Tentative Dates

We received a call for our tentative travel dates today! We need to be in Ethiopia by Jan. 24 (tentatively) which means, from our lovely little town, we have to leave on Thursday Jan. 21 and will arrive on the 23rd. Then on Thursday Jan. 28 we will be bringing our little man home. We will arrive home on the 29th of Jan. it looks like that is the plan, but there were a few questions for the travel agent, so well see how it all works out. But in other words,yay!

I have a ton of posts to do to catch up and am thinking that each day this week I will do an old post and a post of our day at fmaily camp! It's been wonderful so far and we are so excited to be here.

Have a blessed day!
T

Waiting...

I have decided after a year of hurrying up and waiting, I am not so patient! I am not a big fan of waiting anymore. I don't think I minded it so much before, but now I amgetting a little tired of it. We heard on Friday that little M was doing better and was supposed to be released. As of yet, we have not heard anything else and have not gotten his discharge paperwork. Secondly, I am getting a bit impatient to hear about travel dates! Our lives are going to get a bit hectic if we get to go for the first embassy appt. in January. Which is what we are praying for! So, once again, we are waiting for that inevitable phone call letting us know what is going on! And I do have to admit, I look at and check the phone 10 times as much as I did ever before (even when we were next in line for a referral). We are just anxious to go and bring our little M home. Thanks for all your prayers!
T

We Passed :o)

We just got the call that we passed court and are officially and legally the parents of our sweet little boy living half way around the world. We can't wait to pick him up and love on him. A little sad news that we found out is that he is in the hospital with pneumonia. Please pray for healing for our little boy and for our patience in waiting to travel to him.

Waiting...

Waiting is torture sometimes! We are anxiously checking the phone every few minutes thinking maybe we missed the call... Well, no news yet! We had our court date yesterday, which actually took place during the night on Sunday here. We are still praying that it is great news that we get! That our little man is legally our son! There is also now one official embassy appt. for January scheduled on the 11th. I don't know what the second date is. We are hopeing that if we passed (please God) that we will slide in and make this embassy appt. That would be a wonderful start to a new year! I will post as soon as I find out the verdict. Please continue to pray! T

Picture Fest...

Ok, the week in reverse! This is from the shower my sister threw for us this weekend. It was a lot of fun! I don't have a picture of everyone, but Bobbie Jo and my mom got those pictures, so I will get ahold of those and post them later. Here is Macy with little Brendan. This is the son of a good friend of ours! Isn't he cute! he's just a few weeks younger than our little man.
This is the refreshments table she set up.

This is the entry/sign in table.

This is the fireside room (at my grandma's house). The shower was down there. This is before everyone showed up. The gifts piled up around and near the wagon/tree.

Here is a better picture of the cake that Bobbie Jo had made. Isn't it fun!

The morning of the shower, Dan and I took Bobbie Jo's young three to the Angel breakfast at church. it is a time for the kids to get a 'kid friendly' (aka - doughnuts, cookies, and a little fruit) breakfast, here the Christmas story from the angel, get to do some crafts, and take a picture with the Christmas Angel. Here is Grant as things are starting to slow down and he is fading a bit.

Here is Grant gearing up for breakfast (disregard the finger int he nose...)

Here is Macy...

And Trevor.

The night before (Friday night) we kept the kids for the night and gave Bobbie Jo and Jeff a night off. We decided to stay at Fullers house (grandma's). Trevor, Macy, and mom spent some time coloring/drawing. Here's Trevor.

Macy and my Mom

And there was playing in the basement. Grant loves riding this horse. I remember playing on it when I was a kid.

If you look close, you can see a missing hoof. Its been through a lot of years of play.

Trevor and I played some ping pong and Macy ran around and played.

Here is a sweater we got as a gift last week from my cousin and his wife (Shannon and Nicole). Nicole picked up knitting a while ago and she is amazing! She has made some of the coolest stuff. Isn't this sweater she made for our little man adorable. I can't wait to put him in it! It will be one of the first things he wears. :)

We are headed out tomorrow to Colorado Springs for another shower being held there. Hosted by Trista and Betty (my sister in law and mother in law). It is going to be a lot of fun! Then we are going to go up to Trista's in Aurora and have Christmas with the whole family. It will be fun to see everyone and play with the kids (Tris and Chad have two boys).

