3 years to less than 30 days...

It was June of 2009 when I seriously started praying about adopting.  At that time, I had no idea from where I would adopt but from the beginning, my heart desired a daughter.  I prayed all summer whether or not it was God's will for me.  By the end of the summer of 2009, I had a definite sense of peace to move forward.  That fall I prayed for his guidance to lead me to a country.  I look back at everything I went through with Nepal that brought me to where I am today.  It's an incredible journey and I can't wait until she is old enough to understand all of the miracles that occurred in order to bring her home!

My BFF surprised me and came into town on Friday.  We went for dessert and I told her the good news I found out this week.  She made the comment that how crazy is it to think about how I've been on this journey for 3 years and in about 30 days, I'm going to meet Munni Grae for the very first time.  WOW!!!!!  It feels surreal!

Rewind to Tuesday night.  I was on my way to have dinner with my good friend Hollywood Mark when I received a call from L., the caseworker who deals with the families when they are about to travel.  As I sat in P.F. Chang's parking lot, we discussed MG, her adoption, and the next steps.  She asked me if I knew that my case was one of their miracle cases.  I told her that I thought so on my end but figured they dealt with this all of the time!  She said there were many things on their end that she saw as truly miraculous.  She has actually met MG several times so to be able to talk to L.  about her and her personality led to quite an emotional conversation.  By time I hung up, I was about 20 minutes late for my dinner date.  I walked into the restaurant and as soon as I saw Mark, I started to cry.  I reassured him they were tears of joy and went on to explain the 3 main points that were now bursting in my heart!

1)  She told me that she absolutely thought I would have my first court date before October 12th.  This is significant because being the neurotic person I am, I had already counted backwards to find out the last possible date I could have court so that ....
2) She will be home by Christmas!!!!!!  She told me that the passports for this region have been coming in super quick and that her passport should be issued during the 60 days that I have to stay out of India because of the visa requirements.  I asked her, "So I can arrive in India on day 61? Because I'm that person!"
3) the BEST news I found out is that from the time I arrive and go to the orphanage, I get to take her WITH me and she will spend the 3 days with me at the hotel and then we will go to court together!!!!!  I can't even begin to tell you HOW EXCITED I am about this!!  I am making this first trip by myself, so it will be just the two of us!  I am SO excited for this bonding time!

Right now I am waiting on a final document that summarizes all of my information.  I have to sign, notarize, and send it back to my agency.  Once they receive it, they will send it back to India and that paper is what gives me my court date.  L and I were praying that I would get it Friday morning, but unfortunately, that didn't happen.  She thought for sure I will receive it this week.  Will you please pray that it comes this week?


Last weekend, I went to the zoo and the reservoir to take some photos.  I love how they turned out!


If you haven't figured out already, I'm obsessed with elephants!!  Our zoo has the MOST beautiful elephant!!!

 Isn't she gorgeous?

 I love her eyeliner...my kind of gal!

She looks happy, like she's dancing :)

Then I went to the Cheetah run.  The cheetah Sarah, just set a new world record!  I actually got to pet her when she came to our school!  She didn't run the day I went to the zoo but I did try and get some good action shots.  It was difficult because they are FAST!  It was about 95 degrees and there were tons of people there because of half price admission.  

 This was the first pic.  Obviously he was too fast for me!  Luckily, they do two runs, so I had a chance to adjust my aperture and shutter speed.

Second time's a charm!  Much better but wow, this was challenging!

 I love how intent he was on the lure!  I left the wire in the picture so you can see how close you are to this exhibit!  The zoo did such an awesome job with this!!

Love the mid-air spin move!

 With his "prey"  Did you know that every cheetah has 2000 spots and like zebras, no two have the same pattern?  It's also how their cubs recognize them!

 Taking the prey into the bush

The zoo also has a new cat exhibit.  These are the white tigers:

 Those paws are HUGE!

Love the color of his eyes!

 Then I took Rollie and Simon to the Reservoir.  They love to be off leash and get into the water.  This is the path leading to the water.

I. Love. This. Face.  

I've also been obsessed lately with water shots.  I've been working on catching the water droplets in mid air.  I love the pics I got of the doggies in the water.

 It was around sunset so I really like the sillouette of this picture of Rollie

I love this picture of Simon.  The water is so pretty and you can see what a mess he makes when he drinks!

I'm looking forward to this week, praying that I will receive the document in the mail!!!

Have a great Labor Day celebration!

This and That

Today is the last day of summer because tomorrow is my teacher in-service day.  Last night I was thinking back over my summer and while nothing big happened in the terms of when people ask, "So what did you do this summer?"  THERE WERE SOME BIG THINGS THAT HAPPENED!!!!!

Every day I think about how blessed I am that I get to be Munni's mom!  It's very, very humbling.  I daydream about watching her first smile, what does her little accent sound like, what does she smell like, how does her laugh sound, what's the texture of her hair, what is her personality like..... and also the really important things such as, will she like all the hair accessories and dresses I've bought for her?  I also wonder if she will be a little freaked out about how obsessive I am about taking her picture.  *I may or may not have looked into the possibility of renting my dream lens to take with me* :)

I also think about how perfectly orchestrated her adoption has been.  Since before I saw her sweet face last June, God has been lining up the right situations, the right people, and the right timing.  The first 6 months after I saw her were the most frustrating because I was in a holding pattern.  It was as if God was telling me to hang on while he moved everything else into place.  I still look back and I'm in complete awe- it has been truly miraculous!! I love, love, love looking at my tattoo and being reminded that absolutely nothing is too hard for the Lord!

So here are some recent developments!

