Christmas with the Roberts Family part 2 - A Visitor

Ok so here is part two of the saga. Christmas eve we went with my parents to some friends house for a little get to geather. When we got back to my brothers my niece and nephew were already asleep waiting for santa Derek was actually sleeping across a couple chairs near the tree on santa watch so Sean and I went on to bed. Around 1am I hear a noise and we heard Zeus bark...hmmm Santa must be here and the dog hear's him right?? I hear noise that sounds like its in the room with us so I make Sean get up turn on the lights and look around of course he doesnt see anything so out go the lights and back in bed. A few minutes later I hear more noise so i said Sean something is in here and i'm scared, I think at some point the dog barked again. Sean gets up turns the light back on ,we hear Missy in the hallway so sean opens the door and tells her he thinks we have a visitor..so they close the bedroom door and open one side of the closet door,,nothing...open the other side of the closet door there on the top shelf sits a chipmunk...is it Alvin or Simon...nope ...Chipmunk jumps out of closet Missy and I both scream and now i'm standing at the top of the bed while the little chubby (it can only be Theodore) is hopping up the bed towards me. At this point he jumps up on the curtains and I scream again and run out of the room. I hear my niece come out of her room "Mommmmmmmy" ...Brandi go back in your room its not safe I said hahaha..ok really i did tell her there was a chipmunk in there I didnt want to frighten her to badly. My brother is woken up to help catch the chipmunk which he does ...so all is good right nope chipmunk jumps out of the towel and over the landing onto the top of the christmas tree. Now he's down stairs so Sean ,Missy and Mike all go down to catch him again. Brandi and I watch from the top of the stairs..There was a moment when we started to go down but heard another scream so we ran back up again. Finally the chipmunk is caught but at this point its like 1:30 and everyone is wide awake from all the excitement. The kids wanted to open gifts then because at some point Santa had already come and gone. He is obviously alot quieter then our friend Theodore. Everyone finally did go back to sleep and waited until christmas morning to open gifts.
I have to wonder what i would have done if our little man was already here with us. Would I have grabbed him on my way out the door?? I would like to think that i'm a good mom to be and would have saved my child first but honestly people I dont really know. I love squirrels and chipmunks but not so much when they are indoors and racing around on the bed that just minutes ago i was sleeping in. If only someone had thought to take out the video camara these are the stories we will laugh about for years to come.

Christmas with the Roberts Family part 1.

So Sean and I spent Christmas week with my family. It was an adventure and I have decided I don't know how I ever lived in New York State..it was so cold the second day i was already freezing and ready to come home. Let me introduce the family and then we will take a look at the christmas gifts that our little man got.

The Roberts family includes My mom and dad aka Grandma and Grandpa, my oldest brother aka Uncle Frankie, My other brother and his family aka. Uncle Mike,Aunt Missy and the cousins Brandi and Derek. Part 2 of the christmas saga will also include their dog Zeus. Now on to the gifts. From Grandma and Grandpa lots of new clothes.

Our little man will be very well dressed.

Bottles, Bibs and a fun new toy.

The all important, lotion,powder, wipes,duckies, onesies..etc..

Now for the next gift its a tradition for the boys in our family to collect the hess trucks each year. My brothers always got them when they were younger and my brother Frankie started getting them for my nephew derek years ago..Now Baby Noah has his start to the Hess truck collection.

These gifts are also from Uncle Frankie because they were purchased with the Babies R Us gift card that he gave us. Our dog Honey wanted to be in the picture to.

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Frankie for the great gifts. Coming soon part two of the Christmas in new york saga...who came to visit on Christmas eve??

One year ago.

