Welcome Home William!

We had the privilege to welcome home our friends as they brought home their 8 month old son William from Ethiopia on Monday, 2/22/10! Their flight was scheduled to come in at 5:15pm but was delayed a few times and they finally arrived at 9pm. Rusty kept asking me "do you think we should just go home, it's late, put the kids to bed?"...etc. But I was bound and determined we were going to be there! What an opportunity for the girls to see exactly what it will be like when it is Mom and Dad and Evan getting off that plane! Besides, the crowd was thinning with each delay, in my opinion, which increased my chances of actually getting to HOLD this precious one!!! :) Ulterior motives for sure!

The girls made this darling poster which we taped to dowel rods (is that the right word?) so they could hold it like a banner and afterwards we rolled it up and stuck it in their bag when they weren't looking so they could see it later and keep it for him (if they choose).

Yes, Paige is wearing a sticker on her forehead (smile). She is my comedian. She likes this "look" for some reason??? With my first I never would have allowed it, especially in public, but now I just say "sure" and get a little chuckle when people look at her funny. I think it is nice of me to offer the public some comedy relief, and character building for her to be made fun of. :)

OK, anyway, the homecoming was glorious! William was smiling and cooing at his fans. He had all the energy since he was able to sleep 14 out of 18 hours, unlike Mom and Dad who were "exhausted beyond all physical endurance" as Karen put it. Praise the Lord for His wonderful work in bringing this family together again!

Psalm 139:14b

Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

We passed court!!

February 18, 2010

Evan is officially our son! We have court approval!

We had our second chance at court on Wednesday the 17th. We waited and waited to hear from AGCI and finally at about 2pm we got an email from our CW saying she didn't have any info. We didn't know what to think. Finally at 2pm on Thursday she called and I swear it was my referral call repeated!! I saw the # on caller i.d. and almost didn't want to answer it for fear it would be bad news. But it wasn't...we passed! Evan is OURS after all this time! I completely fell apart in total relief. Thankfully she understood where I was and just said "go celebrate and call me later when your ready to write down info". :)

We are super excited and hope to travel either 3/22 or 4/5. There is light at the end of this long, long tunnel.

Thanks so much for your support and prayers! God is very good.

AABC Shower

We have a really awesome church family. We have been at Ashland Avenue Baptist Church for 2 years now and it has been a huge blessing in our lives. We know that one of the reasons God led us to this place to worship is because of the Biblical teaching regarding adoption. Now it is all coming to fruition as we prepare to welcome home our new son!

My faithful assistant Morgan always at my side.

This onesie is from www.adoptionbug.com and says

"Special Delivery from Ethiopia--Handle with Care"

Thanks to the "J Team" (Jonda, Janet, Jennifer, and Jessica)

for the delicious cake and punch that perfectly matched the darling invitations!

The whole party was perfect. What a blessing to have so much love and support...

and baby boy clothes!!!

My treasured buddy, my SIC, Jonda

I know how hard you worked to make this day special and I appreciate every bit of it!

She and Kevin are now in the process of their own Ethiopian adoption!!!

Go God!

Even More Shower pics...

Check out this beautiful food!

Danielle is so talented. She painted the canvas above the fireplace, AND did custom iron-ons for the onesies, AND covered the wooden "E" for Evan's bedroom!

AND made these darling and delicious cupcakes! They had chocolate pudding and chocolate chips in them--super moist!

My niece Austin was there to celebrate. Ew, I feel old...she was the flower girl in our wedding and now she's in college (and I am STILL having babies?!)!

Sweet baby Jordan. My friend Stefany's son (home from ET last March). He has been my "substitute" Evan since we first met this past summer. :) And his mom has been a rock of support and encouragement. There is nothing like a friend who has been there.

More Shower pics...

Here's Angie #2, my dear friend and shower hostess Angelia, and my friend Myra

Interesting factoid: Myra and I graduated high school together and then lost touch. When we reconnected on Facebook we realized we both had 3 daughters and were adopting sons!! Her 2 year old son Sam came home from China in October!

One of our favorite gifts was this step stool for Evan's room. A friend had this built and custom painted to match his room. It is gorgeous!

My buddy, and other shower hostess, Susan painted this plaque and picture frame for Evan's bedroom door. It also matches his room perfectly!

Morgan is becoming quite the cook. She made and iced these sugar cookies for the shower all by herself! Even at risk of bodily harm from Angelia who explicitly told us not to bring ANYTHING! Morgan's response.."I'll handle Miss Angelia!" Brave girl. :)

My precious friend Eveline who is from India and this was her first ever baby shower! When she told me she had never been to a shower before I was tempted to tell her "it is customary in the US to wear your bathing suit to showers" but I resisted. :) Eveline has a love for the Lord that is unmatched. She is the wise one who told me "God is the master planner. I have plans but I put them UNDER His plans because His are best." Those words in her sweet accent have echoed in my mind throughout this difficult process. There really is something about her accent that makes her words sound infinitely more wise!

Feb 6 Baby Shower

On Saturday, February 6, three of my girlfriends got together and hosted a baby shower for Evan. It was a really nice party with beautiful invitations, delicious food, fun, adoption-related games, so many wonderful gifts, and, most of all, an awesome assortment of treasured friends!

Thank you Danielle for hosting the party at your house. Thanks to Angelia for designing, addressing and mailing all the invites! Thanks to Susan for her original, personalized games. And thanks to all three for the delicious food and thoughtfulness.

The funniest moment of the day was when I opened a package that included little boy underwear from Gymboree and exclaimed "are these panties??" and every mother-of-a-boy in the room shouted "NO--THEY ARE NOT PANTIES, THEY ARE UNDERWEAR!!" :) Yet, another vocabulary change for this mom of girls!

Coincidence? I don't think so!

This is our new friend Meredith and her son Liam.

Meredith was looking for someone to watch Liam as she prepared to return to work after maternity leave. She heard about my mom from the sister of our old neighbors. My mom keeps babies at her house. Meredith called and set up a time to meet my mother and it happened to be the day after we received our referral of Evan. Mom had his photo on the coffee table when Meredith arrived and it sparked an exciting conversation! Turns out Meredith has been to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia last summer for two weeks and has a love for the country and the people. She was so excited about our adoption and wanted to share her photographs and stories from her trip with us.

We set a date and were able to see so many beautiful photographs and hear all about her adventure! It was a real blessing to Rusty and I. Who would have thought that we would "coincidentally" run into another Ethiopian contact right here in KY?

As you might imagine, this connection "sealed the deal" and mom now keeps little Liam full time (a blessing for her) and we get to see them regularly! Praise the Lord! He is sovereign.

Acts 17:26

From one man he made every nation of men,

that they should inhabit the whole earth;

and he determined the times set for them

and the exact places where they should live.