It's Here, It's Gone...Let the Waiting Begin!

Today was a great day--it went something like this. Basketball from 9-12. Gavin's team lost in the championship game after playing 2 games to get there. 12:00, out to lunch with the family. Side note--getting a table for 7 takes a lot longer than for 4 and I am not sure if we will ever get a table for 9.:)

We come home. I give Dave a big smile and he says he will check the mail. He walks over and I watch through the car window. He holds up the mail pile and says," We're golden!" We have been waiting for over a month for our final homestudy to arrive. It is finally in our possession. We are both so excited.

Dave takes the older 3 boys out to buy a new bat and to the field to take batting practice for a bit. I sit home and gather all paperwork and go through ALL the information to make sure we indeed have it ALL.
Dave gets home and sits down with me to go through everything for a double check. This is it. The dossier. "dos-ee-ey" or "daw-see-ey," Definition: a complete file containing detailed information about a person. We prefer to say "Daw-See-Yeay!!!" It is a lot of information about us. Down to how we were raised, how we raise our kids, our finances, our health, our relationship and our desires for the future.
It's ready to go. 4:00pm I am off to Fed Ex. As I backed out of my driveway, I couldn't help but smile. We are so excited. One more step down. Lot's of waiting to go.

OH SO CLOSE

Our home study is complete.  YEAH!  I am just waiting for it to come in the mail.  We have ALL our paperwork ready for our DOSSIER.  Any day it will be on it's way to Minnesota to our Agency and then on to Ethiopia.  We will then be "OFFICIALLY WAITING."

I Can Picture It Now

I am very excited about what's in store for us.  Everyday I walk by these groupings of pictures in my house and I always think how there is just enough room for 2 more pictures in each place.  The sketches are from Gettysburg,PA and I am already figuring out how I will get the 2 new ones to place on the other side of the door.  I really do picture our family with 7 boys.  I LOVE it.  Now to be totally for real, I do have a lot of feelings of being overwhelmed.  Am I really going to have 7 boys all under 11?  That just seems crazy.  I have my hands full with 5.  I do know for sure that this is what we are supposed to do and I am grateful to know this.  I thank you all for your confidence in us as parents and especially me as mother.  I have heard the question asked "Are you sure this is what you want?"  I have to say YES.  I know it will not be easy but only worth it.  :-)  

Valentines Ethiopian Style

So I thought I had this great idea for Valentines--okay, maybe a night out on the town dinner since Sierra's parents were here this weekend (and her bro could babysit). We'd go into Seattle and have dinner at one of the Ethiopian restaurants, as a sign of our commitment to the integration process and to get more cultured. Also, part of it was because I really like different ethnic foods and wanted Sierra to realize it's not all that bad (she apparently had a bad Ethiopian food experience back in high school). And hey, it was Valentines, so that could be a two-fer.

So it went something like this...

5:45 - Leave the house. Dave to Sierra's parents: "Watch this, on a normal traffic day like today, it takes us less than 25 minutes to get into the city."

7:00 - After bumper to bumper traffic coming into the city (due to some construction on the Interstate and not to mention likely more evening dinner out traffic due to some holiday), we pull into a lot with one remaining spot. Price to park: $20.

7:05 - Dave walks into the cute little authentic restaurant like he owns the place (had done a little research on the Internet) only to find out that the only way we're going to be dining is if we had a reservation (not enough research on the Internet). Dave begs and pleas and leaves a phone number, and is told there's a possibility in about an hour (looking around, there couldn't be more than 10-15 tables in this place...and people don't look like they're moving).

7:05-7:35 - We aimlessly walk around the Pike's Place Market area, thinking maybe we'll get an early call back (okay, only I was thinking that...everyone else was thinking McDonald's sounded good given the cold weather).

7:45 - Dave makes one last ditch effort as everyone walks back to the car lot. And yep, you guessed it, they opened a table for me. And I'll never tell what put them over the top.

9:00 - We're still sitting at the table waiting for our food. I'm not in that much of a hurry...kind of enjoying the away time, but everyone else is getting ready to doze off and growing impatient. Despite the long wait, we did have some great conversation related to the adoption (next steps, talking about the trip to Africa, throwing out different names we're considering--I know it's early for that, but what do you do...need something to bide the time, and no we won't share yet.

9:05 - Here's the food. Okay, not the greatest picture...but that's because of the Valentine's Day ambience.:) So that's a combo of beef and shrimp tibs, some sort of chicken, a mixture of beans, a mango/pineappled salad, and some curried potatoes all served on this spongy sourdough tasting pancake concoction called Injera bread. Off to the left of the plate is another plate of Injera bread. The way you're supposed to eat the food is to rip off pieces of the bread and use it instead of a fork to scoop the food. No silverware.

9:15 - We're already finsihed. Okay, maybe not that quick, but it had to be close. We were so hungry that it seemed like the food disappeared. All in all, I think there was consensus that it was good food and a good meal overall--took quite a while, but fun and interesting nonetheless. Happy Valentines Day honey!

And the bonus of it all...you got to take away this really great lingering smell from the food. We're not kidding...we both had our jackets airing out on the porch today.:)

So let the culturing begin.

Making a Difference: One Starfish at a Time

More than anything else so far, throughout this process we've encountered the question "Why?" Whether it's been from friends, co-workers, family, or even ourselves. As our hearts turn more and more towards Africa and particularly Ethiopia, I'm continually reminded of the story of the Star Thrower.

