Any News Is Good News....

 Eeeeek! So excited!! I saw an email last night just before going to bed (and with all my might said this blog post could wait until the morning!) that said  "Case Filed" in the subject line.  Our email shows the first couple words of an email before we actually open it.  I read 'Congratulations!' Oh boy, I couldn't get that email opened quick enough!

The words I read don't change anything.  We still don't have a court date and still don't know when we will go to court and travel to see our sweet baby girl.  However, at this stage in the process, ANY news is good news! It's just something to hold on to and know that things are progressing along. 

So what did the email say? 
Our case was filed with federal court on Thursday, January 3, 2012. We are now waiting for the Ethiopian courts to schedule our first hearing.  Our agency said we should receive the dates for our first hearing in about 2 weeks.  We do not need to travel for the first hearing.  From my understanding, this is the preliminary hearing and the director of West Sands in Ethiopia as well as a representative from the orphanage will appear to represent us.
And the best part of the email said this: "You should plan on traveling in as soon as 6 weeks."

YAY!!! :)

In other news....
Checked in to immunizations.  There are no safe vaccines for nursing mothers for malaria.  BUT, the lady at the Maricopa County Adult Immunization Center (so I'm assuming she's pretty knowledgeable) said that malaria mosquitoes only bite at night and there are none in Addis Ababa, which is where we will be sleeping each night.  So she said as long as we don't stay over night anywhere else, I should be fine.  The agency told us to wear 100 deet at night at 30 deet during the day.  Hep A is safe for both of us, so we will go to get those.  However, yellow fever is not safe at all for me either because that is passed on to the baby and can make their teeth black.  So, we'll be passing on that one too!




Printed off our 20 page packet for travel that the agency sent us.  We have lots of information including a packing list, information on cultural norms, weather, and what we can bring for Elliana.  We also will be taking an extra suitcase (or 2...just depends what the airline will allow) full of items for the children at the orphanages.  How fun!! If anyone has any children's clothes they want to donate or diapers, we would be glad to take them. (But check with me first so we can get a variety and don't have more than is allowed).



Stay tuned...

More Sweet Words!

This is the room our sweet Elliana is in!!!

I asked the mama of Elliana's roommate about how the babies are being cared for in the transition home.  I thought it was great info that she told me and I was happy so I wanted to share it with you! It also speaks volumes of our agency.  We just love them and know sweet Elliana is in good hands.

She said:
"The care of the babies is very good. You can see the two nannies in the room in our pictures. They work 12 hour shifts. There are six children total in the room. [two toddlers and four babies] The beds are cushioned with lots of blankets and pillows. They keep the babies warm with blankets, and they seem very comfortable. They get regular bottles and diaper changes as well as changes of clothes. I didn't witness any baths, but they all seemed well washed."

Again, it's all so nice to hear.  Every little bit helps. 

Thanks for reading!

Tax Deductible Donations

Now that we are in the referral process, some of you have asked if you could give donations.  Thank you!  We appreciate everything--no matter how big or small in your eyes it is.  In our eyes it is huge and we appreciate the examples of generosity we have seen from so many.  Every little bit helps us and we are so grateful for those that are being faithful by allowing the Lord to use you to bless our family.  Words couldn't ever explain the gratitude that fills our hearts.

When those of you have asked me recently about a donation, I reminded you that it is tax deductible if you donate directly to the agency.  If you donate to us (on the side of the blog) it is not.  However, if it goes to the agency, it get applied to our fees and is subtracted from our totals.

If you are feeling lead to give, or if you are one of the people I said I would post this for, here is the address you send the check to:

West Sands Adoption Agency

c/o Koni McGregor

1240 East 100 South   Unit #1

St. George, UT

84790

 

****DO NOT FORGET THE UNIT #1

 

***MOST IMPORTANT: Write in the memo line: Brent and Allison Frazey

(and if you let us know, then we will give them a heads up)

 

 

Another option is using their website to use your credit card on a secured pay pal site.  Here is the link:

West Sands Adoption Online Donation Page

 

****MOST IMPORTANT:  in the "purpose" box please enter: 'To benefit Brent and Allison Frazey'

 

If you would like a tax deduction receipt, then you need to include your name and address on a paper with your check or with pay pal you automatically enter your address, so they will have it.

 

Thank you!!

Comforting Words...

