Easter and More

We had a great Easter last week and were fortunate enough to have Keith's family come to visit. His Grandmother and dad came for a visit that was long over due. Keith's grandmother lives in Florida and we do see her from time to time but this was her first opportunity to see Delylah and since his Dad lives in California this was the first time he had seen the girls. It was a good visit that allowed Keith the opportunity to catch up with his Dad and spend some time with his grandmother who is turning 91 this year. I took the girls to an Easter egg hunt on Saturday and they had a blast. I did want to take them to a local Easter egg hunt that was supposed to be huge but that seemed to be the popular place to be so we headed to the egg hunt at my Dad's church and it was perfect for the little ones. I have had to hide the candy since Lennah has found ways to climb the counters to get a whole of whatever sweet treats she can find.

We have also come to some final decisions. We are officially not persuing a Rwanda adoption. We know we were meant to start on that path because it has taken us in a new direction that we did not even think possible but we do not regret the decision to abandon that journey. We are awaiting some test results to see if it is possible to proceed with IUI and we should have those results Monday. When we first started trying for a family and we discovered that the mumps caused Keith damage and would make it difficult to have a baby biologically they said go to IVF. We knew parenting was more important and did not want to spend the money to go down a path that may prove fruitless. I know if IUI was presented earlier we would have waited to adopt because my plan was to have a biological child first and then adopt but I think God's plan maybe reversed for us. We are leaving all of that in his hands and hopefully we will have the go ahead that we want to hear.

Adoption is still on the horizon for us for sure. We start classes next week to go through the state and I was so hesitant long ago but for some reason I think this was the decision we are meant for. Our official stance is that we will accept two kids under the age of 8 obviously we will carefully have to examine their background and how they will fit into the girls lives.

So maybe by this time next year the mini-van will be full. That will make for some very loud road trips.

Decisions

Well, I guess our last post left a lot of people stumped as to what we are going to do. Needless to say we are still stumped. Our social worker has been wonderful and made calls and according to the embassy we should proceed with the adoption. We are still waiting on our approval from USCIS and figure we still have several weeks before that even gets here. Right now we are hestitant to proceed with Rwanda. We are thinking we would be fine on the adoption end but proceeding without an agency when changes may be coming is a little scary because of the risk of getting stuck in country. This would be an extreme burden to us because we have two little girls at home. So we are going to wait, pray, and in the mean time work on some other options of how to expand our family. We are seriously weighing going to infertility treatment options (Oh No the I word) and also going through a local agency to work on a possible state adoption. A state adoption is something we have always kicked around and will not enter one without serious consideration. We know there are many issues with adopting a child in foster care but we want to explore our options and have doors open for us. Who knows maybe we will wind up with more than just one, or more than we could even bargain for but basically we are going to leave everything up to the man upstairs and see which direction he leads us in. We are not necessarily closing the door to Rwanda but just going to hold onto the work we have done and move further along if we feel like it is meant to be.

The past week and a half or so has brought a lot of sleepless nights and fun days with it. Delylah is in a big girl bed after trying to climb out a week and a half ago. Let's just say that was a rough transition with two toddlers up half the night. Finally, she has settled into her bed and for the past two nights has slept straight through. WHEWWWW!

This past weekend was a great one. We had two birthday parties to celebrate. One with Lynn Marie who just turned two and one with Zubin who turned 3. It is great to see all these children growing up. We also had a Princess and Frog movie night with Lennah and Delylah's little friends. It was a great night and the girls had a blast. Delylah's old cribmate Meron came for the fun and it was so cute watching them hug each other like they are just age old friends. I hope these two little girls will always share this bond and be joined for life. So many do not realize that adoption not only helps build families but it brings so many other people into your life and we are so thankful for all the relationships we have formed throughout our journeys.

Not Good News

Today we heard some potentially bad news for independent adoptions from Rwanda. It appears that they will be ratifying the Hague treaty. This is great because it strives to ensure that all adoptions are completely ethical however, one requirement is that you must use an approved adoption services provider. We are not quite sure where this leaves families like us who are working on independent adoptions. We chose this route for financial reasons, because we have experienced IA before and felt like we could handle flying solo, and lastly because that is what the Rwandan government preferred. We are still waiting for confirmation on all of this but if this happens it will more than double our expenses which realistically we cannot afford right now. Going solo still was a ball park 12,000 with travel and expenses but having to switch to an agengy would be more around 25,000. Right now we are in limbo and of course it is not a great feeling.

