IT IS OFFICIAL!!!

We are officially DTE!!! (Dossier to Ethiopia) Which means we are on the official waiting list and now we can start crossing off the days till we get our referral and meet our son!!! We are on cloud nine!!!

On the WAY!

We sent in all our paperwork for the adoption in today...YEAH!! It has me feeling a million different things. Mostly I am at peace. God has been so good throughout the whole paper chase process. I have to say we had it pretty easy compared to some other families. So what happens next?

1.Paperwork will arrive at our agency tomorrow.
2. Two staff members have to go through everything.
3. Papers sent to Washington DC for authentication.
4. Send to Ethiopia!!!!! When this happens this will be our official day that we start waiting. Right now the wait is 5-7 months for a male referral!!!

We will do our best to keep you updated. There will really not be a lot until the referral comes. Then there will be lots of details.

On the home front, we are doing OK. The kids seem to passing around sickness back and forth. We are busy right now getting ready for our big Christmas show at church. It is going to be AWESOME!!

I will do my best to post some more pictures soon.

Later.

Getting Closer...But still a long way to go!

We are one step closer to our son! I have never been so happy for a check that is written to our government to clear but it did! What does that mean? Not really for certain, other than I can only assume they are processing our application. Basically, we have to get an approval to bring our son home. Once we get this, we will have everything we need in our dossier and can mail it to our agency. Once they are done with it...we will be DTE!!(Dossier to Ethiopia)or officially on the waiting list.

As we near this huge step and milestone in our adoption journey, I have realized that God has also reminded me that it also means a mom somewhere out there is about to make the hardest decision of her life. I don't know what circumstances in her life will be that lead her to that decision but I know it will be hard. I pray that she will be filled with God's peace and understanding and I know that she will always be a hero to me.

Till Later...

A WhirlWind

Bears about 7 feet away (Mama and 3 cubs)

Lauren's First day of School

A Beautiful View of the Smokies

Family Picture in a Cave

Alex's First Day of School

Wow! What a crazy ride it has been since I last posted. We enjoyed the rest of summer with a trip to my parents and a trip to the Smokies before school started. I think I say this all the time but where does the time go? I really can barely keep up with it all.

Lauren started 2nd grade! She was very excited. She is such an old pro and has been giving Alex pointers!

Alex started Kindergarten. He is going in the afternoon. I informed him that he gets to go after lunch so all morning I hear "Is it lunch time yet?" He is really loving it. He has the same teacher as Lauren and we love her so we are really thankful for that.

Claire and I get to spend every afternoon together!! I have been enjoying my time with just her!! She is so sweet by herself.

Jason and I celebrated our 11th anniversary! HArd to believe!

Adoption Front: Tomorrow is our last Home Study visit!!!! YEAH! Then once we get the completed study from our social worker, we can apply for to Homeland Security. They have to approve us as parents basically and say we can bring a child into the country. That is our last major step!! We have of the other paperwork gathered. We will have to go downtown and get a few papers certified but in the big picture that is just a minor detail. So we hope to be DTE (adoption slang for Dossier to Ethiopia) by Oct/Nov!! WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It does not seem real to me! God is so Good!

Later.

Updates....

I just wanted to fill everyone in on how our summer has been going. Well, it has been flying! We have had a great time swimming, park dates, riding bikes and fireworks. I need to try to be better at posting pictures.

Lauren went to church camp and was gone overnight for 3 days! She did great and had a blast!! We did ok too because our children's pastor at church was her counselor!!!!

Alex is getting ready for Kindergarten and is a fish in the water. Next week he goes to Football Camp and he is very excited.

Claire is potty-trained!!! Do you hear the choir singing? I do!! She just decided to do it! So I am on a hiatus from changing diapers until brother comes home...

Which leads me to adoption news. We are still working on getting papers gathered and everything has to be notarized. We just started our homestudy. I had to answer 55 questions about myself...NOT FUN!! I think it was one of the hardest papers I have wrote and I had to do a lot of papers in college. Anyway, things are moving along good and we have not had any hiccups so far. Tomorrow we have are doctors appts and that will be the last major letter we need beside the homestudy!!! I am prayerful that our Dossier to Ethiopia (DTE) will be sometime in the late fall. Then we wait!!!! God has been opening doors and faithfully watching over us every step of the way! Thank you Jesus!!

