Sibling Fun!

Oscar loves playing with his big brother and sister. They are very good at entertaining him. Here are a couple of examples.

Post adoption fun

I couldn't resist adding a few random photos of Oscar, even though they have nothing to do with this blog post!

I really (naively) thought that once we had Oscar home all of the paperwork issues would be over, but that turned out not to be the case.

Larry and I spent many hours on the phone and at the courthouse this summer trying to figure out how to get Oscar readopted in Minnesota and get his name changed. One of the disadvantages to being in a small town is that this was a totally new thing for them and no one seemed to know what we needed to do. They would send us to another person, who would send us to another person, etc.

We finally figured everything out a week before we left and received our judgment paperwork 3 days before we left to come back to Japan!

We are now hashing out some issues with immigration and getting Oscar his certificate of citizenship. The USCIS branch office in Seoul, Korea has been such a huge help this week. I have received several emails from the field office director and I have to admit, it is refreshing to have someone willing to answer questions and not trying to pass the work on to someone else :)

They are reviewing Oscar's file again in Buffalo, so we are hoping to hear good news soon. We still haven't gotten his US passport because we were waiting for the name change to be legal so that we could get everything done in his new name. Needless to say, I have changed my mind and decided that I will be very happy when we have every form needed and are completely finished with the post adoption paperwork! (Of course, there are reports that we need to fill out annually until he turns 18 so I guess it will never really be done...)

Summer travel

Oscar and his cousin Lilia

Geocaching at Gooseberry Falls State Park with Uncle David

His first taste of a popsicle!

Oscar and Grandma Corrine

Oscar and Grandpa Jack

Swimming at the pool with Grandma Kathy!

We have been traveling around Minnesota and Wisconsin for the last couple of months and having a wonderful time. Oscar has done great with meeting all of his extended family, and he is doing great.

He is almost crawling, and wants to be moving all the time. He is starting to get up on his hands and knees to rock and is scooting pretty much everywhere he wants to go now. He loves standing up, but has not tried to pull himself up on furniture yet.

We head back to Japan next week and then we will start settling into our normal routine again, which I am looking forward to. It's great to be with our families, but my own bed is calling!

Our Church

This Mother's Day was extra special for me because our church had a baby shower for us. It was Oscar's first day at church and he did really well. We go to Tokyo Horizon Chapel in Machida, Japan. We have been going to this church for about 4 years and we really love all the friends that we have made there over the years. We love that we can fellowship with believers from all around the world, including some friends from Africa. These are some pictures from the special day.

Random photos from April and May

Our first day with Oscar

I tried to upload a video, but it didn't work. Here is a link to some of our first day with Oscar:

Oscar's First Day

The video shows clips from the first day that we saw Oscar. The first part is when met him at the orphanage and later we are at the guest house.

First 2 weeks

We have had an absolutely wonderful first couple of weeks at home. I fully expected the worst with runny poop, eating issues, etc. but Oscar is adjusting very well. I am really enjoying my time at home and we are settling into a nice routine.

The main issue that we are having is that he is fighting sleep. He doesn't do it everyday and I haven't figured out whether there is anything that triggers it yet. He usually fights it at night when we are trying to get him to go down, but he has done it a couple of times for his nap as well. I am encouraged that it is not everyday so I am hoping he can get over it quickly.

It is hard having neighbors live so close to me because I am sure that they hear him! When he is fighting sleep he screams and cries and it usually lasts for about an hour. I have so much experience in taking care of babies and I hate that I can't get him to stop crying. When he gets so worked up it doesn't matter what I do, he just keeps crying.

I can't complain about lack of sleep for myself because once he goes to sleep he does well the rest of the night. He usually wakes up once or twice to eat and sleeps until 7 or 8 in the morning. I never thought that I would be able to sleep in when I had a new baby!!!

We haven't downloaded our pictures from home yet, so I will post those at a later date. Here is a sweet one of him sleeping, I especially like the way he is giving us the thumbs up! :)

We're back!

We spent Saturday and Sunday at our guest house getting to know Oscar. We
headed over to AAI on Monday morning to fill out some paperwork and hang out.
We walked in the baby house to start taking pictures while waiting for Gail only
to discover the chicken pox! We did not want to expose Oscar to that, so we
snapped a few pictures and left.

