy dance!!!

Okay so apparently we are not number 4 we are #2.Holy smokes!!! Hey Holly that means you are #1. Yes I am doing the happy dance!!!!!!!

Movin on up!!!

Oh yeah our agency had another infant girl referral today making us #4!!!

#5

We moved to # 5 today woohoo

Sad day for Carson

Most of you know how much Carson loves the game of football however I don't think anyone realized how much he loved his actual football. His football he has slept with him for as long as I can remember.His football has gone to school with him everyday.His football has traveled by plane to Florida,by car to North Carolina and visited many Long Island beaches. I envisioned saving this ball til he went pro(hey ya never know). Well somehow his football came to practice tonight but when practice was over his football was no where to be found. You can not imagine how sad I am and how sad I am for him. I am hoping that somehow it accidentally made it into someone elses bag and at tomorrows game Carson will be reunited with it. Pray we find it I'm not sure a replacement will do!

We are #6

Well we were official on Friday but I only heard a few hours ago.We currently stand at #6. WOW with CHFS we were 90 something now #6. Two families got their referrals on Friday.Although a girl can dream, I am hoping for referral this week.Not going to happen but I like to dream. since us and most other families want a girl under 12 months I am prepared to wait the full 2 months(Still better then 12).Thankfully the holidays are approaching so that should help keep my mind off the adoption.So here's to being number 6!

Need to get out of this funk

Gosh this weekend is crazy.Last night I had an at home america party.It was fun and now i get to shop for free ($217worth). My SIL brought over a ton more baby clothes for us that was fun to go through. Problem is I cant stand people asking so when is this baby coming? Especially since I have been down.People don't understand the process.When we announced in march we were doing this I have been asked the same question anytime I see anyone.Anything new with the adoption? NO new would mean I have a referral and I don't.Today I am hosting a children's Halloween party for my kids and our friends kids.Again the same question will be asked and honestly I think I may get nasty. I envy John cause the wait doesn't bother him ,hes so laid back about it and sometimes doesn't understand why i get so anxious. Well hopefully the party will be a distraction then back to work tomorrow.

Its just gonna be one of those days

Well woke up kinda down.The adoption process does that to you.One day you feel great the next you feel down. We rushed so much redoing our dossier for the new agency that we hit snags. Due to our medicals not being correct our full dossier wasn't looked at til this past week. I was hoping yesterday we would hear we were officially waiting but we didn't. 6 families were told Tuesday they were official-yep that's 6 more ahead of us .I cant help but think if we weren't careless we would have been waiting a week ago.Then I start to think the 3 months we waited with CHFS if we were with BFAS we would probably be home with baby already. Then I try and remind myself that its in gods time(not so comforting sometimes) and only he knows who our child is and when the time is right so will we(but its really hard). So today is a hard day. On the flip side I am so happy for for Theresa and Jim who received their referral this week and became parents!!

What was I thinking

Okay busy does not even describe my week. I am in charge of 2 fundraisers in the same week with another one coming.What was i thinking. I guess its good cause I havent had much time to think about the adoption however I do walk pass the half done nursery and think when am i gonna get in there. My 5th grade pancake breakfast came and went saturday.It is amazing how much work one event can be and then its over in 2 hours.After that i was a vendor at a fair then from there I went and finished cleaning up our church garage sale.And that was just saturday.Yikes! This week I am preparing for a art show for our preschool which is consuming my life. Then Nov 3 is the blood drive i am running Holy smokes what was I thinking.Anyway remember those vaccines I am afraid of,yeah,well last night I let John give me 2 out of the 5 OUCH!!!! No passing out but I was already laying in bed so maybe that helped


UPDATE: i just recieved this from our new agency
Yes we received them today. Everything else looks good. We will be taking your documents to St. Paul on Friday to be authenticated by the State of MN and they will be sent to Washington DC for authentication by Friday afternoon. I will keep you posted. Once your dossier leaves for DC you will be added to our referral list. This process take approximately 1-2 months to receive a referral.

Did you read that 1-2 months woohoo we will have a referral by christmas

Did you know I hate needles

Well being our wait time is shorter and we will likely be traveling soon,I need to get about 7 vaccines. Yeah me the one that passes out.Anyway I came home from my PTA meeting and sitting in my fridge are 5 vaccines UGH.Totally not looking foward to this!!!!

Blogger in training

Okay its been 5 days since my last post.I am still getting the hang of this whole blogging thing. So what have I been up to Hmmmmmmmmm besides the usual work,football,kidzone,art classes etc. I know you all want adoption news.The switch is done! We pulled our dossier together in 1 day.Our new agency has it in their hands at this moment. So when will the news of referral come,I am hoping before christmas.Dear Hubby thinks Tuesday,yeah he thinks this tuesday, is it possible ,Yep I have seen 2 familes now get their referrals within days of there referral. So I am quickly rushing to finish the room.I painted this weekend,the bookcase and changing table/dresser were ordered monday(approx date to come in Dec 22) and hopefully this week I will go get the crib. I pulled out an adoption baby book that was given to us in april,time to start writing. So we are finally feeling like this is going to happen! And really fast! The pictures here is the furniture we ordered

REST!!!