We will be coming home Sunday afternoon and then trying to sleep (with the help of some Myocalm) as we anxiously await news of our 2nd court date. We are praying we pass this time around and than little man's birth mom is able to make it. Please pray with us that all goes well and we hear the best news ever that little Man is legally ours come Monday!

Have a blessed and wonderful weekend! T

News!

Well, we found out yesterday why we did not pass court. It was not due to paperwork (at least at this point). It was becaues the birthmother did not make it to court. We do not know why she didn't make it, just that she wasn't there. Hopefully through their efforts, people will find her int he next week and a half and get her to the court on time! We just want to thank everyone for their prayers over the last few days! It has meant a lot and kept us going. Thank you!
T

Rescheduled!

Well, we got the word yesterday that we did not pass court. We are unsure why at this point and AGCI is trying to find out for us. We were rescheduled for 12/14 along with another family. I am actually doing better with this than I thought I would be. If anyone knows me, I really try to find the positive in any situation. I have found a few, one being that we will for sure be able to spend Christmas with the family up in the mountains. Yes, I would love our baby M to be there, but that was for sure not going to happen, there was a chance we would be traveling during this time, which would have been ok by us, but now we for sure get to go and I get to see my brother and his family and their newest addition (#8 - Boaz). We usually don't get to see them but once a year. Also, it will be nice to have one last relaxing week before we have a baby and life becomes crazy for the rest of our lives (or so we've heard)! I do ask that you would all join us in prayer as there are many families going to court over the next week and then for all those of us who were rescheduled and have new dates. Thank you! T

No one mentioned...

Ok, everyone has mentioned that the night of their court appointment not sleeping well. Being excited and anxious, having a hard time calming down to rest. No one mentioned not sleeping well for days before it! Our court date is tonight. December 1 in Ethiopia. I was fully expecting to not sleep well tonight. To feel excited and anxious, having a hard time calming down. I was not expecting for it to start a few days before. Last night is the first night I have slept horribly, the others have been, eh..., ok. I have spent the last 4 days or so, non stop thing about, praying over, crying about, (well you get he picture), this court date. I am praying that God answers our prayers and we pass the first time around. I am trying with all I am to remind myself (almost constantly) of what I already firmly know - God is in Control! He has perfect timing. He is going to bring our Baby M home at the perfect allotted time. I am just a tad impatient and want him home now!!! So, all this to say, please join with us in prayer tonight that our court date goes quickly and smoothly, that we pass the first time, and that God grant us sleep tonight!

Also, pray for Rebecca and Dodd as they return to court as well Dec. 1 with us. It would be great to travel with them, getting to know them in person. It's fun to think what a small world it is as we have people in common. Dodd (I believe) used to work with Dan's brother in law. So, that was our first connection in this wonderful world of blogging.

Ok, so now that I have rambled on, and it is time to head to work, please pray for all of us and those in the following week. There is a huge group of us waiting to hear about our court results! Thanks.

this past week or so...

About 1 1/2 weeks ago we got the coolest package in the mail. Some great gifts from some great friends!

Then we dove into making cinnamon rolls for our final (hopefully) fundraiser. Cinnamon rolls for Thanksgiving. Here is Dan getting ready to wrap the rolls. I was still baking at this point I believe.

Here is Dan and I at our table at the bazaar. We sold cinnamon rolls, homemade Christmas cards, Hot Cocoa packets and a few other goodies! It was a good deal and we made enough to finish the adoption (depending on the cost of plane tickets...) ---I took out the pix of the bazaar b/c I wasn't thinking and you could see our little guy in the pictures on the table. Sorry...----

Last week we also got a great cozy blanket from Dan's sister Trista. It is cute and fuzzy and cozy. I can't wait to use it with baby M.

We are excited for all those who are in Ethiopia right now picking up their little ones. I am hopeful to maybe get an update on our little guy as well. We go to court in just over 1 week and am really excited and praying fervently that we pass the first time. Please join us in prayer for this as well.

Finally, We would like to with you all a Wonderful Thanksgiving. Celebrate all the Lord has done for you!

T

Court Dates Galore!!!

