A Joy and Blessing

One year home!

2011-05-18T14:05:00.002-05:00

We have been home one year (since May 7th).

I can't believe it......time is moving way too fast!!

Things at our house are BUSY and good!!!!

5 Months home!

2010-10-10T16:27:00.004-05:00

Our little man is now 8 months old!!

He is such a joy to our lives!!!!

GOTCHA and we are home!!!!

2010-06-12T21:24:00.003-05:00

We have our son!!!!

We have been home since May 7th and we are doing really well!

Our baby boy has been such a joy to our lives already!

More pictures coming soon!

Court! Easter! Earrings!

2010-04-05T22:25:00.003-05:00

First of all, WE PASSED COURT ON APRIL 1st!!!!!!

We are (legally) the parents of 4 kiddos!

We are more than thrilled!

Here is my family on Easter Sunday!

We spent the day going to church, having lunch with family and

an Easter egg hunt with all the kiddos....and then more time with family!!

It was a fun day celebrating our RISEN LORD!!!

Three of our kiddos being silly!

We decided to get our baby girl's ears pierced today!!!

She did so good....hardly cried at all.

Here she is showing off her new earrings.

She is so proud!! She said that she is a princess now:)

NOW WE ARE JUST WAITING FOR TRAVEL DATES!!!!
WOOOHOOO!!!

COURT! COURT! COURT!

2010-03-29T22:27:00.003-05:00

We have a court date!!!

We are really excited and also a bit anxious.

Our court date is April 1............

So while we are sleeping Wednesday night and early Thursday morning,

court will be happening in Ethiopia.

Please join us in prayer.....

Pray for court so that all the papers are there (MOWA and Central Authority).

Pray that God's will be done in the timing of our meeting with our son.

Pray for our little man's heart........

so that he will feel like he is coming home and NOT leaving home.

We can't wait for our boy to "officially" be ours!!

Philippians 4:6

Do NOT be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God.

REFERRAL!!!!!

2010-03-05T23:36:00.006-06:00

We have been (im)patiently waiting for our referral for weeks!!! We knew that we were probably number one for a boy, so we kept our phones on us at all times.

I thought I knew exactly how AGCI made their referral calls:) I figured that the very first thing they (they, meaning our case managers) did when they got to work, was to see if Almaz had sent any referrals to the office. If she did that was the VERY FIRST THING they would take care of. So, everyday for the past few weeks, I would get REALLY REALLY excited at about the time that AGCI would open......and be excited for the next two(ish) hours. Then my excitement would leave and I would be bummed out. This happened EVERYDAY!

On Thursday, March 4th, it was the same as all the other days. My two hour "time of excitement" came and left. I said to Mike..."well, today is over for a referral" :( I did my normal computer check to see if any other referrals had gone out. I wasn't feeling very well, so I told Mike that I was going to lay down for a little bit. He left to pick up our daughter from school.....came home and gave our two big kiddos a snack in the kitchen.......then my cell phone rang.............it was "BABY LOVE"

Mike ran up the stairs in a hurry (I thought something was wrong) and said "Michelle!! It's BABY LOVE!!!!!" I then started freaking out!!!!! I calmed myself down and said...."it could just be our number call......it is pretty late in the day." So I called our CM back right away......hoping it was more than our number call!!!! She answered right away. I told her I had just missed her call and was wondering if I was getting my numbers.......she said "Yes, you did miss my call. But I have some good news!!!!" I got really excited and went down to the kitchen with the rest of the family (except for our youngest who was still napping). I put our CM on speaker phone so the whole family could hear about our newest member of the family!! It was so wonderful......everybody got to hear "BABY LOVE" (but our youngest....we did get her up right away) and we were all home. Our CM told us that she was going to email us his information and pictures and as soon as we had a chance we should call her back and she would go through all of the info. with us. So we hung up with her and I called my friend/neighbor to come over to take pictures of us seeing his sweet face for the first time!!! It was so much FUN! The kiddos are so excited!!!

Our three kiddos ready to see their new brother!

The family instantly in love!
Our oldest daughter super excited!!!!!

Mom and Dad loving their baby!

Proud Dad looking at his son!

I didn't think AGCI could surprise us this time around. We were waiting for our call everyday! I can't believe how blown away I was to get THE CALL when we did!! It was so perfect! I love that our whole family was together! What a special day!

Now we pray for a court date to come soon and so we pass the first time!!

We waited 5 months 3 weeks and 2 days for our referral!

PSALM 126:3

THE LORD HAS DONE GREAT THINGS FOR US, AND WE ARE FILLED WITH JOY!

MIGHT BE NUMBER...........

2010-02-20T22:35:00.004-06:00

one!!!!!!!!!

Will we get the call this next week!!!!!!

I can't wait to see what our family is going to look like in a few months!!!!!!!

Our Numbers!!!! Getting close!

2010-02-10T14:19:00.002-06:00

We got our update email last week.

Our numbers were....

GIRL 14

BOY 3

BUT I know the family that was given the long awaited number 1

and they received their referral of a baby boy, earlier this week!!!!

So that makes us.....

BOY 2

We won't be leaving our phones anytime time soon.

They will be with us at all times!

BTW: We have been on the wait list over 5 months.....last time around we waited almost exactly 4 months for our referral.

Welcome Home Ethiopian Buddy!!!!!

2010-01-30T14:23:00.006-06:00

We were so blessed to see our friends come home

with their Sweet Ethiopian Princess last night!!!

(click on princess to get to their blog)

She was also from Hannah's Hope in Ethiopia

(that is the "orphanage" our little lady is from)

Our girls waiting with signs!

