Sweet "16"

WOW! Here we are at the end of summer and beginning of a new school year.  I can not believe our baby boy started 4th grade today! He is growing up so fast.

I am doing this blog entry using my Blogger App for the first time, so I hope it ends up looking ok. Guess we will find out when I hit "post".

I knew I was in much need of an update but just realized I have not updated since May!  I guess the end of the school year, Little League season and summer kept me busy ;-) Along with a week long stay in the hospital for Ryan due to an infection.  Thankfully he is much better now.  It probably did not help that after some big movement March and April referrals have slowed down over summer. Referrals were still happening there was just not many big numbers.  That is what comes along with the unpredictable process.  Now that I look at my last update, our number from this month looks pretty good in comparison.

Our monthly update number came in today at #17!  Within an hour of getting the update someone announced on our agency adoption FB group that they accepted a referral today. So that then puts us starting September as...

Not too shabby!  Lets hope this is a start to a great month.  We were also informed last month that there are 4 people in front of us on the wait list that are "on hold" for various reasons.  I am assuming that is still the case.  I guess that unofficially would put us at "12".  People can get placed on hold for various reasons. For example, if you get pregnant while on the wait list, that would place you on hold until the birth of your child and that child reaches a certain age.  You stay on the list and continue to move but those on the list after you will jump ahead when referrals come along. Hope that makes sense ;-)  So this was some pretty cool news.

Now lets get real, the closer we get the more anxious we are starting to feel. The 12th of September will mark 9 months that we have been "officially" on the wait list.  If you ever glance over to our "Timeline" to the right and do any math, you will notice it has been 1 year and 5 months since we sent in our official application and 2 years and 1 month since we attending our first informational meeting that starting this exciting journey for us!  We have hung tough, kept busy and stayed positive for all this time so far. Now as we sit at #16, butterflies and impatience are starting to set in a bit.  We are READY to see our baby girls face, paint and decorate her room, shower her with pink outfits, girly toys and most of all be considered as a "family of 4"!  The nightly dreams of "referral day" become more often and seem more real to all of us as we move up on the list.  CL will often describes how he will feel the day he comes home from school and finally gets to see a photo of his baby sister. He has the whole thing planned out in his head (he is so stinking sweet).  

With that all said, as I look back and realize 9 months has passed since we officially were added to the wait list, time really has flown by.  I feel our time will be coming soon :-)  Our agency has noted the past couple months that there are close to 25 referrals waiting on documentation.  Keep in mind that it takes time for referrals to be ready.  So much goes into it.  But it is nice to hear that so many children are close to joining their forever family. And one of those babies could be ours!  I truly feel that we will be blessed with a referral and know who our baby girl is by Christmas.  So please keep the prayers coming. Thank You all for following us on our journey and always taking the time to ask how the process is going.  

HUGS...

Moving Fast!

April was a GREAT month for Ethiopian waiting families at our agency!! There was "15" referrals!!  We are so happy for the many families that we consider our "new friends".  So now your wondering where that puts us on the list?? Drum Roll...

It is so exciting to see things moving quickly!  Those who may be confused that the math does not add up, that 15 referrals should place us lower than 24.  As I mentioned in my last post, the list is generated by families, so when 15 children were referred some families have been referred 2 children per their requests.  Hope that makes sense to you all.

I was so excited to get this update out, but I wanted to wait to get confirmation from our agency.  The list is not listed by family names.  It is listed by gender and age of requests, so when so many referrals happen I can get confused to where we are, LOL.  I am usually right on, but just always want to confirm that I am right.

Our agency also noted in our monthly email that there are 15 more referrals close to being ready!!  All I can say is WOW...How amazing!  As excited as we are to see this happening, we have to keep a level head in this process.  The adoption process is so unpredictable sometimes.  Although we all would love to see the referrals keep coming, it could slow down for a couple months at some point.  You just never know :-)

Ethiopia courts have a "Court Closure" that begins near mid-August for about 6-8 weeks.  This is due to the rainy season that causes power outages and in country travel to be difficult for birth moms court dates.  If we are blessed to get a referral as soon as June/July we could get caught in court closure.  So realistically we are still looking at closer to end of year.  But again...you never know. 

