2nd Care Package

We received more pictures today from The Gagnon's who just travelled to pick up their little girl. I love opening my email to the subject line "A** Pics" and opening the links to see that sweet face. He is getting so big and looks very healthy. I praise God for that everyday. We have sent a 2nd care package with a few outfits and a few rattles and toys that Daniel will be to big for by the time he comes home, with the Taylors. They are in Ethiopia right now and will see Daniel tomorrow.





This was an outfit we found at Wal*Mart. Across the front it says "Heaven Sent" which is appropriate since Daniel is completely a gift from God!!!!!

Court Date

We received a call from Anna today, our court date is October 10th. Yes that means we are caught up in court closures. They did everything they could to try and get us in before the closures but the courts would not budge. We are happy to know a court date that we can actually focus on even if it is 2 months away. I tried to prepare myself for getting caught in closures, still doesn't make it easy.

This week????

Will this be the week we get our court date? Only 2 days left......

July Information

We received our monthly update on Daniel today. He has gained 2.5 pounds in one month! He is getting bigger everyday. The update said that he is happy and loves to smile. The only time he cries is when he is hungry. He is now rolling over and can hold his head up when he is on his stomach. He is also making cooing noises. We are so desperatly praying for a court date soon!!!!! We also got 3 more pictures of him and a very good one of his face smiling (I think it is my favorite so far). One day soon we will be holding him, one day! But until then we will continue to praise God for the healthy, happy, smiling baby that has been the best gift we could have ever been given!!! We love him so much already, I can't imagine what is going to happen when we get to hold him for the first time. Stay tuned, the time is coming I can feel it.....

Update

We received an update today from Anna at AWAA on the status of Daniel's case. They have enough of the pieces of his profile to apply for a court date. This could take a couple of weeks to hear back from the courts what our date is. They still need one signature on a piece of the profile for us to be able to pass court, they are sure they will receive that signature in the next couple of weeks also. Meanwhile we sit here and wait, it has been almost 2 months since we first saw his face and we are so ready to hold him and love him. I know in God's time. There is also another little wrench in the process right now. Courts may be closing from Aug 22nd through Sept 30. If we do not receive a date before this time or pass court before this time, it will be early October before we go to court. So if you could all pray for a couple of things for us during this time:

1. Empathy from the person who schedules court that they will push us through and get us a court date quickly since the paperwork has been moving slowly through the system so far.

2. We receive and pass court before Aug 22nd.

3. Lastly for patience and understanding on our part. We have this picture of this little boy that we long to hold and love and become his parents. It is easy to get caught up in the why me, why our case, what are they doing, why is it taking so long, etc. We know in our hearts that this will all happen in God's time, sometimes that just seems to slip away in the heat of the moment.

Thank you all for your prayers, I know God has a plan for Daniel and it will be huge, on His time, not ours.

Baby Shower

We had our baby shower yesterday to prepare for Daniel. We were so overwhelmed with the love and generosity of our friends. We are officially ready for Daniel to come home, we just have to find room for all the gifts we received. The shower was beautiful, everyone did such a nice job that put it together for us. We decorated in the theme of his bedroom all the way down to the animal shaped cakes!!! Check out the slideshow posted to the left of pictures from this wonderful day!

Waiting Does Not Get Easier!

So we are still waiting on a court date. Waiting does not get easier, I think it may even be harder when you have a picture to look at and a face. I can't wait for all of you to meet Daniel, his eyes are mesmorizing, big and brown. The Kerby family sent us pictures yesterday they took of him last week. He looks like he has gained some weight and is very happy. We are not sure when we will get a court date, MOW@ has shut down from July 8th to July 24th for mandatory training from the government. Since you can't pass a court case without the letter of recommendation from MOW@, there will most likely not be any new court dates scheduled until July 27th and after. We are still not sure if the courts are going to shut down or not. If they are and we do not get a court date before Aug 7th we most likely will be waiting until October to travel.

Meanwhile we continue to wait and plan for Daniels arrival. Wonderful families are taking pictures and emailing them when they go to pick up their child and it helps to see those new pictures of him smiling and seeing that he is very well taken care of. When it is our turn we will be ready! Until then we wait.

Court News

I talked to our agency today about when we could expect a court date. We still have not received the profile for Daniel from the orphange. Our coordinator said she talked to the orphanage director today and our profile was in the last stages within the government before it comes to the agency here in the US. What this means for a court date is we will wait. They can not open a case until that paperwork is completed, they are optimistic that a case will be able to be opened next week. Court dates currently being assigned are mid to end of July. So that is most likely when our court date will be but you never know. A concern of ours is that we get through court before closures, closures are rumored to happen around August 7th though that has not been confirmed. We will be close. I know God can move mountains and make miracles happen. I pray that he is watching over our little boy and will help us to pass court before they close so we do not have to wait until October to pick him up. That would be a very long two months.

Meanwhile there is a family there taking pictures and loving on our little boy The Kerby's and there is another family leaving this week that is going to take more pictures and give our little boy more love. It is reassuring to know we will still see more pictures of him and people are loving him before we can get there to hold him. Praying for a fast resolution and court date so we can finally pick Daniel up!

Pictures & Waiting

I think this side of the waiting is a little harder than it was when we were waiting for a referral. We now have a picture we can stare at and believe me I can not stop staring! We are waiting anxiously for our court date, hopefully sometime this week we will find out. Meanwhile there is a family that is in Ethiopia this week that is delivering our care package and going to take more pictures for us. I can't wait to see more of him.

