Saturday night out!

Grant has a new project and they played their first show last night.  Their name is still in the work so last night they were going by the BlackOutz, which I thought was very funny since yesterday was Earth Hour.  The band has a really great sound and I like the music.  We closed the bar, which I haven't done in a while.  It was so much fun to see Grant rock out.  (Is that cool to say that?)  He is such a happy boy when he's on stage.  It was fun to get out for the night on the town!

All night I kept thinking of the KFC commercial that was on a while ago. "Dad was in a band" "Mom you were a groupie" HA!  Yes Sofia, your Dad was in a band, a few different ones actually and yes, your Mom was a groupie, and a roadie too...  Once upon a time your parents were cool!

I have words again

For the last few days I have been dumbstruck, I have never had such a hard time with vocabulary in all my days!  Today though, I feel that my head has stopped spinning and my feet are again touching the ground.  I'm still in shock that we are probably traveling in 5.5 weeks but I've learned to work with it for now...

Grants favourite activity on Wednesday night was to have me read to him from this blog.  Only one paragraph in particular. ahem " [Grant's] been working so hard these past few weeks to get the house ready for Sofia.  He's determined that the time is going to sneak up on us. His optimism is my favourite thing about him and probably his strength I lean on the most." The last line is my favourite " Sometimes his positive attitude gets under my skin a bit but it's all good. "

Grant takes everything in stride, sometimes I find it annoying that he doesn't get visibly excited.  On Wednesday when I got home from work he ran out to the front porch to greet me and he was jumping up and down. FINALLY I got to see some emotion from him!!  He keeps telling me that he'll be excited when he can get on a plane, I'm the opposite that's when I get serious.  I'll bet you a dime to a donut that Grant cries when we meet Sofia and I don't.  Although now that he's read this he'll see it as a challenge and he won't.  Never mind, strike the previous comment. :)

So the To-Do list keeps getting longer, mostly because I spend too much time on the computer and not enough time crossing things off the list!  Ok, I should go, but here's another picture of Uncle Grant with little Beckett.

Turn off and make a difference

At 8pm on March 29, people from all over the world are making a difference -  at least for one hour - by turning off lights, computers, televisions, and everything else that uses electricity. 

Turning off for just one hour may not sound like it will make much of a difference, but for one hour in March last year, Sydney Australia's energy consumption was reduced by 10.2% - the equivalent effect of taking 48, 000 cars off the road for one hour!  The Harbour Bridge turned off, the Opera House turned off and people held weddings by candlelight.  A global moment was born!

Let see what we can do!  I challenge you all to turn off for an hour this Saturday!

Speechless.

Me.  That's about all I can say.  Today Grant & I were notified that Sofias medical has been requested.  We are stupefied.  Thrilled but stupefied....

Long Weekend!

A long weekend means lots of photo ops.  I got a frantic call on Saturday night from my friend Maritza who had 15 loads of laundry that she needed folded.  4 kids + 2 adults + no laundry for 2 weeks = fun for me!!  I like folding laundry (too much time working in retail as a teen) so I'm her go-to-gal! The pile was as huge!  I tried to sit on the couch for the picture but I couldn't so I kinda perched on the laundry.  I think Maritza managed to find a little space so that gives you a good idea how big it really was.  We folded it in record time and then sat back had a drink and some munchies.  All in all a pretty sweet way to spend a Saturday night!!
Sunday night the strangest thing happened.  It snowed!! I know this sounds boring to those of you living east of here but it's pretty strange.  The weather was horrible yesterday we had hail, sideways rain, sun, and snow.  It seemed to alternate every 15 minutes.  
I think March is going out like a lion!  I had to go outside and see first hand this white lovely-ness falling from the sky.  Although I love the ocean I think I am still an easterner at heart.  Sometimes I think I should've headed east instead of west when I decided to leave London.  However ... that leads me Monday
and GOLFING!!!  I don't imagine people on PEI can play a round on March 24.  I can't think of a better way to spend an afternoon.  Grant and I split a large bucket of balls at the driving range before we hit the links.  Normally I don't have much patience for the driving range but today I was on fire!  For some reason not swinging a club in a few months did me good.
My course of choice is a little par 3 up the road from our house.  The worst part about it is that you have to tee off from mats.  I had such a good game today that I'm eager to back out and swinging again.  I think this time I might even let Grant talk me into a real course!

