Time Until We Board...

Kevin is very excited about this trip - he has a permanent time ticker on our desktop that is currently counting down the hours until we leave. Right now it says 96 hours and 55 minutes. Yep, that's right - we are under the 100 hour mark people! I am currently packing and doing laundry (had slight scare yesterday when washer was acting up!) and trying to figure out what else needs taking care of.

Here is Micah's pile (which has since been moved to Micah's bag) -

Yeah - I think it's obvious that I have a thing for stripes. I really didn't know this until I looked at this picture. Scary. Hope Micah likes to sport the stripes because it looks like he won't have much choice.

Since the bags are out and packing has commenced, the dogs are pouting a little bit and not helping at all with the packing-



They don't know it yet, but their Uncle Rob is watching them while we're gone, so they won't have to leave the house and we know our home is being taken care of. He is going to take them to the doggie hotel the day we get home so we can have a few days to readjust before introducing Micah to the entire family. :)

Back to packing...

P.S. GREAT NEWS! Kevin just called and he got a promotion at work!! YAY KEVIN!! I'm so proud of him - he works so hard and he really wanted this promotion - he deserves it! :)

Reality Check & Futbols

So today was my last day at work for a while. I left work (I was there by myself - everyone else was either on vacation, sick or had left early) and I just felt like 'now it's really happening'. Which, of course it is really happening! I don't know how to explain it, but I guess I've been waiting a long time to take leave from work - I always thought about how that time would be - and here I am actually doing it. I'm going to be a mom, and I'm going to be hanging out with my son all day. That thought hit me and I could not stop smiling. This all might not make sense, but it's good. :)

Also, today I went to the local soccer store to see about buying some soccer balls to take with us to Ethiopia. I think the kids at the House of Hope and the orphanage we'll be visiting would love to have some new futbols to play with, and we're soccer fans, so it will be fun to share that with them. I told the guy why I wanted them and he told me that he was going to Africa with school. I asked which country and he didn't know!! SO funny! Anyway... the point of this is to say that he went in back and talked to team sales and got me a great deal on the soccer balls. Now I just have to get them to fit in the suitcase. (Oh, they are not inflated yet in case anyone is wondering if I'm crazy.)

Cute Referral

Okay, I just had to share this because it is funny - This family just got their referral - go take a look! :)

Cute Onesies

So we were thinking we needed some more onesies for Micah and I found this site, the trendy tadpole with super-cute ideas for onesies (snapsuits) and laptees. I'm still not sure which ones I want to get, but these are my favorite so far...

Any other Entourage fans out there? I think this is so funny.

This one is extra special b/c some of the proceeds go to benefit animals.

Cute and socially concious!

This one is just cute. And, obviously, I would get it in blue. :)

Okay, so Micah probably does not yet love Johnny Cash. But, still, very cute (again in blue!)

So, I'm torn. They also have a mommy tattoo and a daddy tattoo design - which are both very cute. I was going to go for that but my good friend Keri sent me a mommy tattoo t-shirt (thanks Keri!), so now I'm back to deciding. What's that? Get them all? What a great idea! :)

Celebrate!

We are so lucky to have such good friends and family!

On Friday some of our friends (even Chryssi & John who are patiently waiting for baby Jack to decide it's time for his birthday!) braved the idea of eating without utensils and had dinner with us at the Ehiopian restaurant...

Luckily, everyone loved it! They all told Kevin he needs to learn how to make injera. The crowd favorite was the avocado and tomato wrapped in injera.

My brother Ryan and his girlfriend Danielle joined us for the yummy food. They brought us two cutie outfits from Gymboree - so soft and comfy for Micah!

Kevin loves injera!

This is one of my college roommates Jim (our other roommate was there too - she took the group picture). I love that he was a part of our celebration. :)

My family also had a shower for me today that was so much fun! Of course, I forgot my camera, but I was promised pics from those with cameras, so I'll post some as soon as I get them. The lowdown - we got both of our carseats, the umbrella stroller I've been dreaming of :), our cute little wagon for Micah, lamps and great stuff for his room, his pack n play, a cute hand-made quilt, and some other great stuff - diapers, cute clothes, towels- all the necessities.

Thanks to everyone for a great weekend! Now I really have to get to work - tomorrow night we are making lists of what we need to pack and what needs to be done before we leave. Any advice? (HELP! :)

TRAVEL DATE!

This has been an exciting week. Our friends got their referral, then we passed through court, and now... we have a travel date! And, it is in 2 weeks!! We are planning to leave August 4th. Our embassy date is August 8th. My head is swimming with things to be done, not to mention the extreme excitement level of seeing our little baby boy for the first time!!

I'm so excited - that's all I can say. And, I have a lot to do. :) Tonight - we're off to the Ethiopian restaurant with a few friends to celebrate. And then tomorrow I'll get to work!

Oh, and if you want to see some more pictures from our referral day - go to the CHI Blog. I love the one of our social worker, Erin, and our Program Director, Sharon, seeing Micah Yabsira for the first time - it is priceless. (I think that is what the first pic is - I could be wrong, but it's a great picture anyway :)

It's Official!!