Well, court and travel date have been going out all over blog-land today. We got the call this morning that our court date for baby M is December 1st. Praise God! Please join with us in prayer as we pray to pass the first time through court. There is much paperwork and many people who need to all show up in time for everything to go through. We are praying we pass the first time around although we are prepared mentally to not pass. So yay! Mark your calenders, December 1st! Just 3 weeks short of our 1 year mark in this process!

We did our last fundraiser this weekend and I will post pictures and info on that later, have to get headed back to work for now...
T

what's happening...

To start things off, we have been working on our 'baggie of love' to send to our little guy in Ethiopia. We mailed it off last week to our agency and then they will send it on. This first album is the one we put togehter for his birth mom. It has plenty of extra pages for pictures throughout the years...
This is the cute little 'album' we got for our little guy. It is only three pages, but they are held together bythe cute little wooden ring. The pages are different material and the little leaves on the ends are different material too. it's really cute.

This is the blanket we bought for him the night we got the referral. it is super soft and cuddly.

This past weekend was Bible Bowl. We went to Denver area again. Here is one of our teams. My oldest nephew Brendan was on the team. They got 6th place in Division 1 (that's good).

We got home late Saturday night (acutally Sunday morning) and crashed. Dan didn't get to go to the tournament because it was inventory at the store and he worked crazy bunches of hours. I got to get up and make my sweet little niece macy her birthday cake for her 7th birthday. She is the only girl with 3 brothers. And let me tell you, she is all girl. here is here Barbie cake up close. Ignore the head wrapped in plastic wrap - I had to keep the hair out of the way somehow...

the bottom of the dress is all cake. it was fun to make. I had never tried one of these before, but it came out great. I also did a basic cake for her as well. We weren't sure how many people would be there, but wanted to have enough cake.

The birthday girl...

Dan with sweet nephew Grant getting some 'lovin'

Here is my sister's 4 kids. They are 11, 9, 7, and 2. Lots of fun...

Grant was just ready for the cake...

Macy was ready for the presents - here she is with some of her new makeup on that she got as a present.

And here are her and I playing with her new Barbie. She was super excited to be able to wash and dye this barbie's hair.

And this is what Dan is doing as I update this blog. We started working on cleaning out and re-arranging the living room. If you know me, you'll know I do this often. It's my way of 'moving without moving'.

I hope you all have a great evening. Pray for us as we anxiously await news of our court date!

Such excitement!

Well, so much has been going on the past couple of weeks. We have officially registered. That was fun! We had to wait on everything, not knowing what age or gender of child we would be referred. It was fun to wait because everything we registered was with baby M specifically in mind. We went to Target (local) and Babies R Us (4 1/2 hours away in Colorado Springs, but having a shower there with family and friends - thanks Trista!). We have come up with a name for baby M, but I am not sure if Dan is wanting it onthe internet quite yet. We'll have to wait and see! What else... we received our travel packet in the mail. Hard to believe we are at this point. It seems like it was always out there, but seemed so far away. Now that we are here it is very surreal. We are working on printing the pictures to send to baby M in his album as well as the album for his birth mother. We are also working on a letter to his birthmom. Not an easy task for those of you who have never written one. We have the nursery almost ready, so we will post pictures of it completed soon! What else, oh, can we say nesting! We have made a huge list of everything we have to get done (mainly around the hosue) before we travel and it is hanging on the fridge! So exciting! I hope you all have a blessed week and we will post more later. Hopefully we get out court date this week... All I can say is God is so Good! - T

Good Times!

My cousin did a post here about my Grandpa Fuller (the best grandpa in the whole world, I might add) who used to have this patriotic tape that he had us listen to, alot! He had us memorize different songs off of it, one of which is the 50 states song here...



Apparently there is a new animaniacs 50 states and capitols song that is set to the same tune, so enjoy.



It is a walk down memory lane for me to hear this song again! I just have to say, I miss Grandpa Bob and am sad that he never got to meet my husband or my little baby boy...

New nephew

No pictures of him yet, but I talked to my sister, and his name is Boaz Robert. Robert is after my wonderful grandpa who passed away 8 years ago.

About me - I've been tagged!

So I've been tagged by Audrey. It's been a number of days since she did, but I just haven't gotten around to doing it. So, here goes - one word answers...

