well we got our new waitlist number its .............................#27 :(  yes its kinda a bummer only 2 spots! I guess things are moving a little slow right now. Summer is one of the slowest times probably has something to do with being there rainy season, and the fact that they close down all the adoption process for august and September. So lets hope that either next month or the one after we move like 20 spots :)

july update

So we are now number 29  on the waitlist but I think unofficially number 27 sshhhh!!!! :) A little sad we kinda had some hopes of getting our baby boy home this year but after our last update call we are thinking it will be more like Jan, Feb, Mar, APR of next year. I'm sad cause I'm so longing for my little guy wherever he is but I know when the time is right he will be here :)

Today we got the email we have been waiting for :) we are now number 32 on the wait list so we moved 8 places since we got on the list  May 18th. So I know that some months we may only move like 2 or 3 spaces but just saying what if we keep moving 8 a month!!!!!!! we would be going to meet a little baby Brayden  in October :)

We are officially on the waiting list!!!!! Braydens magic number is.......................40!! So even though this seems like kinda a big number its really not that high. I guess the way it works is all the people on the waiting list for boys of any age from Ethiopia are on this list. so really it should move rather quickly. Older kids have a much shorter wait time so there are people in that 1-39 that are waiting for boys that are older. She said that a conservative guess would be about 6 months. So with any luck we will be under 6 months from now. I will be getting new updates every month for as far as the wait list number goes so keep your fingers crossed and keep checking back for more updates.

So we should hopefully know tomorrow afternoon if all the new paperwork went through and then we will have Baby Braydens number :) cant wait!!!!! So here are a couple of pictures of my new wrists. The one that looks kinda like wish bones says peace and the other one that looks like it starts with a G says love. they are kinda crusty still so bare with the pics.

So sadly :( we are not on the waiting list today like we had hoped. We have just a couple of papers to fix and then with any luck we will be on the waiting list next week. So no baby Brayden number yet but very soon. I got my Amharic(Ethiopian language) tattoo's today for my birthday :) love them!!! I will post a pic soon but right now I'm all bandaged up and I look like a cutter lol! We will post next week and let you know the update on the waiting list and number

OK so to answer the what was involved in the home study question from liz :) it was pretty much nothing at all I took off a week from work to finish our kitchen and baseboards and new doors and painting and it looks really great but it was so not necessary. She came two days in a row and she talked to Shane and I together and then separate while we were together she asked us why we wanted to adopt, how we picked Ethiopia, how we deal with stress, how we discipline the kids,and a bunch of stuff like that. when we were separate she asked us about our childhoods and families. Then she talked to the girls alone(I was secretly terrified they would say something like really embarrassing or crazy) they didn't! :)and then she asked us if our house was clean and safe she didn't even really look at anything. THAT WAS IT!!! a week off work and endless cleaning and that was it lol!!!


now on to new updates!!!

We have completed the dossier!!! and I600  so drummmmm rolllll!!!! as of this Friday 05/14/2010 we are officially going to be on the waiting list for our baby boy!!! so hopefully we will taking our first trip over to see him anywhere from October to December. this is all of course a maybe this is what the current time lines are but we could very well be a little earlier or a lot later. but we are going to have a number very soon. I promise I will be blogging much more often so I can keep you up to date on what number we are as the weeks and months go on. I will also post on this Friday as soon as I get an official number keep your fingers crossed it will be a good low number :)

ok everyone finally new stuff to post!!! we had the homestudy appts these past 2 days and yippie!!!!! all done approved. So in about one week we will be getting 3 copies of the completed homestudy packet all notarized and pretty. We will be keeping one, sending one to the us goverment, and the other goes with the dossier to Ethiopia. Lets hope this all goes smooth and quick :) After we get the application from our goverment and the dossier is excepted we will get moved to the waiting list for our refferal!!!!! OMG! its actually starting to happen. We will see how things go from this point with the current families in the process in regards to the second trip or staying over there for the 2 months. It seems as though they are really trying to discourage people from wanting to stay the duration. I guess they havent got to know me yet because I am not an easy person to discourage :) anyway I will keep you up to date on any new info we get

Finally!!!!! We recieved the FBI checks today! I will be sending them express in the morning so hopefully they will have them by Wed. So then we will be moving on to the home inspection and meeting the social worker to make sure we are not crazy people. yikes!!!

On another note of this crazy process we found out last week that due to the negative press on Ethiopian adoptions lately they are going to change the process. :(  so now instead of going over there one time and picking up the new little Mr. Mustard we have to go two times. Not that this would be such a bad thing however they want me to go over spend a week with him and them leave him there for 2 months and then come back and pick him up. Well anyone who knows me understands that its just not possible. So here it comes the crazy part I am indeed planning on staying in Ethiopia for the 2 months. The part im having the hardest time with is the thought of being away from the rest of my family for that long. My little Bailey and I have never been away from each other for more than 7 days. That 7 days was the longest 7 days ever. So this is where we are currently at. I hopefully will have a little more information soon, like where I would stay or even if I would be aloud to stay. As soon as I have new news I will fill you all in .........

