LOTS O'PICTURES & UPDATE BULLET-STYLE

we've had many a friend and family member asking for updates so to be as concise as possible -I'm going to update bullet-style!

*the boys have been moved to CHI's Transition Home already. They will stay here until we come to get them.

*when are we going? -good question! The US Embassy has changed their rules and instead of a 4-6 week notice of your Embassy Date (the day we HAVE TO be there), it is now a 7-10 day notice.

that means we will be told to go roughly 4-7 days prior to needing to leave.

*we did get confirmation today that our agency reps in Ethiopia are submitting paperwork for us to have an April 27th appointment. It is not certain, but will hopefully work out.


*our YWAM director just returned home from nearly 4 weeks in Ethiopia. This afternoon she emailed us an update on the boys. They seem to be doing well despite all the transitions they've gone thru this past month.

*Eyob, our 12 year old, is my size now! oh my! the boy is 5'3"...though much thinner than I :)

*Bruk is just 1/2 inch shorter than Andrew! I believe they'll be wearing the same size clothing...I might need to re-do the closets and dresser as I was expecting him to be smaller than Andrew!

*I'm in full nesting mode and am not quite sure how I'm going to get everything done in 3.5 weeks.

*we're trying to learn some basic Amharic words/phrases -talk about a "crash course"!


and on top of all of the adoption stuff -we're dealing with everyday-regular life stuff too!
which brings me to the pictures.

They chronicle last week -mostly this past weekend.

this is how you'll find Andrew 90% of his awake time right now -reading.

At our garage sale someone had donated a St*r W*rs Early Reader.
He read it 8-10 times a day....so we figured it was a safe investment to buy him a few more.

The 3 new ones arrived in the mail last week -his nose is stuck in one of them all day!

the 24th was Becca's 5th birthday. we kept it fairly low key-having 3 of her cousins over to spend the night.

John's mom sent a big box of gifts -Becca's absolute favorite was her H*nn*h Mont*na jammies.

This past Saturday was crazy busy for us.

It started out with Andrew's first football game of the new season.
If you can click on the pic -you'll see Andrew on the left bending down...and John on the right wearing a "coach" shirt.

The head coach is the dude in the middle. We met him last season -he wasn't the coach but told us he was going to coach this season and we thought he'd be great to put Andrew with.

Before the season even started, he called John and asked if John would be the assistant.

It's going to be quite a bit of work, but John is enjoying it and I think it's great for Andrew to have his daddy on the field with him.

the girls running around before the game

just had to include this -look! she is almost fully bent in 2

After Andrew's game it was home for 2 hours and then off to Rebecca's 2nd soccer game of the season.

She has BEGGED us to let her play soccer~
so we acquiesced for the Spring season cuz it's only 6 games.

the first 2 practices and the first game were more like "social hour" for her. :)
she was enjoying making new friends, skipping around the soccer field....just not really into it.

last week I had a little talk with her and told her that she really need to try hard all the time-that God tells us to do everything unto Him ~that we didn't care if she was the best player out there...just that she needed to hustle all the time. I tried to give her a little pep talk about being aggressive, etc. :)

Saturday -she was a beast on the field!

seriously.

we don't know what happened cuz we fully expected the meek little socialite to show up on the field...but nope-the Becca that showed up played her little heart out

she did everything the coaches asked of her...volunteering to go in even though she was tired....chasing after the ball....showing some skills NONE of us knew she had.

We were so proud of her!!!

and now the coaches are oohing and aahhhing over her too. :)

then straight from Becca's game it was home for the "March Birthday Party".

3 of my sister's kids and Becca are all born within 10 days of each other, so this year we decided to have just 1 big family gathering.

Becca's cake -she LOVES my sister's chihuahua's...so she asked for a chihuahua cake...my mom did the next best thing -a dog bone with a stuffed chihuahua. :)

Curi*ous Ge*rge was for Jeremiah -who has the exact same birthday as Becca -the 24thth.

Julia and Janae shared the berry trifle instead of having separate little cakes.

this pic is kinda cool -not sure why so much light is on Jeremiah -but thought it looked neat

Janae and Julia along with Happyness -the daughter of the refugee living with my sister's family.

and yesterday the kids decided they wanted to give the pool a try. outside, the weather is in the mid-80's...but the pool is still pretty chilly. :)

but they all got in!

we have a fairly busy week this week as I try to finish up "spring cleaning" around here and then I'll start organizing "stuff" for our trip -command central needs to be tidied up!

