It's Here!

Our I-171!!! We are so excited!  Our entire dossier is sitting in Ethiopia, translated, waiting - ever so patiently for this one piece of paper!  We have been given permission to bring 2 babies into the US!  Now, we wait for the blessed day we get a referral!!! 

In our life otherwise, we have been super busy!  We have been working on putting our bathroom together (long story I will tell you all when it is done and I can post pictures).  We had company this weekend which was great!  We got to pain our living room and parlor (I guess you would call it that).  It's so great to have the help - the house is kind of big and overwhelming sometimes!  We have been working on a couples Bible Study for Wednesday nights (which is great!) and I have also started a Beth Moore Bible Study (which is going to be awesome!) 

We are staying busy and are super excited to receive our referral!  We are trusting in the Lord and trusting his timing!  We serve a great and awesome God and he knows the children that are set aside for our family - we are trusting in his timing and provision! 

Have a blessed day!!!

On Warm Days

Recently we had a couple of warm afternoons in the middle of our Kansas Winter.  Mason and I got to go out for a ride.  He had such a great time in the bike trailer, and gets in each time we go to the garage now, asking to go for a ride. Here is a picture from when we went out.

To show how much Mason has grown, here he is in the same carrier a year ago, shortly after we had just brought him home.  I think he may have been a little young for the carrier then, but he enjoyed the short ride.

On the current adoption front, our dossier is officially in Ethiopia with the exception of the I-171.  We are anxiously awaiting the I-171 so we can send it over and be that much closer to bringing our new babies home.  Praying it shows up soon!!!D

One year Ago on this day!

These pictures are from one year ago today!  The day we first held our beautiful baby boy in our arms!  Our lives would never be the same.  Parenthood has been the best, most challenging, most rewarding thing we have ever done!  Looking back at this, it is hard to believe how fast time has gone, amazing to see the progress we have all made, and excites us for the future with Mason and the new babes!

And now, this is our beautiful, happy, strong-willed child!  We are so blessed!!!

Finger printing!

We have our fingerprinting appointment in Wichita for USCIS next Wednesday!  We will drive out Tuesday after work, sleep, get up, go get fingerprinted, and drive home so I can work the afternoon.  Doesnt seem so bad, until you realize that I get off work at around 6:30 on Tuesday, and Wichita is 4 hours away... long trip for such a short time!  It's ok though, it gets us that next step closer to our new babes. 

Also, I will do a post in the next few days in regards to our wonderful trip last week to Vegas for work.  It was a great seminar!  We really enjoyed it!

Coffee Fundraising

There is this amazing company that offers fundraising for adoptive families.  They are a fair trade coffee company that offers great coffee at great prices.  We have set up an online store through them and they are going to donate $5 from every bag of coffee sold to our adoption!  Simple as that!  This is where you come in!  They have all sorts of coffees to choose from.  They also have a program set up where you can get coffee automatically sent to you monthly or every other month.  Our store site is :  www.justlovecoffee.com/thesimmons   Go, buy coffee!  Enjoy!  This is an easy way to help support us and our adoption.  Its a win/win situation - you get great coffee and you get to help support us in bringing our babies home.   Tell your friends and family!   There is also a link on the top right column of our blog page that will take you directly to our store site for your convenience.

Also - Just for you Dave and Kristen - I just realized that the coffee company is based out of Murfreesboro!  How fun is that!  :)

Quick Update

I just received an email for our agency.  They recevied our dossier.  A few minor corrections, but nothing too major and our dossier is good to go!  We just have to wait for our I-171 approval before it gets sent to Ethiopia.  Pray with us that the few corrections are as easy as they seem and that our fingerprint appt. comes quickly and we get our I-171 in record time! 

December in a nutshell

This December was packed to the brim with family!   We love our family so much and are so thankful we were able to spend time with most all of them this Christmas season.  Our first Christmas was the weekend of the 11th in Colorado Springs with Dan's side of the family at his mom's house.  We did not have the opportunity to see his dad, but hope to visit them this spring sometime.  We had a great time opening presents, eating, and making gingerbread houses!  It was a great time!

