WE HAVE A DAUGHTER!!!

We made it through court on June 25th! This means that a judge in Ethiopia approved our adoption and Tarike Jabe is legally our baby girl! Wow - amazing! (You'll have to excuse all of the exclamation points) Finally, I can attach pictures in our blog and show everyone how beautiful our little girl is!

Still no news

We have still not heard what happened regarding our case on Tuesday. I'm going crazy but trying to stay busy. We had the turtle races again today and I have been setting up my World Vision table. The turtle races have been very busy (over 300 racers today - check out the registration line!) but not too much interest in child sponsorship so far. However, a very sweet little boy came to my table and was very interested in the children that needed sponsors, looked at the letters that we received from the children we sponsor, etc. Later in the afternoon, he came back and said, "Can I give a dollar to your cause?" He was so sweet! With all of the cotton candy, snow cones, games, popcorn, etc., he brought me his dollar to help other kids!! So refreshing to see today. I hope his parents know what a great job they are doing and what a wonderful and unique son they have!!

On a lighter note, we have been working on getting all of our vaccinations and all went to the clinic the other day. Of course, on our first visit, we had to fill out all kinds of forms checking any illnesses we have or have had and any medications we are on. We sat in the office waiting room with both Tyler and Evan filling out the forms and asking me "Have I had this?", "Do I take that?", etc. Finally, I hear, "Have I ever had vaginitis?" (pronounced vag like rag) Hilarious! I had to tell him, "No, and you don't even have one!" I'm sure those near us in the waiting room when very entertained!

Another lesson in patience...and life

When I woke up this morning, court was already almost closed in Ethiopia! They are 8 hours ahead of us so their day was over when mine was starting. I was so hoping to have some news to report today but it sounds like we won't hear anything until tomorrow. Our Ethiopia contact at the agency said that the court in Ethiopia did not report any news today and they are now closed. Unfortunately, there has been a drought in Ethiopia, despite this being the beginning of their rainy season. Among other more serious problems caused by the drought, there have been power outages which often causes delays in court. That is also the reason that we have not yet received an update on Tarike. We will hopefully learn tomorrow whether we made it through today or not. It is pretty amazing to think that at this moment we could legally be Tarike's parents!! Any of you who know me at all know that patience is NOT my strongest quality. Even worse, I am terrible at not have control over everything! To put things into perspective, our possible delays are truly a minor issue compared to the fact that the drought is causing a terrible situation in Ethiopia even worse. I have heard that even adults have been suffering from starvation, which is rare because they can usually handle less food longer than children. We are so blessed and most of the time we don't even realize it!

Please pray for the people of Ethiopia, that the rains come soon enough to save some of their crops and that God give them peace and strength.

I thank all of you who have been thinking of us and praying for us as well. I hope that by the end of the day tomorrow I will be able to post some good news and our daughters photo!!

First Baseball Game and Turtle Race!!

Connor and Jcak had their first "coach pitch" baseball game of the season. They had a blast and did a great job! Both hit a homerun!! Summer is so busy but so much fun. Of course, I think the best part of the game, for them, was the ice cream AFTER the game!

We also had our first turtle race today! It went very well - a lot busier than I had thought. I do feel sorry for the poor turtles, though. They are pretty freaked out and tired by the end and, despite all the warnings and pleas to parents, many of the smaller children drop the poor guys! And there were almost 300 children who raced turtles - amazing how people show up in our little town in the summer. I'm sure the turtles were very happy to be back in their cage in the lake. Two, however, got their revenge on the boys aunt, Rita. She got bit, twice! One actually drew blood!! Who would have thought those cute little turtles were so vicious. Connor and Jack spent most of their time asking for snowcones and money for games.

Finally, our first round of shots was also completed yesterday. As it turns out, the boys only have to have two - they were very happy! Matt and I, however, need Polio, MMR, DPT, Polio, Hep. A and Hep. B combo (3 times) and Meningitis. What a bummer! We will all be happy when they are done. We just keep saying with each shot that we are one step closer to completing our family!

American Cancer Society - Relay for Life

Tonight was our first year on our own team for the Relay for Life. We all worked very hard leading up to tonight. We have been, selling luminary bags, making bead bracelets and baking dozens and dozens of cookies! Our hard work paid off very well - we had a grand total of over $4251!! More than we ever imagined we could raise during our first year! And we realized a number of things that we could do different next year to make it, hopefully, more successful. Thank you to anyone who may be reading this for helping our team!

We are getting ready for our first round of vaccinations - augh! They are Tuesday, June 17. Most are very routine and our only fear is getting sore arms. Another step toward bringing our baby girl home! The boys are really nervous for this part and, once this is over, will finally be really excited to go to Ethiopia. They have really been stressing about this for a very long time. It will be nice to finally have it done!

Still having difficulty with the naming process! We are open to suggestions!

We have a court date!!

Our next step is well on its way! We learned today that we have a court date of June 24 - which also happens to be our 13th Wedding Anniversary!! The court dates are typically considered tentative because if it is a busy court day our case could be pushed back or the judge could request further information which could push it back. We could use your prayers that everything goes smoothly! After the judge makes a decision, Tarike will officially be our daughter!! We should be able to travel approximately 4-5 weeks after our court date - yippee!!

Where do we go from here...

Just a quick update regarding the process from here. I wish that I could say that now that we know who our new baby is and that Tarike needs parents right now, we are on our way to bring her home! Unfortunately, there is a process that follows the referral. At this point our paperwork goes to the Ministry of Women's Afairs and we wait 2-3 weeks from the date of the referral (which was May 22) to be assigned a court date in Ethiopia. Once our case is heard, about 1-2 weeks after we are assigned the date, assuming it goes through on that date and is approved, we are considered the legal parents of Tarike in Ethiopia. At that point I can post a picture of our beautiful daughter on this blog! We then wait for her birth certificate to be updated with Matt and I as her legal parents. This generally takes another 2-3 weeks. Once we recieve a copy of the birth certificate by e-mail, we will receive our long awaited travel date. This will give us about 2-4 weeks to get our final preparations complete before traveling to Ethiopia and bringing home our daughter!! Truly unbelievable. When it is broken up, and keeping in mind that it has already been almost 2 weeks since we received the amazing referral, it actually feels as though it is going very fast! It also seems to be going fast when I think of all that needs to be done. We still have not designed her bedroom and we are completely unprepared to have a baby in our home - especially a baby girl! Then, I look at her beautiful picture and her lovely smile and I want to head to the airport right now!! Thanks for going through this incredible adventure with us - it is truly amazing

Sad Day

When we went for our walk this morning, the boys and I discovered that our poor turtles that we were collecting for the turtle races, had been attacked last night. Apparently the frozen minnows that we put in their enclosure, once thawed, attracted some kind of turtle predator and out of 15 turtles, only 4 remain alive. We assume that it was a raccoon or, we have been told, maybe a mink. I feel very bad that we trapped the poor little guys in the enclosure but apparently did not protect them from other creatures. I also feel very bad that we now have until one week from Wednesday to find 46 turtles!!! And, since turtles like to come out and bathe in the sun, it would sure be a lot easier if the sun would actually come out! I guess a good thing is that we learned a lesson - before we had 50 turtles to lose. We now have a completely enclosed turtle cage that is raccoon and mink proof! Let the hunt begin!! (Um, again!)