Lost in the Paperwork!

We are currently getting all of our documents together for our Embassy appointment, which will be (hopefully) around the 28th....as I sit here doing this paperwork I am wondering what they are doing right now! Well, probably sleeping since our waking hours are their sleeping hours!! My heart melted when I saw the pic of Ermias holding the football we sent him about a month ago in a care package. We are happy that they are smiling, and that other sweet families have taken the time to snap pictures of them, as well as Sue, the agency director. Also note the pic of Eyasu (Joshua) smiling!!!! This is honestly the first full smile we have seen! On to more paperwork....... ( I am also completing my continuing education requirements for the year!)

New pics posted!!!

I just posted pics of the boys, but I am having technical difficulties figuring out the blog layout, and not much time to fool with it as I am trying to complete my Cont. Ed hours before 2010~~~!!!!

WE PASSED COURT!!!!

A little late on the update, due to the holiday craziness!!! But we passed court on 12-22, actually a day early!!!! To follow, pics of the boys! We are officially allowed to post now!!! We should be traveling around the last wk of January to pick them up!!!!!! God is great and we are so blessed!!!

Court Date!!!!

For those of you who haven't heard yet, our court date is December 23rd! What a wonderful Christmas present (if we pass (:)  50 to 60 percent of cases pass court the first time. The reason some people don't pass is due to various reasons such as a name being spelled wrong or certain paperwork not submitted yet. If we don't pass court, it will be another 3 to 4 weeks to reschedule a second court date.  If we do pass court, our Embassy appointment will be in 5 to 6 weeks and we will be traveling to Ethiopia to pick up our little boys!! So between passing court and our embassy appointment, we will be trying to get their room together!!! We already have their bedding, we just need to get beds, mattresses, etc.  Hopefully the next post will be that we passed court!!! Happy Holidays everyone!

Some News

Today we received news that our case will be submitted to court tomorrow! Our paperwork has been ready for a few weeks, but we were waiting on Jeremiah's paperwork to be completed. We should receive a court date within the next week or so (hopefully, of course nothing is for sure). The court date should be in December. The first question everyone asks is: When will you get them? We have been saying March, but it looks as if it could be the end of January or the beginning of February now! Wow, we have so much to get ready for! We have some clothing, but we have to get their rooms together. We have decided to wait until we pass court to buy furniture and decorate their room. Of course, anything can happen. We just have to have faith that if it is God's plan, it will happen. Last week I received some great pics and videos that were taken by Heather, who adopted the boys' baby brother. The pics and videos were adorable, of course. It is amazing to watch your child grow through these videos and pictures. After we pass court, which will hopefully be in December, we can post their pictures. Before then, we are not allowed to post their pictures on any website where they can be publicly viewed due to confidentiality. I can't wait to post their pictures! They are so adorable!!!!! I will update when we receive our court date!!!!

Names!

For those of you who were wondering what we were going to name the boys...we have picked out Joshua and Jeremiah. Joshua will be the two year old's name, and Jeremiah the three to four year old's name. We are not sure exactly what their middle names will be yet, but we are thinking of using family names from both of our families!!! We received a video in the mail on Monday that was taken by the agency director's husband. He did such a wonderful job!!! The boys are playing ball at the orphanage and also playing with a xylophone! They both look happy and they are absolutely adorable! Jeremiah looks a bit shy, but this was only his first week at the orphanage, so he is still in the adjustment phase. Joshua has been there for a little over one month and has put on one pound!!! He looks like a different child in comparison to the pictures I received when he was first placed in the orphanage. In the first set of pictures, he made no expressions except for looking very sad. Now he is full of expressions and seems so happy. Our paperwork is currently in DC getting its final authentication and next week it should be on its way to Ethiopia. Once there, it will be translated and submitted to court. We are currently looking at a timeline of getting the boys in March or April, but anything can happen, so we must pray!!!! Thanks for taking the time to read our blog!!!

Our First Post

Noe and I officially began our adoption journey in April of 2009, but our journey actually began when we married. We have talked about adoption since we met!!! Adoption is something I have always felt that I have been called to do. Of course, since Noe was born in Guatemala, we were led to adopt from Guatemala first. However, at this time Guat. is closed and they are no longer processing adoptions here in the U.S. We spent almost a week talking to lawyers here in the U.S. and in Guatemala, but we were still unable to adopt even though this country is Noe's country of citizenship. Actually, we were told that we could adopt a baby from there, but we would have to go and live with the child for two years. The Lord was obviously leading us in another direction, perhaps on the other side of the world! In May, we attended an adoption picnic in Danville that was hosted by Adoption Assistance, who we chose to conduct our home study. There we were able to see children from Taiwan, Ethiopia, Guatemala, China, and Korea.  There were also children that were adopted domestically there.  Our hearts were led to Ethiopia for various reasons. First of all, there is a huge need in this country. Children are abandoned because their parents are ill or impoverished and can no longer care for them.  Secondly, there are lots of children available and the wait was not long at all. We were ready to start our family and did not want to wait two years.  Lastly, the children are just beautiful, and the culture is so easy to fall in love with.  We spent a few nights just looking up the children online (those already adopted)...just thinking how beautiful they were!   This was it! So we started our home study, researched agencies, and here we are now. It's really too late to go into all the details, paperwork, etc. that we had to go through to get to this point.  However, let me tell you that it was INTENSE (but well well worth it of course!!! :)  Now we have officially accepted the referrals of two boys, ages two and four.  They are brothers! They are absolutely adorable!!!! More to come later!