Computer Whiz!

Caleb is getting quite good on the computer. He can navigate quite well through the Nick Jr. website and has a number of the games figured out. Really fun to watch him as he really interacts with the games. Great to keep him busy so I can do other things.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town!

The tree is up and decorated. The stockings are hung on the dining room chairs. Presents are wrapped and cards are in the mail. Just need to get the food!

This is going to be a quiet holiday, not sure yet if it will just be Alan and myself, but is looking like that may be it. We also kept our gift buying to a bare minimum - 2 small inexpensive gifts. We have too many other things that are more important this year. First of course is the adoption. We are still awaiting on final word from the agency if they will be going ahead with it. Our social worker has finished her study and is recommending us so we feel pretty confident that all will go as planned. We really hope to hear before Christmas so that we can have a very happy celebration.

Work on the bathroom is progressing slowly. Alan has been working long hours and really hasn't been home. I did get the vinyl floor taken up this past weekend. This of course uncovered problems (not unexpected) with the sub-floor. It will have to be replaced. Luckily not a expensive job, and it will allow me to put ceramic tile down on the floor instead of vinyl. It's going to be a hard nasty job, but I know it will be worth it in the end. It's all coming together in my head and will be a really nice room when finished.

Well the big 50 is just around the corner. We will be celebrating early on the 26th/27th in Austin. I think Alan and Andre have something up their sleeve. I know we are going to dinner at Chuy's Mexican, and staying the night at the Driscoll Hotel. I'm really looking forward to it.

We'll here are some pictures, Christmas Tree and Caleb with Santa at the library. He wants Cars stuff, Thomas the Train Stuff, Robots, HotWheels and Hersheys chocolate.

Alan found his calling!

We have finally decided to tackle the bathroom. Started off as maybe adding a new vanity/sink and new flooring. Well we've decided to go nearly the whole way now and are demolishing it back to the studs. We will keep the bathtub and try to get it re-finished in the near future. The toilet may also have to wait depending on how our budget holds. Main reason we are going the whole way with it is the shower plumbing is worn out and that wall has to be ripped out to access the pipes. I figure it's going to take a couple of months to get it complete as we are hoping to do about 90% of the work ourselves. We bought the new vanity and medicine cabinet at Lowes on Friday - they had a great deal on it. Alan attacked the walls on Saturday and has nearly half of them ripped back to the studs. To do the remainder we will have to remove the vanity and toilet, and do the walls around the tub. The outside wall will be messiest as there is blown in insulation behind it that I'm sure will come tumbling out.

So the pictures are of Alan with his trusty sledgehammer standing very proud in the midst of the destruction! Also a few few pics of the Christmas decorations on the house.

Some things do come to those who wait.

It has been a quiet week, fairly routine. we've been patiently (?) waiting to receive the first draft of the home study. We had thought that we would have it earlier in the week, but the last we had heard was that they were waiting on a last piece of information. Well Texas DPS was slow in returning the criminal background check, it was received on Wed. and we received the draft on Friday. I only have a few minor changes requested and some spelling errors ( Hennessey- in about the middle of the report they added a E to our spelling for a few paragraphs). I will have to wait to make the changes and send it back to them Monday as I don't have MS Word on my home computer. We were also glad to hear that they went ahead and sent the draft to AAI for preliminary approval so things can move along a bit faster. We are approved a 2 children under the age of 14, with a preference for siblings, at least one of them a boy. It was a good report with all the references recommending us - thank you all!
I am going ahead and contacting AAI to see if I can go ahead and get the Waiting Child(ren) DVD since they have at least received the draft. We would really like to have it before the Thanksgiving holiday so that we can share it with some of the family as we make the decision on which children we would like to share our home and family.
So a bit of excitement is starting to build again after the weeks of waiting. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that our dossier will be in Ethiopia before Christmas. Say a prayer for us that it will be!

I'm Still Smiling! (political)

While the majority of the candidates I voted for lost on Tuesday the one that really matters the most to us won! I really didn't expect any of the democratic candidates in local and state races to win since Texas is so overwhelmingly a red state. The past few weeks have been full of ups and downs and are we ever glad to see the end of this political season.

We have had neighbours disagree with our views so strongly that they flew the confederate flag. If you look in the picture above you can just see it above the front of their car. JUst so you also know we did not have 3 signs in our yard (and balloons) until after the election. We had one Obama sign and a "Had Enough Vote Democratic" sign up until they were stolen a week before. Now tell me what you think - if I place an Obama sign in my yard and they follow not with a McCain sign but with a Confederate flag - wouldn't you think this a very racist statement? I won't touch on free speech issues here, I just find their action highly offensive.

