Roadblock

We are home.
We had the most amazing 7 days in Ethiopia.
We spent precious time with our two loving and beautiful children.
We traveled the land of Ethiopia.

Our trip was not without roadblocks.

We traveled to attend a Court Hearing for the adoption of our kids. We appeared before the Judge to confirm that we have met our children, that we desire to adopt our children, and that we will care for these children while keeping them immersed in their Ethiopian heritage. Unfortunately we did not pass court. Our part is complete, but the necessary letter of approval from the Ministry of Women's Affairs (MOWA) was not present at our court hearing. We cannot pass court without this letter. MOWA is causing a lot of adoption delays due to major under-staffing (1 person attempting the work of 6). On our Court Date, 48 MOWA letters were missing for prospective adoptive families. We have been assigned a new court date - February 7th - while we do not need to be present at this date, we pray our MOWA letter is. As soon as our letter arrives at Court, the adoption will be ruled complete in Ethiopia. Then we wait for birth certificates and passports to be issued and submit our case to the US Embassy to apply for Visas. This typically takes 4-10 weeks, then we will travel again.

We can't wait to return to Ethiopia.
We can't wait to bring our children home.

We ask for your prayers to overcome this temporary adoption roadblock and for the papers needed to be swiftly completed. We are believing God to bring our children home. We pray this happens soon.

*As soon as we pass court, we can share pictures of our beautiful children!!!

FYI - Ethiopian Adoptions require TWO trips.
Even if we had passed court this first time, we wouldn't have been able to bring our kids home until the second trip.

And We're Off!

We pray for a successful court hearing and look forward to sharing pictures upon our return.

Awesome

How cool is this?

We are humbled and amazed by the generosity of so many.

Thanks to your help, we have filled six bins!!!
We are so excited to be able to deliver three bins of donations to Layla House NEXT WEEK!
When we return to pick up our children, we will deliver the next three bins.

With your help, we will be able to bless the orphans at Layla with
shoes, clothes, diapers, diaper cream, diaper covers, spoons, art supplies, and hair accessories.
We will also be delivering a large box of textbooks.

THANK YOU!

Big Cars

Our vehicles changes have paralleled our life changes. (We seem to outgrow vehicles very quickly!) In our combined 29 years of driving, we have driven 10 different cars (pre-owned). We both drove sibling-shared cars in high school, and acquired "dream cars" in college. With our first child, Amy traded her beloved beetle for a practical, car-seat friendly station wagon and Mike traded his bench-seat pick-up for a sedan. Thus entering the world of the family car. Since then, we've had to up-size with family additions. Now as a family of 9-to-be, Amy is set in a 15-passenger (or 11-passenger with cargo space) . . . and as of last week, Mike is set with a new (old) 7-passenger crossover. This allows us to more evenly distribute kids for sports games and gives Mike the opportunity to cart around his 5 boys (or take two princesses on a Daddy date!).

So, we are officially "Big Car" owners. We no longer have a "sexy car" for our infrequent date nights. We no longer have small, easy to park vehicles. We no longer have a fun manual transmission to drive. We no longer have sporty cars with awesome gas mileage (but if you figure it per person, we're doing pretty good).
We have two family cars - and that's how we like it! We are very blessed.

AMY: Camry to Bug to Wagon to MiniVan to BIG VAN

MIKE: Prism to Pick-Up to Jetta to Accord to Crossover

THREE

Happy Birthday Maegli!

"I know, it's my Birthday!"

Our pretty girl:
. an opinionated dresser . keeps up with the boys . loves to color .
. helps Mommy in the kitchen . pushes her baby in the stroller . serves fancy tea .
. chooses her own hair accessories and necklaces . wears a dress daily (she's a ballerina!) .
. likes to dance . very attached to "sheep" . loves PINK .
. very good at making herself heard . play-doh is a favorite .
. likes to decorate herself in stickers . wants to do "school" with the big boys .
. enjoys sleepovers in the "boys room" . sings . wants to do things by herself .
. is very stubborn . can't wait to have a sister .
. has a precious giggle . is SUPER CUTE .

We love you, baby girl!

Forever

For a long time, we have been talking with the kids about Mommy and Daddy's upcoming trip to Ethiopia. We are all so excited. But, today I realized that we had neglected to explain clearly to the little ones that their new brother and sister will not be coming home after this trip . . .
Mommy and Daddy get to visit them on this first trip, they will come home after the second trip.
Sweet kids were expecting their brother and sister home in two weeks - oops!

"But I thought you said we could keep them forever! They're supposed to be our family forever and that's so special." Burke

"I want ___ and ____ home now! I really like them a lot." Davis


We all really like they a lot. We will be a family forever. They will come home. We all want them to come home now. God has a plan for this. We can pray for them to come home soon.

We are ready!

They found it hilarious that Kolpin crawled out of the picture!

A Pink Room

We had a room change in our home.
Our small nursery was turned into a very girly, pretty pink room - perfect for two little girls.

Kolpin was bumped out and moved to an alcove in the hallway.
(Actually, it works really well as the "new nursery")

The "big boys" room is ready with 4 twin beds.

Our 3-bedroom House is ready for 7 kids . . . now we just need to bring our two home!
(Praying hard it will be in February!)

Snow Day!

We have snow!
Our 3-inches is a very big deal.

