Today.....

Today I had a meeting at the immigration office......it didn't go as well as I had hoped. I still have some tricks up my sleeve and hope that this will indeed work out sometime next week but I was pretty upset to say the least this morning.

However some wise words from Mckmama have really helped to change my view on things today. It is very strange how much comfort and support I find in the blog world:)

I will try to keep you updated on any progress.....

10 days

It is only 10 days until our court date and I am officially starting to freak out. I called our case worker today for no other reason than reassurance. Yep, that is right, I didn't have a question, or need anything really from her. I just needed her to tell me that this will get worked out. There are a lot of crazy details about how and why our paperwork is messed up and if you want to know, shoot me an email, I'd be happy to divulge that ugliness to you.......but the fact remains, in 10 days we will probably have a daughter that is legally ours and we may or may not have the correct paperwork in order to get a visa to bring her home. I don't know about you, but having legal guardianship of a child that you can not bring home and call your own seems a little bit CRAZY!

So here's the deal.....I need to ask you to PRAY. Pray for THIS THURSDAY at 8am CST when I go to USCIS and meet with an immigration officer to plead our case and hope that they approve our new paperwork with lightning speed.......I am talking like, "Oh Mrs. A, don't worry!! you have already been approved and we have sent word to the visa center and embassy two days ago!" kind of speed.

I will keep you updated.



EDITED: I just wrote this and then realized we have court in 9 days.......awesome.

More Olivia "S" updates!

We got two updates (and some new pics) from some families that traveled last week! HER HAIR IS GROWING LIKE CRAZY!!! I need to go buy clippies and bows now!!! I am so excited and so grateful to these families for giving us a glimpse into her life. Here is what they had to say:


I did get to spend some time with your little girl. She is in the same room that our son was in. The special moms in that room are amazing! They obviously love these children greatly. They get very attached to them. It was very difficult to watch them cry the last day when we left with our son but it felt good to know how much they loved him. I'll get you some pictures of the special moms in the room in another email. I want to make sure I get this email sent before our 19 month old wakes up. He had a rough night so I was sleeping with him on the couch.

One of the first things I noticed when I walked into our son's room was your picture book on "S" 's crib because it was the first crib in the room. The first day we were in the room she was pretty tired. During part of the time in the room that day she was sitting in the bumbo seat watching a video (sesame street maybe) beside another little boy who had only been at HH for two days. She was reaching over and holding his hand. It was like she was looking out for the new kid.

One of the other days we were in the room, "S" was more alert and was cracking us up. They had her sitting on a potty seat and she would scoot around on the tile floor while sitting on that potty seat and just making herself laugh. It was hilarious. There's that word again! Her personality was really showing that day and I think you're going to have a blast with her. She was very happy and playful. She didn't at all seem scared of the new people (us) in the room. She let me play with her.

I don't recall seeing her walk anytime we were there. She was crawling around. I wish these pictures did a better job of depicting how happy a little girl she seems to be. I'm confident she's going to have her daddy wrapped around her little finger in no time.


And....

DeeDee!! saw your beautiful daughter, we just got in and I'm a little slap happy, but wanted to send word that she is out of this world cute, her pics don't even do her justice. We are blessed my friend!! She was a little shy of me, but watched EVERYTHING that was going on around her with those big brown eyes!! She was precious!


Oh and I did get one picture I can share with you! This is where our baby girl sleeps at night at Hannah's Hope. I cried when I saw this.




We are beyond blessed! Olivia we can not wait to meet you!!! Daddy is working hard on your beautiful nursery!

Happy Birthday Olivia S!

Today is Olivia's 1st birthday and we decided to honor her with a big celebration with all of our friends and family at a local Ethiopian restaurant. It was so much fun to share our love for Ethiopia with everyone! Over 50 people came! Here are some pictures of the great party!

Here is the awesome cake my friend Ashley made!

AJ and Jeanne came in their Africa attire!

The boys ran around like crazy! Jackson is wearing his BIG BRO shirt!

This is half of the room we reserved.

My mom and me opening presents.

Beautiful bunny.

CUTE tea set!

My friend Wendy and her girls made Olivia a build-a-bear lamb!

