There is still time....

What an exciting day to be an American! I hope everyone got a chance to check out some of the coverage of President Obama. I watched here at home with my littlest guy. Not sure home much he got out of it. Josh and Matt loved watching it at school.

Well people if you checked out my blog today you are in luck... You can still vote for your favorite name. Don't be shy go ahead and pick your favorite name or 2. It is just for fun. I like all the names an am curious what everyone else likes.

Robin

More good news

Well it has been a very exciting week for Gladney families. After months and months, an agency closing, a new agency learning the ropes and even more months of waiting our group received another referral today. Congratulations to Katie and Ed on your new baby boy! It has been sooo exciting to see people get there referrals. It finally feels like it is really going to happen for us and not just a "someday we will have a daughter" feeling. I keep wondering if she has been born yet. My mom is beside her self waiting for the news. She is off for a girls weekend with outlet shopping so I gave her the go ahead and buy some pink things.

My poor friends. After giving them the call before the call they feel like they are on alert. I called my friend MJ today just to say hi but she wasn't home. She called me back the minute she got my message just in case I had news. So sweet. I have been amazed at how supportive everyone has been.

In other news- the boys used their video gift cards from Santa to rent 2 wii games for the weekend. They are having a blast playing Mario Super Sluggers as I type. My boys are such baseball nuts! We have MLB 2K8 and Power Pros but somehow this 3rd baseball game is exciting. Go figure.

Well that's all for now. Don't forget to vote for your favorite baby names. The kids love seeing the votes come in (Okay- so do I)

Robin

Some of my favorite pictures

These are a few of my favorite pictures from this summer. The first picture is of Jake and I. He is full of personality. The next picture is form when we took the kids to a Portland Sea Dogs game. They are a minor league team for the Red Sox. Matt hung around the dug out and was able to get a game ball from one of the players. He was even able to have one of the Players sign it. It is one of his most prized possessions and it even has it's own game ball case that it is kept in. (sometimes--other times I find it under his bed, in his bed or in his backpack going to school with him. Josh learned how to score a game with the help of his Dad. You can see how fun that was for him by the HUGE smile on his face. Now we need a picture of our daughter :)

Enjoy!

Robin

Good News!

A family in our "group" received a referral of a baby girl today. Yahoo! Congratulations to Mike and Sue on becoming 1st time parents!! I can't wait to see a picture. I think that makes us number 1 on the list! I am beside myself with excitement. I have called my husband, my mom and a few friends with the exciting news. I guess I was giving them the call before the call:)
Robin

Update

We have been working on our homestudy update this week. Our local social worker came out and took a tour of the house. Lucky for us, we are status quo with last years big homestudy. Once Phil has been to his doctors appointment we should have it completed.

A member of our 2008 waiting families received a referral for a baby girl yesterday. So exciting to see members of our "waiting group" get a referral. We have all been waiting a long and somewhat stressful time, with the shutdown of our original agency and the start up of our wonderful new one. This is the very 1st referral for our group. Congratulations to Julie and her family. I was able to see a picture and she is just beautiful.

We were told to get ready by our agency as we are getting very close. By the calculations of our group I think we are number 2 now. Wahoo!! I am so excited to get the phone call. I am so excited to see her face. She may already be in this world and I cannot wait to meet her.

In other news.... we got hit with a big snow storm on Saturday night. Our snowblower had broken in the last storm ( last Wednesday). Luckily Phil was able to find and remove a huge rock Saturday night and we ( I meen he) could clean the driveway and walk ways. We still have a layer of ice on the driveway that we wer not able to break up. Who knows when we will see the actual driveway again. Some bitter cold air has also blasted in. I am so not a winter girl. Though someone suggested I take up skiing and then I might change my mind. I might just try that even thoguh I am a scaredy cat.

We got together with my extended family this past weekend for a belated Christmas celebration. My uncle was telling us that my cousin Tracy wasn't feeling well when they went to visit her in Texas over the holiday. Tracy is my only girl cousin and we are very close. I guess she was having trouble with her stomach and finally went to the doctors after her company left. She thought she might have a cyst or something but found out quite by surprise that she is pregnant with her 4th!!!! It was quite shocking for her. And shocking to everyone else as well. They had recently decided that they were done and her husband had gone to the doctors as well for the big V. Apparently this baby is quite strong and determined and has managed to bust though a medical procedure and other preventative measures!! Can't wait to meet this strong willed one in August. I hope it is a girl so that our girls will have a chance to be as close as we are.
I that is it for our news right now. My boy Josh has come home sick today with a stomach bug and I should get check on him.

Robin

Good things are happening

I have 2 very close friends who are also adopting internationally. They are with another agency and are adopting from Korea. We all started the process at different times. We did not really share what we were doing until we got close to getting on a list. It was really wild to learn that we were all entering into the world of international adoption. Although we started at different times all of our paperwork and log in dates came together at the same time. We have all been waiting since Feb/March 2008. From the outside it could look like we all had coffee and decided to do adopt. This is not the case at all. We all have very unique situations that brought us to our decisions. I have to say though, it is really great to be able to share and go through the process with people I really love. So on to the good news...my friends both received their referrals this week. My friend H, who has 2 daughters, was matched with an adorable baby boy. My friend S, who has 2 sons, was matched with a precious baby girl. I am so thrilled for them. What an exciting week!

As for us, we are getting closer. When we signed up their were 11 other families approved at the same time. I know of 1 family in our group that chose not to continue. What we know for sure is that we are in the top 10 families waiting in our program. I do think that given when we put put our application in we are most likely somewhere in in the top 5.

Robin

Welcome to our blog. We are a family of five waiting to become six as we navigate international adoption. We are anxiously awaiting a referral of a baby girl from Taiwan. We began our journey in October of 2007 and officially became wait-listed in March 2008. I have been following (and enjoying) so many blogs along the way I thought I would try and do the same.