Two weeks until court!! well almost.

Here is my plan, clean for the next 2 weeks, cook the third week, and just pack the following two. That is if I leave 3 weeks after court. If that is the case I only have 5 weeks until I hold my little girl!!! A million thoughts race through my head, like will she want to go with me being number one.

My kids are old enough to understand and enjoy this adoption, even Judah smiles when he sees her. I love it when the computer goes to screen saver mode and her happy face just appears smiling at me.

I received some brief information on her, she is smaller than Judah and her given birthdate will be April 2nd. So she is smack dab in the middle of my two youngest and I will always now have two of the same age and sometimes for a few months 3 of the same age, three 4 year olds, three 14 year olds. Oh my gosh, three 16 years olds and one 17 year old. oh my gosh.

I went thought my donation suite case and it is growing, I love it! Okay off to bed, very very tired.

Judah has had a speech explosion

Well my young son Judah has finally arrived. He is talking and a lot!

Tonight he told me " I just joking you, i just tending you" smiling his big charming adorable smile, what he said was he was just kidding with me and that he was pretending. I couldn't believe he was using those kind of words. Then later he told me "I got to the doctor and her fix my talk" pointing to his mouth, he said he didn't want to go to the doctor to fix his talk. I can only imagine he has heard enough from me telling his overdose story that he has finally made the connection that the surgery we had done has helped him hear and in turn speak. He is too cute and getting cuter by the minute. He listens to me sometimes now without the power struggles and is really starting to understand telling the truth! It is like a light is coming on and I am glad to see it. He argues like the dickens and tonight at dinner Mason and him were just going at it, I decided to be a good mom and quote the word of God about contentious men stirring strife, then they started to argue who was contentious, Judah even tried to say the word contentious. He is just becoming more secure and sure of his words and his voice, he is able to tell me things and is becoming increasingly affectionate. I am really happy. Pray that we don't have drastic set backs with Nettie. yikes.

My girl

www.livingloveoutloud.blogspot.com for a small update on our little girl.! I can't wait to find out more information. It is coming in slowly and is never enough but ..... I should also get a profile tomorrow so I am looking forward to finding out her birthdate.

Yahoo we got some news!!!

Okay we got a bit of news today about Nettie Grace, and several pictures!!! I couldn't be happier! She was wearing my little necklace I bought for her and bracelet and playing with the doll I got for her. It was so wierd to see my girl wearing the things I was able to have delivered to her. She also had a little doll with her that she must carry around, how cute. My Abby likes daddies hat, soccer balls and rainbows but not dresses and dolls. She is adorable and in 18 days I will post a picture of her. I think there is still more information on her coming, she is tiny, personable, smiley and comfortable with people. She looks like a size 3 t, so you can imagine. Okay off to bed now.

I am on a diet.

BA hum bug.

never have i felt so lonely.

Leaving you behind late night snacks will be a tearful and sorry goodbye.

Sitting in front of the TV the house finally quiet, millionaire matchmaker doing her job and me loving you chocolate bar melted slightly in the microwave, and popcorn with butter.

Of course I can't and won't forget you diet Pepsi. I may still partake of your bubbly almost guilty free pleasure but, you make me want more, more of the bad sweet stuff that is causing me to be more than I want to be.

Oh, goodbye left over birthday cake and smuggled kids candy, sweet tarts and gold chocolate coins dipped in peanut butter. Goodbye Oreo cookies, special edition strawberry milkshake, kind. I will miss you. Goodbye all things fried and salty I really don't know what I will do without you when I am suffering with the incurable PMS.

I am really lonely at the thought of saying goodbye to my good Ole friends. But you have to know you are not good for me and I want to stick around to raise my kids, to go hiking and bike riding, to actually smile for a picture and not worry how many chins will show.

Friends pray for me as I try ......

