Happy 6th Birthday, Grayson Daniel!

His birthday isn't for another 3 days, but today is the big birthday party!

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Submitted to Court!

Last Friday we got an email from our agency stating that our file had been submitted to court!  Woohoo!  We should find out our court date in the next 2 weeks or so.  At that point, our court date will probably be about 4 weeks out.  So, we may be meeting our girls for the first time in about 6 weeks!  I cannot wait to hug and kiss them and just spend a few days getting to know them.  They seem like such happy little girls.  And, as excited as I am for this step, it makes me start to dread having to LEAVE them in Ethiopia after our court trip.  We will return home, without them, and wait for the U.S. Embassy to assign them a visa.  This is taking between 3 and 5 months right now.  I remember all too well the feeling of leaving your child in a foreign country and trying to return to life as normal.  It physically hurts.  I don't want to have to do it again.  But, it is so worth it in the end:)  Stay tuned for our court date announcement in the coming weeks!

Happy Birthday, Abram Kembata!

Abram 4th Birthday - slideshow dvd

Another project

I've been in "organization" mode since getting the girls' referrals. The thought of adding more people and stuff to our house has me motivated to get everything in its place. One area of the house that tends to clutter quickly is the back entryway and laundry room. We come in and take off shoes, coats, and backpacks. Several months ago, we bought this for shoes. This has by far been our best Ikea purchase!



Over the last several weeks, I've been working on painting the laundry room and bathroom at the back of the house. We have another door coming into the laundry room, and also have shoes and coats gathering here. So, I chose a nice light, blue-gray to brighten things up, and painted the trim and door white. I don't have much wall space because the washer/dryer covers one wall, windows cover the opposite wall, and doors are on the other two walls. So, I decided to make the most of the space under the windows. It was the perfect height for hanging hooks for the kids' coats and backpacks. I decided to make it more fun by buying little chalkboards off Etsy and using chalkboard markers to write their names. Now, they each have a hook with their name on it:)

Not exactly what we wanted to hear....

I emailed our coordinator today, thinking she may have some insight as to when we are expected to be submitted for a court date. Our dossier has been in Ethiopia for going on 7 weeks. Unfortunately, she got back with us saying that the last few cases have taken every bit of 3 months. Boo. So, looks like we still have a good 4-6 weeks before we'll hear anything. At that point, we expect our court date will be another month out. This puts us traveling for our first trip at the end of June. We're continuing to pray that things will move much faster, but we are not counting on it.

So, we will send another small care package with another family this week. This family spent time with the girls several months ago and said they would love to visit with them again. This time around the wait has seemed harder. I think it has to do with the fact that the girls are older. With Grayson and Abram, though I longed to see them and hold them, I knew they didn't REALLY know the difference. The girls have seen our faces and know they have a family waiting for them. I find myself wondering what they're thinking. Do they think we've forgotten about them? They seem very happy from the pictures I've received. And, I know they're very well taken care of. But, I'm ready to meet them...to hug them and kiss them and tell them that I love them...that we all love them.

But, in other news, we had a wonderful Easter weekend with the boys. This is the first year that they both "understood" the true meaning of Easter. We did get the boys each a game for Easter, but we didn't do the whole Easter bunny thing. In fact, I let Grayson in on the fact that it's just pretend. I have a hard enough time with the Santa thing; I'm not doing the Easter Bunny thing too. So, instead we've spend a LOT of time talking about Jesus dying on the cross and forgiving our sins so that we may one day go to Heaven. We've talked about it so much between home and school that Abram has been declaring, "I don't want to die on the cross! I don't want to go to Heaven!" Overall, I think they "get it" as much as you can at 5 and 4:)

Here are the wallets I ordered of the boys in their Easter digs:)

Prayer

Our dossier has been in Ethiopia for about 5 weeks now. We are hoping that we will soon hear our paperwork has been submitted for a court date. Could you join us in praying for a court date? This Mommy is getting very anxious to meet her girls:) Her are some specific things to pray for:

- Pray that the paperwork that needs to be gathered will be done quickly and without any set-backs.
- For the staff in Ethiopia that works very hard on our behalf.
- For the courts that once our file has been submitted, they will issue us a date quickly.
- For the girls! That their hearts and minds are prepared to meet us!
- For us! That we will continue to be patient and trust in God's timing.

Thank you! We know how powerful prayer is! I look forward to updating you all with our court date:)

Quick little update

Just a quick post to say that we sent photo albums for the girls with a family traveling to Ethiopia this next week. We had a fun time picking out some pictures to include in the album. I realized just how few pictures I have of myself! It seems its gotten even worse now that I take my big camera to a lot of places...Aaron doesn't tend to snap as many pictures because I'm a little protective of my equipment:) I guess we need to start carrying around our old Kodak as well...I think there's a lot to be said for snap shots...not every picture we take needs to be professional quality...just something to remember the occasion by:) So, this is me saying I need to relinquish a bit of control and begin to once again embrace the snapshot!

Here are a couple of pics we included of the boys...I can't show the girls' faces until we pass court:)

DTE!

For those of you not in the adoption world, you may not realize how extremely exciting these three letters are....D...T...E! It stands for "dossier to Ethiopia." Yep, that's right, our dossier has arrived in Ethiopia! This means that it will now be translated, a few more documents gathered, and then submitted to courts in Ethiopia, requesting a court date! We've been told the translation takes a couple of weeks and the gathering documents can take a little time as well. We're hoping to hear in the next 3 or 4 weeks that we have been submitted to court! Right now, court dates are being assigned for about a month out...so, we could be traveling to Ethiopia for our first trip in the next 2-3 months! In some ways, it feels like forever, but I know it will probably fly by! I have so much I want and need to get done before we meet our girls!