Homestudy done and spring is coming

Lennah and Delylah giving Charlie a big hug

Cribmates Delylah and Meron

Delylah and Emebet

Last week we met with our social worker and finished our homestudy. It should be approaching the USCIS office any day now. We also had our fingerprints done a week and a half ago so hopefully it will be about 2 more months until we get our approval. From there we will finish off our dossier and go through the several rounds of state, country, and embassy seals we need. We also made another change and decided to leave our gender open. As much as we think a son would be great another girl would also bring joy to our lives (plus the cost would be less since we are a house full of girls with lots of girly things). So we are excited. We are still thinking that we will have our paperwork to Rwanda by the summer, wait about 5 months for approval, another two months for a referral, then a court date two months later, and travel a few weeks after that. Hopefully, it will correlate with the end of the school year so I would just roll into summer next year. Plus we need this adoption to happen after January next year in terms of travel because I will have more paid time off accummulated and Keith will finally be at 3 weeks vacation time paid.

On the homefront we have had some great times recently. The weekend before last Emebet our lawyer from our Ethiopian adoption was in town. It was wonderful seeing her again and getting together with the other Illien families who are locals. She helped bring our family together and just to see how much she still loves all our children was wonderful.

I took the girls to have their Easter pictures this weekend and meet the Easter bunny. Lennah was very cooperative but Delylah was not having any part of the Easter bunny. She did not want to take one single photo with him. Oh well there is always next Easter.

It was also a beautiful weekend here in Georgia and we had a nice day outside with the kids yesterday. This year we have had some crazy weather here in GA and I am kind of sick of it. THe fall was full of rain and the winter was cold and for this part of the country a lot of snow. I am ready for spring.

Wisconsin Dells

Last week I was fortunate enough to have the week off of work. So of course we planned a trip. This time we headed to Wisconsin Dells. It was a great trip. The girls had a blast going to water parks, horseback riding, and getting to play in the snow. We traveled with some people from work so I think that made the trip all the better because the girls had some other kids to play with. It was actually funny watching Lennah get up in the morning on knocking on our connecting doors yelling friends get up, open door please. She just wanted to play every chance she got. Delylah was addicted to the water slides and had fits whenever we had to take her away from the pool or from the water park. I am just amazed at what a little daredevil she was just running up the steps to get to the slides. Lennah enjoyed the pool but was not fond of going to the water park and getting splashed by the other kids. The best part of the trip for me was horseback riding in the snow. It was absolutely beautiful. Too bad Delylah fell asleep on Keith's horse and missed the whole ride. It was a wonderful trip and it was great having time to spend with Keith and the kids. We did however, have to cut our trip a little short because Lennah came down with a fever on Thursday. We decided it was time to pack up and head home. I would up taking her to the immediate med and it turned out she had a double ear infection.

I guess the last thing to report is that I had my medical today for the homestudy and Keith has his tomorrow. I guess we are one step closer to bringing home baby Paulsen. We should have our homestudy completed in about two more weeks and this Friday we have our fingerprint appointment with USCIS. We were shocked that we got our notice on Saturday and have an appointment so quick.

Homestudy and Wild Night

Delylah at the ER

Yesterday we met with our new social worker for our first homestudy visit. Things went really well and smooth. I guess it helps that this is the 3rd time around. We really liked the new social worker and it is a blessing that we met her to help facilitate this adoption.
Last night turned into a little bit of chaos. We were eating at a friend's house and of course Delylah decided it was her night to get into some stuff. Needless to say we think she swallowed some nicotine lozenges and wind up in the ER for several hours. All is I know she came up to me with something minty in her mouth and that is what we are thinking she got into. Considering having to take her to the ER on a Saturday night she was a real trooper. She listened and did everything the nurse and doctor told her. However she did not do so well with the charcoal they give you to bind up whatever may be in your system. Anyway, that it it for now. She is home and doing great and back to her chipper little self.

Update

I guess it has been a few weeks since my last post and you think with baby number 3 I would be updating more often. Well our first homestudy visit is this upcoming Saturday. We have a new social worker so we are a bit nervous being we do not have an established relationship with her left. We were sad about not being able to work with our former social worker but everything happens for a reason and this is just another person entering our lives through the journey of adoption. We also sent off our I-600 A application so at least that is checked off our list. The big hurdle in our journey is California. I guess since all their budget issues their government is extremely slow in processing birth certificates. However, thanks to my friend Nicole's mom this process should be a little quicker since she is being so wonderful and going to have our certificate state certified for us when we get it. I don't know what I would do without her.

I also had Delylah's second birthday photos taken last week. I was quite shocked that she was not her usual happy to be the center of attention self. She was a little scared of the camera guy. But one amazing thing was that lennah was excited and jumped into the photo shoot to get some shots of herself take.