Well, everyday this long weekend brought something new and that's all that a girl can hope for!  I feel refreshed and ready for another week! (and one day closer to our baby girl)

Grant is ready ...

... to be a Dad.

Grant playing with cutie pie Beckett.

He spent a lot of time playing with our nephews this week.  On Thursday night he changed a diaper and got both kids dressed for bed.  I know that Grant is going to be a great Dad.  He spent 2 hours this morning playing road hockey with the neighbours boys.  He's been working so hard these past few weeks to get the house ready for Sofia.  He's determined that the time is going to sneak up on us.  His optimism is my favourite thing about him and probably his strength I lean on the most.  Sometimes his positive attitude gets under my skin a bit but it's all good.

I also want to with a safe trip to my new SS island friend Shauna.  Her family of 3 is about to become a family of 5!  I hope that you have a wonderful trip over to Ethiopia, I hope that both of the boys attach well to you, and I hope all of your daughters' dreams about having brothers come to fruition. 

March 21

Well it's been 3 months since Grant and I first saw Sofias beautiful face!  On one hand it's hard believe it's been that long already and on the other hand it feels like we've been waiting a life time to hold our little one already.  This last week has been HUGE for our family.  Sofia has been our child in our hearts since the moment we saw those big brown eyes, but now she is our child officially!  That's big step.  Her immigration process has also been started which is wonderful too.  Right now I am feeling great!  It is completely logical to think that in 3 months from now we will be traveling to pick up our baby girl!

Today Grant, Qimik, and I went to the beach.  It was a bit of an odd adventure.  We had hail!  I'm not kidding, so bizarre!  The first day of spring, unreal!  Grant found this fun log that he was bouncing on, the dog was going crazy.  You can see and hear the hail in the video.  It is not snow, it hurt!

I want to wish a safe trip to my friend Danielle and her husband Nick who are leaving next Tuesday to go and bring their princess home.  "I will be thinking of your family every day while you are gone and wishing you good luck and safe travels.  I can't wait until I see a picture of Zia in the arms of her forever family."

Christmas!

I realize that it's a few months away yet, but for some reason Christmas popped into my head this morning while I was getting ready for work... I realized that Santa was going to be visiting our house this year for the first time ever!!! This is SO exciting for me. I'm all smiley thinking about it. Grant and I are going to have to get our story straight. It's one of those things that we've always chatted about but never discussed.

I am trying really hard not to keep track of numbers right now, but we are one week in on her immigration process and 6 days post court date. I'm still celebrating! Every time I keep thinking about how quickly we might be meeting Sofia I get light headed. There is SO much to do! If every thing goes smoothly we are about 10 weeks away from hold our little girl forever! This means Santa, the tooth fairy, and the Easter bunny have all just become my reality. Oh, that reminds me of a story about my Dad ... I have to go to work now but I'll tell you the story later.

******************************************

Ok, I'm back (afternoon coffee break at work). So when I was a youngster and losing teeth I hated to wiggle them so they almost never fell out on their own. I'm pretty sure that this used to irritate my parents! On Christmas eve my father tied some dental floss around my top front tooth and tied it to a door. He let my brother slam the door while I stood there and screamed. (or at least that's how I remember it) Then he called the toothfairy to see if she was 'working' on Christmas eve. He was worried that the toothfairy and Santa would bump into each other in my room and give each other a fright! He actually spoke to her! I'm serious. It was the coolest....

Santa also brought me birthday balloons. Because my birthday is on Christmas day not only did I wake up to a stocking and some presents under the tree but he would also fill my room with balloons. Now that I'm too old for Santa to visit (and live to far away from him) Grant gets me balloons instead!

So, as you might be able to guess today I'm pretty jazzed up about being a parent!

Adoption Day Celebrations

I'm still reeling from the news we received on Friday.  Grant and I are Sofias parents!  It hasn't been an easy road but it hasn't been that bad either.  The good parts are more good than the bad parts are bad.  I guess that's all you can hope for in anything you do!