Oh, I got such good news today!!!! I just wish I could reach through this computer screen and squeeze the fellow adoptive mama that confirmed without a doubt that Elliana is in the transition home.  Elliana shares a room with her little girl.  She just returned last week from her trip and sent me a photo of the room.  I saw the exact color and shape of the crib, the color of the wall, AND the pillow case pattern (which was floral--not easily mistaken) as in Elliana's referral photo.
I sent her the picture we have and her name and this is what she said:

"Yep! That's her! What a cutie. She is tiny. She is doing well. Saw her get her diaper changed and take a bottle. Seemed to be doing good!"


Ahhhhh!!!! Those words are just music to my ears.  I was in touch with a mama that is going over for court on the 22nd and is going to get some pictures for me!!! :)  Can't wait to get those!

Isn't this beautiful? Andrea, my sister, surprised me with it! I LOVE it!

In other news,  Brent and I have decided to leave Declan here.  We were planning to take him because he is exclusively nursing, but you can't take babies into court. It's even looked down on to take babies in public.  And a $2,500 plane ticket is an expensive baby sitter (which is what we would have had to do!)  So after much prayer, we can say (ok, I can say--Brent was fine and supportive either way) that we feel comfortable and at peace with leaving him here.  We'll start him on solids sooner than planned so he will be nursing less.  I will take LOTS of batteries and my lovely medela and be super obsessive about pumping! (Sorry if that is TMI for some of you!) 
For our faithful praying friends, please pray that God would give me peace and enable me to trust in Him completely.  I don't want added stress while I am on the trip, which could affect my supply.  And "stress" is just a word for sin in this case.  That sin is worry and lack of trusting.  So I would greatly appreciate your prayers.  One dear friend of mine who I sought council from said the greatest encouragement to me: "God knew the timing when He chose your little girl for you, His hand is on all the logistics, too."  My prayer is that Declan will pick up where he left off and I will continue to produce milk to pump and freeze for Elliana.

Right now the plan is that Mimi (Allison's mom) will come stay at the house with Raelynn.  Declan will go to Grandma and Tank's house (Brent's parents).  They live about 10 minutes from our house and we will have them get together during the week so that will help both of the kids with the adjustment of us being gone.  We don't know how well the internet will work in Ethiopia so just in case we aren't able to facetime with them, we will record some videos to be played while we are away.  Hopefully Raelynn's best buddies Jackson and Josiah will be available for a play date that week too, so she can see familiar faces! :)  This was a hard decision, but will make our trip much easier and we can totally focus on Elliana. 

Add caption

Now that we have made that decision, next on our list is figuring out immunizations!  Some take several weeks to become effective, so we need to figure out which ones we are taking.  We have learned that none are required, but we will most likely take some.

The Orphanage

 

First of all, I have to say how thankful I am for our agency, West Sands.  And for the fellow adoptive mamas I have recently met through facebook.  They have been a huge help and support already.  One mama said her son was in the same orphanage as Elliana and sent me a few pictures! 

The orphanage is called Selam and is located in Nazret. 

This is the outside of the orphanage.  Pretty, isn't it?



 

 

 

 

 

 

We were told that Elliana wouldn't be moved until after court, but after talking to some of the mamas who are in or have recently been in our place, it seems that sometimes our children are moved over to the transition home without them notifying us.  They just tell all the families they don't move them until after court, because is when they have to move them.  That is when we will start paying for foster care for Elliana to be at the transition house because she will have been declared ours.  This mama also sent me some pictures of the nannies holding her son.  They are full of smiles and giving kisses, so that's nice to see.  She also sent me this picture:

 

This is a room inside the transition house.  You can see the wall colors. 

 

 

 

Here is a tiny portion of Elliana's referral photo:

Do you see the wall color??? I think our daughter is at the transition home! :)  That makes me very happy!  (And I had to include a little bit of her hair in the picture, too!)

 

 

 

Here are some other photos of the orphanage, and you will notice that all the walls are white:

 

 

Very sad there are so many beds in one room, but otherwise I couldn't believe how nice the conditions were.  These are the only photos we have, so I don't know what the other parts of the orphanage look like though.

 

Several of the people who have visited in the past commented to me:

 

"If it is the one I'm thinking of it was VERY nice.  They had marble floors and very elaborate woodwork.  The kids were all very nice."

 

"We walked away saying we could be so happy adopting any of the children! They were all very sweet and well cared for.  The guy who runs it is a very dear man who really wants the best for the children and is so kind."

