WEEK 3

We are starting week 3 of the wait for a referral. Someone asked me the other day what is a referral? I forgot that I was talking adoption lingo. For those of you who are not adopting, a referral is when they refer you a child that is in need of adoption. They send you a picture, medical records and family information if its available. I'm can't wait to get a referral and to see who God has picked to be "baby Boyd"!

I'm in Austin this week on business and I'm exhausted so I will keep this post short and sweet.

Congrats to Janna and Michael who got their referral today! Also, the Alexander's are in Ethiopia picking up their beautiful babe! Go to their site and watch their video.

Good night for now.

From Baby to a Young lady...

So I had a mini breakdown yesterday. If you know me, you know that I do not cry easily and not very often but I did today. Why you ask? Well it went down like this...

Yesterday I got up from bed very tired because I hardly slept at all the night before because I had an upset stomach. I am not a morning person anyway and especially today. I get ready for work and work from home for the first hour because today is the day that I have to take Savannah to pick up her schedule for the 7th grade and see her classroom and lockers. They start school on the 25th.

Savannah's friend, Sidney spent the night like usual and I had to wake both of them up to get ready. A while later I yelled for them to get in the car so we can go to the school. They came down wearing short shortsr and bandanna's in their hair like matching twins. I had flash backs to the eighties. Savannah looked like Bret Michael's! "Ugh, Are you wearing that?" I said. I also had flashbacks of me in 7th grade wearing hideous make up and clothes and my mom being horrified. I didn't care and neither did Savannah.



Anyway we load into the car, bandanna's and all. We make it about 2 blocks and find that the road has been shut down to one lane and the back up is tremendous to get to the school. Are you kidding me, they had the whole summer and they choose school day to work on this road. I really needed to get back to work and now this.

We finally got to the school and no parking. We waited to find a spot and one finally opened up in the back. Of course, I'm wearing my work heals but I decide to be a trooper even though I was already agitated from the road being closed. I swear I must be the most impatient person.



So we walk in the school and I'm completely overwhelmed with the size of the school and how many people are there. If I was overwhelmed, Savannah had to be. So we try to find the line for both Savannah and Sidney's classes.

We roamed the halls trying to find their lockers and classrooms so that they know what to do on the first day. I have blisters on my feet by now from my work heels and walking stairs and halls. Of course Savannah and Squid are walking ahead of me as to look like I'm not with them. I guess that's what they do at this age. I continue to walk the halls in pain and as I look around I see such grown up looking kids. Girls and boys talking and cheerleaders giggling. It felt so surreal, like an out of body experience. This can't be my life! My daughter can't be in Junior High!



Savannah could tell that I was not in the best of moods because I was very quiet.
After waiting another 30 minutes to get home even though we are only 3 blocks from the school (dang roads) I took the girls back home so I could go back to work.

I got to work only to have a complete breakdown. I stayed in the parking lot in my car and began to cry. I was so sad and upset. I called my mom and she sympathized with down. Love her! I don't know why I was crying but I was upset.

I go inside totally cool of course as if I was fine. I had a huge mess at work and a big deal of stress. I wanted to run out of the building. I felt bad for not being more excited with Savannah that morning so I called her and told her that i would take her and Sidney to lunch.

I left the office and bam, road construction again! So a near hour later, we were eating at a local pizza place. The pizza tasted really bad for some reason. I was ruining my diet for this? Anyway, just at that time the bus boy was clearing a table and dropped a bowl on the floor that bounced on the floor and the ranch dressing flew up and landed all over me!!! Ok, I give up! This day sucks!!!

I went back to work, grabbed my computer and headed home where I took some aspirin, had a cold beer and began to pray to the Lord to calm my nerves.

I know that this may not seem like a bad day to some of the Supermoms but I was a mess for some reason. I think it's because my Savannah who was just in my arms as a baby is now a young lady.



Oh Lord, Please give the wisdom to raise a child of God and be the kind of mom that I'm supposed to be. Keep her safe in school and guide her to the right friends. Let her not conform to peer pressure and let her grow closer to you Lord!

