MILK

So, this morning as I was pouring my cereal I realized that this milk will expire with perfect timing, exactly one day before we leave to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia!!  (Oh I know you’re judging me for my measly half gallon of milk, and yes, it usually does go bad before we can drink it all. But that’s besides the point.)  WE ARE LEAVING IN 12 DAYS TO SEE OUR SON!!!!!!

ONE STEP CLOSER!

Tegan passed court yesterday!!!!!!  That means he had a positive letter of adoption written for him and now WE get to go to court in ETHIOPIA!!!  ON MAY 14th!!!!!!!  We’ll be there a few days before our court date … and that means I get to spend Mother’s day with my son : ) and Ed gets to celebrate his birthday in one amazing country!  : )  We couldn’t be more excited to have an actual date on the calendar now, we’re going to meet our little guy in LESS THAN A MONTH!!!

God has been so good to us and we are so thankful today!!

Happy Birthday!

Tegan Edward Grover (I love typing that beautiful name), was born on March 16th 2012 … and we had a little party!!:)

 

aaaannnnd….. we also sent him a present!   Two wonderful new friends carried our package all the way to Ethiopia on the way to meet their daughter for the first time!  Since we can’t post photos of Tegan’s precious face yet, they took the photo for me below – so thoughtful!   (Courtney and Ryan (and your sweet daughter Nara!) we couldn’t be more grateful for the photos of our son!!)

We love you Tegan!!  We can’t wait to meet you – SOON!!

 

IT’S A BOY!!!!!!!

Our family coordinator called us yesterday morning at 8am with news of our referral.  ”Your wait is over” she said : )  We cried as we listened to the story of our baby boy’s 11 months of life unfold over the phone.  ’This is his story’, I kept thinking, ‘this is the story we will be telling him as he grows up!’  It was absolutely surreal.  Then came the e-mail, and the pictures!  Our coordinator told us over the phone “He has a round head and almond shaped eyes, he is so beautiful! ”.   And he is, he is just the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.  We called family, we went on a long walk with our dog.  We went out to lunch.  Everything changed in a matter of hours.  Our hearts have room for one more real little person, the third member of our family, and we have been waiting for him for so, so long.

Today I piled a bunch of things you have all given us on our blue couch upstairs.  I am overwhelmed by the love that has been shared with us for this little guy over the past 2 and a half years.  We have been through a long wait, and you have all waited with us.  We can’t begin to thank you for your prayers, your encouraging thoughts toward us, your financial support.  We have a very loving family of friends and relatives walking through this with us and we couldn’t have asked for more.  In fact, I am so excited to tell you all about our little one because I know you are all just as excited to bring him home!!  Thank you for sharing in that with us!

That being said, we are back in the same boat of uncertain time frames and forward steps.  We will take this one thing at a time and hope to bring our baby home within about 4 or 5 months.  There will be a 2-3 month period RIGHT NOW that we will have to wait to fly over there for the first time.  We will more than likely be in the dark on when exactly we will fly to Ethiopia for the first time until just over a week before we do!!  So, here’s to more patient waiting!  Once we fly over it will be another 2 months or so before we can fly back for the second time to pick up our son.

While it will be hard to wait because of the uncertainty of the time frame, we are excited to finally get to start preparing for his arrival.  I CAN’T BELIEVE IT!  God is so very good!  We love our little guy!!!!  He’s coming home soon!!!

(P.S. I know you’re all dying for a photo and more information – but until we bring him home we have to keep all of that offline : )  If you happen run into me though, I might force you to look at a photograph or two of the cutest little boy I’ve ever seen!)

(P.P.S. Ed wants me to make it clear that these are not the words he would use to describe this situation, but they do capture his heart, in a general and less masculine sort of way).

Until we are able to include a picture of our new baby feel free to use this visual approximation as a reference…

 

 

 

WE ARE ON DECK.

On deck!  Those are the words our adoption agency uses to summarize the status of families that will receive the next wave of referrals from somewhere out in that vast ocean of Ethiopia. : )  And as of today ——-> WE <——- are on deck people!!!!!!!!!!!  Before you go crazy with questions, we still may have to wait a maximum of 5 months.  So, little victories, but a victory non-the-less.  It’s official though, we and possibly 3-4 other families will be getting a call sometime in the next five months as our little ones are cleared for adoption.

December, January, February, March and April, here we come.

 

A D O P T I O N   C A L E N D A R