You say "bite", I say "lick"

OK, so i thought that title might grab your attention! Being the YG and blog-stalker that i am i decided to contact the Halls since they were in ET the week we got our referral. I wanted ANY info i could get on our little JG, especially regarding personality, because that is not mentioned in the referral. Well, be careful what you ask for!! Here are some quotes from Stephanie: "We referred to her as "Biter" while we were there because she was walking around with her mouth open and biting our legs. Not hard, just in play, and she is SO ADORABLE! You will LOVE her! I told Marc you had the biter and he died laughing, too. We loved her, she was so adorably cute. I guess she bit him five or six times, he says, but not hard enough to hurt or anything. And she was just so happy!!" (Yeah, sure, happy to bite him!)
Take 2, this time i armed my friend from YG, Alisa, with a photo release...and she delivered a care package from us to our JG (photo album of the family, small doll, outfit, and sunglasses). Last night we were OVERJOYED to receive the pix from the Martins...here are some of Alisa's comments :"Your girl is so sweet & has so much personality! I knew who she was right away b/c Steph told me about her...she called her the licker. Hee Hee! As soon as I came inside with Micah she came to love on us both...and licked us. Don't worry -- it wasn't weird, I think she thinks she's kissing. Very sweet! She LOVED her baby!!! She kissed the pics oh her new family!!!! She looked at all your pics with me!!"
Well, whether our girl is a licker or a biter, we are indescribably happy!

48 nights until our Court Date!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We recieved our court date today: May 11. The night of May 10th (Mother's Day) as we are sleeping an Ethiopian court decides whether or not to release our little girl to her forever family. Pray with me that we have success! I am guessing we would travel to Ethiopia June 6-13, but i will find out our official tentative travel dates in a few weeks from AWAA (our agency).
Seven Mothers' Days ago i was 37 1/2 weeks pregnant, and i was talking with Maria, a friend from our church, who (with her husband Russ) had accepted the referral for their 2 Russian sons, but were still waiting for final word that they could bring them home forever. We rejoiced that the next Mother's Day we would have our boys with us at last! It has been a long journey to our adoption dream...and it seems fitting that our dream could finally come true on that special day.
ps. check out the now DR Moore's blog...henryinstitute.org...there are alot of cool articles about adoption:)

HeeHaw Auction @ New Covenant

Our church, New Covenant, put on a hum-dinger of a country auction last night to benefit our adoption. The total amount raised was just over $5000, enough to cover our 2 round-trip tickets from BTR/MSY to Ethiopia, JG's one-way ticket home (yeah!), our visas and US Embassy fee, and our home study update. Items were donated from members of NC & the community....including quilts, LSU picnic blanket/ tailgate mats, paintings, a football autographed by 2 Heisman winners, babysitting services, dinners, fishing trip package, massage gift certificates and serenades by Elvis & BB King. Yeeeehaw!

We Choose You!

First thing this morning we signed the Referral Acceptance Letter, and the check, as they say, "is in the mail". You can see how happy DH was...sorry no picture of me signing since i was in my pajamas- complete with "Get R Dun UW" tshirt (classy, I know). Next up: AWAA is able to request our court date in Ethiopia. We should find out our court date in about 3 weeks. So, we wait...hey, we're pretty good at that!
1 John 3:1 is what is in my mind today, "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God! And that is what we are!" How great.

Referral Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today seemed like an ordinary day. Big boy went to school like usual. T and I went to the consignment shop to drop off the double jogging stroller (in great condition...hmmm..who's kidding who here?)...and we were headed to buy crawfish for dinner. I was on the phone with DH, rejoicing that the consignment store had accepted all our goods (meaning: more $$ for girlie baby stuff) and I passed up the Starbucks, wanting a Frap soooo bad, but decided to skip it (partly because of Dave Ramsey and partly to wait until we had a referral to celebrate). Toby Mac "made to love you" playing on the radio, and Terra calls...I knew. I kept shouting "its 703!" to DH and then hung up on him. I recognized Terra's voice and I pulled into a bank and was just weeping in the car while Terra connected dean to the call. We don't have tinted windows on our minivan so there were some nervous people in the parking lot of the Chase Bank. I think they were worried that I had snapped because of the economy and that I might do something rash. he he! We cannot tell you much about her, as we want to respect Ethiopia's laws but: she is an older baby/ young toddler...and she is beautiful. She looks very delicate and small (kind of like my T) and has a pouty mouth and the cutest tiny pigtails:))) funny: my youngest son things she looks like kai-lan...the little Chinese girl from the Noggin show ni hao kai-lan... the boys were most impressed with her hair and thought she was cute. She looks like a JG. Sometimes the most ordinary days can be extraordinary.

Ten things for JG

We have made it to our Tenth Monthiversary of our dossier traveling across the sea to Ethiopia. It sits in an office somewhere in Addis Ababa, hopefully near the top of the stack...waiting... So, i was going to write a funny (or at least i thought so) Top 10 List of reasons why i BETTER get a referral this month...but i thought better of it when i realized i sounded like a selfish kid, believing that the world revolves around me. So, instead i decided to post 10 things i want JG to know...things I hope she can look back on to remember the time we were waiting for her.
Ten things I want you to know: (for our JG)
1. You were loved before we met you, before we saw your sweet face and there is nothing you can do that will make us love you less.
2. Yes, I have received children out of my natural body…and I love them with an astonishingly strong love. I have birthed you with no less tears, no less longing, and no less joy.
3. Adoption was not a second-choice for us. We had this purposed in our hearts from long ago…you, my dear, are the answer to a fourteen year old girl’s prayer.
4. I will say it again. You were not our second choice. You are the princess that your daddy slayed dragons and fought for.
5. Sometimes you will feel lonely and sad for your birth-family and land, and that is okay. We are happy to listen, cry with you, and dry your tears. Your sadness will not break you, and it will not break us either.
6. We will never give you up. We will never give you away. Never. Even if you beg us.
7. Your skin may not look like mine, or daddy’s, or your brothers’….it is the most perfect shade of brown! You were painted by an artist who is more brilliant than Monet. You are an impression of your Father’s glory.
8. Your mommy & daddy are not perfect. I eat anchovies on my pizza, and daddy’s feet stink. We do not expect you to be perfect either.
9. I pray that you will live a life full of joy, full of love, full of faith. Life may not go as you would have planned, but I hope that you can sing along to the melody of God’s song for you.
10. We want to see your face soon. We want to hold you close, gaze into your eyes, to smell your hair, to see you smile. We will wait patiently.

Court date shuffle!

Well, things are moving for a lot of Ethiopia families with referrals! Most people are recieving court dates 3 months after their referrals, but many of the families with April court dates got news yesterday that their NEW court dates were in March!!!
This court-shuffle effects us because if we recieve our referral April 9th (the longest wait ESTIMATED), then it is now likely that our court date will fall before court closures (beginning of August until beginning of October). Good news for us!
To summarize for my peeps that do not speak Adoption-ese:
DTE: the date paperwork travels to Ethiopia. this determines your place "in line".
Referral: you are matched with a child- you find out their age & see their picture for the first time.
Court: happens in Ethiopia without us...it has been taking about 3 months after referral, but is starting to move a little faster:)
Travel: about 2-3 weeks after a successful court date. We will be in Ethiopia for about 1 week.