13 Months and Counting . . .

How did we celebrate 13 months of being on the waitlist? Putting together Gayle's crib and finishing the painting in her room, of course!

Transforming the bedroom from Jared's room to Gayle's room has been quite the undertaking. Four years ago I painted Jared's room dark blue (walls and ceiling) and my extremely talented friend Kristin painted a rocket ship mural that wrapped from the wall to the ceiling. I put mirrors in the shape of stars on the ceiling and funky touch lights on the walls. A few months ago we moved Jared into his new room. Standing in that empty, blue room I really had to ask myself what I was thinking four years ago.

It took hours to carefully get the mirrors and lights off the walls and ceiling. Then we had to patch several places. Then it took two coats of primer (three for the part with the mural) to cover the blue. Finally, we were able to paint the ceiling off white and the walls a pale pink. I repainted the trim and doors white and now you would never know that room had ever been blue!

Jed spent Saturday morning putting together the crib while I washed all her new bedding. If I had been a fly on the wall I probably would have heard Jed mutter, "I can't believe I am putting together another crib." When we gave away Laine's crib we never thought we need another one. How glad we are that we were wrong!

I ended the day with another of my huge babysitting nights. About once a month I invite up to 20 kids over for babysitting so their parents can go out. I make good money that we put into the adoption fund and our kids usually love it. It is like hosting a big birthday party at our house. We have pizza and do arts & crafts and play games.

By the end of the day I was beyond exhausted but I went to sleep with a huge smile on my face. Somehow that 13 months of waiting doesn't seem so bad.

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July Number!!!

That's right, we are officially #3 for our little girl!!! Wow, after 13 months of waiting I actually cried when I saw that number. It feels like she is within reach and that is a pretty amazing feeling.

We should get "THE CALL" anytime within the next month or two. We don't know the family that is #1 but we do know the family that is #2 are waiting on a child under 12 months. We may actually be the #1 family for a child over 12 months so it really could be any time!

The courts in Ethiopia will be closing in a few weeks for their annual two month break. We don't know the exact date they will reopen but it should be early October. This means that if we get our referral in the next month we could still hope to go to court in maybe late October or November. Then we would have a shot at bringing her home in December. Oh, how I would love to have her here for Christmas!

As excited as the Jones adults are the Jones kids are possibly even more excited (in the way that only kids can be!). Laine was the first to learn our new number and she ran through the house yelling, "number three" over and over again. On Tuesday we were at the pool and I watched Jared play with a toddler boy for about 45 minutes. He didn't even know the little boy but he sat next to the boy and his mom and handed him toys and gently splashed in the water with him. The mom came up to me later and said she had never met such a sweet little boy and said he should have a little brother or sister. I told her we are working on it.

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