We didn't find this one until Tuesday morning. It was on top of the entertainment center and kind of blended in with some Thanksgiving decorations.
HOW COOL IS THAT!
Hidden Surprises
We recently traveled to Ohio for the weekend to visit friends. Amy's Mom took care of our cat Scout while we were gone. When I (Amy) went to sort through the mail on the kitchen table Monday night after returning home, this was peeking over the bread maker at me!
Overwhelmed by Others' Generousity
While this heading could describe our whole adoption experience, we have recently been blessed with many items from friends.
In addition, a bag of 4T shirts, pants, socks, and shoes showed up on our porch step this week. Not sure who they are from (if someone told me they were going to bring them by, sorry, I can't remember!)
Clothes, clothes, and more clothes! Mike and I had a BLAST looking through everything and sorting it all by size to put in drawers. If these all fit, Ryan should be set for winter! And there are enough pajamas for John too! Thanks Tracy and Kathy!!!
These items traveled back with us from Ohio where some friends of ours live. In addition to these fun toys are a toilet seat, bike carrier which attaches to one of our bikes (Mike has so wanted one!), and a wooden chair which will go with an old fashioned desk we have. Thanks Brad, Jenny, Jordyn, Josie, and Brock!!
Mike had a little free time one day:
In addition, a bag of 4T shirts, pants, socks, and shoes showed up on our porch step this week. Not sure who they are from (if someone told me they were going to bring them by, sorry, I can't remember!)
Finally, a friend had a new furnace put in last week and used the company we have used in the past and recommended to her, JM Heating here in Grayslake. She said we might receive a financial gift as a thank you from them. The company did a check of our address to verify that we were still here and were led by their search to this blog. So not only did we receive a check for $50 but also a beautiful note and congratulations gift, a complimentary furnace tune up so our furnace will be "in tip top shape for [our] sons' arrival." This brought tears to my eyes!!
We are blown away by the kindness of others and so humbled by their love for us. We have so, so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving!!!
11/21/09 - We mail our second care package
Our second care package was mailed to Oklahoma today! Another family traveling to get their child, leaving on December 6th, will be bringing some more love to our boys! This time the boys are receiving an ABC photo book (a different picture on each page with the word in English, and Amharic and sign language if we could find them), shirts, small plastic dinosaurs, bouncy balls, and granola bars and licorice. We also included a card that we recorded our voices on! So the boys will hear us saying their names, telling them we love them, and that we will be coming for them soon!!
Our first care package will be delivered to the boys sometimes (I think) Tuesday, November 24th!! As we are sleeping Monday night, the boys will be seeing our faces for the first time!!!
Our first care package will be delivered to the boys sometimes (I think) Tuesday, November 24th!! As we are sleeping Monday night, the boys will be seeing our faces for the first time!!!
Interesting Questions and Comments
So we have fully been preparing for interesting questions and comments about our family when we return from Ethiopia, but I didn't expect them to start before the boys were even here! Here are some things we've been met with so far when strangers find out we are adopting two little boys from Ethiopia.
Comment: "Oh, isn't there AIDS there?"
(my first thought: Wow, that's an interesting first comment!)
My Answer: Actually there's AIDS throughout the world, so yes there's AIDS there. And a person who is HIV positive and is actually able to live a wonderful life! (Thanks Yahoo Group!)
Comment: "There's tons of kids here to adopt, why are you going half way around the world?" (and usually not said in a pleasant tone.)
(my first thought: Well, let me just tell you some of the pain we experienced when we tried that!)
My Answer: We tried that before and it wasn't successful.
Comment: "So you can't have children?"
(my first thought: Well that's none of your business!)
My Answer: Actually, this is God's plan for me.
Comment: "So it's kind of like buying a kid, isn't it?"
(my first thought: Ah, no!)
My Answer: No, you're not buying a child. You are paying the legal, international, and program fees.
But with these few comments from strangers have been HUNDREDS if not THOUSANDS of comments - from people who have never met us before - of genuine excitement, joy, congratulations, and encouragement.
And it's good practice before the boys are here at praying and answering in a calm manner and voice when these crazy questions and comments come!
