More Room Photo's

So I said I would post more photo's of the room - and here you go.
Things are really starting to come together ~ not in the photo here, but today Brody received 3 new stuffed animals from Auntie Lee & Uncle Ernie - okay so these two are completely spoiling Brody.....almost each day Auntie Lee goes shopping or we get a deliver (the UPS guy will hate us in the end)!!!!!
When I got home from work tonight we had big package from the US Department of Homeland Security. Never thought I'd be so happy to receive a package from them(LOL)!!! So what is this package? The package has our I171H along with the I600 to complete for the Visa for Brody. It also has a packet with information we should have for the International Adoption!! Very exciting.

So stay tuned......there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Love,
Julz, Scott & Brody

Oh the wonderful USCIS

Hi All,
so yesterday was an eventful day. I spent a few hours at the USCIS. Now I didn't think it possible, but they might be slower than the DMV. Crazy to think huh.
So why would I want to spend half my day there????
I needed answers.
When we originally sent in our I600A, petition for advanced processing of Orphan to Immediate Relative, our home study was written for up to age 3. Well as you all know by now, Brody is over that age. So our home study agency wrote an amendment to the original to change the age up to 5 for us. So because we had not heard anything by the weekend, I FREAKED OUT!!!! what if what if what if. So I tried to call the USCIS last week, was on hold for over an hour, but finally got through. They told me that the San Jose branch was still processing applications from March. MARCH was she joking?? She suggested I go to the branch and try and work my way up to the Orphan Unit.
So as many of you know - I don't like STUPID people. When I heard that the USCIS office was as bad as the DMV, I thought I was in for it. Well I was sweet, yes people sweet. I just kept saying thank you, and I'd appreciate it, and oh my...... so low and behold after 3 people.....they referred me directly to the Orphan Unit. They just approved our petition :-) YIPPY!!!! It's all coming together.
Today I received the official I171H form that was also sent the the US Embassy in Ghana. So exciting.
Now what happens??? we wait
we wait
we wait
The attorney in Ghana is trying to see if he can count the time Brody has already spent in the orphanage as our 3 month waiting period, that way we can go to court sooner rather than later. Once the Ghana High Courts approve our adoption of Brody, the USCIS will play another factor. We then need them to issue the Visa. We've heard many horror stories about this process, so we are preparing ourselves. It can be long - it can be more than 1 trip over. So we'll see.
Not all of you know this, but Scott lived in Ghana for 18 months at the US Embassy as a Marine. He is going to see if he can contact the Ambassador over there to get our I600 Visa approved in a timely manner.

That's all we have to update today. Hopefully we'll have more soon.

Love,
Julz, Scott & Brody

And the preperation begins

Sorry it's been so long since I posted. We have been so busy. We just want everything to be perfect when Brody comes home, no date still :-(
So what we've been up to?!?!?!?
Shopping. Brody's closet is almost full. Can you believe that. We went shopping last week, and it was just so much fun. We aren't sure about the shoes yet, we are thinking of playing that safe and buying size 9, 10 & 11 and bring those with us. What is too small will stay behind at the orphanage and what's too big, we'll bring back and just wait. I figure just buy a few pairs enough to get us through the first few weeks!! My brother Anthony and his wife, Carolyn, have been so great as to give us 3T & 4T boy clothes. It will help us get through our journey in Ghana not really knowing what size he'll be. Again what doesn't fit will stay behind.
Furniture!!!! We bought a great bedroom set for him. He's got a fantastic twin bed, with a trundle. The trundle will come in very handy on nights that he just doesn't want to be alone, or when he starts to have sleep overs, and okay let's be honest, the pugs will probably get more use out of it than anyone. We have a nightstand and dresser (packed too) all ready. The furniture was delivered on Thursday, and the room is all ready (PHOTOS). Now we wait.....wait....and wait more.
So our place is slowly transforming into a Kid Friendly HOME!!! The pugs.....well of course Butch was not amused when we pretty much took everything out of "his" room. His sofa went into storage, along with other things we needed to move out and make room. Butch is very upset with us, and has managed to show this by peeing on everything in that room. Thank God the furniture wasn't delivered yet. So we had to totally clean the carpet, thank goodness for Arm & Hammer :-)
I think he's getting better. He doesn't have access to the room at all times, but he's getting better.

More to be posted later this week hopefully with updates on our little guy!!!

