"33" for Dan!

Yesterday was Dan's 33rd Birthday. Here's a few pictures of Kole making him a cake. He was so proud! He was looking forward to making this for weeks!

MMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmm so good!

The final masterpiece!

Enjoy Dad! We love you!

Longer wait to be expected :(

This weekend we received the CHSFS Ethiopia Newsletter for March, the same as we do every month. I read it in great disappointment, sadness, anxiousness, frustration, you name it...I felt it...knowing our wait time may even be longer. This wait is getting so hard. When we started the process we were told that the wait time was about 6-9 months with the court date and then travel to follow within three months after that. We anticipated being home with our new baby by late summer at least. If we are lucky now we will just have our referral at that time.
"One factor that may influence referral times is the number of families that submit a complete dossier at the same time. In July through October 2008, for instance, an unusually high number of families submitted dossiers and were added to the official wait list. As a result, we anticipate that families that submitted their dossiers after July 1, 2008 will wait longer for a referral, possibly 14-16 months."
We submitted our dossier on July 31, 2008. There is the (more than likely) possibility that we will be waiting......

I am so grateful that we have our precious Kole. I am able to focus my energy on him and occupy my time keeping up with him. I enjoy my moments with him immensely. I cannot imagine how those that don't have other children are handling this wait. I am so thankful.
What a jumble of emotions. Lord grant us and all those going through this adoption process patience. I do not want to be a bitter and impatient person. We must remind ourselves that this is all a part of God's plan so we will continue to wait...

.........................................and be goofy in the meantime and enjoy it!

Everything happens for a reason....

One Sunday morning last summer I went for a walk with a friend down to the local coffee shop. We ordered our drinks and I looked at the gal making our coffee and hesitantly said "Sue?". I had met a Sue at a stroke support group a while back and she sure looked like that Sue. She said "Yes?" I knew right away after mentioning the support group and her confusion it was not the same Sue. I found out that her name is actually Susie and she has adopted two girls from China through Childrens Home like us, had the same social worker, Angie, and is our neighbor! On top of this she has met my brother-in-law (who lives in Alaska with his girlfriend) and knows some of the same people from there that she does. How crazy is that? AND she knew another family from Buffalo who at the time was in the process of adopting two boys from Ethiopia! All because of thinking she was a different "Sue". I have since been in contact with this other family, the Wistrom's. I met with with Karen Wistrom while they were still waiting for the the court process to be complete and saw pictures of their adorable little boys. I am happy to say that they are finally now home with them and adjusting very well. They had a long journey and I was able to follow it through Karen's blog. We all had the priviledge of meeting this beautiful family a few weeks ago. The Wistrom's have been a wealth of information and it has been amazing to hear their stories of travel and the experiences they have gone through in their journey. If you have time, go back to November in her blog and read about when they travelled. Her writing is beautiful and gives you a sense of actually being there. Seeing and meeting them made us feel like "this is actually a reality" and there is an end to this journey...it really does happen! We cannot wait for this "wait" to be over and for our child to be home with us.

And just a little side note....before we went to visit the Wistrom's we told Kole where we were going. We said that the boys were also from Ethiopia and we were going to hear about their experience while they were in Addis Ababa. He was so excited and his face just LIT UP. He loudly and proudly exclaimed "THAT IS WHERE MY NEW BABY SISTER OR BROTHER IS GOING TO BE FROM!!!"

Relief

So we don't have a "psycho" dog. And that is exactly what the so-called trainer made us feel like last week. Today we had a woman whom the Boston Terrier Club of MN recommended we contact come out. Her name is Denise Nord and she owns a company called Canine Connection. She just so happens to have parents that live in Buffalo and was going to be out today anyway so offered to stop by. She saw how we interacted with him and gave us some training tips. Believe it or not he was extremely well behaved with her and let her put his leash on him. He was obedient and followed her commands... as well as a puppy learning does anyway. He was eager to learn with the reward of a treat. I think with patience and persistence he will be just fine with our family. We are having another animal behaviorist come to our house that Dan's step-dad has spoken with. From looking at his website and reviewing the information that he gave us we agree that with his help Zuma's "unnacceptable behaviors" can be corrected. He has proven to us that he "trainable"...unlike what the trainer last week told us! She had me up for nights not able to sleep! There is hope! (And we DO NOT appreciate the quick to judge decision that was made by them either so Leader of the Pack training facility in Buffalo is on our business list of "never refer to friends"...so hope it will be on yours too. I hope their false assumptions have never been made to others and their advice taken without further investigation.)

