Group A

We just found out the R's case was submitted to court in Ethiopia on January 15th. We now wait for our actual court date with the rest of the families in Group A. It should be in the next 8 weeks. Yeah!
Until next time...

What a wonderful surprise!

The agency we are using for our Ethiopian adoption is Adoption Advocates International. They have a Yahoo group for only those families who are adopting or have adopted Ethiopian children from AAI. Recently, many families have travelled to pick up their children and have taken photos of other child/ren in the orphanage. Then they post all the photos to Snapfish so other families can check (obsessively) for new photos of their child/ren. Well, last night we received new photos and there was a post on Yahoo about a little girl in the orphanage. It happened to be our little girl. This family was on a return trip to Ethiopia. Here is a little bit from their blog

"I was asking John on the way home from the airport if Sue had any life changing moments from the trip. He said she had a great time, but asked what I meant by life changing. So I said, "For instance does she want to go back and volunteer now?"
Yes, she just may. But she would have adopted a child as well if she had the financial means to. One child in particular spotted her, held out her hands, and said "mama". Of course Sue was in tears, took the child and enjoyed holding her for a bit. When they were ready to leave the child followed her and didn't want Sue to go."

Isn't that sweet, and also sad that she didn't want her to leave. I just love that other people are able to give our little girl some love and attention until we get to bring her home. This young lady would like to keep in touch with us - I think that is so great!

Until next time...

So Excited...

We just received over 20 new photos of our little girl in Ethiopia. There were several families that took Christmas to her orphanage and also took great photos. We feel very blessed to have so many photos so soon.

Since this is our first post about our daughter...here is the important information. We found out about her right before Christmas and accepted her referral on Jan. 6th.
She is around 2 years old and beautiful! As soon as we pass court we can give you more information and lots of pictures. We hope she will be home this summer.

Attached is a photo of some of the things we sent to her (Mizzou onesies, photo album, blanket and toy). She should get it this week.

My cute kids!

My sweet girls! We were at Bass Pro.

I love Riley's new face! I don't think he wanted to be at the doctor's office again.

Ethan is really into cooking! He is really good at it, too.

The shirt says it all - just ask Devin.

He must have loved dinner!

Snow Snow Snow

We have had a lot of snow. The kids almost got an extra week of school off for break. They loved it.
Here are a few snow photos.

Christmas - A little late as usual

It was an awesome Christmas. We left on the Wednesday before Christmas to visit Debbie's parents in Oklahoma. So glad we did, because on Christmas Eve (Thurs.) the Oklahoma blizzard started. It was a whopping 14.3 inches!! We had a great time with Grandpa and Grandma T., Uncle Brad, Aunt Dawn and cousin Dylan. They played games, watched movies and even had a tea party!
Then we left on Saturday and headed to Chris' parents. The roads were decent (except for Tulsa). We then celebrated Sunday with grandparents, great grandparents, Aunts and Uncles and lots of cousins.
It was a great holiday. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful family.