Countdown

We are now in a countdown for the last week before we leave -I find my mood has suddenly changed. I have gone from pure excitement to being down right scared. It doesn't help a lot that many of my patients at work bombard me with "Four kids. That's insane" until I actually begin to think it is. One of my favorite sayings ever is "One must do what one fears". I hope this is no exception - We are so incredibly thrilled to be bringing these girls into our family, I certainly don't want to let a little fear get in the way.
The truth is, however, that Ariel and I have no idea what it is really going to be like. I figure the best thing is to just jump in and be ready for whatever comes. I have been to Uganda before and lived in an orphanage in Mexico, so I think I have some understanding of what to expect. We will be staying at Ritmo house, which is run by the orphanage there for adoptive families. We will be in Rome for three days and Ethiopia for five. We have reservations at hotels, our planes tickets our booked, the girl's bedroom is almost ready.
One thing that has been the last couple days is looking at other blogs of parents who have been there - they pretty much universally declare it is the most amazing thing they have done in their lives, and that is very encouraging. If we could only somehow manage to eliminate our eight hour layover at Washington National coming back from Ethiopia, I might be down right optimistic.

We have a date!

We have an official embassy interview date of August 8th. This means we will be traveling to Ethiopia (via a weekend in Rome, hopefully) and picking up the girls by August 5th and returning home August 11th!! It also means that I will be missing my friend Nar's wedding, but I think she will forgive me.

Sooner, Rather than Later

I have been horribly impatient my entire life. I get things done as soon as I can, and am ansty when I have to wait for someone else. So it is no suprise that I dragged Ariel through the adoption paperwork at warp speed - that's my way. Everything only started with Ariel saying last December "Maybe we should think about adopting". At the start of the process, we were told probably 12-18 months, which meant no sooner than this winter.
Now, because of my quickness and deciding on the girls who are already avaiable, we have been notified that we can expect to travel to Ethiopia in July to pick them up. JULY! I am incredibly excited to have them come home with us, but I am in no way ready. Imagine if you were expecting a baby and then got told, oh BTW, your baby is really due three months after you concieved her. So now Ariel and I have some serious scrambling to do - bedrooms, clothes, oh - and money to fly us all to and from Ethiopia by JULY. Yikes.
I think that we are going to resort to sending out letters letting people know what it is we need help with. We have kind of resisted doing this...who doesn't get a little annoyed by a letter asking for stuff? What do you think about the whole letter fundraising thing?

It's a girl!

After many roller coaster moments, which I luckily didn't post about, we have accepted our refferal. We are going through with adopting Shakur, 6, and Hamada 4 1/2 from Ethiopia. They are actually Somalian refugees, but we will be adopting them from an orphanage in Ethiopia. It will be from between 3-5 months before we go and pick them up there. In the meantime, I think Ariel and I are both going through a bit of shock, wondering if we are completely insane. I just know we just can't imagine what it will be like to have four children and to welcome them into our family, but I know I can't wait to find out.

Good Grief.

I suppose I can only apologize a few times for being a negligent blogger - but I have really meant to post something sooner than this. The reason I have been waiting is to post pictures of the really fabulous birthday cake Ariel made for Isaac's 6th birthday. It has become a tradition that Ariel makes very cool cakes for the boys - this year he made a castle with a cave and a dragon. Some day I will download the photos, but I still need a bit of help.
During the last week and a half or so Isaac had a birthday, Ariel went snowboarding at Whistler with his brother, and we found out that the twins we were hoping for had been adopted by someone else in Europe. We are getting over being dissapointed and are now sending legal paperwork to Ethiopia. I think we are going to hold off on picking another child and just wait for them to tell us. It isn't uncommon for my jump right in there enthusiasm to come and bite me back.

homestudy

Our homestudy is completed. This is were a social worker came to our house and reviewed our history to write a report to the Ethiopian government proving we are worthy parents. I thought it was going to be painful and long. I thought I would have to answer questions about why my sister and I don't get a long too well. How sometimes we do spank our kids. But no, he didn't ask any scary questions at all.
So now we have one big hurdle out of the way...which leads me to a question I need some feedback about. We are hoping to adopt five year old twin girls, whose names are Megre and Megritu. Ariel and I would like to rename them..but are quite hesitant. What do you think? Is it completely innappropriate to rename five year olds with American names? We would definitely keep their original names as middle names. What do you think?