I awoke early, as I often did, just before sunrise to walk by the ocean's edge and greet the new day. As I moved through the misty dawn, I focused on a faint, faraway movement. I saw a boy, bending and reaching and waving his arms – dancing on the beach, no doubt in celebration of the perfect day soon to begin.

As I approached, I sadly realized that he was not dancing, but rather bending to sift through the debris left by the night's tide, stopping now and then to pick up a starfish and then standing, to heave it back into the sea. I asked the boy the purpose of the effort. "The tide has washed the starfish onto the beach and they cannot return to the sea by themselves," he replied. ‘When the sun rises, they will die, unless I throw them back to the sea.’

I looked at the vast expanse of beach, stretching in both directions. Starfish littered the shore in numbers beyond calculation. The hopelessness of the boy's plan became clear to me and I pointed out, ‘But there are more starfish on this beach than you can ever save before the sun is up. Surely you cannot expect to make a difference.’

He paused briefly to consider my words, bent to pick up a starfish and threw it as far as possible. Turning to me he simply said, "I made a difference to that one."

I share a birthday with Helen Keller, and I've always been fond of something she said: “I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.”

I've always been bullish by the notion of the power of one....how hands can touch hands and touch hands...how even the smallest act, even a drop of a pebble, can start a ripple effect that heaves beyond its boundaries. For many of us, we may think it's SO overwhelming, there's beaches littered with starfish that we can't get to or make a difference for.

People talk about adoption as inspiring and noble, to which we're extremely flattered and definitely don't feel deserving of that label. What I've always liked about this story and you don't often see it told in the tale, but the next day, the older man returns back to beach and joins the star thrower. He says, "I understand. Call me another thrower."

I love it...there exists in each of us, the capacity to move from observer to actor. To actually change the natural order of things through simple actions. For us, adoption is but one avenue...yet, we know there are two boys just waiting for us to make a difference.

Still Here

We are patiently waiting the draft of out home study.  We have everything else ready to send in. We are experiencing our first "It's out of our control" moment.  To pass some time we have done a few things to prepare like buy a freezer.  With 7 boys I am sure this will be very needed.  At Costco yesterday I filled a cart full (buying toilet paper fills half the cart) and I had many interesting looks.  The whole time I was thinking yes this is good for now but having 7 growing boys just might put me out of my house.  I am so excited for that day.  I feel overwhelmed a lot with 5 but I couldn't be more excited for more.  Another funny thing is on Saturday we went to the Ford store to look at passenger vans.  The lady wasn't sure if they had any as she said they don't sell too many. OH REALLY?  They did actually have a 12 passenger so we took a look.  It brought back a flood of memories of High School road trips driving to Anchorage.  The vans are huge.  My dad calls it Daves man machine.  We'll see what really happens with that.  Thanks for following along and for your support!!

Evolution of the Forstrom Dream Car

When I was about Gavin's age (10), my dream car was a red Corvette Stingray...

Then once I became a true "professional," I envisioned having something like this Jaguar.

But now, having embarked on this journey, I see myself dreaming more and more of something like this...

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about...Super Duty, Extended Length, 305 horses powering a 15 passenger, DVD system in every row, man machine. Okay, honestly, living room on wheels, but here's to dreaming.:) With nine of us in the near future, that dream isn't too far-fetched is it? And to think we may have to say goodbye to Old Faithful, our beloved Ford Expedition. And I always swore against going the van route...look at me going the route of giving in...not a lot of options though.:)

A Home With Room For More

For our dossier we have to submit pictures of every room of the house. I thought I would share a few. And yes our house is always this clean. HA HA


This is Trenton's room for now. He already climbs out of his crib so I am thinking we will make the crib to bed transition soon. At least in time for him to give up his crib.

I just have to share these 2 pictures as proof that the sun does shine sometimes in WA. I need more sunshine in my life these days.

A Must Read: There is No Me Without You

I can't even remember the last time I did a book review (maybe high school), but I have to share my new favorite read, "There is No Me Without You: One Woman's Odyssey to Rescue Her Country's Children," by Melissa Fay Greene. Of course, it's probably because I'm 3/4 of the way into the 462-page book and am partially swayed given the experience we're going through, but it has been an incredibly moving and enlightening story.

There's so many things about the book that resonate with me, but I think ultimately it comes down to that special connection and love that exists between parent and child.

The author manages to chronicle one woman's struggle and individual triumph at the center of Africa's AIDS crisis. After losing her husband and daughter, Haregewoin Teferra, an average Ethiopian womans, transforms her life and opens her home to literally hundreds of Addis Ababa's orphans, many of them stricken with the deadly disease. It's a story that conveys so many things--transformation, the power of one, recognizing imperfection, compassion and unconditional love, gratitude, and the need respond, act, and do more in our lives. Additionally, it's opened my eyes to the realities of Africa, specifically Ethiopia--it's history, it's people and their culture, political turmoil, the evolution of AIDS and it's devastating impact, crimes against humanity and the role pharma has and hasn't played in the destituion that exists there.

The problem in Ethiopia is huge and intractable, and now it's been made real to me in a very human way. These children ache for a parent, any parent. And as hard as it is to explain it, deep inside, sometimes even on the near surface, I feel that ache and yearning, and wish for nothing more than to contribute in any way I can to take some of it away.

Bottom line, I would encourage anyone following this journey with us to read this book in order to get a better sense of Ethiopia and its orphans, what we are and will experience, and what life and living is to our children.