One year home!

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!

Our little man is now 8 months old!!

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

GOTCHA and we are home!!!!

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!

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!

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!!!!!

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...........

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!

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!!!!!

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!!