Great America - Opening Day

We knew we would not be taking our annual trip to Green Bay this year (sad to say this is the first Packers Training Camp we will be missing since the boys arrived home - not to fear though, we will be back next year!)  So we used that money instead to buy season passes to Great America, which is only a short distance from our house.  It will be a great place for Mommy and the boys to visit while Daddy is sleeping on Sundays and some great Daddy and boys time on Thursdays and Fridays (Daddy's days off of work).

Friends took the boys and I to the park last year and to say the boys had an incredible time would be an understatement!!  We know this year will be a blast.

We went for a few hours on opening day - a perfect sunny, spring day!  The first ride we went on was "too slow" according to the boys (which is why Mommy liked it).  So then we headed to the Demon, which Mike and the boys rode twice, once in the front car and once in the back - and LOVED it!  Then we did one of the two kid areas.

The promise of a fun summer!

Waiting for the plane ride to begin - my copilots!

John smiling down at me!

LOVE the poses!

All that's left of the car rides from when I was a little girl - I had fun being a back seat driver!

Getting Ready for Danny - the Crib

In the midst of waiting, we are focusing on the fun that goes with getting ready for Danny to come home!

Mike and Ryan recently put the crib up in the boys' room:

Getting all the pieces out!

Ryan hard at work (can't even tell this is a posed shot - can you!)

All done!

Now lest you all think John is not excited about Danny's arrival and thus didn't want to help put the crib together - rest assured.  He is very excited; however, he was more excited about his new DS game at the moment.

May Adoption Update

Good news – we have moved on to the next step in our journey to bring Danny home!!  

Not so great news – this step is going to take longer than originally thought.  The US Embassy in country will begin an investigation of our adoption process this month.  What was originally a 2-6 week estimated time span has increased to 3-6 months.  (LOTS more adoptions – yeah! Not an increase in staff size – not yeah.)

After the investigation is complete, our agency will make an appointment with the Embassy to drop our paperwork off with them so we can obtain Danny’s visa.  Once we have the visa, the in country agency that issues exit letters (we need this to leave the country), will do their own 1-2 week investigate (a new step), and THEN we’ll be able to book our tickets!!

So all that said, we have no idea when we will be traveling to bring Danny.  We know he will arrive home not a day later than God has planned but of course not as soon as we’d like.  I am encouraged by a good friend who said, “I must need more just me and John and Ryan time.”

I am also encouraged by the following song lyrics from Chris Tomlin’s song Sovereign:

In your everlasting arms
All the pieces of my life
From beginning to the end
I can trust you

In your never failing love
You work everything for good
God whatever comes my way
I will trust you

And of course, I am SO encouraged by all our family and friends' prayers, support, and love!  Please continue to pray that Danny stay healthy and happy.  Pray that if it is God’s will, the staff size would be increased at the US Embassy in country.

God is the God of miracles – so we will also be praying for MIGHTY miracles!

Danny's Care Package

Our agency allows one care package to be sent as we wait.  We had a BLAST finding stuff to send Danny (we actually sent it in December and amazingly enough were able to find 3 short sleeve shirts to choose from!).  John and Ryan each chose a shirt and socks.  We splurged on a recordable teddy bear from Hallmark and recorded a "Hello - we love you!" message to Danny so he could hear our voices when he squeezes the bear's tummy.  I made a photo book with pictures of all of us, the kittens, our house, and the back yard, all with captions both in English and his native language (found a great translation web site!). Then we added Superman pajamas complete with cape, two toy cars, and a ball.  We also added some candy cane hand soap (the boys chose the scent), extra batteries for the bear and a screwdriver, and a note to the foster mama.  And believe it or not, I managed to squeeze it all into the child size fire truck back pack!  (Although a couple weeks later in our agency's monthly update, we were requested to not over stuff the back packs - oops!)

Sending some love to our boy!

Our hope as he opened the back back was that he would be excited and happy to see the toys, not too freaked out by pictures of a white American Mom and Dad, and comforted that two older brothers have the same color skin as he does.

We bought two more of the same back back - we'll take one with us when we travel and the boys will fill one with stuff for him for when we all come home.  Hoping that seeing the same back pack will be a calming sense of familiar for him.

Danny Update!

We’re getting closer! 

We submitted another form to the federal government last week and are approximately 4 weeks away from approval.  Once we have that approval we’ll be on to the last step before bringing Danny home!  The US Embassy in country will conduct an investigation and interviews before issuing his visa, which because they have been flooded with adoptions, might take 3-6 month.  We are really praying it will be closer to three months than six. 