I'm a celebrator.  I celebrate every thing, basically I'm always looking for an excuse to go out for dinner or ice cream.  So on Friday when we got "the" phone call I knew that I had to celebrate with an Ethiopia feast for lunch!  There is a really cool place just outside to downtown.  It's a remodeled house and it has 3 take out restaurants and a coffee place.  Mom, we are going there in April (after car seat shopping!) 

Grant and I were out for most of the day and when we came home we were greeted with balloons!! "It's a Girl" WooHoo what fun!  I wanted to leave them there so the whole world would know! (or at least our little dead end street.)  Thanks Maritza and Morgan!  

It was a great day of celebration!

I've been checking the CIC website for a couple of weeks now to see if there has been any change in Sofias immigration file.  Today it says that Sofia Grant Dybdals file is in process!  It has been in process since March 12.  This is SO good.  From my calculations the soonest we could bring her home is 10 weeks (the longest could be 6 months).  Please keep your fingers crossed that all the right papers are where they are supposed to be when they are supposed to be there.  We could have our baby girl home around her first birthday!

And at last ...

... Sofia is officially ours!!!!!!!!!!!

Isn't she beautiful?!!!

We got a call from the agency at 0730 this morning.  "Hello mommy" Oh, it was SO COOL!

Today is a good day!! I can hear my Mom singing "Celebrate Good Times Come ON" all the way out here!

You can be sure that there are happy dances going on in our house this morning!

Randomness

This post is for Rhonda, who doesn't enjoy looking at pictures of my husbands knees... lol That's ok, I kid. I thought that this picture of Sunday breakfast at our house would be better.  4 of the girls are our nieces and the other one is our neighbour.  And yes Mom, the kitchen table is normally centered under the picture but it got shuffled over temporarily!
I'm re posting this picture only because this gigantic ball still makes me smile!  We haven't put it in Sofias room yet, where all her other things are living because we just like seeing it.  It's so huge!  It's hysterical.  The babies were playing with it last Sunday, it was SO funny, it's bigger than they are!!

I had a good day at work today. All of my IVs were successful and a couple of them we pretty tricky.  I made a new friend at lunch today  and was given a very thoughtful little gift for Sofia.  Thanks SK and M!!  I'm looking forward to going to Salt Spring and meeting all your family.  Grant had a crazy day of work at the house today, I'll post pictures soon.  He hung up a chair/swing in Sofias room and put in pot lights in our hallway.

It shouldn't be much longer until our court date and then I will post a picture or two of our little Sofia!  Please cross your fingers that our adoption is finalized soon, I'm eager for things to take another step forward...

Knees

Our baby girl is 10 months old today! Oh, happy day little one. Papa and I were talking today and we are wondering what you knees look like.... Papas are scarred and a little skinny. Mummas are big and bruised. I imagine that our future with you will include lots of skinned knees and bandaids! I promise to kiss your knees better and cuddle you close.  I also imagine a future with you wading in the ocean up to our knees.  The ocean has lots of treasures waiting to be seen knee deep; crabs, shells, bullhead fish.  We'll spend hours exploring ...

Head and shoulders, knees and toes (knees and toes)

Head and shoulders, knees and toes (knees and toes) 

Eyes and ears and mouth and nose

Head and shoulders, knees and toes! (knees and toes)

Tete, epaules, genoux et pieds

Tete, epaules, genoux et pieds

J'ai un nes, deux yeux

Deux oreilles et une bouche

Tete, epaules, genoux et pieds!

I've always preferred the french version of this song. I'll teach you both! Papa and I have lots of fun things to teach you.  We can't wait to have you here with us. Love you little girl! xoxo

Water bottle

The bottle that Grant bought for Sofia is a kukuxumusu by Laken.  He bought it at a Vahalla Pure Outfitter store near us.  I'm sure that most outfitters will have them.  There are TONS of patterns and they are the aluminum/enamel bottles that are (for now at least) good for us.

Friday Fun!

Just some randomness today... Yesterday we got a package from my Mom.  It included these T-shirts for Grant and I. Great idea! You can bet we'll be packing these in our suitcase for our trip.

I'd like to introduce "Berry" the newest member of Sofia stuffie arsenal.  Berry is a pink elephant, unfortunately the pink didn't photograph very well...

