Two Weeks!

We have a court date of July 7th!!!  We are so excited and preparing to travel.  We have a preliminary hearing the week prior that if we don't pass, we don't go.  So, that means that we go ahead and plan to travel and pray for the best possible outcome.  We are researching tickets to see what kind of deal we can get and anxiously working on lists of things to do before we go and things to pack to take with us! At this point, it's two weeks until we take off!  It's just so exciting that we are finally at this point again!  We can't wait to go meet the two newest members of our family.

CHANGE OF PLANS!!!

We have had a change of plans!  We are NOT going to have a spaghetti dinner.  Due to unforseen things, it is just not going to work.  We were just getting started on advertising for it, so we think it is un-doable.  Sorry to anyone who was planning to come, maybe we will do something later, but as of now, not an option!

SORRY!

Spaghetti Dinner

What:  Spaghetti, the fixings, and dessert!!!
When:  June 18th, 5-8 p.m. - come and go...
Where:  Our backyard!
Why:  To raise funds to bring our babies home!

Come one, Come all!  June 18th, 5-8 p.m. , in our backyard!  We are going to have a yummy spaghetti dinner made by yours truly.  Come when you can, relax, and enjoy dinner and dessert all while supporting the adoption of our two boys!  We are so excited to be going to meet them soon (hopefully... still waiting to hear on our court date - 3 weeks since filed and counting), but we are short on funds! We are trusting God to provide the remainder of our needs.  Please join us in praying for a large gathering as well as stopping by and showing your support if you're local!  We'd love to see you!

We've Been Filed

We've been filed with the courts in Ethiopia!  That is super exciting news!  If things continue following the trend, we should hopefully have a court date in about 2 months!  I am so excited, but am also trying not to get my hopes too high!  There are two little boys that I can't wait to go meet and eventually bring home!

"2 in May"

This is what he had picked up saying when people asked how old he was.  Now we will have to rework it!  Mason is 2!!!  It's so crazy to think that our little boy is 2 today.  I don't think he even cared or understood what that meant.  We got up and I made his favorite breakfast, pancakes and bacon, which he screamed at me the whole time I was cooking because the bacon wasn't ready yet.  He didn't understand why he got a present from his grandma.  he was pretty much a grump most of the day.  We are going to have a small birthday party on Saturday.  Lunch and cake w/ the local fam.  Kids can run and play outside and then we will all load up and go to Macy's dance recital.  Should be a good time.  We are excited about the two new boys and are excited to hear about an upcoming court date!  Here are a few pictures of what we have been up to these past couple months.  I know I wont be able to do a long update post, but I will do a picture update post...

Mason watching Cat in the Hat with Mickey one morning

 Mason got his hair braided for the first time!  He loved it!

 Giving Grandma Betty hugs when she came to visit.

 Then we undid his hair!

          Macy had her first communion - I think she enjoyed her special day!

 Getting ready for our fundraising garage sale. It was all over our backyard and the garage was full of the big stuff!

 The sale did awesome!  Praise God we raised a bit over $2000!  He provides!!!

 The morning of Mason's 2nd birthday!  He wasn't too chipper when the day started!  He wasn't too sure why he was getting a present.

 All in all the day turned out great!  We had a travel conference call for the adoption!  It's exciting to think about our two boys waiting in Ethiopia.  I can't wait for the change it will bring to this household.  I am excited to see Mason play with his new brothers!   More later... I will try and post more frequently!

Finally!!!

Our referral came!   We are so excited!   We got the call this evening!  Dan was at church softball practice when the call came, so I called him and he came rushing home!  We called Sheila and she gave us the news that we have two more baby boys!!!  We are so excited!  We are still trying to pick out names, but the older is 8 months old, and the second is 4 months old. We are so completely thrilled right now and can't wait to move things forward and bring our babies home!!! 

New Fundraising Opportunity

There is a new fundraising opportunity available to us through Ordinary Hero!  OH is an amazing non-profit started by a fellow adoptive mom!  They are doing amazing things in the lives of many here in the US and abroad!  They have started a new fundraising program where we can use this link here or the one on the top right of our blog and sell their product and we will receive 40% of the profits from the sell.  We have decided to do this for numerous reasons.  I have been following this ministry from the start and am so excited for what they are doing!  Also, we have decided that we are going to get all 3 (that just fun to type!) of our kids the gray shirts that say "I'm gonna change the world" for when we come home and meet at the airport!  If you have a second, check out the ministry, but also go to our 'shopping cart' and support OH and us!  OH has also decided to do a matching grant and the first person fundraising that gets to $300 in commissions will get another $300 matched by OH!  How awesome is that!  Let's get going! 

In other fundraising news...  we are doing a garage sale!  The last adoption we did (for Mason) we raised about $5000 doing two garage sales.  We are now collecting stuff for our garage sale for this adoption.  We are planning to do the sale May 6&7 and I am praying that we will reach the $5000 mark again, but this time in only one sale!  We serve a huge God and he can do it!  If you are somewhat local and have items you would like to donate, feel free to give me a call, leave a comment, or email and let me know!  We will gladly pick it up!  We have a huge garage we are collecting it all in now! 
Otherwise, there is no other adoption news!  We are anxiously waiting and just enjoying our time with our little guy now!