We have three rooms down and they look amazing! 4 more to go. It’s going to suck.

One thing I learned today. My family is the best family in the world ( I already knew that but it was reiterated). I’m not kidding. They came at 8 am (a 2 hr drive) and just left. They were even at my house painting by themselves for a couple hours while I worked and Zach took the kids to an exhibity thing. AMAZING that’s what they are. Blessed, that’s what I am.

Gotta go, my bones hurt.

By the way, word is if we hear by this Friday that our stuff is ready in ET we can still go on the 20th. So now you have a new deadline with the whole Big Man Upstairs. Please let us get through everything before Friday!

So today my good friend, Cassie, emailed me and told me I’ve slacked off in blogging. It had been a few hours, after all, and we have a commonality in our despise of anyone who calls themselves a blogger and doesn’t update regularly. Anywho, I was busy. I was busy trying to stay busy so I could try to not notice that my phone wasn’t ringing. I was busy.

One of the things I did was go to Wal Mart. I mean, really. Love the low prices, hate the crazy antics. I can’t go there once without a parent abusing their child or demeaning their child. And see, they’re in a bad place because I’m at a point now where I might just offer to take that child off their hands if they don’t want to parent them anymore. So I need to stop going to Wal Mart. The first time I went tonight (yes, I went twice) my kids decided to be holy terrors so I had to cut lose with only 1/4 of what I wanted. I’m serious, I think Dailah is like some sort of personality chameleon. If we’re around any kids who feel like screaming and carrying on, she thinks it looks like fun and goes for it. So that’s just what she did today. So I was outtie in a matter of minutes after we got our paint.

The second time I went alone. Zach was with the kids and I was able to get some quality time with the quality folks at Wal Mart. But I got to find some of those hidden ingredients Paula Dean puts in her recipes that I usually can’t get with the kids with me (except Pimento beans, has anyone heard of these and if so where in the world would I find such a thing?) I picked a line with a lot of people in it and got caught up on my People magazine (did you know Kelly Rowland of Destiny’s Child fame got fake boobs?) and National Enquirer (Baby Shiloh isn’t Brad’s, it’s her brothers!) Good stuff.

So that’s what I was doing today. It certainly wasn’t, in case you didn’t catch this, hearing that we will travel for sure on the 20th. It wasn’t that. But there you have it, I was busy trying to stay busy. Are you happy now, Cassie?

Stay tuned for my ‘morrow where it will be 12+ hours of PAINTING!!!!! Thanks mom, dad, and brother bear for helping!

Got up this morning after waking up in the middle of the night for some reason. I had this weird feeling like we would hear something about Tariku. Lately when I wake up in the middle of the night (which is not normal by any means but more frequent the closer we bring him home) I think of him and pray for him and for us and for me that we see each other as soon as He knows we’re ready. I also pray for my sanity, but that’s besides the point. Anyway, I woke up this morning to find an update in my email that was sent right about the time I woke up (2am our time). Fascinating stuff. It basically says he’s been the same in all categories since coming into the care center except he seems to have learned more Amharic as they are able to identify that he can point to all his body parts. But the kicker of the whole thing is his picture. He really is a Klipsch child, as he gets cuter every time I see him.

There are no words for how happy this made me. No words. Isn’t he the cutest little booger you’ve seen? By the way, the kids have been waking up at the butt crack of dawn because they were just not meant to share rooms together. Anyway, when I opened up my email this morning Trysten was right next to me. I saw it said, “Tariku A update” and yelled, “Trysten we got an update!” He said, “We get to go get Tariku!” And before I could tell him not yet, he went to get his guitar and sang a song about it. Seriously, that kid is too much.

I remember my mom saying this a lot when I was younger. I can’t quite remember if she meant that in my life or in hers, teehee.

Anyway, it’s so weird lately. I go from high to low, to just in between. I email my coordinator and am fine, I email her 5 minutes later and am not so fine. This, my friends, is adoption. This, my friends, is motherhood.

I got on the forum tonight after PUMP and Mrs. Baker had written a thread asking the forum to start a dance for us that we get THE call tomorrow. (it’s a web-based thing, the forum does referral dances to bring on the referrals, etc). It just made me cry, it was so sweet. Sweet Peas has her blog followers praying for us too.

People are thinking about Tariku. People are praying for Tariku and that is just the biggest blessing I could ask for. My sadness, that too shall pass and what I’ll remember from this adoption is the blessings. The biggest, obviously Tariku. But the people, the support, the love, I will remember those and have a feeling my selective memory will block out this sadness.

So I did finally hear from our coordinator (only 1 maybe 2 phone calls, emails from me later). We are still waiting on that paperwork for the birth certificate. No telling how long that will take, is kind of what she said. BUT…

She did tell us they are reserving us a spot in the March 20th group and to go ahead and reserve tickets for that date. She didn’t go so far as to tell us to buy those tickets and/or that we are in fact going to travel that date regardless. You see, she always stops short of promises no matter how hard I try to back her in the corner!

So we sit…kind of in the same corner as we have been, kind of in a different corner ever so slightly closer to Tariku. I’m going to try to convince myself into believing that we’re traveling the 20th. I think all the positive thinking will have a tremendous effect. I know it will. Join me will you?

