Our Girls.....and the birthday boy

Wow, this has been a great week. Our agency director, Sue, is in Ethiopia right now and spent yesterday at the orphanage where our girls are living. She was able to get a bunch of new pictures. We were very lucky that she was able to send them to us. The internet is not real reliable in Ethiopia. They are so stinking cute!!!!!! I can not wait to show them off. There are a few pictures of the girls opening our gifts we sent with Sue. One picture shows M, who we are calling Ava, looking at the photo album we sent her. It just melted my heart. I wonder if she understands we are going to be her family?? Hopefully, Sue was able to find out more about the girls families from the orphanage director. I am so excited to learn more about them. We did get some more good news right before Sue left for ET. We received M's, (Ava's) birth certificate. We are still waiting on baby T's....I believe we are going to name her Eliza. We will keep the girls given names as their middle names. I haven't heard any more about Liza's birth certificate, but hopefully it will come as quick as Ava's did!!! Once we get that, I think we can apply for a court date. At this point it looks like we will have to wait for a court date after the closure. Rumor has it courts close August 6th or so. I would LOVE to get a last minute call to say we have to get to ET in the next week or so. But in all reality, it probably won't happen until October or November. Then we wait 6-8 weeks for an embassy date. So my prayers are .....let's see a miracle....get us to court before the closure!!! But if not, I pray we have our girls home before Christmas.

Tomorrow is Luke's birthday, he will turn 11. He has changed so much in the last year.....I can't believe he is going into middle school. I still picture him with tupperware on his head and a "passy" in his mouth. Man, did he love his pacifier. I will never forget when I finally took the "passy" away. I cut the end off and told him it broke and we needed to throw it away. He really didn't fight me about it. He walked to the trash can and said "bye bye passy" and dropped it in....he was so sad. Of course, I was in tears!!!! It was so sweet. I can still see his precious little face saying good bye. Hannah was in on the trick....and years later she finally told him the truth. He was so mad. :) Now he is into his phone...yes, we broke down and got him a phone for his birthday. There was really no way out of it. We got Hannah her first phone going into 6th grade....and Luke totally remembered and kept reminding us of it...for months now. Luke is wise beyond his years...literally, Luke is very smart- if I do say so myself. He is in the gifted program at school and loves it.....we call him the Master of Useless information. I swear that kid knows the weirdest facts about the strangest things. Just out of the blue he will come up with some fact about anything and everything. We always tease him about it, at least he is a good sport. I love that kid. Luke came to us and wanted to be baptized a couple years ago. We, of course, were thrilled. Our pastor picks out a verse for everyone who gets baptized. Here is Luke's verse and it fits him perfectly. 1 Timothy 4:12 Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.

We have spent the past few summers traveling with Luke to swim meets. He is a great little swimmer. He really is a natural at it. He has taken some private stroke lessons and has a mean breaststroke. He will most likely qualify for conference which is an all day Saturday event. We are very proud of him. I hope he has a wonderful birthday and I want him to know just how much I love him. He's my little buddy...well, big buddy now...he is almost as tall as I am.... :) He is going to be a wonderful big brother to Ava and Liza. He totally understands why we are adopting and he is very excited about bringing the girls home. He has such a big heart and I can't wait for the girls to meet their big brother.