Berry has the neatest floppy ears and a happy smile. He's actually a bright bubble gum baby pink, very close to the colour of the water bottle in the last picture.

I love the cute elephant tail!  Sofia is lucky to have such a talented Grandma!!! Thanks MOM!
Grant went shopping and bought this very cute water bottle for his daughter. Yes folk, that really is little red riding hood kicking the big bad wolf in the junk (a well defined junk too).  Grant figures he's got a couple of years before he needs to give her an explanation.  He also knows that hes going to have to tell her why its ok for riding hood to kick the wolf but it's not okay for Sofia to kick Daddy. That should be a fun lesson ... :) 

Enjoy your weekend!!

National Sleep Awareness Week

Who'da thunk it? According to the calendar here at the hospital this week is National Sleep Awareness Week. As a future parent I am aware that I enjoy sleeping 8 solid hours a night. I am also aware that I enjoy the occasional lie-in. Let it be noted that Grant and I are sucking up all the sleeping time we can now. We know that it is going to change and that makes it sweeter. I wish that we could store it up.
However this week I'm on call, so I'm guessing that my awareness of sleep is that I'd like more!

Thanks for my parents who have written beautiful letters to Citizenship & Immigration. I'll be tucking copies of them into my diary to read when I'm blue! My brother & Grant are apparently on it as well... Hopefully all these letters help.

I'm still baffled why it's taking the Canadian High Commission so long to process these documents. The excuses that they give don't hold water. I'd imagine that the influx of letters is going to make quite the impression!!

On one of the boards that I belong to there is a woman who currently lives in the UK. She & her husband received a referral in January, their court date is March 5 and they are traveling March 15 to meet and bring home their babies! 2 MONTHS!!! Amazing for them. Frustrating for us.
She is writing a letter outlining their journey and sending it onto our Minister. Maybe hearing an actually story spurs them on to do better!

I think all Canadians like a good challenge. If the ministry looks at this as a competition then we're in luck! If the US & the UK can do it, so can we!!!

Well folks, be aware of your sleep this week. The week long celebration culminates on Saturday night when we will turn our clocks forward and lose an hour of sleep!! Happy sleeping!!

Write a letter?

The following text is copied directly from a fellow adopting mother:

Hi folks,
I would like to encourage everyone here who is concerned that it is taking the Canadian High Commission in Nairobi up to six months to process our adoptions and issue travel visas to write a quick note to the Minister of Citizenship & Immigration Canada as soon as possible. Minister Diane Finley can be reached at Minister@cic.gc.ca
I haven't been able to find any other country that takes up to six months to process the adoptions of Ethiopian children. The UnitedKingdom, the United States, Australia, Ireland, Finland and Spain all process adoption visas within weeks of the Ethiopian court date. It is now clear to me that the HC's abysmally slow processing of our children's adoptions is directly related to human resourcing decisions and a lack of priority put on the cases of our children inspite of the fact that CIC mandates that adoptions should be the priority.
Disturbingly, although the High Commission in Nairobi finishes almostat the back of the pack of the dozens of Canadian missions overseasin the speed at which it processes Permanent Resident Visas for dependent children, it far surpasses both the overseas missions and its region's averages in the processing of temporary visas for peoplewho want to come to Canada to visit.

Folks, the way our country is treating children who have been orphaned is a disgrace. It is certainly not in keeping with the spirit of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. As asignatory to this Convention, Canada has agreed to extend "particularcare to children without a family." That the Canadaian government is contributing directly to months and months of unnecessary time in institutional care doesn't seem to fit with extending particular care to children without a family. This situation is shameful. Please consider writing a short email to the Minister as soon aspossible. If you have adopted or are adopting, tell her how the government's actions make you feel as a parent and a Canadian.And please consider asking concerned family members and friends to also send a short email. CIC does track the number of emails and letters it gets on each issue. Let's express our concern over this issue and help highlight its importance to the government.
Let's make sure CIC does right by our children, even if we have to drag the government kicking and screaming all the way.

Chris


I can't say this nearly as well as Chris can. She is very articulate and learned on this subject. I encourage you to drop the Minister a line today. Tell her what you think of the lengthy immigration process, tell her how it affecting your life. If you have any questions feel free to ask me...