Fall Window Shopping...(click if you want to go to the clothing websites)

More Familia in town...

So last week we had Rickey, Jess and Abby at our house. It was so nice to see them. We had lot of fun. I had to work but when I got home Jess had done laundry, dishes and made dinner. NICE! We played Texas Hold'em almost every night. We are a little competitive about it too. It's pretty funny actually if you were to watch it. A lot of trash talk and bluffing goes on. Rickey would like to tell you that he won every time but umm...he didn't even win once this time I don't think. If he read this he will kill me.

Here are a few pic's from their trip...

Boyd family updates...

Rick is leaving for a business trip tonight for a few days.:( I hate when he has to leave but lucky for me he doesn't have to very often.

I will have to go out of town for 4 days on Sunday myself for a business trip and Rick will have to take Savannah to her first day of the 7th grade on the 25th. I'm sad I will miss that. :( Man, they grow up so fast.

Anyway, I love you Rick, have a safe trip baby!

(example: not our house)

P.S. Our house and yard was TP'd (toilet papered) again over the weekend. The first time it was kinda cute and now...not so much. I want to strangle those little punks. And did I mention that it rained too making it harder to clean up. Does anyone have any good ideas of what I can do to the juveniles next time they try to get us????

Week 2...

Today marks the start of week 2 of waiting for a referral. Every day I stare at my phone hoping to get a call from Radu to see who my precious baby girl will be. Hmmm...thank you Lord for patience.

Shout out Monday!

I would like to give a few shout out's to some special people!

One Happy Birthday to Jess!!! I love you and I hope you have a wonderful day!

Also, a shout out to Holly and Eric, who just got back from Ethiopia with their twins! You must be exhausted!

Another Shout out to Holly and her family who just got their daughter!

A major shout out to Lisa and David who just picked up their daughter Tigest from Ethiopia. Lisa is the sweetest sould and I'm so happy for you all and I pray for a good transition. I'm sure you are happy to be home with your boys!

Another Shout out to the Parkers who just got back from Ethiopia where they picked up their daughter, Teddi. I can't wait to hear more about your journey!

Whoo, so exciting to have so many forever families for these beautful children! Congrats to all!

Family in the house!

A few weeks ago, Kari and Matt came to stay with us for a week and I'm just getting to posting the pictures. I worked most of the week but Rick was off. They went to the zoo, golfing, a waterpark and to the lake. It was great to see them.

Here is a slide show of some of our fun!

Please be in agreement with me...

I need your help blogger buddies! My friend Steve is not doing well at all. I spoke of him in a previous post. You can read his story on his blog that his wife created HERE.

My heart is breaking for this amazing family. Steve is only 41 and its unimaginable to be faced with the decisions that he and his family have been facing.


For those of you that believe in our amazing Lord, I ask that you take a minute to pray for him for God's healing power to pour over Steve's body. Also pray for peace and strength for his family.

Thank you to those of you who have already prayed with me.

Referrals Galore!

A want to take a minute to give a quick "Shout Out" to Jeanne and Tania who both received referrals today. Jeanne got a referral of twins, a boy and a girl, 4 months old. Tania got a referral of a 3 month old baby girl! The biggest shocker is that Tania's dossier got to Ethiopia on Friday, the same time as mine and she already got a referral! Amazing! Radu is really rockin out the referrals for Adoption Avenues. Could we be next???????

The package has landed!

Ok, I will stop stalking the dossier now. It has been delivered and signed for in Addis! Yeah! This will make Day 1 of week 1 to the official wait for our baby girl!
We should celebrate tonight!

100th Post!

Wow, I can't believe that this is my 100th post! Time flies when you are having fun. One of the things I like most about blogging is the support of other bloggers. I have been so encouraged by others during this long process. Thanks to all you amazing people.

By the way, I'm still stalking our dossier and the package is in Ethiopia! Now I wait for it to be delivered.

Dossier stalking!

