Pitty Party!

So I think I am having a break down and so soon after a wonderful Christmas. Our second adoption has by no means been going easily. We were spoiled by Gage's adoption in that everything was smooth. None of our paperwork had to be redone and although our social worker had a few hiccups with a personal situations that delayed us (only about a week) it was easy. Now onto adoption number 2. If I ever get this darn dossier together and correct it will be a miracle. We have had issues with our new social workers timeliness and accuracy. Again we were spoiled with our first one she really bent over backwards for us. So let me vent about the mistakes that have happened:
1. The notary at my work who verified my employment letter has the wrong date on her stamp so I couldn't get it county certified...
2. Chris's radiologist doesn't understand that we need our letter from her to be notarized. We are working around that.
3. My home study is wrong and is being redone with the correct financials and correcting that Gage's name is not GABE!! A big pet peeve of mine.
4. Our psychological reports took longer than expected because they needed to talk with our social worker.

There are many more little intricacies that I will not discuss here, but I am fed up and trying to find a way to stay positive! I never understood why people thought this process was hard.... Hummm yeah I get it now!!! The mayhem can stop at any time:)

Please give me the patience to understand that these delays are happening for a reason. We will be united with our child at the right time.

Gage turned TWO

I promised pics of Gage's birthday party.... He turned two on December 10th and we had his party on the 15th. He is becoming a big boy. Just today when we were walking down the stairs I started counting 1, 2, he said 3, 4, 5, he said 6! What!!! We do this all the time, but he never really responded before. This time he got all the way to 11 (all the stairs we have.) It's amazing how much he really does know. I guess that means Daddy has to be more careful with what he says... Ha ha! Everyone who knows Chris knows what I am talking about so I need to say no more. Enjoy the pics.

AND MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I 171 H!!!!!

Another milestone in our Colombian adoption!!! The US has approved us for another child!!! Now we have to send our dossier to Colombia and wait for their approval. They are stating 6-8 weeks now, but I don't know if that is a confirmed time frame since this has just recently changed. We expect to have our paperwork down there by the 2nd week of January. So we should know if we are approved by March. Then the real waiting begins!

Okay so it's been a while....

I have been absolutely swamped lately and have not given much thought to updating here... So my promised pictures have not happened and it's been a month. I think I need to fix that:) Gage was baptized the Sunday after Thanksgiving so here are some of those as well... I should have some more soon after Gage's Birthday party in a couple weeks.

USCIS Fingerprints Completed... Atleast for another 18 months.

Not much time right now, but wanted to post quickly. Chris and I had another big step today with our Colombian adoption. We went to our local USCIS office to have our finger prints taken. These are the prints that ultimately determine if we are able to bring an orphan from Colombia back to the states. No concerns here!!! We've done it before so most of the anxiety surrounding adoption has subsided. We know it will work itself out.

Now we just have to get Chris's Radiologist to write a recommendation properly (she is wonderful and did write one, but it was all medical terminology and nothing about future prognosis.. Colombia was spelled wrong too, not a good first impression... he he!) and we will be good to go. We talked with her today and she should be getting the revised letter in the mail to us soon. We have about 6 weeks to get the rest of our paperwork in order and sent for translation. At that point we are looking at Christmas and I am sure it will sit for a few weeks due to the holiday. Then the 2 1/2 year wait for our referral. At least this time we have Gage to keep us entertained. We also have a friend who is adopting from China and hopefully mid way through we will be able to celebrate their daughter coming home!!! There will definitely be joyous occasions to help pass the time!

Sorry for the rambling. I will be posting Halloween pictures soon. I just need to load them into the computer!

Vacation!!!

So I have been trying to update this site since we came home from vacation last Saturday... Needless to say it hasn't happened until now. It looks like we got out of California just in time. We had a great time! I have lots of pictures this time.





So I am going to try to keep these in order of our experiences:) Gage likes the English Phone booth at the Queen Mary. He thought it was a lot of fun to hide in it.















