Olympics

Over the past couple of weeks, Chris and I have developed a routine that is based off of the Olympics.  We simply cannot get enough of the crazy events.  We have planned our evenings around watching the events.  The routine consists of working for 8+ hours, eating supper, either riding our bikes or working out on the elliptical and staying up way to late...and then it starts all over again.

Some of my favorite events throughout the Beijing Olympics include swimming, beach volleyball, men's 10m platform diving (I know David Boudia's father), gymnastics, basketball and track and field.  I was also impressed by the opening ceremonies.  I work with quite a few people from China and they have been so proud of it.  It has been neat to talk to them about something that we have in common.  

My company has been in the news quite  bit lately.  As most people know, the automotive sector has been hit hard recently because people are changing their buying habits because they are fed up with the cost of gas.  This past week my company has decided to make a business decision to separate 600 salaried employees.  This has been a difficult time and my heart goes out to the employees that have lost their job.  My hope is that they will be optimistic and that they can find a position that fits their needs.

This weekend we are going to the lake to spend some time with my family.  We usually go on vacation with them sometime throughout the year; however, we are saving all of our time for our trip to ETHIOPIA!  

Colts football is back in season!  We are super excited to go to the games again this year.  The first pre-season game is Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium.  It should be a good time.  We actually had the opportunity to tour the stadium last Saturday with some of our friends - shout out to Syd, Katie, Don, Liz, Anneliese and Emmeline.  Chis and I have also been riding our bikes recently so we also had the opportunity to ride the monon for 18 miles.  It was a nice ride.  

No news on the adoption front.  We continue to think about out little guys often.  We are so glad that August is about over.  We really don't want to wish our lives away, but we can't wait to hold him.  We love him so much already!

The Weekend

We had a great weekend. It got off to a great start because Chris came home from Florida. It is one of those things...I really enjoy my personal time, but I am always so glad when he is home and we can spend time together doing the things that we love. Recently, we picked up bicycling. We try to go at least 5 times a week. The past two Saturdays we have taken some long rides. This past Saturday we rode 23 miles. We have really enjoyed it for several reasons...the time together is invaluable, it is good for us, Chris's knee doesn't hurt (he has had surgery twice), it gives us time to think and see God's creation and it is the GREEN thing to do.





On Friday evening, I was able to meet up with some of my girlfriends from Manchester. I have been able to stay current due to all of them having blogs; however, it was nice to laugh and cry with them. We ended up eating supper at the Mexican place and then we went to Dairy Queen for dessert. I was able to show the girls the pictures of our little boy. I loved their reaction. It means so much when you have the support of friends. I am excited about seeing these ladies again in the near future.



My family was here this weekend from Ohio. I have always thought that photography would be a fun hobby so all my cousins joined in on the fun!

Here is Jordan hanging from a tree.







And Carly, who was wondering why I made her sit on the floor for a picture.





Aaron, loving every bit of laying on the grass in the sun so he couldn't open his eyes.





Ashlyn, sitting in the corner with me standing over her on a rocking chair.


And finally, Lauren, sitting on a blue ball.


Man do I love these kids. I have been able to watch all of them grow up and it has been so rewarding. All of them have different personalities and I always look forward to spending time with them. Family means a lot to me and I am so fortunate to have a close family on both my side and Chris's side. We are blessed.

The Life of Sarah

**My pictures would not post for some reason. I will try later.

For those of you who keep up with the X Games or MTV, the title of this blog comes from The Life of Ryan. It amazes me how interested I can be in the lives of people I do not know and will never meet. The Life of Ryan follows a skateboarder around his daily routines, with friends, gigs and his family. I also find myself watching HGTV house shows...I love seeing inside houses and dreaming or thinking about what I would do if I had the cash to spend 800K on a house. Actually, I can honestly say, I never want a house that would cost that much. I am happy with what I have and I would rather spend my money on something much more meaningful.

I have to do a shout out to my friend Ashley! She called me out today...I told her yesterday that I was going to post a blog last night. Oops! At least I know I have one stalker! I actually had the opportunity to visit with Andrew and Ashley yesterday at Dairy Queen over some ICE CREAM. It was fun catching up with them. They are expecting their first child and were updating me on all of the details! Love it!

