Unexpected Mail

After getting word from our homestudy agency last week that both our State Police clearance and our DCFS background check had been received and they were letting our social worker know that she could finish our homestudy update, we were shocked and surprised by another piece of wonderful news when a nice white envelope came in Monday's mail! We were so happy to see AAI's name of the return address and realized after we tore it open that the contract was enclosed. As I understand, this means we are off the waiting list to start our dossier, which is the document that we will put together that will be sent to Ethiopia. Once AAI receives our contract back, they will be sending us our dossier packet, then the paperchase really begins! We are very excited to be at this next step in the process and are hoping our homestudy arrives soon so that we can put our I-600A in the mail (that is a pre-application with USCIS to bring a foreign orphan into the US).

Needless to say, hubby and I spent last night completing the forms and hoping we signed and filled everything our correctly! (Go Fed-Ex man Go!)

If I were to describe our excitement, I would have to compare it to our 2 yr old's excitement when we pulled into the church parking lot last weekend and he yelled "Yahhhhh Jez" at the top of his lungs (that's "yah Jesus", for those of you that don't speak toddler babble). Yep, that's my sweet boy!

Whether Whether Whether Whether...

Inspirational Song for the Day:
Adapted from the "School House Polka Veggie Tales Song" © 2004 Bob and Larry Publishing

Whether, whether, whether, whether
Whether you like it or not
Weather, weather, weather, weather
Weather is cold, warm and hot.

Try, Try, Try, Try
Try everyday without waste!
Tri, Tri, Tri, Tri
Tri's will sure slim my waist!

Homophones! Homophones!
Where the daze from days of training brings the weal!
Homophones! Homophones!
I rode the road on a cycle with one flat wheel!

I hope you fare well at any local weekend fair!
Peace

The first Blow out..

I rode to work yesterday, and as I was about to head home I came to realize that my front tire was flat. Luckily I had both a patch kit, a spare tube, and two cannisters of compressed air (I don't carry a bike pump). That's the first time I've fixed a flat in, gosh, I can't even remember. Maybe since grade school or junior high. Rather than take my chances with the patch, I decided to just use the new tube. I was ..so.. thankful for having two cannisters of air, since the first had nothing left in it. In the end I made it home. I need to get that tire into the bike shop anyway. it seems like one of the spokes might be pushing a bit to much into the tape on the inside of the tire rim.

On another note, I've been getting comments from Jodie about how the temperature in Addis is always triple digits on the widget on the right hand side of this blog. I dont have an explanation why WeatherChannel.com can other report 113 degrees, while AccuWeather and other report close to 80 degrees. Either way, I changed the widget to use AccuWeather. Maybe Addis is not as hot as Jodie and I were thinking? We're checking into it.

No Update... Update

Well, I guess no news is, well, no news. I checked with our homestudy agency EAAC yesterday and they have not received our State Police Clearance or our DCFS background check. I had heard the State Police clearance was taking a bit. Our agency has faxed a list of names to the State Police of clearances they are waiting for, so it is not just ours. I also understood that the DCFS clearances were taking about 2 week, we have now been waiting a month. I hope these items show up soon so we can have our homestudy update finalized and submit our I-600A.

Last weekend we visited with family for Father's Day. We were able to share our news with some of our extended family. We gave a little package of Ethiopian Fair Trade Coffee to all the dads as well. One funny tidbit from my brother who congratulated us on our paper pregnancy. He said " Congrats on your paper pregnancy, I knew that you were paper pregnant, but I didn't know from where"....ha ha bro, I told him it was the mailman, which I guess is sort of true!

Besides the question of when will you be able to bring him home, a few people asked if we will change his name. I will admit to being a baby name addict, I love playing the name game, posting new names I hear on the fridge for critique by hubby. We played the name game for months with our son from Guatemala. In the end, when we heard the name given by his first mom we knew that we weren't going to change it. Many of the adoptive parents we knew from Guatemala did end up changing their child's name. To this point, we know many many more adoptive parents with children from Ethiopia that have kept the child's name in comparison to parents we know who adopted from Guatemala. I am in love with so many of the Ethiopian names and the meaning behind the names, though I wonder if I am pronouncing them correctly. So for now, I'm up for playing another round the name game, even if it is just for fun.

