Court Date!

We have a court date on December 7 to finalize Meskerem's adoption! She's been in our home for almost a year and we've been fighting for her since Summer 2011. Now with all the i's dotted and t's crossed we've been issued a day for her to FINALLY and legally and forever and ever be ours. Yay!

                                             On the plane home.

                                                     At the bay

                                       At church wearing her Ethiopian dress.

Waiting for a court date

We received a notice yesterday that the county social worker gave us a favorable recommendation to go forward with finalizing Meskerem's adoption. Her report goes forward to our lawyer who will then schedule a court date with the San Diego court and Meskerem will legally carry our last name....finally!

What's been going on over here?

I know you're dying to know what we've been doing in the past few months since I've posted.

We had four birthdays in the family.

 

Our youngest two girls have been in our family for five years now, we brought them home August 2007.

We celebrated our 32nd year of marriage. The picture was taken two years ago on our 30th anniversary.

Nine kids started school away from home. That was a first! One is back home using Switched On Schoolhouse and he seems to love it. Two of our boys are a charter school and attend only two days a week. So it's on me to help them with their middle school work when they don't understand it. Some days we're at the table A.L.L. D.A.Y. and others they need no help at all.  For some reason I only got pics of the girls. Bad mom.

We're letting our hearts heal after not bringing home our Little Miss A from Ethiopia. It's surreal because she would be in our home now, and yet she isn't.

We've started counseling for our newest to make sure that there isn't something we're supposed to be doing. We're on track and came in with a RAD diagnosis. The last diagnosis was Adjustment Disorder with Disturbance of Conduct. (same thing?)

I watch my 14 month old grandson every day, and sometimes my two year old granddaughter is here as well.

I'm attending BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) once a week.

I had my annual endocrinology appt and am still cancer-free. I had thyroid cancer back in 2005 and had my thyroid and some lymph nodes removed.

I'm still couponing when I have time. (when would that be?)

We're all in AWANA and we the parents are Jr. High Leaders.

I'm planning/organizing the Fall Festival for church.

I'm throwing my daughter a baby shower for her baby girl. She's due in December with her second baby, first girl.

 

Giving a listening ear to other adoptive parents when they need to vent or giving advice when asked.

Shopping at the thrift store when I can get an hour or so to myself.

Wearing chip clips in my hair and having it announced on the radio with my full name none-the-less.....

I found this doll which reminded me of Adah. Of course, I had to buy it.

Took two of my boys to a Shakespeare play which was a first for all three of us.

Had entirely too many frozen chocolate yogurts with granola.

Enjoyed the beach and the sand.

Yelled too much at my kids. Tried to balance it out with an equal amount of hugs and kisses.

Two sons went to Mexico, and one went to Alaska.

I'm hoping this season will slow down a bit, but with eleven people in the house and many more coming and going, I don't think so.

From my house to yours,

Vikki

Getting over the hump

Yesterday Meskerem had her second interview with the county social worker. Before giving her final recommendation to go forward with finalizing the adoption she wanted to visit with her again and make sure she was doing well. We all held our breath as we never know what Little Miss M is going to say. She had told us in the last week she wanted to live under a bridge, or maybe even go back to Ohio, or maybe go to a different family. What she really wanted was for us to tell her we needed her in our family, to hear how loved and adored she is, and what an intregal part of the family she is. So I told her what she needed to hear on the way to the visit. She came out with a big smile and just a tad bit smug. Meskerem told the social worker she would be okay to stay with us. Whew. I really don't know where she would have gone or what would have happened if she had said anything else, but thankfully we don't have to find out.

The report when finished will go through the various channels before it is submitted to the court. Eventually we will be issued a court date where the adoption can finally be finalized and she won't be in a land of limbo any longer. I think all of us need this to come to completion so permanent healing can take place. A place where she feels secure enough to let herself heal. According to her counselor she doesn't trust us yet. That's okay, she's been through a lot in her young life. We just have to earn her trust and in time, she'll learn that she really does have a support system of many people who love her, even though they weren't able to parent her to adulthood. We missed her babyhood and have been given the baton for the rest of the race-for the next eleven or so years at least. May we be worthy of her trust and the trust that all of her parents have handed over to us. It's a big job. A big, big job. Together with the Lord we can do it.

When she joined our family and I heard this song I thought it was perfect. It's by Jason Mraz

"I Won't Give Up"


Hmmmm ... Hmmmm ... Hmmmm ... Hmmm ...