It is not a secret that us adopting families get some interesting comments and questions.  I would love to use this blog to educate people about adoption.  I have so many ideas for blog posts. Such as tips for family and friends when our baby comes home and to answer most common questions.  Please feel free to ask what ever you would like. I will always try my best to answer.  So many people are curious and/or think they know what they are talking about when they have never researched anything (that is always a favorite).  We just ask...before you judge or have an opinion, just ask ;-)

I would like to end today's post with expressing how grateful we are for so many people in our lives.  Our bowling fundraiser was fabulous and we have had many donations come in.  Words truly can not express what this means to us.  We really could not do this without you all!!  The cost of adoption is so overwhelming and donations and fundraising is a huge part of it!!  We hope people know that you are a huge part in our baby girls life already.  We Love You All!!

HUGS

Referrals, Referrals

So excited to see our number go down! 

We are so happy for so many families this past month.  There was 7 referrals!!  Your probably wondering... how could there have been 7 referrals and we only moved 4 spots?  Well, when families are requesting 2 children, that plays into the equation when moving on the wait list.  In our last update from our agency,  it was mentioned that they are expected to have some really good months coming up with referrals.  There is about 20 referrals in the works and several of them are expected to come in the next 4-6 weeks!!  So we should see a lot of movement on the list in the coming months.  That is so exciting for many :-) 

We have our bowling fundraiser coming up on April 13th.  We are very excited for this and pray that we have a good turnout.  We have also had a couple donations come in and feel so grateful for them!!  This event and the donations have meant so much to us it is hard to express how thankful we truly are.  I just can only hope that people truly know what it means to us.  That the words "Thank You" is coming right from our hearts! 

FEELING SO BLESSED!

Hugs,

Bowling Fundraiser

We are excited to have our Bowling Fundraiser soon

Bring the whole family and join us for a fun day of
Bowling for our Baby Girl!

Saturday, April 13, 2013
1:15pm-4pm
$15.00 kids 13 and under
$18.00 age 14 and up

Lodge Lanes
46255 I-94 S. Service Dr.
Belleville, MI 48111

2 Games Cosmic Bowling ~ Shoe Rental ~ Pizza ~ Pop ~ Raffles

Please RSVP to reserve your spot by April 10, 2013

kimdkrat@gmail.com
Please include your name and number of attendees and contact info

You can pay using the "donate" button on the right of this page or

I can message you with an address to send payment too.

We are very excited to be adding to our family through adoption!
We appreciate your support, love and prayers more than you know!

Please let me know if you have any items to donate for raffles

HOPE YOU SEE YOU THERE!!

More Q & A

Q~ Will we have the opportunity to meet the birth parents?

A~ IF it is possible, we will take the opportunity to meet the birth parents or any birth family members.  Our agency will guide us in some questions for us to ask.  We will always be open with her about her story.  There will be a time where she will ask questions and want to know as much as we can tell her.  When this time comes, it is important to us to have as much information as possible about our little girls birth family and where she is from to share with her.  We also hope to visit the area of Ethiopia where she is from.  Gather as many photos as we can during our journey there to make a special book for her to hold close to her heart.  It is important to understand that our child's background and personal history will be her story to share when she is old enough and chooses to do so.

I would like to end this post with a beautiful song I saw on another ET adoptive mom's blog...Enjoy!

HUGS! 

Two Steps Forward

March Wait list Update

 

We go into March moving out of the 40's and entering the 30's.  Although we have moved just 6 spots since officially going on the wait list in mid December, it seems like a milestone that we have moved out of the 40's. 
The Ethiopian team at our agency had recently visited Ethiopia.  They came back with some great information for all us waiting families.  I LOVE our agency!  It says so much that they took time out of their every day lives to visit a country that by far is not a luxury vacation for them.  To visit the orphanages and people that they work with in the whole Ethiopian adoption process for us all.  We really appreciate them!

Wait List Update!

February update puts us at #41!!  

I often get the question "Are you anxious about the wait? It must be hard."  My response (as of now) is... We are trying to not get over anxious about the wait right now because it is what we expected.  Naturally, we are very excited and can't wait for that super special day we receive our referral!  But, getting over anxious is not going to speed things up.  It just feels like forever away if we look at the how many months we have yet to wait.  I'm sure as time gets closer we will start to feel more impatient for that moment, but for now, we are keeping busy, patiently waiting and watching the number go down at every monthly update we get from our agency.  We will see how long this lasts ;-)

Q & A

I love that our agency sends out Q & A emails to answer common questions.  Not only for those of us going through the process and those who are thinking about the process, but common questions that we get from curious friends and family as well. I thought I would start sharing some of those.  Also, please feel free to ask any questions your curious about too. We are happy to answer the best we can. That's one reason for this blog...to educate and share about adoption and about the beautiful country our baby girl is coming from.

