Taken the same day

This is one of the pictures that Mary sent me the day she called me about our little babe. This is the first time we have posted it. Now if you have already received The Call you know how confusing it all gets and how frantic the following days become. Any way, we have not scrutinized all the pictures, so we are still becoming familiar with our babe and her surroundings. The next day, after we posted her picture, Carey said that Marina's comment about Celeste's eyebrows caught her attention. So she looked through her thousands of Ethiopia pictures and found the following 2 pictures:

Can you believe it? When Carey sent me the pictures, she wrote "is this her?" I merely responded that I thought so, and that if she thought so too then it must be Celeste. Well, today I was arranging the pictures in my computer and lo and behold I discovered that Carey's pictures were taken the same day, and probably at the same time, than the picture we received from Mary. That means it definitely IS Celeste and that Carey can tell me a little about what the woman in the picture is like.

I keep trying to send Celeste Fenit the telepathic message "don't worry, Love, we're on our way."

I don't comprehend anything you're saying

I figured some of you might be interested on "the call." I will work up to the moment I received The Call from Mary T. For about 2 weeks; every time I went into a meeting I would announce: "I'm sorry, but if my mobile phone rings I'm going to have to step out to get the call." I was so certain that The Call would happen right in the middle of a meeting...silly me. Any way, all day yesterday, whenever the phone would ring I would yell in my office "this could be The Call." And it wasn't, it was any number of people that I usually like talking to, but yesterday I was only disappointed when I would see their name pop-up in the minuscule screen. Then, while I was quite immersed in writing the phone rang again and I said in a very mocking voice: "this could be it..." and IT WAS! the screen said UNKNOWN (that's code for Gladney). I fumbled with the buttons which, suddenly were much smaller than ever and answered "this is Samantha" (just in case it wasn't Mary). An Mary said: "hi Samantha, this is Mary." Then, there was some odd silent awkwardness and I said "Mary, is this The Call?" And she said "yes, and she's beautiful..wah, wah, wah, wah, wah." In the mean time, my colleague (Karen B) got a phone call at the same time, so she was loosing her mind trying to get off the phone so she could come see the pictures. And then her OTHER line starts ringing. So, I have Mary on the phone, my baby's pictures on my screen, friends behind me looking at the pictures and commenting to each other, dear Karen trying to get off the phone and her other line blurping every 2-3 seconds. Time slowed down, every other sound, except Mary's voice was very clear, and Mary just sounded like an adult in the Peanut's Gallery. I had to tell her I wasn't understanding anything she was saying. Lovely as she is, Mary was patient and repeated herself several times without loosing her sweet and excited demeanor. Then I called Fernando and told him all about it. He waited until I arrived home so we could share it with Marina (whom, by the way, said she loved Celeste's eyebrows).

My water broke!!!

...after 16 weeks and 6 days, here is Celeste Fenit.

I can only hope

Remember the feeling you got when Samantha finally got her wish, and celebrated her 16th birthday with dreamy Jake. Well, I want to be able to celebrate the 16 week anniversary of our wait! I am crawling out of my skin. I am usually so in control. And really, that IS the problem. I feel like my life is on hold. Completely at the mercy of others whom are sooooo far away. I'm not saying that they do not care, because indeed they do care and quite deeply, in fact. It is just that I want to move on, I want to go forward, I want to proceed, I need to know and feel that things are happening. The thing is that while you are preparing your paperwork, somehow it seems that you have control over the situation. I am aware that "things" are happening, but what those things are, I have not clue. I am desperate, and nothing I do keeps my mind off of Celeste. I need to, at the very least, see her little face. I need to know she is out there, because right now she doesn't seem quite real. For those of you that have a biological child, this feels, kind of like when you are first pregnant but, have not heard the heart beat, or seen an ultrasound, or felt a flutter, or see your belly get larger, or your breasts tender...like nothing is different!
I also feel quite pathetic. I actually called Mary T. today to tell her I needed reassurance and some sort of information. I dropped the charade of calling her with any lame excuse, I cannot pretend anymore. I have lost all patience and need to be brought back to center!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another question for Mary

So as you can see I've taken to update you all once a week. I do this on Wednesdays because we began waiting on a Wednesday, and it just seems appropriate to write on the weekly anniversary of our wait.

Lately, I've been trying very hard not to read blogs that pertain to Ethiopian adoptions because it only makes the wait more difficult for me. So I don't really know what's going on our there with the rest of the waiting community. I figure they are having as much difficulty as I am. Are you guys finding any excuse to call Mary? Or, are you all so patient that you don't even bother? Do you go into work meetings and forewarn everyone that, if your mobile phone should ring to please excuse you in advance because, you're going to HAVE to take the call? Do people ask you if you have heard anything every time they see you?

Anyway, today I called Mary to ask her what Celeste's immigration status would be. At one point I had asked her if her paperwork could be worked out from the very beginning to say her full name as we have chosen it. She asked the appropriate people in Ethiopia and, no. Her passport will say the first name we have chosen and Fernando's first and last names. We can change it later when we re-adopt. So my question stemmed from the confusion of the passport. I wasn't sure if she was getting a United States passport right off the bat. Well, it turn out she will have an Ethiopian passport and will come in with a green card. When we readopt, she will then have a California birth certificate and a Unites States passport. All that just to find out there's no other news she could give me!!!!