Antsier by the second!

I am so antsy right now. I am just waiting for that phone call. Things on the forum have picked up and we are moving up the list. Truly we could get "the phone call" any day now. People that have been waiting not quite 7 months are now getting referrals. That is only one month from us....we will be getting a referral before we know it. I know that it probably won't happen until early to mid-January but part of me keeps hoping we will have news bafore Christmas. I am so excited that I can hardly stand it......this is driving me crazy. I am going to have to get out a lot in December just to keep my mind off of it and keep myself sane. I will want to sit by the phone and wait.

Anne called...

Anne, our social worker and the woman who will be the bearer of good news, called today. I was so excited to hear her voice that my heart just stopped.

Here is our conversation:

Me: Hello
Anne: Hi Jennifer it's Anne (my heart stopping). I am not calling with a referral.
Me: Oh, I didn't think so.

She called about something totally not related to our adoption. I am pretty sure she won't do that to me again.

Too cynical???

The day after Thanksgiving we always go and see a movie. There have always been lots of young cousins and now we are having children, needless to say the movie is never anything but G or PG depending on the crowd. This year we viewed Enchanted. For those of you that don't know it is a Disney production about a fairytale princess who is dropped out of her storybook and into "real life". I was not thrilled about the choice but all the children are girls and they really wanted to see it. I remember seeing the previews and thinking how corny it was and that I wasn't going to see it but I went along anyhow. I tagged along in part just to get out and also to spend some time with my mom. It was sappy, corny, and well a little cute---it will be a musical before you know it. However, I think it was time I had seen something with a little bit of fantasy in it. I think I had forgotten that life doesn't have to be so serious all the time. Everything doesn't have to be so hard with real-life lessons. It made me really think that maybe I take life too seriously. I am to cynical and just need to enjoy things some times. I never thought of myself this way before. I always thought I was laid back and just enjoyed life...it's not that I don't but I am definately too cynical. A little bit of fantasy is necessary. It's important to have hopes and dreams and wishes, without them we forget that dreams can come true. I am trying hard to remember that so that I pass along that idea to Eli....kids need to believe that good things can happen and that not everything is hard.

Our baby...

Just yesterday we thought....our baby could be at the care center right now. It is so odd to me to think that our baby has probably been born and some sad circumstances will occur to bring our baby to the care center. Wow, our baby is probably somewhere in Ethiopia right now. It's a bittersweet thought. : )

Let the excitement build!

CHSFS (our adoption agency) has been referring throughout the month of October but things were pretty slow. Last week our agency case worker told us referrals would happen again in the next week or two. Well, today I saw that 3 families shared their exciting referral news on the ET(Ethiopia) forum, which I participate in. Three families have been matched with their children. I am so excited for these families! I am also excited because that means I can finally start thinking again how this could happen soon. I had put it on the back burner during the summer because I knew there was no way we could get the "call". Now, although we still have some time we could get the "call" soon. Yikes, I hope there is a flurry of referrals. I hope things keep moving. I hope our child finds his/her way into our hearts and arms soon. I would love to put a face and name to the child I am holding in my heart. Oh, I am so excited!!!!!!!

My dream!

Last night I had a dream that our social worker called and after I successfully added Will to a three way call told us that we had a referral...a baby girl. First there was excitement and then there was sadness....sadness that Eli wouldn't have a little borther closer to him in age. I think it is really weird that both Will and I dreamt that our baby would be a girl. Now I am wondering if it's just because subconciously we may want a girl or just a premonition that we both received. Only time will tell but isn't it fun to wonder!

I can't even believe it!

Eli is getting so big. His language is flourishing and he is acquiring knowledge at lightning speed. He is 21 months old and he uses 2 word sentences on a regular basis. He will even use 3 word sentences at times. He can say so many words (corn, carrot, elephant, pig, barn, tractor, teddy bear, pickle, Uncle Ben, Uncle Josh, thank you, please, welcome, hi, hello, love you, and so many others that escape me right now). He even knows and can recognize most colors (blue, black, brown, green, yellow, orange, pink, and white). He is also a fiery little guy and gets angry when we aren't doing what he wants. He uses his "fists of rage" to let us know he is not happy. No he doesn't hit us, instead he clenches his fists tight, holds his arms in the air and yells very loudly. It is horrible to hear. Luckily, he is easy to get out of his angry mode. You just have to get him to open his little fists and it is all over.

The waiting...

Okay. So we have no real news to speak of. We are still just waiting and enjoying our time with Eli. We did find out that there were 20 referrals in October, which is more than we thought. So, hopefully we will be moving up the list and closer to our referral. The care center in Ethiopia allowed all the nannies to rotate vacation time during the rainy season and they tightened up some procedural things so that the process would go more smoothly this year. That said I think we will be really lucky to hear anything before Christmas.