Happy Thanksgiving

I took this picture on January 1, 2007 in Big Sur. Nick and I were taking a road trip from Oakland to Carmel to Cambria to Santa Barbara and back. It was a really fun time - we celebrated Nick's 30th birthday, brought our huskies, and enjoyed 75 degree days in Santa Barbara.

On this Thanksgiving Day 2008 I am grateful that I have been able to have so many wonderful experiences like the one I just described. I am thankful I have a partner to share those experiences with and I am thankful that we have been blessed with the ability to travel and explore so much of the world.

I am grateful that we have so many people in both of our lives who have been supporting us and supporting our adoption process. I am thankful that we will be able to have a son next year and experience the joys of parenthood.

It's really easy to get bogged down with all of the crud that is going on in our country right now - weak housing market, stocks in the toilet, lots of job losses, etc...It is, however, sobering to think that in countries like Ethiopia the struggles that many families face are so basic - do we have enough food to feed everyone? can I get medical attention if I need it? where will we get money from to buy clothes? do I need to relinquish my child so he have a chance to live and grow-up to be an adult?

Today, over all other things, I am thankful for the woman who brought my son into the world. I am thankful that she loved him so much that she made the biggest sacrifice a mother can make in the world. I am grateful that she gave him a strong spirit which has allowed him to flourish in an orphanage while he waits for us to get him. I am grateful that we have a chance to raise this beautiful baby and nurture him so he can grow-up and realize his full potential.

I can't even intellectualize what Jost's birth mother went through and how she was able to make the painfully hard decisions she did. It's very, very strange to think that in the midst of all of the happiness Nick and I feel regarding our son, the events that have led up to our adoption of him have been very tragic. My greatest hope is that we can raise a man who will be able to give back to his community and will be able to inspire hope in others. Interestingly enough, Jost's nickname in Ethiopia is "Father of Hope" because the people working for BFAS in Addis feel like he is full of potential and his story is an example of the hope of a better life for him through adoption. Wow, that is mindblowing...

Have fun with the people you love today. We are looking forward to next Thanksgiving when we'll be a family of 3 (plus 4 fur-babies)!

Gratefully,
Sarah and Nick

We got a new picture/update of Jost

We got a new picture of Jost late last night from the director of our adoption agency. As soon as I saw the email pop up on my computer screen my heart skipped a beat. We opened it and read that he had to be transferred to a different orphanage for his paperwork processing and the people at the new orphanage took the picture when he first got there.

He is so incredibly beautiful and sweet looking in the picture. He is getting teeth on his bottom gums and he looks really healthy. BUT, he is also crying in the picture and has this sad face that I cannot even put into words. Nick and I just stared at him for awhile and felt totally and completely helpless because we can't comfort him, kiss him, change his dirty shirt or play with him. We are grateful to see how he is growing, he is getting to be such a big boy. I just wish that he could be a blissfully happy baby who didn't have to worry about transitioning to a new place.

We have been told that one of the Ethiopian-based directors has taken to Jost and spent a lot of time with him since he has been in their care. That gives me a little bit of solace because that means that at least Jost has had someone to give him extra hugs and kisses and make him feel special. We are hoping to get our court date next week, but that's just the DATE (it will probably be for February). The agency director is going to Ethiopia in a week and is going to petition for an earlier date. PLEASE PLEASE pray for this to happen. We are desparate to get our little dude home and February might as well be 2045.

So, this is kind of a depressing post 'cause we are kind of depressed that J is sad. However, we are thrilled he continues to look great and that the people who care for him are very excited about us being his parents and are working hard to make that happen as soon as possible.
I really wish I could post the picture because it's so cute and sad and wonderful. As soon as we are "official" I will post everything we've gotten so everyone can see his great growth progression.

Have a great weekend, Nick and I are both fighting colds and are doing a lot of Zicam and Kleenex. Our house is NOT a sexy place to be right now. PEACE! :)

The room is starting to take shape...