Needless to say we are no longer on speaking terms with these neighbors.

So we are glad it is over and we are back to focusing on the adoption. We are still waiting on the draft of our home study so that it can be finalized and submitted. All our Dossier paperwork has gone to the agency, except they still haven't received Alan's work reference and of course the final home study. Taking a bit longer than I had hoped - but then it usually does.

So I guess we wait.

The new smoke detector works!

Ok, here I was thinking last Wednesday that dogs vs. skunk just days before the adoption social worker is due to visit is a pretty big disaster, well I guess I was just fooling myself. Friday morning was spent installing 2 new smoke detectors and a fire extinguisher. The first detector went in super easy - just went in exactly where the old one was. The second one was going in a new location in the hallway. While drilling the holes for the plugs the vibration caused the glass globe on the hall light to fall and shatter into about a million pieces. So off to the store to get a new light. Come home, install it and also install the new fire extinguisher in the kitchen. Success! Later in the day I decide to bake a coffee cake, I get all my dry ingredients mixed together, go to get an egg out of the fridge - no eggs! Go borrow one from Mom. That takes over 30 minutes as I stay and talk for a bit. Finally get back home and get the batter all mixed and into the pan. Turn on the oven, I then go to the sink to rinse out the bowls, suddenly I hear loud popping and hissing. I turn around and the oven is on fire! It's filled with flames and sparks! I quickly turn it off and go to get the fire extinguisher (Now remember I only just purchased this on Thursday and installed it that morning) but the flames extinguished themselves before setting the house on fire. Now this is when the NEW smoke detectors go off, and it's at this point the dogs decide to panic and head through the kitchen to get outside, I'm just trying to find the humour in the whole situation. My oven is black, the floor has burn marks from the electrical sparks, and new alarms are making this piercing beep. Yes isn't this is just hilarious! The fire was caused by the heating element blowing up. So I had it repaired in less than an hour, baked my coffee cake which by the time it was baked it was time to cook dinner. So much for having a relaxing cup of coffee with a nice fresh piece of cake for a mid-afternoon snack.
Now for those of you interested in how our Adoption Home visit went with the social worker , it went quite well. Two hours of questions on pretty much our life history, parenting goals and well if you can think it, she probably asked it. She seemed quite happy with our knowledge and the research we had done about Ethiopia, adoption, and the process and that she will be looking forward to doing our post-placement follow up visits and reports. Just for those of you that go mad cleaning house before the visit - do it because it keeps you busy - I spent 5 hours cleaning every surface in the house on Saturday, she spent about 2 minutes walking through the house and glancing into the rooms. So with the disasters of last week behind us, the new week started off very positive!

3 Dogs and a Little Skunk

Yes this went about like you'd expect - the skunk won! Well he won the battle with the dogs but unfortunately he lost the battle when the Animal control officer showed up.
My day began at 7 am with being awakened by Schindler barking, it's usually cats or maybe a possum out back so I wasn't too concerned. I got up and let the other 2 dogs out. All 3 are then going nuts barking, still too dark out to see what all the fuss was over until Schindler comes running rubbing his face along the ground - OH ****! the smell hits. I grab Bonnie - she doesn't smell too bad yet, get her into the bath, then I grab Schindler while keeping Bonnie in and Darby out. Get him into the bath. While I'm bathing him Darby manages to get the doggie door opened, he gets in and Bonnie gets out. Darby manages to lay and rub on every blanket and dog bed within his reach. So now the whole house smells. Finally get him into the tub and bathed, then catch Bonnie and give her another bath. Once they are all bathed I have to put everything that Darby touched into the wash. I think Schindler's bed is beyond saving - he had a really good wallow on it. Finally about an hour after phoning, the Animal Control officer shows up. Hate to see a healthy animal get shot but there really isn't an option. Skunks are one of the worst carriers of rabies around here and the smelly critters are everywhere. Plus this guy is responsible for completely disrupting my quiet Wednesday morning! The officer tells me what to use to bath the dogs to get the smell completely off, shampoo only lessons it a bit. Luckily I had everything - dishwashing liquid, baking soda and hydrogen peroxide. Mix at all together and cover the dogs with it. So another round of baths and the dogs smell fine. Now I just have to get the smell out of my house. While I've been writing this I can't help but laugh, wasn't very funny this morning though.
On another note the Social worker will be coming by to do the home visit portion for our home study this Sunday. I hope the skunk smell is gone by then! I'm a bit of a nervous wreck about this. I know I shouldn't but I think it's just natural to be. We are in the final steps of our paperwork on this side of the ocean, hopefully in another month everything will be on it's way to Ethiopia!

