Bellydancing Babyshower

Ok, so maybe I went over the top a bit decorating for the baby shower, ya think? But well, I am a glamour girl and if you ask me to throw a party I CANT DO IT HALFWAY!!!

A Song For My Little Man

Because I can't wait to hear my Little Bear say "Mama" and "Dada"-(hopefully in Animal's voice-wouldn't that be cool!) I thought this song would be appropriate for today, and its just plain fun to watch this video! I mean, who doesn't love Queen, or the Muppets? Put then together and wellllll.....

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Woohoo a Court Date!

Mark it on your calendar June 8th is the big day! Rationally I know that most folks don't make it through on their first court date...sometimes not even second, third, fourth etc. I can't allow myself to be negative about it though. I am trying to ride that fine line of cautious optimism and we JUST MIGHT get that lucky. At the same time trying to be realistic so that we don't have the tremendous letdown if things go awry.

It looks as though we slipped in just under the deadline and will not be having to attend court in Ethiopia. I am of two minds about this. Initially the extra cost caused a minor panic in our household...but we came up with solutions and have tremendous support in our community so we knew that we could handle it. Then I started to get excited about the idea of getting to see Little Bear sooner, the chance to hold him and love on him would be worth anything to me. So now I don't get to...kinda sad about that.

But, holy smokes people that court date is only 17 days away!!!!!! I was anticipating a July or August court date initially so I feel like I have won the lottery in that respect.

Great Day!

So what makes a great day in my world? Well, lately I feel more like myself, all the weight I've lost is bringing back the face I recognize! See photos 1 and 2! Second thing that makes a great day is receiving official papers to sign accepting our referral-hooray for paperwork!!! One step closer Little Bear....we're coming for ya! (It gets rating in #2 slot because it is after all paperwork which is yucky in general but awesome today!)




The third great part to my day is this wonderful gift from my dear friend, and former university roomate, Jen. She sent me this sweet Memory book for adoptive families. It has a beautiful layout and focuses on our first year together as a family, his story- a built in lifebook essentially with bonus space for continuing his Canadian journey.



Finally, as if my life wasn't blessed enough today, I get to come home to beautiful weather and walk my dog here:



Life is GREAT!!!

Before/After Remodeling

When we purchased our house in October it was ... in rough shape cosmetically. So after a lot of hard work here are some of the before and afters. You might notice i tend toward bright colours-hey, after years of living in apartments and military housing with nothing but white-I WANTED COLOUR!!! Caveat-not everything is complete so you might notice missing baseboard etc. but you will get the sense of our style. So, without further ado....(click to enlarge)
Dining Room Before:

Dining Room After:



Guest Room Before:


Guest Room After:


Master Bedroom Befores:




Master Bedroom after:

Special Friends and Great Husbands

Thank You to my amazing friends and neighbors Simona and Derek. You guys are the best! These adorable shirts for Little Bear were an amazing surprise on Mother's Day. I can't thank you enough for thinking of us!





Big Bear knows that there is nothing like a little retail therapy to cheer me up. So, the day before Mothers Day my husband and I also went shopping and brought home these cute and practical items. They hang on my refrigerator-I just love seeing them every time I am in the kitchen!

Fuzzi Bunz and Going Environ "MENTAL"

I think that I have flipped. This former Diva of manicures,pedicures, $200 haircuts, and consumate clothes shopper type person that I once was is pretty much all gone. In the last few years I stopped doing all of that stuff (with the exception of the occasional pedi) to save money for our fabulous adoption. Which, by the way, was totally worth it-especially once I saw Little Bears' face!

Lately though a whole other "Earth Mothery" side is coming out. I mean, Big Bear and I had a whole "environmental impact of disposable diapers" conversation that led us to decide to go with cloth diapers...who knew that a little baby thousands of KM away would change the very nature of my conversations! I actually was excited to talk diapers, liners, wipey thingies, snot suckers.....which formally in my world was-"ewww gross" and in the last two weeks turned into "hmmm guess I need to practice".


