New pictures!

Our adoption agency program director travelled to Ethiopia last week and took some new pictures for us.

We are close to having travel dates set. We have airline tickets on hold but are waiting for firm confirmation of our embassy appointment. Of course, if we do not have a firm confirmation by the end of the week we are going to have to book the tickets anyway. Luckily, adoption fair tickets can be changed and are refundable.

Well here are the pictures:

We are officially PARENTS!!!!!!

Well today is turning out to be one of the best days of our lives. At 11:35 am this morning we got the call that we passed through court today!!! So we are officially parents of Sofie and Sam! I will post some pictures. We have been waiting for so long to be able to do this.

4 days until our court date and a lot to be thankful for!!

We are truly starting to get excited around here. Our court date is only four days and while we know that we may not pass on the first time it is still a huge milestone in the process. The outpouring of love and support from our family and friends has continued to be absolutely overwhelming. I will be posting a lot of pictures below but have not perfected posting pictures with captions on blogger so I will describe he pictures here. Some of the first photos our from our most recent meal at Blue Nile Ethiopian Restaurant in Ferndale. As you can see our family has been amazing in supporting us through this process and learning all that they can about our children's culture and heritage.

Then there are photos of our shower that Colleen's sister held for us with the help of our cousin's. I can not even begin to think about this shower without beginning to cry. The care and love that was put into this event was amazing and beyond anything I could have ever imagined. Maureen has spent so much time to learn where our children have come from and then passed that knowledge, passion and love on to the rest of our family in a way that we never could. She has provided more of a gift than she will ever know. Her efforts and love will help with Sofanit's and Samson's transition into this incredible family. We will never be able to thank everyone who was involved in the planning and attended (especially those that suprised us by traveling from as far away as Florida) this event enough for their amazing generosity, support and love!!

Finally there are some pictures of Samson's room which is now complete. If you haven't noticed from the pictures of Sofanit's room in previous postings, Colleen is an amazing artist!! It is rare that I get to see these paintings before they are complete but when I see their beginnings and then get to witness the detail of the final product, I am always blown away. I don't know how she does it because I couldn't draw a stick figure without someone making fun of it, but I wish she was not so shy with her talents because she never ceases to amaze me.

Venting!!!

Today was a bad day in our journey. We found out that the ringworm infection on Samson's scalp has resurfaced. Upon reading the medical report we realized that they had taken him off his medication two weeks early.... of coarse we are only now finding this out 5 weeks after he was taken off the medicine prematurely. I can not tell you how frustrating this is because all you have to do is type in the name of the medicine in google, and all you find are warnings about taking all of a prescription because the fungus appears to be cleared up before it is actually completely cleared up. We are absolutely beside ourselves. I can not tell you how horrible it feels to have your child suffering half a world away while you are so helpless to do anything to make him feel better or oversee his care.

At least we have a guardian angel. One of the other adoptive parents is a doctor and is getting more medicine to send over with our agency........Thank you!!!! All we can do is hope it is administered properly this time. Please pray for our son as even though ringworm sounds like no big deal, it is a much different story when it is on the scalp and it can lead to other infections beyond just the itchy soars and bald spots. At this point all that gives us some peace, is that Sofie is there to comfort him.

Two More Weeks Until Our Court Date!

We are two weeks from our court date and we are full of anticipation! We have finished Sofanit's room and are putting the finishing touches on Samson's room now. Here are some pictures of Sofanit's room.

We are looking forward to another get together with the families in our area who have adopted or are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia. We are hoping that the next few weeks will fly by as we have very full schedules.

1 month to go until they are ours!!!

Well, here we are. Our court date is one month from today. I wish I could say the wait has been easy and time is flying by, but it hasn't been. This has been the most difficult waiting of the process yet. I know... this is what everyone says and it is hard to believe while you are waiting for a referral, but it is excruciatingly painful. Sure, we have a lot to do to make sure that our home is prepared for these children, but it is hard not to look at the pictures and videos everyday and wonder if our children are being well cared for, if our son is over his infection, and if our daughter is beginning to think that we aren't coming after all.

For now, we try to keep ourselves as busy as possible. We are making the final preparations in our home and we pray constantly that our children are safe, well cared for and know that they are loved more than they could ever imagine by their family that they have not even met yet.

We are celebrating!!!!!!

Today was a wonderful day!!!! Not only did we get our court date but it was also Sofanit's 10th birthday. Our court date is November 24th so we are still hopeful that we get to travel this year. Luckily I checked my email right before we left for dinner with friends who are also adopting from Ethiopia. I had a feeling about today and checked my phone constantly but had not been able to check my email all day. It turned out that we had a lot to celebrate!!!

It really made us feel good to get this news on the day we chose for Sofanit's birthday. That is a story in itself. In Ethiopia, a birthday is not important like it is here. Sofanit's birthday was unknown and we had to choose it. We chose October 10th as her birthday a couple of weeks ago before the courts opened up and now it turns out that we received our court date on her birthday. This adds a lot of significance to the date we chose and in the future it will always be a wonderful celebration. We had felt a little weird about picking a birthday and waited until the last minute possible to give our agency a date. Today it just feels perfect!!!