Court Cases

Our cases did not pass court today because the Ministry of Women's Affairs (MOWA) letters approving our adoptions were not present. I've seen this happen with some other cases so it's not a new phenomenon. It just means a piece of paper didn't get filed in time. Our older boys' birth relative also could not be found to appear in court, so even if the letters would have been there, his case would not have passed. Because our boys are not biologically related, they are processed as 2 separate cases. We are of course disappointed and are waiting to hear about our new court date. Thank you for all your prayers. Please pray now that we get a new court date quickly. We've been down this road before as we had 4 court dates with the girls. Sometimes our next court date was 10 days later and sometimes it was 6 weeks later. We'll keep you posted.

Court Date Is Monday

Monday is the court date for our boys in Ethiopia. We will hope to know about whether we passed sometime that day. (Remember it took three court dates with our girls.) Please pray with us that all the paperwork will be in order, that the post-election peace will continue, and that the judge will be in a good mood. We are anxiously awaiting the time when we can bring our boys home, especially because we would really like to get them home for a little time before school starts so they can get acclimated a bit before jumping into that new adventure.

A Busy Sunday

Since this post is a few days late, you can probably guess that we've had a busy week, not just a busy Sunday.

Ready for church-these dresses are 5T's which makes me very sad b/c we still have lots of 4T dresses in the closet that they have never worn. They are just getting so tall!

Essie posed all on her own-crack me up!

After church, we got ready to go to the Adoption Assistance yearly picnic. It was great to see so many of mommy's clients with their children home (even if it was blazing hot at the fairgrounds).

We decided to cool down in the pool once we got home.

So yes, Chloe is dumping water on Essie in this picture and below, Essie is pushing Chloe down in the water-typical siblings.

Caesar was hot too!

We finished the night by talking to Meemaw and Grandpa on the phone. We actually tried to Skype with them, but mommy's crappy computer would not cooperate.

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I love Chloe's face in this picture-apparently I was interrupting her conversation. I swear they are 4 going on 14!

A Saturday at Home

Somehow I (Amy) had no appointments today so I spent the day at home. I started the morning by doing the girls hair. I was very pleased with how it turned out, except I'm still not the best at doing cornrows and the barrettes kept falling out all day. But I think it will stay in for several days with minimal maintenance. For those of you wondering, it took me about 1.5 hours to do each head, but again, that's because I'm not the best at cornrows. I'm sure it will get faster, the more I do it.

Chloe - Essie

Part of our fundraiser a few weeks ago was a vendor selling UpperCase Living items. Since I "hosted" the party, I got several free items thanks to the number of sales and Matt helped me put them up today. I'm really pleased with how they turned out.

front door

pass-through looking from the kitchen into the living room

over kitchen sink

Picture of the Day

Yes, that would by my daughters, riding their bikes with their dance customs on over their clothes along with their boots. Oh yes, and their backpacks on their backs. Classy! It's days like these that I'm glad we live in a quiet cul-de-sac.

A Morning with Friends

Yesterday, we met up with Rose and "baby" James (who is not a baby anymore and is about to become a big brother) at the park down the street. The girls were most excited about getting to ride their bikes down to the park and they did quite well stopping at each intersection to look for cars. Mommy was most excited to finally get to spend some time with her friend Rose, whom she hasn't seen in 6 months, even though she lives just down the street (and up the hill).

Off we go!

Chloe

I love Chloe's face in this one above-so contemplative

Last year at this time, the girls would not even attempt this apparatus on their own. Man, how they have grown in a year!

Chloe hamming it up (as always)

Chloe, James, Essie

Also in the news...

We've been a busy family since coming home from Florida so wanted to update you all on our week so far.

We found out our adoption agency director is heading to Ethiopia again next week and hopes to make it out to our children's orphanage. Therefore we packed up some gift bags today to send to the boys. As our court date is only a week and a half away (31st), we are getting anxious to get the boys home. Please pray for elections in Ethiopia to run smoothly next week and that our case will be passed without hesitation. If we pass, we hope to have the boys home in mid-July.

Yesterday, the girls went with me to vote. I forgot to snap a picture inside our polling place so here are the girls outside the polling center with their "I voted" stickers. You Asbury alums will recognize the building. And just so no elections officials get nervous, the girls didn't actually vote, they just got the stickers. Election night came to an end and Ababa was excited that his candidate for the Senate won the Republican nomination. Go Rand! Also of special note in this picture is the girls new outfits from their special friend "Miss Sheri". They are so cute, I could just eat 'em up!

I went out on Monday to see how are garden fared while we were gone and was pleasantly surprised to find radishes ready to pick. Too bad I don't like radishes, but the rest of the family does, even though the girls say, "they are so spicy!"

First Trip to the Beach!

After finishing up our Disney Adventure, we headed over to the Atlantic coast to let the girls see the ocean for the first time. They had a BLAST. (Please ignore the large pasty white man.)

Building sand castles

Sunrise over the ocean

Waving goodbye to the beach

On our way north we stopped in St. Augustine to see Amy's cousin Amy, who she hadn't seen in 15 years.

Disney World: Day Four

On our last (half) day at Disney we went over to Hollywood Studios to see the Little Mermaid and Beauty & the Beast shows. Here are some pictures:

Essie is very excited to see the Ariel show.

Handy Manny

Gaston

Beauty & the Beast

Lightning McQueen & Mater

Green army man from Toy Story

Muppets Fountain

Riding the bus away from Disney World - what a fun vacation!