My caseworker H left my agency because her husband was transferred.  I was SO SAD.  I've felt connected to her ever since 1) she told me she could complete Munni's adoption and 2) she emailed me the photo of her daughter with Munni in the background.  I was really, really looking forward to completing the process with her.  But, God is faithful and it turns out that he used that to be a blessing to me.  She is going to Ind*a in the next couple of weeks for her court date!!!  Well, I found out that my family book hasn't been sent yet because the social worker was actually in the states and my agency was afraid that Munni wouldn't get the book, that it would just get put away.  SO, H is going to HAND DELIVER the book to her!!!  One of the things my mom and I kept saying is HOW MUCH we wished we could see her face when she sees it for the first time.  Well, guess what??  H is going to take a bunch of pictures!!!  I can't even tell you how excited I am about this!  And, she also might be able to get a video!  Not being with the agency anymore gives her more freedom with picture and video taking.    I am so excited for her that she is going soon because her process has been a long one.

I was also invoiced for my guide fee.  H told me this is good news because it means that my agency must know something about my court date even if it's not concrete.  I'm praying, praying, praying that I will get that email SOON!!!

Finally, after over a month of really weird miscommunication, I received an email late last night that my itemized statement from my agency was received and that the grant I won is now being processed!!!  This is FANTASTIC news because it can take up to 30 days to get it all done.  If I do get a court date at the end of September, I'm gonna need this grant to buy the plane tickets!!

It is an extremely gorgeous day here so I'm going to go enjoy my last day of summer!

I can't thank everyone enough for all of the prayers, love, and support that I've received throughout this journey.  PRICELESS!!!!

Is it really 2012?

I have to wonder. The other day I received a magazine that is considered THEE resource for all things baby in my hometown.  Usually, I love reading through it.  It is packed full of so much information and many creative ideas for parenting.  This year, I was excited when I saw the intro page mentioned adoption!

I happily read through the magazine, making mental notes about all the ideas that would make me the most amazing mom ever- just do all of the activities and recommendations!!

And then...

Are those not the most pathetic looking dolls you've ever seen?  And they were listed number 2 under GREAT IDEAS!  I wondered why they were so great, so I read at the bottom of the page:

I.WAS.STUNNED.

Orphan Doll

"Can be hand delivered in a basket and placed on a doorstep"

REALLY??????

The b@tch switch flipped on and let me tell you, there are no dimmer lights here!!!  I immediately went to their website and clicked on their "about us" tab.

More Discouraging.

Every single employee is highly educated and has an impressive resume.

I think finding that out was much more disheartening.  How can highly educated people be SO IGNORANT??

I hand wrote a letter to them explaining just how offensive this product promotion is to adoptive families.

As I wrote it, I kept thinking to myself, "Is it 2012?  Have these people been living under a rock?  I really, really don't get how someone could be THAT misinformed.

I'm still debating on whether I'm going to write the boutique who is selling them or if I should make a personal visit.  Sometimes, I think it's good to put a face with a cause but I'm also not sure how in control of my emotions I will be able to be.

So here's my tip of the day:  If you know someone who is adopting and you are wondering what kind of shower or baby gift you can get them, 

DON'T GET THEM AN ORPHAN DOLL!!!

If you are offended by this and are comfortable writing a letter to the boutique asking them to stop selling this product, you would be standing up for many children and many families.

The store is listed right after the product.

My hometown you wonder?

Cincinnati.

Have a great day :)

Boxer Love

When I'm feeling down, the first thing I do is play with my dogs.  They are ALWAYS happy and goofy!  It's hard not to laugh when they are so funny and so stinkin' cute!  We went into the backyard to play and I had a ton of fun photographing them.

 Simon doesn't miss a beat!

Um, Rollie needs to use his crest white strips!

 Ever since Barkley was neutered, they have become the best of friends

This last picture makes my heart so happy!  What a change from the first day I picked him up - scared, panting, drooling.

Yep, life is good for Barkley!

oh, and I'm not a bad dog mom.  Lola didn't want to come out and play.  Guarding food is MUCH more important to her!

Good News and Some Really Disappointing News

First the good news- I received an email this morning that my visa was issued and my passport is on its way back to me!!! Yeah!! I'm so happy that I will have one less thing to worry about when it's time for me to BUY THE TICKETS!!!!

Now for the really disappointing news. First I have to say that I LOVE my agency because they really do cross all of their t's and dot all of their i's - even when it's not what I want to hear. So apparently the staff who deals with Munni is on vacation so they haven't sent my book yet. They want to make sure that Munni actually gets the book and not that the orphanage puts it aside somewhere. I completely agree with what they are doing its just heartbreaking for me because I really wanted her to be able to see my face and to start processing her adoption (as much as she can). So then I started wondering if she even knows yet that she has a family? Ugh- this really strains my heart. Again, I know it's best what is being done and that she will find out eventually but my heart wants her to have found out awhile ago!!

I also don't expect to hear anything else about her case until the end of the month- if that. I'm praying that my attorney is acting as fast as she can and that my case will be in front of a judge by the end of September !!! Please pray that would happen!!

Visa update

I received an email that travisa received my application, they processed my payment, are in the middle of processing my application, and will send me an email when my passport is on its way back to me.  Every little bit of information at this point is SO encouraging because it's MOVING!!!

I also am getting together with my sister and a woman next week.  This lady goes to the city where Munni is 3-4 times a year and she's going there on the 20th of this month!  I can't wait to talk to her to get a handle on the city and airport and basically drain her of all the information she can give me!!  It will be so nice to have someone that I can ask a bazillion questions and also for hotel recommendations!   I keep thinking the end of September will be here before I know it!!!!!!

Visa on the way!

After a frustrating morning figuring out the Indian visa process, I finally got it completed and on its' way!!

I still keep pinching myself thinking that at the end of September early October I will finally be meeting sweet Munni for the first time!!

I'm about to go to the mall and get my shopping on for her!!! I've been holding back for so long!!!