Happy Gotcha Day!

So I have been a very bad blogger.  So bad in fact, I actually thought I was done with the blog thing.  But this week is such a special week for us and it made me realize how important it is to document thoughts, memories, and photos for Tate. So...let's try this blog thing again!:) We will update on what has been going on soon, but for now...

One year ago today we were in Ethiopia taking placement of Tate! Thinking back to that day bring back so many emotions. I remember waiting on Travis to bring Tate over to our guesthouse.  The excitement made me crazy!  When he finally arrived, he warmed up to us right away and we spent the rest of the day playing, taking TONS of pictures, and becoming a family.

Here are some pics of the day.

 Playing with dad.

 Look at that face!

 Family forever!

First outfit change.

 Playing with mom.

 We wore him out.

 Dinner!

Bath time!

What an exciting and amazing day.  So many memories have been rolling through my mind this week about our 5 weeks in Ethiopia. We can not wait to go back. 

We love you so much Tate Engida and are so thankful that God brought us together.  You are beautiful, funny, ornery, and have brought more joy to us in this past year than I ever could explain. 

Happy Gotcha Day!

Bling.

Happy "Da's"s Day!

When Tate wakes up in the morning, I go into his room to get him out of his crib.   The very first thing out of his mouth is "Da" and he starts pointing to the door.  He wants to see his daddy. 

And when 5:00 comes around, and Tate hear the garage door going up, he runs to the door and starts yelling, "Da!" as loud as he can.

He is definitely a daddy's boy. 

And I am so glad. 

I pray that Tate becomes the hardworking, selfless, funny, energetic, serving, God loving, family man that his Daddy is.

Happy 1st Da's Day Brian!  I am so thankful that we get to build this life together.

Happy Referralversary To Us!

June 16th,  2010 was one of the most exciting days of my life.  One year ago today we saw Tater Bug's little face for the first time.  There are some very important days in my life that have gone by and afterward almost felt like a blur.  But not the day of our referral! I can remember every second of it. 

I remember being called out of a patient's room for a very important call from my husband (it was the one time in 3 months that I did not take my phone into a room with me). 

I remember Brian calling me so calmly telling me to get home and our caseworker would be calling us back at one o'clock. 

I remember running to my car. 

I remember going back and forth between crying and then just screaming with excitiment.

I remember getting a call from Kellie Carter after she saw my facebook post saying she had met our son and had pictures and video to give me!  (Making me bawl like a baby!)

I remember getting home, changing my clothes 5 times and literally running around the house trying to burn up some of the energy.

I remember just sitting in front of the computer waiting for one o'clock to come. 

And I remember seeing Tate's face for the first time. 

I remember the feeling of recognition, as if saying, "Yep, that's him."

I remember feeling like my breath got knocked out of me when I heard his story.

I remember sending Brian to Walgreens immediately to print off pictures and I remember the printer broke and they printed off over 100 8x10's of Tate!:)

I remember our family and friends coming by for a "referral party"  and sharing in the excitement.

And I remember getting on my knees and thanking God for this gift and I thanked him for his timing. 

What a wonderful and amazing year it has been. 



Dressin' Up: Giraffe Style

Mother's Day

  I am spoiled.  That is all there is to it. 

We did not celebrate Mother's Day here at the Plumb household. 

We celebrated Mother's WEEKEND!

Date night with Brian, shopping trip, dinner and carriage ride with my boys, house cleaned, and gifts galore.  

Tate even got me a locket very similar to the one that I wore during "The Wait" and gave to Tate's birth mom.  In Ethiopia, Tate was fascinated by this locket and it really helped us with bonding. 

(The day we met Tate)

The new locket

I am overwhelmed that God choose me be the mama of such a funny, beautiful, entertaining, sweet and precious little man.

 

 Thank you God, for opening our ears and hearing you whisper shout that our son was waiting for us in Ethiopia.  Being "Tate's Mom" is the best.

I mean, seriously. 

Who could resist these muscles?:)

Birth Mother's Day

Today is National Birth Mother's Day. 

