The boys meet Merone

Henry LOVES, LOVES, LOVES his baby sister!! 

He wants to feed her, read to her, carry her, etc.

Henry and Merone were up a 5AM this morning reading books in Merone's bed.  You cannot tell based on this photo but Merone thinks Henry is awesome.  She gave him a kiss this morning.  Something she has not given her parents yet.

Igor is a proud big brother.  He carries her around and is learning to comfort her when she cries.

Rob and I are over the jet lag but Merone is still struggling to adjust to our time.  We are looking forward to sleeping more than a few hours each night.

Merone is with us!!

Here's a picture of our sweet girl after her first night with us at the guest house!!

 

Guess who turned 9?

Today is a big day.  We are on our way to Ethiopia!!  We cannot wait to see our girl!  Today is also Igor's birthday.  He turned 9 years old today.
Last night we had a party for him.  He was sooo excited to celebrate a day early.

 








his Star Wars LEGO ship





We were able to pick the first tomatoes of the season before we left! 









we hope to post pictures of our gotcha day tomorrow!!

And so it begins again- please pray...

We leave for Ethiopia next week!! We are excited but it is tempered by the current action by MOWYCA (similar to social services in the US).  MOWYCA does not appear to be writing letters required for court.  We have many dear friends who have been matched with their children, have gone to court but have not passed court because the MOWYCA letter was missing.  These families long to go back to pick up their child(ren).  We have other friends waiting for referrals but the delay for those who have not passed court is causing a ripple effect and referrals have slowed to a crawl.
Our friends in Ethiopia have put out this call for prayer and fasting-
Calling adoptive families, intercessors & orphan advocates: The director of MOWYCA (the agency that approves adoptions) in Ethiopia is not working for justice for orphans. We want to challenge each of you to fast and/or pray this week that her heart is changed or that she is removed from office. This is urgent as it will affect all Ethiopian adoptions. Not looking at circumstances, but on the One who changes them!


thank you for praying!

Embassy Appointment

We received an e-mail this morning with the sweetest news- We have a confirmed Embassy Appointment on June 23!  We are finalizing our travel plans. In less than two weeks we will be in Ethiopia with Merone.

  

Cleared for Travel!!!

The US Embassy has clear us for travel!!!  We are should receive our Embassy Appointment confirmation tomorrow!!  We are so excited to know we will be able to pick up our daughter soon.  We also learned that baby girl has the chicken pox!!  Please pray she has a mild case and recovers quickly.

Tonight we had a pancake dinner fundraiser to help bring Merone home.  We raised almost the exact amount of money needed for Merone's air plane ticket home.  Thank you God for providing!!!

Family re-ordering and Supplements

Prior to going to Ethiopia we had Igor's Neurotransmitters retested.  He has been doing great on the supplements but we are about change our family dynamics again.  We will all be a bit stressed out during the re-ordering period so we wanted to get a base line reading on Igor before Merone comes home.  Igor has been on Neurogistics supplements for 9 months.  His ability to control his temper, understand complex feelings and emotions has grown by leaps and bounds.  Yes, Igor is maturing but I believe the supplements are helping him remain more calm and have given him the able to handle change and stress in a positive way. 

Igor's results were much improved since our last re-test.  However, he still has a very high "Fight or Flight" response.  More fight than flight in my observation so the practitioner suggested a change in his supplements.  We made the change over the weekend and "early 2010 Igor" is back.  I don't have any other words to describe him.  The on edge, angry Igor is back and no one is happy, most of all Igor.  He is 8 yrs old and really does not understand why his emotions are completely off.  After some discussion with the practitioner, I am putting him back on his previous supplements to get the more calm and happy Igor back.  We will change his supplements again before Merone comes home.  I am hoping that we get the right mix before we leave for Ethiopia. 

We know that our family order will change.  This week Igor has talked openly about how it was when there were just three of us and how it all changed when Henry arrived. He knows a big change is coming. 

Moving to the next step!

Rejoice, Rejoice!!  On Wednesday our paperwork for Merone's adoption was submitted to the U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia.  Some of you are wondering what that means.
Our adoption agency must collect post court paperwork such as- new birth certificates, a passport for Merone, a medical evaluation is done, and so on.  All the documents the US Embassy requires for review has been submitted!  The Embassy has about a week to review the documents,  After their review they could:

1. issue us an Embassy appointment in Addis or 
2. request more information or
3. do an investigation

 We are praying for option 1 because the next steps would be getting on a plane, picking up Merone, meeting with Embassy officials and then flying home!!
We should hear something this week! 

Father's Day- a gift of giving

Father's Day is right around the corner.  If you are like me, I struggle to find the "right" gift for my dad.  This year we'll be blessing our dads with a gift from the heart, the gift of shoes.... no, not for them... the shoes are for a child in Ethiopia.
Grace Baptist, sponsored by Children's HopeChest, is a care-point for orphaned and impoverished children. Through the support of sponsors, Grace Baptist is able to provide food, clothing, education and Christian discipleship! However, the children have many other needs. One pressing need is shoes.

Tracy, a sponsor mom, and her brother are professionally printing and mailing out Father's Day cards to benefit the children at our care point, Grace Baptist, in Kombolcha, Ethiopia.  The printing and postage is being donated!  Your monetary gift will be presented to Grace Baptist and will go to purchase new shoes for all the children. One pair of shoes costs $18.   

Go to Tracy's blog to send a card to your dad.