Home Videos

The other night we broke out the old video camera and started watching videos of the kids. It amazed me how much I had forgotten. Especially about Hannah as a baby....she is now 14. Watching her as a baby and toddler seriously brought tears to my eyes. Dang she was cute. Big round bald head. I had forgotten how she used to growl like a lion...she kind of sounded more like she was possessed, but still so cute. She used to dance with her daddy and when she was about 15 months old her favorite thing to do was the cheer from Saturday Night Live. My name is Hannah......I've got team spirt.......so check me out.......cha cha....you know the rest...so incredibly funny. Why we taught her that I have no idea.
We seem to have a lot of videos of Luke "performing". Either in a play or singing at church. The kid is not shy. Maybe one day he will thank me as he accepts his Academy Award. He has always been wise beyond his years. Friends of mine even joked when he was a baby that you could put a pair of khaki pants and a polo shirt on him and he would be a mini Darren. My little man....
Owen is a performer of a different kind....can you say "show off" ?? The videos we found of him were very funny. He was a very busy toddler....I had forgotten that too.......always running around and throwing himself onto a chair-bouncing off and running the other way-over and over again. Or while we were taping Luke singing a beautiful song from church, you could hear Owen in the background making weird noises. Loud noises.
It's funny how you forget things, even the good things. I was really kind of sad after we watched the videos. How could I forget all of that? My babies were so adorable!! But I also remember at times thinking, Will this "phase" ever pass? Will they ever be out of diapers? Will the late night feedings ever stop? I can't believe I am going to say this but, I'm looking forward to doing it all again. Late night feedings and all.
I have been pretty stressed about all the adoption paperwork lately. Not really doing it, that's not a huge deal to me. I kind of thrive on organization and timelines. But I can't control this timeline and I am about ready to loose it. It's the unknown that is bothering me. Someone else has control of my future right now-and I really don't enjoy that too much. Control Freak....maybe. Anxious mother to be.....you bet. I am so ready to add to our family, it's just so hard to wait.
So for now, I will keep pulling out the old home videos and remember how fast time flies.........and hope it flies just as fast until we can go to Ethiopia and bring home our child. Please pray for patience for me as I wait.........

I pinky swear.....

Well, it's official...I received an email from CCI (Celebrate Children International) stating that we were accepted into the adoption program. It was a one sentence email..with 2 attachments. One was a 12 page contract, the other a 22 page contract. You have to read and initial each page. Then you have to take it and sign a bunch of pages with a Notary. I think you also have to sign in blood and pinky swear that all is true and accurate. Really, I think it was in the fine print..... :)

Kidding aside, it's a ton of paperwork. Now that we are "officially" clients of CCI, we are able to access the client webpage...which is so awesome, informative and helpful. I was really impressed. You can log in and keep track of the whole process. I am very much a list maker and marker off-er.....so that was right up my alley.

We had our second home visit and the kids were interviewed, that was a treat. Actually, none of them said anything inappropriate, believe it or not. We have our third and hopefully final home visit next week at which Darren and I will get our individual interviews done. After that, we wait for the home visit to be written up and approved by DCFS. I just pray it doesn't take too long. I just keep thinking that my child is over in Africa somewhere waiting for me. It's so hard for me to think about myself sitting in my huge soft bed, typing on my Mac, drinking my hot chocolate and I have a child in Ethiopia with no home, no family and no food. Makes you think about what really matters. And it makes me want to go upstairs, sneak in my kids rooms and kiss them on their foreheads as they sleep so peacefully in the warm beds. I need to make it a daily priority to tell my kids just how special and wonderful they are to me. I am going to do it, I pinky swear.