2nd, first court date

May 25th!

Our new court date... we are very glad that the new date is not much farther away!

but i have to be honest.  I have very mixed feelings right now.

I know our God is sovereign

I know He knows how this will work out.

I know people think:  it is still in May…. It is only a week more of waiting…. it will be ok, you'll see him soon….

I  know.  

i am sure many people think i am crazy and negative and too sensitive...

 sensitive i will give you!!!  i have never cried over ANYTHING in my life as i cry over our son, orphans, and adoption.

i am doing my best to walk through this journey knowing God is writing this story.

but i also have to be real, it's just me.

my guard is always up and now i am extra cautious about everything.  nothing is gauranteed in this process until the "process" is complete and little hun-nee is forever home!

so my eyes are full of tears and there is a knot in my throat and my heart is just sad….

BUT tomorrow is a new day AND a day closer to HOLDING our precious son!!

waiting for official word for our court date

last friday we got one of those e.mails that makes your stomach sick, your heart drop, and your body start to feel numb....  well at least that is how i feel every time i get an e.mail like that.... i'm just never sure what that update will mean.
there were two updates 
1. health
2. court

health update
our little hun-nee had an ear infection and upper respiratory infection several weeks ago.  it cleared up really quickly with some antibiotics.  with this update we found out the he has a reactive airway and there is some wheezing in his breathing.  apparently this is pretty normal after an infection and for many young children.  


i'm never really sure how to react to health updates.  i can't do anything. worrying won't help. 
my mom's words on monday were a great reminder.... the best thing you can do whether he is here or not is pray.  
sometimes that is hard to remember.  i wish prayer was ALWAYS my immediate reaction.

court update
our f.c. explained that there is a discrepancy between the court date the judge gave, may 13th, and the court date that is on the subpoena.

blahhhh.... 

they hoped we would hear monday about the court date, but there was no news.
they told us we would know today, but still no confirmed date. 
the judge did hear the appeal today  and said she would look at the two dates and let us know tomorrow.  


with guarded hearts we are waiting for some final news...


the upside is that we have decided to take two little trips while we are in ethiopia.  we are going to visit the area our little hun-nee is from and go to the blue nile gorge with another family that has the same court day as we do.... well we think so ;)

fhttp://www.internationalrivers.org/africa/ethiopia/tekeze-dam-ethiopia

our dear friends, the cassadas, received their approval on monday for two boys from rwanda.  they have had a super difficult journey with their adoption.  we couldn't be happier for them right now!!  check out this thought from her e.mail today....

you know what i said to pat last night, "WHAT IF we ended up flying home from ethiopia WITH the snyder's AND ezekiel?!?" he looked at me like, "yea, right!" i said, "GOD COULD DO IT!" he had nothing to say to that :-) (cause we have to go to ethiopia after rwanda to get the kids visa's)

how amazing AND crazy would that be!?!  i'm going to start praying!!

we have bedding

apparently i am not a very decisive person.

 in december and january i looked and looked for crib bedding.  i finally decided that i wanted something neutral.
we only have two bedrooms.  the nursery... that sounds weird.. is a very big room.  so if little ones down the line are going share this room, neutral was the way to go.  but it was really hard to find something....that i liked.  :)

this picture from this blog gave me an idea. 

 i loved this room!

super neutral with great accents... 

after hours of looking, this was my final decision

i found this here

 it came tonight!  my mom followed a tug on her heart and ordered it last week.... before our court date!  good job mom!

 even though we don't have a mattress for the crib yet,

i couldn't wait to see what it looked like!

can't wait for little hun-nee to be in there!

the inside is sooooo soft!!

i have some pictures of evan and my dad putting the crib together, but i can't find them at the moment... i'll update that later.

this is starting to feel very real!

adoption seminar

If you are interested in adoption, simply curious or just want to learn about it, this seminar is for you. We will have experts here to discuss domestic, international and foster care adoption. You will also hear testimonies from RBC adoptive families. 

click here to sign up!  we'd love to see you there!!

we.have.a.court.date!!!!!!!!!!!

in early may we will be on our way to ETHIOPIA!!!!

when i saw the e.mail about "an update"...  my heart dropped a little.  i knew i would be concerned about the news all morning.   i tried really hard not to come up with what it might be.

this morning i was extra happy to have katie co-teaching with me. 

i ran out and called evan and then called anna.  

she asked how we were...  in a small voice i said "a little nervous..."

and then we heard 

"we have a court date for you, May 13th!!"

i was stunned.

we couldn't believe it!

in a little over a month... we will be on our way to MEET our son!!

 january and february were REALLY hard months... the waiting was. so. hard.

when we received our referral and at the same time we heard... be prepared to wait.  

He got us through the last waiting, He'll get us through this one too....

  it is ok with me that it is a much shorter wait!! ha ha ha!!

we are just so excited!

mini zion reunion

tonight was a wonderful evening with some of my favorite girls!  in college we lived in the "zion house". 

we were missing one. carly is in radford... missed you!

i'm not sure i can remember the last time we were all together.  it may have been my wedding

A LOT has happened since that day... 

it was fun to catch up like it hadn't been years since we had all been together.

love these girls!

i couldn't help myself....

save the date

 at reston bible church