Overdue

You know how women hit that 9th month of pregnancy and not a single thing makes them happy?? Just ready for the end, friend. Well, we are officially at 9 months, and still no baby. My ankles aren't swelled and my butt hasn't expanded to the size of a city bus (like last time, ahem)..... but I am ready for this baby to get here!! So tired of being 'pregnant'!!!!!!!! So when we hit our DTE-versary date, I told the kids what day it was and Seth remarked, "I don't feel like celebrating anything". So we didn't. We waited a couple days til the pouting was over (for mommy, not kiddos) - and then had our signature ice cream night (or two......or three)

9 MONTHS Dossier to Ethiopia

STILL number 4. Yes, same as last month. A couple referrals have been given out but we still haven't moved any closer to number 1. And as much as I wanted to break up with the boys - Ben & Jerry's came a'courtin again.. This month (and I mean it - this had BETTER be the last time I have to post an ice cream flavor!!! Seriously!!! This is getting ridiculous!!!!!!!)

Americone Dream

Which is kind of ironic considering this is the longest dream I have ever had.. it just keeps on going, and going, and going. Anyway, vanilla ice cream with caramel swirls and chocolate covered waffle cone pieces. Need I say more?? I would be more excited if it weren't for the fact that Stephen Colbert seems to be mocking me from the label --- I'm breakin up with them I tell you. We are SO through. Til next month...... but I hope not.

Hopefully our last

Hopefully our last DTE-versary ice cream party! We are now 8 whole months into this paper pregnancy. 20 months from inception to now - the longest gestation period EVER. And at 8 months DTE, we are now #4 for a baby girl. AND, we finally made the Top 10 list at #10 overall! (ahead of us are the 3 wanting baby girls, 3 requesting siblings, and 3 requesting boys). So this month, sans Tony - we chowed down on

Chocolate Fudge Brownie

Not much compares to chocolate ice cream with brownie goodness mixed in. And may I say - while I have enjoyed this 8 month relationship with Ben & Jerry's - I would really, really, like to not have to pick another flavor next month. I am completely comfortable with breaking up with the guys and our monthly dates. Completely. Although...... what better way to celebrate a referral picture than with another ice cream party!! Hoping to post THAT entry very soon! **and is it just me or have my children aged dramatically in the last 8 months?? I put all the photos together on my new 'paper pregnancy' page and I think Addison grew from toddler to Kindergartner during that time! Must be the ice cream.....

In the Zone

Funny how when I told my mom we were having ice cream tonight she knew what day it must be -

7 Month DTE-versary!!!!!

And we are #6 in line for baby girl!! What is even more exciting is that our agency's estimation on time from DTE date to referral date is currently 7-11 months. So we are officially 'in the zone'!! Meaning that it could be anywhere from 1 week (but most likely not) to 4 months until we see her little face for the very first time. In the adoption world - rumors, speculations, etc abound and my new favorite is that a traveling family noted that there were 30 babies between the two baby rooms in our transition home. 30 babies under the ages of 12 months (we are requesting a baby 0-12 months). And of those, my friends are estimating that 20 are on our list now as in the process waiting for their mommies and daddies to come and bring them home. So 10 left, maybe. And guess what number we are overall in the line for 0-12 mos babies????? #10. Sweeet. Kinda like this:

Red Velvet Cake Ice Cream

This month, I chose a flavor for my honey. Since, truth be told, the following months have pretty much been to my flavor favs. And he loves Red Velvet cake..... but told me that he would have rather had ice cream with chocolate. Now ya tell me! This one was Red Velvet cake batter ice cream with pieces of red cake, and a cream cheese icing swirl. Ugh. The big boy hated it. The middle boy loved it. And the girl, she ate it all. The bigger boy said it was 'pretty good' and I, well, I just wasted a many a calorie on it and am glad that it wont be teasing me from the freezer tomorrow. Next month (if there has to be one), back to something with chocolate!!

Weight Watchers be gone!