Look at the sweet Ethiopian princesses
meeting for the first time!!!!

Our little lady would just touch her new friend's face and hair....it was so CUTE!!!

When we got into the car
my little man (the little guy in brown) said "I want lots of babies."
How sweet is that!!!
He can't wait for us to bring home a baby brother or sister!!

Numbers Numbers Numbers!!!!!!!!

2010-01-10T22:15:00.003-06:00

We got our January numbers!!!!

GIRL 18

BOY 7.....

..........................................................but.....

..there were 3 infant boy referrals this week and

they were not counted in my update.....so...................

that takes us to........................

#4 for a boy!!!!!

We are getting so excited! I have my ringtone set on my phone.

Now I will know it is AGCI calling when my cell phone rings.

I have the song "Baby Love" set for their phone number

so I don't jump at EVERY phone call:)

I can't wait to hear that song!!!!!

Merry CHRISTmas to you!!!!!!

2009-12-23T22:14:00.003-06:00

Have a very Merry Christmas...make lots of wonderful memories with your family!

Love Advent Conpiracy video!

2009-12-12T18:58:00.005-06:00

I know this is last years Advent Conspiracy video....but I like it better than this years. Check it out!!!

A family photo for fun!

My boy cracks me up in this picture....he is totally bored!!

Oh yeah! We got our new numbers at the beginning of the month!!!

GIRL 22
BOY 7

I am thinking there is a son in our future:)

One year ago this week....

2009-11-23T13:51:00.004-06:00

.........we left America to get our baby girl!!!!!!

Getting our luggage at the Ethiopian Airport.

The first time Mike held our baby. She was so scared!

My heart was aching for her.

Back home in America.....the WHOLE family finally together!!!

Happy One Year Gotcha Day!!!!!!!!!

We Love You More Than Words Can say!!!

The LORD has done great things for us,

and we are filled with joy.

Psalm 126:3

New Numbers!!

2009-11-09T00:11:00.003-06:00

We got our new numbers last week.

GIRL 26

BOY 9

We are so excited!!

Here is a picture of my kiddos "reading" on the couch!!

Our first grader can't sit still when she reads and the little ones follow:)

So CUTE!

This weekend I went to a hair "workshop" for my baby girl's hair.

It was so great to see so many other sweet Ethiopian children.

Here is a picture of my little lady hanging with some new friends.

Check this out!

2009-11-03T13:39:00.005-06:00

I took this from another blog.....

On Wednesday, November 4th, popular Australian musical sensation Hillsong United will appear LIVE on movie screens across the US for an exclusive One Night Event featuring a performance by the internationally recognized worship band and their much-anticipated documentary THE I HEART REVOLUTION: WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER, hosted from Australia.

This one-night event will begin with a LIVE intro by Hillsong United’s lead singer Joel Houston, followed by the band performing from their church in Sydney and conclude with the worldwide debut of their cause-based documentary telling the stories of justice, compassion, and mercy around the globe.

NUMBERS!!!!

2009-10-15T23:43:00.004-05:00

We got our new numbers last week.

I am not as good at this blogging thing as I was last time around:)

GIRL 38

BOY 13

Last month we were

Girl 45

Boy 17

That's a lot of referrals for one month. Actually the day after we got our numbers the boy list moved two spots AND this week the family that was #5 or 6 on the girl list got their call!!!!! That means there have been (potentially) 7 or more referrals since we got our numbers!!!!!!

I have to add a picture otherwise it's not really a blog post:)

Yes, that is a picture of my kiddos putting up the tree!!! I LOVE Christmas and put the tree up every year in October. We are in full swing around our house, music and all!!

Waiting

2009-10-06T23:15:00.001-05:00

We are waiting to get our updated numbers!!!

I am so excited....I know there has been many referrals this month:)

WE GOT OUR NUMBERS!!!!!

2009-09-10T22:01:00.007-05:00

Here they are.......

Here is the front of the shirts...it says "TEAM ETHIOPIA"

We got the "number call" yesterday evening. Mike was out of town so I thought it would be fun to have the kiddos "SHOW" him our numbers. I decided not to tell him over the phone. So today we drove to where he was and the kids were wearing these shirts.....it was fun!!!!

Looks like we might be bringing a sweet little Ethiopian Prince home this time:)

Not a number yet:(

2009-09-04T23:10:00.006-05:00

These pictures have nothing to do with this post......

but I have to have pictures with my post:)

We talked to Julie today and we needed to make a couple changes to our dossier.

We already finished those changes and

will be putting the papers in the mail tomorrow morning.

I think we "should" be a number by Wed. Sept. 9th.

I Can't Wait!!!!

Still Waiting

2009-09-01T13:54:00.005-05:00

AGCI has our dossier and we are waiting for them to approve it.

Once that happens we will get our numbers! Woot Woot!

We will be on both the girl and boy list, for a baby.

While we are waiting for our numbers I thought I would share some pictures from this summer.

My big girl on her first day of FIRST GRADE!
Mike took our little lady fishing and she caught her first fish!
They probably should have thrown them back,
but she wanted to bring it home and show the rest of us.

Our 3 year old.......this kid is so much fun!

The ladies of the house.

"I lost my first tooth"

This girl has been waiting so long for a tooth to fall out!! She has been checking her teeth every morning to see if any of them were loose. The big day FINALLY came and she said "I thought it was a dream, but it wasn't!" Since this picture was taken she has lost another tooth.

Man, she has had a lot of "firsts" this summer.

My girls with "piggies" in their hair!!

We can't wait to get on the lists again!!

We are having a blast with all our kiddos.

They are such a blessing to our lives!

100th POST!!! GUESS WHAT!!!!!!!

