Once again No News

Our agency has still not been able to contact our director in reference to our court case. We are trying to stay positive and keep up hope that we will get good news soon. This is definitely the HARDEST part of our journey so far. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

For those of you not in the Ethiopian Adoption World if we pass we will get our travel dates and in 4-6 weeks we will meet and bring home our son. If we do not pass we wait again. We wait for a new court date and then we wait until we pass. And, as I am sure you can imagine the whole waiting thing is really wearing on us. So, here is to some GREAT news VERY soon. Or I may eat my way through Ben & Jerry's & ALL the Easter candy ;)

No News Yet

Andrea, my caseworker, emailed me to let me know that they did not hear from Addis today so they do not know how my court case went. Please keep us in your thoughts as we are hoping our good news will come tomorrow!!!

Second Try

Tonight while we sleep hopefully our case will be heard in Ethiopia.
We are praying that all the proper paperwork and people are present and that the power stays on so that our case will be heard and the judge will approve it.
I have to be honest it has been the hardest wait so far between not passing on the 17th and now. I miss my son. We all do. The kids constantly are asking when their brother is coming home. They want some sort of a time line and I can't give that to them yet. Belle has even buckled M*'s picture in the car... I mean really we are soooo ready. But, we know that God's timing will be perfect and we try to relax and trust in him. Here are a few recent pics of M*'s brothers and sister. (room re-model is still finishing up so pics will be another post).

Above is Captain Crazy's artwork at his school's art show. We were very proud his piece was chosen;)

Cuddlebear at the art show

Belle at Disneyland trying to convince us to buy her a Jessie doll. Hard to say no... but we did.

Captain jumping through the "A" at California Adventure

Cuddlebear swinging in the rope swing.

And, Belle being the happy girl she is ;)
Please pray for us, send us happy thoughts and positive vibes we appreciate everyone's support.

Update from a traveling parent

I mentioned in a previous post that a very sweet traveling parent from my agency agreed to bring Sweet M* a voice recorder and some stickers for me. She just recently arrived home with her son and was sweet enough to email me this about Sweet M*, " I showed him how to stick the stickers on his clothes and he liked that. His eyes got really big when he listened to the recorder. He was beautiful! Just wanted you to know he got it and I gave him some hugs for you. :) ."

It is unreal to know that she was there looking into my son's eyes... face to face... I SO badly want to be there with him now. But, little things like this help me stay sane. Thank you so much Angeline. I really appreciate your kindness.

Just a reminder our second court date is March 29th, but it will take place Monday night here in the US bc Ethiopia is ahead of us. Please please please pray that we pass this time. That the power does not go out and that all the documents and people that need to be there are there. I am very ready to go and get Sweet M*!!!!!

So Sweet

I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to sleep in a few extra hours this morning thanks to my wonderful husband and boys. And, it was much needed after waking up the prior 2 mornings at 3am to set up my yard sale. Anyhoo, when Belle and I finally made it down stairs this morning Captain greeted me with a picture he had been working on. In case you can't tell what it is, he drew a picture of Africa and a heart with a little person and it says Sweet M* and he also has the Ethiopian flag and an airplane. Can you tell someone is ready for their brother to come home? We are ALL so ready to be together... ready to be under the same roof... ready to eat at the same table... just so ready. Our second court date is on March 30th which is 9 days away. We are hoping and praying we pass next time and we are able to travel late April/ early May.

WooHoo... We Hit Our Goal!!!!

I am so happy to report that we went over our yard sale/ bake sale goal of $2,000, and our Grand Total Raised this Weekend was $2,450!!!!!!!!
Isn't that crazy? We are so thankful to all of the families that donated items for us to sell, to our volunteers that stood on their feet helping customers for hours, and to all of the lovely people that baked some amazing baked goods. There would have been NO POSSIBLE WAY we would have been able to pull this off without you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Yard Sale Update!!!!

$1400

I am Shocked and Amazed by the generosity of people that surround us. We made over $1400 the very first day of our 3 Day Yard Sale-a-Palooza!!! Our Goal was $2,000 for the whole weekend... and I was nervous writing that number down.

Some memorable moments from today include... having two complete strangers donate a total of $300 dollars... and as they handed me their money I think my heart skipped a beat. And, I also had the sweetest 5 year old donate his allowance money. I tried giving him change and he wouldn't accept it- how adorable is that- and how adorable is he? ;)
Sweet M* has already made his way into many of our family, friends and neighbors hearts. An amazing thing considering no one has had the privilege of meeting him yet.
An update on court... we were postponed. They believe it was due to a power outage, which if you read my last post is something pretty common in Ethiopia. Our next court date is March 30 (or the night of the 29th for us here in the US). We would greatly appreciate your prayers.
Now off to bed so I can get up again at 3:30am...