Speaking of babies...my dear friend Abbe had her twins today! She had a baby boy and a baby girl. Mommy and babies are doing well. I plan to go to the hospital tomorrow evening to visit. She has been such a blessing to me and has been my cheerleader throughout our adoption. I praise God that her children are healthy!

Chris is currently in Florida for work. I have been keeping myself busy here at home. I am trying to get ahead on my class and just take some time for myself. I ran some errands yesterday and I also cleaned our house. It felt good to dust, vacuum, clean the bathrooms, do the dishes and wash the windows all in one day. I worked until 8:15 today in order to get caught up.

Since a lot of my students are leaving, I am not able to focus on the International portion of my job. I was able to catch up a bit and that makes me feel good. Chris and I recently changed churches. It is amazing what a difference that can make in life. We are so fired up about church. It is a great feeling. We are actually going to a new members class next Sunday. It makes us feel so good that we have found a place to call home. We are excited to get involved in our new church. It has a great mix of people which really fits us. God is good!

As far as the adoption goes, we received an email today from our agency. I was going to try and paraphrase it, but I think it is worded extremely well. It is kind of frustrating; however, we have to TRUST God and know that He has a plan.

Dear Families:

Ethiopia is now experiencing their annual rainy season, and this impacts much of their daily lives. Roads that were somewhat accessible before are now all but washed away, and transportation is challenging. We can all imagine daily life for those who must endure this season every year.

The judges of the Federal Court are now beginning their two month leave, and are expected to return in late September. Only a few more court cases will be processed this week. A few cases have already been scheduled for court in mid October. We do not expect to receive any new news of court dates until early October.

We realize that many of you are wondering what will happen during the next two months. It seems like an eternity to wait, most especially if you already have a referral. It is our prayer that the next two months, and beyond, will pass with ease, peace, and comfort, both for the children and for all of you waiting mommies and daddies.

The process with paperwork and getting the children to the places they need to be will continue, in as close to a normal process as possible. We will continue to send over your completed dossiers to our office in Addis. The orphanages will continue to receive children who need families, so referrals will still be given. Your dossiers will be translated and then submitted to the Ministry of Women's Affairs for approval. The paperwork to compile the dossiers for the waiting children will still be gathered and processed.

The travel dates for Embassy appointments will continue as normal, for families who already have court approval. The children will continue to be moved into the Foster Care facility, as space becomes available there. The second medical exams in Addis will continue as well. The point at which all of the paperwork and processing stops will be at the court. When the judges return in early October, they will receive all of the waiting dossiers/cases and will begin the task of scheduling court cases on their calendars.

We expect at some point that the Foster Care facility in Addis will become filled to capacity with waiting children. When this occurs, the children in the orphanages will remain there until the courts open again, adoptions receive approval, parents receive Embassy appointments, and travel to Addis to get their children. This will create open spaces at the Foster Care facility to begin moving in children from the orphanages once again.

Our Ethiopia program consists of between 150-160 adoptive families, on a continual basis. As of today there are:
1. 15 families on our referral waiting list (dossier complete). Practically ALL of those families are waiting to receive referrals of little girls.
2. 6 families have court dates scheduled for this week or mid October.
3. 49 families have referrals and are completing their dossiers, or are waiting for court dates in October.
4. 17 families have approved court hearings, and are waiting for Embassy/travel dates.
5. 70 families are in the dossier phase.

Please contact your case manager with any questions you have about the processes over the next two months, or about your adoption in general. Again, our prayer is that all the waiting will pass with ease and God's comfort and presence. The timing may never fit into the calendars we keep at our fingertips, but God is always there, and He is working out a perfect plan for each one of the children, and each one of you.

Based on the email, we will not really have any updates for the next couple of months. We have always known the WAITING would be the most difficult part, and it is hard to understand, but God will see us through. We have already been blessed abundantly and we need to remember that we are not in control. Please continue to remember him in your prayers. I am sure that our prayers are being answered and that he is feeling loved.

I did email our case manager to see if our son is feeling better. She said that she hasn't heard anything, which means he hasn't gotten worse. Hopefully, I will have an update on his health later this week.

Well, it is that time. I decided not to work on my class tonight; therefore, I have to work on it the rest of the week.

Ponsler Update...

