COURT DATE!!!!

We are one step closer to bringing our sweet baby boy home!!! We got our assigned court date for May 26th. If all things come together, Isaac will be officially an Ulm!!! Then we will move into the travel stage to bring our boy home!!! Lots of things can happen but God is in complete control and I know that he will be in our arms at the perfect moment!!! Please pray!!!

There are no words!!!

I am a little behind in posting this on here but.....We received our referral for a 2 month old beautiful baby boy! We actually got the call on April 8th! We were on are way home from vacation. It was really cool because we were all together. Really there no words to describe the feelings that we have right now. We are in of awe of God's plans for our lives and feel blessed that He has chosen us to raise Isaac as well as our other three.

Now we wait on a court date. Once we pass court, we will be able to post pictures and then we will move into the waiting phase of getting ready to travel. We know that he will not be there one more day than he is suppose to be and that God's strong arms are wrapped around our Isaac. Can't wait to have my arms around him too!!

UPDATE...

It has been awhile since I have posted anything. The holidays were great and very busy!!

Our wait for Isaac has been fairly easy so far. I think Christmas and all the things we had going on really helped.

Today, I found out that we are "on-deck". That is our adoption agency lingo for we are getting close for our referral call and to see sweet Isaac's face for the first time. Still don't know when that will be. Only the Lord does!

Please pray that I don't have a heart attack every time the phone rings!! I think I will be jumpy for a while!!!

Later!

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.