A Poem & An Update

Last night as Matt and I were getting ready to settle down for the evening  when Aubrey 8yrs old approached us with a gift. I knew she was working on something because she had asked that we not come into her bedroom. She handed a self made envelope to us and inside was a poem that she wrote for us for baby Aiden.

Here it is...

I'm Safe In Your Arms

I wish I was safe in your arms
Your warm loving sweet caring arms.
I'm waiting to see you and waiting to be held.
I'm so far away and want to be with you so you can protect me.
It is taking too long. I need you to come get me and hold me
Safe in your arms.

Then today we received an update on Aiden. We were given 3 new photos and one of them he is smiling. This was the first we had ever seen him smile. I was so curious to what his smile would look like, and wow let me tell you how beautiful he is. He has the brightest smile and the longest eye lashes. This is what we were told:

Congratulations on your court date!!!  You have a sweet baby boy!!!  I got to spend some time with him.  He was wide awake and would just smile at me when I would talk to him.  He has the longest eye lashes I have ever seen!  I was in love and he melted my heart!!!  He seemed to be such a sweet natured little guy.  I just wanted to squeeze him.  I did love on him and told him his family is coming soon!   You take care and have a wonderful Sunday!  Check out that big smile on the 1st picture:)!

These updates are so very special. It gives you a boost to push through especially during rough times. Although we have a court date of June 4th we are still unsure if we'll pass due to the delay right now. We keep praying that everything will be resolved in the next week or so. Our court date is 11 days away! Keep praying people! We need all the prayers we can get to get this delay resolved and pass court so we can go bring this beautiful boy home!!

Happy Memorial Day!

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Just a little fun to make the time go by...

The kids said Matt and I were acting like big ugly trolls lately and that we needed to get away and play a bit. I don't know what would ever give them that idea.

So this past weekend we took the kiddos to a water park for a little fun. We had a blast. I can say that Matt and I try to keep up with the kids and play just as hard as they do. It was so nice to take a break to just play with the kids like kids. This is something we love to do. I thought I would be able to get the adoption off of my mind for a little bit, but it never left me. Everywhere we went or everything we did I was constantly thinking of our little boy so far away. I was wondering if he would like the water or if it would scare him at first.

Anyway here are some pictures of us playing:

This is what happens when you let your 9 year old daughter pack for herself.

She did remember her swim suit!

Sorry, somehow the photo of me in my suit didn't get loaded onto the blog. HUM?

Matt showing the kids that he's still a kid.

It's all fun and games until someone slices their foot open !

Then the fun is over!

Until you find the arcade, then somehow you forget about the pain.

Did someone say ski ball? I love this game!

So do the kids!

Matt playing "Deal or NO Deal" I think he lost.

Matt practicing for our plane trip to Ethiopia!

Getting a bit WILD!

Shower me with donations

This past Saturday we had a shower for donations to take with us to Addis Ababa when we go to bring our little guy home. I had sent out 65 invitations and we counted

55 people so our turn out was awesome.

Our Invites read:

To all the women we may know
For all the women’s children we may never know.

...but of course we invited boys and men too even though it was mostly women.

I thought it would be fitting to have it the day before Mother's Day.

We had the Starfish Theme with the Starfish story printed out at each table seating. Aubrey and Johnathan helped with the decorating and Matt and I were busy getting the food prepared for the brunch and refreshments. Here's a photo of a table we had near the donation table.

It had a photo of our little one we are waiting so patiently for, a photo of
Hannah's Hope along with a poem.

Everyone loved the set up. We also had a slide show of photos of Ethiopia and orphanages in Ethiopia along with Hannah's Hope. It was great to show everyone where all of these wonderful donations were going.

This was the table filled with the donations.

Soon turned into this.

Luckily this room in our basement isn't used much and is a great place for all of these donations. The futon that these items are on is laying down just to give you an idea. People kept asking how we were going to take all of it over to Ethiopia and we kept saying we would find a way to do it. We have about a forth already on it's way over. I am truly amazed on what can be accomplished when each person gives a little and the outcome is so great. I had wished I had taken more pictures but honestly I was way too busy haveing fun and talking to everyone. It was like it all went by way too fast. Later that evening we took the packages home and each took a turn opening them to see what kind of donations we got. It was like Christmas all over again and the kids had a blast going through it all and commenting on how much of an impact it would have on the orphans. We then organized it into sections per item. I find myself going down to the room just to look at all the wonderful stuff and think about sending it to other adopting families so they can take it with them.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

WE HAVE A COURT DATE!

We finally have a court date of June 4th. We received it yesterday on our baby boys 3 month Birthday.

Happy Birthday Baby Boy!

It has been a long time coming. I haven't posted for a while because honestly we were going through some turbulence with this wonderful adoption.

As we were awaiting a court date last week we were given some upsetting news that our adoption was placed on hold due to some issues with the Ethiopian government and abandonment cases and we were told that we may not get a court date until this next fall. The government has placed a hold on some adoptions while they do some investigating. I won't go into a lot of details but this is some scary stuff and we need prayers. As a surprise to us we received a call yesterday from our case worker telling us that we now have a court date of June 4th. We are not sure if this day can be kept or if the government officials in Ethiopia will figure everything out prior to that date. For now we are excited and hopeful. If we pass on June 4th we could be traveling 2 -4 weeks after that. I am in hopes for our baby boy to be in our arms on my Birthday June 15th or even for Father's Day.
In the midst of all of this we received an update from someone that has recently come back with their little one. I am so happy to be given some news that "A" is so cute and looks great along with some photos of him chilling in the sun. I just want him home with his family now so we can hold him and love him.