2009-08-15T14:56:00.008-05:00

We have quietly been working on our next adoption!!!!!!!

Our homestudy and dossier are done!!!

We are just waiting for AGCI to approve our homestudy and

we will send in our dossier and be put on the wait list!!!

We will post once we have our wait list numbers!!!

WooooHoooo!!!! We are more than excited!!!!!

Court!

2009-07-21T22:54:00.002-05:00

We had court today!!!!

Our baby is legally ours in the USA!!

I wish I could post her name....I love it, but I won't put my kiddos names on this blog.

Our sweet Ethiopian princess in her Ethiopian outfit!!

She is such a JOY!
My little man looking so sharp in his Ethiopian outfit!
He is so much FUN, he cracks us all up!!!

My American princess in her Ethiopian outfit!

She is my big helper and such a BLESSING to us!!!

All three kiddos after court today!

This was a VERY special day for us today!!!!

We had some of our family sitting behind us in court today. I was holding our sweet baby while answering the judges questions and she (our baby) was waving to our family and blowing them kisses:) How cute is that!! When it was all over I said "yeah" and she started clapping and said "yeah"....she also blew the judge a kiss:)

Our children are truly a JOY and BLESSING to our lives!!!!

One year ago today!!!!!!

2009-06-24T14:16:00.007-05:00

My cell phone rang at around 11:00 am (baby love was my ring tone), it was Julie from AGCI!! She said "I have a little girl I would like to talk with you about." At that point I was freaking out!!!! I was at the grocery store, so I rushed home and opened my computer and saw this beautiful picture........

She was 4 months old at the time and only weighted 9 lbs.

Now she is 16 months old and totally spicey.

She is still just a peanut.......hasn't hit 20 lbs. yet.

I can't even put into words how much joy this little girl has brought our family!!

She is an amazing gift from our Fathter in heaven!

The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.

Psalm 126:3

CUTE!!!!

2009-06-12T13:04:00.002-05:00

Here is our sweetness at 15 months old!!

She is getting so big! She is now walking and talking.

We are having TONS of fun will all three of our kiddos.

Just a fun picture update!

2009-05-24T14:35:00.002-05:00

Seriously, could she get any cuter!!!!!

She is way too much fun!!!!
My sweet little man.....well, sweet most of the time:)
What a ball of energy!!!!

Our (now) FIRST grader!!!!

I can't believe how big she is getting.

She has her first loose tooth (I cried).

All three amazing children together.

I love it when they all match.

Welcome home pictures!!! 5 months late!

2009-04-21T13:58:00.005-05:00

This was one of the best moments of my life!

The many months of longing to see and hold our baby finally came to an end

and we were all together......a family of 5!!!

This is my friend's little guy that she adopted a year and a half ago.

How cute is this sign!!

Here we are getting off the plane and seeing

our other children for the first time in a week!

I missed them more than words can say!!!!

Leaving was so hard....but coming home with our baby was so worth it!!!!

Look at how small she was! What a peanut!

All 5 of us together at last!! Praise God!

Lots of kisses for little sister:)

Big sister still loves to hold her all the time!!

I can honestly say, we are doing AMAZING! Having three children is definitely busy....really busy........but truly we feel so blessed. Our Ethiopian princess is so happy and is a ball of energy! We can't imagine life without her.

More Easter Pictures!

2009-04-20T12:46:00.012-05:00

Easter morning!!

Here are the kiddos ready for the egg hunt.

Can you see any eggs??

Our little lady finding her yellow eggs.Our 6 year old finding her pink eggs.

Eggs on the light.....I had to help them get those down:)

All her pink eggs!

All his blue eggs!!

I told the kids to close their eyes and I would bring them their presents.

Our oldest two kiddos closed their eyes and our baby copied them.....so cute!!

Little miss with her much wanted umbrella:)

And if big sister wants an umbrella, so does our little man:)

Time to go to church!!

It was a wonderful Easter!

Thank you Father in heaven for sending your Son to take the penalty for OUR sins and give us eternal life with YOU!!!!

He is the King of kings!!!!

Happy Easter (LATE)

2009-04-17T13:16:00.004-05:00

Easter Sunday!

I need to upload more Easter pictures.....when do mothers of three kiddos have time???

Picture update

2009-03-29T22:34:00.007-05:00

Here are some pictures of our sweet little lady.

We are all doing really well.....but I must say,

my three kiddos sure keep me busy!!

Me and my little lady just hanging out:)

Our "diaper dudes" with their Ethiopian hats.

Sweet!

Look at her features!! She is so beautiful!!!

Just for fun!

My little man working on his experiment (just vinegar and baking soda)

He had to put his "safety glasses" on:). He is such a cool kid!

My grown-up lady! She is such a big help.

Man, do we miss her when she is at school.

Can you see her cute, little piggy tails:)

Dedication Sunday

2009-02-26T14:12:00.003-06:00

We dedicated our sweet baby girl on Sunday and it was also her first birthday!!!! What a day to celebrate her life....a life that we are dedicating to Christ! We are so blessed to have this sweet child in our lives. We thank our Heavenly Father daily for her.

My thoughts are often with her Ethiopian mother. I have been praying for her lots. I want her to know what a wonderful child "G" is. The dress that "G" is wearing was a gift from her Ethiopian mother. I was teary all day long.....every time I looked at "G" I wished her Ethiopian mother could see her. I know that I am "G's" mother and I totally feel that!!! My love for her is NO different than the love I have for my other two children!! BUT I will never replace that special woman who loved her first! It was an honor to meet her while we were in Ethiopia and is an honor that God chose us to raise this amazing child. We love "G's" Ethiopian mother and pray that one day we will see her again.

