Little Goody 2-Shoes: Bunches of Bottle Caps

Here's the update on the first 24 hours at Samantha's blog. Thanks to everyone for the kind words and support. It's been so much fun! Click on the link below to read more.

Little Goody 2-Shoes: Bunches of Bottle Caps: "Wow!! Today has been busy, crazy, and fun! During my first day selling my necklaces through my blog, I have sold 40 necklaces!! That's $200..."

Little Goody 2-Shoes

I'm really excited to share one of my new favorite blogs. It's named "Little Goody 2-Shoes" and belongs to my 11 year old daughter, Samantha. I don't want to say too much about it, but she would be just thrilled if you would take a minute to stop by. There's a link to the far left under "Blogs We Follow" or you can visit at littlegoody2-shoes.blogspot.com (don't forget the dash). She has a "Grab My Button" gadget and would love for you to spread the word. She's just getting going so be sure to stop in occasionally.

We're in Love

We received our referral today!!

We were matched with an adorable

4 1/2 year old little boy. He has a sweet little face, sparkly little eyes, and a million dollar smile.

This day has been unreal.

We are in love.

Local Art

We recently visited the Foundry Art Center in historic downtown St. Charles, Missouri. The work of one of our favorite local artists was being displayed.



Sea Turtle
by Samantha Davidson (age 11)

(published with permission :)

DTE

Today is the day our dossier is being sent to Ethiopia. In the bloggy, chat-group, adoption world: we are DTE (Dossier to Ethiopia). This is a major accomplishment as it takes months to get to this point. For those of you wondering, the dictionary definition of a dossier (dos-ee-ey) is: a collection or file of documents on the same subject containing detailed information about a person or topic. In my words, it’s a big bunch of papers that takes forever to collect and will make you nuts if you let it.




I took a picture to share with you. Please try to be impressed as a big chunk of our past 6 months or so has been spent pulling it together. It includes: a state certified cover sheet, an application letter to the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, new and original birth and marriage certificates, physical exam reports, proof of medical and life insurance, a financial statement, employment verification letters, a copy of our home study, 3 letters of reference, police reports, the much anticipated I-171H form, a state certified power of attorney, an agency recommendation and post placement commitment, family photo pages, and copies of our passports. Each form was completed according to specific instructions and many were notarized.

Many people refer to this stage of adoption as the “paper pregnancy” because it is such a long process. However, I’ve been pregnant and although it is a ridiculous amount of work, I’ll take paperwork any day.

So now…we wait some more. Only now, rather than waiting for an appointment or a piece of paper to come in the mail, we are waiting for a child - our child. We are waiting for a phone call informing us that God has chosen one of his beautiful children to be a part of our family. I don’t know how long this waiting will last, but I do know that I will be taking my phone with me everywhere I go.

Surprising Ourselves

It still feels a little crazy when I tell people that we are adopting a little boy from Ethiopia, even though we started this process 8 months ago. I think it probably won’t seem real until we bring him home, as I am still a little surprised myself. The people we’ve shared this good news with have been wonderfully excited and supportive of us. We feel very blessed to have such great family and friends. Most people say something like, “Wow! I didn’t know you guys were thinking about adopting.” And my response is usually, “Neither did we!”

We were very content with our family of four – one girl, one boy. Samantha, our oldest, is 11 years old now. She will be going to middle school this fall. Toby, age 8, will be in 3rd grade. I felt so smart and in control with my 1:1 parent to child ratio. Throw in a family dog. We were complete.

Then…while catching up on Facebook one day last fall (yes, I do feel like a teenage girl saying this), I came across a link to a friend’s blog titled “Family from Afar”. Without much thought, I clicked on the link and was surprised to learn that friends from our hometown of Clear Lake, Iowa had adopted two little boys from Ethiopia. After reading a few entries, I was so intrigued with their story, I had to start at the beginning. I sat still and read their entire blog. This was more than a little bizarre for me, since I rarely sit still for that long and I had never read a personal blog in my life.

By the time I had read half way through – maybe less than that – I knew that one day we would be traveling across the ocean to bring home a little brother. It was suddenly and completely obvious to me. I was overwhelmed to realize that there was a little boy in another part of the world that would one day be a part of our family – a son, a brother. I had woken up that day entirely satisfied with our family of four and was now unexpectedly aware that we would someday soon be a “party of five”.

I couldn’t wait to tell Dave :)

(There’s a link to Karen and Jay Wistom’s blog at the left. Karen has a beautiful way with photography and words. Their family is doing great things. Check it out…and keep your heart open.)