So WHEN we go the 20th, we will actually depart on the 19th. As of right now we’ll be traveling with Northwest Airlines. We would depart from Moline, IL (a 10 minute drive) at 11:00am where we fly to Minneapolis, MN, then to Amsterdam (no, I will not let Zach out to frequent the coffee shops). From the Netherlands it’s off to Sudan and finally, after 18 hours in the air we will arrive in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. On the way back we skip the Sudan issue and go straight from Addis to Amsterdam. We would arrive home at about 5:20 after our travels.

Anyway, that’s just 2 weeks away. The thought of meeting my son in 2 weeks is almost more than I can take. It’s just so sad to me because other couples get a call. They get a call that says, “Pack your bags, you’re traveling on the 20th”. And they celebrate. They open a bottle of champagne and they toast to the next two weeks. We can’t do that. We’ll be lucky if we get a call that sounds remotely like that and it totally bums me out.

I think Zach is getting scared that if we don’t travel the 20th I might actually go insane. Like, give the girl a padded room, insane. So he’s been fighting too, though his reasons for doing so might be more to save his wife from the great abyss than to see his son. (Though he’s uuber excited for that as well)

So don’t give up on us yet. We still need your help. In those 2 weeks we’ll need to pack. Paint approximately 2200 sq. ft of space and move into approximately 2200 sq. ft of space. My list continues to grow!

Today Trysten was telling me that he was older than a kid because he was taller than him. I said, “Remember, God made people all different shapes, colors, sizes, sexes; so it doesn’t really matter how tall, that doesn’t mean he’s younger than you.” Trysten says, “Yeah, like we’re peach, Tariku is brown and Dailah is yellow. We’re going to be a pretty family!” (I know, Dailah’s yellow?) Pretty cute. I love the way kids think of that kind of stuff.

It’s official. We got the keys handed over to us. The contractors are done and now we have just the painter to paint the trim and the carpenters. Pretty flippin exciting. And guess who already moved in our bathrooms? I DID, I DID!!! 🙂 I forget, have I mentioned how much I like having a shower/tub that drains yet? Stop me if I’ve told you all that before.

No word on the adoption front today. Since I’ve given up on the 13th, I’ve got my sights set on the 20th more than any other date thus far. My friends are going and, I’ve decided, we are too. I want to see that picture come to life. In all honesty, I’ve become somewhat calm about the whole thing. Perhaps I’ve officially handed it over to God? I hope He does a better job at it than I have (I have no doubts). Doesn’t mean you get to slack off on your prayers/Celine Dion hits. Keep ’em coming s’il vous plait (that’s “Please” in French. I shall culture-ize you yet!)

A woman on the forum posted these pictures of the area Tariku is from. Take a look, I think you can see how he turned out so beautiful..he was absolutely SURROUNDED by beauty! http://ethiopianadoptiontravelogue.wordpress.com/2007/07/20/shinshicho-and-hadero-photos/
Click on the “shin” tab when you see the picture.

A few of my close forum friends “Mrs. Blaker” and “Watching Them Grow” are going to travel March 20th. It would be so very cool to travel with them. Oh, how I long to sing, “I’m leaving on a Jet Plane”.

Until then, I’ll just stare at more pictures and imagine our Tariku growing up there!

This face is kind of ridiculous. And those eyelashes? Those are the Klipschness in her. I hate that my daughter’s eyelashes are longer than mine. But owell, kinda cute I suppose. See how much she loves baths? And just when you think she can’t get any cuter she throws you one of those looks with the furrowed brow.

So firstly, we have water. Not just water, but water that drains. We also have 2 more toilets in working order. 2 showers/tubs with drains. I could cry, no seriously, I could cry. Tonight we will be giving our kids a bath in our own home for the first time in months and I am as happy as I could be about that. (Note to any DHS worker who might be reading this: they have in fact gotten baths/showers but they’ve all been at my in-laws)

Secondly, and more importantly, your prayers worked! BUT (isn’t there always a “but” in adoption?) now we’re hearing that the little mistake with our birth certificate (yeah the one that was “done” a month ago) is still not fixed. So now we’re waiting on that. So HUGE praises that this first task was accomplished! As a past track athlete, I can’t help but see this sucker as some sort of 400m hurdle event. Every time we get past one hurdle and there looks to be nothing in our way of the finish line, another 100m comes along and there’s another! Not only is there another, but since we’re tired of the last hurdle, the next hurdle seems even bigger and even more difficult to get over. (Interestingly enough, I never competed in hurdles, and that was because I saw no point in putting hurdles in a race that was already hard).

So strap on your praying hats and get to praying that the Birth Certificate will come back. Complete, with no errors and a picture of that beautiful face we’ve come to love so much.

Trysten LOVES his new guitar we got him for his birthday (aren’t you so proud, Leslie?) His favorite song as of right now is Folsom Prison by Johnny Cash. Do you think they’ll take my kids away when they hear my son playing his guitar and singing, “Well I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die?”

Another Monday, another 5 days on the edge of our seats as to whether we’ll get that essential call. Have you guys been praying? If it doesn’t happen, I’m blaming you. 🙂 As punishment I might just have Trysten bring over his guitar and sing Folsom Prison until you just go crazy.