A little sip of seattle in Baton Rouge

This week our good friend, Tarin, from Seattle, visited our flat blazing-hot sudsy city.... it was a breath of fresh air for us! We enjoyed showing her around our city: our house, the school, our church, the pool, our tiger...ok, LSU's tiger "Mike". Tarin experienced Baton Rouge: etoufee, beignets, and southern fried chicken, southern accents, and of course, the heat and humidity. We also went to Starbucks once to savor a sip of Seattle.

On June 9th we celebrated being 1 month DTE, and currently we are #45 for a referral (that we know of on our Agency's Yahoo Group). We are expecting a referral between mid-December and mid-April...we'll see as the time grows nearer. Enjoy the pictures....

"Well, Pinch my cheeks and call me a monkey's uncle..."

".........This is ALOT of Legos!" This is a JP quote when opening up his birthday present from all the Leighows (LegoCity Police station). Yes, our JP is 6. I am starting to feel old, so it's time to break out my Justin (Timberlake) CD and dance.

His party was great, with friends from church, school and therepy. We enjoyed ice cream cones and Transformer cake. We wish you all could have been there!

The Lego police station, complete with jail cells w/ toilets and a break room for police officers w/coffee, has really got the boys asking lots of questions...like "why do bad guys not get privacy when they go to the bathroom?" Good question. So, we've had deep discussions about honoring God & mom & dad, a boy's duty to protect, and being a good guy...

In celebration of JP's birthday, I thought i'd share part of a note with you from JP's teacher, about our own "good guy": "JP is so delightful- his humor, mischievous smile and his willingness to share. He is so smart. You are wise to spend so much time teaching him. He is so respectful..."

Honor and duty aren't taught as much as they used to be. They are used more as ad slogans for military service than the duty of every boy, and future man. I thank God for my 2 future men, may they grow up to be modern-day knights, and may they always have privacy in the bathroom!

This bud's for you?!?

I'd like to raise my Abita to toast all the "little" people who helped with our adoption....to the unnamed lady in {state undisclosed}....who (when we were switching our dossier from el salvador to ethiopia) was so obliging with our certifications. I will never forget the things she said like "i'm going to hook you up", and "you got a staple remover?" as well as "all a children need is some love". She made me laugh on a day when i desperately needed to and reminded me that at the heart of all the paperwork headaches it was just about bringing a child home.
So, as our dossier passed thru Memphis, Germany, and is now in Ethiopia, I raise my glass to you {undisclosed woman in my hometown}...may you be blessed...and help other children find a loving home, too.

Dossier to Ethiopia Today

After 9 months of paperchasing, our dossier is headed to ethiopia. It was picked up in Virginia today around 3 pm... I will happily detail our adoption paperwork's journey halfway around the world in later days. Tonight we will party @ the Melting Pot to celebrate this adoption milestone as well as our upcoming 12th anniversary!!!