Jost's nursery is coming along nicely. It used to be my office and was a dark green color. Nick and I painted it a sky blue and our friends, Christina (artist) and Lena (graphic designer), have channeled their creative juices and made a beautiful mural that matches the crib set we bought for J. Since the artistic gene skipped over me and just grazed Nick, we need all the help we can get. We also added a twin bed in the room for nights where one of us needs to be close to J (and as a back-up when Nick is snoring). We are waiting on our dresser and for more help from Lena and Christina to accessorize the rest of the room and the walls.

In the meantime, enjoy this picture, we'll add more as we get more things done!

What have we been doing for the last 5 years?

Since I don't have anything new to report about Jost (still waiting for a court date, don't get me started on how frustrated I am), here's some personal history illustrated through pictures and the voice of Stevie Wonder.



Additional Info: Nick and I have been married since July 2003. For the last 5 years we've done a lot of stuff. Here are some images from our lives taken in Hawaii, Belize (working with kids), Oakland (our house and working with kids), North Dakota, Alaska, Iceland, Paris, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Colombia, Panama, South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mendocino and Carmel.

Where do I start?

I am starting this blog to keep all of our family and friends up-to-date with our journey into the crazy world of international adoption. Nick and I started to look into international adoption last January. In March we took a day-long class on international adoption at BAAS (Bay Area Adoption Services). After the class we got cracking on our adoption application for BAAS and started this whole process.

How does international adoption work? In short, TONS OF PAPERWORK, TONS OF INVASIVE QUESTIONS, TONS OF WORRYING AND STRESSING OUT. Seriously, we had to have a social worker complete a home study for us, had to sign an oath in blood that we are not crazy people, had to have all sorts of medical tests and had to basically disclose every part of our lives to our adoption agency (yes, I am obsessed with straightening pillows in our house, yes Nick is obsessed with cleaning the dog hair off of our couch - these are the things adoption agencies want to know). THEN, we had to apply to an agency that actually works in Ethiopia (BAAS is our "home" agency and will do all of our follow-ups once our little guy is home), so we applied to Children's Home Society and Family Services (CHSFS) out of St. Paul, Minnesota. Once we were accepted by them we had to do MORE paperwork, fingerprints and notarizing and certifying of documents.

NOTE: Adoptions are ALL about acronyms. I think this is because acronyms are fun to write and then you can use your adoption lingo to confuse non-adopters, but mostly it's so we don't have to write the long names of our agencies/government organizations all the time.

We were "officially waiting" with CHSFS as of June 25th. BUT, the referral times for CHSFS have almost doubled since we signed up with them in April. Nick and I were worried that we wouldn't get a referral for a baby until 2010 and that seemed pretty depressing, especially to me. So, after careful thought and research, we changed our referring agency. We are now with Better Future Adoption Services (BFAS) out of Minneapolis (what's with all the adoption agencies in Minnesota)?

When we changed agencies I casually asked one of the people at BFAS if they had any waiting children. Little did I know how that question would change our lives! BFAS did have a waiting baby boy and they sent us his picture. It was really, really weird to look at a picture and think about whether or not this would be our kid. To make a long story short, we accepted the referral for this waiting baby and we are now waiting to get a court date in Ethiopia to officially become his parents!!

Our little guys' name is Jost, hence the name of the blog. That is the name we are giving him (his Ethiopian name will become his middle name). It's derived from the Dutch name "Joost" and means fair and just. Nick and I aren't Dutch, nor are we obsessed with Dutch culture (no offense to all the Dutchies out there), but we met a really cool guy in Botswana last year who had that name and it's the only boy name we could both agree on.

So, since we offically accepted the referral for Jost we've been busy buying stuff for his nursery, reading books on attachment and adoption, and trying not to go crazy waiting for a court date. The court date is important because once we pass the Ethiopian courts, we can get a birth certificate for Jost with our names on it. THEN, we can travel to get him!! We are HOPING that this will happen sometime in January.

We can't post any pictures of Jost until the adoption is finalized, but I will post other interesting things about Ethiopia and, when we are done, pictures of his room (it is looking great thanks to the artistic majestry of Christina and Lena).

That's all for now, thanks for joining us on this journey!