Another month, another ice cream... Since it's o.k. for pregnant women to eat ice cream, and since usually pregnant women aren't doing Weight Watchers, it's o.k. for paper pregnant mommies to forget about that diet for one day too. It's only reasonable and fair. Sunday was our DTEversary celebration and we were officially.....

6 Months DTE!!

And we have moved from #9, to #7 for approximately one day, and back to #8!! (It's complicated, don't ask..) So on our agencies yahoo group, we are unofficially #8 in line for a baby girl! A long way from the #27 we started with 6 months ago! Our agency still estimates time from DTE to referral of a baby girl to be 7-11 months. 1 more month til crunch time! Hopefully. And to celebrate, the flavor of the month was:

Half Baked

Oh goodness, goodness. I know I said we had our favorite a few months back but this one ROCKED! Chocolate and vanilla swirled ice cream, bits of squishy fudge brownies, AND globs of choc. chip cookie dough. Heaven I tell ya!!! And if I hadn't just brushed my teeth, I would so be breaking into those few spoonfuls that only mommy knows still reside in the container. In the freezer. Waaaaaay in the back. Just sayin'.

5 Months DTE!

One more month down! And finally, thank the Lord finally, there has been more movement in regards to referrals with our agency. So now we are officially in the top 10 for a baby girl!! BUT, we have 20 above us waiting so that means that with every 3-4 referrals, we may only move 1 or 2 up our list, but hey, I'll take that! We celebrate each DTE-versary as our agencies official estimate is the receival of a referral at 7-11 months post DTE for an infant girl. So we're getting closer!!

At this pace, we are still hoping (fingers crossed) that we might be able to see her sweet face in March, travel for court maybe in late April, and go get her early June?? Maybe. We get so many ask - "so do you know who she is yet?" Nope. Not until we get that call that tells us all about our referral angel child.

So without further ado, the pic you have been waiting on.....

5 MONTHS SINCE DOSSIER TO ETHIOPIA (DTE)!!!!!

And I also know you have been waiting all month just to find out the flavor of the month. This month we celebrated with the fan favorite :

Cherry GarciaChosen for its accompanying option of "FroYo" for mommy and daddy who are Weight Watching. Except for that night. Cause geez, it was our DTE-versary!!!! And for inquiring minds, yes the frozen yogurt version was still pretty good. Although not much lower in points. So we might as well have just gone full octane.

And just for fun, some pics of the kiddos, fast forward about 15 years to their future careers:

Doctor of Veterinary Medicine

And Professional Baseball Player extraordinaire

And...... spunky Brewster. Or Miley Cyrus. Or Madonna. Heaven help us.

#11 for 2011

Finally, we are movin' on up again. Albeit verrrrry slowly. The last few weeks had a couple referrals and a couple is sure better than none. So now we have 10 people waiting ahead of us for baby girls. Overall, we have 25 people ahead of us total. The good news is that people have started passing court and going to embassy appointments to bring their children home. The bad news is that the agency that 'recommends' parents to the court feels like they are bogged down and have caused the court to not schedule any dates in February. So courts closed all of Aug/Sept which caused a back-up. And courts closed again in February to alleviate a back-up. Oh well.... I'm just excited knowing that with the calendar moving to 2011, that this WILL be the year we bring home our 4th child. Better be anyway!!! On to sweeter things, this month I took the mommy liberty of choosing our flavor of the month:

Cinnamon Buns

And I must say, I think this is our favorite. Yummm. Caramel ice cream with cinnamon bun dough & cinnamon streusel swirl. Yum X 5 with everyone liking it. Which is a very hard thing to accomplish! Addison exclaimed it was the best ever.

3 'Mounth' DTE

3 Month DTE, and no exclamation marks this month. It has been pretty uneventful with our agency pretty much at a stand-still for the last month. Unfortunately, one of the main feeder orphanages is going through a re-licensing process which has cause many families to be stuck in limbo until the certification is complete. Which causes us little people underneath them to also be stuck in limbo. As no new babies can be brought in while there are still babies who haven't been able to pass court and go home yet... However, one month more of waiting means one more month closer to seeing Olivia, so we still celebrated, albeit a few days late. The flavor of the month, chosen by Addison was:

New York Super Fudge Chunk

Yummmmmy. As you can clearly see.. This, my friends, has got to be THE messiest priss pot there is. Every meal ends up on her clothing, hands, arms, toes, you name it. But as I said in the last post - chocolate makes us happy!!!

