Food For Thought......

Hi Everyone ~ so this is a random post with not that much to do about the adoption, but in line with Africa in general.
Yesterday I went grocery shopping for the week, and actually planned out a few meals. That's huge for me, I usually go to the store each night or have something "frozen" LOL. So here I am at the store, spending $187.73 for 2 people for a week......not to mention the food that was already in the freezer & pantry etc.....

So where am I going with this?

We went out to my niece "Peanut's" 4th birthday party yesterday around 4:30, before we left we noticed the fridge had a lot of water....it was weird, we put a towel under it and left. When we came home around 9ish, the stupid thing was not even cold....... we have appliance insurance so we called them, they said they'd have the fridge guy come monday (today). So the fridge guys called today, saying they probably couldn't come until Wed...what was the point in the insurance if they can't do anything? So they gave us the 2-7 window. When I came home at 10 minutes until 2 - not even the bottles of water were cold, and all the frozen (including ice cream) was melted.... the guy came around 3:30, did some stuff and said "your compressor is broken" like I know what a compressor is....how fast can that be fixed? Min of a week....well it's hard to go without a fridge for a week, and that was just to order the part? He left, we called the insurance company about the time frame. If we bought a new fridge they would give us the cost of the part, labor and tax and we could put that towards a new fridge.....so to Lowes, Best Buy, Sears and then back to Best Buy we went. We bought a new fridge - stayed with the white so we didn't have to replace all the appliance, though Stainless Steel would be nice :-)
We came home around 6:30 and had to through 5 garbage bags worth of food out. Can you believe that. It made us both so sad to think of all that food gone to waste, and how there are people all over the world that need that food......but we couldn't do anything about it........

Food for thought........

Julz & Scott

Adoption Decree

Well this morning we had a nice surprise in our email!!! The paperwork was there!!!! It was really exciting! We are just trying to make sure that THIS IS IT!!! there was also one other little problem. My name was spelt wrong on the paperwork. It was most likely an oversight, but they put Juliana instead of Julie. Lois and I spoke about it, and we are hoping that the Embassy let's this go, because it was so just a typo. I also emailed our contact there to inquire.
But how exciting is it that we got the paperwork. It says that we are his legal parents!!!! YIPPY!!!! We feel we are finally getting somewhere.
Shopping: well went shopping again tonight after work. We were going through his clothes the other night to check out if everything would fit in the suitcase :-) ANXIOUS - we need a few more pairs a shorts, and some TShirts. So I picked up a few Polo Shirts, some "summer" PJs and a few toys for the plane. Play-Doh & a Doodle Pro(travel). It's so much fun......
Preschool: We checked out a few preschools yesterday via phone and web. Most of them you need to go to visit only on certain days (first Thursday of the Month)....so we'll get there. There is a really nice one by my new office, and there is one by Scott's work too.
Well that's all for now.....
Cheers,
Julz, Scott & Brody

Waiting on a piece of paper

Hey everyone~ well today I sent out our paperwork to Lois with the Power of Attorney for Edward to sign on our behalf at the Embassy, etc. We completed and sent our I600 as well. Now.....we are waiting on a piece of paper from Ghana. This paper is SOOOOO IMPORTANT it's the Adoption Decree. Edward is trying to get scanned copies of the other paperwork that was completed at the court on 12/22/06......He mentioned ALL the court papers?!?!?!??! Does that mean ALL? REALLY ALL?? or is it just the judges ruling?

Once we have the Adoption Decree - Edward can file our I600 at the Embassy.....then we'll wait again, this time for a stamp, and our baby boy!!!

We are still hopefully that we'll have some sort of news over the next few week!!!

It's so far been a great 2007, and getting Brody home would just make it so much better!!!

Sorry for the short post, but just not too much to say right now :-)

Cheers,

Julz, Scott & Brody

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY

I just wanted to say a special HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our little boy today. I'm so sad that we are not with him!!!! But soon......soon....soon......
Do I keep saying that?

Cheers,

Julz, Scott & Brody

Brody's Birthday Party

Hi All,
Well the most amazing thing happened today. I was thinking to myself, I wonder if Edward sent Lois the photo's yet of Brody's birthday party, and if he did.....has Lois checked her email and forwarded to

us??? Sure thing....she did!!! YIPPY!!!

I've been thinking about it all day. Would have loved to be there. There is a new little girl you may see in some of the photo's that I will post. She is from a Liberian Refugee camp and is now staying with Brody's foster family - her adoptive parents are in Canada.

Looks like they had a good time opening the presents. Soccer ball was a big hit, and so were the books. He's dressed up for the day, in matching outfits to Felix & Paulina. It's too cute.

Wishing you all a wondeful day,

Julz, Scott & Brody

What's a Mom to do?

Well it is Sunday in Ghana right now. I was just sitting here thinking that soon Brody will wake up, go to Church, come home for his Birthday celebration. He's going to have the wonderful meal, be with people that care for him, have a party with his Foster Family & Friends, and lastly open the presents we sent over. It makes me so sad that we are not there with him for his 4th birthday (1/16)...... BUT I must say that I am so relieved that he is loved by his foster family & Edward of course. I can't wait to get the photos of the event and share them with all of you. So what's a Mom to do......but just be grateful!!!
Next year we'll have the biggest party a child has ever seen!!!!! It will probably overwhelm him......but.......it will be so worth it to see his face light up.

