UPDATES are here!!!!

We have good news and not so good news...... Updates of our daughter came, and new pictures (soon we sould be able to share them) she's such a smiler :)! and her hair is growing alittle. She has gained weight, probably because they eat all carbs ( pasta, rice, macaroni and enjera bread). She is learnig to trace letters and numbers, and has memorized some of the alphabet. She plays with dolls and likes to hug and give kisses:) We asked how she feels about being adopted and this was her answer; She is excited, she asks when her family is coming. I lost it there. It's been quite a journey and still isn't over. There are still hurdles.....but we're going to make it! With God beside us we are going to bring our little girl home!

Now for the not so good news ( a hurdle). They had her retested for Hep.B, because of the postive then negative, and she tested "positive". She is definetly our daughter so now it's "What next". What do we need to do?..... Well we took labs to the Dr. here to get recommendations and we will have to amend our home study AGIAN....It will need to say special needs. She is our daughter, no matter how God had to get her to us. You see she would have never been referred to us if her Hep.B wouldn't have come back negative. Our home study said "healthy", so they couldn't have referred her to us because she is considered special needs. But God got her to us, because He has had her for us along. So we'll take this hurdle one at a time with God's help. We would appericate prayer to heal her little body and strength to do what needs to be done. Blessings until next time.

Little travellers

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WHY ETHIOPIA...Looking through the eyes of Jesus.....

Why Adopt From Ethiopia?
• 44% of the population of Ethiopia is under 15 years old
• 60% of children in Ethiopia are stunted because of malnutrition
• Coffee prices (Ethiopia’s only major export) fell 40-60% from 1998-2002.
• Drought struck the country from 2000-2002 (first year no crops, second year no seeds, third year no animals)
• Ethiopia’s doctor to children ratio is 1 to 24,000.
• Half the children in Ethiopia will never attend school. 88% will never attend secondary school.
• In 1993, after 30 long years of war, Eritrea broke from Ethiopia and became an independent nation leaving Ethiopia landlocked without any major seafaring ports.
• In the 90s the population (3%) grew faster than food production (2.2%)
• One in six children die before their fifth birthday
• Per capita, Ethiopia receives less aid than any country in Africa
• The median age in Ethiopia is 17.8 years
• There are 4.6 million orphans in Ethiopia.
• 1.5 million people are infected with AIDS (6th highest in the world)

TTD!!! (tentative travel date)....It's here!!!!!

Well low and behold as I was skimming through my yahoo group emails there it was......our TTD!!!!! (tentative travel date). We could be flying September 12th! Yes....yes....yes. We finally, after almost 3 yrs, have a date to go and get our little girl. God willing we pass court or it could be a little later. But I have a date and that's all that matters. She is coming home!!!!!!!

As soon as we pass court we will be able to show pictures of her and tell you what an amazing God story she is. Please pray, as of right now if all goes right there is at least 7 more families flying with us to pick up their children. How exciting is that!
God bless.

IN THE WAITING.....

My mind is spinning......I'm in the waiting.....waiting for the days to pass for our court date, but not really wanting summer to fly by. Waiting for our questions to be answered about our daughter.....I want to know more about her...her size...her health..her likes and dislikes...just to get to know her more. Waiting for everything to come together. But God is in the waiting! I know He is doing amazing things while I am just waiting.

I just read some of our Ethiopian yahoo groups blog sites. Their are families in Ethiopia picking up their children right now! Praise God! I have been following them pretty much daily, what a journey! They are headed back tonight. May God keep them safe and sane.

Hope to have more news soon!
Blessings and peace:)

This is the wedding cake my sister roped me into doing for her friend.lol. My sister loves a challenge, by the way she is my twin, so since she always does her girls birthday cakes, all deck out, she thought...yeah...why not! She has never done a wedding cake....crazy...but never say die. And as you can see it turned out great and they loved it. So much so we couldn't get it served fast enough. The bottom was white with a raspberry custard I made. The middle was chocolate with mocha cream filling..yum. The top was just banana nothing special. But needless to say it was not easy. We had to rebake two of the cakes and then at 9pm after we had gotten them all together and crumb frosted (1st thin layer of frosting to keep crumbs in) a peice of the back on the white cake started to fall off. So after some panicing we kicked it into gear, because there was no way we were starting over, and came up with a genius idea.......tullin....We wrapped the cakes in tullin. God is good! It looked great and tasted great. Nice to see I'm still up for the challenge. What's next!

challenges.....