Rainy days are fun days!

Today was a lovely autumn rainy day. It was raining when I got up and rained most of the day. A cool front moved through this afternoon dropping the temps into the 60's. Oh it felt just lovely. I'm not the only one that loves rainy days Caleb couldn't wait to go splash in the puddles. He came prepared wearing his green frog rain boots. He had plenty of opportunities during the day as we had loads of errands to do today getting lots of the paperwork done for the adoption. It was a good day with lots of things accomplished. I also managed to get a haircut this afternoon!

Pictures are of Caleb playing in front of our house. As he didn't have a raincoat he borrowed a jacket of Alan's, and one of my caps. Oh the innocence of childhood! to have so much fun just splashing in the water. The picture of him on the sofa is a picture of him in the outfit Joe and Kathleen (Alan's parents) sent him for his birthday. He is so cute in it. Thank you.

Will post new updates next week.

Yippee!! More Paperwork!

We received our packet of Dossier materials in the post on Saturday. Lots more papers to fill out, references to gather, and everything has to be notarized. Be really easy if I could notarize them myself, but that isn't ethical. Luckily my boss Bruce is a notary so it will really simplify things. This will be the last big batch of forms we have to complete. This then is when it will really turn into a waiting game. I must admit that the excitement is building. Last night we had Father Robert over for dinner, he is the priest at our church. We were hoping he would be able to provide insight into transitioning the children into life here in the USA and the Catholic church. Father Robert is from Nigeria and was introduced to Catholicism by Irish missionaries. We had a really lovely evening with him, he will be invaluable to us over the next year with his advice, support and knowledge. Alan and I fixed a nice Irish meal - stuffed steak, 2 kinds of potato, rutabaga and cabbage. We did go Texan with a peach cobbler for dessert.
So this looks to be a busy week, at least i won't just be sitting and waiting!

WAITING......

It's as I stated in an earlier post we wait...... Gathering information, returning it for the home study. So much of what we need is in the hands of other people and we have to be patient. We've only a few more things to turn in though and then we will have our home visit by the social worker. Once the home study report is complete and turned in we will be able to start getting matched with our soon-to-be family. We should be starting our paperwork for our Dossier soon. Expecting it in the mail later this week or early next week. It will be more paperwork and info gathering to assemble a packet that goes to Ethiopia to get their approval to adopt. We also have submitted our application to Homeland security to get the VISA application started. They also have to have a copy of the home study to approve and really won't do much until they receive it. We will also have to travel to San Antonio to their office to be fingerprinted. This process can take several months to complete.
WAIT.. wait... wait.....

Attack of the Dinosaurs!!

His cake had a motion activated dinosaur that popped out and would bite and growl.

His big remote controlled dinosaur, the adults enjoyed it as much as the kids!


Caleb being a dinosaur!

Caleb's 3rd birthday was all about dinosaurs, he's a real little boy now! Here's a few pictures I took at his party.

Homestudy Requested,

We have now moved on to the next step, the DREADED HOMESTUDY. Again there will be loads of paperwork to gather, including police reports, medicals, dogs health statements, house is safe and passes a fire safety test. They look at all our finances and then get references from friends and employers. I think they will know more about us than we know ourselves. It all sounds so overwhelming. I know if we take it one thing at a time we will fly through it. None of the forms so far have been difficult. We just need to stay on top of it.

CALEB"S BIRTHDAY IS MONDAY!!!! OMG he'll be 3!!!!. I'll try to get lots of pictures and will post them Monday.

Adoption Application Accepted!

Just received our official AAI adoption packet accepting us into their Ethiopian adoption program. More paperwork to fill out and money to be paid. I can't describe how happy Alan and I both are that this is becoming a reality for us. Tomorrow will be a busy day as I will need to get the ball rolling on ordering the Home Study, I'll fill out the forms I have, plus download some VISA forms from Homeland security.
I hope also to phone the agency (I need to pay them their fee) and see about getting some details and a video about some of the children on the waiting list. If we choose a sibling pair that is waiting this will move along alot quicker. We also feel that is where we have been led. These children have been waiting - some as long as 4 years to be adopted. We have a home and our hearts are here waiting for them. This house really needs the sound of kids in it.
Please continue to pray for us, this journey is only starting.

The Ball is Rolling

Step one- mail in application to AAI (Adoption Advocates Intl.) CHECK! Now we sit back and wait a few weeks for their response. Waiting - now that's a word we will become quite familiar with in the coming months. I'm sure many of our future posts will be addressing the fact that we are waiting. So while we wait life continues to roll on.

