Referral Acceptance

Last Friday we had an international adoption doctor review the limited medical info we have for Ava. He did not see anything alarming in her paperwork and so we have decided to accept the referral! Today I drove our paperwork over to America World and turned it in to Terra, our family coordinator. It was good to see her again.......it had been 11 months since I was last there, turning in our dossier.

The courts open on October 6th, so we will hope to hear something about a court date next month.

Bruce and I have to go and get re-fingerprinted (Homeland Security) next week because our original set expires in November.

We bought a few things for Ava and will be sending them over with a family who will be traveling in October to bring their child home. I bought her a little sleep outfit, a rattle and some photos. That family has also offered to take photos of Ava for us while they are there. I just can't wait to see more photos of her!

Seeing Ava's photo for the first time

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

What an Awesome Day!!!!

Today we received our referral for a beautiful 4 month old baby girl!!!!!!! Hard to believe we started this journey 17 months ago......but it was so worth the wait when we opened the email today and saw her adorable face! We cannot post her name or photos until we pass court which will hopefully be in late October or early November. We are just so filled with joy today and feel so blessed to be matched with this wonderful baby girl. We can't wait to hold her in our arms! The girls are excited to have a new sister and she will be so loved! Thanks to all our family and friends who have been so supportive during this seemingly endless wait. Can't wait for you to meet Ava in person!

10 Months (Almost)

On Monday, we will hit our 10 months of waiting. I really thought we would have received our referral by now. For some unknown reason, the referrals from our agency have slowed quite a bit. The courts in Ethiopia are closed from Aug 21-Oct 6, so we will have to wait until October to get a court date anyway. We just want to see Ava's little face!!!!!! I tried to take a picture of the waiting list that our group has made online. Not sure if you can actually read it, but our name is at the top of the list! I feel like Dory in "Finding Nemo"......instead of "just keep swimming", I keep saying to myself, "just keep waiting, just keep waiting!"
The estimated wait for a baby girl is 9-11 months and we are at 10 months, so it that referral has to be coming VERY SOON!

An Awesome Night!

Last week we bought tickets to see Serena Williams play team tennis for the Washington Kastles. We were all amazed as we watched her play. She is so powerful and her muscles are huge! After the match, we waited in line to get the players' autographs.......this was a moment the girls will remember forever!

We're moving up!

According the list we are keeping on our agency's Yahoo Group, the Jarvie family is #3 for a girl!!!!!!!!! The referrals have started up again and it's very possible that we could be getting our referral next month. This is so exciting for us........we can't wait to see a photo of Ava's little face!

The agency will call us to tell us we have a referral, so I will be carrying my cell phone with me everywhere I go. Then they will email the photos and medical info. We plan to videotape our family seeing the referral email. I'll post that on our blog as soon as that happens. Unfortunately, we can't post Ava's photos on our blog when we get the referral because she won't officially be our child until we pass court. We have one week to accept the referral. Once we accept, we wait for a court date. It can take a while to get a court date.

In the meantime, the kids are enjoying summer vacation!

The Shots & Graduation Celebration

On Thursday, Bruce and I had our required shots for our trip to Ethiopia. We each had to have 6 shots and neither one of us are fans of shots, so it was a little stressful. That night we weren't feeling so great and by the next day, we felt awful. Glad we won't have to ever go thru that again. That same day Madeline graduated from Elementary school. Hard to believe she'll be starting middle school in September. Summer has officially begun!!!!!