Happy Birthday Girls/ Dossier Progress

This weekend we had one big birthday bash for our girls. It was a great day at Jump for Joeys. We figured since the holidays make it hard to plan parties and for people to attend we just just join the birthdays together. I know as the girls get older this probably won't happen since they will want special days with their own friends but for now it turned out great. We had a lot of friends join which made the day even better. It was a princess themed birthday which the girls have been into a lot lately. Publix made a special cake for us since each of the girls like different princesses. Lennah has really been into snow white since our disney trip and the little mermaid and Delylah likes cinderella and belle. I still cannot get over that Lennah is now three and Delylah turns two in just a little over a week. The girls are growing so fast and it seems like yesterday they were little babies. I am also amazed at how smart they are for their ages and how quickly they progressed from these little babies who experienced so little. Delylah is talking in complete sentences. Lennah is learning letters and writing letters. We are still working on counting but Lennah does not like the number 3; kind of unfortunate since she tells people she is still 2 or skipping 3 and shooting up to 4. Delylah is also into being stubborn lately. Whenever Delylah doesn't get her way she crosses her arms and stomps away. They are acting like teenagers already.

As for baby Paulsen number 3- we are making progress. Since I was out of work for ice today Keith and I went on a dossier/ homestudy rampage. We got our GBI, FBI, police clearances, etc. done today. I also set up our meeting for our social worker. It seems like we are one step closer to our son. Lennah has already given her input on his possible names either Dora or Marie the Cat. They are both so good maybe we will just name him both. LOL.

Enjoy the pics of the girls birthday party.

Christmas and More

Christmas Eve with Nanny and Big Ba waiting for Santa

Christmas was great in our house. I think this is the first year where Lennah really got it. SHe couldn't wait for Santa to get here but we had to explain to her that Santa only comes while you are asleep. Of course between family and Santa the girls were totally spoiled. I think next year Santa needs to make some cutbacks on the volume of presents delivered to our house. My parents stayed for the holiday so the girls loved waking up to have nanny and big ba here. The biggest issue with having two girls so close in age is the fighting over presents. Lennah wanted Delylah's presents and vice versa. It really makes no difference what gift is labled to who because inevitably they just wind up sharing in the long run. The big hit with Lennah this year seems to be games. She loves the game don't break the ice and candy land. Delylah is just in love with her new baby dolls. She is such a loving kid and always wants to feed, change, hug, and kiss her baby dolls.

As for baby number 3. Keith and I are working on our dossier check list. I have already gotten our marriage certificate, ordered birth certificates, and contacted our social worker for our homestudy. We are on our way. The girls are so excited about getting a brother. Delylah saw a baby the other day and she asked if it was a baby brother. Lennah also asked me if he is going to take a bath with the girls. The girls will be bunking together when baby paulsen #3 arrives and this is another thing Lennah is extremely excited about. It is just hard for them to grasp the concept of time and explaining how he won't be here for a while. I think in the long run this may be the longest adoption to complete since we are trying to make sure that he doesn't come home until early in 2011 but preferrably closer to the summer that year so it works out for my job and having time off.

Overall we are looking forward to a wonderful and exciting 2010 since our family is expanding once again and most likely for the last time (I won't say never because most likely it would come back to bite us). But I think having a boy and two girls will complete our family.

Big News

Happy 3rd Birthday Lennah

The girls at Halloween

I have been the world's worst blogger. I know it has been more than two months, Halloween gone, Thanksgiving gone, and no posts. Life has been busy with two little ones, school (still working on my doctorate), and work. The girls are doing great and growing like weeds. Delylah is certainly developing a little temper. Last week she told me I was mean because I wouldn't let her do something. Lennah continues to be my wild child but just as loveable as ever. Lennah also had her third birthday but we are not celebrating officially until January 9th since we decided to have both girls birthday parties together this year. Delylah is almost at two although she tells everyone she is two now. These two just continue to bring such joy to our lives.

On that note we are excited to announce that we are about to begin another journey. We have decided to pursue an adoption in Rwanda. This time things will be handled so differently because we are not using an agency since that is what the Rwandan government prefers. We are also looking to adopt a son this time since we have two daughters. It will definitely be a journey. I am sure the process will not go as quickly as last because it will be trial and error but I have become an expert at paperwork at this point so it is a feat we are willing to undertake. I guess with another impending adoption I will be posting more since so much of the blog was decidated to the wait of the girls. Too bad I have been so bad about blogging since Delylah has come home.