In celebration of our Wintery Wonderland, Young Lives Academy took a "snow day".

Popcorn for breakfast.
1-1/2 hours in the snow.
. sled riding . snow ball fight . snow angels .
(this year, the kids LOVED playing in the snow!)
Large batch of snow ice cream.
Pizzas and hot cocoa for lunch.

It's a good day!

I love snow days!

4

Happy Birthday Burke!


Today, he only wanted to be called "Birthday Boy", or "Buzz Lightyear".

When asked how old he is, Burke holds up four fingers and says "this many!"

Orphanage Donations

While in Ethiopia, we will be taking donations to Layla House orphanage. We can travel with three large bins each trip - we have an opportunity to fill six bins for the orphanage! We would love for you to be involved and would appreciate your help collecting donations.


Layla House is home to 130 orphans - ages newborn to 15-years-old.

The current needs list at Layla House:

Baby Items:
plastic baby spoons, plastic diaper covers, burp cloths and bibs,
A&D ointment, disposable diapers

Arts and Crafts:
pencil sharpeners, stickers, Elmers glue, glue sticks, pre-made craft kits,
construction paper, pens

Clothing:
4-8 year-old sized pants and shoes are most needed,
any new or very gently used would be appreciated (please no shorts)

Personal:
hair bands, hair ties, nail clippers, tooth paste, sanitary pads

If you are local and would like to gather donations for Layla House in Ethiopia, we would appreciate your help. If you are in the Cincinnati area, we'd love you to be involved too!
*We will need all donated items (for the first trip) before January 19th!

Help us fill SIX bins!

A New Year

We are so excited for what is to come this year . . .

We are traveling to ETHIOPIA!

Amy and Mike will spend a full week in Ethiopia later this month. We are looking forward to loving on our children, spending time at the orphanage, eating wonderful food, getting to know fellow adoptive families during our stay at the guest house, exploring Addis Ababa, and traveling around Ethiopia. We are praying for a successful Court Hearing during our visit.
We anticipate a wonderful trip, just the two of us!


Ethiopia Trip #2 . . . Our Kids will Join our family!

Shorty after our trip, we will return to Ethiopia to take custody of our children and bring them home! In the past, the Embassy Appointment (to obtain the visa necessary for children to enter USA) occurred about 4 weeks after the successful Court Hearing. Recent adoptive families have experienced several delays due to new Embassy requirements - delaying their trip 1-3 months. We are believing God for a speedy Embassy appointment. We pray we will bring our kids home in February or March.

In 2011, we'll be a family of NINE!



We've been busy working out arrangements for our 5 staying home, confirming guest house accommodations, planning our travel itinerary, making gifts for our children, gathering fun things to take for kids at Layla House (kazoos and bubbles!), and collecting donations* for the orphanage. We'll need to start packing soon!

*You can be involved with our trips to Ethiopia - we are planning to take several bins of donations to the orphanage with each trip. We are collecting clothes, art supplies, and diapers - let us know if you'd like to send donations with us!

Boys and Girls

We are constantly amazed at the inherent differences between boys and girls.

Our boys are very physical, rough-and-tumble, builders and destroyers . . .
while our little girl seems so delicate and loves PINK, pretty skirts, dancing, dolls, and coloring.

There is a HUGE difference!

This Christmas, Maegli's cherished gifts: her pink tutu, babydoll stroller and new baby doll (she named "Clara" after the Nutcracker). . . the boys current favorite toys: their Nerf dart shooters!

There is a HUGE difference!

Birthday

This is our season of Birthdays:
Jesus' Birthday, Daddy's Birthday, Burke's Birthday, Maegli's Birthday, Hendrick's Birthday
- all in 6 weeks.
We are so blessed! (And we get to eat a lot of cake!).

Falling just after Christmas, it might be easy to overlook Mike's Birthday . . .
Mike is deserving of celebration!
We are so fortunate to have Mike as leader, husband, daddy, friend, playmate, teacher, support. He is my love. I am thankful for him each and every day.

This year for his Birthday, we fulfilled his requests:
pizza dinner, cookie cake, leading school with his boys,
taking Hendrick to see Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and a date with his wife
- it was a two-day Birthday celebration . . . he deserves more!

We love you!
(We are so lucky to have you!)

The Holidays

We had a wonderful TWO weeks of celebrating Christmas and New Years (and Mike's Birthday!). It's all been very exciting - new toys, lots of sweet treats, and house guests! Since we didn't travel to see family this Christmas (saving our travel fro Ethiopia), we are very thankful to have family come to see us!

Gramma, Great Grandma Vee and Aunt Linda (Amy's family) spent a few days with our family after Christmas. We stayed busy in the kitchen, visited Abyssinia and the Childrens Museum in Memphis, had a "second Christmas", and celebrated Mike's Birthday.
Soon after their departure we welcomed Grandpa and Uncle Matt (Mike's family) for the New Years weekend. We took a second Memphis trip to visit the Zoo and Abyssinia, enjoyed dinners out, worked on house projects, and had a "third Christmas" early Birthday celebrations for Burke and Maegli.
It was wonderful to be with family.

The kids are still full of beans after all of the Holiday excitement and special guests. We probably won't calm down anytime soon - this is a very exciting time for our household.
Now we move on to the next big things: Burke's Birthday, Maegli's Birthday and our trip to ETHIOPIA!!!!