Not much to report

 

Hello everyone,

 

Maya is still doing very well.  We think she is really adjusting well and bonding to us.  Maya loves to be held and loves to be played with.  Since I was a cheerleader in high school, I taught Maya some 8 counts which she loves.  Dave just shakes his head.  Maya has the best laugh and of course the most adorable smile.  We are so lucky.

 

Today Maya was a bit crabby.  Apparently we fed her too many bananas and her tummy wasn't feeling good.  She managed to work through it and is feeling much better.  I gave her a bath before bedtime which helped sooth her. 

 

Tomorrow Maya is going on her first out of town road trip.  We are driving to visit my mom and grandmother.  It should be interesting as this is her first trip and we plan to stay two nights.  On Friday, Dave's family is coming into town for the weekend.  Dave's family is having a celebration party for Maya on Sunday.  We are looking forward to them all meeting Maya.  It will be a fun and busy week/weekend.

 

Take care,

Theresa

 

Update on Maya!

Just a quick note today - hope everyone is doing well.

We received an update on Maya yesterday and she continues to grow consistently. She now weighs around 13 pounds and 22.44 inches long. Per U.S. standards she is very small but her wiight is at the 80% ranking in Ethiopia.

 

We leave in two weeks - can you believe it??

 

 

Update

Hello everyone,

 

Today we had our first meeting with Nejbya's pediatrician to find out if we need to get any precriptions for our trip.   She was a very nice woman with a good personality and is originally from Russia.  She had good things to say about Ethiopia and the people.  She also reviewed Nejbya's medical information and stated she seems very healthy.  We did not get any prescriptions but she did tell us to make an appointment for a check-up once we are home. 

 

Last week Dave and I took a two hour parenting class at the local hospital.  It was very strange being the only female without a belly.  We felt like we had to explain ourselves to the class.  The class did tell us that we knew more than we thought.  However, it was nice to learn about bathing, car seats, child safety, etc.  We also got some great brochures.  Tomorrow night we attend our CPR and First Aid class.  I have taken those classes in the past but Dave has not.  I thought it would be a good thing for us to know just in case.

 

Yesterday we spent some time at Target.  Luckily for us (well maybe me) most of the baby department was on clearance.  I went a little nuts on buying onesies and sleepers.  I figure we can never have enough right?  Well maybe I didn't need all of them but now there is no need to do laundry every single day :)  I am now working on organizing what I do have so I can get starting on my packing.  I am hopeful that we will still travel late August.  Since we like to spend our weekends at the lake, it doesn't give me too much time to wash everything and to pack. 

 

We will keep updating the site as we have information.  Again, our new court date is July 30th.  Please keep us in your prayers that Nejbya will make it through. 

 

Theresa

 

 

Another Postponement...

Well we recieved more bad news yesterday. Maya Nejbya was missing a piece of paperwork during her court visit this week and was once again rescheduled, this time not until July 30th.

 

This is significant for two reasons, one is that the court officially closes on Aug 6th and the other is that with the Millenium and increased capacity due to the agency pushing more children through before the court closer, we may be experience a much longer delay to travel.

We are optimistic that we will still travel in August if she gets through the court in August - but there is a chance that it could be Sept/Oct if things don't go our way.

Obviously we are very disappointed with the latest delay and I am sure we won't be thinking of much else until we hear the status on July 30th. Let's hope we have used up our delays and the process will go much smoother from this point on.

 

Cheers,

David and Theresa

Travel Date postponed

Maya Nejbya didn't make it through court on Monday and has been rescheduled for next week. This means there will not be enough time for us to travel by August 3rd, so we are now looking at August 10th.

Disappointing sure, but we can wait another week.

Hope things are well.

David

Tentative Travel Date!

We receved a tentative travel date to pick up Maya Nejbya. We are planning on leaving on August 1st, arriving August 3rd in Addis. Lots to do between now & then, including spending as much time as possible at the lake.

 

We'll let you know when the dates are confirmed.

 

David and Theresa

Sorry for going AWOL - we are still here...

Hello eveyrone, where did the month of June go? wow...

 

Not too much new to report on the adoption front. We hope to hear about our travel plans in the next 2-3 weeks - it is coming quick. We have decided to name our beautiful little girl Maya Nejbya Held. I cannot convey to all of you how excited we are to have her join our family!

 

House update - not too much to report. We have had some great showings, just not enough of them... :( We figure we have another 40 days to get an offer on our home before we scrap the idea and stay put. I must admit the house situation is much more stressful to me than waiting to travel to Ethiopia - maybe that will change when we get our travel date???

 

Well, off to the lake again in a few hours - another weekend of 90+ weather - it is such a joy to be by the water on days like that.

 

Talk to you all soon.

Best,

David

The Wait...

Ugh. there I said it.

 

We are getting really tired of the wait - it isn't so much the time, as it is the expectation that the call can truly come at any time. How are you supposed to concentrate on anything else...