Comment: "Oh, isn't there AIDS there?"
(my first thought: Wow, that's an interesting first comment!)
My Answer: Actually there's AIDS throughout the world, so yes there's AIDS there. And a person who is HIV positive and is actually able to live a wonderful life! (Thanks Yahoo Group!)
Comment: "There's tons of kids here to adopt, why are you going half way around the world?" (and usually not said in a pleasant tone.)
(my first thought: Well, let me just tell you some of the pain we experienced when we tried that!)
My Answer: We tried that before and it wasn't successful.
Comment: "So you can't have children?"
(my first thought: Well that's none of your business!)
My Answer: Actually, this is God's plan for me.
Comment: "So it's kind of like buying a kid, isn't it?"
(my first thought: Ah, no!)
My Answer: No, you're not buying a child. You are paying the legal, international, and program fees.
But with these few comments from strangers have been HUNDREDS if not THOUSANDS of comments - from people who have never met us before - of genuine excitement, joy, congratulations, and encouragement.
And it's good practice before the boys are here at praying and answering in a calm manner and voice when these crazy questions and comments come!
11/12/09 - We have a court date!!!!
An email arrived today telling us that we have a court date on December 2nd!!!!!
Mike was actually checking email when I walked in to the room to talk to him. I was looking over his shoulder at the in box as he was talking and saw a message from Anna Graham, from America World our international agency, with the subject "Court Date." I leaned over Mike, opened the email, scanned down to find December 2 in bold and italicized, and screamed right in Mike's ear!! All the while he is saying who's this? what's going on? when's our court date? Then I did a happy dance, looked at the calendar and realized December 2 is only two and a half weeks away!!! WOW!!!
PRAISE: Please join us in praising God for how quick this part of the adoption is going! While we thought we would know by the end of the month when our court date was and had hoped and prayed it would be in December, we never dreamed we would know this soon or that court would be in early December!
PRAYER: Our paperwork - our home study update (we increased our age range) must be approved by IL DCFS, then sent to federal USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services), which must also approve it and send the updates information to NVC (National Visa Center) which must send the corrected information to the Ethiopian Embassy in Addis Ababa. If that all sounds confusing, it is! And it has not been an easy process for anyone in our Yahoo Group who has gone through it. But without the paperwork in Ethiopia, we can't book a flight and travel. So if you will simply pray for "everything adoption" we'd be grateful!!!!!!
God already knows when our successful court date will be, when our updated paperwork will arrive in Ethiopia, and we will will travel to bring the boys home. The K-Love verse this morning says it all - Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5 That's what we plan on doing over the next two months!!!
Mike was actually checking email when I walked in to the room to talk to him. I was looking over his shoulder at the in box as he was talking and saw a message from Anna Graham, from America World our international agency, with the subject "Court Date." I leaned over Mike, opened the email, scanned down to find December 2 in bold and italicized, and screamed right in Mike's ear!! All the while he is saying who's this? what's going on? when's our court date? Then I did a happy dance, looked at the calendar and realized December 2 is only two and a half weeks away!!! WOW!!!
PRAISE: Please join us in praising God for how quick this part of the adoption is going! While we thought we would know by the end of the month when our court date was and had hoped and prayed it would be in December, we never dreamed we would know this soon or that court would be in early December!
PRAYER: Our paperwork - our home study update (we increased our age range) must be approved by IL DCFS, then sent to federal USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services), which must also approve it and send the updates information to NVC (National Visa Center) which must send the corrected information to the Ethiopian Embassy in Addis Ababa. If that all sounds confusing, it is! And it has not been an easy process for anyone in our Yahoo Group who has gone through it. But without the paperwork in Ethiopia, we can't book a flight and travel. So if you will simply pray for "everything adoption" we'd be grateful!!!!!!
God already knows when our successful court date will be, when our updated paperwork will arrive in Ethiopia, and we will will travel to bring the boys home. The K-Love verse this morning says it all - Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5 That's what we plan on doing over the next two months!!!
