Getting Closer to Court Date

Our friends that submitted their dossier the same day as us and got a referral a few days prior to us, just got a court date for December 3rd!!  I am so hoping and praying we will hear soon.  His birthday is December 12th and we would LOVE to celebrate it with him.  Getting anxious to hear sooooooooooon!

Save the Date

We are going to be putting on a pancake breakfast on November 20th to raise money for our adoption and for the orphanage that our little guy is at.  It will be from 8-10 a.m. at Harderwyk Church in Holland (the main building).  We are going to try to get everyone to bring either a pair of new socks or undies (ages 0-10 years) for us to bring to the orphanage with us.  Kreg and I will each have a whole suitcase that we can fill with things to bring to them.  We already have some formula and clothes.  We would like to bring them something the kids can have that is new and a necessity.  If you think of anything else, please let us know.  We hope to see you there.  More info to come.......

Great News!

Two great things in one week!  Monday I got to work and found a screening and 10 PICTURES of our little guy!  He is seriously just the cutest thing you have ever seen.  Better than that, he is healthy!  There was nothing in his report that we should be concerned about at all.  We had sent him a picture book with all of our pictures in it (Kendal, us, grandparents, aunts and uncles, etc.) and saw that in one of the pictures, he was playing with it.  So, he has sort of met us already!  Can't wait to hold him.  He looks so happy in his pictures and we are so thankful for that. 

I just got an email today stating that our dossier was sent to court in Ethiopia and that we should be getting a court date in November or December.  Wow, we get to meet him soon.

Orphanage

Found out through a couple of different people that our little guy is being well taken care of at the orphanage in Addis Ababa.  Each person has said that the orphanage is clean, lots of toys, and the caretakers are wonderful.  We are so blessed that he is there.  We haven't heard anything yet about our court date but we will post as soon as we know.  Hopefully we will hear soon.

Baby room is done!

Baby room is done. :)  We decided to move him upstairs to be closer to us.  All we had to do was paint the top blue.  I wasn't sure how that would go over with Kendal but she was so excited and couldn't wait to touch the dry paint.  Thank you Kendal for giving up a few things in your room to give to the baby too.

A little delay

We found out on Friday that the courts in Ethiopia are closed.  They closed Friday and then won't open again until Sept. 30th.  So, our paperwork won't start until then.  After the 30th, it will be about 2-3 months for us to travel the first time and then 1-2 months after that before we can bring him home.  He is such a pumpkin.  We did find out that we will get updates on how he is growing and new pictures of him every month.  His room is getting done.  The drywall is complete.  A guy I work with did it and it turned out nice and he gave us a great price on it.  Thanks Tom!  Now, we need floor and paint.  I ordered his bed set yesterday so we can get the paint once it arrives!  So excited!!!  I didn't think buying boy stuff would be so much fun!

Love at First Sight

He was definitely worth the wait!  We got a REFERRAL yesterday!  A little boy waiting for us in Ethopia.  He is a smiley, healthy baby.  He has been in the orphanage for about a month.  He is the cutest thing you have ever seen.  We would love to put his picture on here but we are not allowed to until we bring him home.  So, if you see me, ask for my new baby album which has one page filled in with his picture! 

Kendal is really excited.  She keeps calling him her "baby brother" instead of by his name (which is hard to pronounce).  She helped me go through her clothes already and get out anything that may fit him that was gender neutral - not much by the way.  I didn't realize how much PINK we have! 

We cannot be more excited.  We meet with our social worker on Friday to fill out some more paperwork and send him a small photo book of us so he can see who we are.  We will travel the first time in about three months to go to a court date and then see him in the orphanage.  That trip will be about 4-5 days long.  We can't actually take him out of there until the second visit which will be around 1-3 months after that.  Then, the little guy can come home with us. 

GOD IS SO GOOD!!!  Please pray for him that he has the best care possible and that he knows deep down that he has a family that loves him so much!  Thank you all for all of your prayers.  God was listening!