That's right - we passed through court today!! Micah Yabsira is now officially our son!!

Thank you all so much for your prayers and good wishes -it means the world to us to have so much support for us and so much love being sent to OUR SON!! :)

And, here he is....

This is his referral photo - We think he is around 2 1/2 months old here.

I was going to wait to post them all, but I can't! So here they are -

We think he is just over 3 months old in these pictures. And, he's smiling!!

And, he loves his puppy! Cutie!!

Baby Shower - Blessing Way Beads

Okay, so I promised to post a bit about the baby shower. Our friends threw us a couple's shower, so it was a lot of fun - it was nice to share the experience with Kevin.
That's us laughing as we opened the presents. If I'm not mistaken, this is as we were getting ready to open our third high chair! :) We loved everything we received and were so grateful to have all of our friends and family surrounding us. We wished Mimi, Grandma & Grandpa D, and all of his out of town aunts and uncles could have been there, but they will all be here to visit after Micah comes home, so that will be fun. We did have Kevin's sister Becky and her little one Mason in town for the weekend, and it was great having them here! And Chrissy, along with all of my other friends (you know who you are :) made sure that our baby shower was very special - there were Ethiopian colors all around (with red table cloths, a green outdoor tent and bright yellow sunflowers - how cute!).

Before I blabble on about stuff, I want to get to the blessing ceremony and the blessing way beads. This was my sister's contribution to the shower. She lives out on the west coast and is getting married in 1 month, so she couldn't make it, but she asked that they do a blessing ceremony at our shower. On each invitation, everyone was asked to bring a bead to the shower. Then I opened my sister's card which explained the blessing way ceremony as "a West African tradition to show new parents their support." So, basically, everyone had a bead and as a string was passed around, each person added their bead to it with a blessing. Some of the beads had meanings and others were just beautiful... here is what it looked like and I'll explain some of the beads...

The first three are from my sister - the elephant, is to wish Micah a life full of happiness, smiles and laughter, the second, the Ethiopian cross is for protection on our journey, and the third, the rose quartz, signifies unconditional love, and then my sister wrote this (which I read out loud, while crying!):

"Sometimes families must endure unbearable means to find each other. We know you two have had to endure this and yet you never stopped believing in your family. And we, your friends and family, have never stopped believing in you. Your trust and love is truly beautiful. May this trust and love cocoon you two and Micah and be the guiding force in your lifetime together."

Yes, there were certainly a lot of happy tears... a lot. :)

All of the other beads have some meaning, one is for protection, many are African beads, there are some that are black & white beads from our friends who also have a trans-racial family - to signify that we are all together and beautiful in our way. There is also a triangle - each point representing one of us - Kevin, Micah and me. There is also a buckeye - Kevin is from Columbus, Ohio (home of the Buckeyes) and a tiny football from his brother and sister and their families. There is also Micah's name spelled out in those little white beads. I didn't know the significance of this until, at the end of the blessing ceremony, Kevin's sister Becky gave us the beads from his mom - it was the tiny bracelet that the nuns had made for Kevin when he was born...

Well, that set me off into sobs again - it was so tiny and beautiful! I felt so moved that his mom chose to give that to us. We might add it to the blessing beads or we might keep it separate for Micah to have someday when he has his own children. :) Needless to say, we felt very, very blessed after the whole thing. We are lucky to have such wonderful friends and family!

Okay, I'm finished. Oh, and please say prayers for our court date - which is happening very soon!! Hopefully tomorrow I can post pictures of little Micah Yabsira for you all to see!!

Court Date - TONIGHT!

First things first, I want to send out a big, happy CONGRATULATIONS to Jenni & Jim - they received their referral yesterday of a 3 month old baby boy! We all met at a CHI function and our dossiers left for Ethiopia within one week of each other, so Jenni & I have been emailing ever since and have become good friends. I feel blessed that we have a friendship with a family whose son may be coming from the same orphanage as ours (I don't know this for sure - I'm guessing - she can't share any information yet) and will probaby (hopefully) be at the transition home together. And, Kevin and I are just SO happy for them - they are CHI's third family to receive a referral. Congratulations!!

Okay - now onto this court date business! We are very excited about our court date tomorrow, but I'm also a little bit nervous. (I think that's probably normal right? Please tell me it is. :) Sharon (our Program Director) has made me feel much better about everything by keeping me informed about how it will all proceed and what has led up to this day, so that helps! Anyway, b/c of the time difference, our case will probably be heard as we sleep tonight (if we sleep tonight :) SO, please say prayers that we pass through court this first time around! We are ready to bring our son home!!