Meanwhile, as we wait paitently of course, many things are going on. This past weekend was Mark's birthday, we had a big cookout on Saturday with our family and friends. This coming weekend is the 4th of July and then next week is my birthday. We have planned the shower to be the following weekend the 12th and somewhere in there Mark has about 12 gigs with 2 different bands, and 2 golf outings. Good thing we are busy I think I would drive myself crazy!!!

Good news from the Ethiopia front. They are going to start reopening cases that were temporarily on hold from the abandonment investigation on July 2nd. Please pray with us that these families will pass as they have been waiting a very long time to hold their little ones.

Many have asked is we can post pictures of Daniel (that is what we are naming him by the way Daniel Kelile). Unfortunately we can not post any pictures on the internet or email until we pass court. I do have a photo album with his pictures though so if you want to come and visit stop on by and see our baby boy!!! I love saying that!

Pediatrician Interview

So we went to visit a pediatrician today to see if we would like her and get her opinion on Daniel's medical labs and pictures. We are so blessed to have found her, everything is falling in place just. She was very nice and personable. She went over all her meds and said she didn't see anything specific that we should be concerned about. We loved her and will definitely be going back. She spent over an hour with us just discussing our concerns and a plan for when we come back. Praise God for wonderful doctors and the people he puts in our paths just when we need them.

First Care Package

We sent our first care package to our baby boy today. There is a family, the Kerby's that are travelling next week to pick up their baby. We are so grateful for families traveling that take care packages, we also gave them a consent form so that they can take more pictures for us. We can't wait to get them. I love looking at his precious face. See our care package below:

Baby Stuff

Well today we signed our offical referral acceptance letter and mailed it off to America World. We knew from the minute we say this precious baby boy that we were accepting his referral but I had to go out of town Friday and Thursday the day we got the referral was filled with way to excitement and busyness so we did it today it is at UPS waiting to be picked up first thing on Monday morning. Yeah!!!!!! On our way to a court date. Oh did I mention that while I was gone yesterday Mark bought a car. This week has been crazy with excitement and change. Here is how it has gone so far:

Monday - Mark started back to work. YEAH!!!!!
Thursday - Referral call (One of the top moments of my life so far)
Friday - Mark bought a car (Jeep Cherokee - that we so badly need so we are not trying to get an infant in and out of the backseat of a Cavalier or Sunfire, that both are only 2 doors)

Saturday - Register for baby shower

Yes, tonight we tackled the task of registering for our baby's stuff. It was fun picking out all the stuff that our baby will use. The whole time we were walking around babies r us saying "We have no clue what we are doing". Really not sure I registered for enough bottles and I know there is a lot of stuff we completely left off. Any mom's reading out there that can offer suggestions, please do!!!!! Grandma went with us while we registered, she was so funny. When we got in the car to leave she was like, why didn't we just buy it all now. She cracks me up!!!!!

Oh well it is about midnight and i haven't really slept since the call Thursday. One hundred and one things to do and I am running out of time to do them. It will all get done, it always does.

Unbelieveable

So it has been almost 24 hours since we got the news. I can't stop staring at that precious face. I can't believe he will be ours. One look and instantly you will fall in love. It has been a long 8 months 2 weeks and 2 days that we waited to see that precious face. I don't think I would have changed the wait time for anything though looking back, so much was learned and we grew so much in our faith. God has big plans for this little guy I just know it and I am proud already to be his mom. It is truly amazing how you can love someone so much that you don't even know.

It still feels like a dream.......

We Got It!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We got the call today! We got a referral for a beautiful 3 month old baby boy. I can't share much more than that until after we pass court but I can't stop looking at his picture. I just want to hold him!!!!! After lunch today I was checking the Yahoo Group and noticed that the family on the list ahead of us got their referral. I called Mark and said "we're next" and when we hung up, I jokingly said keep your phone handy it could be today. Literally 10-15 minutes later I was in my boss's office telling her and she was like it could be before the end of today and then my phone rang, I looked at it and looked at her and was like this is it! I don't think I could even describe the feeling when Terra said I have a potential referral for you. My heart was racing and I couldn't stop shaking, she tried to get Mark to conference him in and his phone didn't ring at his office so I told her I would call her back in a minute. I got Mark on the phone and then conferenced in Terra (didn't even know I could do that until that minute) and she told us the news. I told my boss when I got off the phone, I have to go I can't wait to see his pictures. I went to Mark's office and that is where we saw the most beautiful precious baby boy and he is ours (unofficially until we pass court). I can't believe this is happening, it seems so surreal. We went to Outback and had dinner to celebrate. We have waited so long for this day, praises to God. It could only happen by way of him.

Now we have to pray to pass court, we will be one of the first families with an abandoned child to go through courts since the investigation. They don't see any problems happening but as we have seen you never know. So please pray for us that we will pass court quickly so we can hold our precious baby boy and show you guys the pictures!!!!!

Stay tuned it is about to get interesting................

"Thank you God for your mercy and your grace and the way you work amazing things in our lives. Even when our faith was thin we knew that it would happen in your time. Thank you for this amazing gift you have given us, we get to be parents to this precious child. You are truly truly amazing! In your name I pray. Amen"

ON DECK!!!!!!

So I went to a training class this morning and got back to my desk about 10:30 to check my email. I was so excited and in shock to see the subject "On Deck" from Terry Bailey. I have been waiting for this email for a long time! My heart started racing and my hands were shaking as I called Mark to tell him. This feels so real and soon we will see our baby's face. Do you believe it?!?!?!

What does on deck mean you might ask? We should receive our referral (child's profile, medical, picture) within the next 1-2 months. Keep praying we will receive our referral soon! Then this waiting game is over and the court waiting game starts but we will know our son's age and weight and see his precious face. It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about that day. My phone will be glued to my hand at all times until that call comes in. Stay tuned, it is about to get really interesting.....

Praise God!