Till later...

Summertime Fun

Kids playing one of our favorite games.

Lauren at her dance recital.

Happy Father's Day!

We heard this song at church tonight and it brought tears to my eyes. Not just because we are adopting a son but because it is true...There are No Orphans to God! Amen! God is our Father! Avalon sings this song on their "Stand" Album. Here are the lyrics below... I also added the song to my playlist at the end of the blog.

Who here among us has not been broken Who here among us is without guilt or pain So oft’ abandoned by our transgressions If such a thing as grace exists Then grace was made for lives like this There are no strangers There are no outcasts There are no orphans of God So many fallen, but hallelujah There are no orphans of God Come ye unwanted and find affection Come all ye weary, come and lay down your head Come ye unworthy, you are my brother If such a thing as grace exists Then grace was made for lives like this O blessed Father, look down upon us We are Your children, we need Your love We run before Your throne of mercy And seek Your face to rise above

Food For Thought...

Why Choose Ethiopia?
• One in six children die before their fifth birthday• One in ten children die before their first birthday• 44% of the population of Ethiopia is under 15 years old• 60% of children in Ethiopia are stunted because of malnutrition• The median age in Ethiopia is 17.8 years• 1.5 million people are infected with AIDS (6th highest in the world)• 720,000 children have been orphaned by AIDS alone•There are 4.6 million orphans in Ethiopia and the country is twice the size of Texas• Per capita, Ethiopia receives less aid than any country in Africa• Drought struck the country from 2000-2002 (first year no crops, second year no seeds, third year no animals)• Half the children in Ethiopia will never attend school. 88% will never attend secondary school• Coffee prices (Ethiopia’s only major export) fell 40-60% from 1998-2002• Ethiopia’s doctor to children ratio is 1 to 24,000

A busy weekend

Our weekend started out on Friday afternoon with me and a wonderful friend going through about 9 bags of half eaten school lunches. That is right, Lauren got her retainer on Thursday and on Friday she threw it away at lunch!! Needless to say, we did not find it!! On to work at 7pm to work 12 hours...an uneventful night!! Home at 730...slept for about 2 hours then on to the Indy 500 parade. We had lots of fun! The parade is very fun!! Mario Lopez waved at me! (Along with everyone else in the crowd) Home by 3pm. Slept for 2 more hours then off to work another 12 hours....Praise the Lord! At 530 work called and put me on call!! I slept all night!! Sunday we ran errands and planted a garden. Strawberries, tomatoes, melon, and squash. Sunday night we had a sleep over in basement with the kids. We watched Hotel for Dogs! (Very cute) Monday we stayed around home, played in the sprinkler, rode bikes. Our first strawberry from our garden was ready to eat! It was good but the kids were wondering why there was only one!!!

In Adoption news, we officially sent in the paper work today and have to wait to hear from the agency to accept us...then unto tons of paperwork. We are debating names so we can stop calling the baby "brother" So if you have any suggestions I will take them, however don't be offended because I swear Jason can make fun of any name. At least the ones I pick out. I have tons of pictures I took from this weekend so I will try to post them soon!!

REALLY BIG NEWS....

Our family is expanding!!! That is right!! We are adopting a little boy from Ethiopia. God has laid this on our hearts about a year ago but it did not feel right at the time. Well, here we are a year later and Jason and I both feel at peace about this decision!! It will be a long road and a big process but through God's strength we will bring a baby boy home sometime next year. We are just in the beginning stages of this so right now we are beginning the paper "pregnancy". Our hope is to not only keep you up to date on our 3 beautiful kids but to also to keep you up to date in this process and bring "brother" as Lauren and Alex call him, home!! Please pray for us as God leads us down this path!! It is very exciting but I am sure we will have some twist and turns along the way too!!

God Bless!

This picture took about 20 tries to get but aren't they oh so cute!!

New Beginnings....

Wow, I can't believe it has been almost a year since I have blogged anything! Where does the time go? I will tell you where it goes....

It goes to soccer games, church, dance, piano, homework, potty training, bike rides, laughing, playing UNO, taking trips and on and on it goes! I would not trade it for the world. Just wish it would not go so quick!

I won't catch you up on the all the details over the last several months but going forward I am making an attempt to blog more. No more excuses!!! It is really late right now so I won't go on but my goal is to have some pictures posted tomorrow.