A year ago today we mailed in our contracts to AGCI which I guess would mark our offical start to this journey. I think back then I thought I would know who my child was by this point and if it wasnt for our slow home study agency I probable would but here we are . There are 7 more working days for AGCI between now and Christmas and we are still praying that there is a round of referrals still to come between now and then and that ours is one of them.
As i'm writing this its about 5am in Ethiopia and my little boy is probable snuggled in a crib at hannah's hope just waiting to know who his forever family will be. I long to hang a stocking by the fireplace and buy a babies first christmas ornament but I havent let myself go there until we see him in pictures. Baby boy you are so loved already. You have aunts and uncles and grandparents and cousins that can't wait until you come home. We so appreciate all the love and support that we have gotten from family and friends so far during this process and the wait from referral to travel might be the hardest wait yet . I think the motto of adoption is "hurry up and wait" get this done so you can wait some more.
Tonight I pray for my child, his birthmother and Almaz and the special mothers at hannah's hope. I also pray for my other family my AGCI family. All the ones that are waiting for courtdates may the judge have favor on you and let those little ones come home, all my girls right in front of me on the list(Dawn and Jody) may we know our sweet childrens faces soon. To my girls right behind me (Kim and Nell Ann) may your referrals be close behind. And for the rest on the list may you fly up the list as quickly as we did. Here's to smooth sailing thru the process.

Number5??? Number 3?? Which one could it be?

Ok I didn't expect to make another update post so soon but its needed you see yesterday Wade and Laura got their referral of a baby boy so that makes us #


Congrats on you new little boy. However there were two unknown people on the list after them. Over on the girls list Stacy and Maria both got referrals congrats to both of you on your new little girls. They were are #1 and #4 with two unknowns between them. There is a very strong chance that the unknowns on both lists were the same people and that they got girl referrals also yesterday which would move us to #3 on the boy list. So in honor of possible being #3 here are a couple drawings from some friends.

Thank you Annemarie.

Thank you to Diane's girls.

December Update #'s

Ok I know this post probable looks confusing so let me explain. Officially we are still #7 however we know that a referral was made right before Thanksgiving which makes us #6. Until these people do all the required paperwork needed to officially accept a referral they don't come off the list. So you can consider us to be 7 if ya wanna be all official and #6 if your like me and want this to move along. I know it hasn't been alot of movement this month but families are getting thru courts and traveling which is something to be thankful for. We are still hopeful that by christmas or soon after we will know who our son is.

Thanksgiving/Christmas with the Albrights

Babies have been coming home and new referrals have been given in the past week and I have been absent from blogland. With good reason of course. I was celebrating thanksgiving and christmas in florida with my husbands family. It was decided this year that only the children in the family would receive gifts and since sean is the only sibling with no children yet our little man in Ethiopia received his first christmas presents. There are alot of pictures but first lets tell ya who is in the Albright Clan.

Seans parents aka mimi and pap-pap

seans grandfather aka Grampy

seans sister & family aka Aunt Kera, Uncle Ryan and the cousins Christian and Camden

seans brother & family aka Aunt Tammy, Uncle Terry and the cousins Stephanie and Angel

We want to thank all of them for the great gifts and we can't wait to see who the little guy is that is blessed with all this great stuff.

The pile of Gifts in the red paper is for Baby Albright.

Warm snowsuit and new blankies. The blanket on the left is the same blanket that his cousin baby Camden has.

lots of new pajamas.

ready for bath time. Lots of new toys. Anyone wanna come over and play?This is a special gift from my mother in law. I'm not sure how long ago she bought them but she got 3. One for each of the first grandchildren from each of her children. So Christian and Angel have them and now Baby Noah has his waiting for him.

I can't wait to be able to show pictures of the completed nursery with all these great things waiting for baby. Someday the nursery will get finished I promise.

The monthly update.

Ok so I thought this week was going to be forever and that our call would never come. Our case manager Christy is pretty much running the Ethiopia program by herself for a couple weeks while the other case manager Julie is in Ethiopia so she has had her hands full with all the call and emails. After 3 months, 3 weeks and 1 day we are officially #8. We have kind of known for a couple weeks that this is where we might be but its nice to know for sure. I also asked the hard question of when can we realistically expect a referral and she actually answered (I was surprised) of course its only a guess and we can't hold her to this but she said possible end of december early january. I'm still holding out a glimmer of hope for a referral by christmas. Right now we really need to pray for families to make it through courts and be able to travel so that more children can be brought into Hannah's Hope.

We also received our first offical baby gift. Thank you Monica,John, Cathy and Cayla for the baby book.

What to do while we wait?