Just for fun!

2009-01-30T23:06:00.007-06:00

I know that I still have Part 3 left and also our welcome home pictures.

I will get to those as soon as I can.

Here are some pictures just for fun.

Seriously, this girl is beautiful.....inside and out!!!!

She has such an amazing personality!!

We are sick of the cold weather outside and tired of the snow.......

so we had a tropical party inside!

Here are my three kiddos ready for the "tropics!"

We have been home for a little over two months now. We are so in LOVE with our Ethiopian princess. She has been such a blessing to our lives. We feel so blessed that God brought us on the path of adoption. I will write more on that soon!

Ethiopia-Part 2 (meeting our baby)

2009-01-03T14:49:00.005-06:00

This is right when we walked through the gate!!

We are at HH!!!!!!!

This is the first time we saw our baby girl.

I can't believe she isn't crying in this picture.....

she bawled right when she saw us.

This is my VERY FAVORITE picture of our whole trip!

Here is Mike holding our daughter for the first time.

She was so sad. His heart was broken for her.

He was teary eyed while he prayed over her.

Me feeding her a bottle...trying to get her to calm down:(

Look how sad she was.

My heart was breaking for her.

Trying to calm her down again.

Check out that laundry.....and that's not all of it!

She finally fell asleep in my arms.

(Can you see Jana and her little (BIG) guy...he is such a doll!! We miss you guys)

Time to lay her down for her nap.

We then went back to the hotel for lunch.

Here is our hotel.

After lunch we went back to HH

to get our baby and leave for our embassy appointment.

Here is the second time I saw her. She started crying (again) right after I took this photo.

Here we are on our way to the embassy.

Poor baby girl was so scared.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-26T14:51:00.009-06:00

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

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

Ethiopia-Part 1

2008-12-11T13:16:00.008-06:00

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!!!!!!!

2008-11-29T22:16:00.005-06:00

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!!!

2008-11-25T18:35:00.002-06:00

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!!!

2008-11-23T19:06:00.002-06:00

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.......

2008-11-21T08:53:00.002-06:00

........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.........

2008-11-19T21:35:00.001-06:00

....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....

2008-11-16T22:54:00.002-06:00

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

I can't wait!!!!!

Photo Tag!

2008-11-13T16:03:00.004-06:00

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!!

2008-11-07T22:21:00.003-06:00

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???

2008-11-05T22:36:00.002-06:00

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.........

2008-10-29T14:40:00.001-05:00

...........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!!

2008-10-28T21:03:00.002-05:00

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!

2008-10-27T21:14:00.003-05:00

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!

2008-10-26T22:18:00.005-05:00

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

2008-10-20T21:16:00.004-05:00

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!!!!!

2008-10-16T14:22:00.004-05:00

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!

2008-10-11T18:13:00.003-05:00

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

2008-10-08T17:11:00.003-05:00

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!

2008-10-07T21:00:00.001-05:00

Fireproof

2008-10-02T22:42:00.004-05:00

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??????

2008-09-28T22:24:00.003-05:00

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.

We Can Pray!

2008-09-26T13:22:00.005-05:00

Some of our adoption friends are going through a VERY VERY difficult time right now. As I read their blog last night, I just kept thinking "what can I do for them?" We live so far away from each other, but I want to do something. Well, today I am thankful for the power of prayer! We can all do something for this family. Prayer is the one thing they need and the one thing we can do.
Please read their story here.

UPDATE ON OUR BABY!!!!

2008-09-24T13:37:00.002-05:00

We received an update on our baby last night! WooooHoooo!

She is GORGEOUS! And super smiley.

She is starting to look older now........not so much like a young baby anymore.

Yet, very petite (light and little).

I must say that I am so thankful for the photos we have received during this wait.

Even though she is not with us as she is growing, I have been able so see photos of her every stage of her life. I can't wait until I can post a picture:)

**Please pray for the Ethiopia courts as they prepare to open next week**

***Please pray that all goes well with our court date***

Hello Fall

2008-09-20T17:15:00.002-05:00

Good-Bye Summer

2008-09-12T16:12:00.008-05:00

It's always so sad to say good-bye to summer.

Here are a few pictures of our summer fun!!!.

(........I am excited though......saying bye summer means.........

........saying HELLO to our baby!!)

ONE MORE MONTH......

2008-09-01T15:35:00.002-05:00

........UNTIL COURTS OPEN!!!!!!!

Well, we made it through one month of courts

being closed and we have one left.

I am NEVER happy to say "good bye" to summer but this year I am really anxious for fall to come! I can't wait for the phone call telling us that our baby is legally ours!! We feel like she has been ours since referral day.....but what a day that will be to hear that the government sees her as ours too. We are getting really really really really anxious/excited to bring her home.

Happy Birthday!!

2008-08-30T08:43:00.003-05:00

Happy 31st Birthday Michael

I love you lots!!!!

Merry Christmas!

2008-08-30T08:36:00.003-05:00

I had some Christmas Carolers come to my house last night. I was really funny! Some of the youth group girls from my church went out Caroling with gloves, hats and scarves on ......and it was a really hot day yesterday.

My Kindergarten Girl!!!!!

2008-08-21T09:05:00.006-05:00

Our Morning!

Doing the big kindergartener's hair.

Eating breakfast.

Brushing teeth.

Ready to walk to school.

My first day of school!!!

Playing on playground.

Sitting at my desk/table, ready for school!!!!

Getting Ready For Kindergarten!!!!

2008-08-19T22:58:00.004-05:00

We had our daughter's kindergarten open house today!

