Thankful

I've been tagged by Melodie to write 5 things we are thankful for!

1. I am thankful for my dear husband who loves me no matter what. He is a terrific friend, encourager, father and husband.
2. We are so thankful for our son Igor. We cannot imagine life without you dear one.
3. We are thankful for the opportunity to adopt Henry! We cannot wait for you to be part of our family!
4. We are thankful that we live in a country where Christians may worship freely and do not face persecution.
5. Thankfully we will know in a few days if we passed court!

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Giving Thanks

My dad, a veteran of the Vietnam war, sent me the following:
If you go to this web site http://www.letssaythanks.com/
you can pick out a thank you card. Xerox will print it and it will be sent to a soldier that is currently serving in Iraq.
You can also pick out a "pre-written" note to include with the card.
You can't pick out who gets it, but it will go to a member of the armed services. How AMAZING it would be if we could get everyone we know to send one!!! This is a great site. Please send a card. It is FREE and it only takes a second. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the soldiers received a bunch of these cards? Whether you are for or against the war, the men and woman serving in Iraq need to know we are behind them.

Our family

Igor and I have started our Christmas baking. I know it's early but Rob and I may be in Ethiopia December 13-20! Igor was asking about gingerbread men so I decided we should make them this week. Last year Igor make a cookie family- Daddy, Mommy, Igor and little brother. He wanted to do the same thing this year except he wanted icing on the cookies. I made the icing and he frosted and decorated them.

This activity gave us time to talk about Henry being part of our family while doing something fun. We had a sweet talk about what a family is and what our family will look like when Henry arrives!
Please pray for our paperwork to be correct and on Judge's desk on time!

AWAA Gathering and grace

This weekend we got together with several other families who have adopted or are adopting from Ethiopia! We met at a local park and then ate dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant. It was so nice to meet so many adoptive parents and children! A big thanks to Marshall who took the group picture.

Here's Igor at the Ethiopian restaurant!

I am reading - Sin Boldly - it's about God's grace. On Sunday I was in a funk, I was not expecting to receive grace, I wasn't even looking for it.... but after church a sweet lady came up to me saying I had been on her heart and she wanted to help me in some way, she suggested cleaning our house or some sort of act of service. I was floored, humbled and grateful. If that wasn't enough of a message from God, our neighbor came by Sunday night with an envelope. A week and a half ago she received a piece of our mail. When we opened the envelope, it included a lovely card with a sweet message and a check to help bring Henry home. Rob and I were floored, humbled and grateful.

Thank you God for showing me your grace when I desperately needed to see it.

Gotcha Day!

On November 16, 2005 a Russian judge ruled Igor was our son!

Yesterday, we went to Igor's favorite restaurant to celebrate. Igor ordered pancakes, scrambled eggs and french fries. He received his first super hero action figure. Spider man was a huge hit!

Happy gotcha day Igor. We love you!

Taking night vision goggles to a new level

Igor and daddy have taken the night vision goggles to a new level. The picture is not a mistake.... this is a picture of Daddy (white lights) and Igor (green lights) finishing dinner in the dark. Life with boys is never boring.

This picture reminds me of our adoption. So many days I felt like I was in the dark. I knew things were happening but I couldn't see most of it. Now it feels as though I have night vision goggles on, I can see more but not everything. We are looking forward to our court date with an optimistic heart.

Traveling families

Seven families are traveling to Ethiopia this weekend to pick up their children! Five have blogs:
Notes from the terminal ward
Armstrongs2Ethiopia
Gambles blog
Pridemores blog
Yellow black and brown

If everything goes as planned, in one month we will be in Ethiopia to pick up Henry!!

Night visions

My dear mother, Nana, sent Igor an early Christmas gift- children's night vision goggles. My son LOVES his new goggles. We tested them out in the closets yesterday afternoon. Igor thought they were very cool.

Imagine my surprise at Odark:30 - Igor walked into our bedroom with his night vision goggles on saying, "Mom, I can see you!" Once I woke up enough to realize what was happening I said, "Igor that's awesome. Now please, you and your night vision goggles must go back to bed. See you in the morning." Tonight I am taking the goggles out of his room after he falls asleep!

On the adoption front, it finally feels as though Henry will be coming home. I think we've been living in some weird alternative universe where we knew that we were adopting a child but it did not feel real. We have returned to this universe and the adoption feels VERY real now. We FINALLY purchased Henry a winter wardrobe. All he needs is a winter coat, shoes, mittens and we'll be done!

We received some more pictures of Henry from families who were in Ethiopia last week! He is such a cute little boy! I cannot wait to show you his picture.

Fall vacations and Ethiopia on my mind

We went to aunt Shawn's for a mini vacation. It was great to spend time with my sister. We went hiking, to the zoo and visited a wonderful playground. The fall colors were amazing.

We were in the car for over 4 hours one way so I started creating my list of things to do before we leave for Ethiopia. Rob is not a list person. He is delighted that I will organize everything but really doesn't like lists. One of the things we must have done before we go is get Henry's car seat ready and Christmas presents must be purchased, wrapped and mailed!

I need your help- my nephew wants Toy Story for Christmas but I'm not sure which one to buy, there are 3 Toy Story movies. He wants the one with this story line (or close to it):

the family in the movie has to move (I think) and the Space Commander, and the cowboy have to find the family because they fell out of the window. . . . .

I haven't seen the movies. I read the plots of each movie but none match the above description. Do you know which movie this is? If so, could you leave me a comment?

Also, we need to bring a gift for the nannies at the orphanage. If you have any ideas, I would love to hear them. The creative part of my brain, which is very small, has been over taken by the list making side of my brain!

The dining room table has become Ethiopia staging area. We have collected diapers, wipes, hand sanitizer, clothing, books, toys and games to take to the orphanage and transitional home. If you'd like to make a donation, check out the list of needs on the Schmidts Blog. We'd like to take the smaller items since we know other families are taking diapers and formula.

While the Susan and William were in Ethiopia they met Henry! They took some really cute pictures of him. It was great to receive more pictures and have William and Susan love on him.... Several families are in Ethiopia this week so we should get more pictures when they return.

Halloween

When Igor got off the bus on Friday, he had chocolate all over his face and a funny look in his eyes. Guess what? They had a Halloween party at school. I think he over dosed on chocolate. Here's a picture so you can be the judge-

We always wait until Halloween to carve our pumpkins. This year Igor wanted to draw the face on one of the pumpkins. Of course, Dad cut the face out.

Igor decided that he wanted to be a fire fighter again this year for Halloween. Good news, his costume from last year still fits! Igor and dad went trick or treating in our neighborhood. We have several courts in our neighborhood and three of the courts had adult stations set up. They had grills going, hot cider and treats for moms and dads. I'm not sure who had more fun,

Igor or dad!