The second picture is of the ball room on the Queen Mary. It's Halloween time... So I thought I would point out all of the orbs. If you believe in the paranormal you know what these are:) There are actually 7 in this picture.










For those of you who have not been on a cruise you have to go through a drill every time... Gage didn't mind the life jacket for the first minute!












Here we are at the San Diego Zoo. Yeah I know I probably wasn't supposed to sit on the Polar Bear, but I couldn't resist. Chris was surprised; he wanted to do it, but thought I would get mad at him. It just goes to show you that even after 12 years I still catch him off guard sometimes:)


















Catalina Island. No Gage did not get to drink the good stuff... We just wanted everyone to know what a liter of Beer looks like! Wow, yes we did drink every bit. And they were only $11. What a bargain!!!










Finally... My son the contortionist! I was taking a nap and Chris was watching Gage in disbelief as he climbed into the cabinet and turned himself around to this position. He didn't know how to get out:)

Learning new words

Well, over the weekend Gage and I decided we would give Daddy a break to study for his upcoming Civil test so we went to the lake with Nana and Papa. While we were there Nana taught Gage a new word... CANDY!!! I had intentionally not taught him this word, but I have to say that it did come in handy already. Yesterday Chris was giving Gage infant Triaminic (sp?) in the quick dissolve form and told him it was... wait for it... you guessed it CANDY!!! Gage was happy to take it. Before we had to wrestle him to the ground to get him to take the stuff and it doesn't even taste bad:) Thanks Nana!

I am also attaching some recent picks Grandma B took of Gage this week!

Remembering the last year

Today is all about Gage and remembering our milestones of the last year. He joined our family forever on Sept 19th, 2006 and became a US citizen on Sept 22nd, 2006 when we arrived in Houston. What has changed since then?

When we first came home Gage would not allow us to sit him on the floor (no belly time)! Now he owns it; rolling around with the dogs and playing with his cars.

He could only say Mommy and Daddy. Now he runs around acting like a monkey and making many animal noises. He is starting to become a little talker too! He has even said GO BUCKEYES! Yes, he is a true Dearth.

I used to be concerned when I didn’t hear Gage making noises in his crib. Now I pray that he will sleep in on the weekends and not wake up during the night. We hit an additional milestone last week. Gage slept in until 11:00!!! We kept checking in on him to make sure he was okayJ

No more bottles only sippy cups. And we are getting away from the no leak ones… They are too restrictive and Gage gets mad if he can’t get his juice!

My baby is turning into a little boy!

I used to be afraid to be a parent. Now I have no idea how to not be one! The world definitely changes. I can’t wait to leave work and get home to see my little man hanging out with Daddy. He has picked up on Chris’s sense of humor and daringness. Watch out! I can only imagine what he will be like when he is five. The past year of our lives has been the most special experience I have ever had. The amount of joy Gage brings to both Chris and me is immeasurable.

Here we go agian

Chris and I have started our second adoption. We have chosen Colombia this time. Why not Guatemala? This is the question we get asked most often. We absolutely fell in love with Guatemala. However, with the adoption system in Guatemala becoming more unstable we could not take the risk of having our hearts broken, and our child miles away. It will take us until the fall of 2010 to add our next child to our family. We are happy for this since it will give us plenty of time to spend with Gage.

What have we done so far? We signed with an agency; Children's Hope. We have had our home study updated. It will be sent to USCIS in the beginning of October and we will need to have a second FBI background check completed. After that we will wait for USCIS to approve us to bring a child into the states. We won't be done just yet:) Our paperwork will be sent to Colombia where they will review it and hopefully approve us... wait still not done. We will then be sent to a region in Colombia where we will be matched with a child. Three to four weeks after that we will travel to meet our new daughter or son. Travel time in Colombia will be about three to four weeks.

As I am sure you can imagine the wait will be difficult, but well worth it. Besides we will have Gage to spoil in the mean time. We have already been talking with him about a sibling. He will be in for a real shock when he has to start sharing his Mami and Papi with someone else. I am sure he will be a great big brother!