We had a couple take a care package to Baby Bennett and they returned today, we are hoping to get an update on him and maybe they even got a picture or two of him :) We will see. Also, our agency director has left today for Ethiopia! Hopefully we will find out more about our baby boy and get some more pictures while she is there. Still waiting on a court date, hope we find it out soon. It would be nice to kind of have a "due date" even though we know he may come late :) My mom bought a bunch of baby clothes and toys for him to keep at his house today! He is a very loved boy!

Safari Nursery

Here are the pictures of the finished painted nursery and the crib and glider that we set up. Of course we will be adding things but you can get the feel of the room.

Bummer News

Well we heard from our adoption agency and they informed us that courts decided to go ahead and close for September, which stinks because that is when we thought we would get a court date. So it looks like we will be getting an October court date and then if we pass the first time, traveling in November sometime. Pray that our case is heard whenever it is scheduled, that it is scheduled sooner than later, and that we pass the first time so we can travel and get our baby as soon as possible!

Update on Nursery Paint

We are still working on the stripes for the nursery wall. My dad is helping us get the stripes right and straight. Some of the paint is getting really sticky for some reason so we won't be able to completely finish it today like we hoped to, but by Wednesday I think it will be done.

Here are all the stripes taped out.

Here it is after we added the tan paint. Here it is with green and tan stripes

Here it is with green, tan, and part of light brown stripes

Here is the room with green, tan, light brown and cream stripes. Just needing the chocolate brown.

Here is a picture of what all the stripes look like (minus the blue tape in this picture). We still have to clean up some of the lines but you get the picture of what it will look like.

Painting Nursery

Brian and I started on the nursery for our baby boy! We wanted to go ahead and get it done because I start my last semester of nursing school in August and will be pretty busy. Here are some of the pictutres so far that we have.


Below is a picture of the pink walls that we had in the room before.
Brian covering the pink with green. Mercedes has been so good while we have been painting. Thank goodness for training school!

Aww, what a sweet husband :)

White wall is primer that is going to have stripes up and down it and one coat of green.

Finished green walls.Cream on stripes wall and green closet.
Cream on stripes wall and green wall

We still have to put the stripes on the cream wall, we plan on doing that on Saturday.

Package Arrived!

Today we got a package in the mail from our adoption agency. It was our "educational toolbox" that we have to complete for our requirements. But what I didn't expect was the extra suprises in the box!!! Here is the view of the books.

We also got a cute little giraffe and t-shirt that says "Special delivery from Ethiopia".

Happy Birthday DAD!

Yesterday, July 17th, was my daddy's birthday! We met up with him at Shogun for dinner. Then we went to Coldstone Creamery for dessert!!! After that we went to putt putt (and they got to play ALL 3 courses). After putt putt, we went back to our house and we all watched Gran Torino together. It was a very fun night! Love you Dad, Happy Birthday!

SHOTS!!!

Today we went to Louisville's International Travel Clinic and got shots for our trip to Ethiopia. I had to get 4, Mom got 5 and Brian got 6. The lady was super nice and helpful with information about what we did and didnt need and what we maybe need. Mom doesn't like to watch shots. Brian doesn't like them either. Me, I could care less one way or another. I like watching them. I bruise though.

Here is Brian being goofy during the shots.

Still no worries....

Uh-oh! We almost lost him. lol. Brian forgot to inform us that he hadn't really ate today!
My poor baby is better now :)

Baby Shopping!

First I have got to say I LOVE shopping for babies!!!!!!!!!!!! Here is the crib that I bought today. I am going to get the chest of drawers on the 24th because I have a 15% off discount I can get on it. The crib and matress I bought today because if you bought the bed before the 23rd you got a matress for 50% off. See, I am finding some good deals!!! We are going next week to buy this exact bedding in the picture, and it will be 15% off because it is on sale too :) My mom also bought us something today... she bought us this chocolate colored glider and she got the ottoman that goes with it for free! Babies 'R' Us has some great deals right now. As Christa would say about this glider.... "It is heaven for your butt!", lol. THANKS MOM AND STEVE FOR OUR GLIDER AND OTTOMAN!

New Burp Cloths!

I ordered some of these super cute burp cloths off ebay! They came in the mail today and look so good! 3 Say Bennett (his so to be first name) and 3 say his given name which will be his middle name (I edited it all out but the K.). I love monogrammed things.....especially if it has MY baby's name on it :)

Care Package Sent

Today we are sending out a care package to our baby boy in Ethiopia. A couple traveling to get their child the end of this month said they will take it for us. So today I will send our package via UPS to Illinois and then they will take the package in their suit case to him. Below are pictures of what we have included. We are only allowed to send 2.5gallon zip lock bags with stuff in them. So I had to make it all fit. Below is Mercedes by the package, there is a note on the other side of the bag.Here are my 2 favorite outfits I am sending (the bib happens to be laying beside them). The one on the left says "Heaven Sent", which is so true. The one on the right has a monkey on the butt and one of the onsies that goes with the pants has a monkey and the other says "Mommy Loves Me" (I LOVE anything with monkeys for him).

Here is a picture of everything in the bag. It includes 6 onsies, 1 pair of shorts, 2 pants, 1 sleeper, 1 bib, 4 pairs of socks, 1 pair of jingle booties, a rattle thingy, a baby photo album, and a blanket.

Here is the baby photo book we are sending. We know he isnt old enough to "read" it, but we hope the nannies will show him the pictures of our faces and some of our family's faces.

Here is the first 2 pages in the photo album.

Potential Good News

Our agency told us today that they have been told the the Ethiopian courts are not closing this year for their rainy season like normal from August-September. If it really happens it is great news for us because.... I think our court date will fall somewhere between end of August or early September! If we pass the first time we could be going to pick up Bennett a few months earlier than we had expected!


Please pray 1. For courts to stay open, 2. For the safe travel for everyone that needs to go to court during the rainy season, 3. For us to pass court the first time.

Day at Zoo

Me and my sister, Christa, took our little cousins, Mackenzie and Lynnsey, to the Louisville Zoo. We had a great time with them. We fed the giraffes and the lorikeets. We also played in the splash park.

Below is where the goats started fighting while we were cornered by them. Christa captured the fear on our faces during this photo haha.

Dossier is on way to ETHIOPIA

Today our agency let us know that our dossier is on its way to Ethiopia. They have sent it out via FedEx!

Also......this picture below is from our agency's website, We finally got a airplane in our "Progress Meter" section and we have moved to step 4 out of 10 (step 9 is traveling to Ethiopia so sounds like we are moving right along :)

We found this awesome baby book for adopted babies today at Borders. It will be great that Bennett will have a baby book that can have important things about him and our journey to him just like any pregnancy baby book. I plan on making a scrapbook/lifebook also but this was too sweet to pass up!