His favorite toy...tupperware.
The famous "passy"
Swim Team

One Step Closer

Today I woke up to an amazing email from Sue, our agency director. She had sent me information on 2 beautiful little girls. My heart skipped a beat when I first looked at them. We went into this thinking we would end up with one girl around a year old. Well, it has finally happened.....we accepted a referral for a 1 year old beautiful little girl. But.....we have also accepted the referral for a beautiful 3 year old little girl. I know....crazy. I'm going to be a Mom of 5. Yikes!!! From the moment we were approved for 2 kids I told Darren we would end up with two. I said it kind of jokingly.....but I just had a feeling. I can not explain to you how I felt when I opened those emails. Sue emailed me around 5 am. She is a super human and I don't think she ever really sleeps. It was around 6 am and I was getting ready for work. I checked my email and I rushed into the bedroom with the computer. Darren was sound asleep. When I woke him up he thought something bad had happened, like our house got broke into or something. I showed him our little girl, Baby T, with tears in my eyes. Then I showed him the second girl, Baby M. He said "wow, now what do we do?" I was shaking and crying. He jumped out of bed and got his glasses....he can't see 2 inches in front of him with out them. We had a fairly short conversation about adopting both girls. It just seemed right. Of course, I let my brain get involved and I came up with every reason why we shouldn't adopt both girls. 99% of those we completely selfish in nature. So I email Sue and told her we wanted to adopt both of the girls. After I sent that email....I was completely as peace with our decision. It was the best feeling.
I was a complete mess at work today....poor Jennifer. I kept checking email every 5 mintues or so....... Sue emailed me back and said I could send gifts to the girls, but I had to get them to her pronto. She leaves for ET on Saturday. She will travel to see the girls early in the week. So, Darren and I rushed out and got new outfits, pajamas, jackets, socks, hair bows, blankets and dolls. We also included a photo album for each girl. It was so much fun. I have to overnight it all to Sue so she can get it in her luggage.
Now that the major part is out of the way, all the little things creep in......what are we going to name them????? We will keep their given names as middle names, but plan on giving them american first names. How will I rearrange the babies room??? I have a crib all set up, now I will have to move things around to get in a twin bed too. But I have plenty of time to figure all of that out.
We are not able to show pictures until we pass court and they are legally ours, so until then, you will just have to believe me....they are both super cute. But I took pictures of all their goodies... :)
Right now, I can't stop smiling. That part of the journey is over. Now we begin a whole new kind of waiting. Which in truth will probably be much harder. We will wait to be summited to court, we wait for a court date, we pray we pass court, if not, we wait for another court date. We really don't know a timeline right now. As I have said before, ET closes courts during the rainy season, and it looks like we may fall right into that time.....so we may not go to court until October. Then back to waiting.....once we pass court we wait for an embassy date. Wait wait wait. But it will be so worth it when we get to see our girls smiling faces.
Right now what we need are prayers and lots of them. Pick and choose or pray for all of them :)
Pray for the health and safety of our babies.
Pray for our patience as we enter into this new part of the adoption process.
Pray for our finances to fall into place. Two girls, twice the fees.
Pray that paperwork goes smoothly and swiftly.
All in God's timing.

Hangin' in there....

Today is July 1st....I have no idea where June went.....holy cow. We have been so busy that we really haven't done much this summer but run kids to different activities. Baseball, swim team, birthday parties, etc. It's pretty much non stop. In the rush and craziness of running kids I am looking forward to adding another child into the mix. Really, what's one more??? I'm sure she will rock my world when we do get her....but she is going to be nothing but a blessing to my family. Everyone is anxiously waiting her arrival. Friends and family are asking "have you heard anything?" "when do you travel?". It used to be "will you have her this summer?" now it's turned into "will you have her by Christmas?" Well, I honestly don't know. We are still waiting on our referral. It's going a little slower than we had hoped but there have been alot of changes with the process. First the two trip rule, then the closings of different offices in ET that have to file paperwork for the orphans. Now we are moving into the rainy season in ET and that means the courts will most likely close for awhile.
We have been slowly moving up the waiting list for a little girl 0-3 years old. I'm glad to say we are now #1 on the list. So we could really have a referral any day. Then we will apply for a court date and pray we get in before the courts close because of the rain. If all that falls into place we could have our girl home by Christmas. I know God has all this planned out and in His perfect timing. It's just so hard not knowing and waiting. I really had no idea what a roller coaster this process was going to be. It has been much more emotional than I ever imagined. I am normally a pretty level headed person, but this waiting has turned me into a grumpy crazy lady. I check my email a zillion times a day. I check our agency website a zillion times a day. Not sure what I think is going to change in 20 minutes but I still check. I just can't help myself. One day I am so down and grumpy and I can't stand to be around anyone...the next day I will be excited and soooo looking forward to our baby. My poor family...having to put up with me. I just can't wait to smell her and hold her. I know that sounds weird. But Hannah smells like perfume and hand sanitizer...don't ask. Hannah is almost 15 and she is not into hugging anymore. The boys pretty much smell like dirt...seriously-they are so dirty by the end of the day. They play hard and sweat. Luke turns 11 in 14 days and is almost as tall as me now. Owen, who is 7, still likes to cuddle but he is growing like a weed and is long and leggy...kind of hard to cuddle. I want that clean baby smell.....powder, lotion, and yes-even diapers...if she is not potty trained yet. I can't wait. I want to kiss on her, I want her to fall asleep on my shoulder. Oh, it gives me the chills just thinking about it. I am in love with her already and I have no idea who she is.

Darren just got back from working at an orphanage in Haiti. Check it out at www.glahaiti.org. When he got home and told me the stories and showed me video and pictues....oh man, my heart ached. He said it was so hard to leave the kids. He is now worried about going over for our court date and meeting our girl....then having to come home without her and wait 6-8 before we can go back and bring her home. He is convinced I will be a wreck. That is really going to be hard, I already know it. I just can't imagine getting back on that plane without her.....
Well, I need to stop dreaming about my girl and focus on my stinky boys.... :) It is shower time, then bed time.
Please keep us in your prayers. That God makes His path clear to us and we get the news about our daughter soon.