Olivia "S" update!!!

Two families that were picking up their kiddos last week emailed me to tell me that they checked in on our precious little "S." We knew that she was having a hard time adjusting to being at the new orphanage but we are so glad that she is back to her normal, funny self:) Here is what they had to say:

I have to tell you that your little girl is HILARIOUS!! She is just so much fun. She lights up every room that she is in. I would just gravitate towards her. I saw her in the walker, in the bumbo seat and I saw one of the special mothers holding her hands and work on walking with her. She is just a sweetheart. Her laugh is very contagious. You can just look at her and she starts her silly little giggle. I sat on the floor and played with her in her bumbo and she just laughed and laughed and arched her back. I also talked to Almaz about her as well. She said that she has done a 360 change in the past couple of weeks. When she first got to HH her personality was completely flat and she said she has never said that about a child before. The only thing that she would respond to was food and it took her about 3 weeks to get adjusted and let her personality show and now she is just a little character with SO much personality! I can't wait for you to meet her and I can't wait to see updates on her as well. She definitely stole my heart!! And the special mothers just love her!!


let me tell you, she is CUTE! and very smiley and full of personality, and from what i understand it is all within the 2 weeks since she got there and i wanted to reassure you she is doing really well and has really come to life, according to almaz who said that she was very "flat" when she got there and you all had been told that in the referral?? well, that is no longer the case at ALL, she is a bit of a ham really so i thought you'd be happy to know she is in good hands at HH until she can be with you guys!!



So as you can tell, she is going to fit in just swell around here:)

Summit V

Ok, how many of you out there are coming to Dallas next week for Summit?? We are volunteers so I can't wait to see everyone! I know so far Mandy , Daniel and Whitney, Angel, and Amy will be there..... Anyone else? Daniel is going to be a breakout session speaker so I am really excited about it!


Julie sent us more pictures of Olivia "S" today!!! She is soo cute I can hardly stand it. This alone should seal the deal on coming to Summit:)

Happy 11 Months Baby Girl!

Today our little angel is 11 months old.....I can not believe it! So in true blogger fashion here are 11 things we LOVE about Olivia!

1. We love that you are HILARIOUS! You are going to fit in our family perfectly!

2. We love your little bald head.....I have already bought special shampoo and conditioner just for you:)

3. We love your little feet! Your GiGi just bought you the cutest sandals for your cute little toes!

4. We love all of your little teeth! I think you have 2 on the bottom and maybe 4 on the top but it is hard to tell!

5. We love those kissable lips!! They are so precious!

6. We love how you already have your big brother wrapped around your little finger. He talks about "his sissy" all the time and kisses the picture of you that we put on the fridge. He says I love Oliviya-ya-ya:)

7. We love that you are CRAWLING around! You are such a big girl!

8. We love that you are a nice petite 17 lbs though! unlike your huge, very hard to carry brother!

9. We love your chubby little cheeks and your double chin....you are such an adorable little girl!

10. We love that you are loved by many friends and family.

11. We love that you are ours.

HILARIOUS!

Here is the email I got today from Tisha:

I got this from Dawn... she wanted me to let you know!!!

could you do me a favor please? could u please send deedee an email and tell her that i spent lots of time with her little girl and she is SO cute and HILARIOUS! tell her i'll email her when we get back.. but i thought she'd like the little bit of info. :)

How exciting is that?!?!?!!

What happens next???

Now we wait for our court date..... We have signed a power of attorney so that our agency can represent us in court in Ethiopia to legally adopt Olivia "S". But first our paperwork has to be merged with hers and it has to be submitted and go through some bureaucracy over there before they can issue us a date. Normally people get there court dates around 4 weeks after they get "the call." So roughly mid May we should hear something. In the meantime I believe we get to send a care package, have a conference call with someone at our agency regarding a transition plan on bringing her home, have some conference calls on traveling procedures, yada yada yada. No I kid, seriously though, every step is exciting and one step closer to bringing her home. To give you an idea the families that received "the call" in February and March have mostly been given May court dates. So in mid May I am expecting a call to say we have a late June court date.....now I am hesitant to expect because I expected a March "call" and instead got an April "call". We are just praying that we can get a June or July court date and be able to travel before RAINY SEASON (cue the bum bum bum music). Rainy season is when all the courts close down for August and September. AND we are praying that we PASS court the FIRST TIME!

Could you join us in praying for those things?

I hope this all makes sense....send me a comment if you have any questions about it!!

Paperwork DONE!

Just wanted to say that our paperwork left my hands at 1:00pm today and should be in Julie's hands at 10:30 am tomorrow.....Praise God! I took a picture of it but I am too tired to upload it right now. Tomorrow I will post all the answers to the What happens next? that I have been hearing for the last two days:)

Incredibly Tired

I did not sleep one wink last night and it is catching up to me! We are still on cloud 9 though!!

