It has arrived and we are officially "waiting"!!!

So I guess when they something will take 9 weeks to arrive, they mean 9 weeks! Yesterday our fingerprints from immigration finally came. Kevin faxed them over to our agency in Mass. They can now send everything over to Ethiopia and all the paperwork gets translated to Amharic.

Our official application date to Ethiopia was October 7, 2008. The estimated wait time is 14-22 months. We got a nice letter welcoming us to the program.

So, why the long wait? There are 4-6 million children in Ethiopia in need of homes. Only a small percentage are legally freed and available for adoption. Many are older children and sibling groups. There are over 70 worldwide agencies. 25% of those are in the US. 120-160 families apply to Wide Horizons (our agency) for the Ethiopian program a week! With that all being said, we will be waiting for a long time!

We are glad our part is done with. We will have to re-do our fingerprints next summer but that is all. We are excited!

Good Buys, Apple Picking and Cox Farms

Saturday morning started early when I went with my neighbor Lisa to the yard sales in Kirkpatrick Farms. I bought a piano where JT can practice his Elton John interpretation. I bought a wagon for $5 and the best buy was the moon bounce that sells for $200 and I snatched it for $40. It's as good as new!(Those are our neighbors jumping while JT was sleeping.)

We then headed off to Stribling Orchard. For the last many years, we have been apple picking with Nicole and Mike. Jenn and Tommy had joined us several times in the past and this time we were joined by Heather, Bobby and their two kids, Darden and Parker. This was also JT and Gavin's first time. We never made it last year. Kevin and I continued the tradition of never even buying apples and just eating as we went along! We did enjoy the fresh white bread they make and had that for lunch. Kevin did his yearly entertainment of juggling, while munching on an apple at the same time. The pigs were still there, rolling around in mud and eating the apples we threw at them. We will be back again next Fall.

On Monday we went to Cox Farms.JT learned how to milk a cow. JT and Kevin went down a big slide. We ate apples and had apple cider, which JT didn't like. JT made friends with a baby cow and stuck straw up his nose. And the best thing of all, is that JT made a new friend. JT found the lonely gray goat at the bottom of the hill and found a corn cob. He was nice enough to share and they hit it off. After a nice morning, JT came home and took a nice long nap.

As for adoption stuff, still no word! I am pretty annoyed that we still haven't gotten our fingerprint papers back but I am emailing them today to see what the deal is. Hopefully they will be here soon.