We are now a family of SEVEN!!!!!

We have been home from Ethiopia for 4 days now and I think I may be able to write a complete sentence. Maybe not.....
We of course, went to Ethiopia for our court date and to meet our girls. We had a layover in Cairo, Egypt and Darren and I took the whirlwind tour of the city. It was amazing to say the least. Huge, crazy and amazing. Can't say alot for the Cairo airport..... :)
We will probably not go that route on our next trip but I am so glad we were able to do that this time. How many people can say they have seen the Pyramids of Giza up close and personal???


We arrived in Addis Ababa at 3am. Waited for our driver, then headed to the guest house where we were staying. Slept a little, then got up and went shopping. :) We "needed" to shop before we had the girls, so we did that right away. We hung out with our friend Ryan from Michigan, who we had previously met at the CCI reunion in Chicago. It was nice to see a familiar face. His "daughter to be" was with him and she is a cutie pie. I got to love on her while we waited to met our girls. Ryan passed court on Tuesday and was headed back home soon after. There was another "Daddy" there, Vance, from another agency that was going to Embassy. We also got to hang out with his family. We also spent alot of time with Yonatan, he is the manager of the guest house. So sweet and such a nice guy.
PICTURED ARE: YONATAN, EZRA AND RYAN





Tuesday we took a day trip to the Blue Nile Gorge....or should I say "tried" to take a day trip. We took off, got almost there and had to turn around. After 3 hours of horrible road conditions and smelling deisel from the trucks....the road just ended. Yep, just stopped. Actually, it looked like they were building a new road and destroyed the old one before the other was actually finished. So we didn't make it to the Gorge but we got to see beautiful scenery and people the entire way.

We did instead go to the first church ever built in Addis. It was beautiful.



Wednesday....we went to meet our girls for the first time. I was a nervous wreck. They were amazing. The nannies were so sweet and helped with the language barrier as much as possible. Ava Meskerem went to Darren first. I tried to take pictures but my hands were shaking so bad!!! She was so tiny and beautiful. Most kids are cute...she was just stunning. Ava was very shy at first but Darren got her to smile within minutes. I cried. In all of the pictures and video of her that we have received, she was not smiling in any of them. She has a beautiful smile.....and great teeth!!! No braces for her :) She came to me and I cried some more. She was probably thinking..."who is this crazy white lady"?



Then we went upstair to meet Eliza Tabita. She was smiling and babbling the minute we got her. Cute as can be and yes, those eyelashes are as long as they looked in the pictures we got of her!!I cannot even explain or express all of the emotions I was going through when I met the girls...there just is no way to put that into words. It was amazing, Praise God.



The next few days we spent getting to know the girls. We hung out at the guest house and played. We gave the girls a bath which they loved. We colored, we did puzzles, we played outside, we played blocks, we read books. It was so wonderful to just be with them. Ava started off very shy but warmed up quickly. Liza...is not shy. She is a ball of fire from the get go. She is going to keep me busy :) Ava loved to look at books and do puzzles. We really thought we would have a hard time because of the different languages, but some how we got it to work. The sound of Ava giggling brought me to tears. Yes, pretty much anything at this point would bring me to tears. Liza is beginning to walk and really started to take off pretty good towards the end of the week. She would run to me and dive into my arms. So sweet.
We have zillions of pictures, but here are a few of my favorite.







Friday we went to court. YES, we passed. Ava and Eliza are offically Bodines. I was much more nervous than I thought I would be. It took all of 5 minutes, we were asked a few questions and sent on our way. We were lucky enough to be able to meet with the surviving birth parent for each girl. I won't go into details, I will keep that for the girls to one day share if they wish. But I was humbled and overcome with joy, sadness and my heart broke into a million different pieces. What a gift these parents have given us. The love in their eyes for their girls will be forever in my mind. What a selfless thing they have done for their daughters.
Later that day, we unfortunatly, had to take the girls back to the Transition Home. I knew that was going to be hard, but man, it was alot harder than I thought. Eliza fell asleep on the ride over, so our goodbyes were kisses and whispers. Our goodbye to Ava was much harder. Not sure if she understood exactly what was going on or not. She does not speak Ahmaric so the nannies aren't sure if she understood what they were telling her. But luckily, a little boy at the transition home speaks her language and he came over and talked to her and explained that we were her new mommy and daddy and that we would be back soon to take her home. I so hope she understood what was going on. We gave her tons of hugs and kisses and then we had to leave. I was so sad. I know that they girls are well taken care of, the nannies love them like crazy. But it was all about me :) I want them home, I want to love on them, I want to give them baths, feed them, play with them.

