Happy Halloween

This year me and Brian were Dorthy and ScareCrow.... We had lots of fun hanging out with my family. My step brother and his family came over, My mom and family, and my dad came over, and my "Little", Darsaya came too! We carved pumpkins, trick or treated, passed out candy, went to our neighbor's haunted house and enjoyed time together.

Paper and Updates

Today I finally finished my 30 page synthesis paper for Nursing school! It was horrible and never wish that torture on anyone else!!!
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We close on our new house today. More pictures to follow.
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If you are a regular reader of the blog and not under my "followers" feel free to do that so I can know who you all are :)
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We can't wait for all of our adoption buddies and us to pass court....Novemeber is a busy adoption month!

COURT DATE!!!

Today we recieved the email I have been waiting for months to get. Our court date is set for November 19th for the adoption!

What Does That Mean????

That means on November 19th our adoption case will go on in Ethiopia. We do not go to this, it happens with us here. This is the day we need to pass for Bennett to be decided legally ours. If we don't pass the first time that doesn't mean that we won't pass just that we may be delayed.

When Do We Travel????

Approximately 4 to 5 weeks after we pass court. The dates that are possible for us to travel (considering we pass court the first time) is December 17th week or December 31st week. Of course we are praying for before Christmas, but we will see when the time comes!

PLEASE KEEP US IN YOUR PRAYERS! (Especially that we pass court the first time)

Hubers and Fall

We did our anual day at Hubers this past week! We love going to get our pumpkins there. We cant wait until Bennett is home to go next year! We got him a pumpkin this year too :)

Ethiopian Get Togethers

Saturday the 17th we got to have a get together with several families adopting through our adoption agency. We met at a park in Lexington (yes it was freezing outside Saturday!). It was so wonderful to meet the families I feel like I knew already through email, chat, blogs, and facebook! I also got to be surrounding by lot of little Ethiopians, which I love. I could stare at them all day long and dream and wonder about our little boy who waits for us in Ethiopia. We had a great time in fellowship with them all.

Tonight we had a get together with Highview families who are or have adopted from Ethiopia. It was held at Queen of Sheba (an Ethiopian resturant). It was a great time. We brought our family with us so that our parents and family could get a look at Ethiopian culture. Everyone seemed to have a great time. The families are so encouraging through our wait.


We are still waiting for a court date and hope to hear soon what that date is, keep us in your prayers that the date is as soon as possible and that we pass the first time.

One Year Ago...

One year ago today we lost our first baby due (Jordan) to a miscarriage. It was the worst day of our lives. We know it was all in God's plan for our family but it hurt no less. We never knew a year ago that we would be waiting for a beautiful baby boy from Ethiopia today! God has been good to our family and he has been there for our family through our tough times. Thanks to the friends and our family that have been here for us throughout this year.


Today will be a happy day for us as we get to meet with our adoption buddies from our agency! Will post about that later :)

Pics of House

Here are some pictures of the new house we have a contract on. Remember, it is a foreclosure so of course everything will be redone and look new, but you can see the layout from the pictures at least! Above is a picture of the living room and fireplace. The window overlooks the deck in the backyard.

Here is a picture of the foyer.

Here is a picture of the Master Bedroom, ugh its nasty blue right now :P But the doors lead to the back deck.

Here is the kitchen, we will be repainting and replacing this floor.

Here is the loft and living room.

Here is the formal dining room (we dont have the same decoration taste as the previous owner, but it will sure be cute when I finish!).

Mercedes got a Snuggie!

Submitted to Court

Today we got an email that our adoption case is being submitted to court today!!!! This is a big step for those who don't know. Ethiopia closes their courts for a few months due to their rainy season and just opened back up this week. We now have to wait a week or so before they give us our actual court date. After we pass court (PLEASE PRAY REALLY HARD THAT WE PASS THE FIRST TIME) it will be able 5 weeks before we travel to Ethiopia to pick Bennett up. We will stay in Ethiopia for about a week.

COURT IS OPEN

Today we found out court is OPEN in Ethiopia!!! Pray that our case has been submitted and hopefully we will find out soon a court date.

7 Years Together

Brian and I have been together today for 7 years. We started dating on October 13th, 2002 while I was 15 years old and he was 17 years old. Here are some pictures of us together over the past 7 years. I love my husband so much!!! God has been good to us! 2009

2009

Wedding Day!!! 2008

2008 Marriage License

2008

2008

2007

2007

2007

2007

Engagement 2006

December 13th, 2006 Engagement Day

2006

2006

2005

2005

2004

2003 at Brian's Senior Prom

2002

2002 at Brian's basketball game and homecoming.

Courts

Ethiopia courts were suppose to open today and we got an email that told us they did not open...hopefully tomorrow so our case can be submitted and we can be assigned a court date.




On better news....Friday we recieved our I71H in the mail. That is a document that is from the United States Custom and Immigration Service giving Brian and I permission to adopt a baby from an international country. It took us 110 days to get it but it is finally here!

Please continue to pray for our family :)

Gatlinburg Family Trip

This weekend we took our anual family trip to Gatlinburg,TN over Fall Break. It was lots of fun. On this trip was me, Brian, Christa, her boyfriend Devin, Mom, Steve, Uncle Chris, Aunt Diane, and NeNe. We shopped on the strip, looked for and saw a bear, went to haunted houses, and ate at resturants. I love my family :)

House Update!

So we have been trying to buy a certain house since April now... well first it got listed to high and they would never accept our offer, then it sold last month, and then it fell through, and now ...... THEY FINALLY ACCEPTED OUR OFFER!!!! I have been dying for this house forever!

The house we have a contract on is 4 bedrooms and a play room, and a bonus room (which will be Brian's office). I love this house because it has plenty of room as our family grows so we never have to move if we dont want to. It also has a unfinished basement that we can finish someday down the road. The house is also just right down the road from my mom and across the street from the school we plan on sending our children to one day.

We bought this house because it is a foreclosure so we could get it at our price. It needs a lot of work before we can move in: rip out drywall in basement and clean down there, carpet, paint, fix some plumbing, and fix some windows. I am sure there are other things but those are the things I can think of now.

We hope to get in there before Christmas and before Bennett comes home. We dont have any new Bennett news. Hopefully we will hear soon.

Here is a picture of the house we have a contract on. Pray everything goes correctly and that everything is in God's will be done.

Video!

Today we got more video of our Baby Boy!!! Our agency director's husband took the video of Bennett while he was in Ethiopia a few weeks ago. I love seeing our beautiful baby on video! I feel like I am not missing so much. He had on a onsie and socks we had sent to him. We also got to see him roll over!!! He is very observant! He rocks back and fourth while in the crawling position...so maybe he will crawl soon?! His nannies seem to love him so much and take great care of him! How I love those nannies that are giving my baby loving touch and care until we can get there for him. October 13th is Brian and my 7 year dating anniversary. It is also Bennett's 6 month birthday! It is also the day our court case will hopefully be submitted to court. God Bless our family!