Radu gave me the tracking number for our dossier packet so know I can obsess about where it is. It will probably get there tomorrow.

Why I'm not in the Olympics...

Halleluyer!

Our dossier is on it's way Ethiopia! We are ten months into the process so this is a huge relief! Once it reaches Ethiopia, we will officially be on the wait list for a child, a baby girl from 0-12 months. The wait time is 2-5 months for a referral according to our agency is 2-5 months but most of the families that have adopted from our agency have gotten a referral within 6 weeks or so. We will see.

When you get a referral, the agency usually calls you to let you know that that you have an email. This is the call I dream of at night. Anyway, you usually get a few pictures and the medical and family history of the child if they know it.

After a referral is accepted, they will set a court date to assign that child to us, meaning legally adopt. The courts are closed in Aug and Sept for rain season/holiday. They will begin assigning court date again at the end of Sept. for October. In many cases, you don't get through court the first time. I'm praying that we do go through the first time.

After a successful court date, the child legally belongs to us. We then have to wait for a date to be set to interview and have a visa ordered and issued. This takes up to 2 months but it has also happened fast. We just have to wait and see.

So for now, I pray to the Lord who knows all, for a healthy child that is meant to be with our family. I await our new baby girl!

Baby Gap Sale!

Attention shoppers, baby gap is having their jeans sale on isle 2! :) They are so cute! All sizes for boys and girls.

Whoo...Hoo!!!

Our dossier is back from Washington!!! It only took like 3 days to get authenticated. That is amazing! PTL! Our agency will let me know tomorrow if there was anything else needed. If not, the packet will go to Ethiopia and we will be on the official "wait list" for a referral. I can't wait!

Also a big Shout Out to Lisa and Cory who got their referral of a baby girl today!
I'm so excited for them! They are from our agency and they got their referral in only 6 weeks. Wow!

Boyd weekend wrap up!

So the weekend was full of events!

Aside from our home being tp'd, (read about that in my last post) what else happened at the Boyd house?

1. I forgot to mention that I cracked a small bone in my hand/wrist. It was in both areas. I don't have to wear a cast just this hideous hand brace that keeps my wrist and upper hand perfectly straight. It's uncomfortable and it takes me longer to type. Another downside to this brace is I can't blow dry or style my hair very well so I don't look my prettiest. On the bright side, it's my left hand and I'm right handed.
People have been asking me how this happened. Sounds strange but I don't really remember when it happened, I just remember it hurting and swelling over a few days. I went and had it x-ray'd and walla...broken.

I'm sure it has nothing to do with me getting a little crazy on my wave runners!

I can't believe I just showed ya'll a picture of me in my bathing suit. Ugh...

2. We went back to school shopping. Last year I almost killed a few people after waiting til the last minute to get supplies. The stores were out of almost everything and I had to go to so many places. It was not fun so I promised I wouldn't do that again. School shopping and school physical done. Check!

3. Laundry, laundry, and more laundry! How do 3 people go through so much laundry. I don't know how the women with big families do it.

4. Rick power washed the deck by the pool. He is crazy, it was 105 degrees outside. It looks great though.

5. Rick and I had date night!!!

Don't worry, it's G rated. :)

Our date was actually during the day and Rick took me somewhere unusual, Best Buy. I got the most amazing gift! It has to be in my top 5 of all time. I am still celebrating and excited about it.

Drum roll please........

I got the brand new Samsung Steam Super Capacity Washer and Dryer!!! Whoo..hoo!! I'm was so excited and I still am. Our washer and dryer works fine but its really old and it doesn't hold very many clothes at once so it takes forever to do laundry. I'm a lucky girl, these things are state of the art. They get delivered on Aug. 25th. I can't wait!

I'm sure that just made me sound very lame, right?

So that's about it for now. I'm going to attempt to start my diet again tomorrow. Thanks to Jessica, I found a great website, www.sparkpeople.com that helps track food and weight loss goals for free. It's an amazing site! Thanks Jess!