It amazes me that so much time has gone by since I last had the opportunity to blog. Work has been keeping me super busy recently. I have been working with the student interns and co-ops a lot lately. We recently went to the Catapillar plant in Peoria, IL and Chicago to the Science and Industry Museum for the student trip. I have an extremely rewarding job because I get to interact with the students and they have such an impact on me. Even though I only get to spend a little bit of time with them throughout their time at work, I feel like I know them and have the opportunity to impact them in some way. Today, they SURPRISED me with a baby shower! It totally caught me off guard. I have to say, I have never been so surprised. I had no clue! I was actually speechless. There were probably 50 students at the shower. I cannot thank them enough. It was truely amazing. They brought tears to my eyes.

The students were so generous. They bought us several bath items for our little angel along with cups, spoons, lotions, soaps, and a baby kit. I can't begin to tell you how much love they have for our little boy already. I have students telling me how to take care of his skin, how to parent him, and how to take care of his hair. I love it! We are so blessed!

We have had a lot of fun telling our friends and family about our boy. It has been fun seeing the expressions and reactions to the pictures. We were able to spend some time with my side of the family recently. It was fun to hang out with the extended family. We had a great time catching up with our aunts, uncles and cousins.

This weekend we are going to Chicago on Saturday to go to a Cirque show.  We purchased the tickets a year ago and we are looking forward to some time together.  

I am trying to finish my current class and my new one already started.  This is my last one for this year.  I will only have one left after October!!!

On the adoption front, our boy currently has viral bronchitis.  Please pray for him as he recovers.  We trust that the doctor in Ethiopia will treat him and make him feel better.  We are still waiting on the local paperwork before we can get a court date.  The case manager told us that we should know in mid-August when our scheduled court date is.  We will travel 5 weeks after a successful court date.  So right now we are looking at traveling in November.

It's A BOY!

We would like to announce that we have received our referral!!!  We are going to be the proud parents of a baby boy.  He was born on December 17, 2007 in Ethiopia.  He is so precious.  We love him so much already. 

This is a picture of us right after I looked at the pictures for the first time.  Chris received an email at work and he thought it was not meant for us because our documents were still in Washington D.C.  He called our case manager and he found out he was for us!  He tried calling me 20 times in a span of 15 minutes.  I picked up the phone at work and bursted into tears!  I left work immediately and we set up the camera to record this moment of our lives.  Talk about feeling all the emotions at once!  We have been so blessed and are so lucky that we were chosen to be the parents of this baby.  

We would love to share pictures of our baby boy here, but we signed a contract with our agency stating that we would not share them electronically in any way.  We have actually had this news for some time, but we wanted to make sure that everything was in order before we shared the wonderful news with our family and friends.  Since we never had to wait for a referral, we have had to wait on other items that usually people don't have to worry about.  It took a week for the dossier to reach Ethiopia, one week to translate it, one week for the agency to move our baby from the orphanage to the CWA foster care center and one week to receive the second medical report.  

We are currently waiting for a court date.  Since the courts actually close in August and September, we have a slim chance of getting one in July.  If we do (please pray for this) then we will travel toward the end of August.  If we don't, we will travel in November.  God has been so good to us and we know he has a plan!  We have left this in God's hands.  He has opened so many doors for us and we totally trust in Him.

We will keep you posted on news as we get it.  We have also chosen not to share his name on here until after we pick him up.  We decided to be super cautious because we don't want to risk anything.  If you are interested in knowing the baby's name, please feel free to email or call us.  

I will post about our weekend another night.  We traveled to Michigan to visit with my brother and his family.  We had a great time.  I will leave you with this story... Our oldest nephew read a book about bunnies.  There was one bunny that looked different than the others, but it was still a bunny.  He then took that and described his cousin (our son).  He said that he will have different color skin, but he will be a boy just like him.  He will also have a nose, two hands, two feet, two arms, two eyes...  It was so cute to see into the world of a 3.5 year old.  

Friends

Do you ever wonder what it would be like to go through life without friends?  I honestly cannot imagine what that would be like because we are constantly surrounded by people that love us and that we enjoy hanging out with.  Although there are several people that I wish I could see more often, I love how we can pick up right where we left off.  To me, that is a true friend.  I like being myself.  