Well I'm off.....not a lot to say......just a little thought about his birthday......

Cheers ~
Julz, Scott & Brody

Presents have arrived

The presents we sent over to Brody arrived at Edwards house on Thursday 1/11. Edward has let us know that they are having a birthday party for Brody on Sunday after church. There is a special meal that they are going to be serving called "OTOR". What is "OTOR"? It is made from mashed yam, palm oil and boiled eggs. The significant of this asking the Almighty for more blessing and longer life. I think that is too adorable that they have this special meal for him. Edward will be taking lots of photo's for us of Brody opening presents, etc. Remember in the box we also sent some party favors for all the kids.

Other Updates: I had a great conversation with Lois (2 hours) on Wednesday night. We covers everything. It was really great. Lois lives in WA, and I'm not sure if you all know but WA was hit with a bad blizzard on Wed night. We talked about that, and waited for her husband to make it home, and her son to call that he got home too. It was just really great to chat with her about everything. We are sending over our Power of Attorney to Edward so he can go to the US Embassy to apply for the Visa for us. We will also be sending our I600 Application over with it, that way as soon as Daniel provides Edward with the Adoption Decree, he can start with the Visa. Edward is now a full time employee of Life's Vision - in Ghana they are called LVI-Ghana. He has truly been a great addition to the team, and having someone in country is great progress. Edward is going to take the children to get their Passports very soon! It's awesome!!!! Travel: not sure of dates yet....but we are thinking mid-March. Some things need to get worked out before we can just up and leave!!! I'd like to just up and leave, but it's not likely! I have called the Travel Clinic about the shots that I need. For those of you that really know me, you know that I'm not that good with needles LOL. So I'll be going for my consultation next week to start with all that fun! The great thing is that I may only need 3 or 4 shots, and the malaria I can probably just take the pill! FOOD: The topic of food came up with Lois the other night. I'm probably one of the worlds pickiest eaters :-) I'm packing granola bars, granola cereal(have any of you tried the new Nature Valley Crunch 100% Natural Cereal? It's awesome), I will probably bring other "dry" snack's. But I do want to try some of the more traditional food. We'll see how well that goes over!
Well that's about it for now!

Till next time.

Cheers,
Julz, Scott, Brody, Butch & Bella

Birthday Presents....

Well I know this is the first post of the year.....I thought of posting on New Year's Day to reflect on the year - but now seriously - who needs me to recap it when you can just read the last year's worth of Julz Blogging - or Julz Blabber :-)

So Brody's birthday is coming up January 16th. I'm so happy, but so sad at the same time. We aren't going to be with him when he turns 4. 4, can't believe he's 4!!! I'm happy because at least our adoption is "final" in Ghana, so he's our boy...... now for the fun. We've sent a few gifts :-) Big question - has he ever celebrated his birthday before? Who reallly knows the answer. So what did we get him? A soccer ball & pump incase it loses some air on it's way over, 2 new Disney Books ~ Finding Nemo & The Jungle Book, a coloring book of Dora The Explore & Diego pictures with crayons to go with it. We also sent a couple of party flavors - blowers & big ball balloons for the kids. In our card to him I wrote "We Love You" in Twi :-). I also sent a letter to Edward (the kind man whom has been so helpful) asking him to take photo's of Brody opening the gifts & that I hope what I wrote in Twi makes sense!!! I included a photo of the 3 of us, I added an adorable photo of Brody to a picture of Scott & I from last year!!! It's adorable. I wrote on it "Abusua" which means "Family" in Twi.
Brody understands English, and speaks some, but he's of course more comfortable with Twi, as that is what is spoken more around him. Granted English is the main language in Ghana, Twi is still a strong language there. I've found a great "Learn Twi" CD that the Department Of State uses when they send workers to Ghana. I'm going to get that soon.
Well soon I hope to post photo's of his birthday!!!! Stay tuned. Lois received the package today and will be sending it on Monday to Edward for delivery!!!! I'm so excited to see what he thinks of everything!!! It's so much fun.

Update: Still waiting for the decree. We did find out that Edward can file the I600 Application for us. That is a huge win. Scott has been making some headway with his contacts in other African countries ~ they were all in Ghana together, but have moved on to other countries ~ we are really hoping that we can get some sort of real time line on them processing the visa. Once the visa is approved we will receive a notification via email apparently from the US Embassy in Ghana, with an open invitation to come get the VISA!!! OH MY GOSH ~ how awesome will that be. Once we have that we sort things out here with work, the pugs & get our travel arrangements done! Then we head to Ghana (probably on Delta - new direct flight from NYC to Accra just over 10 hours)we meet our boy ~ we go to the US Embassy and they finish the paperwork. Somewhere in the middle of all that, I think while we are there, they complete the medical (yes again) and a field investigation on his family. Then we come home, and all of our family & friends will be at SFO to great us.....yes that's an open invite!!!! We want everyone there!!!

Cheers for now!!

Julz, Scott, Brody, Butch & Bella