I think about Tate's birth mother a lot.  We were lucky enough to be able to meet her while we were in Ethiopia.  It was one of the hardest and most emotional experiences of my life.  I watched as this young girl loved on a little boy that was a son to both of us.  She talked about her hopes and dreams for him.  She stroked his hair as she told us she wanted him to become a preacher or a doctor.  We promised her that day that we would teach this little boy about Jesus.  We promised that we would love him with all that we had.  And we promised that he would grow up knowing that he had a mother in Africa who made the ultimate sacrifice out of love. 

As we said goodbye that day, we hugged and cried and I felt a connection form at that very moment.

Because of her heartache and selflessness, I get to be the mommy of the most amazing little boy.    

She is my hero.

Ethiopia- Part Three: Court

Our court date was on Tuesday, October 12th. We woke up that morning very nervous since we were one of the first families that had to appear in front of the judge.  Luckily there were a couple of families that had gone before us so we knew a little on what to expect. 

We were suppose to meet at the Gladney office in Addis before heading over to court.  However, we got a little stuck in traffic and by the time we arrived at the office, all the other families were getting in their cars to head over to court.  We had missed the meeting! Some of the other families filled us in on the information they received  and some of the questions they were expected to ask us.  There was still apart of me that felt like we had missed something important and was panicking a little inside.:)

We were dropped of at the court house and walked up the stairs to a little room to wait for our turn.  There were about 6-7 other Gladney families with us.  There was a little chit chat here and there but for the most part there was a lot of silence.  I think everyone was a little nervous.  Families were called in one by one.  They were gone for maybe 5 minutes.  When they returned you could see the relief on their faces.  Of course, we were the last family to be called and by that time, I had convinced myself that they had lost all of our paperwork and we were not going to pass!

Have I mentioned that the adoption process can make you a little crazy?  Well, it can. :)

We were finally called back to the judge.  We had decided that Brian would take the lead and answer all the questions. Bad idea.  Not only is Brian a little hard of hearing (he may deny it is true) but Brian also has a very hard time understanding accents. Put these two things together and add a soft spoken Ethiopian judge you get a confused looking Oklahoman leaving a awkward silence after questions. :)

At one point the  Judge asked if we understood that this adoption was final and accepted responsible fully for this child.  Brian just sat there. The judge looked up with a look saying "HELLO!!".  I quickly almost yelled, "YES!".  The judge laughed, thankfully!:)

When she finally said the Engida was officially our son, I was unexpectedly filled with emotion.  I really did not expect my eyes to fill with tears.  All of the months of waiting, and feelings of frustration, anxiety, helplessness had finally lead to this moment.  We were finally officially a family!!!!

Although we had initially planned on waiting a few days and and doing some sightseeing before we took placement, we were way to anxious and excited and decided to take placement ASAP.  We talked to Travis and made plans to take placement the next morning! 

What have we been up to?

I really do have a great excuse for why I haven't been blogging!  Tate has just been super busy!

He's been hanging at the zoo with his cousins...

being amazed at the lions...

learning how to drive the tractor...

reading TONS of books...

playing with his buddy, Drew...

 going on his first camping trip... 

playing outside any and every chance that he gets...

 being goofy...

 playing with ANYTHING that has wheels...

hanging out with his dog, Louie...

and making us smile and laugh more than we ever have.

What a wonderful 6 months it has been with our little guy.  What did we ever do before he got here? The time where we only knew his face seems like a distant memory.

What a gift he is.

Getting back into the blogging groove again!:)

Ethiopia- Part Two: MEETING TATE!!!

We slept in late on the morning of the 10th ready for a day of recuperation after our trip.  The first thing we wanted to do was drive past the Gladney care centers where Tate was staying.  We were scheduled to meet him the next morning along with the 8 other families that were traveling at that time. 

Our driver drove past the houses and it really was torture knowing that Tate was just behind a couple of walls. As we were "stalking" the center, Travis and Joanna, part of the in country staff, were driving by and stopped us.  We kinda felt that we had been caught.:) Travis and Joanna gave us a run down of the week and we got our plan for the next day.