She got to take her school supplies to her room and meet her teacher.

Even though this is really hard for Mike and I, we did have a nice time.

Her teacher is really nice.

She was so excited to go!

Her backpack is bigger than she is!!

School starts this week and I am feeling a little bummed:(

Our home is going to be really really really quiet without her.

(at least until we get our baby home....then there might be some crying)

I have been thinking a lot about home schooling......

we'll see how this goes??????

I'm not sure I could "do it all".........

home school our 5 year old, give attention to our 2 year old and

bond with our new baby?????

Have I told you....

2008-08-11T00:23:00.002-05:00

......that we are IN LOVE with a baby from Ethiopia!!!!!!

We can't wait until our feet are on this path.

This is the path that will lead us right to our princess!

We can't wait to touch, hold, kiss and smell her! The more pictures and video we get, the more in LOVE we are! Mike had a tear in his eye this week and I asked what was wrong and he said "I really wish we could bring her home"....I love it that he loves her so much!!!!

Look What Came Today!

2008-08-01T16:44:00.003-05:00

No, we are not leaving this month...but it was still really exciting to

get our travel packet in the mail today!!

I can't wait to look through it tonight.

This will give us an idea of how to prepare (for travel) to bring our baby home.

It's always so exciting to get a packet from our adoption agency!!!!!

Baby's Room

2008-07-25T14:41:00.005-05:00

We have been working on getting our nursery ready for our little lady.

We had our daughter and son each paint a canvas

for our baby's room. My husband and I did the middle one.

I ordered a blanket from Suzi, and it will match the room perfectly!!!

Package going to Ethiopia!

2008-07-22T21:26:00.003-05:00

We sent a package (for our little one) to one of our blogging friends who is leaving for Ethiopia this weekend. If you look at the bottom left corner you can see our vacuum sealed package!!

I can't wait for this package to get to our baby. We recorded our voices so she can get used to us while we wait to make it through court.

I am so thankful that Sharon was willing to take our not so small package!!

Thanks Sharon.....Have a great time getting your sweet little lady!

In Love!!

2008-07-20T23:39:00.002-05:00

We just got a couple of pictures (of our baby) from a family that traveled last week.

Have I mentioned that we are IN LOVE!!!!!

We are in AWE tonight!!!

We can't wait to wrap our arms around our precious gift!!!

Feeling better

2008-07-18T14:19:00.005-05:00

Well, we had our days of crying and things have "calmed" down.

Don't get me wrong, I would do anything to go and get our baby!! Mike even said that if AGCI would allow it, he would send me over to Ethiopia just to visit our baby.

I don't think that is allowed though:(

I do feel like God is giving us a peace about the wait. I am still really really really longing to hold our sweet little girl. I really believe that if God wanted us to bring our baby home next month, He would have made it happen. I don't know that we will ever know why we have to wait and that's OK. We are totally trusting in God's timeline and plans.

So what's happening now?

Well, there are lots of families getting ready to travel and some still waiting on travel calls.

I am really hoping to get more pictures (of our little one) from these families. This will really help us during the wait.

We are going to be praying for our little lady lots during this time. Praying the God will be preparing her heart for her new family!!

We are more than in love with all three of our children!!! We feel so blessed that God has placed three little lives in our hands and we have the privilege of taking care of them.

Not the best day

2008-07-14T15:51:00.003-05:00

Here is an email I just got from our case manager.....

"I wanted to email you to let you know that it looks like we were not able to get your file through the courts in time for the closure. What happened was that, due to the high number of cases they did make a cutoff date for file submissions and I believe your case had not gone through in time."

Nothing else to say. I am so sad right now. I can't believe we won't be holding our daughter until October or November.

Please Pray!

2008-07-12T22:06:00.002-05:00

Our agency should be calling us this week and letting us know if it looks like we might make courts or not. Please join us in prayer that we hear some good news. If we don't make court by July 31 we have to wait until October or November to travel. We really want to bring our daughter home.

Just waiting and shopping!

2008-07-07T21:30:00.003-05:00

How cute is this swimming suit!!

I just had to buy it for our little lady.

I don't think I have ever shared what my

husband got me for my birthday (back in November)

I know it's a little blurry.....
it's Africa with a mommy and baby elephant.
He odered it from...

*** www.safarigold.com ***

I LOVE IT!!!!

We can't wait to hear if we get to travel soon!!!

Final Shots!

2008-07-03T13:15:00.005-05:00

We got our last shots for traveling today. I was so excited!!! Yep, you read right, I was excited? I can't wait to bring our baby home and now I feel like we are even more ready...does that make sense? I don't like getting shots, but if it's for going to Ethiopia to bring our baby home.....I take as many as they want to give me and even do it with a smile!

My husband on the other hand was not as thrilled as me. He was so nervous. It was so funny. He's a pretty laid back guy and while he was sitting in the exam room his legs were bouncing up and down all nervous like......he just couldn't sit still. And our son was so uncomfortable too. While the nurse was getting the needles ready, his chin started to quiver....so sweet.

Here are some pictures.

My nervous boys.

The girls doing just fine.

Mike was so nervous at this point.

And that was it!

We are more than ready to go and see our baby!

My arms just can't wait to hold her.

Referral packet!!!!! YEAH!!

2008-06-27T23:38:00.004-05:00

Guess what came today!!!! OUR REFERRAL PACKET!!!!

Mike told me the UPS lady was leaving the packet at the door and I yelled "WAIT"....I then asked if I could take her picture. She looked at me a little funny and then I said "you just delivered our baby" She said "you can take my picture if I can see a picture of your baby"....I happily agreed. I'm pretty proud of our baby, I like to tell people all about her.