Today's Q & A...

Q~ Some people wonder what kind of care children get while in orphanages in Ethiopia or what the social experience of the children in Ethiopia is like?

A~ The children in the orphanages receive excellent care. Infants and small children are out of their cribs and with the caregivers as much as possible. Older children have a great deal of interaction with the caregivers and with each other.

This is one thing that personally stood out for Ryan and I as we did research and learned about Ethiopia, as we watched others personal videos and read others story. The love the care givers show towards the children really touched us. As well as the love the older children have for each other. We are looking forward to experiencing this first hand in our travels there <3

Melkam Genna!

Melkam Genna!  

January 7th is Ethiopian Christmas 

 CHRISTMAS IN ETHIOPIA

Ethiopia (and especially the Ethiopian Orthodox Church) still use the old Julian calendar, so they celebrate Christmas on January 7th, not December 25th! The Christmas celebration in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is called Ganna. Most people go to Church on Christmas day.
Many people fast (don't eat anything) on Christmas Eve (January 6th). At dawn on the morning of Ganna, people get dressed in white. Most people wear a traditional garment called a shamma. It's a thin white cotton piece of cloth with brightly colored stripes across the ends. It's worn like a toga. If you live in a big town or city you might wear 'western' clothes. The early Ganna mass starts at 4.00am!
The Ethiopian capital city is Addis Ababa. It's a modern city. Most people who live outside big cities live in round house made of mud-plastered walls which have thatched cone-shaped roofs. Sometimes houses in the country are rectangular and made of stone.
The design of Ethiopian Church is similar to the houses. In the country, they are often very old and have been carved out of rock. In cities, modern churches are built in three circles, each within the others.
The choir sings from the outer circle. Everyone who goes to church for the Ganna celebrations is given a candle. The people walk around the church three times in a solemn procession, holding the candles. They then go to the second circle to stand during the service. The men and boys are separated from the women and girls. The center circle is the most important and holy place in the church and is where the priest serves the Holy Communion or mass.
It's also a tradition that one of the Wise Men who visited Jesus came from Ethiopia.
Around the time of Ganna, the men and boys play a game that is also called ganna. It's played with a curved stick and a round wooden ball, a bit like hockey.
Traditional Christmas foods in Ethiopia include wat which is a thick and spicy stew that contains meat, vegetables and sometimes eggs (sounds yummy!). Wat is eaten on a 'plate of injera' - a flat bread. Pieces of the injera are used as an edible spoon to scoop up the wat.
Twelve days after Ganna, on 19th January, Ethiopians start the three day celebration of Timkat. It celebrated the baptism of Jesus. Children walk to church services in a procession. They wear the crowns and robes of the church youth groups that they belong to. Adults wear the shamma. The priests wear red and white robes and carry embroidered fringed umbrellas.
Musical instruments are played during the Timkat procession. The sistrum is a percussion instrument with tinkling metal disks a bit like a vertical tambourine. A makamiya, a long T-shaped prayer stick is used to keep the rhythm and is also used by the priests and a stick to lean on during the long Timkat church service!
Ethiopian men also play a sport called yeferas guks. It's played on horseback and the men throw ceremonial lances at each other (sounds rather dangerous!).
People don't give and receive present during Ganna and Timkat. Sometimes children might be given a small gift of some clothes from their family members. It's more a time for going to church, eating lots and playing games!

Happy New Year!

The New Year puts us up one spot to #44 on the list.  Not to bad for just getting on the list a few weeks ago.  At least it went down ;-) 

We had a fabulous Christmas and hope everyone did too!  We enjoyed surprising family with our Kratzer Adoption Shirts.  It was such a great feeling to see them all wearing them and supporting us.

It would be so amazing to have our baby girl home for Christmas of 2013.  With a 7-9 month "estimated" wait time for referral and 4-6 months "estimated" time after that for court dates and such, we are aware that it may not happen.  Many things have to go quickly and smoothly (which is rare in adoptions).  BUT, there is nothing wrong with praying that maybe it will turn out that way. 

Keep us in your prayers :-)