We Are Home!!

We arrived home safely last night around 9:30! We are so blessed with our 2 new beautiful and wonderful daughters. Challenges? Yes, especially with communication and teaching new rules! But, we are sooo excited to be one big family! I will blog more later! Right now, Emma, Faven and Diborah need lots of attention! (It's 12:30 and I haven't even had the chance to get dressed!) Blessings to all!

Getting ready for take-off!

Well...we have a full day today preparing for our trip! We leave home tonight and begin our flight in the morning!!!
Please pray for safe travels for us. Also, pray for my children here. Just today, we had to take Nathan's boxer to the vet to have him put to sleep. It will be hard for this momma to leave her heartbroken children! )o:
I appreciate everyone who has supported us in this process and who continues to keep us in their thoughts and prayers!!

I hope that all of you have a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year!!

Kayla's growing up!

My baby girl turned 19 years old yesterday! What an amazing young woman she has grown up to be! Her grandma gave her this 'Angel' ornament--it describes her perfectly!

4 days until we fly!!!

JESUS and Santa Claus...

We go to church and we teach our children about God and His son Jesus. Our children know that Christmas is Jesus' birthday. But, we also talk about Santa Claus. Yes, Santa Claus brings presents on Jesus' birthday.

As we were walking into church on Sunday, my daughter, Emma--all of 3 years old--said, "This is my Bible and it talks about Jesus. I love Jesus. Jesus is going to tell Santa Claus to bring me toys for Christmas." At least she knows the proper chain of command.

I am going to enjoy every single aspect of this trip to Ethiopia to meet our daughters and bring them home--you will not hear me complain one single bit!! But, I am sure going to miss my ornery little sweetness!! Upon the wonderful advice of a friend, I have decided to fill a jar with kisses for every day I'll be gone. Each day Emma will get a kiss from mommy and when the kisses are gone, mommy will be home! I may do it for Nathan and Derek as well, just for fun! (o:

Making a list...

We have made soooo many lists in preparation for our trip. Christmas to-do lists, for-the-trip lists, in-our-absence lists, what-to-pack lists.....

We are slowly plugging away and marking things off of the lists. It is fun and exciting! I am beyond thrilled to finally be at this point in our adoption journey! We leave one week from tomorrow! What an amazing Christmas this will be--one to remember for a lifetime!

Christmas with Faven and Diborah!

Every year we get a family Christmas ornament--it has been fun to watch our ornaments grow!! It was exciting to be able to buy an ornament this year with Faven and Diborah on it!

It looks like we'll be in Ethiopia for Christmas!!! WOW!!

We plan on leaving on the 17th and spending a couple of days resting and sightseeing in Rome! Kayla turns 19 this month, so she is super excited about this brief detour--what a birthday present! I had to wait until I was 39 and decided to adopt to travel to another country!

Then, my favorite part, we will leave Rome and fly to meet our girls on the 21st! What a wonderful Christmas this will be!
It breaks my heart to be away from Nathan, Derek and Emma on Christmas day, but they will be well cared for by family that loves them very much! We're leaving them in good hands! Nathan will get to play Santa. He is looking forward to eating the cookies Emma will leave for Santa! (o:

WE PASSED!!!

**EDITED**

We passed court! Faven and Diborah officially have the last name of Simmons--forever!! Okay, until they get married, but you know what I mean!

I deleted the video from this post and put it at the top of the blog, so it will be available for me, I mean you, whenever you visit my blog! (o:

Thanks for all of the congratulations and words of encouragement!

Tomorrow...

Tomorrow we will know if our girls are officially our daughters! Wow!
I so hope that we will be able to post pictures of the new members of the Simmons household!

I have appreciated all of the encouragement and prayers from the few who read this blog! (o: It has helped me immensely through this process! God bless you all!

2 days....

TWO more days until our court date!! Wow! I've thought about this alot over this holiday weekend. Of course, it would have been wonderful to have our daughters home for Thanksgiving, but that was not to be...and, so, we look forward to hearing good news on Monday!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We celebrated with my mother-in-law, sister-in-law/best friend (Suzy), and 6 college students who could not go home for the holidays! Instead of the traditional turkey dinner (we had this at Suzy's the previous weekend!), we had yummy italian....traditional lasagna, veggie lasagna, and seafood fettucine alfredo...yum!

We got up early on Friday to go shopping for all of the deals WalMart has to offer! This was the first time I participated in this insanity and have to admit I rather enjoyed it! My husband and I, Suzy, and my 3 older children arrived around 4:30 and stationed ourselves at the special deals we decided we wanted the night before--the advantage of having teenagers! I was a bit nervous...I refuse to fight for any material item and had heard that people can get vicious. I did not find this to be the case at our particular WalMart....it was crowded, but everyone was as friendly as could be expected at 5 in the morning (with a few exceptions). The kids had a good time doing this (it's all about creating memories, you know!) and we were able to save some money on Christmas presents!