My poor dog

Ignore the dirty grout on my tile, but you can obviously see why. This is the kids idea of what is fun. At lunch while they were eating mac and cheese the dog got the brunt end of this game. They were literally laughing as they threw mac and cheese on the little dog begging. How sad. The really sad part is our big dog is gone now so there is noone to eat it off of his back. In the past this is what the routine was when this game was played.

The upside down world of Abby

My four year old.

Says she wants to marry a cat, but it is a secret. Not surprisingly she actually reminds me of a cat. Today she was absolutely fascinated with a golf ball, bouncing it on the tile she watched and chased it for about 15 minutes. Then later outside I realized she was consumed with a bush, her eyes caught site of a tiny bug and she zeroed in on it and chased it. Humm.

My daughter lost her cookies and milk because of certain behaviors, then she told Judah that she would let her have her chores, and with that she got him to share his portion of cookies for her. Like she did him a huge favor and made a great trade off. She gave him her chores for some of his cookies.

The upside down world of Abby. Poor boys they don't know what they are in for.

Check out my new hair do!

Jen did my hair, and she is truly and aritist!!! I knew it was time to do it when my eldest son said, "please don't color you hair red mom i like the two colors it is already, black and yellow" Okay ......... ya.

I feel so good and refreshed for once I have been so consumed with adoption stuff I can't see straight and didn't realize how bad my hair had got. I really don't look in the mirror to often. Thank you Jen I feel so good.

http://beboldjen.blogspot.com/2008/04/hair-fun.html


also the family that was there to give Nettie her package and get her profile left early today, I have no idea if Nettie got her package or what she thought or if she even knows she has a family. The family was supposed to spend saturday with the kids at Hope but they left today. So I have no clue. I hope she got her package and they were able to make her smile.

more later.

God is Good

I have been thinking about doing this journey alone and my final conclusion would be that I don't want to. I spoke with a friend today and she said I should just pray God will bring the right person if it His will and if not then he will provide while I am there. So I just said a short little prayer of sorts and just a few hours later a friend of almost 10 years calls. Our families are close and we share much of the same values and vision for the future as well as our faith. Her husband is a pilot at the same company as mine and she is a world traveler and a pro at non rev travel! She and I wouldn't pay next to nothing to get to Ethiopia! It is perfect and because we don't keep in touch on a regular weekly basis I hadn't even thought of it. God did and that was cool. Neither of us have been away from our kids for that long but I think it will be good for both of us. She and I plan to visit an orphanage in need of supplies and will be able to minister as we go. This will be a mission trip just like I had envisioned. We have gone to Mexico with their family years ago and she knew Gary and I before we were married or had kids!! She has 4 kids and homeschools too! She has always had an amazing heart from missions, adoption and fundraising, and of all days to call, just when I said that little prayer, it was like a light bulb went off and I knew she was the one!! Her husband has the flexibility and they are in the same travel boat as myself. I have been racking my brain for the perfect person to ask and God had her call me. I am blessed.

Adoption news

http://livingloveoutloud.blogspot.com/2008/04/wow-i-could-travel-soon.html

My kids What can I say?

Our church meets in a school building and after church the church members hang out talking in the gymnasium. My kids were running wild, I called Mason over and I asked him to please do something constructive. I walked away to continue chatting and I looked over to see Mason push Abigail down to the ground, laugh and run to climb on the nearest thing to climb on. I excused myself and marched over to him, I got close to his hear and said "What are you doing?" with my teeth clenched. "Nothing mom you told me to do something destructive. " yes, what can I say?

Later that day I heard Abby talking to another four year old girl about heart attacks. I corrected her and told her to change the subject, so gladly she went on to talk platypus's. That night I told her over dinner that heart attacks are not good sugjects for four year old girls to be talking about. She replied "Mother heart attacks are very dangerous and we need to talk about them" again what can I say?