When I look into your eyes
It's like watching the night sky
Or a beautiful sunrise
There's so much they hold
And just like them old stars
I see that you've come so far
To be right where you are
How old is your soul?

I won't give up on us
Even if the skies get rough
I'm giving you all my love
I'm still looking up

And when you're needing your space
To do some navigating
I'll be here patiently waiting
To see what you find

'Cause even the stars they burn
Some even fall to the earth
We've got a lot to learn
God knows we're worth it
No, I won't give up

I don't wanna be someone who walks away so easily
I'm here to stay and make the difference that I can make
Our differences they do a lot to teach us how to use
The tools and gifts we got yeah, we got a lot at stake
And in the end, you're still my friend at least we did intend
For us to work we didn't break, we didn't burn
We had to learn how to bend without the world caving in
I had to learn what I've got, and what I'm not
And who I am

I won't give up on us
Even if the skies get rough
I'm giving you all my love
I'm still looking up
Still looking up.

I won't give up on us (no I'm not giving up)
God knows I'm tough enough (I am tough, I am loved)
We've got a lot to learn (we're alive, we are loved)
God knows we're worth it (and we're worth it)

I won't give up on us
Even if the skies get rough
I'm giving you all my love
I'm still looking up

Adoption update

Life with Miss Meskerem is going wonderfully and progress is made every day. She is doing great at school and here at home. She has a teacher who keeps me in the loop if anything is amiss for the day so I can address it and nip any bad behavior in the bud. Yesterday she was jingling her money for hot chocolate when asked to keep it quiet so today as her consequence she didn't receive any money so no hot chocolate during recess or lunch.

She fits into the family well and is making the adjustment as well as can be expected. It must be hard to come into a family with four girls already in place and try to fit right in the middle of the pack and work your way into the family dynamics and try to figure out where you fit in. She is amazing and does a great job and works very hard to fit in.

I believe that Meskerem is seven turning eight or eight turning nine. She is small for her age, but she is not six turning seven. We see the doctor in a few weeks and I'll see what she says. She is the same size as my five year old turning six, but my five year old is the same size as a four year old so I don't hold much weight in that. My intuition, her teeth, her smarts all added together tell me she's older.

We went to Arizona this past weekend to visit with Sarah and Meskerem met her oldest sister. They hit it off well and Meskerem loved snuggling with Sissy while she could. We all miss Sarah terribly but we're glad she is so happy. Sarah's baby Isaiah was the hit, of course, and the girls loved playing with him.

Concerning our current Ethiopian adoption still in process we had some news that her case and the investigation that is going on is going to a different level, hopefully from a local police to a federal level. On March 8 will be one year from when we accepted her referral. We are hoping that she receives clearance soon.

We're still working on updating our homestudy and sent the update fees in this week. Steve needs his physical and will get that in a few weeks. We also need to have a mobile notary meet us at the doctor's office to notarize the doctor's signature. We're almost done and I'm hoping that she'll be home this summer if not sooner.

As she is a year older she has moved from the baby house to the older house and it is reported that her verbal skills have gotten better. So we wait, do more paperwork, and send in more fees. :-) Hopefully she'll be ready for us when she finally meets us.

Life update

Lots has been going on here at home, so much so that I can't seem to get here and blog. I'll start with the last two weeks of October.

We had our California Walk-thru with Joel which I mentioned in a previous post. We homeschool and the ISP we belong to offers class days and one of the classes that Joel is taking this year is California history. With the fee of the class he is able to participate in a fun event called the California History Walk-thru. A fun facilitator comes and runs the program for the kids. She asks questions, they pull out a map of California and place different symbols coordinating where events happened in the state. She presented fun facts and the kids really have a great time and learn while they're having fun.

We had make-up pictures for school because a certain son of mine had his head shaved just days before our original school picture date. And we couldn't get into our hair stylist before her wedding and pictures for the other two boys. So what is usually a one-trip deal turned into two-one day for the girls and one for the boys.

The next day Joel had a sixth grade camp event. The sixth graders from our ISP that were going to camp all got together and played Bunco while us moms talked.

John has had his flag football games on Fridays and that has been fun to watch. His shirt was ripped on the first day and he wouldn't let me sew it. I guess it was a trophy?

Pumpkin patch fiasco.....we all five cars of us showed up to our favorite pumpkin patch only to find it was closed on Mondays. Ai yi yi. We headed to a funky little patch that we could at least get some pics in while the three cousins were together. The next day we went to the real one but missed baby Isaiah.

My washing machine decided to break. You can only imagine with a family of ten how the laundry stacks up. We were without for about two weeks and fared okay but we are very grateful to have working washing machine now!

