31.5.09

Watch this.

Check out this video about our agency's work in Ethiopia... or, Ee-TYO-pia, as I'm going to start calling G's homeland.

29.5.09

Two weeks away

In two weeks, our agency's Ethiopian director will go to our court date for us, in Addis Ababa. God willing, everything will be present and perfect and we'll pass. Please pray. It is so close! Ah! Fourteen days and counting down...

26.5.09

Rob's tour of south-eastern Wisconsin

Oh man! Rob left before six this morning. He went to the east-side of Milwaukee, he went to Madison for about ten minutes, and then he went to work in Kenosha. All of this for four pieces of paper... yikes! All of this for our son... no sweat! Ah, perspective.

Please pray that FedEx safely, correctly, and timely delivers (Or, subjunctive?) our papers to Michigan. Pray that Michigan sends them (with all of the same adverbs) to D.C. Pray that these same papers get to Ethiopia with enough time so as not to affect negatively our court date. And pray that we pass on the first try. Please pray that G stays healthy and grows stronger each day... not He-man style, but you know...

Karochye (As the Russians say...), pray!

24.5.09

A change of attitude

I called the Wisconsin Secretary of State "stinking" in my last post. I've now had a change of attitude. As I was praying before a dinner of Thai pasta with my sister tonight, the thanks just came out. Thanks, Holy Spirit.

We did, as I had prayed for, receive our papers back in one day. This quickness allows us time to go to Madison to have them re-done. Had it taken longer, we wouldn't have the time to get the fix.

God knows. God is good... "all of the time!"

23.5.09

Yes!!!!!!! NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, we had to re-do some of our paperwork in order to work towards bringing G home. We sent it out the other day and it came back in the mail today... all state-sealed. Yes!

However, upon further inspection, the stinking Secretary of State made a huge mistake... four times in a row! NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So now, in order to get everything in on time, Rob and/or I will have to go to Madison, in person, on Tuesday, to have it all re-done.

Up, down. Yes, no. Ah, la vie. Oui, j'ai dit "la vie." Qu'est-ce que tu vas dire, dSdlcc?

21.5.09

COURT DATE!!!

Last evening, Rob and I found out that our Ethiopian court date is 12 June! This has happened a LOT more quickly than I had imagined. I was thinking that it would be around the end of July! Wahoo!!!!

Rob came to my work around six last evening, with some papers behind his back and an elated grin on his face. I couldn't even imagine what his secret was. After what seemed like forever, scouring my brain for a clue, he told me the great news.

There are, however, some very important papers in transit. Please pray that these papers get back to us, with no mistakes, early next week. Thank you. Also, please pray that we pass court on the first try and that G stays healthy. Gracias, again.

WAHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

17.5.09

A new friend

The man at our church in charge of international student ministries (?) met an Ethiopian guy recently and e-introduced us. Tonight, we had "the King" over for dinner. We talked about a lot of things, including Ethiopia, for which I was grateful. He also tried to convince me that although Amharigna has 33 x 7 characters in its syllabary, it's actually quite easy to learn. (Okay, I'll try again.) AND, he pronounced our son's "amazing" name a few times so that we could get it just right. We definitely have the first name down, but we have some work to do on the third syllable of his second name. Again, we have time... Thank God for this connection.

In under two minutes?

So, a friend of ours timed Rob today, putting up the playpen. Unfortunately, at about a minute through, said friend had to drop his watch to help poor 'Berto. (In his defense, a bar was loose/broken and so quite out of place.) Well, at least we have another couple of months for him to practice! We'll start the intense training tomorrow.

13.5.09

A perfect match!



Today, Rob brought home this book, a gift from a co-worker. (Thanks, D.C.!) Look at that fitting title!

10.5.09

Mothers' Day

Today began with a delicious Sunday breakfast of hashbrowns à la Roberto, followed by a surprise Mothers' Day gift: an Anthropologie gift card. Wahoo! To top it off, I didn't have to work today... my only day off for the week. Next year, GTIRS will be here to help celebrate, God willing.

7.5.09

Check!

Today, with the help of our social worker, we filled out all of the remaining paperwork to bring G home. We've done what we can, and now we're back to waiting... for a court date. I'm trying not to think about this wait, but instead trying to focus on memorizing G's photo and getting ready for him physically. I don't want to focus on future events, but instead be here now. (The recent news of tons of over-time should help me here!)

Thank God for his help today!

6.5.09

Incroyable

There really isn't much to report, other than that Rob and I will turn in our official acceptance paperwork tomorrow. Wahoo! Every little step is so big in adoption... pre- and post-.

Other than that, we are simply getting used to the idea of G. I keep looking at his photo, thinking, "Is this for real? Will this child really come home here to live with us?" It's rather incredible.

Please pray that he stays healthy and grows strong. Please pray that the orphanage has what it needs to take care of all of the children there. Please pray that all of the children waiting to come home will be assigned court dates in the very near future and that everyone will pass on the first time. Thank you.

2.5.09

Sharing the news

So, my mom, whom I think we will call GranD (What do you think?), was one of the last to find out about our sweet son. (Ironic? Yes.) Anyways, it's only because she was on a plane to L.A. to visit my sister, whom we will call Auntie LACA.

This was how my sister greeted her at the airport.



We were really hoping that she got it right away and didn't think, even for a minute, that it was my sister having the boy. Shoo!