We relaxed at the guest house on Tuesday and then Wednesday went to the Embassy
and visited M of C again. This was the day that we got our tour, the first day
we just got him and left. I was pleasantly surprised by my visit to Missionary of Charity. The
facilities were clean and decorated in a cheerful way. I only saw the baby
rooms, but I was happy with what I saw. Sister Joan of Arc is very gentle and
loving and everything you expect a nun to be :) They had us wait in a room
while she went to get him. It took quite awhile to bring him, but when they did
it was obvious they had "spiffied" him up for us. He was very clean and was
shining with lotion.

I thought Thursday would be the highlight of our trip and was what I was most
looking forward to, we went to Dire Dawa where Daniel is from. The day started
off terrible and right now I am not sure I would say the trip was worth it. I
think I might look back someday and feel differently, but it was horrible in
many ways.

To start off with, I was feeling sick. It was the only day on either of my
trips to Ethiopia that I was sick, but I was in pretty rough shape. Our flight
was supposed to leave at 7:00 am, so we got to the airport at 5:30 am only to
discover that it was delayed until 9:00. We sat there forever, lined up to
board at 9:00 and then they told us they had to make a "test flight" so it would
be another hour or 2! We were debating whether we should still go, but decided
that we would as long as the plane left before noon. We took off at 11:30 and
arrived in Dire Dawa at 12:30.

The social worker had told us she would be at the airport to pick us up, but
wasn't there. We had a moment of panic while finding Gail's number to call and
get the social worker's number but we did get ahold of her and she arrived a few
minutes later.

We drove straight to the orphanage and met Sister Jean. She took us back to the
baby room and all of the nannies swarmed Oscar. He started crying and freaking
out. This was the first time the whole we that he cried and he was really
wailing and inconsolable. Sister Jean had taken us back to another room and was
talking to us about his history, but all I could focus on was my screaming baby
in the other room. I finally went to get him and we began a "tug-of-war." I
would take Oscar and try to comfort him and the nannies would take him right
back. They were convinced that they could get him to stop crying and the last
thing he needed was me! It was terrible. We finally decided that we just
needed to leave. Sister Jean let us video tape our talk with her, so I know I
will be glad to go back and watch it later. Right now everything is just too
fresh to have positive feelings about it yet.

We went to lunch at a really nice hotel and then it was time to go back to the
airport for our trip back. We arrived at the airport at 3:30 to discover that
the 12:00 flight to Addis had still not taken off. Our flight was supposed to
leave at 5:20 and they told us to expect delays. The AAI social worker arrived
a few minutes later with a new baby that she was bringing back with her. He was
a baby boy about a month old named Dawot. I am so curious to see if any of my
friends get a referral for him!!! He was very tiny and very sweet. I got to
hold him quite a bit in the airport! The social worker convinced the airline
workers to give us the last 3 seats on the flight since we had babies and I am
so grateful that she did! The flight left at 5:30 and they were expecting our
original flight to be cancelled!

Friday morning we had to meet Gail at the Embassy to pick up Oscar's passport
and then we had to go to the Japanese Embassy to get him a visa. We had no
difficulties in getting the visa (once we found the Embassy) and we were back to
the guest house in time for lunch.

I had fully expected Oscar to have the runs while we were there, but he had the
opposite problem. He would grunt and turn red every time he tried to go and was
only pooping about once a day. After lunch on Friday he had the worst time and
was really in a lot of pain with trying to go. We were really worried about how
it would go flying home that night, but he seemed to work it all out before we
left!

He traveled really well. He slept a lot and was very charming to the flight
attendants. He was flirting away and really cute. That helped make the flight
better for us too, since they all wanted to accommodate our cute baby!

We had a great trip. I will write more about how things are going at home later
since my little prince just woke up!

Leaving tomorrow

We are leaving for Ethiopia tomorrow! I can't believe that the time has actually come! We will be arriving in Addis Ababa on Saturday morning at 11:25. They have arranged for us to go pick up Daniel at about 3:00 that afternoon. We will have just enough time to check in to the guest house and go!

Please pray for safe, smooth travels. I will breathe so much easier when we are home. The latest confusion is that we are heading straight back to Japan from Addis. We have a friend that adopted a few years ago and had no problems, but the Embassy says that we either need travel orders with Daniel's name on them or a Japanese visa.

