Just a couple more pictures...

The last two pictures were just from last week. I can hardly believe how quickly her hair is growing! The very first pictures we received of her, her head had been shaved (probably due to lice). That was 8 weeks ago! Look how thick it is!!!! Also, I believe she is using her tongue to play with her new molars. I noticed that she has the same ones M. is just getting, so I'm sure her mouth probably hurts!

Meet our new daughter!!!!

This morning we received the most amazing news that we passed court! We have another daughter! I can hardly believe it. I will be able to travel to bring her home the last week of August. The next 4 weeks will be very busy packing, making arrangements, packing, filling out more forms and I'm sure, packing!!!!!

And the wait goes on....

I do not have good news, but not necessarily bad news either. MOWA (Ministry Of Women's Affairs) did not get the letter of recommendation sent over to the courts. They are all done, just still on her desk. The lady who needs to take them there will be in the courts tomorrow, so hopefully tomorrow will be our day. Or later this week. Our case is "open" which means as soon as the letters are there, hopefully our case will go through! I still have hope!!!

One more day of waiting

Today has been full of cleaning, prayer, laundry, prayer and more prayer. ONE MORE DAY!!!!! I woke up feeling nauseous from nerves this morning. We are blessed to have so many people praying for us. I have some wonderful friends who came to my house today and just prayed. Prayed for our little girl, prayed for Jesse and I, prayed for the judges at court tomorrow, prayed for the wonderful caregivers taking care of our little O. right now. Hopefully, we will have some very exciting news to announce tomorrow. Please pray that the judges will pass everything through court tomorrow on the first try. But, most of all, please pray the God's will be done. Here is a great reminder for me:

"Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need. So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today." Matthew 6:33-34 "

Oh! And I almost forgot to mention the I am a very blessed mommy! Today, W. decided to help B. go to sleep by staying in their room with him. After a little while, B. came up and asked me to come downstairs to their room. They had picked up EVERY toy and completely cleaned everything! Without me saying anything (it was super messy)!!! W. said "We did it so you would feel special. Do you feel special, mommy?" Who wouldn't?! W. also went out and watered the cows by himself and picked me some peas (all on his own). Children truly are a blessing.

50th Anniversary Party

Today we had a huge 50th anniversary party for my grandparents. I was asked to make the cake, so this has kept me busy this week! It has been a great distraction and a lot of fun. Although it doesn't really look that big, it was supposed to be enough to feed 175 people (small pieces). Guessing it weighed 50-70 lbs!!!

Cousins are so much fun!

Here's the whole group. There are 4 generations all together. How amazing is that?!

...and Grandpa and Grandma cutting the cake....

Just had to throw this one in. We saw this little guy on our way home. He had a couple friends, but the other pictures were more blurry than this one. ;)

Power of Attorney

The director of our agency left on a plane yesterday headed for Ethiopia. In order to represent us in court, there are attorneys and they need a power of attorney letter (allowing a rep. to stand in court for our case) from the adopting family as well as a power of attorney from the agency's owner. Our director's POA (power of attorney) expires in July 2008. The court interpreted this as the BEGINNING of July, and Hope interpreted it as the END of July. So the court is requiring a new agency power of attorney before they will sign off on any of Hope's cases. Since providing the court with a new POA requires going through a whole long authentication process and DHL to Ethiopia, he doesn't have time to do this or none of us will make it before courts close. Therefore, he is just going to go to Ethiopia and appear in court for each of our cases in person. If he is there he does not need a piece of paper allowing someone to stand in court for him. It is amazing to see his dedication for these kids. He even had a family vacation planned, but rescheduled it due to his dropping everything and heading to Ethiopia. We are blessed to be with Hope Adoption Agency!

We have 9 more days till we know if our little girl is "legally" ours. There are several families with court dates in the next few weeks. Please pray that we will all make it through court before closure!

Privacy

We decided to set our blog to 'invite only' due to privacy concerns. Sorry for the headache, everyone!

We have had a very busy, yet fun, weekend. We had a BBQ on Friday at some friends' house. It was also a birthday party for their little boy. Later we headed out to watch fireworks. The kids were so thrilled! The big concern of the evening was if huge fireworks were going to land on us, or if we'd be okay.

We have received more pictures of our little girl this week. It is such a blessing to see how she is growing. She looks happy and we cannot wait to have her home! 13 more days and hopefully she'll be legally ours!