Adoption #2 Update

We've been told our attorney in ET has 95% of the boys' paperwork. The orphanage director is supposed to be gathering the last bit needed this week and our attorney thinks we will still be able to be submitted before the 7th. Thank you for all your prayers. Keep them coming!

Dance the Day Away

Its pretty rainy and dreary here in Kentucky and I'm fighting a sore throat. So I thought we all needed some dance videos to brighten the day. First we must stretch out...

I swear that we have never shown the girls a Beyonce or Michael Jackson video. These moves are 100% natural.

Springtime fun

My "steal of a deal" Princess bike had some trouble with the training wheels so the girls decided to double up while mommy put new training wheels on the Princess bike.

Today, the girls called me outside to show me their "new, awesome trick". I of course had to grab the camera to document this.

A bike for each of us!

Mommy found another great find at another consignment sale. While it wasn't another $5 deal, I figured I paid so little for that one, I could stretch it a bit for another one. This bike was $12, but well worth it for the girls to be able to ride together.

Essie takes the new bike for a spin.

Chloe

Essie

It's always good when we end the day arm-in-arm.

So anyone that has been to our house, knows there is quite an incline to get in our driveway. I worked and worked to get the girls to keep peddling up the incline so they would not get stuck and have to have me help them up it. Chloe conquered the bump pretty quickly.

Essie took a few more tries

I don't know if you can hear what Essie says in the video below, but the visual should help you know what her issue was on this run.

Essie persevered and finally conquered the bump.

Btw-today, she was riding the entire loop like a pro.

T-shirts from Dubai

Thanks for the T-shirts, Uncle Andy & Aunt Caroline

One year ago today...

We arrived home with our daughters

Ababa & Chloe

Essie & Mommy

Essie listening to some tunes

Chloe enjoying the plane food, except she fell asleep before she finished

Essie cheering for the view

Chloe listening to some tunes

The girls loved to watch the planes at Dulles. Mommy & Ababa did not enjoy the 10 hour layover.

One more flight until we get to KY

Introducing the girls to the grandparents

Chloe with a new toy

Essie getting dressed up for the cold weather

Grandpa Neild & Grandma Kinnell helping with luggage

Essie with Grandpa Kinnell

Thanks to Grandma Neild for taking photos and therefore not being pictured.

Adoption #2 Update

I realize we've been pretty silent lately on news about our adoption of the boys, but that's mainly because we haven't had any news. Our agency was hoping to have our 10 year olds paperwork last month (7 year olds paperwork is already done), but that didn't happen. Since I work in adoptions, I try not to bug our agency for news because I know how high maintenance some parents can be and I don't want to be a burden. I know that our agency will tell us when they have news and they are not trying to hide things from us. But I also know how excruciating the wait is, which of course, just gives me more sympathy for my clients. Anyways, we just found out the Ethiopia has decided that for cases submitted to court after April 6th, they will require the adoptive parents to travel to Ethiopia and appear in court. Now I'd love to take another trip to Ethiopia, but this would cost us at least $5,000 more than we were anticipating and we'd have to make arrangements to leave our girls behind in the States for a week. Then once we pass court, Matt would have to travel back about 2 months later to get the boys. So we are asking everyone we know to please pray that our case is submitted to court before April 6th so that we will not have to make this extra journey. There is going to be a mad rush of families trying to get submitted so please pray for our agency and their in-country workers to be able to process the paperwork as efficiently as possible. We love CCI and all their staff and know that they are truly working on behalf of these beautiful children of Ethiopia to find them forever families. In the end, its about the children and I know that pressure ways heavily on the staff of CCI so please pray for God's strength for them during this very busy time. We'll keep you posted!