I am having trouble with my pictures so things are a bit out of order.  For those of you who know me, I sometimes jump from one thing back to another so I might as well in my blog too!  On Friday, Chris and I went to a birthday party for one of our dear friends, Syd.  It was his 30th birthday and we had a great time!  His girlfriend, Katie, threw a great party!  It was fun meeting different sets of their friends to celebrate Syd's birthday.  Chris and I thought it would be fun to take a slip and slide.  We didn't realize it at the time, but it was a little short.  No wonder it was only $4.  It was fun to watch Chris, Syd and Kevin (Katie's brother) enjoy themselves in the rain.  

This is my dear friend, Katie.  I am so glad that I have had the chance to get to know her over the past year.  She has been so supportive of our adoption.  I love how God places friends in your lives for a reason.  

Skipping ahead to Sunday, Chris and I decided we wanted to make something.  So, a corn hole set was the result!  It is actually up to the Official Corn Hole Set standards!  Now the big decisions...what do we paint it?  We are thinking we are going to go for a sport theme...Colts, Notre Dame, Cubs....so many choices.  I think that we decided to paint it for the Colts and possible make the bags out of ND material and Cubs material...It was a fun project and nice to start something and finish it in the same day.  

Chris is playing softball this summer.  His games are usually on Monday or Tuesday evenings.  I had the chance to see him play this past week.  It was a double header.  His team won the first game and lost the second game.  He plays on the church league with Greg and Syd down in Indy.  

Back to the birthday party...we took our washer game and we had fun playing it with Liz and Don.  Chris works with Don at Wiley.  This was the first time that I met Don's wife Liz.  It is always nice to meet someone that you hear a lot about.  They have two girls and they are adorable!  We really enjoyed getting to know them better.

So, Katie's father owns a rental place in Indianapolis and for the party, there was a moonwalk!  Although few adults actually ended up jumping in it, I was waiting for my opportunity.  I honestly don't have any idea how kids jump in this thing for so long.  It seriously wore me out.  It was fun though!

It was great seeing Mike, Syd, Greg and Chris together at something other than a wedding!  These guys hung out all the time in high school and can always pick up right where they left off. 

It is a short week at work.  This week is actually the first week of "shutdown" at Delphi.  This is great!  Things will slow down and I will be able to catch up so that is really exciting for me!  Like I said before, please continue to pray for our adoption.  We are so grateful we have so many friends that pray for us everyday.  May God bless you this week!

The Week in Review

We have had a busy week.  Chris had a softball game on Monday night, Tuesday we cleaned our house, Wednesday I attended a student picnic at a local park for work, Thursday we had Deress and Jesse over for a cook-out, Friday we went to Indy for a date since our plans of camping with the Ponsler family did not work out, Saturday we ran errands in the morning and then I attended a baby shower and worked on homework, and today is Sunday and we went to church and worked on homework again.  

Deress (our really good friend from Ethiopia) and Jesse (a high school friend) came over for supper on Thursday.  We had a great time catching up and talking about Ethiopia.  My mom bought us a book of pictures from Ethiopia and Deress went through it with us telling us about the culture.  We really enjoyed it and I think he enjoyed sharing his culture.  All of us shared stories throughout the evening and our next plans are to go to the Greentown fair and introduce Deress to the Demolition Derby.  Boy is he in for a treat!  Even though Jesse works at the same place that I do, we haven't made it a point to get together and catch up.  Jesse is always up for an adventure and he plans to travel to Ethiopia within the next year.

On Saturday, I had the opportunity to attend the baby shower of one of my dearest friends.  Abbe and I have known each other for nine years and within the past year, we have become really close friends.  Abbe is going to be a mom for the first time!   She is actually having TWINS!  I am so excited for her and she has been such a great blessing to me.  Abbe is so supportive of our adoption and has really gone out of her way for us.  I have always wondered what it would be like to be pregnant and Abbe has shared many details with me so I can better understand what it feels like.  I had lunch with her this past Thursday and she let me rub her belly for at least 10 minutes.  She is amazing!  

For her shower, I decided to create a diaper cake.  This is my third cake so far and I have to say, it turned out different than my first two.  I added the bow to the front and I think it was a nice touch.  Since her babies will be smaller, I decided to use the new baby diapers instead of the typical swaddler diapers.  It took a lot more diapers, but the end product turned out!

Continue to pray for our adoption.  Thanks for your continued support!

Loving Indiana...