NEXT STEPS: Completing two more forms for our agency and getting them notarized and, along with copies of tax returns, in the mail.

PRAISE: That each day we are one day closer to bringing Danny home (and that most days I can look at it that way and not, "Why isn’t he here yet!!??").  Another praise - two good friends offering to host a Cheesecake Tasting Fundraiser in which vouchers will be available to purchase some of my cheesecakes.  All money raised will go toward Danny’s plane ticket!

PRAYER: We would love prayer as we wait – to not be discouraged and stay focused on things we can do here to get ready (put up Danny’s crib, make a list for Gramma and Aunt Sarah of foods John and Ryan like as that’s where they’ll be when we travel.).  We also need to make a decision about travel in the next couple of weeks.  We are 95% (okay, Mike is 110% sure and I am still slightly unsure) sure we want to put would love prayers for the Lord to reveal if this is His plan for us.

America World Adoption Seminar

An America World Adoption seminar is coming to Northwest Community Christian Church in Mundelein, Illinois on Saturday, April 13, 2012 from 10am to noon.  The free two-hour “Adopted by Design” seminar helps families to understand the blessings and the process of international adoption.

For more information about America World or to register, please visit their website: www.awaa.org and click the “Events” link at the top of the page.

Please share this information with those you think might be interested!  And if you live in the Lake County area and your church might be interested in hosting its own seminar this fall, please let me know!!

02/16/13 - 3 years ago today ...

... was the day we got these two little boys!

Upside down glasses boy! - February 2010

I caught one! - February 2010

We had meet them the day before at our agency's Transition House and then went back the next day to take them with us.  So all today we talked about what had been happening 3 years ago - we were shopping before we came to get you, we were driving in the van, Daddy had had his first experience with a poopy diaper (without Mommy there and without knowing what wet wipes were - ha!), John had locked the bedroom door and turned the volume REALLY loud (at the same time as the poopy diaper so also without Mommy there - double ha!), and now Mommy had gotten back and could tell by the look on Daddy's face it had been a rough time.

Meeting for the first time! February 15, 2010 

Watching the video tonight I cannot believe it has been three years and I cannot believe the boys were so small!  What an amazing week in Ethiopia it was!  We are so grateful to America World, our international agency, and so blessed to have spent the week with 7 other families.  Our God's Plan A for us is sooooo good!!!!

Ethiopian Christmas 2013

But it made us want to get on a plane and go get Danny, too.  All in His perfect timing.

Danny Update

Everything is moving right along in the legal process for bringing Danny home!  His passport was ready the end of January and we have the Adoption Decree (in French).  We are waiting for three other legal documents, in French, and then all four legal documents to be translated.  Then we will be able to move to the next step – more paperwork to the government!  Then a few steps with the US Embassy in country - and then he'll be home!!!!

We might experience a slight hiccup which could increase our wait time in bringing him home though.  We heard from our international agency last week that the US Embassy in country has been flooded with adoptions and paperwork lately.  They are not increasing their staff size and so estimated time for embassy investigations has increased from 2-6 weeks to 3-6 months.  However, they are able to begin the investigations 6 weeks earlier.  So it’s not yet known how much, if at all, it will slow the process down.  We know that Danny will not come home one day late!! (Even though we wish he was home yesterday!)

We so appreciate everyone’s excitement and cannot tell you how blessed we are by that.  We would ask that you continue to pray for Danny – specifically that he remain healthy and that he be happy each day.  We also ask for continued prayer for an accurate and speedy legal and paperwork process.  And we ask for prayer for peace in God’s timetable and joy in the preparations of getting ready to add to our family.

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

Ryan was playing King of the Cats today and needed a place to sit, hence the stacked pillows.  The second picture is when he took his crown off to eat lunch - cute but made me feel kind of sad!

Conversations with a 6 Year Old

I was - amazingly - able to keep a straight face during these recent conversations with Ryan:

Conversation after the TV was turned off:
Ryan: I LOVE television!
Mommy (thinking this is a teachable moment): Oh, there should be more things you love besides television. (thinking he'll say something like his family, God, playing outside, etc.)
Ryan: (without missing a beat): I do! I love dessert ... I love chocolate and chocolate fudge and brownies ...

Conversation during this morning's kids' devotional:
Mommy (reading from the book, the point of this entry being God loves forever): God loves when you're at school, when your at home, when you're sad and when you're sick, when you're kind, when you're mad, when you're young and when you're old, and even when you disobey.
Ryan: And then what happens?  You die?