After the packet came I decided to hit a couple of garage sales to get some

little pink clothes for our sweet baby!!

I can't wait for the day I can dress our sweet little princess!!!
I am longing to hold, kiss, rock and smell her!!!

BABY LOVE RANG TODAY!!

2008-06-26T00:51:00.007-05:00

Today was a wonderful day!!!

(even though both of our children are sick)

Our daughter has been sick since Monday and has hardly left "her" rocking chair in our family room. Our son wheezes (like clockwork) every two months. He is having one of his wheezing spells and needs breathing treatments lots.

Why was it such a wonderful day???

We saw some of the most beautiful pictures we have ever seen!!

My cell phone rang at 11:09 while I was at the grocery store.

Our case manager Julie said they have a baby for us!!!!

Needless to say I left the store empty handed crying and rushing to get home to the computer.

(check out our sons face on the picture above..he's so funny)
My husband was behind the camera

My son thought I was sad so he had to give me a kiss! How sweet is he!

Here I am taking another look...this happened many many times during the day!!

We are so happy!!! Please pray with us that we make it through courts before Aug.!! We really want to bring our baby home soon!!! My heart is already hurting just thinking that there is a chance we might have to wait until Thanksgiving.

It has been a long day..I need to go to bed. I will update more very soon!!!

"The Lord has done GREAT things"

Our Ticker Baby

2008-06-21T18:32:00.004-05:00

So now the baby on my timeline ticker is almost off the "timeline" (I can't get it to fit). Now I'm wondering if we will have a referral before our "ticker baby" disappears???

I am obsessed!!!

2008-06-20T21:09:00.003-05:00

OK, so I email the very best investigative blogger (Amy) today to see how accurate she thought our numbers were.

Here is what she had to say....

"I think you are #3 girl, #3 boy, but would have to be #4 overall.

If you are #3 overall, you would be #2 on either the boy or the girl's list."

(She's not sure how accurate her thoughts are)

So she thinks that there is a chance that we are #2 on the girl list and #3 on the boy list. I do know that there is a family ahead of us that is requesting a toddler boy. That means we could be #2 for an infant girl and even though we are #3 on the boy list, we are second in line for an infant!!!!! Even if we are #4 overall, having a family in front of us that is requesting a toddler makes us third in line overall for an infant. Oh My Word!!!! We are so close on EVERY list!!!

Will we get a referral for a girl??????boy????siblings?????

I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE PHONE CALL!!!!!!!!!!

Can you tell what's been on my mind tonight?????

UNOFFICIAL NUMBERS!!!!!!!

2008-06-20T14:50:00.003-05:00

We just received our bi-weekly update from our agency!! There have been some referrals in the past two weeks.

REMEMBER THESE ARE UNOFFICIAL NUMBERS.......

Siblings #1

Boy #3

Girl #3

Overall #3 Maybe #4

We could be wrong about this, but from my calculations this is where we should be at.

Amy and Autumn let me know what you think?????

We are so EXCITED!!!!!!

We're Overdue!

2008-06-15T14:27:00.004-05:00

Our ticker says that we've been waiting 10 months now.

Too bad with adoption you can't get induced!

I want to hear "Baby Love"

2008-06-12T14:06:00.002-05:00

I really want my phone to ring today!!!

For some reason, today has been a day, that I am really longing for our child/children!

I have my cell phone set to play "Baby Love" when our agency calls....

I so badly want to hear that song right now!!

We need a baby at our house!

2008-06-06T23:56:00.003-05:00

I think our son is ready for a little brother or sister.

He LOVES babies!

If he hears a baby cry, he wants to hold or kiss the baby to make them better.

We had some friends over and they brought their baby.

Our son just loved him to pieces.

He kept kissing him over and over. It was the cutest thing!!

Seriously, how cute is this!!

Celebrating and Moving Down the List!!

2008-06-05T22:27:00.004-05:00

Another blogging friend recieved a referral for a sweet baby girl this week!!! This blogging is so fun...we get to celebrate with so many families!!!

This moves our numbers to.......
Siblings #1
Boy #4
Girl #4
Overall #5

Some fun with the kids!

2008-06-04T13:14:00.012-05:00

I feel like it has been a long time since I posted pictures of our children.

Our daughter is 5 and our son is almost 2.

They are a blast!!!

We have waited a LONG time, but
Summer has finally come!!!

Sunday was the first day (it was actually warm out)

the kids could run through the sprinkler.

Today my mom and I took my daughter and niece

to the "Bird House" (a pet shop for birds).

The workers were so nice.

They let the girls hold a bird and had a bird talk to them.

Our New Numbers

2008-06-02T16:56:00.005-05:00

Here are our new numbers!!!

Siblings #1

Boy #4

Girl #5
Overall #6

When we were put on the wait list on Feb. 28th 2008 these were our numbers....

Siblings #2
boy #14

girl #17
overall #25

We have come a long way in three months!!!

Please pray for my friends

2008-05-31T09:46:00.003-05:00

Two of my blogging buds are going through a VERY HARD time right now.
Both Sharon and Karen's adoptions have been suspended. We don't know how long this suspension will last. This could take weeks, months or even a year (I am believing this will not take a year).

Please pray that this passes quickly. Both of these families have a child waiting for them in Ethiopia. Once you accept referral (from Ethiopia) you can't back out or the child you accepted will be considered unadoptable. Also the families would not be able to adopt from Ethiopia. (Not that they want to back out of these adoptions...they are in love with their children)

Praying for our child

2008-05-29T13:08:00.004-05:00

My mom found a book for me called "For This Child I Prayed" by Stormie Omartian. I was looking through it and read something cool.....