So, thanks to my good friend Missy for getting us started down that conversational road. For the moment we are going with Fuzzi Bunz We loved the feel of these diapers, and while they are more of an investment up front after pricing the disposable diapers in the stores we are confident it is the more cost effective way to go for us. Also, I can still express my diva side through the awesome colour that this diaper comes in- what a great compromise :)!

Great Book Gift!

I found this book a few months ago and HAD to have it. Bart has always been my "Bear", and now we have "Little Bear" being added to our family. So, when I saw this book I just new it was perfect. The illustrations are sweet watercolours and the story of how the family came to be together is beautiful. Handles a lot of the adoption topics such as the fact that families don't all have to look alike to be a family very gracefully. On the last page it says, "I wished for you, and you are always and forever my wish come true". I want to paint this on Little Bear's bedroom wall with a little family of three bears...but I am not terribly creative so hopefully I can get some of my artsy friends to help out.

The Call-Long POST!!!

First, thank you to all the well wishers. Bart and I enjoyed reading the comments-it just keeps that referral high going!

Second, because I know everyone is waiting with baited breath for details here are the vitals: We love his name- Biyadegelegn, he is 3 months old-will be 4 months pretty soon, healthy, beautiful big brown eyes with lonnnnnng eyelashes, long skinny fingers (piano player fingers perhaps???) and already the biggest joy in my life. I carry his picture everywhere with me just to remember that this is real. I also practice saying his name a lot- it pretty well rolls off the tongue now but it took some practice. I would love to know if anyone has heard it before or knows its meaning as I have been unable to find it referenced anywhere.

Third-The Call!!!!
I was at work when the school secretary buzzed my room and asked if I wanted to take a phone call. (I almost said "take a message" but it was close to recess so decided just to go for it and let my student teacher handle the kiddos.) I get down to the staff room and answer the phone. When I realized it was CAFAC calling my first thought was that there was a problem with the money order I had sent (which there was)and that's how the conversation began. I HAD NO CLUE PEOPLE. Then J. started asking when Bart and I would be getting home etc and I still DIDN'T CLUE IN. Meanwhile the staff room is filling up with people on their break. I asked if there was something wrong with the paperwork that was delaying us and if that was why she wanted us together and she says-"No, Steph....but can you handle getting good news at work today?" well I starting sobbing and stutter out "is this THE CALL" and it was!!! I think I said something like "I just want to know if its a boy or girl and how old!" which led to a funny conversation where she told me he was three months and I kept trying to convince her that she must have read the paperwork wrong because he should be three years old(ok I was a bit hysterical and we never allowed ourselves to imagine that we would be referred an infant).

Of course the staff room was dead silent as people tried to figure out why I was sobbing like a freak. I then told J. that I would have to find Bart because he had the day and was running around town doing "Manly things". But that We would call her as soon as we came home. I hung up, shouted "I'm a MOMMY" to the room in general and was then tackled and hugged to death by my wonderful co-workers who have supported me through the whole process. A whole lot more crying ensued.

I couldn't track down THAT MAN anywhere! He doesn't beleive in carrying a cell phone so you can imagine how that went. Finally I called my girlfriend and asked her to check our haouse bacause I knew that if he was outside working on the yard he wouldn't hear the phone. She also had instructions to lie to him tell him I was sick and come pick me up at the school. Which is exactly how that all played out.

About twenty minutes later he pulled up in the car and I walked out of the school holding a big sign that said "IT"S A BOY!". His first thought? "If she bought a puppy she is in so much trouble" (does this tell you how little we were expecting this call?) Then he sees the tears streaming down my face and finally catches on, forgets to put the car into park as he tries to get out, fumbles the car into park and then BIG hug time. Bart can't actually cry (side effect of a long ago surgery) but believe me he was that emotional.

We raced home, called the agency, and saw our sons' face for the first time. We immediately knew he was ours. Now we jsut need to figure out what comes next, and pray that it goes smoothly waiting for and passing our court date.