Here's a copy of the letter that I just wrote:

Honourable Minister,
My husband and I are currently adopting a child from Ethiopia. Her name is Sofia, her birth date is May 11 2007, she was surrendered to an orphanage on November 29. She has brown eyes, brown hair, and is tongue tied... Since November 29 she has been living in a room with 9 cribs and at least 8 other babies sharing the same care giver. In our house her crib is standing empty and our arms are waiting to hold just her. She is our daughter and we love her with all of our hearts even though we haven't had the joy of holding her, looking into her eyes, or seeing her smile.
We are told by our adoption facilitator to expect a 6 to 9 month wait to meet and bring our daughter home. This is precious time that we are losing with her. She was 6.5 months when she was taken in at the orphanage, she was 7.5 months before we recieved her referral, if it is 9 months before we are able to get her she will be 16 months! In our adult lives these numbers don't seem like much. In her baby life this means the world... In that time our daughter will have cut her first tooth, learned to crawl, said her first word, and taken her first step.
We are her parents, waiting to share her life and celebrate these moments... Isn't it sad that no one will celebrate these milestones with her. Isn't it sad that she will never know what her first word was or how old she was when she learned to walk. The thing that is keeping her from us is a long immigration process.
I urge you to investigate why this process is taking so long. Out of all the countries that currently adopt children from Ethiopia Canadian families have the longest wait. The UK, the US, Australia, Ireland, Finland and Spain all process visas within a few weeks of Ethiopian court dates. After our court date we are still facing a wait of "up to 6 months". I find this very hard to live with and I think that Canada can do better.

Please help bring our Sofia home to us soon. She needs us and we need her.
Thank you,
Alicia Dybdal


Inspired? Go for it! Write your own ... I'd love to hear from those of you that do. We all love our little Sofia. Maybe this will help us meet her sooner!

1st Monday in March

For those of you that read this who live inside the crazy world of adoption you realize the importance of Mondays.  Mondays seem to be information-getting-days.  At least towards the end of the process anyway.  Still I've been seeing my life by Mondays & Fridays lately.  Every Friday I pat myself on the back for having made it through another week.  Every Monday I pep myself up so I can successfully make it through another week. LOL  Weekends seem like they are "free" since there is no chance of any information coming in.  I seem to breathe easier, not flinch every time the phone rings, and not check my email every 20 minutes.  

So it seems my prediction about our court date being in February was wrong.  Grant has predicted that it is coming this month.  Remember our timeline was 2-3 months and this week marks 2 months.  I spoke with a contact at IA (formerly KidsLink) and was told that although she had no information for us, other families waiting for court dates would be getting good news soon.  So even though it doesn't sound like we will be getting good news, it does seem that our file is moving closer to the front of the line... Every little step counts!

I thought that today we could use a picture.  This weekend Grant felt like shopping and he couldn't pass up on this gigantic ball!  Every time I see it I smile because it is just so oddly large.  I was trying to figure out how I could show you in a picture just exactly how large it is... This was the best I could come up with.

Our dog is very tall, when he sits up properly his head is at the same height as the door knob. I hope this picture makes you smile!  Qimik was a bit stunned this morning when I was taking the picture.  I woke him up to get him to pose with the ball ... poor boy...

In like a lion or a lamb?

Well, the old saying goes "In like a lion, out like a lamb."  Today in Victoria it was a lamb kind of day.  Grant cut the grass and had all the windows open airing out the house.  He says the old saying applies to February here but we'll have to wait until the end of the month to see if it ends like a lion.

While Grant was busy at the house I went shopping!  There's a consignment store I've been wanting to check out "Sailor Jacks".  I did pretty good, I only bought 3 things! and only spent $22! Here's what I found...

12 cupboard or drawer safety locks & a boob bottle. The bottle is something that I'm pretty interested to try out.  I've been looking at them for a while on line but was hesitant to spend big bucks on one.  I figure we'll see how she treats that nipple before I offer her one of mine! haha 

This is my BIG find! $12!! It has lights, plays music, counts to ten, and sings the alphabet. When Sofia is learning to walk we can have the back legs apart and when she's a bit bigger you can lock them together and it's a ride-on toy.

Score!! Today was a good day in the Dybdal house.  I hope that you and your family are enjoying the weekend too.