Anyway...on another note. We were at the gas station today and as we were pumping gas we ran into an old co-worker of Dan's. While he was in paying, I was talking to her. I was telling her about how we were adopting and from the backseat Kole said "Yeah...we are adopting my baby sister!" A girl perhaps................... ??????????? he seems to think so.

Today we went to the Science Museum with Kole for the first time. He had a blast. Our little "engineer" was at work. He loved playing with all the gadgets and figuring out how things worked. You could just see in his expressions that he was really thinking about things and was amazed. He loved exploring. One of the neatest exhibits was the "Goosebumps" portion. It dealt with alot of peoples "fears". Fear of falling, fear of loud noises, fear of animals etc... There was a station where they strapped you in upright and then the board you were on fell backward...and fast. Kole didn't want to try that one...and neither did we. There was also different holes in which you were to put your hands into...there were various animals in each...but you couldn't see them. One had tarantulas, one had SNAKES, another had other creepy slimy things...I could not bring myself to do it even though I knew it wasn't real. Kole and Dan both did and thought it was pretty neat. Another station had a camera and mirror. You were to stare into and try to keep a straight face...it was silent, silent, silent....and then all of a sudden there was a BOOM and loud noise. Kole screamed and couldn't keep the straight face. Then he laughed and was on to the next thing. He was so intrigued by it all...he loved the "hands on" aspect of everything.

Today was a great distraction to what had been a difficult weekend. Thoughts have been consuming us. Yesterday we brought our new puppy Zuma to puppy training for the first time. We were at wits end and knew he really needed it. For the last month or so he has been rather aggressive when it came to putting on his leash. He would snarl and bite as he backed up into the corner. When I had him into the vet for routine vaccinations a couple weeks ago he wouldn't even let the vet look at his ears, get close, or do anything. She ended up having to throw a towel over his head just to give him his shots. The last week though I have really been working hard at getting him to trust me to put on the leash...he actually has let me now. He shakes a little bit...but he lets me and I thought we were making progress. Yesterday however, the "behavior specialist" there told us otherwise. In watching him for less than 30 minutes she came to the conclusion that he had something mentally wrong with him and something in his "wiring" must be incorrect. She said we should call the Boston Terrier Rescue of MN and see if they will take him and if not we should bring him to the vet and have him euthanized. I was and am completely heartbroken over this. At the beginning of class, he was off leash and ran around and played very well with the other puppies. On leash he did not obey me, did not walk on his leash very well, and did not "sit". BUT this was his first time. This did not matter to me. This was a new environment for him and he was so excited by everything that was going on around him. The "behavior specialist" then tried to walk with him and he threw a fit, nipping at her and going ballistic. I know that she is the professional and I really appreciate her opinion. However I do not see how after that short of a time a decision like that can be made. He has never bitten Kole like that. He has however played aggressively with him but we always thought that he was playing "defensively". Kole is a very high energy boy. I have caught Kole doing his "karate moves" on him, boxing etc....he has not intentionally hurt him however he doesn't quite get that Zuma is so small compared to him. Kole cannot be doing this, we know. But Zuma cannot react by biting. We do not know what we should do. I do have phone calls in to the MN Boston Terrier Club and another training organization. This place does in home evaluations and training. I feel that we cannot go on this one opinion alone, especially being it was based on such a short time with him. Kole has already had to deal with so much in his 4 1/2 years with us. On top of having to deal with my stroke and his uncle's accident, he also lost his previous dog "Guinness" in September of last year due to a brain tumor. He speaks of Guinness in heaven often and talks about how much he misses him. I just don't want for him to have to deal with another loss. Please pray for the right decision to be made. "Just a dog" to some, but for us he means so much more.