March 2009

My 5 questions

Submitted by admin on Tue, 03/31/2009 - 7:43pm

Sometime in the month of April we'll get some more pictures of our son and the answers to our 5 questions:
1. What date did he arrive at the AWA transition home?
2. What orphanage(s) was he in before coming to the transition home?
3. What does he eat (solids, what kind of formula) and when?
4. When and how does he sleep?
5. What makes him smile?

What now?

Submitted by admin on Wed, 03/25/2009 - 6:39pm

I keep being SO thankful for God's goodness to us these past couple of weeks. There are some families who turned in paperwork the same day we did who are still waiting for a referral and many who received a referral months before us who have a court date later than us. I don't know why God has been so generous to us, but I am so very thankful to have received a referral and court date this month!

So, what happens between now and traveling? A lot.

Yipppppeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!

Submitted by admin on Tue, 03/24/2009 - 1:46am

When I checked my email today I got a nice surprise, an email with the subject "Court Date." I expected it to just be an email about court dates and what happens and why and stuff like that, which is was. BUT, at the end it said our son's court date is MAY 11!! I was quite shocked, surprised and thrilled! We gearing up for a wait of at least a few more weeks if not a month before even hearing when our court date was scheduled. This is also an entire month earlier than our best case scenario we had in our minds.

So, thank you for praying. God is SO generous, despite my doubts!

It's Official-the referral that is

Submitted by admin on Thu, 03/19/2009 - 7:30pm

We officially accepted our referral this week, so our agency will begin petitioning for a court date. Today I also FedExed a care package to the Whipple family, who is traveling to Ethiopia next week. They'll deliver it to our son and share some pictures with us. So, next week our baby boy will have an awesome stuffed giraffe and two very cute outfits from us.

So, for the story . . .

Submitted by admin on Tue, 03/17/2009 - 12:38am

Well, it's been quite the exciting life since Friday and we are so thankful for God's goodness to us. The excitement of receiving the referral call on Friday was followed by an all-church celebration of the marriage of Andrew and Kaitlyn Henry, which was followed by a Bayly-family celebration of our new baby, which was followed by a Sunday morning of praising God for both of those blessings.

One *Big* Step Forward

Submitted by admin on Fri, 03/13/2009 - 8:09pm
We just got a call from our agency, letting us know that we have a new baby boy waiting for us! He is 6 months old, and weighs 13 pounds.

We are so excited and can't wait to bring Little Joseph Tate Bayly VII home. We will let you know more as we get the opportunity.

Thank you all for your prayers and support.
-Joseph & Heidi

Phone Addiction

Submitted by admin on Wed, 03/11/2009 - 5:59pm

We've been at the top for one week now, and the days seem to be dragging by, particularly the hours between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. when we could receive the phone call that will make us parents. I don't have a cell phone (by choice), so this means that most of the time I would prefer to be at home where I can answer the phone if it happens to ring. This, of course, makes the days go by even slower, so I'm trying to branch out and get out and *gasp* even use the phone to make other calls (we don't have caller ID or call waiting either). 

Mint.com - Avoid if at all Possible

Submitted by Joseph Bayly on Fri, 03/06/2009 - 12:11am

I have been a very emphatic proponent and opponent of Mint.com in the last few months. In case you don't know what it is, it tracks your money for you -- online. There are all kinds of reasons to use a service like Mint.com, and there are other reasons not to. That battle has been waged, and I believe for the most part, won by the side that says it's ok to trust your financial information to third parties. Certainly that's the side I've fallen into.

What's After Referral?

Submitted by admin on Wed, 03/04/2009 - 9:41pm

After we get our much anticipated referral, here's a rough view of what will happen.

1. We'll turn in our referral acceptance letter as soon as possible.
2. AWA will petition for an Ethiopian court date.
3. We'll hear when our court hearing will be in Ethiopia. We don't need to be present since we signed power of attorney to an Ethiopian Representative. Court dates are usually 2-3 months after the referral date. (yep, you read that right, 2-3 months . . .)

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet!

Submitted by admin on Wed, 03/04/2009 - 9:37pm

I logged on to our agency's yahoo adoption group for my weekly check up on things and was thrilled to find that our group of DTE (dossier to Ethiopia) is now #1. In the past week there were 2 more girl referrals and 1 boy referral, one of them even to a family with our DTE. (DTE just means the date that we finished our paperwork, May something-or-other 2008)

It's quite exciting to be at the top of the list. We share the title with a few other families that we know of, so our referral could be today or in the next few weeks. HOPEFULLY it will be in March though :-)