10/31/09 - Halloween Pumpkin
I got this idea from a fellow Yahoo Group member's pumpkin last year - pretty cool:
10/28/09 - The New Bedspread Arrives!
A surprise came in the mail today - the boys' bedspread! This is the perfect bedspread as it contains the three favorite sports of our family: baseball (Amy), football (Mike), and soccer (everyone in Ethiopia!).
It is a beautiful quilt and reminds me of something my Aunt Mary would have made. Can't wait to tuck two little boys in at night!!!
It is a beautiful quilt and reminds me of something my Aunt Mary would have made. Can't wait to tuck two little boys in at night!!!
10/23/09 - Accepting Our Referral
Can you guess whose pictures are in the picture frame on the table as we are signing the referral acceptance letter!? We visited FedEX right after this and our letter should arrive at America World's, our international agency, main office by Tuesday. Then sometime next week, someone in Ethiopia will be telling our two little boys about their Forever Mommy and Forever Daddy here in the United States.
10/21/09 - Care Package (and a few other things) Shopping
We are able to send care packages to the boys in Ethiopia through the generosity of those traveling before us. A sweet friend Meg on my Yahoo Group answered my question, which asked if anyone traveling had room to take care packages with a "Why yes I do ... for two little boys!" 
So each of the boys will get a soccer shirt, two cars, a magnifying glass, a little notebook and crayons, really cool hologram animal stickers, and a photo album (that's the white, blank looking thing! It's awaiting pictures).
We went shopping the night after the referral to find little treasures to tuck each each of the boys' gallon zip lock care packages:
So each of the boys will get a soccer shirt, two cars, a magnifying glass, a little notebook and crayons, really cool hologram animal stickers, and a photo album (that's the white, blank looking thing! It's awaiting pictures).We also found a few other things:
Gotta love the Dollar Store! These will fit so well with the castle play set in the back yard - and of course there are two sets!!
And these shirts were too cute, and completely seem appropriate if you've seen Younger Brother's smile!
And I wanted matching pajamas for the boys. I remember my Mom dressing my brother and I in matching Winnie the Pooh pajamas from Sears when we were little and as an adult I think we looked adorable! Those are footballs on these matching pajamas.
And if you're wondering, a new bedspread that will be much more boyish is on the way!
10/20/09 - The Stork Has Landed!!!
We are beyond excited to announce that we are the very proud and blessed parents of two beautiful little boys!
I (Amy) received the call at work Tuesday morning. Since Mike had worked the night before, he did not wake up when the phone rang at home. We had already agreed that we wanted to hear the news together, so my work graciously sent another teacher into my room so I could go home and wake Mike up! It was the longest car ride home ever but I drove the speed limit because I didn't want to get a ticket on the way home to hear referral information!!! Mike heard me come in the door and thought, "The phone rang awhile ago, and now I hear the front door opening, maybe I should get up and make sure everything is okay." After telling me this, I just smiled and said, "It's Referral Day!"
We went downstairs and called back Nicole, our Family Coordinator at our international adoption agency, - and she was on lunch!! I then called the 800 number to ask if they could search the office for her. After waiting about 5 minutes, the wonderful receptionist came back on to say she couldn't find Nicole anywhere! So we thanked her and I started cleaning the house as I knew people would be coming over that evening!!! We only had to wait about 15 minutes, the phone rang, the caller ID said America World, and we heard the wonderful words, "We have two little boys for you!"
We are not allowed to post their pictures, ages, or personal information until after they legally become ours, but I can tell you John Michael E*** and Ryan Elijah E***** are healthy and loved!
Please join us in praising God - these are the children He had chosen to entrust to us since before the beginning of time!!
NEXT STEPS:
1. Sign our referral acceptance letter and return it to our agency America World. Once they receive it, they can petition the courts in Ethiopia for a court date.
2. Approximately 3 weeks from now, we should find out when our court date will be. We are GUESSING end of December or beginning of January. A week or so after finding out our court date, we will be issued tentative travel dates.