IKEA-AFRICA sounds alike

So my littlest dear Judah was loaded into the car and ready for a big trip to Ikea. He met the trip with much anticipation in fact as I think about it he kept trying to get me off the phone and out of the house. I was wandering why he was so excited. Anyway after the hour long drive to IKEA we pull into the parking lot and he exclaims "I be first to hold sissy!!" I laughed so hard, I said "Do you think we are going to pick sissy up?" he shook his head with his finger in his mouth not really sure, he looked bewildered and I am sure he was thinking weren't we going to Africa? "Kinda baby, Ikea" they got some african looking things, non of which we purchased cause of the below blog post, I won't repeat the whole sorrid thing.

We got a court date!!!!!!!

MAY 15,

That is it!! May 15, we expect to travel four weeks after that so like June 15th. I am so excited. This makes waiting so much easier because I have so much to do like learn some Amarhic, decorate the kids rooms, that means going back to IKEA. This time Judah will stay with me. Okay much to do!

Our day. :(

Well what started off innocently enough ended in a pile of poop, literally.

Ahhh freedom, Ikea shopping, did you know they have a child care? Ya it's great, you can leave your kids there for 90 blessed, splendid minutes. Uniterrupted shopping. ahhhhhhh bliss.


NOT>

This was the first time my kids were all the right height, the right age and potty trained and actually wanted to go. Whoopeeee!

I checked them into the child care center and said my bi bi's. I wanted to call my friends and brag. Unfortunately my phone was almost dead. Shopping was great, I got what I need, I mean it is an hour away from my house so we had to make it worth it. I was decorating my daughters bedroom. Suddenly so close to the finish line, checkout. I am paged. It wasn't like a little buzz it was an annoying non stop beeping. I couldn't have just hid it in my purse and pretend it wasn't me. At last I left my cart of treasures near the check out line promising the guy I would be back. ya right.

Judah pooped. In his pants. A lot. It was a mess, a stinky yellow, mushy mess, and as I tried my best to clean the horridness that was, I finally gave up and threw his clothes in the garbage. Thankfully Ikea provides diapers, so that is how we left a very upset mom and three little ducks, one just stinky and diapered with no shoes. Please don't judge moms when you see them in the state I was in, you never know what they have been through. I had to go to Walmart so I found a pair of cheap shorts and got through that fiasco.

Anyway when we got home to find the dog had gotten into a nasty pull up as well. It just sometimes is not fun.

Look What We Found!!!

My son found these Mourning Dove eggs in a tree next to our playground so close you could touch them. She built her nest and layed her eggs completely trusting my kids wouldn't bother her. Silly dove. Abigail upon discovery of the eggs already sent a gift offering of a pretzle to her at the end of a plastic lilly flower. Needless to say she flew away. When I look into the tree I am literally eye level with her. It is exciting though because this is a symbol of new life.

Do you see this tree behind the the slide? This is where she built her nest. She understood the risk involved. Just pray she stays. Usually animals are trying to get out of our house.

I have come out of hiding!!

Hello, if anyone is still reading!

Well we got a referral of a beautiful little girl who is four on April second. I have been hesitant of posting anything as I have had my gaurd up for some time now. But I can say now that it is starting to feel real!! Our paper work was filed with court today! Shimiliess thinks I may travel end of May or mid June. I am not ready at all! I have her room to get done, amharic to learn, weight to loose, shots to get, the trip to plan. I suddenly overwhelmed myself. Anyway it is real, we were matched and filed for court. I couldn't be happier. I am actually on my way to put together a package and a letter to send with a friend who will tell our daughter we are coming to get her. Acutally there has been a change in plans. It was going to be all of us but since we are going during rainy season it will just be me stomping the mud in the streets of Addis. I didn't see why our kids should come along to just have to stay indoors when they could be swimming and having a blast here waiting for us to come home. I am hesitant about leaving my kids for so long. The longest I left them was last year for four days and it was the longest four days of my life and I was just in Ohio. They are older now and I know Gary will do a great if not better job than me taking care of them. I have to learn to let go a little bit.

Garage sale update!!

http://fourplusmore.wordpress.com/

check out Julies blog for what we are doing this weekend!!!