Okay we can rest again.All Adoption paperwork is done thank god for John!!! We have an extremely busy weekend filled with football,sweet 16 and more. Bad news is my dryer went. I think we need to splurge this time.In the eight years we have been in this house this will be the 3rd dryer.Is that normal??? I'm thinking we need to buy the better one,we do so much laundry.At this point I hate to spend the money but I don't want to be buying another one for a long time.Anyway here's to nice long weekend!

Paperchasing UGH again

Okay so I am currently paper chasing again so no time to blog! Those in the adoption world can understand.We will hopefully be done tommorrow then I can rest or can I? I think things are going to go fast I need to get my but in gear and finish the baby's room. Heres a picture of the bedding I chose.

How much does a little one need??

So I did it! I registered at babies r us. I came home with a huge headache. I did register since we are asking family and friends not to purchase us Xmas gifts(you would not believe the stuff we get) but to get us stuff we need for the baby. Also people keep asking if i am going to register so its now somewhat done. I registered for what I know I need no matter the age such as high chair,car seat ,stroller, porta crib etc. After I have our referral I can go back and add other items. Well it was overwhelming whats out there. Wipe warmer???I cant even remember all the unnecessary things i found. But oh what fun I had. It was a bit strange when I entered and walked over to the registry desk.I said I would like to register.The employee said oh you want to buy for a registry? I need no i want to make one.She immediately looked at my stomach then gave me a puzzled look.I explained I was adopting and then we proceeded. It was fun after I was done they gave me a gift pack and then had the store manager come over to congratulate me.

NEWS!!!!

No referral yet but we are switching agencies.This is a huge deal.Remeber those pictures of my dossier? Well it has to be done all over again.Are we crazy? Our agency changed their wait times from 6-9 months to 12 months.And referral to travel to 2-4 months.That means we wouldnt get our referral til july then travel the end of 2009 or early 2010.WE love our agency but they have 300 families waiting. We found a new agency that says our wait from dossier to bringing a baby home is 3-6 months. However this is a new agency with only a few families waiting.We feel comfortable with our decision.We are currently working on our new dossier and hoping to have it done by next week.Then we will begin the wait all over again.I am hoping to have a referral by christmas.So, back to craziness of paperwork and now we really need to get started on her room

Decisions,

Decision's, decisions. Can I tell you I feel like I want to throw up! We are trying to decide if we should switch adoption agencies. We love our current agency,however with the recent announcement extending our wait times We feel very conflicted. With current wait times we will most likely have our child home late 2009 early 2010.Yep that's right 2010.I can not even imagine waiting that long.Am I strong enough? On the flip side we found another agency that will most likely have a referral for us in weeks yes weeks.However they are not as well established as my current agency.Please pray for our family as this is not an easy decision.

Waiting and lists

Okay so for some reason today is frustrating me as far as the adoption wait goes. I have been seeing referrals on all of my adoption groups yet none from my agency. I dont expect a referral for us anytime soon but it would be nice to see some movement from our agency. Some days fly by and the waiting doesnt bother me and then there are days like today. So i decided to make a list of things that need to get done before this baby comes .
1.get babys room ready(new floor and paint)
2.Order baby furniture(its all picked out)
3.Register(very time consuming i have made 6 trips to babiesrus just to check things out)
4.Finish babys scrapbook( when baby comes home i just want to have to add pics)
5.Start adoption baby book
6.touch up paint around house
7.xmas shop( i am usually done by now and i havent really started)
8.Shop for travel items( there is a laundry list of items we need for travel to ethiopia,I dont want to be scrambling after referral to get these items)
9.organize family photos from the past year(very behind and i need to put them in albums)
10.Buy baby blanket to sleep with so it has our scent(we send this after we recieve referral.)
11. Make album for baby( we send this also at referral i have the album thanks to my secret pal i just have to fill it.)

So i am sure there is more to add to the list. I really have soooo much to keep me busy til referral!!!

the weekend

Okay so john left at 4am this morning with a few men from church and headed out to PA for a mens retreat. He returns on sunday night. So now what do we do for the weekend.I was planning on going pumpkin picking but the weather is not going in my favor. There are no good movies out so maybe ice skating we will see.

Blogging

Okay so it didnt take long to figure this out. I am now a blogger!!

Here goes our first Blog

Okay i am giving into this whole blogging thingy. Give me some time to get it going