So we get a new # at the beginning of each month and for a week or so (ok sometimes a couple days) we are very content and happy being our new #. And then something goes crazy and we can't wait for the next month to be here so we can get another new # and we are stalking blogs and the list serve to see who got referrals and we are guessing at new unoffical #'s ,we move forward we move backwards until something just snaps in our head and we can't take anymore and we must step away from the computer. Yes this is where I was at yesterday I stepped away I read the bible verse at the top of autumns blog and wrote it down in my journal..I listened to some christian music and just gave myself a time out. And I told myself to read this verse every day but not just read it to belive it and live it.


"But these things I plan won't happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow be patient. For it will surely take place. It will not be late by a single day." Habakkuk 2:3

And with that lets get to some fun stuff...more goodies for babies room.

A hand carved mask from Kenya..found at the goodwill store. Hope this isnt scary for the little man.
I found these giraffes at the goodwill store and had to bring them home. Autumn I realized they look just like the ones in your little mans nursery I'm not trying to copy you I promise.
Photo Album and baby bath stuff from Big Lots..oh the funny conversation that took place with one clueless cashier over this album..Can't wait to change the name on the bottom (to either our last name,babies ethiopian name or babies name from us Noah) and see his adorable face smiling out at me. I'm sure it wont take long to fill this with pictures.

Tagged

Ok so I got tagged by Autumn(sorry don't know how to link to your blog) and I was considering not doing this...but then I got tagged again by Dawn or Jody I dont remember which so i'm thinkin a tag is kinda like a dare right ...a second tag is like a double dare and we all know ya can't ignore the double dare so I shall post 7 weird/random things about me. Although i don't think i'm wierd or random at all (yeah right). Unfortunetly I don't have anyone else to tag because I think all you bloggers have done this but if you read this and you haven't been tagged then consider yourself tagged and get to it.

1. I have to have a pepsi every day..its my source of caffine since I don't drink coffee and if I don't have at least one a day migraine will come

2.I'm obsessed with greeting cards..seriously they are more important to me then the gift usually...not that i don't love getting gifts but cards are important. And I don't just love getting them I love giving them...I"ll spend hours in the card store to pick out one card because I have to read them all until i find the perfect message that my heart is trying to send

3.mascots-I have a fear of them. Now I work at a baseball stadium so I have had to get over some of that because our mascot will high five me and hug me several times a game and i'm cool with that now..(just don't wanna see who is in the suit)..but some still freak me out and i can't get near them...Like a certain beaver that if you have been to a baysox game you'll know what i'm talking about...for the rest of you maybe i'll post a pic of it sometime...seriously hes freakish

4. I'm always cold...if it's below 75 i'm probable freezing and bundled up and everyone else my husband included is probable still running around in shorts..

5. sometimes i like to just make noise...just random singing or yelling of nonsense...don't be scared i only do this in my house or in the car

6.I sleep with a stuffed animal...I really do along with my husband and my dog you will also find a large stuff winnie the pooh next to me in bed...yup it gets crowded at times haha..

7. Perhaps the weirdest and most Random thing about me ......My husband haha...he told me to post that. But he is pretty weird and random...to bad he doesnt have a blog we can tag he would have way more then 7.

So there ya have it. Perhaps now I have scared everyone and noone will ever visit my blog again. Wait does anyone really come here anyway??

New #'s for October.

What an exciting month it has been..for a few weeks now we have thought that we were around #14 but of course I was to afraid to post anything until I knew something official. So here it is we just got the email probable 15 minutes ago and i'm so excited I can hardly type. After two month and 3 weeks we have moved from 21 to 13...what an amazing ride. Congrats to all the families that have received referrals in the past month. Courts are officially reopened in Ethiopia as of Sept 29th so lets hope all those families(our agency alone has about 30) get thru court quickly and get their babies home.

In other news we registered at babies r us this past weekend. We had originally planned to wait until after we got a referral but we have decided that instead of gifts for our selves for christmas this year we would like gifts for our child. Besides we are flying up the list and we still have alot of do before baby comes.

A great sale and new goodies.