Where is your cell phone? uncertain
Your hair? down
Your mother? friend
Your father? which one?
Your dream last night? forgotten
Your goal? Wisdom
What room are you in? bedroom
Your hobby? cooking
Your fear? uncertainty
Where do you want to be in 6 years? Anywhere
Where were you last night? home
Something that you aren't? confident
Wish list item? baby
Where did you grow up? everywhere
Last thing you did? brush teeth
What are you wearing? P.J.'s
Your t.v.? on
Your pets? trained
Friends? close
Your life? blessed
Your mood? thankful
Missing someone? baby
Vehicle? Santa-Fe
Your favorite song? worship
Something your not wearing? shoes
Favorite store? thrift
Favorite color? yellow
Last time you laughed? Sunday school
Last time you cried? Church
Best Friend? Dan
One place you go over and over? office
Person who e-mails regularly? AGCI
Favorite place to eat? Chipotle (unfortunately, the nearest one is about 4 hours from here...sadness)

Hope you enjoyed! I did my best to be as honest andopen about myself, yet keep it to one word! Not an easy task!

Catching up...

First of all - I am an aunt again! My brother and his wife had #8 this morning! Another little boy! I honestly don't remember his name (sorry) I will post it tomorrow (it's a unique name and it's late, so I am drawing a blank).

But on to what all has been going on this week: Here is a picture of my sister looking at our pictures of baby M the day we got our referral -

Here is Dan with the referral packet on Tuesday morning when it showed up! We were so excited - got everything done and notarized and it was back at AGCI on Friday!

There was no school on Thursday and Friday so my niece and nephews were at the office the entire day. (Usually they are only there parts of the day) Macy started the day out on Friday by drawing pictures for baby M. She asked me to send them to him, so they will go with our 'baggie of love' when we send it... The first one is the 'family'. My sister's family, Dan, me and baby M. (and the pets). Also, baby M's name is whited out in the picutre b/c we can't post any identifying information, but you get the idea. The second one is bringing baby M home from the airport and us driving by the office.

This weekend there was an annual craft/antique show down at the 3-I building. I spent Saturday morning at Goodwill with Bobbie Jo and Macy for the $1.10 sale and then we went and met her mother in law and her friend at the show. As we looked around, we saw this cool old tin top and Ginger (Bobbie Jo's mother in law) decided she would get baby M his first gift (since we got the referral) Isn't it cool! I love old toys!

Back in April, I drew plans out for shelves for the nursery, we bought the wood, and then got busy, so the wood sat. We started working on the project a couple of weeks ago. Last Sunday they were completed and we put them in the nursery. Over the past week and this weekend, we cleaned out the mess that was in the nursery and organized all the books we had (that were age appropriate - I have tons of young teen/pre-teen books too! I love to read!). We made three sets of two wide and three high. Here are two of them...

And the third one is on the other wall.

This is the opposite wall from the wall with the single shelf. We painted it almost two years ago (domestic adoption fell through). I still really like it, so we have left it the same and just added to and cleaned up. I need to finish the little curtain and put a couple more ties on the bumper for the crib. I will post complete pictures when it is all done and together. We are just not really 'cutsey' people, so I wasn't much for a 'cutsey' room. I like the colors and think they will be awesome for our little M.

We have been working on going through all the baby stuff we have been given (love those hand me downs) and pulling out what is age appropriate for our sweet baby and what is too young for him has been stored for our next little one. I washed the cushions for this awesome car seat we were given and came up from the basement to find Casper (our cat) enjoying his new place to lay down.

So, I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend! Ours was productive, which was nice! We are definitely nesting and excited to bring baby M home. Pray with us as we wait for our court date and travel.

No More New Numbers!

