Family photos

I don't have a whole lot of pictures of me and Brian over the past couple of years. I seem to be the one that takes the pictures in our families. Brian and I haven't had our pictures made since our wedding day almost 6 year ago! So, a few weeks ago Jennifer fixed that for us. Thought I would share a few of our favorites!


She really did an awesome job! I love them! Thanks again Jennifer for taking our last official family of 2 photo !

And in referral news... there has been 2 referrals for baby boys in the past week! We could not be more excited for both families, especially our friends the Carter's!
Yippeeeee!
Movin' on up!

Is this good news or bad news?

We got some unexpected news on the adoption front yesterday. The Ethiopian government announced yesterday that all adoptive parents must travel to Ethiopia for their court dates in order for adoptions to become finalized. This means that we will now have to make 2 trips to Ethiopia, once to appear in court and the second to pick our son up and bring him to the U.S.

The first trip will last about 5 days and we will have a chance to meet our child and appear in court. The second trip will be after the adoption is finalized and will be to appear for a U.S Embassy interview to process our son's immigration visa. The second trip should occur 3-6 weeks after the first. We are still not sure of all of the details, but should hear more from our adoption agency soon.

I must admit, yesterday I had a really hard time with this. 2 trips! Really! We definitely had not planned for this extra expense. And having to travel twice so close together! How is that gonna work with our jobs? And probably the worst part, having to meet our son, begin bonding, and then have to leave him behind!?!?!? Oh, I can't even imagine!!!

All of these thoughts became a little overwhelming and I will say, I threw myself a little pity party. I just started feeling a little down about the fact that the average wait time for referral has gone from 7.5 months to when we first got on the list, to 9 months at this point. There also just doesn't seem to be a lot going on with the unofficial wait list! And now 2 trips!

But the optimistic Shannon did find her way out eventually! Now we get to take 2 trips to Africa! We also get to meet our son 3-6 weeks earlier than we originally would have gotten to! God has blessed us so much, and we know that he will make this all work out.

Brian reminded me that when we get our son, nothing else will matter.

FIVE

Why is the number five so important?

Well, there is The Jackson 5

You can split lunch with a friend for $2.50 each, which makes $5.

(Sing it with me folks, "5....5 dollar....5 dollar foot loooong")

There are 5 Olympic rings.

James Monroe, our fifth president.

"Five Golden Rings!"

And we have been on the waiting list for FIVE months!

Wooohoooo!

This calls for a high five!:)

Where is our baby from?

Books for February

Finished the 3 books for January, and thought all of them were great picks. Definitely would recommend Crazy Love. I actually want to read it again soon! It had so many great thoughts and it was hard to absorb them all. Here are the books for February, just in time to get ready for March!

A friend of mine has been encouraging me to read these for awhile now and I finally have given in. I have already read the 1st one when we were snowed in for a couple of days and LOVED it. It was a quick read geared towards teens about a group at teens in the future that are forced to fight to the death on live TV to remind society of the power of the "Capital" . I know it sounds kind of demented, but it's was good. I read this during "Winter Storm 20010".

I got this book from the library and am almost through it. The funny thing is that the author is actually one of the guest speakers on one of our Ethiopian training videos and I wasn't even aware of it before I began it. I will def be buying this one for my library. SO much great information, hard to keep it all in!

I've always wanted to read "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis and I figure there is no time like the present!

Most of the time...

Most of the time we are keeping this waiting period busy with church, basketball games, family and friends.

Most of the time I am able to appreciate this time Brian and I have together. The last few months that we will be a married couple without kids.

Most of the time it feels like time is flying by. Wasn't Christmas just yesterday?

Most of the time, I try to not plan the nursery too much or look at baby clothes. It seems to make things a little harder.

BUT

Some of the time I can't stop thinking and planning.

Some of the time I have a weekend where I do the very things I said I wouldn't. Buy a crib, dresser, and nursery bedding! (My mom and I got a little carried away!)

Some of the time I get down about the lack of referrals lately. (Where are they BTW!)

Some of the time we have an evening, like last night. There is no laundry to fold, no cleaning to do, no activities to go to and it is quiet. The kind of quiet that only a child, OUR son, could fill.

But ALL of the time I know that God is in control. He has our child picked out for out family and he will be here at the right time, whether that be in 6 months or 2 years! (but definitely praying for closer to the 6 months!!!!)

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."- Jeremiah 29:11

And thanks to everyone for all the support through our t-shirts! We will be placing the order the end of this week!:)

T-shirts!!!

Brian and I LOVE t-shirts. I mean, I think we have a billion between the two of us. Everything from Bethel shirts from when we were in high school to a nice little collection Brian has accumulated from Goodwill (which I sincerely hope some of them are never seen in public!). So we thought it was time to make some shirts about the thing we are most excited about, our adoption!

The verse reads, "Above all these virtues put on love which binds them all together in perfect unity." Col. 3:14

The shirts are black and are unisex. They will be $20 for adults and $15 for kiddos. All proceeds will go for humanitarian aid.

If you want a shirt, email me at shancat35@yahoo.com. We will be placing an order in the next couple of weeks and we will set up payment options later!

Geography fair

Last week, my nieces were in a geography fair for their home school association. Each family picked a country and set up a table full of the information that they learned. They picked Ethiopia! It was so neat to see them learn about Ethiopia and the culture. We even went to The Queen of Sheeba Ethiopian restaurant and picked up some injera and beef stew for their booth.

Ashlyn serving up the injera.

The Ethiopia booth!

Ralph trying the injera and stew.


Anna LOVED the injera! She had 4 pieces!

Thanks girls for learning about Ethiopia and getting excited about your future cousin!

Speaking of excitement, super excited for our friends the Andrews who passed court yesterday and are officially the parents of a beautiful little girl and precious little boy! You must check out their adorable faces! Yippee!

Poor Louie...

So we thought Louie was overweight, so we put him on a diet.

He got a haircut and we realized he was not a chubby dog like we thought.




We are sorry Lou. No more diet. We promise!:)

FOUR!

Officially four months on the waiting list!!! Woot! Woot! Referrals seem to be going kind of slow, but I have been faithfully stalking the F.B.I. list and hope things pick back up soon!

Does it make sense to say that this month has gone by fast but then again slow? It seems like Christmas was only yesterday, but in our adoption world, time is standing still. Although we are SO anxious for him to get here, we know that there are a lot of things for us that will never be the same. We are trying to enjoy these last couple of months as a married couple without children (i.e. sleeping in late).

I have found myself spending a lot of time doing nursery planning. I think I have looked at every crib bedding set out there. I have also began research on the best baby products to buy. I have found that baby products are kind of like kitchen gadgets. There is some tool for everything you could imagine. But, do we really need a 4 strollers, one for every terrain and occasion? Talk about overwhelming!

In other news, stay tuned for some t-shirts we are making. They are way cool. We thought it would be a fun way to get our friends and family in on the adoption!