News from Ethiopia!

My YG friend, Kim (blog link is below right:Mountainview) is in Addis now picking up her Micah Moo and posted a special message just for me on her blog:
"LA Jaime- (JG) is shy and just learning to walk. She has the softest hair and the sweetest grin but I only saw a few and couldn't get them on camera. She waddled around holding my hand for the longest time. She loves to play with toys and is very quick to let anyone who gets near them know that they are invading her territory. If I could have, I would have taken her home with me!"
Woooohoooo! There are only 3 more Sundays until our court date (this is how i have counted during the adoption...for some reason it makes it seem shorter)...please pray that all the necessary documents will arrive when/where they are supposed to. About 30% of people with our agency do not pass the first time...although i have heard it is MUCH higher with some other agencies...let's hope we're in the 70% that do pass:)

TTDs are here!

Well, we have recieved our tentative travel dates! If we pass court May 11th (about 30-40% do not pass their first try) then we will leave Louisiana May 22 or 23 and arrive home on the 30th! We are thinking of flying Emirates out of Houston into Dubai, and then into Addis. Leave a comment if you have done this before!! We may also fly out of DC, either on Ethiopia air or Emirates... We haven't gotten our price quotes yet so we are bracing ourselves! hehehe!

Amanda's April Fool's

Happy April Fool's Day to my cousin Bean (Amanda)! Check it out! https://post.craigslist.org/manage/1102688311/6872u
HaHaHaHaHa!

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.