I CAN'T BELIEVE SHE'S 5!!

where has 5 years gone?!

today our Becca-boo turns 5.

I can't believe it.

She is so petite so it's hard to look at her and say she's a 5 yr old...but she can act so grown-up sometimes we joke that she is going on 16. :)


She is the leader among the 3 kids in the house-but she is SUPER shy and quiet in public.

She has an incredibly tender heart-towards animals, babies, and the elderly.

She is terribly sassy with quite the attitude at times -sadly, she got that from me.

She is going to excel at schooling/academics...sadly not at anything requiring coordination, rhthym, or athleticism. :)

She is goofy and quirky and has a knack for getting us all to laugh and giggle uncontrollably!

Rebecca-

My sweet baby girl. I still can remember nearly every detail on March 24, 2005.
We were so surprised to hear you were a girl ~and so excited at the same time.
I remember looking at you that first night and thinking how perfectly beautiful you were.


I love how tenderhearted you are.

I love how you crave the safety and security of our family~you are a true 'homebody'.

I love that you want to grow up and be a mommy~you sure are going to be a good one!

I love to watch you learn~you are a smart little girl. :)

I love that daddy's nickname for you is "smiley"-because you have a smile that is infectious.


Rebecca -I love you so much.

My prayer for you, as you turn 5, is that you grow to understand more and more the love
that Jesus has for you....and that you will fully understand what it means for Him to be your Savior.

I love you a bushel and a peck, and a hug around your neck.

love-mommy

JUST BECAUSE

pictures from the last few days...just because :)

school time the other day

I was informed it was "princess school". :)

a mommy always has to have her baby close by :)

this is my "command central" right now...I did the same thing when we were anticipating travel for Elizabeth.

the bags on the left are clothing for the kids/young adults at the YWAM Children's Home where Bruk and Eyob have been the last few weeks

the bed is full of things I'm collecting to take with us for us

bins on the floor are now put back away in the garage-this past week I switched out winter for summer clothes in the kids' closets. It's now consistently in the 80's here...bye bye pants and sweaters -hello shorts and flip flops!

how every night ends...John reads stories and then they have prayer time

BACK TO NORMAL!

LOOK!!!
our house and garage are clean again!

we can see the floors!

I've learned beyond a shadow of a doubt -I do not function well in a ton of clutter!

Saturday afternoon, after the sale and after taking all the leftovers to my parents (where my sister will try to have another sale to benefit the gal living with her)...we swept the garage, I vacuum'd the entire house, we tidy'd up a bit....and I felt this HUGE sense of relief.

The sale went well. We were competing with some other sales in the area so that probably diminished our profits...but still, we raised a huge amount of $$ to go towards the family that lived with us and towards donations for Ethiopia.

We are thankful for everyone who helped (my mom & dad especially), who donated, who shopped....but mostly, we're just thankful it's over. :)


now-on to getting ready for our trip to Ethiopia!! :) I've already started putting things in our spare bedroom for us to take on our trip. hehehehe!

HOARDERS?

although our house looks like it should be on a show -we are not hoarders. :)

we are having a HUGE garage sale tomorrow the 13th.

it originally started out as one to help us raise $$ for Ethiopia, but after having the family from Africa stay with us, we are giving them part of the proceeds as well.

Donations have POURED in. My entire front room (a large dining room/living room combo) is completely filled with clothes.

our 3 car garage is full -we can barely walk in it!

Please pray we are able to sell most of it!

PRAISING GOD-SIGHS OF RELIEF

We are praising God for 2 "sighs of relief" today.

1. Just today Ethiopia instituted a new rule for adoptive familes -effective immediately. Both adoptive parents must appear before the judge on the given court date.

Families that have appointments next week will be required to show up or have their date post-poned.

We feel so protected that our case was heard and approved last week...and finalized Monday.



2. We just received the "report" from an appointment Elizabeth had about a month ago.
We spent about an hour having various doctors look at and evaluate her -figuring out when to start her surgeries. Her first surgery will be Jaw Distraction. Her surgeon speculated we may need to start the surgeries (she has at least 8 ahead of her between jaw and ear) this coming Fall.