Another M* Update!!!

I was so excited to receive an email from my case worker today. I have been really nervous with our court date coming up on Thursday. It is so strange to think that this Wed. night while we are all sleeping our case will be heard in a court half way around the world in Ethiopia. And, if we pass my sweet boy will share our last name.

Just a heads up it is common in Ethiopia for court to be postponed or re-scheduled due to power outages, missing paperwork, etc... We are hoping and praying that we pass the first time and we would appreciate any prayers, good vibes, positive thoughts etc... that you could send our way. We are SO READY to bring our little guy home. Even though we have never met him we all miss him dearly.

The update had a medical exam in it and my M* is doing very well. His health is still only adequate but he looks great. The update also had a new picture and for the first time my boy is not in pink... not that there is anything wrong with boys in pink in fact he looks pretty darn good in it. But, I am sure a little boy probably prefers blue over pink... at least I think?? It is so funny to only know your child through photos. I sit and analyze each photo for hours. Trying to imagine how he feels, what his personality is like. I think it is going to be so weird to finally be face to face with him. Hopefully, that day is soon... very very soon!!!

Update on M*!!!

I spoke to my caseworker today and I learned that my sweet M* was moved to the WACAP House earlier this week, this is great news!!! Previously, M* had been at an orphanage and while they do their best to take care of M* it is a little more reassuring to have him at our agency's transition house. I was told that the WACAP House has a doctor who is employed by our agency and that M* will be fed better there. Plus, when traveling parents go to pick up their children they spend a lot of time at the WACAP house getting to know their own kiddos and therefore there is more opportunities for them to also meet my sweet M*. I am really hoping this will mean that we hear some more updates on how our son is doing.

My second bit of happy news is I got an email today from a traveling parent who is leaving to pick up her son this Sat. She emailed me to let me know she received my voice recorder (woohoo)and that she was happy to give it to sweet M*. Very exciting!!! I wish I knew if he has received my first care package yet. Does he know who we are... What we look like???

But, all my happy news doesn't take away the worry I have about how the new HUGE change to Ethiopia's travel rules for adoptions might effect us. You see yesterday a rumor spread across the yahoo boards from numerous agencies stating that a new rule was made effective immediately that requires both parents to travel and appear at court (to be in person to accept their referral) and then make a 2nd trip back to Ethiopia to pick up their child. That is why I am saying HUGE change. Right now we are being told that people with a court date (like us) will NOT be effected by this change... but I am not counting my chickens. So, to say I am a little stressed in an understatement. I am praying we pass court next Thursday (really Wed. night here) so I can put this behind us. But, how selfish is that??? There are tons of families who this rule will effect if it becomes law... not to mention all the children who need families. One of the reasons people choose to adopt from Ethiopia is because of their current travel requirements. Now people may skip over Ethiopia as an option and that breaks my heart. Ethiopia is a beautiful country and there are many children in need of a loving home. My heart goes out to those children. I hope that Ethiopia is able to work on this rule and find ways to empower ethical adoptions without making the process too difficult for loving families to get through.

Care Package On It's Way!!!

I received an email from our case worker and this is what it said "Yes, we did get your care package that was so wonderfully put together :) thank you !! It's already on its way to Ethiopia as I type." Pretty exciting... huh. Soon my Sweet M* will be able to see who his family is. He will be able to see our faces- WOW!!! Click Here to see what we sent him.

Another WACAP family who is traveling soon to pick up her son was kind enough to offer to take another small care package for Sweet M*. This time I took the advice I had read awhile back from one of my favorite bloggers here, and I am sending a voice recorder. (Side note... that blogger got the idea from another blogger that I did not know at the time I first read the voice recorder post. And, now the brains behind the voice recording idea is a friend of mine who moved into my neighborhood. So, Sweet M* already has this local Ethiopian cutie to play with when he gets home). I have to admit it was kind of nerve racking to try and record ourselves. But, it turned out to be a lot of fun for all of us. Especially, the kids. We all took turns introducing ourselves and talking to our Sweet M*, we read stories and we put some Ethiopian music on it as well. Here is one of the songs we put on it. Enjoy!!!