We passed court!

I don't know if anybody is still looking at this blog. But for those who don't have access to my private blog... we passed court on April 24th! We have a daughter! We traveled to Ethiopia and appeared in court and then spent the next week getting to know our new daughter. We hope to bring her home in the next few months.

See if anybody notices...

I made a small little change on this blog. I'll see if anybody notices. Feel free to comment if you notice. If you just can't figure it out, just go to my private blog, if you have access. If you don't, keep searching!

New Blog Address

In case anyone needs it, the new blog address is kauenhofenprivate.blogspot.com

New Blog

One thing I forgot to mention on my last post was if you'd like to be invited to my private blog, I'll need your email address. If you have more than one address, please send me the address that you would like the invite sent to.

Going Private

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you all had a great Christmas and a good New Year! Our Christmas was very good.

I've decided I want my blog to go private. I have created a new blog for that purpose. I decided this because as our second adoption gets closer, there may be things I'll want to post about that I won't want the whole world to see. For those of you that I know have been following my blog, I'll send an invite to my private blog. I will be sending invites to my private blog hopefully soon (haven't actually posted anything there yet). I don't know if I'll remember everyone. If you would like an invite to my private blog please send me an email or post a comment on this blog. My email address is on the right hand side of this blog. If I know you or know something about you, I'll probably send you an invite. If I don't know you at all, chances are I won't send an invite. Hope that's fair. I would like to make my private blog available to friends, family, and adoptive families who I've met in person or online.

Now hopefully I can get that new blog going soon...

Merry Christmas!

I can't believe it's been two months since I last posted! Wow, this fall has flown by! It's just been busy, busy, busy! I don't know how many times I've sat down at the computer and started a post, but didn't have time to finish it. It might be due to the fact that I went back to work full time in October. It's been a big adjustment.... particularly for Kumera, because he's never really been to a sitter (other than my mom) and never for full days. But it's going pretty good. Mine and Wayne's hours work out so that Kumera only has to be at a sitter about 19 hours per week, rather than 40. I'm quite happy about that.

I figured I should try to at least post a little something yet before the year is over. So, here's a photo I took of Kumera with his new nativity set. I've been looking for an inexpensive, child-friendly nativity set for some time already. I have a beautiful nativity set, but the figurines are all breakable porcelain. I decided that if I want Kumera to learn about the real Christmas story, then he should have the chance to set up a nativity set himself (without breaking it). And also have the freedom to rearrange it and play with it as he wishes. I wanted to get him that adorable Fisher Price nativity set from the Sears catalogue, but it's $50.00, plus it's geared for babies and toddlers and he'd probably outgrow it soon. So, I found this one at Superstore for half price! It was $8.00! The peices are all wood. Unbreakable! He was thrilled about it! He set it up all by himself and was very proud of himself. Notice how he laid baby Jesus down flat instead standing it up. I tried standing it up and he said no, he's sleeping, he has to lie down! Another concern he had was that there were no shepherds. It's hard to find a nativity set that has all the characters. But at least my son knows his Christmas story!

So, there's my post! I finally managed to squeeze one in!

Have a very Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!

3 year mark

5 days ago we hit the three year mark! I wasn't going to post about it because there's not much to say. But today I decided to post about it anyway, if for no other reason than to just acknowledge the fact it's been three years. Three years ago, when we applied for our second adoption, we thought that in three years we'd be very close to bringing our daughter home. Guess we were wrong. We're at #41 on the list and have been in this place since July. There have been very few referrals lately.

I think the wisest thing for us to do is stop trying to predict when it will happen. Some days I can do this, but other days it's just natural instinct to try to calculate by when it should "for sure" happen. One thing I should have learned by now is that there are no "for sure's" in adoption.

One thing I am thankful for is that we applied as soon as we did after our first adoption. At the time it felt too soon, only because we'd only been home with Kumera 6 months and he was only a year old. People around us thought too, it was too soon and asked how we would manage if we got another little one right away. But my head told me we needed to apply asap if we wanted another one, and that we needn't worry about having two kids so very young, because there was no way that would happen anyway. But people around us didn't believe me and said "Well, you never know... You'll probably end up with another baby before you know it, because now that you've adopted once, the second time will go much faster!" Wrongo! I try to explain that this "second-time-round going-faster" business only happens with CFS domestic adoptions, but they look at me like I don't know what I'm talking about. So, whatever. I know how it works. I guess time will tell how long it will take. Time already has shown it will not go faster the second time around.

So, in the meantime, I try not to think about it too much. I learned my lesson from the first time. I put all my energy into waiting to become a parent and it nearly killed me. Now I'm just thankful we have a child to enjoy.