A Special Surprise

Oh my goodness...I just got to see the most precious thing! I wish I could share it with you, because I'm sure you would agree. It is a video clip of my two sweet girls each saying 'I love you!' I'm sure you can just imagine how many times I've watched it!

The second most precious thing was watching Emma play the video clip over and over again with a big smile on her face! She is excited about meeting her sisters and talks about them all of the time! What a treat to be able to see them and hear their sweet voices!

5 days until our court date!

I hope everyone has a happy and blessed Thanksgiving!!

Coming soon--court date #3

ONE WEEK until our next court date! I was convinced in October that I would never get excited about another court date. Guess what--I was wrong! How can I not be excited about the possibility of these 2 girls officially becoming my daughters?! How can I not be excited about the possibility of being able to travel to Ethiopia and hold these two girls in my arms after looking at their pictures for 6 months?! I AM excited!

A Time to Celebrate

It all began last April after we received the referral of our two beautiful girls and began following the Ethiopian adoption blogs. We saw over and over again on the blogs the many children in the many orphanages in Addis. It tugged at our heart strings that there were so many children without families living in need. We knew that we had to do something to help. We gathered the humanitarian aid to take with us when we travel, but still felt like that wasn't enough. We really wanted to be able to do something more for the children in the orpanages. So, we got our community involved. My husband, John, designed tshirts. The tshirts say 'Barton' (which is the name of the community college where John teaches) in Amharic across the front. A donation of $30 would get the donor a tshirt, an Ethiopian child a tshirt, and the rest of the donation would go to provide for the needs of the children in the ophanages. As incentive, my crazy husband advertised that if we raised $10,000, he would shave his head at our community college's basketball game! With the help of so many people in our small community, we reached our goal!

We had to celebrate!!

We organized a Barton to Africa night at the college.....

Not one, but two men shaved their heads,

the Barton dance team performed an African dance,

the pep band played some African music,

and all in attendance were encouraged to wear their tshirts (which gained them free admission). We had four Ethiopian students from a nearby college attend the event. They sang the Ethiopian national anthem before the games began. We invited Mary T. to come and accept the check on behalf of Gladney, our adoption agency. Gladney will make sure that the money is used where the need is the greatest.

What an awesome town we live in...so many people were willing to support our efforts--we just had to ask.

We are excited to be able to donate this money, but realize that it is such a small amount in comparison to the overwhelming need of the children in Ethiopia. Our hearts break for the children in our daughters' birth country. I still wish we could do more.

Hopefully next month we will get to travel to Ethiopia to bring home our precious girls. We will get to distribute our tshirts to the children, give them hugs, pray for them and cry for them. Then, we will leave and come home to our comfortable home with our family. Then what? God help us to know!

Being selfless

I have to tell you a story about a sweet young lady in our church. She is in the 5th grade and just had a birthday recently. She had a birthday party and, instead of getting presents, she had her friends bring money to give to my husband and I to share with the children in the orphanages. What a special little girl! Not only did she make a sacrifice for other children more needy than herself, but raised awareness of the needs with her friends! I am still in awe that she did this and am sooo proud of her! It is my desire to be this selfless!

1 John 3:16-19
We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion--how can God's love be in that person?
Dear children, let's not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God.

Tagged Again!

I was tagged. This means I have to post on this blog the sixth picture from the sixth album on my computer and explain it. Here it is....

This is my daughter, Kayla's, prom picture taken just before her senior prom. It includes Kayla, my other daughter, Emma, Kayla's boyfriend and his two sisters.

That was fun. I was sure the 6th picture of my 6th album would be Emma since she's the baby of the family and seems to dominate all photo ops. OK, she's a ham! She somehow squeezed into this picture!

Family Fun Night

Saturday night was an unusual night--ALL of my children were home! With 3 teenagers, that doesn't seem to happen very often! So...what do you do when all family members (plus your sister-in-law and her 3 children) are home on a Saturday night? Well, of course, your daughter gives every male, including her father, highlights!! Yes, my husband and 2 sons (plus nephew and niece) all got highlights! Here are some photos from our great adventure!





These are the work in process pics. I didn't get one of Nathan getting his hair done--believe it or not, I couldn't find my camera!!! I know, I get the bad mom award!









These are pics of the finished product. John and Nathan's are very subtle, whereas Derek went all out! Doesn't he look happy!




This picture is for Amber.

After I took this picture, I thought of all of Savannah's peace sign (?) pictures!! Look at the face--it's exactly the same! It must be 'the thing'!! (o:

Adoption News:
5 long weeks until our court date! I can't believe I'm back to counting down weeks!!
)o: Ugh!