So once again, I cried.


















Now we wait again. We wait for paperwork to get finished up and go to the Embassy. We are praying for the December 2nd Embassy date. At that time, we will travel back to Ethiopia to pick up our daughters. Please keep us in your prayers that all the paperwork is finished on time and we can travel soon.
More updates to come.......

It's actually going to happen....

Well, it's actually happening. In 12 hours I will be pulling out of my driveway, heading to Chicago to get on a plane. That plane is taking us first to Cairo, Egypt. We have a layover and we are lucky enough to be able to take a tour of the city. I am so excited about this. I never in a million years thought I would actually see the pyramids of Egypt. Wow. Then we take a flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. My stomach is turning just thinking about it. I am nervous, excited, scared and giddy...along with a ton of other emotions. I am going to be able to meet my two new daughters...but that means leaving my three kids home. I'm positive they will be fine. They are looking forward to having Grandma Judy and cousin Zac stay with them. They even get to have their cousin Cole come hang with them after the U of I game. Owen is super excited because he knows Cole will play X box with him :)

I honestly don't know how to express to you all what I am feeling. I feel like I have been waiting so long for this and now it's happening. I feel so blessed that I can travel to a beautiful country and meet our daughters. It's so unreal.
I thank you all for your prayers and well wishes for travel. I ask that you all say a little prayer for us on Friday. We will be going to court and hopefully the judge will let us adopt the girls.

The internet is pretty iffy in most places in Addis, but we hope to be able to give a few updates through Facebook.
If-WHEN-we pass court on Friday, I will post pictures of our beautiful new daughters.
Time to finish packing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Five days until we leave for Ethiopia. I can hardly believe it. I am frantically trying to get things ready to go. We are taking a bunch of donations to the orphanage. I am so excited for this trip but I am also scared to death.

It's so weird to think that I have one daughter going to Homecoming and another one in diapers......and one more following me around everywhere I go.......

Here is Hannah and her date Brendan, getting ready to go to the Homecoming Dance. And in the other picture, Hannah and all her beautiful friends.

Update time. Yes, it's now 12 days until we fly out. It is hard to believe. I am beginning to get a bit freaked out. I'm not really worried about the traveling. Yes, the flight will be long but I hope to sleep through most of it. I am worried about leaving my kids, although I know they will be perfectly fine with Grandma and my nephew Zac. The kids are so excited to have them come stay. I am a planner and a detail gal. And I have no plan or details. We are totally winging it once we hit the ET airport. That's not me....I don't usually wing major things like this. I'm sweating just thinking about it now.

What I am really worried about is meeting my girls. I am aching inside to see them and to hold them. I cannot believe the love I feel for these two little girls that I have never met. It's so strange. I have a million questions going through my mind at all times. Will they like us? Will they even care that we are there? Will they understand the we are coming back to get them in a couple months? Will they be scared of me? Will they cry for their nannies? Will I know what to do to comfort them? How are we going to communicate-they don't know English? Will the clothes I bought them fit? Will they like the toys I bought them? Seriously, the list goes on and on. No wonder I am not getting anything done around here lately. I can't keep a straight thought. I keep thinking...I can't wait to kiss on Liza's cheeks and I can't wait to finally (hopefully) see Ava smile. And now I only have 12 days until we fly out...so 14 days until I see my girls. Prayers for me that I can hold it together until then!!!

15 Days until we leave to meet our beautiful little girls.

20 days

Yep, 20 days until we fly to Ethiopia to meet our daughters. We received more pictures of our girls tonight. I must say that our agency, CCI, is amazing. They are so good at sending any pictures they get from the nannies or other families. My girls look happy. I finally saw a little smile on Ava. And Eliza looks like she is full of attitude and we probably have our hands full with that one!!! Oh man, is she cute. Longest eyelashes EVER!!!!!! Ava is just georgous. Her face is beautiful. I cannot wait to meet them. I cannot wait until I can show all of you just how sweet they are!!!!
20 days, 20 days, 20 days. That's all I got.......nothing else to really say, just 20 days. :)

Getting Ready for a Change

Well, I am down to 23 days until we fly to Ethiopia, but who's counting??