Love,
Julz, Scott, Brody, Butch & Bella (wow the family is getting big)
XO

Busy Saturday

Hi All,
I had a very busy Saturday getting ready. Crazy to think that we have 5-7 months to wait for our little Brody to come home. But this gives us the opportunity to prepare the house, us and of course the pugs.
Changes have already begun in the house. A toy box was bought. It's not really a toy box, but rather a shelving unit with red, navy, green & blue tubs to hold all his toys, books, and art supplies. It's slowly filing up. 1 tub of books already, and of course GOODNIGHT MOON was bought and ready for him to read, a bunch of Disney books too. 1 tub with some coloring books. 1 tub with his first teddy bear, courtesy of his GodParents Lee & Ernie (hi Auntie Lee & Uncle Ernie), the only other tub that has something in it........ the USMC Bulldog!!! getting him ready?!?!?!?! So that leaves blocks to be bought, toy cars, legos, etc.
Thursday night we went to the furniture store and picked out Brody's bedroom set. A nice twin size bed, headboard & footboard, with a trundle under neat, incase he get's scared at night and wants one of us to stay with him, incase he's sick and wants one of us to stay with him.....or when he's ready for sleep overs!!! The dresser is great, 6 drawers, and of course a night stand. We'll have it all delivered some time at the end of October probably.
But today we bought the mattress for his bed, nice pillow top, and the mattress for the trundle, not bad (hoping I don't sleep on it every night).
I want to start to decorate too, so today I went to Michael's Craft store and bought the wooden letters for his name. I painted them tonight bright colors, Navy, Red, Yellow, Green & Light Blue. Tomorrow once completely dry, I'll decorate, dots, stripes?!?!?!?! I'll then hang them in this room at an arch....... hopefully once we get the bedroom furniture it will really start to look like his room.
We have only bought him 1 pair of pants & 2 shirts so far. Thanks to a friend, Anita, we learned a lot about him and his size over this weekend. He's short, but he's got some chub on him!!!! And to answer my previous thoughts of shoes, I was told that he did have shoes when Anita & Lois meet him, but socks may be a new thing. Other new things, flushing the toilets!!! It's great knowing these little things about him and the orphanage. A lot more than just that, but I won't freak everyone out.....just yet! But one last thing out our little Brody.... He likes cookies!!! As long as we can squeeze Ice Cream in there with his food likes, we'll be good!

Emotion today: excited & scared.

Cheers,

Julz, Scott & Brody

Here's lookin at you kiddo.....

So it's day 2 of knowing....... but we are still getting use to it. Of course last night and all day lot's more questions came up...... we really want to know his birthday and I wonder does he even know what it is??? What size does he wear? He's three, but is he a small three..... it will be difficult to pack for him without meeting him first, I'm sure there will be some clothes that don't fit, but if they are too small we will leave them at the orphange. I thought of shoes today. No not for me, even though I love shoes..... but wondering.....has he ever had a pair of shoes? It may be a bit of a challenge to get him to wear them at first...... what's he going to think of the food here? the smells? the look? the people? As our journey progresses we will learn a lot more about him, and what he's like...... looks to me like we have a thinker on our hands. We will be sure to keep you all posted as we learn more about our little guy!!

Love ~
Julz, Scott & Brody

Welcome Brody Emmanuel Grosso

Hi All ~ our journey is making serious progress - today we welcome Brody Emmanuel into our family.
Tonight (Wed 9/6/06) around 7:15 pm I checked my email, and there it was, a message from Lois at our adoption agency ~ all the message said was CALL ME, it's Wed night at 7!! OH MY GOSH - I ran and dialed like I've never dialed before.
ring
ring
ring
Lois: Hello
Julz: Hi Lois it's Julie Grosso
Lois : Are you ready for your little boy????

I swear there was screaming but it was probably all in my head!!!!

We saw Emmanuel's picture almost 2 months ago, we expressed interest in him but he was not officially "available". We let Lois know about 2 weeks ago that if he were available, we'd love to add him to our family.....we were told we'd know this friday 9/8/06. So because you need to take into account Africa Time - I figured it would be a few weeks - we were not expecting this tonight.

So after all the questions were answered, and some new ones came up ~ Lois is doing her part, and we are doing ours. So what is our part?? SHOPPING!!!!! We have about 6 months to get ready to welcome him home!

So here is what we know.
Brody Emmanuel is around 3 years old. Not exactly sure of this actual birthday yet, but still working on it. His biological father passed away, and his birth mother is unable to care for him.
Yes when we started this new chapter in our book we were interested in an infant, but sometimes your path changes, it becomes more of a choose your own adventure book, and at the end of each chapter there is a few choice, look at it as "behind door # 1" and not only were we totally drawn to him, after Lois and another adoption Mommy Anita said when they meet him a few weeks ago "we'd be the perfect family"!!

Looking forward to sharing all of this with you as our countdown begins!

Love,
Julz, Scott & Brody