Hi everyone!

I just wanted to let you all know that we are "officially waiting"!
Our dossier has made its way to Ethiopia and is at the office in Addis.
What is the next step for us?
We patiently wait for the referral of our child.

Please continue to pray for our adoption, our child and his/her birthmother.

Thank you!

Love,

Jerry and Mary Beth

Bib for Baby

Baby Galloway's Groovy Green Space

So...we have the start of a room, ladies and gentlemen!
We have been hard at work painting and painting and painting.
Jerry has also put in all new outlets, light switch, and funky sun ceiling light fixture.
Next step...wood laminate flooring. I can't wait to pull out the pink carpet! I've never liked that carpet since the day we moved into this house. Bye, bye pink carpet!

More to come...

Rock Star Advice

For our Valentine's present to each other, we bought tickets to see one of our favorite musicians. The concert was Rhett Miller of the Old 97's. It was an intimate solo-acoustic show at the Fine Line. Some of you might remember that Jerry's brother Joe played the Old 97's song "Question" at our wedding reception. So that is a very special song for us and always a treat to hear it performed live. Plus, February 22nd was our 6th wedding anniversary so hearing that song was extra meaningful. ( I love you, Jerry!)

After an excellent show, Jerry and I got the chance to speak with Rhett for a bit (and I got a photo with him). I told him that we had been gearing up for the concert by listening to his CD's while we painted the baby's room. From there he asked a bit about our adoption and then proceeded to give us some marriage advice. It was very sweet of him! He didn't want to talk about himself...he want to know about us! He told us to always take a bit of time for just the two of us everyday no matter what.

I so look forward to exposing my child to various types of music. Music is such an important part of our lives.

February 22, 2009 (Our 6th year wedding anniversary!)

Greetings all -- Jerry here.

Yes, it is our 6th anniversary today! Wow, time can really speed by when you enjoy life. I can still remember our wedding day like it was yesterday... from freezing our butts off taking pictures at Lake Calhoun (yes, in February!), to karaoke at our reception, it was a very unique and special day that I will cherish forever!

I'm sure Mary Beth will officially fill you in on all the stuff that has happened since her last post, but I will say that we have received confirmation that our dossier is in Ethiopia (after a pit stop in Jordan!?!) and that we should be "officially waiting" in the next couple of weeks.

The baby's room is looking phenomenal! I'm sure MB will post some pictures shortly. It sure is nice to see results of such hard work. We still have lots to do, but you can tell the progress.

I believe we are very blessed that Mary Beth has been able to volunteer every week at the adoption agency. She has also made friends of some of the other parents, which has been very helpful. This can obviously be a very stressful time, and I am so grateful that BFAS has given MB the opportunity to use some of her free time helping out the agency.

That's all for now, I'm sure MB will be on again soon. I just want to say how much I love my wife, and how happy I am right now, and have been for the 6 years we have been married, and the 15 (!) years we have been together. Mary Beth makes me who I am, and allows me to be successful in life. I can't thank her enough.

Jerry

Dossier

Hooray! Our dossier is in!

We dropped it off at our agency yesterday. In a couple of weeks our dossier will be authenticated here by the Minnesota Secretary of State and in Washington, D.C. by the U.S. Department of State and the Ethiopian Embassy before making its way to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In Addis, it will be authenticated once more by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and translated into Amharic (one of the most widely spoken/written Ethiopian languages). After that we wait for the referral of a child. It might be around 4 months when the referral comes, but that is an estimate. International Adoption can be fairly unpredictable. For those of you who don't already know, we are open to gender and open to twins. The referral will most likely be for a child 0-6 months old.

Also we have recently filed our I-600A which is the Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition for the U.S. government. Soon they should be sending us the time and date for our FBI fingerprinting appointment.

On Thursday, I got my 2nd shot for the Hep A and B series. Only one more to go! Jerry needs to get in for his...he may be procrastinating.

