Time to get the nursery ready

Now that we are almost done w/all this paperwork it is time to get the room ready for the babies. We are going to do some room switching to put them in the office across from our bedroom, so I have lots of work to do. I need to clean out the spare bedroom so we can move the office in there and then start painting the children's room. Guess that will keep me busy so I don't go crazy during the waiting period.

Homestudy Report

I'm so excited. We got the draft of our home study to review. This is the second to last paperwork we need to complete our dossier. All I can think about is how close we are.
I don't know if I can sleep tonight.

Home study.

Ok I admit I was worked up about our first home study. I have felt like we were under the microscope for this adoption, on paper and now with the social worker coming to our home.
Our home is a work in progress and still needs work. Not to mention all the damage Tenley did as a puppy that I was frantic to fix before the meeting.
When I talk about damage, I mean damage! She unraveled carpet, chewed two baseboards and also bit a hole in 3 couches. So I got slip covers for the couches, patched the carpet, puddied the baseboards and repainted all the dings in the walls from her ball being thrown in the house.
Naing thought I was crazy and told me so many times, not to be obsessing about the house. Even my sister, Patty told me that was not the purpose of the home study, but I felt like that was the only part of this whole process I could control was how the house looked.
Now tomorrow we have our second home study visit and I am not all worked up about it. I did clean the house but I'm not obsessing about every last thing. Once again, I should have learned from the experience with the preparing for the green card interview. Oh well live and learn. Once we get our home study report we are ready to send off the copy to the USCIS to get the immigration approval for two children and then the dossier is ready to go, except I have to finish the letter to the board of the orphanage. I have started it many times, but found it very hard to put into words what having a family means to us and keep it to one page. I'm sure I will get it done soon, because I don't want to hold anything up not having it ready when the paperwork comes back from the USCIS.

Northwest Ethiopian Networking Group Picnic

We joined the yahoo on-line group and went to the group picnic. Again it was so great to meet other families that have gone through the adoption process or are in the process so they understand what we are going through. Also the sharing of experiences and wisdom has helped make this process less isolated.
We put faces to names we have chatted on-line with. One of the couples we met, the husband is Ethiopian ( I can't remember how to say/spell his name, sorry) and he has offered to help us learn how to speak some phrases in the native tongue, so we can communicate with the children better. Since we are going to adopt one that will be over 2 in age, I want to know how to ask certain questions. I'm in the process of writing the list and trying not to make it too long. But it will be nice to be able to thank the guest house staff and driver that help us while we are there as well.
Hopefully this knowledge will help the 30 hour flight be less horrible than I am imagining. Two children that don't know us, don't know the language on a long plane ride, when they have probably only been in a car twice (the two times they will go with us before we leave Ethiopia to the Embassy and the airport).

Ethiopian Children living in our neighborhood.

The wonderful thing that happened, was Naing went to Safeway instead of Fred Meyer. He stopped at the store on the way home from work and went to Safeway(we hardly ever shop at Safeway) where when he was in the checkout line, he saw a man with two boys that had to be from Ethiopia. He approached him and asked if his sons were from Ethiopia and they started to chat. Chris and his wife, Mindy adopted twin boys from Ethiopia when they were three months old. They were one of the first couples to adopt from Ethiopia with Dove Adoptions. They invited us to come over and meet their family and also meet two other couples who live in our town of Newberg, Oregon that are adopting from Ethiopia as well. Now the kicker, we all live within 5 blocks of each other. I'm so excited our children will go to school together and know other children from Ethiopia. I was worried about our children being the only black children in school, but now I don't have to worry about that.
Meeting these families really motivated Naing to finish his paperwork. It made it more real for him. We are so thankful we met them.

The paperwork begins

Once Naing started his new job at PSU, we started the adoption paperwork. Now adoption is not foreign to me, my sister adopted from the Ukraine, my best friend has two domestically adopted children and another good friend, Lisa had a daughter adopted from the Ukraine. So when we started looking at agencies, I had some idea of what I wanted from an agency. We we looking at international adoption because it would be some what faster for us and since we are in our 40s I didn't want to wait for years to have our children come home. Friends of ours told us about Ethiopia adoptions, they had looked into it. After looking at different countries and what their criteria/restrictions are and the agencies criteria/restrictions, we found a fit with a smaller agency out of Banks, Oregon called Dove adoptions and chose Ethiopia. Now remember I told you earlier Naing lived in Ethiopia as a child for two years. The more we researched it the more I knew it was the right place for us. We decided to adopt two children at once so our children will have a sibling. Our siblings are so important to us, we wanted our children to have that special bond as well.
We got our home study and our dossier packet and I was overwhelmed with the amount of paperwork. Where do you start????? I decided to do them at the same time, so anything I had to have for both packets I could do at once and not have to duplicate at a later date. I have to admit at certain points of time in this process I felt like we were in over our head, with all the questionnaires and signed, notarized documents. But we got through it all and we started our on-line courses. I finished all my paperwork and did what I could of Naing's and was waiting for him to get on the stick. I didn't want to nag him, but I felt like he was holding up the process. But I let him do it at his own pace, cuz I felt like this is our journey and maybe he needs to take longer to get through this than I do. Well that philosophical wisdom didn't last long, I started to nag.
Then the most wonderful thing happened.