Yep, you heard us right! No more new numbers for us! Monday afternoon - October 19th (incidentally exactly 10 months to the day since we sent in our initial pre-application) - we got THE CALL. Dan had the day off and was home and Tara was at work. Tara answered the call from our case worker and had Dan conferenced in. I (Tara) was literally shaking and had 4 kids staring at me during the entire call. I took all the notes I could from the call on the only paper I could find at that moment - a paper airplane one of my sister's kids had made. As soon as the call was complete, Dan grabbed the cameras and headed to the office. Sitting in front of the computer with the anxious niece and nephews all gathered around, we got our first, very slow (dial up), look at these beautiful, precious eyes. Baby M is a beautiful 5 month old baby boy. He had only been at Hannah's Hope for 1 week at this point. He is totally healthy and we are so excited that he is our little boy! God has truly blessed us in this process! We have been praying for God to bring us the child that will be a perfect fit into our family, and let me tell you, little M is. He is the one God has designed to be our 'first born'.

So, after looking at his pictures, Dan hangs out at the office until we close (about 45 more minutes) and then we head out. We come home and start calling all the family! After all the calls were done, we took off to go out to dinner. We had been planning to go to dinner at this steak house that we love on the night we got our referral since we started this adoption. We had even saved a gift certificate for there since last Christmas just for this occasion. Dinner was wonderful, and then...off to Target and Walmart to go shopping! No, we didn't buy tons of stuff, but wanted to buy him a blanket and an outfit from us our first night. It was fun to look through all the baby stuff and have a face in mind (and a size)!

What a wonderful day it was! Cool thing was, first thing Monday morning, Dan woke up and told me he had a feeling that 'today is the day we are going to get our referral'. It is the only day so far he had said that, and lo and behold, he was right! Kind of a fun memory to add to the process.

We waited to post all this because it posts to facebook also and we wanted to surprise Tara's Bible Study, the Bible Bowl team, and our choir. What fun to surprise them all in person and not have some know already (from facebook) and others not be in the loop!

At this point it will still be a couple of months before we travel to bring our little bundle home because we have to wait for a court date and embassy appointment. Please join with us in prayer that during the rest of this process we receive quick appointments and travel dates!

Showers are already in the works, we need to get registered, and there is so much to be done. Blessings to you all and here is a beautiful smile to part with...

P.S. - For those who don't know, we are not allowed to post full pictures of our little one until we bring him home - or his full name and identifying information.

This Past Week

Well, This past week Dan has been sick. The yucky stomach flu hit him hard. He is finally doing much better today (7 days later) - his head and neck still ache, but he is eating and not vomiting or anything else, so yay!! Saturday I babysat for my sisters 3 youngest in the morning and then spent the afternoon hanging with Dan. It was nice. Today I stayed busy with working on the house - got more done this afternoon than I had all week. I will have to post pictures of the shelves we finished building tonight. On the ADOPTION front - we are still 'unofficially' #1 on the boys list. Don't really know for sure on the other two, but there has been movement! We are excited to get our referral!!!

So for a few fun pictures - Trevor, Macy, Grant and I spent part of the morning playing the Wii at their place. Here are a few pictures. Grant had a good time 'trying' or actually 'pretending' to play. Enjoy!

Why Wouldn't You

I just finished watching this on another adoptive mom's blog. Watch and think!

Babies, Babies, and more Babies

Our family is growing by leaps and bounds. We just got a call tonight that Tara's cousin Shannon and his wife are pregnant with their first little one. It is due early/mid May. Also, another cousin (Shannon's sister) Jenette and her husband Chris are expecting their first little one also in early/mid May. Dan's sister Trista and her husband Chad are expecting #3 at the end of May. Tara's brother and his wife are also expecting, but due any day now with #8. Super exciting!!! We love babies and within 8 months we will have 5 or 6 new ones in our family (including ours)! How exciting is that!!!

Bathroom and Garage Sale

This weekend we were able to stay home and finish our master bathroom that we have been working on for the last couple of weeks. Not that we did a major remodel, but we fixed drywall and laid a new floor. Thanks to Betty and Al for letting us use part of their remnant. Here it is all put back together...

Mickey enjoying the new floor.

Saturday there was a garage sale at church to benefit the Bible Bowl team. Me and Tara went to see the good and ended up staying to help get everything cleaned up. I was able to save these two Tupperware glasses from the items that went to Goodwill. I have wanted some like this for a long time as they are what I used for vinegar water when growing up. Now I will have some to use with my kids for their sore throats while growing up.

On the adoption front we are still praying that we will get "The Call" soon and know more about our future child(ren) that God has in store for us. Please pray with us that God will give us wisdom for future plans. D