Let the packing begin!!!!

We passed our MOWA date today!  What a huge relief!  This mean that we officially leave on the 8th of October!  We meet Tate on the 11th and our court date in on the 12th.  If we pass court on the 12th he is officially ours!!! We then wait for our embassy appointment to get Tate's visa so we can bring him home!!! 

The wait is almost over! 

Now the craziness really begins!

Showered!!!

I seriously can not believe how close we are getting!!! During this adoption process, you wait and wait and wait and wait.... and sometimes it feels like that is what you will always do.  Wait. But these waiting days are coming to an end!  There are some events that have been marked on my calendar and have served as milestones.  Slowly those events have passed and we find ourselves 2 days away from our MOWA date! WHAT?!?

A couple of those "milestones"  happened this weekend and I have been looking forward to them for quite some time. 

The first was a shower hosted by some of our wonderful friends.  OU football, hamburgers, gifts and good friends...what more could you want?

 Note the Tate in the heart!  So cute!

 I LOVED the balloons!  

 "Super Tate!"

 Matching mommy bracelets engraved with our kiddos names!  Thanks Kelli!

 Friends!

 Showing off the cake again!

If that wasn't enough, on Sunday our church threw us a shower.  And did they ever go over the top!  Let me just say that in the 6 years Brian and I have been at Oakcrest, the people there have become like family.  We feel so blessed to be able to serve with such amazing people.   And I love that people already are praying for  and loving Tate!

 Cutest cake ever!  Our sweet friend Kim spent hours making this special cake for us!  She also did our wedding cake over 6 years ago.  And it tasted just as good as it looked!

You may recognize the cake from these prints that are hanging in Tate's nursery!

 There was one person at the shower that actually has met Tate!  Kellie shared her story about meeting and playing with Tate even before we had ever seen his face.  (And few tears were shared at this point!:)) 

Our parents even got gifts of t-shirts with their names on them!

The wonderful hostesses minus Kim.

The only bad thing is that now I think we are going to need a bigger nursery!:)

We feel so thankful that we have so many people in our lives that love and support us!

We are blessed!

2 days until MOWA!

10 days until Ethiopia!

Busy Little Bee's

I know I haven't blogged much in the past couple of weeks, but we have been getting some serious stuff done around here. 

In the past 2 weeks we have painted the nursery, put together a crib, cleaned the garage, had a garage sale, finished the nursery (pics coming soon), put together 4 bookcases, finished our adoption videos, assembled a new entertainment center (one more baby friendly with doors), and done some serious spring-like cleaning ! 

It has been so nice to get somethings off of "the list".

Red walls+ paint with primer+ 4 coats= Blue walls

The skills I acquired through my summer painting job when I was in high school and college have proven very helpful.  It also reminds me how much I hate to paint!

I think he has it covered!

Good job guys!  So what if you took you 4 times to get the hinges on the door the correct way.  We won't tell anyone:)

You would think that getting all of this stuff done would put me at ease.  Now I have consumed myself with preparing for the trip.  I seriously have written and rewritten a list about 27 times of things we need to pack!

I will say that I am ever so thankful for this blogging community right now.  Whether it be by looking at the blogs of those who have traveled ahead of us or talking to those that will be traveling with, it has kept me sane!  I can not WAIT to meet all of you who we are traveling with!  It is going to be such a fun time!  I feel like I already know so many of you as I have stalked your blog over and over throughout our journey!  It is going to be a blast!

We are asking that you continue to pray for our MOWA date on the 30th, court on Oct 12th, a quick embassy appointment following court, and safe travels for all of us picking up our babies!

29 days until Ethiopia people! :)

A change in plans!

There have been a little bit of a change in plans for us involving our stay in Ethiopia!  We are so excited to say that we have decided to stay in Ethiopia until our Embassy date, which is typically 3-6 weeks after the court date!   YAY!  After saying this, if our embassy date is going to be 5-6 weeks after court we will have to come home for work but we are planning on staying the whole time and praying that our embassy date is sooner rather than later!

Although we are very excited about this, it is also extremely stressful!  This is something we have just decided in the past week and it changes our whole thinking on our trip.  What and how much do we pack? I mean, diapers alone could take up a whole suitcase! How are we going to make housing arrangements?  What activities will we do while we are there?  Any suggestions would be appreciated!

However, I did have a sign today.

Don't you see it?!?!  It's Africa in the tomato!  Brian thinks I am crazy!:)

But don't you think it is a sign!:)

 32 days until Ethiopia!!!!!