Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!! (late)

We had a wonderful Christmas with our THREE children!!!!

Ethiopia-Part 1

Well, I finally have two of my children napping at the same time......

...this is the first time since we got home!

Here are some pictures from our time in Ethiopia.

We had a wonderful time and hope to go back someday.

This picture is just for fun.....she is a ham!

This picture was taken in our hotel room in Ethiopia, I think day 2.
Here is Mike enjoying some airplane food.

I think this is Rome.

In the airplane.

The African desert from the airplane.

Red Sea

This is the Nile river.....kinda hard to see.

Getting our luggage in Ethiopia.

The famous "AGCI family" sign we waited so long to see!!!!!

The view from our room.

Our hotel room.

The one and only Almaz!!!

Our Monday morning meeting.....right before we met our babes!

THE PATH!!!!!!!

We waiting so long for our feet to be on this road!!!

A little "store" on the path to HH.

Some goats came down the road while we were walking to HH.

This is THE GATE we couldn't wait to walk through.

We are doing really well. Our baby is so good and so happy!!! So far the adjustments have been good......the hardest part is finding alone time for all three of my kiddos. Our older two children love, love, love, love our sweet baby.

I will post more pictures ASAP!

We are home!!!!!!!

I have so many pictures to go through and haven't had ANY time to look at them at all.

It is so nice to be home and have all three of our babies under one roof.

I can't wait to write about our trip to Ethiopia......it was AMAZING!! HH is so GREAT and the kids are just wonderful. I can't say enough about Almaz and how wonderful she is and how hard she works for the children!!!!!! SERIOUSLY, this woman is an ANGEL!! The children are truly loved!! When the special mothers have to say good-bye, it is heart breaking.

Well, I finally get to post a picture of our sweet baby girl. This is not a picture from our trip...it is from a couple of weeks ago when my case manager was in Ethiopia (I will go through our pictures ASAP).

She is just a JOY and BLESSING!!!!!!

We are so in love!!!

THEY HAVE THEIR BABY!!!

This is Heather again, I just received an e-mail saying that they have their baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She said that she is such a joy, so happy and GORGEOUS!! They are homesick for their family but having a wonderful time with their travel group! I am sure that she is going to have so much to share when they return! They haven't been able to spend much time at the orphanage yet but they are hoping to spend more time there to see everyone else's little ones.

They have landed!!!

Hi everyone, this is Heather I am Michelle's friend. She asked me to update her blog while they were gone! I just received an e-mail that they are in Ethiopia and getting ready for bed. In the morning they they will be meeting their sweet baby girl! Please pray for them and for their little baby as God unites them forever as a family!

Soon I will be kissing.......

........these beautiful feet!!!!

Please pray for us as we travel and meet our baby girl.

Also could you pray for our little ones that will be here in the USA while we are gone.

I get to hold this hand.........

....in just a few days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By the time you wake up on Monday morning, our baby will be in our arms!!!!

In One Week From Now....

........we will be getting ready to meet our baby for the first time!!!!

I can't wait!!!!!

Photo Tag!

I've been tagged by my blog friend Karey. I am suppose to post the 4th picture on the 4th file on my computer & tell about it. So, here it is........

This is what happens when you let your 5 year old daughter and 2 year old son play in your daughters room while you get ready for the day:) They both came out of the room, in totally different clothes than I had put them in. My daughter likes to dress my son up in skirts, necklaces and has now gotten him addicted to lip gloss. Thankfully she will have a little sister to play with soon!

I tag Autumn, Amy, Jana, Karen and Suzi!

Check out the past couple of days!!

So last week we were playing outside,

picking up leaves with sweatshirts on.

And then the snow started!

This picture was yesterday afternoon.
(look at the swing in this picture)
These pictures are from this morning!

(Look at the swing in this picture compared to the one above)

NO SCHOOL TODAY!!!!!!

WE HAD A SNOW DAY!!!!!!!!!!!

I love snow days........

I just hope our Sweet Ethiopian Princess loves them too:)

Guess where we are going???

I booked our tickets to Ethiopia today!!!!!!!

We are bringing our baby home!!

We are still thanking God for miraculously getting us through court!!

Please pray for us as we get ready to go.

A MIRACLE.........

...........is what is needed for our court case on Monday.

Can you please join us in prayer that we miraculously make it through our court case on Monday and get a travel call!!

We will be missing a *NEW* document/process that is needed to make it through court.......but I serve a God that can move mountains!!