 

I personally was hoping for this week but it has been another slow week of referrals - I guess there is still a chance, but it doesn't appear likely that this will be the week.

 

Four more weeks until the courts close - still confident that we will be beat that date - but it does add another layer of nerves in this waiting game.

 

Have a great weekend.

David

May 7 Update

Hello everyone,

 

We start another week of waiting... We are officially in our 'waiting period' so the call could conceibeably come at any moment. I talked to our social worker last week at CHSFS and she feels very confident that we will make it through before the courts close this summer, meaning we will get our referral prior to June 15th. We are cautiously optimisitc that it will come well before then... :)

 

Spring is upon us, meaning mowing lawns, getting the flower beds and gardens ready and thinking about getting the boat and camper ready to go - about a month until we are on the water again! Should be a busy month ahead of us leading into Summer.

 

Well, not much more to report today- we hope to have much more exciting news to come shortly....

 

Best,

David

April 17 Update

Not much new to report, just thought I would drop a quick line to everyone. Hope many of you are enjoying the Spring weather (finally!)

Referral Activities - Top 20 of the list!

Wow – a great week so far for referrals and we are hoping that today will be another day full of referrals.

 

We are now in the Top 20 on the ‘list’ (unofficial list kept by members of message board) and could possibly be Top 15 for an infant (non-siblings) – what does this all mean? Well, we are starting to feel very confident that we will get the call we have been waiting for by the end of May – but in all reality, it could happen at any point now. 

 

Jobs continue to go well for the both of us, I continue to travel at a rate of a week a month – my next trip is to San Francisco and Theresa will be joining me to spend a long weekend taking in the sites in the city by the bay.

 

Hope everyone has a safe Easter.

 

Love ya,

David

April 2nd Update

Not too much new to report. We are still waiting for the next big round of referrals. Not optimistic that we will be in this next round, but are hoping it sets us up for a May referral.

 

We met identified another family in Fargo who just returned from adopting their son from Ethiopia this January. We have communicated via email at this point and hope to get together soon. They have enrolled him into the daycare we are considering and that is how we were able to connect with them. We are very excited about the possibility of our child to have someone to connect with during their early years.

 

We'll be in touch again soon.

 

David

Ethiopia Day

This past weekend Theresa and I went to St. Paul where CHSFS hosted families for their first Ethiopia Day.

 

• The day started with remarks and experiences of an Ethiopian American professor from St. Cloud U who has adopted from Ethiopia (most recently as last week!)
  
• Then info about Ethiopians for Ethiopians, a program where Ethiopian in the Twin Cities are coming together to assist children adopted from Ethiopia to learn the language and culture and most importantly know they are accepted as an Ethiopian.
  
• For lunch we had the opportunity for the first time to try Ethiopian food catered by Queen of Sheba Restaurant. It was good outside of one dish having a few too many random bones in it...
  
• The afternoon included photos and insights into ET culture by a couple of staff members - the country and people are truly beautiful, but it is sad as well to see the plight of so many.
  
• The day ended with a panel of parents who have their kids home. It was a Q&A session where we were able to hear their experiences and learn a bit from them.

One of the best parts of the day though was meeting another couple from Green Bay, WI. It is nice to visit with someone who is in your shoes and realize that we are not alone, that others are going through the same emotions as we are. We look forward to keeping in contact with this couple as progress on this journey.

Have a great week.

David

March 10 Update

Not too much new to update other than that we are still waiting... :) We still think things are on track for a late April, May referral based on the trends the past two months. Lets hope there are no unexpected slow downs.

 

We are attending Ethiopia Day in Minneapolis next Sat, which is hosted by CHSFS. We are excited to learn more about the culture of Ethiopia as well as meet many of the folks that are forum members as we are. It will be great to continue to build out our network.

 

We hope things are well with all of you.

Cheers,

David

Update

Just thought I would drop everyone a quick note and let them how things are going. Referrals have slowed again the past week. It appears that there is a pattern of groupings that occur so we see referrals in bunches vs. spread out over a month. I analyze the list daily and we are moving up! I am still optimistic that late April early May will bring us the news that we so patiently are waiting for.  

We will be looking at a number of day care centers next week and getting our names on their waiting lists. Seems like there is a level of status attached to which care center your child attends, leading to long waiting lists at a number of the more popular ones – it is truly amazing how we have to compare ourselves to others at each stage of our lives. We are not sure of the environment we want our child to be in so we are truly going in with an open mind and feel confident that we will know which one is right when we see it.  

March is looking to be busy again as I will be spending a week in San Diego for work. Then as soon as I get back we will be heading to the cities as our agency is hosting an Ethiopian Day to learn more about the culture. We are very excited to meet many of the families we have gotten to know via the various message boards and continue to build our network of other adoptive families.  

Hope everything is well with you and your loved ones.
David

Referral Activity Again!