Ok so the hunt for the perfect affordable lamps for the babies room is finally over. We found these today and purchased the football and the soccer one. How perfect that the soccer one has red,yellow and green on it (colors of the ethiopian flag).

And a special gift for mommy. Who can resist a diamond elephant necklace at a great price.

Sept update New #'s

Ok so its time for another blog update and new #'s. Last month our update came in form of an email this month it was a phone call so this is how it went down. Normally this time of year I would already be done with work (I work at a minor league baseball stadium) however this year the boys have made the playoffs for the first time since 1997 so we had the first two games of the playoffs at our field this week. So last night I'm at work and I knew the call could be coming so I had my phone set to vibrate. I'm taking care of customers and sure enough the phone goes off so I take a peek and see AGCI across the screen. Well of course I'm not allowed to answer my phone when I'm at work so I just have to hope they leave a voicemail. A couple minutes later I look and sure enough there is a voicemail so I told my coworker as soon as the game started I had to run into the clock in room to listen to my voicemail. And then I start thinking what if she didnt leave our new # in the voicemail??? Well Christy didn't let me down she left the new # and we are

Of course I spent the next 15 minutes running around telling all my coworkers and half my customers and had a huge grin pasted on my face the rest of the night. It also helps that the guys had an awesome game last night and won so they gave us plenty to cheer for. We have also received our FDL(favorable determination letter) so we are now officially paper ready to receive a referral when our time comes.

New Babies and praying for an unknown woman in Ethiopia.

Ok so while we are in the holding pattern there isn't really alot to blog about. Or is there?? Yesterday I had the great joy of having lunch with my friend Heather and her 1 month old daughter Victoria. This was my first time meeting the lil one and she is an absolute doll which leaves me sad that we don't live closer togeather so that I would have more opportunity to see this little muffin grow up. And speaking of living far away my Sister in law gave birth to her second child yesterday I have a new nephew who of course I have only seen now in pictures..Camden you are adorable and I can't wait to meet you in person. Your uncle Sean and I are blessed to have you as our nephew along with your big brother Christian. Yes there are more children I don't get to see as often as I like. I also have a niece and nephew that live in New York.

I have been thinking alot of random thoughts today and then I stopped to think about that unknown woman in Ethiopia. What woman is that you ask?? Its the mother of my son. There is a very good chance she is pregnant right now. My child as we speak is probable growing far away from me in a land vastly different from the one in which he will be raised. I pray for her that she has enough to eat, a save place to live ,and comfort when she needs it most in making the decision to make an adoption plan for our child. I hope and pray that someday I will get to meet her and express to her how thankful we are for the decision she has made and the little life that she is entrusting to our care. I will forever be grateful to this unknown woman in Ethiopia and hopefully someday she will be known to me.

Still #21

We received our official update email yesterday and as expected we are still # 21 on this list. And we are fine with this. It is what we expected and its a good place to be for now I'm sure in a couple months I'll be very antsy to move up that list. For now here is a picture of the baby furniture (should be arriving saturday) we didn't get the hutch that is shown on the dresser/changing table.

And here Is the baby bedding that we have picked out. We are slowly starting to buy pieces of the set.

I plan to paint the nursery in September while Sean is away for a week for work. It will be painted the green that is in the bedding. I can't wait until I can post pictures of the completed nursery.

The journey so far

Ok for my first post I'm going to keep this short. In December of 2007 we signed contracts with our adoption agency All Gods Children International(portland oregon) and also with our homestudy agency Holy Cross Child Placement agency(Maryland). In January 2008 we started the long process of putting togeather our dossier and doing our homestudy. After 6 long stressful months we finally got our first offical # on our agencies wait list for a Baby boy on July 14th..We are # 21 and couldn't be happier. We expect an update within a few weeks to let us know if our # on the list has changed but we don't expect much movement in the next two months as the courts in Ethiopia are closed. However we are keeping busy buying baby furniture and picking out the fun things like car seats and bedding. We won't register until we have a referral but somethings will be buy in advance. We also had our fingerprints done on saturday for our FDL(favorable determination letter) which is needed for us to accept a referral so hopefully that will be coming within a month or so. We have also been told that our Dossier is back from authentication in washington DC and should be on its way to Ethiopia.