Please pray that God moves a mountain for us!!!!

Bad News.........AGAIN!!

Looks like we are going to have to wait even longer to get our baby. We are once again heart-broken. Some changes have been made to the Ethiopian adoption program. Please pray for a miracle. We still have a court date for the beginning of next week. Please pray the something miraculous happens and we make it through!!!!

Also, continue to pray for our sweet baby!!

Politics........yep, I'm going there!

I know that this is an adoption blog.....but babies are close to my heart! ALL BABIES!

To me a child is NEVER punishment, but a blessing!

What to do while we wait!

I know that it's totally early .................

but Christmas is my FAVORITE time of the year!!

We aren't quite done with the tree yet....but we are getting there:)

A little over a week until our court date!!!

Please pray with us, that everything goes smooth and we get our TRAVEL CALL!!

Tagged

Well, I was tagged forever and a day ago by Amy.

So I am supposed to list 7 random things about myself.

Here we go!

1. I LOVE ears. I play with my husbands ears all the time. When we got married my husband's cousins got him a wrestling helmet to protect his ears. I also play with my children's ears.

2. I love to smell my kids........AND because I love ears, I usually end up smelling my kid's ears.

3. I have to wear socks all the time. They are the first thing on my body after I shower.

4. I get some kind of high off of a really good deal. Sometimes I can't stop. If I find a pair of pants I like and they are really cheap, I'll buy like 3-5 pair of them.

5. I looked like Shrek's wife during my last pregnancy.......I put on 60 lbs. and no I haven't lost all of it.

6. I love soda/pop. My favorites are Coke, Cherry Coke and Mellow Yellow.

7. Walmart is my second home. I go to Walmart at least 3 times a week. Lately I have been cheating on Walmart with Target.......... I am beginning to fall in love with Target too.

Now I am suppost to "TAG" 7 other people. Here is the problem. I don't know 7 other people who have not been tagged. So, I think I'm going to skip this part:)

Two More Week Until Our Next Court Date!!

THANK YOU!!!!!

My sweet friend Nell Ann Sent me these really cute baby gifts!

I was having a really bad week last week (after we found out we didn't make our first court appointment) and her gifts came at the right time and made me smile!

I LOVE the onesie and burp rags!!

THANK YOU JUSTIN

AND NELL ANN!!!!!!!

(Nell Ann you need to tell me how you made these)

Operation Princess Hair for Abby!

Most of us in the blog world have read about sweet Abby Riggs and the difficult time she is going through right now. Abby was diagnosed with Leukemia and has started Chemo, now she is losing her hair. This is hard for a 3 year old to understand and deal with. She has the most precious family. Look at their blog here.

Well, some sweet friends of the Rigg's family decided to bless the Riggs bunch by helping Abby get her "princess hair" back. You can look at their post here.

They have some great ideas on how to help Abby get her beautiful hair back!

Please take the time to read about this family and remember them in prayer.

We are very sad

We didn't make it through our first court date.

They did reschedule a court date for us, for sometime in Nov.

We are very much in love with our sweet daughter and just really want to bring her home.

Please pray for us and for our next court date.

I am still choosing to Praise Him during this wait!!!

This is so CUTE!

Fireproof

We went to the movie Fireproof tonight. There was a great song in the movie.

Read through these lyrics....they are so good....especially for us "waiting families"!

I’m waiting

I’m waiting on You, Lord

And I am hopeful

I’m waiting on You, Lord

Though it is painful

But patiently, I will wait

I will move ahead, bold and confident

Taking every step in obedience

While I’m waiting

I will serve You

While I’m waiting

I will worship

While I’m waiting

I will not faint

I’ll be running the race

Even while I wait

I’m waiting

I’m waiting on You, Lord

And I am peaceful

I’m waiting on You, Lord

Though it’s not easy

But faithfully, I will wait

Yes, I will wait

I will serve You while I’m waiting

I will worship while I’m waiting

I will serve You while I’m waiting

I will worship while I’m waiting

I will serve You while I’m waiting

I will worship while I’m waiting on You, Lord

(Song by John waller)

WOW! How Great is that song!

Lord, I will serve you and worship you while I wait!

By the way, the movie was really good!!!!

JUMPING FOR JOY!!!!!!! Why??????

Courts are open in Ethiopia!!!!!!

Starting September 29th!!!!!!

Thank you Father for giving us peace during the first part of our wait.

Lord please grant us peace as we wait to pass through court

and get our travel call.