 

"We loved the Nazarat orphanage!"

 

"I remember when we visited Salem Orphanage-I left there feeling very thankful that my son spent his early months there--so clean and staff was friendly."

 

 

These are so comforting to read!  It doesn't change how we would love her- no matter where Elliana is from or is staying, but it is so nice to know her conditions are clean and she seems in good hands.

 

Someone also said they saw kids sitting up and rolling over, which means they are probably getting out of their cribs and possibly getting tummy time!  They still have far less interaction and care than we would want any child to have and still spent far too much time in a crib, but this is still all positive!

 

Wanted to share this news with you! :)

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



The day we have been waiting for!

There will be no January waiting list update......because we got a referral!!!

December 28, 2012 is a day that will always be very special to us.  We finally got the call.  And because I'm a detail person and I love hearing details of birth stories and adoption stories, I of course have to give you all the details on ours!  So here is how it went down....from the call, to announcing, to what happens next.

(and just a side note....I'm going to type this through and publish right away.  Both kids are sleeping and if I don't do this right now, it will be another month before it happens, and hopefully by then there are many more blog posts with more updates! So forgive me if I ramble and it's all over the place!)

It was 6:00pm on Friday night.  We had sweet potato fries in the oven.  We had received an email earlier in the day from West Sands about a new policy going into effect in Ethiopia.  As I was cutting tomato and onion for our hamburgers, I told Brent he should read the article.  He brought the computer to the counter, sat at the bar stool and didn't get past the first sentence of the article when his phone vibrated on the counter.  "Hello, this is Brent."  I, of course knew when he answered it that way that it was not just a friend calling and wondered who was calling on Friday at 6:00pm. Then he says, "Yes, we are. Can I put you on speakerphone?"  Whoa, those words.  I knew.  I looked at his phone and saw the name West Sands on the screen as he popped open the phone.  I don't think I can even describe the feeling that went through my body at that moment.  Life was about to change.  We heard the words that we were going to have a daughter. A two month old little girl.  A precious gift from God.

The phone conversation didn't last much longer and we eagerly waited by the computer screen watching for the new email to pop up.  She said it would be there within ten minutes--in reality, it probably only took about four minutes to arrive....but it seemed much longer.  We couldn't wait to see her name and see her sweet face.  We just stared at the photograph for quite a while.  Then wiped away tears and then looked at the rest of the documents in the email. 

I'm not entirely sure what I'm allowed to say other than the agency told us we cannot post her photo on any website, blog, or facebook.  But I am allowed to show you in person!  We have studied every pixel of that photo and she is just beautiful!  We only have one picture right now, but we heard that more will come after a few weeks.  So if you'd like to see her sweet face, you know this mama wants to show you! Even if you have already seen her....I'd be happy to show you again and again:) 

I'm not going to blog about her history either.  Not right now anyway.  This is something I'd be willing to share with you in person, or if you are a friend who I won't be seeing in person but would like to know, just ask.  I don't mind sharing what information we do have....just not on the blog.

Our little sweetheart does have a name and a birth certificate.  Currently, her first name starts with the letter G. That will one day be her middle name, so one day, after court, I will write on the blog what that is.  But we have decided to give her a new first name, given by us.  We will call her Elliana. 

 Elliana G. Frazey

Elliana is Hebrew and means "God has answered my prayer" or "The Lord has responded" 

It has been our prayer that God be glorified through this adoption. We have sought His wisdom and guidance and it has taken us down different paths than we originally thought.  We have prayed many prayers for a child we had not seen or known.  We prayed for His will to be done in His perfect timing and we knew that He would give us the exact child He had planned for our family.  God has indeed answered our prayers.  He is so merciful and gracious to us even though we do not deserve it.  One example of His goodness was that it was our heart's desire was to have an infant but we did say we were willing to go up to 14 months.  But God gave us this sweet little girl that is two months old.  This is the youngest referral we have ever heard of for international adoption.  He is so faithful to His children. This is just one small portion of what He has done and we know as we trust in Him, He will continue to guide and direct us as we seek to raise Elliana and our other children in the fear and instruction of the Lord.

A couple other neat little things are about the city Elliana is from.  It is Adama, which is one letter off from my maiden name; Adams. Also, Adama is better known as Nazret, and was derived from a word that means 'cactus'.  Pretty cool, considering we live in Arizona:)  God has every detail planned and ordained.

