She is Ours!!!!

Our agency e-mailed us today and informed us that we passed court - our little girl is officially ours. Her name will be Mia Zinash Paynter. I still don't feel comfortable posting her picture just yet but don't worry I will put a ton of pictures of her on here once we bring her home. So, now we are waiting for our visa appointment (travel dates). Holt informed us that they get two of these a month. I know our agency has a rather large travel group heading out June 10th so I guess they we will be getting another visa appointment at the end of the month. So we will be traveling to pick up Mia at the end of June beginning of July. So now the baby preparations are on! Her bathroom is done and looks so cute. And this weekend we will be painting her room. We hope to get her furniture in at the beginning of next week. I have bought her some clothes. Some of you have asked us about sizes and I am not really sure. Last we heard she was 14 lbs. but that was two months ago. I have bought her 9 months clothes to bring her home in and 12 months clothes for her to have once she gets here. So we can finally breathe a sigh of relief and just focus on the preparations now (the fun stuff). Thanks for all your prayers and good thoughts.

Clean Up Weekend

Well as fore casted it rained the entire Memorial Day Weekend. But we did get a lot done on our clean-up efforts as we get ready for our little lady bug to join us. We cleared all the baby stuff out of the attic. I washed everything down and it is all in pretty good condition - like new. We ordered a new slip cover for the high chair and a new cover, cushion and harness set for the car seat. I also found some adorable bathroom stuff for our little lady bug's sink which is right off her room. We cleared out the guest room and now have a box spring under our bed and a mattress in our front closet - don't ask. We painted Aiden's sink and bathroom a bright and cheery green color - it came out cute - stay tuned for some pictures. I am still waiting for our nursery bedding which should arrive today. Once we get that I will pick out a color for the baby's room and sink. Her bedding is bright pink and green so I am hoping to do the sink the same color as Aiden's and then do the room in a soft green. One of the most awesome things is that we came across my wedding dress in the attic. I dared to try it on and guess what??? 13 years later and it still fits!!!! Aiden saw me and said I looked like a princess and he wanted to take a picture of me - how sweet.

We did get some news from the last travel group that just arrived home from Ethiopia with their children. A family that traveled out to Durame, which is where Holt's in take center is located, tracked down our little one. It was reported by the nannies at the in take center that our little girl eats and sleeps well. Her name means "glory" and is one of the nannies' favorite children - how sweet is that? I also found out from the three families that traveled that a group of 13 children were moved from Durame to Addis which is the babies final stop before being united with their forever families. Although it cannot be 100% confirmed it is highly likely that our little girl was in the group that was moved. This update is just what we needed to get us going through the long weekend. We really hope to hear something about a court date this week. Holt said that they think families will hear when their court dates are at the beginning of June - well that is next week!

Updates & Aiden's Last Day

Today was Aiden's last day of pre-school. They had a party and he brought his teachers gifts. He also got to wear the special t-shirt Grandma just bought him.

Before we left for our little getaway we got an e-mail from Holt saying that they were missing some of our paperwork. Of course the paperwork they were missing was one we had to get notarized. So, we got that taken care of yesterday and we are straight as of now. Holt also sent the court approved relinquishment paperwork on our little girl. Everything was translated for us. It was very interesting to read and we found out a little more information about our little ones situation.

We also got an alert message from Holt explaining some sad issues going on in Addis. It appears that a couple of adoption agency have been accused of some shady business with their operations. Because of this the Ministry of Women's Affairs (MOWA) has suspended the agencies relinquishment cases that were scheduled to be heard in court. Holt is not involved in any of the investigations so I do not think this will impact us at all. Holt has continued to have families cases heard and pass throughout this entire ordeal. In fact, two Holt families who received their referrals around the same time we did (one the same day, one the week after) got randomly selected to go through court. Therefore, they did not even know their case was going to be heard. They just got a call from Holt saying that their children were legally theirs and they now expect to travel in about 2 weeks to get them. I guess with some cases being put on hold it has freed up court time and so other cases got pushed through. I am not sure if this is just a random thing or if they will continue doing this while their load is so light. I am just hoping our case will be heard before court closure in August.

I finally decided on baby bedding and ordered it yesterday. We will spend our first official weekend of the summer painting. Not too fun but it is supposed to be raining here all weekend anyway. Once the nursery is painted I will let you all take a peak.

Savannah & Hilton Head Pictures

Shots on Cinco de Mayo

Unfortunately it was not the tequila kind. After searching the entire state of Mississippi for a Yellow Fever vaccine (apparently there is a shortage) we finally located a travel doctor. We ended up getting 4 shots each - 2 in each arm. The worst part of it wasn't the pain but the money they cost (insurance covers none of it). The nurse said we may get fever and aches from the shots and we should plan to take it easy for the next couple of days. We are both feeling just fine except for the fact that is feels like someone punched us in the arms. Aiden got a kick out of mom and dad getting shots and him not having to get any.

It has been a month now since we got our referral. Tomorrow our little one turns 8 months. I am starting to feel very impatient and just want our court date already. Our agency said it may be a few more weeks before we hear anything. Courts will be closed from August 5Th until September so we hope we can get our case heard before they close. Court cases are heard 2 1/2 - 3 months after a referral is received. Court dates are assigned anywhere from 4 - 10 weeks after you receive your referral.

There is a group leaving for Ethiopia next week to go get their children. The Czarnecki family, here is their blog http://czarneckis.blogspot.com/ is leaving this Friday to do some site seeing. They will be making the trip to Durame where our sweetie is currently located. They have graciously offered to give our little girl some lovin' from us. We are so grateful for their offer and hope they have a wonderful and safe trip.

Holt did send us an e-mail last week saying that they received our family album and it has been approved and they will send it to Ethiopia for us. We did go to Babies R Us last weekend. We looked at some of their cribs and dressers but they honestly looked very cheaply made. We did eye a stroller we liked and picked up a cute little onsie for our girl that says "little sister." We are holding off on getting anything big like furniture just yet. The plan is to wait for our court date and then begin the real preparations. Like getting her room ready and buying the baby items we need.

Meanwhile Eric and I leave for Savannah, Georgia next week for a little getaway. His parents are coming to stay with Aiden while we are gone. We will be staying in Savannah for one night and then we will be going to South Carolina to attend Eric's board meeting. Aiden's school year is coming to an end already. His last day is on May 20th. So we have lots of activities approaching and we will just try to keep busy and maybe that will make the time go faster.