"It's never too soon to start praying for a child to feel loved and accepted-first by God, then by family, then by peer and others."

This is something great to pray for every child. I also thought it was so fitting for the child/children we are waiting for. We can pray that they are feeling loved and accepted by God right now!!! And soon will feel loved and accepted by us!

Roller Coaster

2008-05-23T23:14:00.002-05:00

Well, everybody always says how hard adoption is. Mike and I really didn't think it was that hard, until this past week. We received a call from our agency (AGCI) saying that they thought one of the children we were adopting was older than the age we were given. You are probably thinking "no big deal" but for our family it is. We are open to two children under the age of our oldest child and the agency thinks that this child could be older than our daughter. Mike and I just feel like it is important to keep our oldest child the oldest. So, we are not moving forward with this referral and are back on the "wait list." I know that birth order is not a big deal to some families and that is great.....I wish we were more like that, but we aren't. This was a very hard week for us. We had started getting our home ready for these beautiful children. We love them and they will be on our hearts for a long time. We just feel like we need to stick to the parameters we prayed about in the the beginning of this journey. I know that the children will be placed easily. They will be a great blessing to whoever is referred them!!!

Psalm 126:3

2008-05-13T13:20:00.000-05:00

The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.

?? 9 MONTHS ??

2008-05-05T23:20:00.003-05:00

Our ticker on the left of our blog is so close to 9 months.

The ticker "started" from the date we contracted with our international agency (Aug. 15th, 2007).

Will we have a referral by the time it ticks to 9 MONTHS ?

On Thursday it will be 10 weeks on the wait list.

Crazy Nesting

2008-04-29T21:58:00.003-05:00

OK, I think we better get a referral soon....I'm going NUTS nesting! We are open to siblings under the age of 5 of either gender.......we could get twin 3 year olds or a baby and a four year old, a boy and a girl, two girls, twin babies, or a single baby ect. ect. ect. We have no idea how to prepare but are feeling the need to start preparing.
So here is where we are getting crazy...We bought another twin bed for in our daughters room just in case we receive a referral of a toddler girl.
This weekend my mom found a used crib really cheap and it matches the crib we already have for your son....so what the heck, lets buy it!!!! So we did.
Today we went to a furniture store, just to look around and the salesman said to us "I have a really good deal for you, if you don't mind fixing a bunk bed." (It's a twin over full) Well, my husband is a farm boy and can fix anything.........We bought the bunk bed.
So right now we can sleep.....
TWO infant in the cribs and FIVE older children between the two twin beds and the bunk bed.
SEVEN children!!!!! Man, would that be a FUN house!!!
We might be short on bathroom space!
If we don't get a referral soon......who knows how many beds we'll have in this house.

NEW UPDATE

2008-04-25T21:37:00.004-05:00

Well we received our bi-weekly update from our adoption agency. We are at a stand still with our numbers.
Boy #7
Girl #9
Siblings #1

The neat thing is that the Ethiopian adoption program is exploding!!! Our update gave us the over all numbers on all the lists and it's just amazing. Here are the numbers....
Boy 25 families waiting
Girl 31 families waiting
Sibling 10 families waiting

I am shocked that there are now 10 families waiting for siblings!!!! That is so GREAT!!

Our agency just received court/travel dates for 7 families, that will be leaving over Mother's Day, to bring their precious children home. I have a feeling that the referrals will be coming soon!

THE OFFICIAL NUMBERS

2008-04-07T16:04:00.005-05:00

I talked to Julie (our case manager) this afternoon and got our new numbers!!!!
When we first got on the list (Feb. 28) we were....
Overall 25
Boy 14
Girl 17
Sibling 2

NOW WE ARE...
Overall 12
Boy 7
Girl 9
Sibling 1

We have pretty much cut all our numbers in half! I was very excited to hear this. I am really hoping to get a referral soon so we can travel before courts close. In Ethiopia the courts shut down for two months (August and September), so we wouldn't be able to travel until late October or even November.

We've been STYLIZED!!

2008-04-03T21:36:00.003-05:00

We just had our blog "stylized" by Blogs For A Cause!

I love it! Nikki (from blogs for a cause) has styled many blogs that I follow.

I finally decided it was time for this blog to have a face lift.

It was $20 to have her style the blog. $15 will go toward a missions trip she will be on this summer and $5 will be donated to a different "cause."

Check it out!

Adoption Update:

We should be getting our monthly call very soon and will (maybe) find out a little more information.

Waiting Numbers!?!?

2008-03-29T22:16:00.004-05:00

I remember some other adoptive parents (Tracie, Julie and Dee Dee) investigating while they were on the wait list for a referral. Subtracting referrals and figuring out what number they were on the lists. So, here I am doing just that. It's called the UNofficial wait list numbers!!
Here they are (remember these are unofficial)......
Boy #7
Girl # 11
Sibling #1

WoooooHooooo!!!!!!!!

We have moved a lot in just one month!!!!

Easter Weekend

2008-03-24T14:37:00.000-05:00

We had a great Easter weekend!!

On Friday we had some friends over to do some Easter egg dying.

Here are the girls with some of their masterpieces.

(The one in the middle is our daughter.)

We hid our children's Easter baskets,

so on Sunday morning they woke up

and had to search for their baskets.

Here is our little guy finding his basket. He loves to play in the kitchen so we knew that would be a great place for his basket. (He's a little too young for us to really hide it)

Here is our daughter finding her basket.

(I think next year we'll need to find a better spot...it didn't take her long at all to find it.)

Here are our children ready for church.

I love this picture!

Mike with the Kids.