National Bike to Work week..

Last week was National bike to work week. Both Jodie and I took advantage of that opportunity. It was a bike tricky since we also needed to factor in the time and distance to/from daycare.

Sore quads, Sore calfs, Sore hamstrings, sore just about everything, but in the end we combined for a total of 218 miles. That helps to bring our current "Destination Addis" total to 2420. We've got a huge way to go, we just need to take it one mile at a time.

Give you Glory...

After a month hiatus, its time to bring back the song for the day. Sitting here at work, pounding away on the keyboard, MP3s playing in the headphones, I was picked up by this little ditty by Jeremy Camp. Great music, lyrics, and its not just a motivating song for me, but I think it embodies what I'm trying to accomplish here on the "Tri for Hope"site. (Plus, I get to try embedding a YouTube video)

The Inspirational Song for the Day is:
Give you Glory (Album: Beyond Measure) by Jeremy Camp

We have raised a thousand voices just to lift your holy name
And we will raise thousands more to sing of your beauty in this place
None can even fathom, No, not one define your worth
As we marvel in your presence to the ends of the earth

[CHORUS]
We give you glory, lifting up our hands and singing Holy,
You alone are Worthy,
We just want to touch your heart Lord, touch your heart

Glory, lifting up our voice and singing holy,
You alone are Worthy,
We just want to touch your heart Lord, touch your heart

As we fall down before you with our willing hearts we seek
In the greatness of your glory, it’s so hard to even speak
There is nothing we can offer, no nothing can repay
So we give all our praises, and lift our voice to sing

[CHORUS]
Our hope is drenched in you,
Our faith has been renewed
We trust in your every word
Nothing else can even measure up to you

[CHORUS]

8 Random Things

Following the lead of the other Ethiopian Adoption Blogs, here are 8 random things about me!

1. Glitter freaks me out, I will make hubby open any cards with glitter at Christmas time and get rid of them immediately.
2. About once every 6 months, I dream I have my braces on again from high school and when they go to take them off, all my teeth come out with them. I think I am seriously traumatized.
3. The craziest thing I have ever done was spelunking in an abandoned copper mine.
4. I ate guinea pig in Peru and really enjoyed it. It was kind of like those really thin crab legs, a lot of work for a little meat.
5. I would like to have a retirement home on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala.
6. I don't know how to properly load a dishwasher and think there should be classes for dishwasher challenged people.
7. I made a Tootsie Roll costume for our chocolate lab. He ROCKed it!
8. I was thinking the other day sitting up in our swingset fort blowing bubbles with my 2 year old son that I was the luckiest mom in the world and that at that moment, there was no place I would have rather been.

Official Batavia Tri Results are in

Wow. Looking at the official results, my race was remarkably similar to last years. I finished in 1 hour, 20 minutes, and 26 seconds this year. That was good 54 overall out of 453 participants, and 18th out of 93 in my age group.

I finished the swim in 6:02 (1:31 p/100yard pace), 1:24 in the first transition, 43:03 on the bike (20.5 MPH), 1:26 in the 2nd transition, and 28:32 (6:58 p/mile) on the run. All of these numbers are quite similar to last year. Last year I did 5:53 in the swim, 2:36 in T1, 43:05 on the bike, 1:19 on T2, and 29:06 on the run, for a total of 1 hour, 21 minutes, and 55 seconds. The difference was in the transition. I guess those coaches in the clinics are right. Triathlons can be won or lost in the transitions.

I mentioned my friend Luis who I talked into doing this triathlon (and the Chicago Accenture 'Sprint' Tri). After only swimming for two months, he finished in 1 hour 41 minutes, and 21 seconds. That's an awesome time for a first triathlon, especially with only swimming for 2 months. Great job!