 Before we left, Grandma Betty and Grandpa Al decided they wanted to go to build a bear and get Mason a suffed bear.  He finally, after much work, decided on a really soft stuffed dog.  He loves dogs so Dan and I knew the moment we walked into the place what he would choose.  Here he is giving his new doggy a hug.

 And then, sticking his finger in his mouth.  It's what he does to our dog quite frequently, and I am pretty sure what he does to the babysitters dogs, so why should this one be any different?  He then proceeded to fall asleep while we had the dog stuffed and sewed up!  At least he got to pick out the one he wanted!

 Then, that week, we had Tara's sister's kids Christmas programs.  We didn't get any pictures at Brendan's program, but he did great!  Here is Trevor and Macy at their program.  Trevor is the one in the middle that looks like he is bored out of his mind!  He really does not like things like this!

 Macy is the sweet little angel int he middle.

 That same week, Tara's dad was here and we were all able to get together a couple of times.  One was a nice Christmas meal and then, of course, presents.  Mason got a big car carrier!  He loves anything to do with cars/trucks!

 This is just a cute picture from later that week.  Mason is just getting home with Dan from being at the office with me.  He has his backpack (which is his diaper bag) and then Dan's old lunchbox from when he was a kid, which he uses to put the cars in he is going to take with him when we go places.

 Finally, Christmas eve rolls around!  We did not go to service at our church, but instead went with my grandmother to her service (which was earlier) and then had a yummy dinner at my Aunt Rhonda's house.  It was nice to just hang out.  Some of the cousins were there and the kids were able to play together some. 

Christmas mornign is finally here!  It was our first Christmas as a family of three and the first year that Dan and I got gifts for each other!  It was a great time!  Mason fell asleep in the truck on the way home from Aunt Rhondas, so slept in his slacks and suit coat (his shirt had been taken off for the spagetti dinner the night before).  We woke up to stockings for each of us.  Mason wasnt too sure about it all, until he got to the oreos! 

We then all got ready for the day and I made breakfast (Grandma Betty and Grandpa Al had come for a visit).  We were all dressed and ready for the day, and Mason still wanted his oreos!  Dan read the Chrstimas story to us before we opened presents.  We liked the idea from Ashley and Travis (a couple we traveled with when we picked up Mason) and have decided to only get our children three gifts each year.  Christ was given three gift from the kings and we are going to get our children each a spiritual gift, a need gift, and a want gift. 

 Here is Dan reading the Christmas story.

 Mason opening his spirtual gift.  He got a wooden nativity set of his own that he could play with.  he kept wanting to play with ours, but it was off limits to him, so now he has one that he is free to play with when he wants. 

 His need wasn't as exciting (training pants and lotion) and then his want... oh how he loved it!  It is a big truck with boat trailer and boat! 

 We then quickly went to Grandma Fuller's place for Christams with all of Tara's family.  Mason was getting sick, so he was out it for most of the day.  Here he is chilling out with uncle Steve.

Some of Tara's family haning out waiting for lunch to start.

 Mason sitting on cousin Michelle and then laying down and taking a nap with her!

 After dinner, getting ready to open presents, the kids were so patient.  Mason slept through all this.  He woke up later to open his own presents.

 Back at home, Mason sat and played with his nativity set.

 Betty and Al spent most of the week after Christmas at our house.  Unfortunately, Dan, Mason and Al were all sick.  I had to work, and Betty set to work painting the inside of our house.  I don't have any picutres of her working unfortunately, but I will get a picture of my beautiful dining room!  It went from bright red to two beautiful shades of yellow!  I love it!  They left of Thursday morning.  That night, Mason decided that instead of telling us he was tired, he would just kick the dog out of his bed and lay down in his place. 

 Then on New Year's Eve day, we finally got all our dossier together, got the check written and it in the mail.  The I-600A was mailed out as well.  We are on our way!  We are so excited to get things moving along once again!  We are so anxious to see/meet our next two!  Pray with us that things move quickly and that God prepares and provides for all of us!