We then went to lunch at Island Breeze.  This was our favorite place to eat in Ethiopia.  Brian is an extremely picky eater and we probably ate there at least every other day.  By the time we left, we new the staff by name! GREAT American food!  Our favorite things were the chicken burgers, pizza, fajitas.

The rest of the day was spent buying souvenirs and resting. We were going to meet Tate the next day!!!

The next morning we met the other traveling families at the Gladney care center for our instructions for our visit.  It was really cool to be able to meet families that I had blog stalked and had never met. 

After our instructions, we were lead to Tate's house.  Walking up to the house, I had to fight back the tears when I thought that this was where Tate had spent the majority of his life. 

We walked up the stairs and led to Tate's room.  Tate was not there but we did get a glimpse of his crib.  (his was the middle one)

We walked into the hallway and waited for him to be brought in from "sun time".  I was nervous that they would bring Tate in and I wouldn't recognize him in person.  I first saw the back of his curly little head as he was being carried upstairs and I knew it was him immediately.  The worker walked right by me and I am pretty sure I forgot how to breath.  When we walked back into his room he was standing in his little crib.

I didn't know what to do.  I didn't want to scare him to death so I just bent down and started stroking his little hair and just repeatedly said, "Hi".  I finally picked him up and Brian and I took turns holding him and talking to him.

It took him about 20 minutes for him to warm up to us.  One of the caregivers did help bring him out of his shell and got him grinning a little for us. 

Our first family picture!

I had received a locket from a good friend right after our referral and had worn it while we were waiting to pick him up. Tate instantly loved the necklace.  He loved to open and close it and look at his picture.  (Stay tuned for more of the locket story later.)

 Our first visit with Tate went perfectly.  It was so hard to leave but we knew that he would be with us forever very soon!

Tate's first snow!

Oklahoma Snow Storm 2011 has had us trapped inside for the past day and a half.  We finally decided to get out of our pj's and introduce Tate to the snow!

5 layers on and ready to go outside.  It was kinda funny watching him try to walk!)

It was COLD!  But typical Tate just turned on his smile and went with the flow.

He was pretty fascinated by the snow, however, I think that he was more amazed by his mittens.:)

Brian was ready to get the sled out but it was just too cold!

 

Cute boy!

Between the cold and the sun bouncing of the snow, we lasted about 5 minutes. I think it took longer for us to get dressed! For now we are just going to continue enjoying being trapped indoors together!  I love being snowed in!

Support Adoption!

Back when we first started the adoption process, we were invited to an Ethiopian restaurant in Oklahoma City called the Queen of Sheba. Once a month, a group of families from the Oklahoma City area who have adopted or are in the process of adopting get together.  We have loved being able to go and meet other families who are or have been in the same shoes that we are in.  We also love the fact that Tate will grow up having friends from Ethiopia!:)

A few weeks ago, we went back to the Queen for the first time since we have brought Tate home. It was so neat to be able to introduce everyone to Tate!  We were also very excited to  meet a lot of new families in the adoption process!  These families are so much fun and are doing a lot of great fundraisers to help with their adoption expenses!

The Andrews' are "Recycling Love" highlighting many adoptive families until February the 18th and helping them raise money by selling some really great t-shirts.  Families earn $10 for every t-shirt sold!  We were able to meet the Linck's, Habuda's and Ellis' at the Queen! So check it out and buy a shirt!

 The Linck's are also making some yummy cupcakes for Valentine's Day.  We ordered some of the red velvet and they were delicious!

The Ellis's also have a really cute etsy store!  Clutches, key rings, coozies, t-shirts, and some other super cute stuff!  You must go check it out! I ordered Tate the robot shirt for Valentine's Day!  I can't wait to see him in it!

We also got to meet Lindsay and Brian who have some really great fundraising stuff going on!  Lindsay also has an etsy store where she is selling some adorable scarfs and headbands!  They are also selling some opened eyes t-shirts but you better hurry! The deadline to order those is tomorrow! My friend Laura already ordered hers! (Laura, you are the best!) 

Please go and check out these blogs and support their adoptions!