Holidays and Home Studies

Okay, I may have missed a prime opportunity by ignoring Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but let's be honest, none of you actually has all of your holiday shopping finished. Besides, those are like Hallmark holidays and you are all way too smart to be suckered into spending on something so artificial. So, consider this my gift to you: a reminder that people are expecting gifts from you and the malls and other stores are a ZOO, so you should click on our Amazon link on the right and shop from the comfort of home in your pajamas. Really, could life get any better? I didn't think so. Happy shopping.

Storm Watch 2011 ;)

In case you're keeping track of our progress, we had to reschedule one of our home study visits because of the massive winds last week. I was pretty sure that the Santa Ana winds were a suburban legend created by Steve Martin in Father of the Bride (if you're keeping score that was a pop culture reference, but it's over ten years old, so I'm not sure it counts). Turns out that these are crazier than any tornado that I've ever seen. Most of the city was totally fine: however, our tiny lil' part of the world lost electricity and was cluttered with fallen trees. The good news is that we were able to squeeze in the home study this weekend. So, we are 2/3 of the way through the process. We bumped our last meeting back until after New Years. So, all should be pretty quiet on the adoption front between now and then.

If you've managed to get this far, I'm not sure why you haven't clicked away to Amazon, but you should. Go. Click. Shop.

Love,
Jimmy and Celeste

Yay!

We just received e-mails assigning our family coordinator and social worker! We have officially started our dossier, which seems to be miles of paperwork, and our home study, which also seems to include quite a bit of paperwork:)

Happy Summer!

Thanks!

Hi all! Thanks so much to everyone who is shopping Amazon and ordering Ross Roast through our blog! We've also received so many e-mails and FB messages checking in on us and asking about the adoption process. We love your interest in us and how this crazy process works!

This week, we were able to finalize round one of paperwork and funding. We've submitted everything to AWAA and are now waiting to be assigned to our home study agency and meet our social worker. Our next steps will include preparing our house for the home study. Our house is anything but kid-ready. All we need are outlet plugs, right?

Jimmy and I have both just finished up another school year. He's officially on summer break and hanging out with his brother, Thomas. We've been watching movies, staying up too late, and swimming. I, however, am back to work on Monday to finish up grades and settle in to summer slowly. Our BIG summer adventures involve hanging out in Pasadena and planning for at least one trip to Ethiopia next year.

Happy Summer!
Jimmy and Celeste


PS. Melissa Fay Greene's There Is No Me Without You was one of the first books that we read about Ethiopian adoption. If you are interested in learning more, you should definitely read it.