The report states they want to wait 12 months and then re-evaluate at that point. Mainly, the wait is because she is still so tiny!

Praising God for this delay. I know she needs the surgeries...but we were worried that having surgery so soon after having her brothers come home might be really tough on her.

We are feeling awfully blessed this evening!

CELEBRATING EYOB & BRUK

**just a quick note that I'll be removing the pic of the boys in the previous post. I hate to do it, but rules and guidelines in Ethiopian adoption keep changing. Our agency rep said it was fine to post their pic but the director in charge of their care said it might be better if we waited closer to when they come home. So, out of caution, I'll be removing their pic...but reposting it once we're a tad closer to traveling.

Now-to celebrate our precious boys' official adoption day, the kids and I made a cake yesterday!

it still hasn't sunk in that we have 2 more boys.

things have gone at lightning speed with this adoption and it's just hard for me to wrap my mind around it all!

it took us 2 years from start to finish to have Elizabeth home...if things continue to go at the pace they are, it will be 8.5 months from start to finish with this adoption. CRAZY! in fact, I want to do a post just about God's provision with this adoption...how He has allowed things to go so much faster than "the norm".

HERE THEY ARE!

**3/9/10 -just edited the photo so you can see the smile that captured my heart 4 months ago..i'll have to find a photo of Bruk for me to crop so you can see his precious smile too : ) **

we just received a call from our agency...the adoption has been completely finalized, the boys are legally ours, and she said to "feel free" to post their pic....so I am. :)

here are our handsome boys!!

Eyob is the older one and Bruk is the younger.

Our YWAM director is in Ethiopia right now and will be getting their sizes for us (over the summer Eyob was only 3 inches shorter than me!!) and asking them about their names. If they'd like to keep their Ethiopian names, that is fine with us...if they'd like to have Amercian names, we can do that too. :) Being that they are older, we want them to have a part in that decision.

but for now, they are Eyob and Bruk to us!

WE PASSED!!

just heard from our YWAM director and our case passed court!

the boys are ours.

we have 2 new sons.

for a few reasons we have been asked to hold off on posting their pics here.
(I'm assuming I can't share their names quite yet either...so just be patient!)

I'M SO BUMMED ABOUT THAT!!

I SO want to share my boys with y'all....but just trust me that they're precious. :)

We have been told to prepare for a late April trip to Ethiopia...that's just ~7 weeks away.

YIKES!

please continue to pray for us and them as we all prepare to blend together as a family of 7...and for their family there in Ethiopia as they prepare to say goodbye to these sweet boys.

I'M GOING CRAZY

no news yet.

my stomach is in knots.

it was in knots all day yesterday...ironic since I told a dear friend of mine "oh -I'll be fine" ~guess I was wrong. :)

we're hoping to hear by the end of the day if court actually happened in Ethiopia while we slept...and if it did, did we pass.

of course our computer got a TERRBILE virus last night and John has already spent hours trying to fix it.....we have a letter to send to the boys on that computer and it needs to be sent out TODAY to go with our agency director cuz she's leaving for Ethiopia tomorrow. and of course their pics are on that computer too so I can't post them if we do pass court! UGH!!!

hoping I can update soon!!

MOVING DAY

I sadly have no pictures!! We were in such a hurry to get everything loaded up I totally forgot to take any.

John, my dad, a good friend of ours, and the African family are, as I type, on the way up to their new apartment to get moved in.

We had a few friends come on their lunch hour (isn't that awesome?!) to help us load up 2 trucks, a trailer, and a car full of stuff to be moved (we're certain it ALL won't fit so some will be coming back here for us to sell at a garage sale!).

We are so grateful for our friends, both here in our hometown AND those of you that are elsewhere-for their help, their support, their donations, and their prayers!

Tonight the mom and the 3 littles will spend the night at their new place while the dad and the 2 oldest will stay here. The mom wants to have all the time she can to put things away and the dad needs to get one really good night's sleep. :)

The next few days will consist of cleaning, putting things back to their "normal" place and hopefully celebrating our boys passing court!!

If they do -you can bet your bippy you'll be seeing their precious faces posted immediately here!!