I heart Robeez & KIVA

Awhile ago I heard about how Robeez will donate 50 pairs of kids shoes to adoptive families to take to orphanages. I contacted Robeez and our request was accepted! I'm so excited to pack these adorable shoes in our suitcases. I was told on the phone though that they won't be doing any of these "small-scale" donations anymore. As a company it was too much work so now they will only be doing larger donations. Plus, I think a lot of Robeez have already made their way to Ethiopia through adopting parents. Anyways, I still wanted to post about it on my blog to say thank you to them. Now, when I buy a pair of Robeez I know I am supporting a good company that gives back.


Another amazingly great organization is KIVA. I had learned about micro-finance deveopment in some of my classes in university and I always wanted to do something with it. However, I always thought you could only give large loans and I just figured it would be too complicated to do. But now, I have discovered KIVA!!! You can give as little as $25 and your loan will go directly to an entrepreneur of your choice. You are then updated about their business and paid back by a specific deadline. We just got our first update today by the Tausi's Nguvu Moja B group, consisting of Tausi Abdalla, Salma Khamis, Zena Nassoro, and Lucy Myamale in Tanzania. These four women are part of a clothes making business. I'm so excited to get email updates in the next 4 months!!!


Anyways, the KIVA website is amazing and it is so organized and easy to use. You should go visit it. I have to admit that it is kinda sad that giving is so appealing when you are going to be re-paid (although, don't worry, we do plan to re-give our money). But if knowing this encourages business people around the world to give $1000 loans then it doesn't matter, because a loan like that is going to permanently change someone's life. And it does it in such a dignified way. I seriously am so excited about KIVA, I wish they had an office here so I could go and volunteer for them!


Congratulations to Amber & Ali who received a referral for a baby boy this week after waiting 6 long months!!! AND, congratulations to Justine who had the fastest court date yet (5 weeks) to make her 2 girls officially a part of their family.

Run for Water

My church is promoting an event in Abbotsford on Sunday June 1st. I was so excited to hear that the proceeds for the race are going towards building wells in a village in Ethiopia that does not have safe drinking water. HOPE Development agency will be doing the well construction.

Here's a quote from their website: "Ethiopia has water! It just needs to be accessed. The typical method is to cap a mountain spring and direct that water into a protected reservoir. Water is then piped to one or more villages where it is available from a regular tap.

Run For Water is helping Hope International Development Agency build such a project in Amedo, a village of approximately 1,000 people in Derashe district of southern Ethiopia.

By participating you will help the citizens of Amedo drink clean water."


If you are interested in running or walking (5k, 10k, or a half-marathon) come join me!!! I will definitely be walking, NOT running and I will be doing the 5k. I know my limits.

You can register online and learn more about the event by going to www.runforwater.ca



ps: we've now been waiting 2 months. I'm hoping there are only 4 more to go....

ramblings...

I purposefully decided to make my blog pretty straight forward and not exactly a journal of my emotions but today I think I am just going to start typing.....

On Friday I went to the chiropractor and he gave me a flower for Mother's Day (don't worry, the office was giving them out to all the mom's). He told me that he knew I wasn't a mother yet but that he knew I was working on it. It was such a simple thing, but it made me totally choke up. He was adopted himself and has been so supportive about our whole process.

At a family dinner on Saturday, my husband's uncle prayed for all the mom's and the mom's to be and I once again got all teary.... It was nice to feel like people acknowledge the fact that we are having a child.... he's just not growing in me right now. This continued over the whole week-end as well, I am so thankful to have such great family and friends.

We bought a "family car".... I'm so excited, it's absolutely amazing... I've previously been in carpools and having my own car for the first time in my life is a huge stress relief..... Mike and I were driving it together the first day we got it and we were listening to Death Cab's song Transatlantacism.... "I need you so much closer" I was looking in the rear view mirror thinking about how we are going to have our son looking back at us soon!!! It was so crazy to think about and then the words of the song just made it all too beautiful and I started bawling...

Today I got a sweet card and a magazine subscription to "Today's Parent" from my SAP Secret adoptive parent!!!. I couldn't believe it, I am so excited! I love getting mail and I love reading magazines and articles on parenting so thank you to whoever it is that sent me such an encouraging gift and card today. You made my day!

Oh and when we were at this family dinner I got a sweet fortune: Your path is difficult but will be amply rewarded.

We're almost at two months of waiting and we just heard from our caseworker that it is more likely to be at six months than 5 that we will hear something... but it will be worth it!!! So I'm telling myself that it is in 4 more months and to stay positive. And if I think of it as in a monthly routine that would be four more chiropractor adjustments, four more menstrual cycles, or eight more trips to Superstore for groceries..... That doesn't seem that bad!!!

Okay, I'm going to stop writing now.

FAQ #1 When will your baby come home?

So Mike and I often get this question and its hard to answer because even we don't know EXACTLY when. But, we do have an idea and I don't think I've really explained what happens AFTER the referral very well.

So, basically we are on a waitlist right now for our referral (news that our agency has matched us with a baby boy; we receive a picture, medical report and social history) which could take 3-5 months. Once we sign the papers saying that we accept the referral we will wait for a medical exam to be completed and the forms to be returned to the right people. This happens at the same time as we are waiting for a court date (hopefully not longer) which will make our baby legally "our" baby. I will save another post for explaining the details of court and all that it entails later!

Currently court dates are taking 2-3 months and the medical is completed during that time. After this we are allowed to publicly post pictures of our son on our blog and we will sigh a huge sigh of relief that he is the one meant for our family! Then.....we wait for a visa to be issued. The timeline on this used to be months but now some visas have been issued in a few weeks. Who knows. I have already started this process by applying for the Permanent Resident Visa through CIC and the help of our agency.

So.... we could be traveling to Ethiopia in 7-14 months!!! Seven being the unlikely option.



Okay, so now I would like to invite you to leave a comment with a question that you have! Listen to K-fed. I know there are people reading this blog that have questions so please ask! I have nothing else to blog about in this wait anyways, so I'd like to start posting on your FAQ. So, ask away! Remember, there are no stupid questions.