So its March now!!!! Happy Birthday Shane the big 30!!!!!  Well we really have nothing new to post. I am sad to say I checked the FBI website and they are estimating 13 weeks for the checks to be done. So pretty much the only thing we can do is sit around and wait with crossed fingers. We will let you all know as soon as we hear anything. :)

I know I havent been very good about writing lately!!! So we are still pretty much waiting on FBI checks. The waiting is driving me crazy. We have everything done for the homestudy and the dossier as far as paperwork goes. So please FBI hurry up :) We have been reading alot about Ethiopia and we have learned alot of really neat things about there culture. I am totally stoked because I was thinking I would have a hard time finding food while we are over there but it turns out they have tons of vegitarian dishes. I was also pretty shocked to see how big the capital where we will be going Addia Abbaba is. Anyway lots of interesting reading if anyone is into learning about it. As soon as we get  new news I will let you all know. thanks for reading :)

Well we got an email today she recieved all of the paperwork I sent up. Just waiting on a few more people to send up there reference letters ggrrrrr!!!! lol just kidding.... we are also waiting on the FBI check and Oregon state check. California came in today and thank goodness no criminal records found :) Its not gonna be long and we will be doing the countdown till we are number one on the waiting list.......

We are back!!!!!! We had a great vacation and Mt Bachelor lots of snowboarding and really great snow.The girls did so good. It was funny I think Shane and I must have talked about taking Brayden snowboarding a hundred times. So anyway back to the process...... Turns out a vacation was just what I needed to get things finished up. I mailed all of our homestudy paperwork today!!!! Well almost all of it my doggies vet appt isnt until next Thursday after that I will be all done :) whoooaaaaaa!!!!!!! The best part is the next step is doing all the dossier paperwork and im almost all done with that also. So as soon as the criminal checks come back from the FBI and state we will be getting a home inspection. scary!!!! but im starting to really think we just might survive this process. :)

Well today the girls had there physicals! they had to get shots :( I dont think they were to excited about that but they were both brave. So now just my doggies have to go to the doctor and all the Mustards will have signed proof that we are healthy enough to adopt! :) I got an email today that they recieved the first referral letter Thank you Aunt Heidi!!! Everyone else if your reading get a move on LOL!!! just kidding give us nice referrals......Really im the one who needs to get a move on the 51 page questioner about my whole life and everythought is haunting me every night when I try to sleep. I am almost done it just takes a really long time plus we have a million hours of online classes. I was talking with my mother in law about all this stuff we have to do and we decided people should have to do this stuff before having babies. could you imagine how many people that have kids now (that shouldnt) would never become parents. If there was only a way!! Anyways I am going to work on my daunting tasks of answering endless questions about myself. keep your fingers crossed for our FBI and state checks coming back quick!!

So the paperwork is acutally coming along pretty well I think. We did the medical stuff today easy as pie!!! And here we were worried about it..... So now we are just finishing all the edjucation stuff and of course the 51 page each personal profiles! Lets just all keep the fingers crossed that are fbi and state criminal checks come back quickly. Soon we will be finishing up and the dossier seems like it should be a pretty easy thing compared to doing the homestudy so wooohoooo!!!!! Starting to think we will be done this year im think 2010 is a great bringing home baby boy Brayden year!!!!

Today we had our homestudy phone call, it was great. I feel alot better already. We went and got fingerprints and criminal record reports we made dr appts and I got alot of stuff organized. So if any of you reading are responsible for refrences look out!!! lol.....Im actually starting to belive that this is all gonna get done and it will all work out. So as long as the people that review the homestudy dont decide we are a bunch of nuts im thinking it wont be long befor my little Brayden will be home with his new family.

So we have our homestudy and dossier paperwork I mean giant binders of paperwork. OMG!!!! The first time I looked through them I had a panic attack. There is alot of stuff in these things. I talked with the lady who will be helping us through the dossier process and she made me feel a little better. I at least understand kinda what im supposed to do. From what I can make of it I have to do every criminal record check known to man kind and get them notorized. Thats my first mission anyways. So im thinking I have some major late nights ahead and some stressful days. Tommorow I have a phone appt with the home study lady, hopefully she will help me understand what is what a little better. Oh well I know in the end all this crazy stuff will be worth it when we bring our sweet little baby Brayden home :) cant wait cant wait!!!!! Thats all for now I will let you know how the next phone call goes.

Just a few family pictures to spruce the blog up a bit!! oh yeah I think we are officially going with
Brayden Thomas Mustard!!!!!

we cant wait to take little Brayden to all our favorite places!!!

best auntie and cousins this little guy could ever ask for!!!

anxious mommy and daddy!!!

do you think he can handle these two crazy big sisters!!

big sister to be!!!! and daddy!

We got a phone call today from our agency they have all our paperwork! So hopefully friday or monday we will be getting all of our paperwork for the dossier and homestudy. I have a phone call set up for monday at 2:00 with the lady that will be assiting us with the dossier. I am getting so excited everytime I see a baby I go into an hour long day dream about picking up my little guy for the first time. Ill keep you posted as soon as I get all the new paper work and do the phone call.

So im back!!! after a little holiday break. We are in full force getting things going. Today I sent off the giant chunk of money and all of our notorized paperwork. scary!!!!! Good thing im so excited otherwise I would be having a stroke... lol! Now we are waiting for our next packet of goodies. The dossier paperwork and homestudy will be next. We have been really terrified about the homestudy, however we met with some people who recently brought home there beutiful little girl from China and they said the homestudy is a peice of cake. I really hope thats true... I will keep you posted with all the latest as it happens