Our little guy is getting funny in front of the camera now.

The family picture!

Can you tell our daughter "loved" taking this picture!

I think she was ready to go to church.

Sunday afternoon was the Third Annual Easter Egg Hunt in our backyard.

I don't know if we can really call it a hunt. The Eggs really weren't hidden, just kinda laying around the yard. It was more like an Easter Egg Pick Up!

I Can't help but think what next year will be like. Will our family picture have two more children??? What an exciting thought!!! Maybe next year we will have another toddler that we can share the Easter story with. It gets me so excited to think about!!! Will it be the first time our "new addition" hears about Jesus dying on the cross and rising from the dead??? It's so exciting that we get to share Jesus with our new child/children!!!

Longing

2008-03-18T21:25:00.000-05:00

I feel like the wait is getting hard and we've only been on the wait list 19 days. I know that sounds like we are really impatient, but......

we made the decision to adopt in July

Started all the paperwork in August

Finished our home study Nov. 15th

Got fingerprinted Dec. 4th

Received our FDL Feb. 28th

and have been waiting ever since. I feel like we are ready! I am so happy with the two children God has blessed us with already, they are tons of fun! It's just starting to feel like we are missing a child/children. Our family doesn't feel complete right now. Even though my arms are full with our two children, there is also an empty feeling. I am longing to hold, kiss and rock our new child/children. God placed the desire to adopt on our hearts and that desire is growing daily!!

???Siblings???

2008-03-09T13:44:00.000-05:00

Siblings, why siblings??? When we tell people that we might be bringing two children home from Ethiopia they seem very surprised.

When Mike and I started praying/talking about adoption, right away Mike felt like we needed to bring siblings home. I was not as sure as he was. The thought of doubling the number of children we have kinda freaked me out. Right now we have two children ages 5 and 1.5. They keep us pretty busy! We started off thinking, we would for sure adopt siblings...... then fear set in and we had our home study written for one infant. We sent our home study to the agency and started waiting. Our hearts were so heavy for siblings/older children. I looked at my children one day and thought "if they were in Ethiopia and up for adoption, what would happen to them? Would they get separated? Or would they be harder to place because there's two of them?" It broke my heart. Adopting siblings was on our hearts, we thought about it a lot. Is this what God wants us to do? We decided to have an addendum done to our home study and change it to a sibling group or a single infant. We are really trusting in God and want to be open to what He wants for our family. We continue to pray GODS WILL BE DONE. We are very excited to see what God has planned for our family!!

We are sure at an exciting time right now. Being number 2 on the sibling list means we could get a call anytime or it could take 5-6 months.

PLEASE SIGN PETITION!!!!

2008-03-07T22:14:00.000-06:00

Please read this even if you don't home school. This is a really big deal!

This is a email from a family that adopted with our agency. They sent this email out to families from our agency and I copied and pasted it for this post.

This message was sent to the South Dakota home school association to notify people of what is happening in California.

"By now, many of you have heard about the court decision that came out of California from a family law appellate judge who ruled that, in essence, the way the homeschooling has been done in California is illegal because most parents doing the homeschooling do not hold a teaching certificate. This ruling affects over 160,000 homeschoolers in California.
Basically, in California, homeschooling is done through "Satellite" schools. These are usually small church associated umbrella schools that allow the parents to direct the teaching, choose their own curriculum and typically have minimal supervisory contact with the parents. The system, which exists in a similar form in several states, works well in California.
Unfortunately, because this situation was escalated through a social services complaint, it has led to a judicial ruling that, while probably incorrect, could have far reaching ramifications in California as well as other states.

Here are a couple of links to articles about the California ruling:
http://www.foxnews. com/story/ 0,2933,335808, 00.html
http://www.sfgate. com/cgi-bin/ article.cgi? f=/c/a/2008/ 03/06/BAJDVF0F1. DTL&tsp=1
http://www.christia nitytoday. com/ct/2008/ marchweb- only/110- 43.0.html
http://www.hslda. org/hs/state/ ca/200803060. asp

Here is the ruling itself:
http://www.courtinf%20o.ca.gov/%20opinions/%20documents/%20B192878.PDF

Read this!

Here is a link to an article and at the end of the article you can sign the petition!

http://www.citizenlink.org/CLtopstories/A000006717.cfm

WooHoooo!!! IT"S HERE!!

2008-02-28T16:35:00.000-06:00

We got our letter..Yeah, Yeah, Yeah......Yeah!! I am so excited to be a number on the waiting list for a child/children from Ethiopia!!!! It feels as good as I thought it would! My husband was not home when it came and I didn't want to tell him over the phone. So, I thought of fun ways I could let him know our letter came. This is what I did.........I cut out Blue circles that represented the number we are on the boy list and Pink hearts that represented the number we are on the girl list and Yellow paper for what number we are for siblings and then Orange for our overall number. I then taped all of the cutouts on the garage door so when he pulled up that's the first thing he saw!

Here are our numbers...

Boy #14

Girl #17

Siblings #2

All #25

We are so excited!!! I love being a number....I love being many numbers! We are going to take all the cutouts off the garage and put them up in ours house and every month when we get our update call we will let our kids take the numbers down one by one!

Here is a pictures of what the garage looked like when Mike came home.

I CAN'T EVEN WRITE HOW EXCITED WE ARE!!!!!! (By the way...we waited 104 days.) BUT IT'S HERE NOW!!!!!

104 days so far:(

2008-02-28T15:29:00.000-06:00

We have been waiting 104 days since the USCIS office has had our home study and I600a application. Can you believe it!!!!! 104 DAYS!!!! I'm still waiting on the mail today, it hasn't come yet.