Officially waiting

Juanita and Taylor (Taylor is our newest social worker)

Juanita and Lennah (She lead our impact classes)

Our impact class on the day of our completion ceremony

Our little princess

Corn on the Cob is one of Lennah's favorites

We are done with everything for our domestic state adoption. Yipppeeee! On Saturday we had our last impact training which was sort of like a cermony where you receive a certificate that you have completed training. Yesterday we had our homestudy visit and we are now done. By next week they will have everything typed out and they will be sending our paperwork out there to find our children. Domestic adoption through the foster care system is nothing like international in the sense that we don't go on a wait list for a child and have to wait until it is our turn. Based on our preferences and what ages we are willing to accept we could be matched at any time. They said that we have a very good chance of receiving profiles of small children and we will be selected very quickly because of our experience with adoption in the past. So now all we do is sit back and wait.

In the mean time we are just enjoying the girls and have been busy with school and work. Well at least I have the next two months off of work so we plan on having a lot of family time and hanging out by the pool time since the girls are like little fishes. In a few weeks we have a trip planned to head up to NY and NJ. We have gotten a lot accomplished these last few weeks so it will definitely be nice to just have some quality family time. We managed to put in our new flooring in our living room, kitchen, and dining room, complete our adoption training, I finished a class that kicked my butt and never gave me a free night off of school.

I am also trying to keep the girls busy for the summer and have them enrolled in several activities so they don't get bored sitting around the house with mommy while I go on cleaning rampages. Tonight was Lennah's first night of karate and Tuesday Delylah had a music class. The girls are loving having some time to make new friends and learn new things. Lennah starts a dance class next week ( now she has been saying she wanted to go back to dance) and a little explorers class where she will be learning about science and nature type stuff.

General Update

It has been a very busy past few weeks. Every Saturday we have been going to our impact classes for our domestic state adoption, putting in our beautiful new floors, school work, and of course our two beautiful girls are keeping us busy.

On the adoption front we are rolling along. It appears that our international homestudy for Rwanda is being put to good use and our agency can use most of it so we will only have two meetings with them to be finished. We also have all our paperwork in so we should be paperwork ready in a few more weeks; just about the same time that we finish up classes. We are open to siblings and have found two boys who we are going to ask about as soon as our paperwork is done. For some reason we feel drawn to these two so who knows maybe the Paulsen clan will be expanding really soon.

The girls are doing wonderful and growing like weeds. We have spent a lot of time at the park since the weather has warmed up. At least on the sunny days. Delylah is really starting to hit the terrible twos. Apparently, she is finding it very amusing to tease Lennah and take away her stuff in addition to starting to talk back. Hopefully, enough trips to time out will help her move on from that.

I finished a class that had me under a lot of stress so I can now for sure focus on the adoption and other ways that we plan on expanding our family. I am still not done with school but done with the hellacious class.

Orientation

I am so at peace with all our decisions right now. Today, we had our orientation with the local agency to adopt domestically (kids up for state adoption). Yes we know we are taking big risks with kids from the US because we know a lot of their issues are different from what we see in the IA world but we are up for the challenge. Our homestudy from the Rwandan adoption is actually going to be quite useful and that will limit the paperchase and such. We should finish classes by June and the homestudy for this as well by then since we already have so much from before. They are thinking by the fall they will present us with matches. The girls are very excited about the expansion potential in our family. We are open to a sibling group and most likely they have told us that we should prepare for that.

We did not get the news from the doctor and it was not the news we hoped for. Keith's damage is worse now than it was years ago but we are proceeding to try to a have a baby as well. We are going to work on this for a few months and if it seems fruitless well than it was not meant to be. The agency did tell us that being open to a sibling group under the age of 8 does give us the possible opportunity to be presented with a group with a baby so that will also meet our desires to have another little one in addition to an older child as well.

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.