Tri Tri Tri (and Tri) again..

Today was the 4th Annual Batavia Sprint Triathlon. It was my fourth year competing in this event. Each year it has gotten bigger, and better. I believe that there were about 650 competitors in the Triathlon (swim-bike-run), and another 200 or so in the duathlon (run-bike-run).

The weather cooperated very nicely, sunny warm (bordering on a bit to warm), no rain, and very little wind. It was a far cry from the overcast, drizzle, low 50's, and windy day we had last year.

Supporting Team World Vision (TWV) this year, and helping to raise support for the Ethiopian community TWV is sponsoring is my primary goal this year. Rather than just "doing it for the children", I guess you can say I'm "doing it for the whole community". As described in my "Welcome Message", I am hoping that through my own personal sacrifices, I can bring some good to others.

While supporting TWV is my primary goal, I still wanted to have a new personal record (PR). Last week, I had all but resolved to forgot that goal. I just didn't feel that good, I didn't have the mojo going.

I was relaxed and full of adrenaline this morning. I felt strong for the first 200meters of the swim sprint, but the second two hundred I really struggled to keep going. I don't have the official times and splits yet, I will post them once they are available. I felt my swim-to-bike transition was slow. But I felt very strong the whole bike ride. I had forgotten to start my cycle computer at the start so I can't really be sure on the AVG speed. I know it was 22-25MPH many times I looked down. That's well above my goals of 20MPH. The bike-to-run transition was tough, but normal from years past. That's when it hit me. I wasn't even to mile 1 of the 4.1 mile run sprint, and I felt awful. I cannot recall anytime I raced when I had a stronger urge to walk.

As I glanced at my heart rate monitor, it just kept climbing, 175, 185, 195.. YIKES! Even though I felt that I was slowing down a lot, I still couldn't get the heart rate down. If it were not for my wife yelling "Go Daddy Go" and my son yelling "Yeah Daddy" in a cute way only a 2 year old can do, I wouldn't have made made it much past mile 1. If it wasn't for my Dad at mile 3 cheering me on, just as I was about to hit the proverbial way, I would have surely started to walk. And I cannot forgot to mention my old running buddy Calvin, who made a surprise appearance to root me on with about 1/2 mile to go.

During that last mile, I remembered "Ted its about TWV and the families in Ethiopia you are helping". Cramped legs, exercise induced migraine already beginning, skyrocketing HR, with each step I literally kept praying "Lord let me finish", I lift it all up to to you for those families.

..Smile.. It is only partially evident from the finish line photo my wife took above, but from the comments from my Dad and wife made.. I guess I looked about as bad as I felt. In the end, I made it. I feel pleased with my effort. I certainly put it all out on the table, and left nothing behind. While the official times have not been posted, my unofficial time was 1 hour 20 minutes and 26 seconds. That would be 1 minute and 29 second faster than last years 1 hour, 21 minute and 55 second finish. It appears to be a new PR after all...

Thanks Calvin, Thanks Dad, Thanks J, and Thanks E for cheering me on today. It meant the world. And thanks God for giving me the ability to persevere and accepting my day as an offering for others.

Peace...

(Coming tomorrow, official race results and splits, and words on my good friend Luis who completed his first triathlon today after only learning to swim 2 months ago. Awesome Job!!)

A Veggie Tales kinda day..

If you have children, you've surely heard of the Veggie Tales. Our son is a Veggie Tales-a-holic. Rarely does a car ride (veggie tales audio cd) go by, or TV time pass (Veggie Tales on DVD) without our son crying "Bob..... Bob". For Bob the tomato of course.

Part of my nighttime routine with my son is to read his favorite Veggie Tales Stories. The best part of the stories are always the endings which say...

And Remember Kids, God made you special, and he loves you very much

What a wonderful way to end a day, but what a wonderful thought to keep in mind all the time. Anyways, as I finished reading him the Story of Josh and the Big Wall (about Joshua and the Wall of Jericho), the verse from QWERTY was Proverbs 3: 5

Today's Reading of the Day...