So here is the story of our call. I knew we were number 2 but with the way things had been moving I had really expected it to be next week.....I have been jumping at the phone a little bit but really not thinking too much about. So Monday morning Jackson and I went out to the post office to send the scrubs for the special mothers (orphanage workers) at Hannah's Hope (our agency orphanage) to other families that are traveling soon. Then we ate lunch at Chick-fil-a, our favorite place. I thought, wow wouldn't it be funny if Julie called right now? She didn't. 20 minutes later we were home and Jackson was in bed for a nap and I started an email to Troy and Amber to let them know I had sent them a package. After typing one sentence, the phone rang. I stared at the caller ID and it said AGCI......I started to freak out! I kept saying outloud, THIS IS IT!!!!! The phone rang at least 5 times before I actually answered it. Poor Julie because I was a mess. She asked if this was a good time and I said OF COURSE! and she had a little girl for us and started in on how she was a bit older but still in our age parameters when I remembered PAUL! So I interrupted and asked if I could call her back in 30 minutes so that Paul could come home....see I remembered my hubby:) So then I called Paul and said, "JULIE JUST CALLED COME HOME NOW!!!!" to which he responded with a "she did?".....see I told you we weren't expecting it! Then I called my friend Jeanne to come over to photograph the event:) (trying to be a good blogger;) THEN, I finished my email to Amber and Troy saying something like ahhhh Julie just called I'll email you back later!! Of course, I was jumping up and down the whole time and had to wake poor Jackson so he could see pictures of his sissy.

our first family picture, even our dog Lucy got in on the action

Then after we saw our precious baby girl we made a TON of calls to family and friends and decided to have a pizza celebration for anyone who wanted to attend. We had a great time showing off our new daughter!

Paul googled Olivia's Ethiopian name "S" to find that it means Rose so our friends brought us some beautiful roses!!!

Then today we made our way to the International Pediatrician's office here:



and met with Dr. Dibs who was fantastic. Then Jackson and I came home to this:




So I have been working on that ALL DAY! We had to take it to be signed by this lovely lady:





That's our awesome social worker Susan. Then I had it notarized by another lovely lady who I forgot to photograph but she is in the above pizza celebration pictures wearing the black and green:) So now it is all finished and ready to be overnighted back to AGCI tomorrow morning....I just barely missed the 6pm deadline for sending it back in today.....that would of been something! So now I am going to watch some tivoed dancing with the stars and hit the sack because I am soooo tired.......

THE CALL!!!!

AHHHH! Julie CALLED US! I know I am still freaking out!

Ok the details. I can't post her name or picture because she is not legally ours yet. Baby "S" is 10 months old and was born on May 23, 2008. She is 17 lbs. and 28 inches. She barely has any hair and looks a little chunky but I know she is petite. She is beyond beautiful. We are so excited!!!

We plan to name her Olivia "S" Aarseth. If you live nearby and would like to join us to celebrate, we are meeting tonight at 6:30 at Carmines Pizzeria next to Corner Bakery on Coit and Campbell.


I will post more after we meet with the International Pediatrician tomorrow (this is just a step that is part of the process, she is perfectly healthy:)

Happy Easter!

Our Easter started on Saturday since we knew the weather was going to turn on Sunday, so off to the park we went with our best friends and their son Aidan. It started out with some swinging.....

Then Daddy tried to get the kite going.




Jackson giving it a try.



Fathers and Sons.



While all that was going on the mommies hid the eggs.



handsome boys.


A very sleepy boy getting his basket on Sunday morning. (I am not sure where his shirt is)




Then after church we went to my moms for her birthday/Easter brunch.




My mom and Jackson.....about 5 seconds later we realized Jackson was getting a bloody nose!




No worries though, his Gigi just gave him an Elmo to make it all better


Mommy and Jackson making some bunny cookies....we tried to make crosses too but they just turned to blobs....


Then it was off to brunch where Jackson had his own Lobster Bisque, Macaroni and Cheese, and Creme Brulee.....yep we do it up big for GiGi's birthday/Easter brunch



After sitting so well through a long brunch, the restaurant gave us some bread to feed the ducks!



This was a bit too close for comfort.....I unfortunately don't have a picture of my step-dad picking up the goose so Jackson could pet him.....I was a little busy screaming:)



Hope you all had a great Easter! We spent some time praying for all of the waiting families yesterday and that this would be THE week:) Today marks 6 months of being on the waitlist.

April Official Numbers

Julie just emailed me to let me know that we are officially number


I knew that we were either 1,2, or 3 so I guess this is pretty good, at least we aren't still at 3! Movement is SLOW so I'll take what I can get. I'll admit that I am nervous and anxious and just ready to see our baby's face! The Lord says do not be anxious in anything so I am trying to have a quiet and content heart but finding myself not doing so well. Please pray for us as we wait! And please let us know what we can be praying for you!

Learn Amharic

Well I was hoping to get our bi-weekly update tonight but it didn't come.....So I will just share this with you... It is simple Amharic for adoptive families! We bought this like a month or so ago and I will just admit that I haven't been using it much because it makes me sad to think that we still don't have our referral.....BUT it is really fantastic. It comes with a CD because you know Amharic is crazy hard. And it would be really great for families adopting older children..... It has some much needed phrases like Do you need to use the bathroom? Are you hungry? And so on. Anyways check it out I think you will like it.