HOME!!!

We are all home as a family of 6!!!  Getting settled - and everything is a new experience.  :)  Africa was amazing, the kids are great, and we are so happy to be home together for the summer.  Woooo hoooo!

Introducing our 9 year old daughter....Yemisirach....also known as Emi!!! :)

We passed court for Emi!!!

We just got the call from Kristen at AWAA....Emi passed court and she is ours!  Woooo hooo.  Thanks for prayers because they were answered this morning!!!

We didn't pass court again today

They called this am and said that we did not pass for Emi because MOWCYA did not write the required letter. The reasoning was that they didn't like the way one of the documents from Emi's home town was translated. So, we were told that they would work on getting it re-done and then submitted tomorrow for MOWCYA's approval. When approved, they write the letter, submit it to court, the judge reviews the file, signs, and we pass. We don't need a new court date - which is good. Pray this moves quickly so we can go get our two new kiddos. It was hard for them when we left.

Introducing....Our 5 year old son, Tadele!

Home

Well......we are home safe and sound, and have even been back to work for a couple of days!  All is well here.  We were blessed with great care for our kids and animals and home while we were gone.  We are so looking forward to Monday when we find out if we passed court for Emi.  They are going to go ahead and present her adoption case to the court that day without us being there.  They said that the consent we gave last week for Tadele counted as consent for her as well....whew, since we are back in the USA!  We had an amazing time with our two kids in Ethiopia.  We got to visit them every day.  They are quite the characters...funny, smart, and she even showed her emotional side on the day we were to leave.  All is well, though.  The transition home has a GREAT psychologist who spent time with the four of us as a family before we left.  He explained the process to them, and that we would return for embassy, and then bring them home.  The kids then turned their sad faces to smiles, and had Ted and I "pinky promise" that we would be back as soon as we could!  Too cute.  There were tears at the end, but they seemed so happy at the thought of us coming back.  This Monday is Emi's real court date.  Pray for us and her to "pass" so we can go get them soon.  Sounds like the wait time after they "pass" court is 6ish weeks!  We will have them home for summer break!!!!!  Wooooooo hoooooo!  Hannah and Abrham are being so patient as well.  They are ready for their new brother and sister to get here.

Just posted two...

if you are following along on our trip, make sure you notice that I posted two today.  The internet was terrible the last  two days, so I have two for you today.  :)  Also, I'm trying to post a picture of our new son, but so far it is overwhelming my computer to do so....