Anticipating

This week has been quite the exciting week! We became #1 on Wednesday of this week! Since then we have experienced great excitement! I can hardly keep the tears back when I think about seeing Dash's face for the first time. Even Peter is very anxious. He describes this feeling as "being on when playing Bingo." You know you are about to win, but you might not. Now the difference with our situation right now is that we know we WILL win, we just don't know when. Every day is filled with great excitement and anticipation. As the afternoon wears on, it gets so hard - knowing we will have to wait at least another day before seeing our baby.

We don't know where we stand on the one trip verse two trip policy. We know things are going to be VERY close. We plan on getting our referral paperwork sent back very quickly and hopefully we can get our case opened at court before the May 9th deadline. We trust God regardless, he will definitely have to carry us through that emotional journey and provide financially if we must travel twice. If we do in fact have to travel twice there is a very good chance we will be in Ethiopia in about a month! Now that is an exciting thought, but there is so much to do if that is the case!!!

To help distract us over the weekend we are going to get outside and get some yard work done. Neither one of us is a big fan of pulling weeds, but it must get done. We had a yard guy come over last month and he pulled weeds - we loved it but now that we are trying to save money for Baby Chip - we need to do it ourselves. Hopefully it will help make the weekend go by faster.

We also plan on watching a video series on attachment and bonding with a baby. It is from the lady who wrote The Connected Child - so that should be fabulous and maybe we will wash and clean our dirty cars. Anything to get us through this weekend :) Hoping we get our referral on Monday. It is my mom's birthday and I think that would be the BEST birthday present!!!

Scattered

Waiting is no fun. Seriously, it isn't. It just seems like everything in life right now is one big waiting game. I sit here holding my breath and anticipating so much.

Where to begin:

The biggest thing we're waiting for right now is the call. Oh how I LONG to see Dash's face. I had a dream the other night about "the call" and let me tell you - it was amazing! Right now we are waiting to see if we will have to make one trip or two trips. That is a bit stressful. We are literally probably down to the last 4 days possible of getting in before the cut off. Not a fun place to be - wondering if we will be having to come up with another trip worth of funds. Waiting to see if we will be traveling in less then a month or if we still have a few months. Waiting to have that final discussion of whether I will stay in country with our baby or not. So much to be waiting on.....

and it doesn't end there. With our decision to adopt again we are left with so much more to wait for. The biggest thing we're waiting for right now is money. I hate waiting on money. Money is sooooo stressful. I hate that instead of focusing on our kids, we're left focusing on the money it is going to take to even get them home :(

Ideally, we hope to start adoption #2 in July. Right now the process is moving so fast. Like baby Chip would be home by winter - quick! So that means we need a lot of money in a really short amount of time.

So we did what we did last time

We cleared out any extra money we had laying around, but there wasn't much.

We've gone through our budget and tried to cut out more, except we butchered that budget last year and we don't have all that much that we can remove.

We brainstormed for secret savings accounts - oh wait, we found and depleted those for adoption #1.

We considered selling the car. That just isn't a sound decision right now, no matter how hard we try. We wouldn't get a very good deal on a trade-in.

So we wait, with hands open. I hate begging for money :(

But these are my kids. But these are my kids. I already love them so much and we're going to do whatever it takes to get them home.

We're worn out. Adoption is emotionally exhausting and I am so ready to be done! We're so over this process and so over trying to fund raise and yet we're being called to adopt again. I am really looking forward to having to little one's who call me mommy and already love them dearly, but I am tired. Emotionally I just don't feel strong enough to do this again right now, but I must. My kids are out there, in this world right now. I can feel it. That is why there is such urgency with both adoptions. They could be malnourished, they could be scared, and their future is bleak as orphans. They need a mommy and daddy to love them and we already do!

#2

I am a whirlwind of emotions right now. I am so excited!!! We are now unofficially #2 on the wait list for a baby boy! So close to seeing our son's face and it just makes my heart run wild to think about that! This actually IS going to happen. I can hardly think about that without getting tears in my eyes. There is an end in sight. There will be a baby boy at the end of this journey and we will get to bring him home and be mommy and daddy to him :)

I can't really put it into words how I feel right now. This has been a dream for so long and the fact that it is about to happen almost seems unreal!

I found this story on someone else's blog and I just thought I needed to share it with the world:

On Adoption: Deciding to have a baby is like planning a trip to Australia. You've heard it's a wonderful place, you've read many guidebooks and feel certain you're ready to go. Everyone you know has traveled there by plane. They say it can be a turbulent flight with occasional rough landings, but you can look forward to being pampered on the trip. So you go to the airport and ask the ticket agent for a ticket to Australia. All around you, excited people are boarding planes for Australia. It seems there is no seat for you; you'll have to wait for the next flight. Impatient, but anticipating a wonderful trip, you wait--and wait--and wait. Flights to Australia continue to come and go. People say silly things like, "Relax. You'll get on a flight soon." Other people actually get on a plane and then cancel their trip, to which you cry, "It's not fair!" After a long time the ticket agent tells you, "I'm sorry, we're not going to be able to get you on a plane to Australia. Perhaps you should think about going by boat." "By BOAT!" you say. "Going by boat will take a very long time and it costs a great deal of money. I really had my heart set on going by plane." So you go home and think about not going to Australia at all. You wonder if Australia will be as beautiful if you approach it by sea rather than air. But you have long dreamed of this wonderful place, and finally you decide to travel by boat. It is a long trip, many months over many rough seas. No one pampers you. (Isn't that the truth!) You wonder if you will ever see Australia. Meanwhile, your friends have flown back and forth to Australia two or three more times, marveling about each trip. Then one glorious day, the boat docks in Australia. It is more exquisite than you ever imagined, and the beauty is magnified by your long days at sea. You have made many wonderful friends during your voyage, and you find yourself comparing stories with others who also traveled by sea rather then by air. People continue to fly to Australia as often as they like, but you are about to travel only once, perhaps twice. Some say things like, "Oh, be glad you didn't fly. My flight was horrible; traveling by sea is so easy." You will always wonder what it would have been like to fly to Australia. Still, you know God blessed you with a special appreciation of Australia, and the beauty of Australia is not in the way you get there, but in the place itself.
By Diane Armitage printed in the April 21, 1995 "Dear Abby" column

Freezer Meals - Take 2

What can YOU do with $100 of groceries?

One of the things I wanted to do before Baby Dash's arrival was get a freezer full of dinner's put away. Last summer I discovered the art of Freezer Meals. It is a lot of work in a day, but well worth the results. All the food still tasted great after months in the freezer and it saves so much money!!!

Last time I did this, it took 8 hours. This time it only took about 6, but I took out some of the more complex recipes and added some simpler ones.

So what types of things will the Keyser's be eating in the coming months?

We have some Lazy Lasagna's

Lots of Baked Ziti (Peter's personal favorite)

Mexi-Chicken: (serve with rice and chicken)

Chicken and Brocolli Bake: (served with rice)

Brocolli and Ham Bake:

Scalloped Potatoes and Ham:

Beans and Rice Bake:

And lots and lots of Beef and Bean Burritos:

Needless to say the freezer is packed! I really want to make up another at least partial batch of freezer meals before we leave. We are pretty confident that we will be in Ethiopia come June so I will hopefully get that freezer completely full in May!