This past week (on Wednesday) we were very surprised to receive our I-171H Form from the Indianapolis CIS office. Talk about incredible! Usually this process takes 2-3 months and we received our paperwork in 3 weeks. This is when we LOVE Indiana! We have read several blogs from people who have adopted and this is the paper that most people wait by the mailbox hoping to receive it. God continues to amaze us each and everyday!



This past Friday we went to a Jack Johnson concert at Verizon Wireless. It was a lot of fun! We really enjoyed it. We have had the tickets for a long time and we thought it would be a great opportunity to be together and enjoy some good music. It was a great concert and we created some great memories!

On Saturday, we went to Indianapolis and set up a concession stand at a neighborhood garage sale. We were able to hang out with family and enjoy a beautiful day outside. We met some great people and I found that you can get some good deals at garage sales! We picked up quite a few books and a winter jacket and snow pants for our nephew.

Speaking of our nephew, I was talking to Nathan on the phone today. He is 3 and a half and I think he might be the funniest person I know. He is so inquisitive. He was telling me that he wants to go to China. I also love how he does not have the concept of distance. I told him that we have some new toys for him to play with and he said, “Aunt Sarah, you can just bring them over and I can play with them. That way we don’t have to wait for weeks.” After that, he was done talking to me and requested to talk to Uncle Chris. Chris was actually playing softball so he was unable to enjoy the conversation.

So, we are thinking that our dossier is in Ethiopia right now. Hopefully they (we really have no idea who) are in the process of translating it. It seems weird that nothing is in our hands…there is really nothing that we can do to speed up the process. We will continue to wait patiently.

What do we have left?

Several of you have asked about the status of our adoption. Earlier in the process we received an email from our case manager and so I thought I would share it with you. I have modified it a little bit because we have completed some parts and are waiting on others. I hope that this clears up any questions that you might have.

• We sent a set of our home study documents to CIS, for our I600A. We will receive the response from CIS (most often identified as the I-171H form) after both our fingerprints and our home study have been completed and submitted to CIS. We need the I-171H in order to travel to Ethiopia. It is our approval from the US stating that we can adopt.

• Our dossier was sent to Ethiopia on June 4, 2008. It takes 1-2 weeks to arrive to Addis. When it arrives, it will need to be translated from English to Amharic.

• We are added to the waiting list for a referral upon shipment of your dossier to Ethiopia. At this time your case will also transfer over to the case managers who work with referral, court, and travel processes with all families.

Now, the waiting begins…Habakkuk 2:3 “For the vision is yet for the appointed time, and it hasteth toward the end, and shall not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not delay.”

• Our child will have to be re-adopted in our local/state court after arriving home. It is state specific and the process varies widely by state. Our child will not be a U.S. citizen until the re-adoption process is completed.

The Referral process and timeframe to adoption - Please note, these timeframes are estimates only, and vary by individual case.

• On average, we will wait approximately 2-3 months for a referral. Depending upon the number of families already on the waiting list, the specific gender those families are requesting, and the number of children in the orphanages who need a family, our wait could be less or more than 2-3 months. Typically, more families are requesting a girl referral, so the waiting time for a girl will probably be longer.

• When we receive our referral, the child will be living in an orphanage. We will usually receive photographs, and a report of medical conditions. We will take this info to a pediatrician for an evaluation and consultation.

• If we accept the referral, the child will then be moved out of the orphanage to a care facility in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia. This is a CWA care facility. Before the child can be moved to the care facility, we must have received our CIS approval.

• When the child arrives to the care facility in Addis, he/she will be taken to a medical clinic for a complete physical exam. This process can take up to two weeks, depending on our child’s age. The results of the medical exam and tests will be given to us, along with new pictures of the child. If necessary, we will share this info with your pediatrician again for additional consultation.

• If the medical results are acceptable our staff will then submit our case to the court to request a hearing date for our adoption. Typically the court dates are scheduled 3-5 weeks out.

• Sometimes the scheduled court date is postponed due to missing paperwork, or the inability to get a birth relative into the city to attend the court hearing. Hearings are rescheduled for as soon as possible.

• After our adoption has been approved in the Ethiopia court, we will travel approximately 3-6 weeks later to get our child.