3. Once we pass court, we would travel 2-3 weeks after to bring the boys home! 40% of families do not pass court the first time for a variety of reasons (the judge decided not to come in that day, loss of electricity, something is not in order with our paperwork or the orphanage's paperwork, a birth family relative is not able to arrive on that day, and many, many other reasons). If our first court date is not successful, our agency would work to fix whatever needs fixing, and then we would be assigned another court date. That new date could be a few days or weeks later.
While all this is going on, our home study age range is being updated from 0-3 years old to 0-6 years old. We began this process in September and right now are waiting for approval from Illinois DCFS Inter Country Coordinator. Once we have that approval, our wonderful social worker Faith will forward the information to USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services). USCIS will then approve it - hopefully the first time! - and the information will be forwarded to Ethiopia. Ethiopia must have the correct information before we can travel to get the boys. At this point we are not worried about the time frame for all of this, and we are praying for that feeling to continue!!
PRAISE AND PRAYER: We are beyond blessed to not only receive a referral for two healthy, handsome boys, but to have received it so much earlier than we thought we would (we were thinking February) and to have so, so, so many family members and friends just as excited as we are!!! Please pray for our boys in Ethiopia - that they would feel safe, that they would be loved, and that they would continue to be healthy and gain weight. Please pray also that the updating of our home study would be a smooth and quick process!!
I (Amy) received the call at work Tuesday morning. Since Mike had worked the night before, he did not wake up when the phone rang at home. We had already agreed that we wanted to hear the news together, so my work graciously sent another teacher into my room so I could go home and wake Mike up! It was the longest car ride home ever but I drove the speed limit because I didn't want to get a ticket on the way home to hear referral information!!! Mike heard me come in the door and thought, "The phone rang awhile ago, and now I hear the front door opening, maybe I should get up and make sure everything is okay." After telling me this, I just smiled and said, "It's Referral Day!"
We went downstairs and called back Nicole, our Family Coordinator at our international adoption agency, - and she was on lunch!! I then called the 800 number to ask if they could search the office for her. After waiting about 5 minutes, the wonderful receptionist came back on to say she couldn't find Nicole anywhere! So we thanked her and I started cleaning the house as I knew people would be coming over that evening!!! We only had to wait about 15 minutes, the phone rang, the caller ID said America World, and we heard the wonderful words, "We have two little boys for you!"
We are not allowed to post their pictures, ages, or personal information until after they legally become ours, but I can tell you John Michael E*** and Ryan Elijah E***** are healthy and loved!
Please join us in praising God - these are the children He had chosen to entrust to us since before the beginning of time!!
NEXT STEPS:
1. Sign our referral acceptance letter and return it to our agency America World. Once they receive it, they can petition the courts in Ethiopia for a court date.
2. Approximately 3 weeks from now, we should find out when our court date will be. We are GUESSING end of December or beginning of January. A week or so after finding out our court date, we will be issued tentative travel dates.
3. Once we pass court, we would travel 2-3 weeks after to bring the boys home! 40% of families do not pass court the first time for a variety of reasons (the judge decided not to come in that day, loss of electricity, something is not in order with our paperwork or the orphanage's paperwork, a birth family relative is not able to arrive on that day, and many, many other reasons). If our first court date is not successful, our agency would work to fix whatever needs fixing, and then we would be assigned another court date. That new date could be a few days or weeks later.
While all this is going on, our home study age range is being updated from 0-3 years old to 0-6 years old. We began this process in September and right now are waiting for approval from Illinois DCFS Inter Country Coordinator. Once we have that approval, our wonderful social worker Faith will forward the information to USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services). USCIS will then approve it - hopefully the first time! - and the information will be forwarded to Ethiopia. Ethiopia must have the correct information before we can travel to get the boys. At this point we are not worried about the time frame for all of this, and we are praying for that feeling to continue!!
PRAISE AND PRAYER: We are beyond blessed to not only receive a referral for two healthy, handsome boys, but to have received it so much earlier than we thought we would (we were thinking February) and to have so, so, so many family members and friends just as excited as we are!!! Please pray for our boys in Ethiopia - that they would feel safe, that they would be loved, and that they would continue to be healthy and gain weight. Please pray also that the updating of our home study would be a smooth and quick process!!
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