Brian's Birth Certificate!

They arrived today! In less than 3 weeks the U.S. Consular Office in D.C. was able to send us 2 original birth certificates. Happy day!! We are now just waiting on our home study documents to send our dossier to CWA to approve. Once CWA approves the myriad of notarized documents, we have to do a few more steps to get our dossier certified from the U.S. government and then...

It's off to Ethiopia. And we're on the waiting list!!!!!!

Thanks for praying through birth certificates, numbers of babies, pain, and financial needs...to name a few. Much love...

Good News. Bad News.

What kind of person are you? Do you like the good news first or the bad news? I don't know what it says about you if you like the bad news first, but I do. I like to end on a good note. However, if you like good news first, scroll to the bottom of this post and read up.

Bad News. Brian was born in the Dominican Republic. Well, that's not really the bad news, but it is in terms of getting 2 certified copies of his birth certificate. He was born a U.S. citizen but born abroad. So, getting copies of his birth certificate take between 4-8 weeks. We sent in the request 3 weeks ago and yesterday received our request back saying that it needed to be notarized. Really!?!?! %*$(*#! I promise you "they" didn't tell me that. So, we have to send in the request AGAIN. The really bad news about all this is now we're probably going to be ONLY waiting on his birth certificates to send in our dossier. We could have sent in our dossier in a just a few weeks, but now we'll be delayed up to 2 months. Hurry up and wait...read my post on that.

Prayer Request ::
Would you pray that the Embassy will expedite our request and get 2 certified copies of Brian's birth certificate back to us before end of August?

Good News. Our home study is approved!!!!! Wooohoooo!!!! Dillon was so great to work with on our home study. We loved Rachel Lee and their whole staff. This is a huge step forward in our adoption.

Happy Day. Sad Day. Welcome to the world of parenting, I suppose.

Attachment and Consciousness

When we met with our social worker (from Dillon International), she talked about how important attachment is for babies. With biological kids it's easy to take for granted the "givens " in connecting with your newborn - holding them right after birth, repeated kisses on their slimy faces, nursing, middle of the night diaper changes, etc...

With adoption it's more difficult because you have no idea what their life was like from conception until they become a part of your family. It's safe to assume they don't receive the same nurture, connection, and affection that another baby does. So, when that baby enters their "forever family", developing attachment is one of the most important tasks between parent and child. They have to learn that you are their parent - the one who will take care of their basic needs and love them beyond measure.

The other thing our social worker talked with us about is the psychological connection between the development of attachments and consciousness. Kids who don't develop attachments to their mom and dad also do not develop a strong moral consciousness. Fascinating, huh!?! It makes sense though - if you do not develop attachments to another human being, than why would you care how you treat another human being?

This learning has caused me to pray differently for our little one(s). I'm praying for what life is like for them before they become Baby Ethiopia Diaz (with a white momma...what a 3rd culture kid!). I'm praying that quicker than normal that our little one(s) intuit that I'm her momma. I'm praying that God would make up whatever time we've lost from each other, and that a strong bond will form.