We have been busy this past week. The main activity has been staining our pool and deck. This needed to be done last year and we finally got to it this year! It looks so nice. We also opened our pool. I give Chris the majority of the credit. I started staining while he hooked everything up.

My grandpa came over and helped us do some maintenance on lawn mower. Boy, are we thankful for the timing! I guess that we were close to burning up the engine because we hadn’t added any oil to it for a long time.

Our cousins, Greg and Cari, had a baby girl on Friday morning at 12:17a.m. Elliot Rose (Elli) is adorable and we are happy for them! We actually had the opportunity to see Elli this evening. She is adorable. She is so tiny. We are used to our nephews who weighed 8-9 pounds. Elli only weighed 6.

Please continue to pray for our adoption process. We have been so blessed by each of you and we continue to see God opening doors for us.

Weekends - they go by so fast

We have been busy lately. On Friday, my parents came over and we were able to catch up on my father’s trip to Afghanistan. It was fun to hang out with them for a few hours. We had a pretty bad thunderstorm, so we played Uno for a little bit and then we played the Wii. We have a lot of fun competing against each other.








The weather has been so nice and we have been enjoying some time outside. We can now say that we have totally redone all of the landscaping at our house. On Saturday, we finished the west side of our house. When we started, we had to remove 3 huge bushes that had been there since my parents built our house. Of course, my dad’s response was “I paid good money for those bushes.” On Sunday, we started opening our pool. Due to the upcoming weather, we won't be able to finish it until next weekend.



On the adoption front, we received a call on Friday that our documents have been authenticated by the Department of State and the Ethiopian Embassy. We are still waiting for confirmation that the documents have been received in North Carolina. The next step is for our agency to send the dossier to Ethiopia for translation into Amharic. Please pray that everything continues to go smooth for us.

5 Years ago...

What were you doing five years ago?
I was on our honeymoon! We were in Santa Barbara, CA. We had a great time; however, no one told us it was June gloom. The sun was not out very often and it was chilly. I’m glad we were married because I wore the same outfit everyday because I couldn’t wear what I brought because of the weather.

What are five things on your to-do list for today?
Homework
Laundry
Open our Pool
Dishes
Blog

What are five snacks you enjoy?
Ice Cream
Pizza
Gummy Worms/Bears
Sparkling Grape Juice
Anything Sweet – cookies, brownies, sugar cream pie, cheesecake

What are five things you would do if you were a billionaire? (in no particular order)
Adopt a lot of kids
Be a stay at home mother
Give to the poor – something in Ethiopia and something local
Pay off our mortgage
Help family, save and invest some of it

What are five of your bad habits?
Gagging – mainly when I brush my teeth
Washing the dishes right away
Cracking my toes
Leaving the lights on when I am not in the room
Repeatedly saying “you know what I mean”

What are five places you have lived?
Kokomo, IN
North Manchester, IN
Cheltenham, England
Peru, IN
Kokomo, IN

What are five jobs you’ve had?
Babysitter
Swim Instructor
Resident Assistant
Operations Supervisor
International HR Rep

What five people do you want to tag?
Don
Brandon & Natalie
Jess
Kevin
Ehrin

Manchester Admission's Reunion at Maria's Wedding

I wanted to share some pictures with you that my friend Jolane took at Maria's wedding. Maria and Chris were co-workers when he worked at Manchester. It was a lot of fun seeing all of the Manchester people again!

We went to the wedding with Adam and when we went to drive to the reception, Adam's car did not start. Chris asked some people that attended the wedding to jump us. They tried. Nothing happened. So, I hitched a ride to the reception with the people that tried jumping us. I am glad that the the random people that I rode with didn't mind. They were really nice. Once I arrived, I asked Jolane if she could take me back and pick up Adam and Chris. On the way, we stopped and picked up a battery. Luckily, that is all it needed!

When we arrived to the reception, they were doing the toasts. Since we were about an hour late, the MC group took care of us and filled our plates! The food was great, but my favorite part was the favors...DeBrands chocolates. YUM!

Jill & Chris


Jolane & Sarah


Maria - the beautiful bride

The Manchester Group.

A really close picture of us.

Lauren & Sarah

Today Chris and I went to church and then decided to take out the bushes on the side of our house. We are tired and sore. Tomorrow we are going to Terre Haute to a graduation open house. We are excited to be with Chris's side of the family.