Breast Cancer Awareness

This is breast cancer awareness month. I've never really given too much thought to it, but this month, just last week, in fact, a very good friend of mine was diagnosed with breast cancer. She is an amazing person. She has 6 children--2 biological, 4 adopted. One of those adopted children is a teenager she just brought home from Ethiopia this year. God used her to lead us to adopt our 2 girls from Ethiopia! She and I and two other friends went together last summer and got our first tattoos--Africa with a heart over Ethiopia! Please pray for her and others who are faced with fighting this ugly disease! She will be starting chemotherapy very soon.

Along those same lines, my daughter cut her hair to donate to locks of love. So many do not have the luxury of having a bad hair day. When you watch a loved one go through chemotherapy and lose their hair, it really puts our minor daily 'struggles' into perspective.

Here are my daughter's before and after pictures. She won't miss that hair one bit!

Another new court date...

We just heard from our wonderful caseworker from Gladney, Mary T. Our new court date is set for December 1st. We are doing amazingly well with this. When we finally make it through court and get to travel to Ethiopia to pick up our girls, it will be a super exciting surprise!!

Absence makes the heart grow fonder? Good things come to those who wait? I don't know about that, but I do know that God is good and He will do amazing things!

Thanks for all who are praying with us!!

Tagged

Yikes! I've been tagged! The first person to tag me was Jen. This has really caused me to think about some weird and interesting things in my life---why is that so hard for me? Here it goes....

1. I love chocolate! I could probably eat ten candy bars in one sitting--which is why my sister-in-law signed me up for our local gym's weight loss challenge! Thanks Suzy!! (O:

2. Speaking of chocolate...I eat a Snickers bar in layers. I eat the chocolate first--tricky but fun! Then, the nougat. Then the best part..the caramel and nuts. Yum! This freaked my husband out when we were dating! He must have really loved me because he married me and has put up with my 'Snicker eating habits' for 19 years!

3. My biggest fear in the whole world is public speaking! Why?! I do not know! Just don't ask me to do it!

4. In the almost 20 years that John and I have been married, we have lived in 11 different homes in 4 different towns! We have set a record at our latest location--5 1/2 years in the same house and 8 1/2 years in the same town! Woo Hoo!!

5. I come from a family with 4 children, but I grew up with many, many cousins. My mom came from a family with 10 kiddos and my dad's family had 6 kiddos! That's 28 aunts and uncles (including spouses) with 2 or more children each!
I'm carrying on my grandparents' tradition...soon we will have 6 kiddos in our house!!

6. I love to run for exercise. But...I've only run in one race. I am a very competitive person and will not run in a race I don't think I can win. Sad, I know. The one race I competed in, I did not win, but I beat my husband!! Ahhh, victory!

7. I love to do crossword puzzles! I have won my husband over to crosswords. Every night before we turn off the lights to go to sleep, we wind down with crossword puzzles--we each have our own books! It's soo romantic! (O:


ONLY 2 MORE DAYS UNTIL OUR COURT DATE!!!! PLEASE PRAY WITH ME!!!

**UPDATE ON COURT DATE**

It looks like we will not make it through court on Friday. There is additional paperwork that is being required. This means we will have a new court date issued for late November.

7 days....

Only 7 days until we find out if we pass through court and get to travel or need more paperwork and get a new court date. We DO NOT want that last one to happen!!!

We received an update on our daughters. They are doing well. They have struggled with a minor skin condition and an ear infection, but have been treated and are healthy again. When asked what they wanted to say to their new family (that's us!), they said, "That we love them very much , and for them to get over here!"

Hopefully we'll be there soon!

My Big Day!

First of all I have to say that our court date is 1 week and 1 day away--but who's really keeping track? OK--I AM!! I think about it every day, several times the day!

In other news.... today is my birthday!! I am still 30 something....ok 39 to be exact. I've never been one to try to hide my age. I still love birthdays!
I only have 2 requests for this birthday--that I don't have to cook or clean! I'll let you know how that goes! (O:

While You Wait....

Less than 2 weeks until our court date! Hooray!
I decided to have some fun and comprise a list of some of the things we've done to pass the time over the past 4-6 months...with some visuals, of course! Enjoy!


1) Many trips to the park.





















2) A Parade...




I love this picture! My son was the only member of the band to have a cheering section. He couldn't stop smiling to play his trumpet!

















Here are my 2 daughters on the college float. This demonstrates the joy of having an older sister AND the joy of being an older sister!











3) The Zoo!



Here's Emma feeding the peacock
























and checking out the alligators!






4) Another parade....Homecoming!

















5) Football games

The Player!

The Spectator!











6) Making a Patio...


Moving the dirt to get ready to pour the concrete.













7) Building a Shed/Playhouse....




The shed is on the bottom, the playhouse is on the top....FUN!

Here is my multi-tasking husband--taking care of Emma, building a shed, and proofreading an essay! Wow!


This isn't finished and we've already had many picnic in the playhouse. This will be fun for years to come!









It's interesting to look back to see how we've spent our time. There hasn't been a day that has gone by that we haven't thought about and talked about our daughters in Ethiopia, but we've continued to enjoy each day that God has given us as a family.


One of my daily calendar devotions reads...

Time slides through our fingers like a well-greased string. There is no better time than now to assess the values which are worthy of our time and effort.

Psalm 31:14,15
You alone are my God; my times are in your hands.

3 more weeks!

We have our second court date just 3 weeks from today! Yaaay!



There was a quote in my daughter's school newsletter yesterday from a very wise person named anonymous. Anonymous said, "The really happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour." That really made me think about how I've handled the long wait during this adoption journey.



These last two months have been quite a detour for us. We had hoped to breeze through our court date on June 10th and head off to Ethiopia soon after. Obviously, this didn't happen. Nearly four months later, we're still waiting to bring our precious daughters home. Now anonymous has me asking myself..."How have I handled this detour?" Not so good at times. I've experienced moments of frustration, self-pity, anger, frustration...oh yeah, I already said that.



But, I have to say I've also had some really great times and really productive times during this wait.

--We finished up one sports season (baseball) and moved into the next (football).

--We've gotten settled into a new year in school.

--I started a regular exercise program with my sister-in-law and have actually lost a few pounds.

--I've met new people and their children from Ethiopia.

--As a family, we've raised lots of money to donate to the orphanages in Ethiopia.

--We've raised awareness in our community about the dire needs in Ethiopia.

--We've raised awareness about children in Ethiopia who need forever homes.

--We started the process of bringing a wonderful man to our country to pursue an education so that he will be able to return to Ethiopia someday to support his family and help his people. We hope this will lead to an education program that will give the hope of an education to those who wouldn't have the opportunity otherwise.



We have been busy. We have made the most of our detour. But, I can't wait to get back on the main road to our girls and bring them home soon...forever!

Inspired

My family and I had the honor of attending a local Ethiopian new years celebration on Saturday. It was so exciting to meet the different families in our area who have already gone through the adoption process and have their children. We were able to meet the little triplets adopted from Ethiopia. They are soooo cute!
The food was absolutely delicious! I enjoyed it so much that I was inspired to make some last night for my family. I tried my hand at doro wat(chicken) and injera. It was a lot of fun and my kids actually liked it! (Except Derek, who didn't enjoy the food we ate at the Ethiopian restaurant in OK City and so has sworn off of it for the rest of his life!)

I can't wait to get to Ethiopia and have the 'real thing'! Only 29 days until our court date!!!

Blog Re-Union

I'm so excited about next year's blog re-union. I appreciate the wonderful people organizing this exciting event.

I've said it before and will probably say it again...I am NOT a writer. This is definitely a gift that God decided not to give me. (My daughter, however, is a journalism major...ironic, huh?!) But, anyway, this blog has been a wonderful way to journal about our adoption process and to meet other families experiencing the same emotional ups and downs. The support I feel just by reading about other's experiences has been invaluable! I have enjoyed watching so many families with so many different life stories travel to the wonderful land of Ethiopia and bring home their beautiful children. I look forward to being able to meet many of you face to face.

Monthly Update

We received an update on our precious girls yesterday. I always get so excited to hear about them and see new pictures of them. They are so beautiful--they are perfect! I can't wait to hold them and tell them how much I love them.

Ironically, these updates also bring with them a little sadness. What are our little girls thinking? Do they understand what is going on? Do they know they have a family here that loves them so very much already? We've told them in our letters, but what does that mean to them?

My dear friend, Kristy, is taking a package to my daughters for me this week. I know she'll give them hugs and kisses for us and will tell them about us and how we love and care for them. Will they understand or will it just be more toys and pictures from someone who says they'll be there soon?

My prayer today is for them. God bless them and give them peace and joy!

Another year of school

It has been a whirlwind of a first week of school. Both of my baby girls have had their first day of school. My oldest baby girl had her first day of college!!! What? Is that possible? I know it's cliche, but, oh well---she has grown up so fast!
We have a tradition in our family.....pictures on the first day of each year of school. The kids secretly love this! (o: Here's Kayla...

Another tradition we have in our family is...save money when possible. Thus, Kayla has decided to live at home and attend the college where her daddy teaches. One of the benefits of teaching college is that any family member can go for free! Kayla is taking advantage of this--that's my girl!!
Our other baby girl had her first day of preschool. After watching her sister and brothers (and daddy! ) head out to school every day for the past 3 years, she was so ready! She did not cry as others did and was confused as to why I kept hanging around! Get a life, Mom! Here's Emma....





I can't leave out my most handsome sons! Derek started his first year in Middle School and Nathan returned to High School without his sister there to help him (a mixed blessing, I'm sure)as a sophomore.

I am enjoying this time to catch up on house cleaning (ok, maybe not!), but I am catching up on the adoption blogs! I've enjoyed watching all the families travel and bring their children home to be with their forever families! Still praying for those waiting families and children!

New Court Date...

Along with many other families, we heard from our caseworker that we have a new court date. It will be October 17th. If we pass on the 17th, we'll be able to travel 2-3 weeks later. Until then, we hope to send the girls lots of presents, pictures and letters with other traveling families.

We are excited to get updates and pictures (and maybe even video) of our girls! This will help us make it through until we get to go and see them in person. That will be a VERY special day indeed!

Random stuff...

First of all, I'd like to thank everyone who left a comment on my last post. It was comforting to know that I had so many people who care about our adoption praying for us! It means a lot! We go an update on our girls. It breaks my heart that we won't get to meet them and give them hugs until November/December. That seems so far away!

Since we won't be traveling to Ethiopia anytime soon, I thought I'd share a couple of pictures that we had taken at the wonderful Ethiopian restaurant in Oklahoma City. We had such a good time there and wish we could go more often!

Below is a picture of me with my wonderful husband, and 2 of our children, Derek and Emma...

This next picture, I love! Can you tell that Derek is thinking, "I hope you know, you're buying me a pizza after this!" He wasn't as fond of the Ethiopian cuisine as the rest of us were. (o:

I also wanted to share some pictures of the most recent addition to our family....

This is Babs (our daughter named her Baby, but I think Babs is more fitting!). Kayla has always wanted an English Bulldog, but I refused to let her spend lots of money on a dog. I know, I'm a meany! But, this dog has a story.... The state raided a puppy mill and rescued all the dogs (around 200, I think). They were dispersed to different humane societies around our state. Since Kayla works for a vet, she was able to hear about the opportunity to adopt one early on in the process. So, for the price of adopting a dog from the Humane Society and the cost of getting her spayed, Kayla got her English Bulldog. I have to admit, our whole family loves her and thinks she's cute....what do you think?

It has been really neat to see her go from being scared and barely able to walk around to being playful and active! She's also really good with Emma---very important!

No opinion.

Well, they did not issue an opinion on our case, so it looks like we'll have to wait until October for our next court date. I choose now to believe that my girls are in God's hands. His plans are not mine...obviously.

Pray for Good News!

We are really really really hoping and praying for good news this week! Please pray that all goes well and we (along with many others) will make it through court this week! This will be our last chance before the courts close for the rainy season. If we don't make it through now, we probably won't be able to travel until November or later! Ugh--I don't know if I could handle that!

In other news....
Our son Derek is in Wyoming on a youth trip this week. He will be gone for 8 days total. It was very difficult for him to leave, but we hear he's having a great time! I, on the other hand, miss him very much. He's my little buddy who's always around. Kayla said today that it seems like he's been gone forever.
Kayla is leaving tomorrow to go to a game in Kansas City with a friend. She'll only be gone for 2 days. She's 18 and I still worry about her!
Nathan started band camp this week at school. Oh my gosh, is it actually that time again! The summer flew by! That surprises me that I feel that way since there were many days that d-r-u-g by!!
Emma's still as busy as usual. Her most recent accomplishment is being able to pump her legs and swing all by herself. She had to show everyone in the family--she has quite a large audience!

Update on our Family

I received an update on my Ethiopian daughters yesterday. We'll call them Kat (her middle name will be Kathleen) and DiDi. We absolutely love updates!! This one was extra special because we got to hear from Kat. She is 7 and is anxious for her American family to come and get her. WE are VERY anxious to go and get her!! DiDi is only 3 and does not quite understand what is going on. I know she is loved at the foster care center and am prepared that she will have a hard time leaving. I love them both so much already!


Today we are in Oklahoma City on business, visiting relatives, and having a much needed mini vacation. We are going to eat lunch at the Ethiopian restaurant. I already contacted Tara for some recommendations-thanks Tara! I can't wait to try the Queen of Sheba platter! We're taking my husband's grandmother with us. I think it will be a fun experience to share with her.

Thank you to all who have been praying for us--the people I have met in the 'blog world' have been a God send! We believe that the rest of the families whose cases are still open in court will hear good news next week. It will be a much appreciated, long-awaited blessing! So...keep praying!

A new week...

I thought this would be a long weekend, but it's been wonderful. We've kept busy, thanks to family and friends. We had a great day at a friends lake yesterday. The kids had a blast! It was great family time. It's hard to find a time that we can all be together--especially with 4 kids between the ages of 3 and 18! I'll post pictures of that fun excursion later.

Please pray for us as we go into another week with our file still open in the Ethiopian courts. So many feelings to deal with!! I think it's taking a toll on our kids, too!

Proverbs 3:5-6
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight."

They Hatched!

Here's a not so cute picture of our new baby cardinal. Yes, the babies hatched out of their eggs two days ago. I was so hoping that this would be a sign that we were going to pass court yesterday, but no such luck. That would've been a really cool story, though!

We're still waiting for our turn to get the call that says, "MOWA has issued an opinion on your case and you can travel to get your girls!" OK, we're not waiting quite so patiently anymore--John calls a couple of times a day to see if I've heard anything. It's torture! I know that God is in control and His timing is perfect, but I'm still having a hard time not feeling anxious!

I am very happy for the families who have heard that their cases have passed court and that they can travel. I am especially happy for the children who will get to come home to their forever families soon! Praise God for that!

I will leave you with these pictures of my mom and dad cardinal. I can tell they're nervous about me hanging out and taking pictures--I wish I could let them know that I love their little babies and would not do anything to hurt them! Hmmm...do you think God's trying to tell me something?! (o;

Waiting...

I thought I'd share a picture of the most patient mom in the world. This is a picture I took of a mommy cardinal who built a nest and laid her eggs in a bush only a couple of feet from our backyard deck. I think she did this puposefully to remind me to be patient in the wait for my 'babies'. She knew she'd have to build her nest close to our house and at eye level because I'm not very observant and would never have noticed her otherwise. It is amazing to me that she nested here because we have a full grown boxer who roams our backyard, a cat (declawed) who lounges in the area, and 4 children plus friends who frequent the playground and trampoline back there. Let's not forget about the crazy lady with the camera! Just further comfirmation that she did this for me (after all, it's all about me, right?)!!

We are very excited to hear that the Gladney agency families paperwork is moving again!! We pray that 'things' will go quickly and we will be travelling to get our girls soon. Until then, we will sit and wait...patiently, of course...I did learn from my new cardinal friend--her sacrifice was not in vain!

Summertime

Since we haven't really had any new adoption news lately, I have been really bad about posting. I thought I'd try something new and add a video....(see below)

Can you tell what our favorite pastime has been this summer? Yes, we LOVE baseball! Especially when one of the players is our favorite 12 year old in the whole world. We're also kinda partial to the coach (in case I haven't mentioned it, my superman husband, John, is one of the coaches!) Emma gets really excited about going to baseball games. She is officially one of the Red Sox cheerleaders. "I didn't know baseball teams had cheerleaders", you might say....well, ours does, and they're awesome!

Our 2 oldest kiddos went to Salt Lake City, Utah this week on a youth trip. I'm sure they're having a great time and growing in their relationship with God, but I sure miss them. They won't be home until Saturday, so they'll miss the 4th of July festivities...boo hoo! I suppose I have to let them go and grow up sometime!

Court date, continued...

We had our court date today. It was such a bittersweet feeling when Mary told me that our daughters' birthmother showed up for court and relinguished her rights. It's like being the recipient of an organ, knowing that somebody had to lose their life in order for you to live. I can't imagine the mixed emotions that their birthmom must be feeling as well--the anguish of giving up her children forever, but the joy in knowing that they will have a good life with many opportunities. Despite this, I am extremely excited to be one step closer to finalizing the adoption and bringing our daughters home to their FOREVER family!

My oldest son, Nathan, and I are spending our week helping out as volunteers at a sportreach camp at our church. We get to play all day with the children and sneak in some witnessing here and there. It's been good to get out of the house and keep busy. Although, I did carry my phone with me all day while waiting for the phone call from Mary with an update on court. What an exciting day!

COURT DATE!!

Yaaaay-- Mary called today!! But, of course, I didn't have my phone, so she left us a message. I was in awe as I listened to her tell us that we have a court date!! It is June 10th. I hope and pray that all goes well. Wow--I'm soooo excited!!!

Another Graduation

Today is the last day of school for my kids. Our youngest son, Derek, is graduating from the 6th grade. Poor guy, with Kayla graduating from high school, his big day has taken a back seat. He'll be attending middle school next year. It always seems like such a huge step, but since I've already been through this twice, I know it's going to be a good change for him. I added a picture of the handsome guy pitching at one of his baseball tournaments. We're so proud of him!

We told Kayla that her graduation present was a trip to Ethiopia to get her new sisters. She was so shocked and excited. She cried and cried. Of course, this made me tear up, too. She's a wonderful young lady. I'm afraid once we get her over there, we won't be able to get her to come back home. I know it's her calling to do something great and make a difference in this world--her heart is huge!

We are very excited to be sending a package to our daughters in Ethiopia. It's so wonderful that people travelling to bring their children home are willing to take packages for families who are still waiting. I hope I can do the same for others when I finally get to go!

Graduation

Well, I made it through graduation weekend! I actually had a lot of fun. We had a great turnout for our party, and the scrapbook was a big hit. My baby girl is officially out of school. Now it's on to college!

On the adoption front, we received an update on our girls from Mary. That was very exciting!! We have their sizes and we're ready to shop! We were also able to send them a letter telling them all about their new family!! We'll also be sending some gifts with a traveling family this week. Lots of things are happening....how bout a court date?!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was great. We spent the day at a baseball tournament watching our youngest son play 2nd baseman and pitcher. When I got home I was surprised by my older two children with a clean house, flowers, presents and a cake. Wow!! They're awesome! I couldn't help thinking about our other two daughters in Ethiopia. I'm so excited about them being here next Mother's Day, celebrating with us! I also thought of their mother in Ethiopia...how difficult it must have been for her to take her precious daughters to an orphanage. My hear aches for her!

Our journey to adoption

Today, I'm working on my daughter's high school graduation scrapbook. I'm putting together a "through the years" scrapbook--each page dedicated to a year in her life. I am NOT creative, so this is very painful--a labor of love!! Anyway, I'm taking a break from that, so thought I'd write a post about how this family of six decided to add two more.....

I'll try to keep it somewhat short. After our third child was born, we thought our family was complete. 5-6 years later, we decided we wanted to have another child. After a long time of not being able to conceive, we pursued domestic adoption. We were selected by a mother to adopt her child, but she later decided to keep her baby. Then...we found out I was pregnant. We were very excited until the 5th month when a heartbeat could not be found. A sonogram confirmed that our baby was not alive. Our sweet daughter Natalie came into the world on April 24, 2004, but her soul was already cuddling with Jesus. One year later, God blessed us with our little Emma. Then, once again, we thought our family was complete. When Emma was two, I felt a tug at my heart to adopt an older child, since we have a 9 year span between our two youngest anyway. I mentioned this to my husband who gave me the "you're crazy and you're scaring me" look! I said, "Okay, maybe it wasn't God talking to me." About a month later, a friend of ours spoke in church about adoption--from Ethiopia, in particular. He challenged our community to do more to help the orphans. Slowly, John's heart started to open up to the idea of adding to our family. We met with these friends about the process and began pursuing the adoption in Dec 2007/Jan 2008. Some other friends of ours mentioned that its harder to place older siblings, hint..hint! I laughed and said, "Then you need to pray that God will work on John's heart again"----and HE DID!! God is incredible!! Now John is equally as excited as I am to bring our daughters home.

Now we are awaiting a court date to adopt 2 beautiful girls from Ethiopia. I am thankful to God, my husband, Gladney Center for Adoption, the Ethiopian government who opened their doors for us to adopt, and the mother of our future daughters who loved them enough to let them go!

Dossier Complete

DOSSIER COMPLETE! Those were the words I read from Kate at KBS Dossier. Hooray! That was a big undertaking and it's nice to have it done! Our dossier is on its way to DC and then off to Ethiopia!! What an exciting time!

CIS Approval!

I wasn't expecting to receive our approval this soon, so imagine my surprise when I got the mail and saw an envelope from Homeland Security. My first thought was...what went wrong with the fingerprints! But, the envelope actually contained our I171H!!! Yaaaaaay!! I was so excited that I called John at work. We're getting it notarized and sent off to Kate today! Thanks to all who have been praying for us!!

Hair

Well, I finally did it--I got my hair chopped off! I've been growing it out for some time so that I would have enough to donate to locks of love. I kept thinking that if I had to put my hair in a pony tail one more time, I'd scream. Then I'd remind myself that there are many people who would love to have hair to put in a pony tail. I can be so selfish sometimes!
My husband is actually one of those few guys who prefers short hair. I always thought that was strange. I also wanted to get it cut before we take pictures to send to our girls in Ethiopia. I didn't want to send them pictures of me with long hair then show up with short hair.
We've been so busy this weekend moving bedrooms, building bedrooms, painting and cleaning in preparation for two more bodies in our home. I've read in other blogs about getting that nesting instinct--about wanting to clean out everything to get ready for the new additions. It's so true! For me, I think it's just something we can do to move forward with the adoption while we're waiting on other things to happen. Unfortunately, the house has to become a disaster before it gets better. Moving kids to different bedrooms sure has made it easier to do spring cleaning though! How did we accumulate all of this junk?!! It's time for a garage sale!! I'm thinking we might have an open weekend in June!

1 week

Well, it's been one week since we got fingerprinted for CIS. Wow, time sure has flown by!! It helps so much to keep busy. The tournament took up a lot of time and we have another one at the end of May. Did I mention that we have to make it through high school graduation first?! I can't believe our little girl is graduating from high school. You know how people say "they grow up so fast" and "she'll be grown before you know it" ? I'm so there! I can remember when people would say that and I would think 'yeah, yeah, whatever'. Well, they were right!
Of course, we have to have a graduation party.....any suggestions? We're thinking the perfect graduation present would be two new sisters and a plane ticket to Ethiopia!

When it rains it pours....

Well, the baseball tournament is OVER!!!! Yaaaay! Don't get me wrong, I enjoy giong to tournaments, but running one can be a bit stressful.....especially when it rains!!! With a little rearranging of the schedule, we were able to squeeze in enough games for all of the teams to play at least three games. Most people were fairly satisfied, but I've learned that you can't make everyone happy.
My title also has a double meaning. We had so many people from the community (and surrounding communities) willing to help and donate baked items to sell and drawing items to give away. All of the kindness that was 'poured' out in support of this was overwhelming. We found that people really do care and are willing to help in any way possible. Most people are very excited about the adoption. It's nice to share this experience with others.

Fingerprints, finally!

Thank you to all who prayed for Kayla's fingerprint appointment form to come in the mail. This morning about five minutes before we left, we got it!!! I was so excited because I'm sure they wouldn't have fingerprinted her without it! We drove two hours and were fingerprinted rather quickly...it was great. Then, we were able to do some shopping and go out to eat, then race home to catch American Idol....I just love that show. We also had to do some more things to get ready for the baseball tournament this weekend. I think it should be a big success. John has put in a lot of work and it should pay off. Many people have also volunteered their time and resources. We're so thankful for this. We can tell that God is in control! We're still praying for good weather. It's looking good so far.

Keeping Busy

It always helps to stay busy while you're waiting for the next step in the adoption process. Last weekend was prom weekend, so we spent all day Saturday doing prom activities with Kayla (hair, nails, dress, pictures, pre-prom meal and, of course, the promenade). Isn't she beautiful?!

Emma also had to get in on the fun. She thought she was going to prom, too! Don't you love the hair!? Is she 3 or 13?

Next weekend we're hosting a baseball tournament. The proceeds will be used to help finance our adoption. There are 29 baseball teams involved from all around this area. We're selling refreshments, lunch, and t-shirts. John also organized baseball competitions over the lunch hour. Please pray for good weather!! I hope that this tournament will also help to raise awareness about poverty and adoption. The backs of the tournament t-shirts will say 'Join our team in the fight against poverty.' Many people have volunteered their time and resources to help us pull this off. We know that God is working for us!

Tomorrow we get to get our first vaccination.....yaay!?? Then off to CIS for fingerprinting on Wednesday. Please continue to pray that they'll go ahead and fingerprint Kayla!

New Pictures!

It was very exciting yesterday to receive some pictures of our girls from Debbie Walton that she had from when she went to Ethiopia to bring home her daughter, Kuri. Thank you so much Debbie! We really enjoyed those pictures! Then, last night we received more pictures from a friend who just came home from Ethiopia. The girls are absolutely precious, and I can't wait to give them each a big hug and bring them home!
An update on the fingerprint appointment....We decided to just take our daughter to our appointment along with our receipt that shows we paid for her and hope that they let her go ahead and get fingerprinted. Please pray that this works out. Each day counts if we want to be able to make it through court and pick up the girls before the rainy season begins in August!

Fingerprint appt., maybe

I was so excited this morning when I got the mail and there was an envelope from CIS. I opened it and found that we could go any Wednesday to get fingerprinted! Since today is Wednesday, I was ready to jump in the car, drive 2 hours and get it done!! Then I realized that Kayla, our 18 year old daughter, needed to be fingerprinted, too, but her form did not come....ouch. My balloon was quickly deflated. Not sure what to do next. I emailed Gladney to get some advice....yes, I bugged poor Mary again. Hopefully, I'll have an answer soon and we can get our fingerprints done next Wednesday.

are we there yet?

Are we there yet? This is what it says on the cover of our adoption photo album. I felt like this was an appropriate title for our adoption journey. We began this 'trip' in January and I feel like we've moved fairly quickly through the paperwork, but it still seems like forever to reach our destination. It reminds me of those trips we would take as a family when I was younger. It was a mere four or five hours from our house to the exciting theme park, Adventureland, but it seemed like it took FOREVER! Lots of waiting...and saying to poor Mom and Dad, "Are we there yet?"
Mom and Dad are now Tonia and Mary from Gladney and Kate from KBS dossier. I appreciate their patience so much as I crawl through this process!
I hope this blog helps to keep everyone up to date on what's going on with our adoption and helps others just beginning to see the light as other blogs have done for me!