While we wait...

We have accepted the fact that we have a long wait ahead of us, but we are doing some things to keep busy in the meantime. We bought a new Ethiopian Jazz album that we love and have been listening to a lot.

We also had our first Ethiopian food today. We stopped at an Ethiopian Restaurant in St. Paul called Fasika and tried a big combo platter. It was delicious and we got to sample a little bit of everything. Jackson and Olivia ate well and enjoyed the meal too. The only negative is that there were so many good things on the plate and we don't know what any of them are called to order next time!

We also discovered a new family hobby that is occupying our time. It is called geocaching and you use a gps device to locate "caches" that other people have hidden. In each cache there is a log book to sign and some trinkets. You are supposed to take something and leave a new trinket in it's place. We have looked for 4 caches so far, and found 2 of them. The other two eluded us, so now we have to go back and try again the next time we are in New Ulm!

A step in the right direction

We received some news that may help our wait time shorten a little. Another adoptive family was told yesterday that the agency plans on referring every baby in the nursery prior to July 15. Our agency plans on increasing fees for all families receiving a referral after July 15, spo they are trying to refer as many babies as they can before that happens. We will not get a referral before the increase, but hopefully that will bring us closer to our turn. I just can't wait to start hearing good news from some of the other families that we know!

Longer wait...

I called AAI Monday to get our 2 month update and received some disappointing news. She said we should plan on waiting another 3-5 months for a referral. I am really hoping that things will go faster than that, but I know they do their best to give estimates.

We are enjoying our summer vacation with family and hopefully we can keep our mind off waiting and just enjoy our time off. We are leaving Milwaukee tomorrow to go to Green Bay. We will spend the weekend there, and then I will head to Minneapolis. I am hoping that my new niece or nephew will be there to greet me! I am so excited to spend some time with newborns this summer since both my brother and sister are expecting.

Please pray for the situation in Ethiopia right now. Things are getting very dire there right now with food shortages, power outages, and plagues of locusts. Here are some links that you can check out for more information.

http://en.ethiopianreporter.com/content/view/1207/26/
http://en.afrik.com/article15813.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8103355.stm