Give me a Two!!!

Two Months DTE!!!!!!!

ha! I bet my mom just freaked out - two months mom, not two babies... However, in prayer time tonight at church, someone mentioned that God always gives more abundantly than what we ask for. I quickly reminded them that, no - we really only want one baby, thank-you-very-much.. So without further ado--- we are now ----- number-----seventeen!!! Courts finally reopened and we sat, and sat, and sat - with no movement. Then last Friday the floodgates opened and referrals started rolling out! So here we are! In addition, 11 of those 16 families ahead of us have now gotten their 'on deck' email which means they should keep their phones close as their call could come anytime from now to 3 months from now! Wow. So in honor of our 2 month DTE-versary -- the three little monkeys actually agreed on our flavor of the month --

Phish Food.Reviews: Braeden and Addi had chocolate ice cream all over their entire mouth/lip area. Picture a circle from your chin up to your nose. That's them. So I think they liked it. But... they are notoriously messy eaters with food in a circle from their chin up to their nose quite regularly - so you can't use that as a ruler. Seth - "it's nasty". He, obviously, is not my child. Chocolate + caramel can NEVER = nasty. Mommy = one very happy phisherman. Chocolate and caramel make the world go round. SO -- here's our latest question we are getting quite frequently - "so how old is she and when do you get her?" We don't know --- she may not even be born yet. My understanding is that there are many babies in the out-laying orphanages, left by surviving parents or family members who could not care for them. Our agency runs a 'transition home' which can only house and care for 100 children. As children/babies are taken home, new children/babies are brought in from the outlaying orphanages to the empty beds. How they choose those children is beyond me. I just cannot imagine. They are then tested medically and a file or dossier is designed for each child. Once our name is #1 for a baby girl, we would then get a referral call for the next baby who's dossier is ready that fits our requested criteria - under the age of 12 months and with only minor, correctable health problems. So she could be anywhere from several weeks old to 11 months old. We just don't know. As to when we would get her - right now our agency is still officially saying 7-11 months from DTE date to referral date. Although the last several referrals have been around 5-6 months from DTE. So we could be getting close to half-way there, or we could have 5-9 months more of ice cream trials ahead of us until we see her. Which is NOT a good thing...

One month (paper) pregnant!!!

So I'm a few days late, but since that also has been a trend 3 times in the past ..... why change a trend on month #1 of child #4??

We have been DTE ONE MONTH!!!

explanation: all paperwork has been in the waiting line for our little girl, or 'Dossier To Ethiopia' for one month. One month down and hopefully only 5-8 more to go before we see her sweet face on our computer screen!

At 1 month DTE (as of August 27th), we were #23 in line for a baby girl. We fell down a spot since someone announced their date as prior to ours that we didn't know about. There really hasn't been much movement this past month. BUT, the courts in Ethiopia have been closed for 2 months due to the inability for witnesses/families to travel due to the rainy season and flooded roads. BUT, courts have officially re-opened as of yesterday! So hoping the ball gets rolling on those new referrals soon and we start movin' on up that list of waiting parents!

To celebrate this momentous occasion, we did as all pregnant families do -- we stocked up on ice cream (hold the pickles). I had read this suggestion on another blog as a way to celebrate DTE Birthdays and might I say, it felt like a stroke of genius to me. Every month they shared a container of a different flavor of Ben & Jerry's. Who am I to turn down an opportunity to eat outrageously over-priced ice cream? And let me tell ya, 5 people in one family = one itty bitty cup of Ben & Jerry's when shared..

So the flavor of 1 month DTE, chosen by the chilluns, was officially

Milk and Cookies

Which was o.k., but I'm hoping future month selections will trump. A little caramel just makes everything a little more happy. Also hoping that the months of ice cream sharing are few, cause I really would like to still fit in my pre-paper-pregnancy jeans when this is all over and done..