Christmas in Washington

For Christmas we met NiNi, Gerald and their son, Christopher in Orando, Washington. Never heard of it, neither had we. It is in northeast Washington. Really a summer resort town, but we had fun in the snow at Christmas. It was so great to have a white Christmas and go to the quaint town of Leavenworth. This Bavarian town looks like something out of a hallmark card. We so enjoyed being a tourist and listening to the carolers sing and we met Father Claus. The rest of our time together was spent playing mahjong and skipbo. A tradition I would love to continue.

Oregon Garden

If you love flowers and appreciate the beauty of garden landscapes a trip to the Oregon Garden in Silverton is a wonderful way to spend your day. And to make the trip even better, dogs are welcomed at the garden. I have gone many times, but for Naing's birthday we took our wonderful dogs, Stuart and Tenley. We spent the afternoon strolling in the garden and enjoying the view, plus you get wonderful ideas on how to group certain plants together for your yard.

The dogs loved the big grounds to walk around and the water fountains to play in, ok only Tenley loved the water fountains to play in.

The green card

After getting married, we started Naing's green card process. Mentor had started the process, but once they heard we were married, suggested we continue it without their assistance. So off we go on the paperwork journey. For all those that have done adoption paperwork, the green card was nothing. In Sept of 2007, Naing got his green card, YEAH. I was so worked up about going for our green card meeting. They gave you this list of things you need to prove your relationship together. I brought a photo album of us while we were dating and of our wedding reception. They never looked at any of it. They wanted to know how much money I made, see proof that we had joint assets and asked us questions about how we met, how long we dated and when we got married. THAT WAS IT, 10 minutes tops. Maybe I should have learned something from this process and taken it with me as we prepared for our home study, I say in hindsight.

Our wedding and reception

We decided to get married and planned our wedding in 4 weeks. My mom was in town for Christmas, so we decided to get married while she was here. We picked New Years Eve, because it is a day of celebration of things to come. Since it was such short notice, most of our family could not attend, so we decided to have a reception in March so they could plan to come and celebrate with us. Our wedding was so special because our friends and family helped make it happen. We were married at my sister's house. My best friend Debbie, helped me find my gown and got us a wedding cake, my friend Cathy Jo made me a headpiece and did our hair for the wedding. Naing's friend's son, Caleb, played music to accompany us down the isle . And I saved the best for last, my friend Michael when he heard that I couldn't get the flowers I wanted for my bouquet, had peonies, flown in from New Zealand and his wife made me the bouquet. We truly are blessed with our friends and families.

The families came in March and we had a big party for everyone to dance, eat and drink together. Most of our siblings came. We had so much fun getting our families together. Hard to do when they live so far apart.
6:26:00 PM
by Becky & Naing

Canada

Naing took me to Canada for Canadian Thanksgiving and to meet his family. The Rockies were so breath taking. I loved Banff and Lake Louise, we want to go back and spend more time. We were going to honeymoon there, but we haven't had a honeymoon, YET.

I was very nervous to meet his family, he had not shared with his family that we planned to get married yet.

They were very welcoming. His sister NiNi and her husband Gerald, opened their home to me and made me feel so welcomed.

His parents and my Mom are so sweet together and enjoy each other's company.

Meeting the families

We went to Texas for Naing to meet my family, before he officially proposed. Here we are with my sister's Donna, Mary, niece Taylor and my Mom (who never smiles in pictures). I had so much fun taking Naing back to Texas. I miss my family and all that happens together when I'm visiting. I don't miss the heat and humidity of Texas. We went out for real TexMex (how I miss it), had a typical Sunday afternoon in Nov, watching the Cowboys and having a big family get together. Naing fit right in, and my sister Donna spoiled him so. I can't wait to go home with our children so they can meet the family.

Fun Trips

We have seen some beautiful things the last few years. Places, family and friends included.

Crater Lake was one of my favorite places we went.

For those of you that do not know our story, it begins on E-Harmony. Yes, Naing and I met on E-Harmony. We are both in our 40(s) never been married and we got matched up. We started dating and found out we did have so much in common. We are both the youngest of 6 children. Even though he was born in Burma and I was born in Wisconsin, we were meant to be. Naing has led a more exciting life as a child than I did. His father worked for the World Health Organization and after they left Burma, he lived in Ethiopia (remember that for later) Tanzania, India and then they moved to Canada. That is where Naing finished his education and went onto college to get two degrees. He moved to Oregon for a job for a small start up software company, that did not survive. So he decided to stay in Oregon and went to work for Mentor Graphics. While attending Mentor he went on to earn his Masters in Software Engineering at PSU. He left Mentor and is now at PSU in their IT department. I grew up in Texas and moved to Oregon in 1980. I liked it so much, I stayed and went to school at PSU. I now manage a vet clinic in Hillsboro.
When we were dating and talking about getting married, we also started discussing adoption.
We both knew we wanted to have a family. After we got married, we had to get Naing's green card finished before we could start the adoption process because he had to have permanent residency to adopt.
5:19: