Retail Therapy

No news on our court date yet. We are hoping to hear something maybe at the beginning of next month. I have been trying to hold off buying anything but couldn't resist these good deals. I bought a 12 month size and figured if they didn't fit little Z then we would leave them in Addis for other children to enjoy.

Family Welcome Album

We created a Family Welcome Album for our little girl. Holt will send it to Ethiopia for us. It was fun to make and maybe it will help in our girl's adjustment.

KidsFest 2009

We got an update already!

We were so excited to have already gotten an update on our sweet girl. The director of our agency was visiting Ethiopia last week and brought back an update for everyone with referrals - how wonderful is that? Now we have pictures of our little beauty in a consecutive row - 5 months, 6 months and 7 months. She is getting to be quite chunky which is wonderful since she was only 9 lbs when she was brought into the center at 5 months! Her hair is growing in now and it looks like it will be really pretty, soft and curly. Her eyelashes are super long. She wasn't smiling in any of the three pictures we received. She looked a little confused - like what are you doing? The pictures also were not straight on. They were of her profile which was kind of disappointing but she is still beautiful nonetheless. It looks like her health is well - she is being treated for a skin infection which is that spot on her chin that we noticed in her first picture. As far as her milestones, it looks like she is right on target for her age. She is rolling over and trying to crawl. She is also babbling and likes to play with her toys. The report did say that although she would smile when she played with her toys, she is a bit "reserved." Poor baby is going to have to get over that since nothing about her big brother is reserved. I e-mailed our agency to see if we can get her most recent height and weight but they were unable to help me as they did not have this information either. They said we will continue to receive updates on our little one. If the information is not in the next couple of updates they will contact Ethiopia for us. Especially as we get closer to court/travel. So I will hold off buying her any clothes right now until we get a little closer.

We are putting together a family album for her that our agency will forward to Ethiopia for us. We also are trying to get our shots done but have to wait a couple weeks since the local travel clinic has no more yellow fever vaccinations and they don't expect anymore in until the end of the month. No biggie as long as we get them 6 weeks before we leave we will be fine. No more news on when we will get her yet. We will have a better idea when we get our court date. It looks like most families wait anywhere from 9 weeks to 17 weeks to go to court and then they would travel about 2 - 4 weeks later. I am still guessing our court date will be sometime in July and we will travel in August if we pass the first time. One out of five families do not pass the first time and have to wait another 4 to 6 weeks for another court date. I am praying this doesn't happen but I am also preparing myself for the possibility. At least we know our sweet little girl seems to be thriving and content in her current living situation.

Zoo Pictures

Okay these pictures are from 2 summers ago taken at the Zoo while visiting our friends the Petersen's. Kim was cleaning off her camera and found them and sent them yesterday. Look at how little Aiden was? It is times like these that you realize how fast they grow up - sniff, sniff. Where did my baby go?????

Spring Time

Every year little brown wrens lay their nest in our bird house on our back deck. Over the last couple of weeks we have seen the mommy and daddy bird working tirelessly to feed their babies. Yesterday, the little birds left their next to try out flying for the first time. They were so cute - trying to get a hang of it. It was really like watching a baby take those first steps. After working all afternoon all four little babies made it over our tall fence out into the world. Above is a picture of them before they decided to leave their nest taken yesterday morning.

We also celebrated the Memorial of Jesus Death last night. We had the later memorial which wasn't until 8:40 p.m. The pictures of us were from last night. Aiden was so proud of the fact that he helped pass the wine without spilling it.

Also, I have included a picture of the beautiful flowers my parents sent us. Thanks mom and dad - they are still beautiful almost a week later.

In adoption news, we got all of our paperwork yesterday from Holt. We have to sign and notarize our agreements and send them back with our check which we are trying to get done today. The next step will be waiting for Holt to send us our court date. This usually occurs 2 - 3 months after the referral is assigned. One out of five families have to redo this at least once because of missing information. If we do pass the first time we will get travel dates which usually will occur about ten days after you pass court. If we do not pass we will have to wait 4 - 6 more weeks for a new court date. We hope things go smoothly the first time and get to bring our little girl home sometime late Summer.

The Call

Okay so I have composed myself from yesterday,somewhat, and wanted to give the details of how we got "the call." So yesterday was our 13Th Wedding Anniversary. We actually celebrated our Anniversary on Saturday night with a 6 course dinner at a French restaurant it was awesome! Getting back to "the call," Aiden has been battling his allergies and was not his usual energetic self yesterday. He actually even took a nap which he NEVER does these days. So, I was able to watch Oprah without any interruptions. The topic yesterday was about Motherhood - ironic? Oprah was just about over and it was almost 5 o'clock when the phone rang. I assumed it would be Eric's daily call telling me he is leaving work and asking if we need anything from the store. I looked at the caller ID briefly assuming it would be Eric and saw it. Finally what I had been hoping to see now for the last 3 weeks - it said Holt. I thought to myself - "no, this is not happening today! It can't be. It is too perfect." I answered the phone and it was Jennifer from Holt and we said our how do you dos. She then said what I had been hoping she would say, "I have good news for you." At this point I started hyperventilating in the quietest way possible of course so she didn't think I was totally nuts. I heard my phone beep on the other line It was Eric calling to tell me he was coming home (I didn't switch over - sorry honey). Jennifer told me our baby's age and African name and told me she would e-mail us all the information. I said, "good, because I don't think I could write right now." As soon as I hung up the phone rang back and it was Eric (I forgot he was calling on the other line again, sorry honey). At this point I was really hyperventilating,shaking and crying. I told him - "you are not going to believe what just happened." He was starting to get concerned and said "honey are you okay?" I finally got out "yes, I am wonderful. We just got our referral!" After a couple of minutes of me trying to remember to breath and us both saying we can't believe it, we hung up. I kept checking to see if our e-mail was coming through (I was waiting for Eric to open it up of course). I hit the refresh button about a million times. Eric came home with champagne and bubbling cider for Aiden to celebrate. At this point we still hadn't received the e-mail. I knew Holt was going to be closing for the day in about 15 minutes so I called Jennifer back and left her a message telling her we hadn't received our baby's picture yet. I asked her if she could send the information to Eric's work e-mail thinking the file was too big to come through our home e-mail's server. I hoped that Jennifer hadn't already left for the day because I did not think I would be able to wait all night and half the morning to see our girl's picture. Jennifer called me back a few minutes later and sent the e-mail to Eric's work address and it came through. The three of us waited as we pulled her picture up. Aiden was so cute saying "who is it going to be? who is it going to be?" And then we pulled up the first three pictures. These pictures were of her when she was first brought to the center. Her head was shaved and she was lying on her back and she had a little boo boo on her chin. But she had the prettiest big black eyes I had ever seen. She also has the daintiest most proportionate features. Aiden was like "yeah okay can I play Play-do now?" Eric and I read over her information and everything looked good. She looked pretty big. The only concern we had was the boo boo on her chin, which her report did not mention at all. I then started making the calls and while on the phone with my mom Eric scrolled over and noticed two more pictures we hadn't seen. He opened them up and there she was. So beautiful and perfect. Sitting up in a little chair and smiling. She was propped between a pillow and teddy bear and was wearing a little pink dress. She looked so happy and chubby and by the way her chin is perfect - no boo boo or even a scar. Aiden came back over and we said, "what do you think about your little sister. Isn't she cute?" Aiden giggled and nodded yes. He then followed up with "Dad can you come play with me in my room now?" So while Eric and I are so excited about our new addition, Aiden needs some more time. We have told our agency we will accept our referral. Stay tuned for an explanation of what happens next.

Best Anniversary Present Ever!!!!

We just received a referral for the prettiest baby girl! She will be 7 months old tomorrow. I am not allowed to share pictures with you all on here you will have to stay tuned to see us in our family shot with her. More details will follow.....

Happy Anniversary

Love you always.....

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