2006 Year (Blog) Year in Review

I saw this done on a friend's blog, who saw it done on someone else's, who saw it done on someone else's, etc., etc., etc., Rather than just doing first sentences, I decided to do first paragraphs of the first post from each month of my blog in 2006. I didn't start the blog until March, so January and February are a bust!

• January and February: No posts.
• March: "The Best B-Day Ever!" I turned 30 years old on February 3, 2006. Yes, yes, I know--that's so young in the scheme of things. But I was feeling rather old until late evening on February 2nd when my dear husband (Eric) announced that he was ready to add to our family once again.
• April: "Fingerprints!" MARCH 30, 2006 the Gillispie clan headed down to Oklahoma City to get our fingerprints. The last time we fingerprinted was 5 years ago--pre 9-11. Now the Immigration office is in a brand new high tech and HIGH security building. Much nicer atmosphere but also a MUCH longer wait! =-) Let's just say it's no fun sitting in a very cramped waiting area for 1.5 hours with two very antsy preschoolers who just rode two hours in a car. Regardless, we were victorious and were successfully fingerprinted! Yeah! So now we wait for the final step of the immigration process--the notice of pre-approval to adopt a foreign child. Please pray with us that our wait will be less than one month.
• May: "More Information about the Babies..." Hello all! I'll tell you what, it will be very interesting to see how everything plays out with our Ghana adoptions. There's really no way to tell how it will go because we will be one of the first families to adopt through an agency in the country. At the same time, we are full of joyful anticipation! Having said that, we did get some more information about the children at OSU Children's Home. Evidently, many of them are *not* available for adoption. Some of them are living there on a short-term basis with the hope of being returned to their biological families in the future. Here is part of an email that our agency director sent out last week:
• June: "This and That" Hello all,
  There's not a lot going on with our adoption right now since we're in that waiting for a referral mode that all adoptive parents love so much--not! =-) However, I did hear from our agency director that they have received their first Ghanaian children referrals (4 of them)--yea!!! There is another mom in front of us who would like to adopt 2 or 3 children 3-5 years of age and she is reviewing the referrals right now. After she has made her decision, whomever is not referred to this other mom will be shown to Eric and I for consideration.
• July: "All About Kendi" This weekend was fun. We are *hoping* that our agency director (Lois) will be able to take a few things over to Kendi when she travels to Ghana later this month. So we had fun picking out just ONE little outfit for her at Target yesterday. This dress is size 2t, and the shoes are size 10. We are pretty confident that the shoes are too big, but we'd rather go too big than too small! Hopefully the dress will fit. I just think the bright pink would look so gorgeous on her very dark skin!
• August: "My Little Tenderheart" This morning shortly after Taevy woke up she came downstairs and was sitting on the couch. Before long she started crying--hard. It took me a few minutes to get out of her why she was crying. She said, "Because my brother and sister aren't home and I miss them." Poor baby! She came downstairs and when she sat down on the couch she started looking at Kendi and Caynan's pictures, which were directly in front of her on the mantle. I just love that she has such a tender heart, and I LOVE that the Lord is knitting her heart with theirs just like he is knitting Eric's and mine.
• September: "Future Ghana Mommy?" Ever since my daughter Taevy saw the way Ghanaian women carry their babies (on their backs) she has been asking me to help her "put her baby on." Today she said, "Mom, I know why mommies in Ghana do this. It's so they can keep doing other things." Smart cookie! LOL! Anyway, here are a few pictures of her wearing an outfit I got for her in Ghana, with baby in tow. =-)
• October: "It's Been..." TEN DAYS...
  It's been ten days since the Director of Social Welfare in Volta Region should have received our "Letter of Interest" packet on Bright. Ten days of wondering if the packet went directly to him last Monday, or if it's sitting in a mail room and he hasn't even seen it yet. Ten days of wondering if he has had it since the first day and hasn't had time to open, or if maybe he has opened and just doesn't care to send the formal application for adoption to us yet.
• November: "Just Writing" This is one of those times that I need to sit down and write, but I don't know what is going to come out. Writing is a form of brain organization for me. Why I choose to do it in a public domain is as much a mystery to me as it probably is to you all!
• December: "Totally off-topic, but news none-the-less" Not many people know this about me, but I have a "thing" for mini dashunds. I adore them! Eric got me a MD puppy about a year before we got married and she was just the best dog ever! That year Eric had already graduated and was living 2 hours away from me, and I was living alone in an apartment for my senior year of college. Rippley (the MD) was truly my best friend! We lost Rippley to a seizure disorder about 4 years ago and my lap has ached for another mini dashund girl ever since.

Pretty funny how my first sentences/paragraphs defnitely do NOT tell much of the story of our year! Here's a bit of a better general timeline of events...

• January: Me...sad. Eric...not budging on the adoption thing.
• February: I turned 30 and on my birthday Eric said we could adopt. Not just one child, but TWO! Huge answer to prayer!!!
• March: CIS Fingerprints, homestudy update completed, Liberian dossier pretty much complete.
• April: Increasingly concerned about Liberian process through org we had chosen. End of April we signed on with LVI to adopt from Ghana--two children 0-4 years old.
• May: CIS approval on May 10th! Dossier for Ghana completed.
• June: Dossier sent to Ghana! Referral of Kendi Juliet accepted (3 years old)!
• July: Referral of Caynan Emmanuel (now known as Brody Emmanuel Grosso!) accepted!
• August: Traveled to Ghana with Lois from LVI. Fell in love with children and the country. Knew that Juliet and Emmanuel were not supposed to be our children. Mourned their loss. Found out that a baby boy might be accepted into Eugemot and if he was, he would be referred to our family.
• September: Accepted Bright's referral! Prayed constantly for him to overcome the state of malnutrtition he was in. Prayed the Applications for Adoption would come.
• October: Prayed the applications for adopiton would come. Found out Bright's birthday (October 4, 2005) and last name (Anagbo). We got a lovely update photos of Bright.
• November: We finally got the Applications for Adoption! Lois took them to Ghana when she visited over Thanksgiving. Was unable to turn them in--more paperwork needed. Several new photos of Bright!
• December: The Applications for Adoption were sent back to Ghana, in hopes that the adoption process will start in January 2007. We received our coveted video of Bright from Lois! A friend spent Christmas day with our boy at Eugemot. We (think) we have decided to begin the process to adopt a child from Ethiopia in early 2007!

All in all I wouldn't say this is a year that I would want to do over again, but I'm thankful for the good moments as well as all of the learning moments. My prayer is that in 2007 we will bring home our Bright from Ghana and that they Lord would make a super clear path to our fourth and final child.

Anita