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, on your own intelligence rely not; In all your ways be mindful of him, and he will make straight your paths.

In the car on the way home from work each day, I spend some time thinking of my family and friends, and the challenges they are facing. As I finishing reading our son that bedtime story, that reading from Proverbs hit the spot. How true, but how difficult. If we could all just put our trust and faith in the load, to rely on him, rather than ourselves. Maybe the challenges that each of us face would be a big easier to handle.

Peace

The hunk of purple metal raises from the ashes

Yes indeed, the people at the bike shop are some sort of miracle workers. If it wasn't for the hideous purple color, I would have thought they gave me the wrong bike! No more clunking, new shifters (that's the technical term right?) and I can hear the sweet sound the tires make on the pavement. I think I am all geared up for "Bike to Work Week" next week.

I have been searching out resources to try and learn a little Amharic (official language of Ethiopia). There are not too many resources out there that I have found. It seems like either the program is only available on 27 cassette tapes (can you say "I don't think so") or I have heard reviews that native Amharic speakers have had difficulty understanding the pronunciation that is used in the lessons, that's a serious problem. One of my friends at work who adopted from Russia suggested intra-library loan or actually contacting the Ethiopian Embassy to see if they have any suggestions. I think those are great suggestions that I would have never thought of. The next step will be finding people to practice with!

A day in a life...

There is less than three days left before the Batavia Triathlon. Am I ready? Sure. Am I peaking? nope. But its a sprint triathlon, so I'll just tough it out. It will be a good tune up for the Spirit of Racine 1/2 Ironman.

What about the adoption? Where do we stand? The agency application is in, I've included a link to it within the "Destination Addis" section on the side of this blog. The same element not only includes the current Weather in Addis, but its got links relevent to Ethiopian adoption.

What's upcoming? After our home study interview last view, we should be getting the updated home study in the coming weeks, along with our DCFS CANTS clearance. Then we wait. Not for long, perhaps another few weeks. Then we'll start our Dossier Blitzkrieg (mad dash to collect all relevant dossier documents).

We'll keep you posted.

Peace

We interrupt this regular blog.....

Hi all - I am very excited my sweet husband is letting me guest blog on his Tri for Hope blog! Who wants to read about all that training stuff all the time anyways??!!?? Anyhoo, as Ted mentioned, we are officially on the road to Ethiopia for our second child. We have been telling everyone we are paper pregnant, and in the spirit of our pregnancy, I have been working hard packing on some pregnancy weight with cheesecake and chocolate while Ted works his hardest training for all these events! In reality, "my" bike is in the shop. Ok, it is really Ted's old bike from college. It is a heavy mountain bike that I have retrofitted with all the doohickeys (is that how you spell that?) I need to commute to work day or night. Ted can't stand it. I must admit, my first experience with the bike was less than favorable when we decided to do a little off roading and crossed a stream, when I attempted to get up the bank, the weight of the bike was too much and I crashed, nearly impaled on a nearby branch, but from that point, it has been a love hate relationship. Sure you can hear me coming about a block away with all the clunking and squeaking it makes, but I never need a bell to signal people to move out of the way, and sure it takes twice the effort of any other bike to pedal, I chalk that up to additional strength training, and granted, one of the shifters went bad a couple years back, who needed those gears anyway? Gosh, I love that big purple hunk of metal!

Back to our Ethiopian adoption journey, we found out this weekend that we aren't criminals and don't have TB! Yah!!! We have most of the paperwork together for our homestudy. With the update interview out of the way, we are just waiting on the DCFS CANTS clearance and the State Police clearance and we are on our way to having our updated homestudy. Word from Adoption Advocates (AAI) is that we might be off the dossier preparation waiting list in July! Though we are itching to get our dossier started, we know once that is finished, it is out of our hands and we will have to settle in for a long wait for a referral. At this time, we feel we are making progress and moving ahead. It is a great feeling!