Joe had an interview with the sheriff's explorer program. He's hoping to be accepted and go to the academy in February. They're doing background checks now and some of our friends have received reference requests. The deputy who talked to him told him to pay his bills when he becomes an adult, don't get into drugs, stay out of trouble and if he is going to drink when he is twenty-one then do it responsibly and don't drink and drive. AND best of all!!! He told him this was not his mother's responsibility but HIS!!! I love it!!!!!! It was good for him to hear from someone else that if he desires a career in law enforcement his actions now will have consequences or benefits later.

Joel went to 6th grade camp had a blast with his friends. He liked it a lot better than going to summer camp even though it's the same place. He had more freedom and more "off" time.

I was able to speak to some younger elementary students about Ethiopia for their social studies class. We bought some sega wat and injera and some other goodies for them to try. Some wouldn't try the food but others loved it. We shared many of our Ethiopian things that we have and read to them about an Ethiopian family.

Addis's soccer team won first place for her division so they go onto the Tournament of Champions.

Joe made varsity at El Cap for their soccer team.

Abi's team came in second place for their division. She was a pretty good goalie this year.

John's flag football season ended and he won Best Defensive Player of the Year so that was exciting.

Our adoptions keep hitting snags. We had a social worker come out on Monday to interview us and see the house. It's all red tape as to why Meskerem isn't here. I could rant and rave about this, but I won't. Just remember that a child is caught in the middle of all the tape, and the two families who want nothing but the best for her.

Our ET adoption is in waiting mode. We sent a care package with some friends who are leaving tomorrow. They'll take some pics for us which will be wonderful. I spent the afternoon last Saturday uploading all the pics we've received so I have them should my computer decide to crash someday soon.

I am into couponing now and have my binder and am now the proud subscriber of ten newspapers a week. I'm starting out slow but that's okay. Yesterday I was able to go to Fresh N' Easy and walk out with 2 turkeys, one was 23+ lbs and one was 21+ lbs, five bunches of celery and three loaves of Italian bread for $1.88. They offer points on items that you buy so last week when I bought three turkeys at .59 a pound I earned about $15. This week the turkeys are on sale for .39 a pound and I had $21 on my card. So that was a pretty good shopping trip in my estimation. I saved 44% on my other shopping trips with store rewards and coupons. I'll get better and the savings will be more. It is a learning curve but more money saved is more towards adoption expenses.

So life goes on at a furious pace and we're just trying to keep up. I did come down with Bell's Palsy three weeks ago and it's getting better. Hopefully another two weeks and I'll be back to normal. Right now I have the goofy grin going on.

Happy Thanksgiving and love to you and your families.

Adoption & Life Update

This week has found us doing a joint telephone conference call with an agency about a little one here in the USA. That took over an hour and many questions were asked and answered.

After the call we headed over to the notary's store where we had to have our  annual post-adoption reports notarized for the four girls. Every year we have to do an update on how they're doing, how much weight they've gained, pictures, and other updates. It takes me a while to get them all done, but at least now they're all due in the summer. They used to be due in April and July and doing them during the school year was challenging.

We received a generous donation from a family with eleven children. Some months back we didn't know if we could continue because of finances. These children saved from their allowance and hard earned money to help us with our adoption expenses. Can you believe it?! I'm updating the giving thermometer on the side to show the donation. Thank you children!!! You are such a blessing!

I've taken a break from selling books on ebay while I organize the rest of my life. The little girls are starting Kindergarten this year and I'm using My Father's World Kindergarten curriculum. They have their letter puzzles, dinosaur book, butterfly farm, and all their notebook pages ready to go. Today I spend HOURS putting contac paper on the items we will be using time and again.

After doing that I went through the paperwork of our current Ethiopian adoption and organized that. I told my husband I need a secretary! Next I have Class Day planning to do and school work for my older kids.

At Class Day I'm teaching Geography: Countries & Cultures and then a Christian Missionaries & Heroes Class. The missionaries & heroes will be from the countries we're studying.

At home we're using My Father's World for the kids adding in Language and Math. Usually I can't get this to work because I get bogged down teaching those who need the most help that I can't get to the point of everyone working together (think Duggars at the table). I don't have the older girls that Mrs. Duggar has to help! My girl got married, moved to another state, and had a baby.

All I can do is organize the best I can and know that it's not about the academics, but it's about being together, working on getting along and enjoying each day as it comes. BTW, Joe came home from Brazil or Brasil with reddish purpley hair. Ummmm.........obviously mom was not around..............