We had a quiet holiday weekend. Caleb came over on Sat. afternoon and took a 3 hour nap on the sofa. I painted the bathroom on Monday, same color just needed to freshen it up. I did put new handles on the wall cabinet. I finally got rid of those dreadful 70's antique gold ornate handles. I replaced them with nice sleek polished chrome, a big improvement. I returned to the Doctor on Friday, bad news on the cyst - they couldn't drain it with a needle so if I wish to get rid of it I will have to have surgery. I think I will live it unless it gets larger or painful. They also took several vials of blood to run some test. Don't know which test and what for. Guess I'll know when I get results.

Well here are some pictures as promised. Darby, new roof on house, Caleb taking his 3 hour nap (I rarely sleep that long at night), and finally a picture of Alan and I together. We had to have a snapshot of the 2 of us to submit with the adoption application so here it is - so do we look like trustworthy loving parents? I really hope so. You'll also notice Bonnie and Schindler just had to get into the photo, no way were they going to be excluded.

An Adoption Journey Begins

I'm sure everyone there is thinking what? Are they nuts? We may well possibly be, but this is something that Alan and I both feel we have been called to do. Neither of us feel that we can sit back and not do something to help. We want to make this one small difference. After looking at all the different children in this world that need loving homes we felt most drawn to Ethiopia and Haiti. We then started looking at the different programs the good and the bad, and while both countries have a strong need of adoptive parents we chose Ethiopia. One reason is they have a excellent adoption system in place that really seems to work. Haiti's current system is broken and it can often take years to get your adopted child home.

We are getting our application ready to send to the agency (Adoption Advocates Intl. http://www.adoptionadvocates.org/ ) and with it's approval we will then move forward with our homestudy. We will be drowning in paperwork for both the US and Ethiopian governments for the next few months.

We are planning to chose older siblings (9-13 yrs) that are on the Children waiting list. We will be able to move forward with choosing our children once our application has been processed.

We initially planned on adopting one 9-12 yr.old but the need is so great to adopt siblings we just knew that was what we wanted to do. It is going to cost us a bit more to do this and we really need you prayers and support as we move forward. In the coming months I hope to have a garage sale . If any of you have items to donate or want to come purchase things on the day please let me know. Early planning yet but I will post more details on it as they develop. Those of you that regularly read this post please forward it to family and friends that might not see it. We need all the prayers we can get over the next year . We know that there are obstacles ahead and again only with faith and prayer will we be able to bring our children home.

There is a link below to a video that when Alan and I saw it we knew for sure Ethiopia was where we would go. Listen closely to the lyrics - the song is just beautiful.

http://www.adoptionguides.org/Ethiopia/ethiopiaproject.mpg

This Youtube link to the video can be quicker on some computers;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh_afuKvVf4

I'll keep you posted on each new development. So please keep checking back. Add us to your favorites!

Caleb doesn't taste very good.

Alan, Caleb and I had lunch at El Tapatio with Alan's friend Steve, his wife, son and brother on Saturday. Steve is only about 6'5'' and 300+ lbs can be a bit intimidating. He is joking around with Caleb telling him he's very hungry and will just eat Caleb for lunch. Caleb very demurely answers "but I wouldn't taste very good." Surprisingly he wasn't terrified of Steve and was soon having straw fights with him. Guess he knew that the food at the restaurant was much tastier than he would be.

Posted are some new pictures taken over the weekend, a few (guess which ones) were taken by Caleb. Can't post all the ones he took as the kid just had to be bold (he thought it was funny) and swing open the bathroom door while I was in there and just started snapping away. Ha ha cute kid.

The Jack Russell stopped bouncing.

Bonnie was finally still long enough to get a few pictures of her. Have to catch her sleeping to get her still long enough to snap a shot. I know we still need pictures of Darby, he may need a haircut first as he just looks like a lump of white fur right now.

The new roof is finally on the house. I need to get out and snap a shot to post. It looks really well. The roof will get it's first test of Texas weather later today as Tropical storm Edouard heads our way. winds of over 40mph are forecast along with 2-4 inch rainfall totals. We really need the rain as we've had very little this summer. We are at least getting a break from the 100+ (40c+) temps we have been having.

Other than that it's been quiet here. Post more pic's when I get them.

A Truck, The Circus, and a Goofy Grey Dog

Busy weekend again here at the doghouse. Alan brought his new UPS truck home so he could get all his stuff set up in it. It took up the entire driveway it's so big. Caleb got to see it before we headed to Waco to go to the circus. He was a bit wary of it, don't think he was prepared for just how big a truck is up close. The tires are taller than he is. He seems to think it's pretty cool though that Granpaddy drives a truck. Caleb is a huge fan of the movie Cars and Mack the truck is one of his favorites.

