Thank Goodness for Good News!!!!

Yesterday was full of wonderful news and then unfortunately, a bit of bad news. Let's start with the good news!! My sister, Elizabeth had her twin boys yesterday-Patrick and Zachary!! It has been a long haul for her, an unlike our paper pregnancy she has been on bed rest since week
10 and in the hospital for the past month and a half-Ugh!! Mommy and baby boys are doing as well as expected, considering due date was in March! Patrick had a little difficulty breathing and had to go to another hospital that had a NICU so we are hoping he will be back with mom and Zachary very soon. He is showing signs of improvement hourly!! We are so excited to add them to our family!! Please keep them in your prayers!!

The bad news...our court date has been postponed. I received an e-mail yesterday that MOWA (Ministries of Women Affairs) is moving this week so they are not making any recommendations and therefore they are not able to hear any court cases this week. We are hoping that we will be rescheduled quickly and that seems like the logical thing, so we will wait to hear something. Basically, it could be next week or in 4 weeks-we really don't have any idea. There were a bunch of us who had court dates this week (all of our Adoption Agency's old timers who have been waiting a LONG time) so we are all pretty upset about this news. Thinking positive and hopefully it will be real soon and we can put this behind us! We know once we have our kiddos at home, it will be a distant memory! So thank goodness for our wonderful family news today and please keep us in your thoughts and prayers for a speedy new court date.

Lisa & Dave

Pay It Forward!!!

What a heartwarming and touching day it was! The staff at Dave's school threw us a shower and collected TONS of donations for us to bring to Ethiopia-formula, medicines, school supplies, clothing, and lots of other goodies for the kids and orphanage! I think we may be able to fill a truck with all of the donations. They even made us shirts with our family picture with the kids-we can't wait to wear them on "Gotcha Day" when we pick up the kids!! It truly is amazing how caring and supportive everyone is! Thank you so much for your genorosity!

In the evening we went and spoke with a large group of kids from the local 4H club. They do a community project as part of their club and they wanted to collect donations for the kids and orphanage in Ethiopia as part of their service project. We shared about life in Ethiopia and how they don't have much, but they are some of the happiest people we have ever met! They asked great questions and seemed very touched by this opportunity. Each child is going to fill a ziploc bag full of goodies for the kids and we will bring it with us when we travel. It is so nice to see kids helping kids-it's contagious!!

We feel so blessed to have so many friends who support us and our mission to help those in need in Ethiopia. Winston Churchill said it best... "We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give." Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

4 more days until court-please keep us in your prayers.

Lisa & Dave

Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday to Daniel and Yordanos!!! So...today is Daniel and Yodanos' birthday of record. Since we don't have any record of their actual date of birth, Ethiopia gives them a birthdate, which is actually the date of their first medical exam for adoption-January 16th. Can't wait until we can celebrate with them!!

We also plan to celebrate "Gotcha Day"- this is the day that we actually get the kids! We plan to celebrate this each year by doing something special with the kids and also by giving them a gift from Ethiopia so they will remember their birth country and culture. We already have enough gifts from our first trip for both of them for about 8 years and will pick more up when we go again.

14 more days until court...Woo Hoo!!!

Lisa & Dave

Pictures!!!

We got some of the best pictures yet tonight!! A fellow adoptive parent just returned from Ethiopia and she was kind enough to go visit our kids and bring lots of donations that we sent with her. Well....she got the most amazing pictures!!! It was funny...I had so many things on my "to do" list for tonight, but nothing mattered once we started looking at the pictures. We looked at them a dozen times...since there was over 300-it took a while!! Daniel looks so different in these pictures-he is in tons of them and is always smiling, giggling and playing. Usually, he is pretty quiet and reserved, but not in these pictures-it is really cute!! And Yordanos...full of facial expressions as always!! Wish we could post a few, but not until we pass court!

16 more days until court...keep us in your prayers. January 30th is the big day.

Lisa & Dave

Come and Play!!!

Dave and a few friends built this swingset/fort for the kids in December-isn't it great? We can't wait to see the kids play on it! It's pretty neat-it has a fire pole for them to slide down and a pipe (dug underground) on both sides so they can talk to each other from both sides of the swingset!!

Thank you Tommy, Dave and Fred for helping build this-the kids will love it!!

20 Days until court....

Message from Ethiopia

We received a message today (below) from one of the adoptive parents from our agency who went to go visit Bethel Orphanage. How exciting-we can't wait until she comes home to get updated pictures and information!!! Boy do we miss our kids.... We'll be there soon!!

I was at Bethel today. I have lots of pictures to post when I get home. The kids had a blast trying on all the shoes and clothes. It was like a giant fashion show. They are all fantastic. The caregiver Mame is wonderful. If your kids are there, they are lucky. The air is clean, they have grass to play in and lots of open space. They are also all doing great in English.
Donna

24 Days until Court..but whose counting?

Yes-we are counting down the days-it felt so good to get below the 30 day mark!! January 30th is the big court day! Hopefully we will pass on the first try and travel late February! Keep us in your prayers!!

Today is the day that Christmas is celebrated in Ethiopia! Pretty neat-we got to send our kids as well as all of the other kids at Bethel Orphanage a Christmas present!! One of the families in our adoption agency was traveling to Ethiopia on 1/2/09 and she had room to take donations with her and was planning to go to Bethel. On our drive to NY for the holidays, we made a slight detour to Pennsylvania and dropped of 22 pairs of shoes and lots of shirts for her to take to the kids! Thank you Donna-we really appreciate it!! We were hoping to have our kids home for Christmas this year, but this is the next best thing! She was planning to go today to Bethel so we are anxious to hear how her visit was and of course to get new pictures of the kids!! It's amazing how content a picture and little information on your kids can make you (at least for a few days or so)! More later....