We've been starting to work on getting a room ready for the girls. I think we know where we can get a couple of twin beds and I have long shopping list for Ikea when we go the next time:) We've decided to resist the urge to buy them a ton of toys. For one, our budget will thank us! And, we really don't want to overwhelm them or give them the idea that toys grow on trees here in America. So, instead, we are going through a lot of the boys' stuff and stocking the girls' closet! So many of their toys are "gender neutral." We've picked out a few stuffed animals, puzzles, games, blocks, gears, a dollhouse, and the play kitchen! I think the only thing I will "splurge" for are a couple of baby dolls....probably the $9.99 doll from Ikea that Abram has. The thing that "worries" me a bit is thinking about the amount of clothing we need to acquire! And, I don't feel I can begin to stock up when I see super bargains, because I'm really unsure of sizes. So, I'm hoping to get measurements of the girls when we go for court:) And, my family has talked about having a "big girl shower" for us! I'm sure that by the time we bring them home, their closet will be spilling over with pink and purple!

Here's a picture of the girls' closet one day when the boys decided to go through their stuff and give it to the girls (they did this with no prompting from me). They are such loving, giving little boys and they really are excited about their sisters!

An update on the girls:)

This past week, my dear friend, Pam, has been in Ethiopia overseeing things with Connected in Hope. If you remember, Pam is who I went to Ethiopia with last year. Now that I'm back and blogging, I will have to do a post to update everyone on Connected in Hope. So many things have happened over the past year and Pam and her daughter, Ryane, have worked so hard and accomplished so much!

When we accepted the referral for our girls, I knew Pam was leaving for Ethiopia in the near future and sent her a Facebook message along these lines, "you may have an opportunity to do something very special for us on your next trip to Ethiopia....visit our TWO DAUGHTERS!!!" Of course, Pam was chatting with Ryane on Facebook and immediately passed on the exciting news to her:) They have been so excited for us, and Pam was more than willing to visit the girls and take a package to them for us.

So, I made prints of our family picture, a picture of each of the boys, and a picture of the girls. I put those in the package with an outfit for the girls and a Disney Princess color wonder set. We heard from Pam yesterday that she was able to visit the girls and deliver their packages! She said what everyone has said about the girls...they are sweet, loving, happy girls and very committed to one another! She said they loved their new outfits and immediately put them on, wanting their picture taken! I wish I could post pictures of them....they are beautiful. Their smiles are brilliant. I only know them through pictures and short descriptions from those who have met them, and yet I love them. I know we will have many, many tough, trying moments while we transition from 2 to 4 kids, but I have so much hope. So much hope for the girls, for our boys, for their futures, for our family.



In other news, I've been motivated to get going on some projects around the house! Nothing like knowing life is going to change in a major way to encourage you to get started on things around the house:) First up was painting the dining room. I really didn't have any complaints with the burgundy wall and rooster-printed window treatments. But, I'm taking small, deliberate steps to making the house feel more like "ours." So, I ordered some really great picture frames from The Organic Bloom and went to Lowe's for a gallon of paint. I swapped out the rug for one of my favorites that I purchased at a thrift store for $40 and hung a new curtain rod. All that's left is curtains (probably an Ikea trip in my near future) and pictures for the frames! Here'a a picture of before and after:)

Time to start blogging again??

I have to say, I've considered getting back to blogging many times over the last several months, but it just seemed like too much to catch up on! Where do you start when you haven't blogged for 8 months! Well, last time I blogged, we were getting ready to move. We moved to Centerville in June and are feeling right at home! The boys spent all summer long swimming, boating, exploring, and playing in their "new house." They started preschool in the fall (Grayson on MWF; Abram T,TR) at the Methodist Church in town and love it. I love their teacher and her commitment to keeping parents involved. I've stayed busy with unpacking a house and all kinds of new photography clients. It's so great to be able to do sessions with people I grew up with! And, of course, we're loving being just 10 minutes away from both sets of grandparents! Aaron and I have gone on more dates in the past 7 months than the last 5 years!





And, while all that was happening, we continued to sit on the waiting list for our little girl. We had been very content to wait and wait, until about a month or so ago. We began to feel a stirring in our hearts...would we consider siblings? What about a child with a special medical need? We still knew we wanted girl(s). For one, I could use an ally around the house. And two, we felt girl(s) would transition into our family easier. And then, in the middle of January, we came across our girls....sisters, 6 and 4. We instantly started praying. No joke, we prayed NON-STOP for about a week....I mean constantly. There wasn't a minute that went by that I wasn't thinking of those girls and trying to discern if this was God's plan for our family. We inquired about the girls and learned that a woman traveling to meet her children in Addis had met our girls. She was so moved by the love and joy our girls exuded that she emailed from Addis saying she MUST talk to the family adopting these girls. It was just what we needed to hear. We called the agency and told them we wanted to adopt the girls. That night, we called our families and told them to expect TWO granddaughters/nieces!

Because our girls were listed with a different agency, we've spent the last 3 weeks gathering all our documents for another dossier. I have to say, I think we may have set the record for fastest dossier! With the exception of one document, which was where it needed to be, but was misplaced, we had our dossier together in 2 weeks! I sent it UPS overnight mail and it arrived in Georgia this morning. The agency will look it over and send it to be authenticated in D.C. and then it's off to Ethiopia. We hope to be submitted for a court date in the next 6-8 weeks. At that point, our court date will be 4-6 weeks out.

Please pray that our dossier arrives in Ethiopia safely and is quickly translated and submitted for a court date! Also, pray for our girls as they learn they have a family in the U.S. Pray that God will prepare their hearts and minds for their transition into our family. Also pray that our boys will be loving and accepting of the sisters that will no doubt take some of our attention away from them.