Saturday afternoon was spent in Waco. Caleb was very impatient to get to the circus so we arrived quite early. They had things going on before the show started that kept everyone entertained. Caleb really enjoyed the first half of the show, and laughed and clapped and was quite awestruck with some of the acts. The second half of the performance began with the White Tigers - which he had talked about all week. Don't think he was quite expecting them to be as large and ferocious. Frightened him a bit along with the fact that it was getting to be late and the day long and him not having had a nap we decided on a early exit. He slept all the way home.

Finally got a half decent picture of Schindler - still working on the other two. Darby seems to be sleeping alot more and Bonnie has trouble sitting still (unusual for a Jack Russell Terrier). I'll keep working on them.

South Carolina Vacation

We returned Friday afternoon from a short trip to South Carolina. Alan had a 4 day orientation for his new job with UPS freight. I tagged along hoping to get out and see the sights while he spent his days in the classroom.We took the new Fit and drove out leaving Gatesville on July 5, our 12th wedding aniversary. I accomplished my goal of doing several hikes! I saw a total of 5 waterfalls, only 2 required any length of a hike. Saw the City of Greenville, quite a lovely downtown. Made it to the Outlet mall in Gaffney for some retail therapy. nothing like a good bargain to lift ones mood! Alan and I also had two very good dinners out. If you are ever in Greenville I can recommend Handi on N.Main for excellent Indian, and Saskatoon on Haywood rd. for Game and fish. I really enjoyed the trip it was a much needed break. Alan had a successful orientation and will be starting on Monday with UPS in MacGregor - much closer to home. Here are a few pictures that I took. The photos just can't do the actual view justice.


One of many flowers blooming along the trail to Raven falls.

This is Raven Falls in Ceasar's Head State Park. It has a total drop of 400 ft. To see this waterfall I had a total round trip hike of 4 miles. That gets you to a lookout post several hundred yards from the falls. There is a second trail to the head of the falls but it's a 8 mile hike, don't think I could have made that one. Raven Falls is one the the highest waterfalls in the Southeastern US. The hike in was almost as scenic as the falls. I really enjoyed it.

This is Ceasars Head, elevation 3200+ ft. Luckily I didn't have to hike this, just a really fun drive up the mountain with several hairpin turns (love my Honda)! The view was just amazing.

Came across on this old covered bridge on Wednesday while driving to Ceasars Head state park. I'd taken a few turns off the beaten path and saw a signpost to it, made the turn and stopped for a few minutes.

Took this picture during a stop at Table Rock State Park. This is looking west towards the mountains. The tallest peaks are over 3000 ft.

This is Station Cove falls . I really enjoyed it as I was able to walk right up to the falls. It was about a 2 mile hike (round trip). Very relaxing to sit at the base and listen to the sound of the water trickling down.

This is Isaqueena Falls, This area of North Carolina is in a severe drought so the falls weren't gushing water. Was still a pretty sight.

Downtown Greenville, I just loved the tree lined streets.

Reedy Falls, Downtown Greenville.

Now we know what the Geico Gecko does on his day off.

Busy little geckos! Think he'll lose his job as the Geico spokes lizard if I take these public?

If it's Wednesday, It must be Caleb.

For the past 17 or so months on Wednesday mornings Caleb and I go to storytime at the library. You could count on one hand the days we have missed (2 or 3 times). He really enjoys it during the summer as they have additional activities and the summer reading program. They get a library buck for every 10 books read and they save them up to buy things, and for his age you can count the same book everytime it is read. Caleb has very quickly caught on to this and I sit and read the same books over and over. Last week was "Oh Cats" that was was a real page turner. This weeks is "The Firehouse". They have a special bonus this year for the first 5 books read the kids get a free ticket to Ringling Bros. Circus. Guess where Alan and I will be with Caleb on July 19? I'm looking forward to it. We will probably make a day of it in Waco with him.

Finally got the video of Caleb on his tractor. Hope it plays ok. The other pictures are ones that Caleb took. Looks like another budding photographer in the family.

Andre made it safely home from Prague last week and speaking of pictures she shot 18 rolls of film. Guess I'll need to set aside a day to look at them all. She looked terrific. 6 weeks away would do wonders for anyone. She saw most of Czech republic. She took the train to Vienna Austria. And of course met up with Matt her boyfriend in Paris. It was so expensive they went to Barcelona after a few days and hung out there. Sounds like she had a great time and had some good adventures and some mis-adventures - got lost in Prague on a few occasions and had Martina fairly worried. She was fairly wrecked after her long flight but glad to be home.