Wow - after a long month of very little activity (only 10 children were placed in January) things have started moving again. If you remember right before Christmas there was a couple days of huge referral activity - well over 20 of them. Well, those folks are now traveling to pick up their children and this means more openings in the care center!

 

The week started with a sibling match and then a twins match. Can you imagine getting a referral for a boy/girl set at only 3 months old - wow. I am guessing we will end up with around six referrals and over a dozen new travel dates this week. We are cautiously optimistic that we will still hear something by the end of April.

 

On another note, my co-worker who inspired us to look into Ethiopia through his adoption of two boys last summer has moved to Madison, WI. This is a true bummer as he was a huge resource for us as we went through our home study and dossier preparations. But the opportunity for his career was one he couldn't pass up and they have a great Ethiopian community in Madison - hopefully they can find someone to help Ryan (their oldest) keep his Amharic current so he doesn't lose that part of his culture.

 

However, this week I found another family in Fargo who adopted from Ethiopia who lives in Fargo. Actually they have adopted twice, once from S. Africa and their youngest from Ethiopia. I believe the ages are 5 & 3. They finalized their adoption two years ago - amazing how the process has changed and lengthened with the popularity of the program. From the time they started thier homestudy until they brought their son home from Ethiopia only took five months. She has already been so helpful with recommendations of day care - we look forward to meeting their family and learning from their experiences.

 

Well, better get going, just thought I would stop in and say.

 

Cheers,

David

February 7 Update

Hello everyone,

Sorry it has been awhile since we last posted.  Honestly, there hasn't been much going on.  We did get the baby's room completed for the most part.  There are just a few finishing touches left.  We are very pleased with how the room turned out and hope baby Held will be happy with his/her room.  

January was a very slow month for referrals.  It was partly due to the fact that Christmas in Ethiopia falls in January versus December and our agency moving into a larger care center.  We did get some hope this week as there as been three referrals that we are aware of.  Dave believes there will be a few more this week.  We hope this is a sign that things are moving along again.

We are now starting the process of finding a daycare.  We hope to call on some places soon as well as visit a few of them.  It is going to be difficult as we do not know the age nor the time of year that our child will begin going to daycare.  We hope that the facilities in town have dealt with this before and will be somewhat flexible.  If you have any advise on what we should look for or questions that we should ask, please send them our way.  We obviously want to find the best one for our child.

Take everyone and stay warm (it is extremely cold here in Fargo),
Theresa

Jan 22nd Update

Well, another week has gone by and to be honest, we have very little in terms of 'news' to provide. We expect it to be this way for the next couple of months as we wait for our referral. I must admit that I find myself relating to our future child in a much more 'real' sense than even only a couple of weeks ago – I now imagine as I go through my day what it would be like to share in that experience with our child, and it seems real, no longer a fantasy. Truly is a neat experience and I assume it will only get stronger as we near our referral. I can only imagine what the wait will be like after the referral when we have made a commitment not only to adopt, but make a commitment to a living person complete with a name and photo. That will be so intense.

 Hope everyone is doing well and I will be posting over the next week a response to some who have requested about donations to the agency as well as my introduction to a co-workers friend who now lives in Addis Ababa and has opened a school – a pretty cool story and I look forward to telling you about.

Till then, cheers.

David

Just a quick update

Hello everyone,

Once again we had a busy weekend preparing for the new addition.  We were able to get the entire room painted and the closet organizer in.  All that is left is to get the carpet installed and of course to move all the furniture in.  Now all we need is to have CHSFS call to give us the good news.  I read a story about a women who received her referral on our message board while she was at her daughter's school.  She wrote about how she immediately started crying and couldn't remember her husband's cell phone number so she had to call her mother to get I but yet couldn't tell her mother the good news until after she told her husband.  She went on to say how she had to call her mother back to tell her the good news as she couldn't speak clearly through all her tears.  I just know that when we receive our phone call, I will be a total mess.  I am an emotional person and I know I will shed many happy tears.  I have already warned my co-workers that if I start to cry, shake, and unable to speak clearly that it is from receiving our referral not because of a bug by my desk.

Please keep all your fingers crossed for us that we will receive our phone call sooner than later.  I know we were told to expect to wait four months, but I am hoping that we receive our referral much sooner.  

Theresa

Update

This past weekend we spent prepping the baby's room for painting and new carpet.  It is amazing how much a person can stuff into one little room.  Okay, it wasn't that much but it sure seemed like it.  I am sad to lose my space but it is so worth it.  We did get the room emptied, Dave moved the shelving from that closet into our guest bedroom closet, and he ripped out the carpet.  This coming weekend we plan to paint the inside of the closet and install the new closet organizer.  The following weekend we plan to have the room painted.  Our house is currently a disaster but it should all come together in the next few weeks. 

 

On Wednesday we go back to get our second Hepatitis B shot.  I wish it were the last as I am not a fan.  We also will be getting our fingerprints done for whatever reason.  It is a requirement so we will do it. 

 

Take care everyone,

Theresa