Thank you for your interest in our adoption! Your support, love, and prayers mean the world to us.

Timkat (Epiphany) is today...read to learn more about this key Ethiopian holiday

"Timkat is the most important festival in the Ethiopian calendar. Crowds of revellers, all dressed in white, dance and sing in the streets to the beating of drums. Priests, decked out in jewel encrusted velvet and satin robes, carry a replica of Arc of the Covenant known as a talbot in a grand procession through the streets.

The procession arrives at a water source and events culminate at 2am, when the priests perform mass and bless the water. A communal baptism follows, with the most fervent Christians throwing themselves fully clothed into the water."

Text taken from http://www.pilotguides.com/destination_guide/africa/ethiopia/timkat.php

There is also an excellent video to watch on Timkat provided by National Geographic:

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/places/culture-places/beliefs-and-traditions/ethiopia_timkat.html

Home Study Finished!

Yippee!!! We have finished up our home study (again). It won't be long now that we will have our dossier in and will be "officially waiting" once more...not to mention that it will be such a relief as well!

Thanks for your continued support!
Happy MLK Day to all!

Sewing for Baby

A bought a sewing machine a few months ago and took a beginning sewing class to learn the basics. Recently, I finished my first item for baby...a taggie blanket. Now I am addicted to buying fabric. I have oodles of it waiting for me to create blankets, bibs, burp cloths, etc. I will post more projects once I get it in gear.

If ever I turn up M.I.A.... check JoAnn Fabics.

Application approved!

For those of you that don't already know...we have officially switched agencies. We have been approved at our new agency and we are busy, busy compiling a new dossier and have already started our new home study. Unfortunately, we had to do ALL of our paperwork again and our old agency would not allow us to transfer our completed home study. So we are currently in the process of finishing up at entire new study....and we have to pay for an entire new study. Boo! Hiss! Luckily, we are working with an excellent social worker who is bending over backwards to get our study done as quickly as possible so that we can get our dossier in ASAP. I am very anxious to be done with all this and to once again be "officially waiting".

Please keep our adoption in your thoughts and prayers...especially our child and our child's birthmother.

Thank you all!

Merry Christmas!!!

No, this isn't a belated Christmas wish.
Today is the Ethiopian Christmas or as they call it, Ganna. Ethiopia follows the ancient Julian calendar.

I can't wait to celebrate Ganna with our little one!

Gigi

I just got an excellent CD. It is the self-titled work of Ethiopian singer/songwriter Gigi.
If anyone is interested in checking it out, I bought it from Amazon.
The music was uplifting enough to make housework enjoyable!

Cheers!

Happy New Year to each and everyone of you!

Jerry and I have been quite busy this last month with celebrations galore. Additionally, we have recently decided to switch adoption agencies. Why? Well..for one it looks like it is a good possibility the wait time will be shorter. There were a couple other reasons that were important to us as a couple as well.

So...what does this all mean?

It means we need to practically re-do all of the work we have done up to this point. Luckily, it is much easier the second time. We submitted our application, are working on compiling a new dossier, and are figuring out what we need to do about our homestudy. Hopefully, in the next week or two we will have much this completed. Let's all hope for a smooooooooooooth transition!

Jerry and I have started to prepare for our trip to Ethiopia by meeting with a travel doctor. After our meeting, we got stuck in the arm with some of the immunizations we need to travel. Three shots down and 2 more to go. Man, I was sore for a couple of days. Jerry seemed unfazed...lucky guy. We have two more visits to finish up our Hep series. We decided to pass on the Yellow Fever vaccination after being told that 1 out 400,000 die of getting the vaccination. Um, no thanks! Our risk of getting Yellow Fever in Addis is quite low anyways. Maybe I will just drape myself in mosquito netting. It is very fashionable.

Happy 2009 to you and your family!
I am looking forward to an exceptionally great year!

Peace and love,

MB