We can't get Daniel added to our orders until he is physically in Japan with us, so we will have to get a visa. We will be cutting it close to get the visa in time to fly out next Friday night, so please keep us in your prayers.

Next time I post, I will finally have some photos of our new son!

Departure Report!

We received a departure report today on Daniel. The report is the first time we have ever gotten information about his personality and we can't wait to get there and meet him! He sounds absolutely perfect!

Here is some of what the report says:

Feeding Schedule:
Food the baby eats: formula cereal What the baby drinks: formula milk
Morning bottles: 6am
Morning snack: 10am
Lunch time: 12pm (noon)
Snack time: 3pm
Dinner time: 5:30pm
Evening bottle: 8pm

Schedule: 6:00 am wake up
10:30am nap
3:00pm nap
8:00pm goes to bed

Clothing Sizes: 3 to 6 months

Observations/Concerns/Comm

ents: When placed on back, does he/she wave arms and kick legs? Yes
Can he/she roll over? Almost ! He tries very hard to.
When placed on stomach, can he/she use forearms as props to lift head and/or chest? Yes Can he/she sit with support? Yes
Can he/she sit-up unaided? Not really
Does he/she keep balance while bending forward to grasp a toy? Yes
Can he/she crawl? Not really
Can he/she grasp furniture to pull self up to standing position? No
Can he/she stand with support of adult? No
Can he/she walk? No
Is he/she babbling or beginning to speak? Not yet !
Does he/she bring objects to his/her mouth? Yes
When feeding, does he/she use hands to grasp cup or bottle? Yes
Can he/she grasp toys? Yes
Does he/she have an interest in particular types of toys? Yes suspension toys, he seems hypnotized by them.
Can he/she shake a rattle? yes
Can he/she pass an object from hand to hand? yes
Does he/she respond to his/her name? yes
Does he/she turn towards noises? yes
Can he/she track an object with his/her eyes? yes
Does he/she play peek-a-boo? Not really.

Observations:
Daniel is a beautiful baby. He is very smiley and playful. He is also very quiet and curious. When he arrives in a new place, he likes to explore each part of it, with the most curious eyes ever. Daniel seems to really appreciate the suspension toys and keeps looking at them, which is very cute to see. He often smiles with these kind of toys. He is an adorable baby, calm, whatever the environment.

Boys' Room

We finished the boys' bedroom and it turned out so cute! Here are some of the pictures. We bought the prints at the bottom when we were in Ethiopia at Christmas. Jackson is very excited about the jungle room and loves that he can peek over from his top bunk into the crib!

Baby Shower

These are some photos from the baby shower that we had at school yesterday. Our first grade team put a lot of work into it and everything was beautiful. The cake even had a picture of Oscar on it! They had Ethiopian music playing in the background and showed photos of our trip to Ethiopia in December on the screen as people were coming in. We really do have a wonderful group of friends!

Travel Date

We received news today that we have an April 21st Embassy date! That means we will leave sometime around the 16 or 17th of April to go to Ethiopia. I can't believe that I will be able to hold my sweet boy in less than a month!

This week has really made it all feel so real. We bought bottles and a car seat. We have had a crib forever, and we finished the bedroom a couple of weeks ago, but buying necessities really makes it feel like it is happening.

I'll post more when we have plane tickets!

Happy Birthday!

Today was another exciting day! We received a copy of Oscar Daniel's birth certificate. We found out that he is a month younger than we originally thought.

His birthday is October 18, 2009!

We are very excited about this news and can't wait to hear when our travel dates are. They told us that there are three steps that need to be completed before we can go get him and they need to be completed in order.

The first piece is to get the adoption decree from the court. Once they have that, then they can apply for the birth certificate. They use the birth certificate to apply for his passport and then we should be able to go for his Embassy appointment. We are hoping that it won't be much longer now.

Meet Oscar Daniel Anton

It has been a long, crazy week. Oscar's court date was last Thursday and usually families hear right away what happened. All of the other families heard there news that day, but we didn't get any information! For a whole week!

We have been sweating it out, wondering what happened and finally received the news today. Our name was mistakenly left off the list last week. I can't believe that he has been ours for a week already and I didn't even know!

We hope to travel in the next 4-8 weeks to bring him home. We are able to post pictures now, so here are the two that we have so far. In the first one he is about 3 months old and the second one was taken about 3 weeks ago. He is gaining weight and looks healthy!