Paul took this picture right before we both blew out the candles.

Then the waitresses sang Happy Birthday to Olivia in Amharic! It was amazing!

We are so happy to have Olivia in our lives and can not wait to bring her home! Our paperwork is still messed up but I am hoping that will be resolved this week. Please continue to pray for our case and our court date on June 4th!


We love you baby girl!

5 Years O' Love

I was too lazy to scan our nice wedding pictures so I just grabbed this one off of facebook!

5 years ago I married the man of my dreams:) He is my best friend and I am blessed to be his wife. I can't wait to see what the next 5 years bring. I love you!

Please Pray!

Our caseworker called this afternoon to tell us that the U.S.CIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) messed up our paperwork. I have to contact our congressman in the morning in order to get it fixed and I am super nervous that this is going to set us back. Please pray with us that this can be resolved smoothly and most importantly, quickly.

Ugh. it hasn't been a really good day.

COURT DATE!!!!

We finally got our court date today!!! It is JUNE 4TH!!! Oh my gosh that is SO SOON! I can not believe this.... Please pray with us that we will pass the first time and we can travel to go get our girly!!! We are beyond thrilled. oh my goodness it is 3 weeks and 1 day away!!!!!! wow.

4 weeks

I know that you are all wondering if we have a court date yet and I am too! I was really hoping we would have it by now but I have learned not to get my hopes up in adoption......you are always waiting for something.

Yesterday was a great Mother's Day although I wished I had both of my babies there. My mind was on another mother far away, praying for her health, her sorrow, her world. I think about this lady a lot and how grateful I am to her and how I wish this didn't have to be the way it is. It is my goal to be a great mother for her daughter and to make sure she knows that she is loved.

Over the weekend I also went to my sister's senior fashion show (she is a fashion design student) and she won an award for Best Niche Market. It was so much fun so I thought I would post some pictures from it:)

Please excuse the color on these, there was a huge spotlight and my camera was not happy about it. This is a cute dress my sister designed.

These two are bridesmaid dresses from her wedding collection.

The wedding dresses.....so pretty!

My sister receiving her award!

My sisters and me. I look really terrible because I had to run in the rain to get there! oh well:)

I will let you know if I hear something.......

Summit V update

So last Thursday and Friday, Paul and I went to the Christian Alliance for Orphan Care's big conference called Summit V. It was really amazing to see all of these people we know in blog world, authors of books we have read, and leaders of some great organizations we have been blessed to be apart of. It was a great time of fellowship and we learned so much about orphan care, it was unbelievable.

The greatest part was that every time some one who was familiar with Ethiopia asked what agency we were with, they always had amazing things to say about Hannah's Hope (the orphanage where Olivia "S" lives) and Almaz (the director of Hannah's Hope). These people are the "experts" in orphan care and they would go on and on about how wonderful HH is and how it is by far the best orphanage in all of Addis. One guy from another agency even said he took his orphanage workers from their transitional house to go and train with Almaz because she was the best around. He also said that the level of care at HH is the bar they would love to one day reach. Just knowing that our girl is in the next best place besides home is so reassuring.

So next year Summit is in Minneapolis at John Piper's church.....we probably won't make it up there but I encourage you if you are any where near there to try and be there because it will truly be a blessing for you.


Amy Bottomly: YOU WERE GREATLY MISSED:) and I am going to publicly threaten you that if I do not see you labor day weekend, there will be words between us:)

Another Update!

Renee checked in our cutie pie while she was there picking up her son:) I love getting updates from traveling families. Just knowing a little bit of what she is doing during the days makes it easier.


I wanted you to know that I did see your little girl. I belive she was in the walker everytime time i saw her but there may have been one time she was sitting on a blanket. I didnt get to check her clothing size the one time i went to try and talk to her she fussed a bit so i backed off. It was hard to spend much time at Hannah's Hope for us because our little guy is a very active 10 month old and doesn't want to be held a lot. I remember the first time I saw her she was sitting in the walker playing with some kind of toy (looked like a plastic egg) she was kind of by herself and very contently putting the toy on her head and then taking it back down.


What a silly girl:) I hope we hear about a court date this week.....

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!!