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!!!!!

Why Ethiopia?

When people find out that you are adopting a child from Ethiopia, you get a lot of questions.  I love the fact that people are curious and we are able to share a little about our journey.  I have addressed some of those questions before, but there is one I wanted to answer again.

"Why adopt from Ethiopia?" was one question that I could never really answer in a way that truly relays our reason.  I would try to answer with, "it was a country that we meet the age classifications for" or " we were so moved by friends who have adopted from Ethiopia".  And sometimes I would just reply, "It just felt right".

Now while all of these answer are true, it is not the reason.  We now have the answer.  One that we got on June 16, 2010.  His name is Tate E. Plumb. 

The moment we saw him, we instantly knew that God had lead us to this little boy.  His face felt like home.  I have never been more convinced in my life of God's plan for us.  He perfectly orchestrated  bringing a family together through a  little boy in Ethiopia and a couple in Oklahoma.

We didn't choose Ethiopia.  God knew that our son was there.  Ethiopia chose us.  I am just so thankful that we listened.

Tate update!

We got an update on Tate today!  I can't tell you how great it is to get to hear a little bit about who he is with each update!

"I found E. chewing on one of his favorite toys today when I walked into his room. He just looked at me as if to say, “Hey.” E's never shown any signs of stranger anxiety, so he and I have this kind of familiar relationship where I can just walk in and we just pick up where we left off.  I don’t have to keep a formal distance from him in order to help ease him into our visit. He’s always ready to hang out for a while—mild-mannered, relaxed, content—no worries and just happy to be around people with a good toy to chew on."

I just stare at each picture until I have every little piece of it memorized.  We have picked up on the way that he bites/sucks on his bottom lip.  And that he raised his eyebrows when he is looking at people as if to say, " Can I help you?".  (I like to think that he is actually saying, " You're not my mom or dad, but I guess you can hang out with me until they get here.":)) 

I'll leave you with a picture of his beautiful brown almond shaped eyes, because they are one of our favorite things about him...along with his thick curls...and his perfect pouty lips...and his precious little nose...and his chubby little wrists...you get the idea.:)

Time to register!?!?!

So I have really been itching to get some stuff done around here. I mean, there could potentially be another human living here in about 14 weeks! Most of the time, that seems like forever away.  But I am still freaking out a little about there being so much to do!  When we first got on the waiting list back in October '09, I made a list of all the things we had to do.  I can honestly say that we have not completed one thing on that list!  Seriously?!?!  What have we been doing?!?!

I would LOVE to get started on the nursery, but we are still waiting for our baby bedding that we ordered off etsy!  It was suppose to be here about 8 weeks ago, but the person who is making it moved, so she is running a little behind.  Trying to be patient...

This weekend, we decided to go register!  Maybe it is a little too early, I'm not really sure.  But that is the thing, no one has ever wrote a book about registering for a baby with an adoption.  Not to mention that there are no checklists for registering for a 10 month old. So we are making up our rules as we go.  

YAY for registering!

I have no idea what I am doing. I seriously don't even know what I am looking at.

Brian stole the gun.  He looks like he means business.

 

Brian with the gun meant I had to pay VERY close attention. I caught him almost registering for this spoon that you put the food into the handle and squeeze for the food to come out. Oh Brian.

No words.:)

It took us two nights.  The first night, we were there for 2 hours and registered for 35 items.  When I took the gun back, I told the lady that we had only registered for 1/2 the store.  She said with 35 items, it shouldn't even be half!  To which I replied, "How much do babies need!?!?!?"  And I was serious!

I will ask that you do not judge us by our registry!:) 

We really have no idea what we are doing!

A little time away was just what I needed.

So I have been away for awhile, but I have a really great excuse this time!

A couple of weeks ago, I was really having a tough time.  Work had been crazy  busy.  We were still waiting for our bedding so we can start our nursery (grrrr).  My to do list is not getting any shorter .With Brian being a youth minister, that puts him gone about 30 days during the summer, and I was missing him.  And not to mention the thought of Tate  not being here.  Needless to say, I was feeling anxious, overwhelmed, tired, and sad.

So we decided that it would be worth it to sacrifice some of the days I have been saving to go on the Sr. High mission trip with the youth.

I am so glad that I did.

We took about 45 people to an intercity church in St. Louis Missouri to put on a VBS, a basketball camp, and just serve the church and community. We cleaned, sweated, laughed, worshiped, cried, made new friends, and were blessed beyond belief.   It was so wonderful!  God was everywhere!  Here are a few pictures from the week.

 

It was so great to build new relationships and love on the kids of St. Louis. 

It was also so great to spend time with the youth group and just have fun!

So I am back!  Refreshed and ready to go!

Court Date!!!

Our caseworker called us today to let us know we have a court date!  What a surprise!  I really wasn't expecting to hear something until after rainy season!

Our first date with MOWA (ministry of women affairs) is scheduled for Sept. 30.  We are hoping they give our file a favorable opinion so that we can appear for our court date on Oct. 12.  If all goes well, looks like we will be in Ethiopia from the 10th-17th!!!!

I am so thankful!  It is so nice to have a time frame!  YAY!

Just what I needed!

I was really not looking forward to today. 
The weekend went by way too fast, and I new I had a full schedule in the office. Not to mention that I have really been missing Tate this past week.  If you have ever wondered if you could miss someone you have never really met, trust me.  You can.  So much it hurts.

 But first thing, I opened up my email to find that we got our first update on Tate! 

When I found "Tate" today, he was enjoying a deep sleep on a cold, rainy afternoon. I regularly wake up babies if I need to in order to visit with, but as they begin to reach the toddler age range, I use a bit more caution. You don’t want to wake a sleeping toddler! "Tate" defies this old bit of wisdom. I woke him today and all he did was smile. He even smiles and takes things in stride when woken from a good nap on an ideal napping afternoon! He’s got a really pleasant, gentle disposition and is such a delight to visit with!

I could not quit smiling reading this.  I seriously have read it about 30+ times today. I absolutely love hearing about his little personality!  It's like getting to experience a little piece of him.

And tt is so good to hear that at  least one person in this family will be happy when they first wake up!