I have been doing some shopping for donations to take with us. I went to the dollar store and loaded up on coloring books, crayons, puzzles, bouncy balls and stickers. I also picked up super cute band aids. What kids doesn't love a cute band aid? Owen's class at Church is collecting money to buy vitamins for us to take. Those kids are so sweet and caring. Miss Cindy is wonderful!!!!

It's been a crazy couple of weeks. We have been really busy at the bakery. A lot of special orders and we participated in a fall festival in Monticello. We had a booth set up selling cookies, bars and pie. It was a nice day out, not too hot. It turned out to be a very long day, but we did ok. We started icing cookies at 7 am and I think we finally got home around 6-6:30...I don't even remember I was so tired. I slept for 12 hours straight that night. It was wonderful. I wore my new Dansko shoes that day to break them in before the trip and my feet felt pretty good considering I had only wore them once before for a couple of hours. They are so cute. They are leopard print...for those of you who know me well, I am bit of a fashion diva. I'll try anything once :) Hey, I went to a Fashion College and now I am baking pies...so all that schooling has to go to something....so I use all that education for shopping for super cute shoes!!!!!

We have also been very lucky the past few weeks to receive pictures of the girls and a few days later we received a video too!!! Oh my gosh. I cried through the entire thing. It shows Eliza "trying" to walk...she's not real steady yet...still holds on to a finger to take a step. It also shows Ava playing with some other kids outside on a slide. She is very serious and quiet. She doesn't really smile...that just broke my heart. But I also have to consider the girls just got moved to the transition home a day or so before the video was shot so I am guessing she was a little scared and confused. They are both so cute. I know all parents are bias, but seriously.....Ava is just pretty..she has a beautiful face, her lips are that perfect heart shape. And Eliza has HUGE brown eyes with the longest eyelashes I have ever seen. I can't wait to see them. I just want to hug them and give them kisses. I know they will probably be scared to death of me, but I will do my best to love on them without totally freaking them out :)

We got another picture today. Both girls side by side and Ava has her arm around Liza. It looks a little half hearted, like Ava is thinking....who is this kid? and why do they want me to hug her? Well sweetie, she is your baby sister!!!!! I wonder if they realize that yet? Anyway, back to the picture.....to my surprise...Ava is now bald too!!!! For those of you following along this crazy journey of ours, you will remember that a few weeks back I got pictures of Eliza with a shaved head because she had ringworm and it's just easier to care for it if the nannies don't have to mess with all that hair. Not sure why Ava's head is shaved....our agency director, Sue, wasn't sure. I don't think she has ringworm.....at least I couldn't see it, if she does. So who knows. Hopefully, I will find out soon. It just killed me to see that!!!! She had a really pretty head of hair, nice soft curls. And the day before I got the picture, I had gone to Sephora and bought a ton of Carol's Daughter's product to take on the trip. Guess that will lighten my load a little bit!!!!! Looks like I need to invest in hats and headbands instead..... :)

Our iPad contest is almost over....we draw the winner this Saturday. So if you want any last minute tickets, let me know. We have been so lucky to have such wonderful friends and family participate. THANK YOU. We also had a surprise visit the other night.....I won't give names....but a very nice young man from our church came by....I though he came over to talk to Darren. We are friends with his family and he helps out with the youth group. I figured he just wanted to talk. Well, that wasn't it at all. He decided that he wanted to help with our adoption expenses and gave us a good sum of money towards the cause. I freaked, and cried. We tried to give it back....what 18 year old doesn't need money??? But he, of course, refused. He said he thought long and hard and really felt it in his heart that he wanted to do this. I'm crying now just thinking about it. Both Darren and I were humbled and so full of joy. I could not believe there was a teenager out there in this crazy mixed up world, who would rather give their money to us...to help bring home our babies. Seriously, most boys that age would be buying a new car stereo. What a super God loving man. He is such a good kid and his parents are so lucky and I know they are so proud of him. He is a blessing to us and our church.

Our agency yahoo group had posted a comment to give scripture that has been meaningful to us throughout the adoption process.....I loved seeing what everyone wrote.
Here are some of my favorites and I think these really fit "us" right now....enjoy....

"Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying,
This is the way, walk in it." Is 30:21


Habakkuk 2:3 "But these things I plan won't happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, be patient! For it will surely take place. It will not be late bay a single day."


"If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." 1 John 3:17-18


And Last but not Least....

From Mother Teresa: "I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I
just wish that He didn't trust me so much."