Court date!

We got the most exciting news today. We have a court date it is only a week away! Oscar Daniel's case will be heard next Thursday, February 25th. Please pray that everything goes well and that he passes on the first try.

Another step forward

We found out this week that Daniel's case has been submitted to court. We are very excited because we were not sure when they would submit his papers. We called this week to ask a few questions and found out the good news!

They said that court cases are being heard about 5 weeks after filing right now, so we are hoping for early March. Please pray for us that we get a date soon and that he passes the first time. I have had many questions about court, so here are some answers.

Do you have to go to court? No, we have a lawyer that represents us in court. We will travel for the Embassy appointment.

What happens after you pass court? Right now it seems that people are traveling 6-8 weeks after passing court.

Why do people not pass court? There are many reasons, but it usually has something to do with needing more paperwork on the child or wanting clarification about something that is stated in the paperwork. Cases that don't pass the first time are rescheduled for a later date.

Why does it take so long to go get him after you pass? They cannot do any of his official paperwork until he passes court and is ours. They have to make the adoption decree (and have it translated), birth certificate, and passport. It takes a little time to get all that done.

Scrapbooks

When Jackson and Olivia were babies I was really into scrapping, but over the years I have fallen out of the habit and I have never really finished either of their books. I think it is mostly the fact that we now live in Japan and I have no space to work and leave anything out to finish later. When we lived in Germany and I had a whole table in the basement I used to work on the books all the time!

I have been feeling lately like I need to get back into the habit because someday Oscar Daniel is going to want to see his baby book and I don't want to tell him I was too lazy to make one! I think I have found an answer that I am really excited about: DIGITAL SCRAPBOOKS!

I love being on the computer and all of our pictures are digital now so it just makes sense. I am really hoping to hear from some of you about which site you like the best. I really don't want to order software and there seem to be many web sites that offer them.

If you do online scrapping, please leave a comment for me on your preferred site! I am really anxious to get started. Thanks!

We got our referral!!!!

I am so happy to announce that we have accepted the referral for a beautiful 3 and a half month baby boy named Daniel. We received an email yesterday with his information and a picture and we fell in love immediately!

I was expecting a phone call so when I checked my email and saw an email from our agency director with the subject line Daniel I almost fell out of my chair. Larry was taking a shower and I ran in and told him that we got our referral and to hurry up so we could look at it together. It took every ounce of my willpower to not click on the email before he came out!

We can't post pictures until later in the process, but he is a little peanut! He has a wonderful little haircut that we can't stop giggling about (think mohawk). The best part about his referral picture is that he is smiling. A big, huge, happy smile!

We are all so excited and can't wait to meet him. He was in care while we were in Ethiopia, but he is currently at a different orphanage so we didn't meet him while we were there.

Ethiopian Trek

Two posts in one day! I finally have a day to try to catch up on things so you get a double dose. While we were in Ethiopia we took a trek. We are not overly adventurous people and this was by far the wildest thing we have ever done.

It was an amazing trip and I am so glad that we did it. We were really able to see how people live in Ethiopia and I feel like it was an "inside look." We walked for 5-6 hours a day and slept in Tukul huts at night. We were on the trek for 3 nights and 4 days. I have attached some photos so you can see what it was like.

We had one guide that was with us the whole time and then two or three local guides that would walk with us to the next meeting point and then pass us off to the next group. Our bags were tied to donkeys and we had a horse for the kids to ride on. The walking was very physically challenging because we were walking on top of large rocks most of the time.

We ate local food the whole time and we discovered that all of us really like Ethiopian food. Jackson even became a fan of Ethiopian coffee (with lots of sugar)! Here are some pictures from the trek.

We're Next!!!

I just found out this morning that we are next to get a referral for a baby boy! I am very excited. It doesn't look like it will end up being a baby that we met while we were in Ethiopia this Christmas. That is a little disappointing since I really thought it would be one of the babies we saw, but I know that when I see his face nothing else will matter! I can't wait to get that call and see what our baby looks like!

I am very curious about his name. We plan on keeping his Ethiopian name as a middle name and have several names that we like picked out, but I feel like I can't narrow it down anymore until I know what his Ethiopian name is. I think it is funny that we have been on the waiting list for 9 months, it is almost the same amount of time that you are pregnant. I need to post about our trip, I will try to do that soon.