COURT DATE!!!

Marc was on vacation this week. We took one day to go to Tawas and relax, but after that we did work around the house. There's alot to get ready and finished up before our little princess comes home. This coming week I will finish up the girls room, hopefully. In the midst of this week we got some unexpected news......We got our court date! I thought for sure it wouldn't be till MOWA was back in session, but Praise God! it came. AUGUST 17TH!!!! So that means the courts aren't closing yet. "Lord, Please bless our court date and let us pass." It's also my niece's birthday and the day our 1st dossier made it to El Salvador (good date). Now we wait till then.

I also got alittle bad news, the couple that was taking our carepackage, to our little princess, can not. They have a family medical issue that came up (praying for a good outcome). Now I need to see if anyone else is going to Ethiopia soon and can take it, or I'll just have to spend the money to sent it.(YIKES! expensive) But I really want her to have it before we get there, so she can have something from us and pictures to get her farmiliar with us. God willing it will get there.

I really can't believe we could be going to Ethiopia as soon as September, WOW! It didn't seen real for so long. Then it was all of a sudden and moving fast. God has moved mountains and I know He will continue to move. I can't wait to see what's next.... Following God is truly and adventure...one well worth following.

Peace and Joy in our Savior.

UPS...AND..DOWNS...

Yesterday we had a conference call because MOWA (Ministry of Women's Affairs),the agency in Ethiopia that handles the paperwork, referral letters and courtdates, has closed for training until July 23rd. Which is crazy timing for all who have referral, with a court date or without (which is us), because historically courts have closed for the rainy season (1st of Aug-1st of Oct.). We have been told to perpare to have to wait till the begining of Oct :( We've have also been informed that some of the departments within the court are not closing, these are ones we would need open in order to complete all paperwork for travel. So it's all up in the air (well for us "people),But our Mighty God knows and He is working it for the best of EVERYONE, not just us. America World has been amazing in this whole process. They tell us everything they know, and they aren't receiving any information but "wait and see".

We have not yet rceived a courtdate, so we are preparing ourselves for an Oct. courtdate. Yet I know we have a Great God and God willing the courts will not close this year. Also, I know are children are now in a safe place, being cared for by wonderful people, who love these children dearly. So I can breath a sigh of relief.......and pray for God to continue to heal,protect,cleanse,and nurish our little girl. "God bless you and hold you little one till we come to get you. Thank you Lord!"

PLEASE KEEP US IN YOUR PRAYERS!! God Bless.

keion and squirt

REFERRAL!!!!!!!!

I'm not good at keeping up with this:( But we've been buisy! We got out refferal! A little girl 7ish. We can't wait to share more about her amazing God story and photo, but we must wait till after we pass court. That makes us her offical parents in Ethiopia. Court is a funny thing, you never know whats going to happen. They tell us we have a very good chance of passing court the first time, because the profile on her is extensive. But we never know........ Were waiting to heat when our court date will be. It should be within the next week or two, God willing.

A family in our yahoo group is traveling to Ethiopia in 2 weeks and has asked if we would like them to take our little girl a care package. We of course said "yes" and we thank them very much for doing that for us. So, today I sent out our care package which included: a little jean dress jumper, a princess soft doll, a photo album of her new family, and a little bag to carry it all. I can't wait for her to get it. I hope she loves us as much as we already love her. "God bless our little Ethiopian princess".

Also, we are in the midst of redoing rooms. (craziness). We have just finished keion's (our son) , all we have to do is move him in, which includes a new bed. Now the fun part, the girls room. Bailee (our daughter) has decided on purple for the paint. We will get the same white day bed as Bailee has for her little sister. Bailee has a camp rock theme for her bed, and her sister will have a princess theme. I'm going to have fun doing this room, thinking of her and Bailee playing in there one day real soon. Yea, can't wait. Welll we let you know the court date when it comes. Blessings.