Oh, and we had our first baby shower this past weekend - I will try to post about it tonight! (I know - twice in one day is crazy! :)

Rambling Thoughts

As we get ready for our first baby shower this weekend and are anticipating our court date next week, I am continually thinking of our son's birthmother. My prayer each night is that she finds peace in the thought that her son is going to be loved, well actually he already is loved so much. (I can't tell you how many friends tell me "I love him already.") It is hard for me to imagine what she might be going through - does she think of him all the time? I would think so. Will the thought of her son going to the US make her happy? I'm not sure. Will she want to meet us? I pray for that each night. I know that she may choose not to, and I will be grateful that at least we have a small bit of information about her - many adoptive parents do not have a single bit of information to give their children.
I'm rambling, but these thoughts go through my head each night - I think of him and wonder what he's doing, if he's being loved by the nannies at the orphanage (I believe in my heart he is), if he's hungry, or being fed at that moment, or is he still sleeping. And then I think of his birthmom and wonder if she's okay, and does she have the same thoughts as I do? Does she wonder about him each night too? It is amazing to feel a connection to her - that we both may be sending our love to the same baby. You know that saying that a mother forever walks around with her heart outside of her body (meaning with her child)- well, I tend to believe that Micah Yabsira has two women who feel that way.

CHI Blog & New Pics

In case you're looking for something interesting to read about Ethiopia, there is a a link to a mini journal at the Children's Hope blog. The link is at the end of the post and it chronicles some of Toni's days during her mission trip in Addis Ababa. The stories of the people she encountered are very moving and the pictures are beautiful. Just thought I'd share!

Also, we got two new pictures of Micah yesterday! I'm not allowed to post them still (pray for a successful court date next week and we'll be able to share them!) and I'm not allowed to email them anymore either. I believe Ethiopia's laws are getting tighter to protect the children. Anyway, he is smiling in one (SO CUTE!!!) and in the other he is laying stretched out with a stuffed puppy. So, we are convinced that he is already a dog lover! :) Our little cutie! I can't wait to go get him! And, I can't wait to share the pictures!

Also, there is good news for CHI - they had their second referral (a sibling group) and there is word that more are on the way! :) Yay!!!

Polka Dots

Well, the the polka dots are finished! It was surprisingly easy - I got it done in about an hour! This is a corner of the room-

This is Kevin painting a dot - but don't let this picture fool you - I took over the dot painting. :) We painted them with a stencil sponge thingy - you're supposed to use it to fill in stencils, but it was a circle, so it worked perfectly.

We also picked up our furniture today! Kevin is definitely nesting - he put it together tonight:

And then I had to put the bedding on it immediately. Disclaimer: I have not washed or ironed the bedding yet - so it is a bit wrinkly. :) And, I can't figure out the bumper, so it is just kind of sitting in there.
This is Olive, wondering why we kept standing in this room and saying, "Wow, this is weird." (A good, wonderful weird, mind you!)

Suddenly, it is all becoming more real!!

Traveling Family

Sarah from Finding Baby G is off to Ethiopia tomorrow to finally meet Baby G! I'm so excited for her! Please say prayers for a safe trip for her and her family!!

Holidays

We spent the 4th of July this year with our friends and we had a great time. On Tuesday we went to a little town (well, probably more like a suburb, but I like the sound of little town) that has a carnival with rides and games and then fireworks. We went with all the couples who live near us, so we had 13 kids with us as usual. I rode the carousel with George (2 1/2) and watched Mitch (9 1/2) win the biggest orange monkey I've ever seen by throwing a dart at a balloon. The fireworks were great and even the babies loved them. Chuck (1) was clapping so fast when they first started it was adorable.

Anyway, it got me thinking about all of the things I can't wait to do with Micah. We were talking about how he'd be home for our local town's carnival with fireworks in the fall. We've gone for the past three years and we usually end up helping with everyone else's kids. It will be so amazing to have our own little one there. Then I started thinking about Halloween - my favorite holiday! We've already started planning his costume - we're thinking of doing a theme with Chuck and George. (Maybe Charlie Brown and the gang- that is how Chuck got his nickname, so he would be the perfect Charlie Brown.)

I can't wait to have Micah be a part of all of our traditions with our friends and family. Over the holiday, all of our friends kept mentioning how there would soon be one more child to add and it warmed my heart every time.

I know it's a bit early for this, but you know I love pictures, so here are some pics of our friend's kids from Halloween last year. We always carve pumpkins together and then we all sit at one house on Halloween - the moms (and me) stay and pass out candy while the dads (and Kevin) take the kids around the neighborhood. (This year we will be mom & dad too!)

George in his baby brother's ghost hat. (He is so darn cute!)

Mitch & Mitch's Sister (she needs a new nickname!) with all of our pumpkin masterpieces.

COURT DATE!

We have a court date!!

I can't believe it, but we already have our court date! It is scheduled for July 18th. That's in 2 weeks! Our agency thinks that, if all goes well, we'll be leaving for Addis by either July 28th or August 4th, but we have to wait and see. Kevin is in overdrive researching plane tickets and finishing painting, and I'm busy researching pediatricians and changing our vaccination appointments. I think the next few weeks are going to be very busy!

Also, Micah will be moved to the House of Hope this week. That is our agency's transition home - it has guest rooms and we have been invited to stay there, which we are so happy about- it sounds very nice and comfortable. And, we might even get new pictures this week (or early next week). So, if we have a successful court date on July 18th, I will be able to share them finally! :)

Off to watch some fireworks tonight! Happy4th!