Thank God it's Friday! I mean that most sincerely! It has been a long difficult week. Luckily nearly 100% of our stress comes from work. Our kids, extended family, and friends are all fine.
I have received a little more clarification as to how ages are "assigned" to children in Ethiopia. I am sure my terminology is not perfect, so bare with me. When a child is deemed "adoptable" by their local government, that government agency assigns them a year of birth. Agencies who receive the children for placement must use that year, even though it is sometimes obvious that it is not correct from the beginning. An Ethiopian birth certificate is issued as a part of the court process, and the birth day and birth month are chosen by an agency representative.
This process makes me sad. I love birthdays and I always to try to make them very special for my kids. To have a random date assigned bugs me, especially when we are doubting even the year on Joshua G.'s Ethiopian birth certificate may be incorrect. We can choose to change that date when an American birth certificate is issued, but the date will be imaginary no matter what. I have been thinking and praying about how to celebrate Joshua's birthday so it feels true and special. Perhaps we will celebrate Jan. 19th the day we first saw his picture, maybe it will be the day we meet him, maybe the day he comes home, maybe we will feel his Ethiopian birth certificate is right on. Maybe we will celebrate all those dates!
I am getting more anxious to know more about our timeline. I am ready to know when our court date will be! I have watched that 41 sec. video about a million times this week and I want to scoop up that baby boy and bring him home! There is nothing I can do to speed the process though so trust and patience are the only options.
I did order several photo albums this week. They are each made for babies/toddlers and have soft vinyl pages with inserts for photos. It will be fun to choose the pictures we fill them with. I can only send Joshua one abbum, but I will fill them all and bring the extras with to show him at the hotel and on the plane. The albums I chose each have a handle, so I ordered some plastic links so the nannies can hook his album to his crib safely. I love the idea of him looking at his family as he falls asleep and wakes up.
I can also send him one other item. I have not decided what that will be. It sounds like those items are quite often lost. They also should be easily cleanable, I'm thinking plastic. So maybe it will be a toy payloader or an airplane. Daddy would probably pick a payloader, can't start them too young. Mommy just wants him on an airplane.
Sierra's room has been at a stand still as Chad has been too busy to complete the taping and texturing. He only has a few hours of work until he will be done. Then us girls will take over painting, the carpet gets laid, and Sierra can move in. I have been very proud of her (and MY) patience. I am hoping to have her moved by the time our case is heard in Ethiopia, and we do not have a court date yet so I guess we are on schedule.