So, back to the sweet potatoes in the oven....
We had always said that when we got our referral we would go to the Ethiopian cafe to eat and celebrate.  So, Brent walked over to the oven and turned it off and said, "We're going out!"
Before we left, we did a little face time with my mom and dad in Michigan and sister and brother in Ohio.  Then, it was off to Tina's Ethiopian Cafe!

 

 

 

Funny story here.  We had the video camera and everything, thinking it would be a great memory to have.  Got our referral and went to eat Ethiopian food.  Great idea, right?  We pulled up with Brent's mom and dad at 7:00pm.  We snapped this photo before we went in.  Right after we took the photo, a woman walked out and asked if we were going to come in.  I thought she just didn't like that we were loitering and taking pictures, haha!  Nope, it wasn't that.  Instead, she informed us they were closing.  That day was reservation only day.  She felt so bad. I assured her it was ok, that we should have called first, and that we'd be back the next day.  Well she said they were closing and would be reopening in February in a new location.  haha!  Well, at least we tried!

So, we went to Joe's BBQ instead! A great second choice:)  And they donated gift cards to the auction, so what a great place to celebrate!

 

We could hardly keep in our excitement, but we wanted to hear back from the agency before announcing the news.  Since we hadn't officially signed or sent them our referral fees yet, we thought we should get their permission first!  At 10pm Saturday night we heard back that we could announce!  We also got a 20 page booklet sent to us with lots of information from what to pack, to immunizations, and also what to expect in country. 

 

 

 

So what's next?  No, Elliana will not be here next week or even next month.  Adoption is a process of waiting.  First you wait for your fingerprint clearances, then you wait for your homestudy, and approvals, you wait in the doctor's office to get your medical check ups, wait for passports, for state clearance and federal clearance, then of course you wait and watch your number drop lower on the waiting list.  But now the real waiting has begun.  The waiting just got so much harder now that we see the face we are waiting for.  Now that we know it's a daughter we are waiting for.  It's hard to describe how much it can change in an instant, but it does.  She was always on our minds before, but now it is just different.  Now we know her age and what orphanage she is in.  But I want to know more-- who is holding her? Who is feeding her? What does her crib look like? Is she crying? Is anyone looking her in the eyes so she can smile at them? I'm here on the other side of the world wanting to rock her to sleep and cover her with kisses and all I can do is stare at a picture. These thoughts consume my thinking and I must remind myself to trust in my Father that He would protect her and comfort her and that He would be pleased to have this process go speedy and smoothly. 

But I digress...

 

So, what's next?  We are currently waiting for a preliminary hearing court date.  That is the hearing that our agency director will appear and someone from the orphanage will appear.  Once that is done, they will issue a new court date.  This is the big one! The important date we are praying to be soon because that is when we will travel! That is when we will meet Elliana and hold her in our arms! I will be sure to update the blog with those dates!! 

 

Right now, Elliana is in an orphanage.  Once we pass court, she will be moved to the transition home, which is run by the agency.  There, they have nannies and all the other children who have been matched are also there.  I'm praying that she would be moved before we go to court because I have heard that happens sometimes.  I know that she would receive much better care there. When we travel, we will go to the orphanage and see her.  We cannot take her out of the orphanage though.  In fact, they say we will only get to see her on 2 days of our trip for a few hours each day. We will stay in the transition home.  The director will pick us up from the airport and drive us while we are there.  They also provide food or we can go get it on our own. 

 

They told us that we should be prepared to travel in approximately two months.  Some families though, traveled as quick as four weeks after their referral. My birthday is January 30.  2 years ago I had a wonderful gift of my first born, Raelynn.  I went into labor on my birthday and she was born the next day.  Maybe this year's gift will be a court date!!! :)  

 

I'm going to stop there for now.  I have so much more to write.  If you have questions, either drop them in the comments or email me! I'd love to try to answer them and maybe you have thought of a question that we haven't.  So much going through our minds right now and so much to do now with Lord willing, little time to do it in.      

 

So I will leave you with some outtakes....because who doesn't love some good bloopers?

 

Such a great smile, but no sign!

She did a great job of looking at the sign...

 





Did you want me to smile?

 

 

Thank you for taking the time to read our blog and our story.  We appreciate your support and your prayers.  More updates to come!