February update

Oh, how I wish I could show you a picture of our precious little Grace! We received an update, and she is doing great! Her height and weight are good, she eats good, and her personality sounds delightful! So we are fine-tuning her room and our supplies based on what we are learning about her in these updates. Also, we are starting to put together a donation/care package suitcase for our trip. If you would like to donate any items for the orphanages, please contact us and we'll be glad to pass on a wish list to you!

Possibly just 37 more days until we go to get her!

Still waiting...

Yesterday we got new pictures of Grace! A family, the Whitakers, just returned with their precious new child, and while they were there they delivered an outfit to Grace from us, and took 5 new pictures for us. I am so happy to report that she looks happy and healthy in all of the pictures. I can't wait until the day that I can put them online for friends and family to see!

Our court date is just one month from today!!!

Our 6 1/2 year old daughter, Haley, loves to draw. Give her a blank piece of paper and some kind of writing/coloring instrument, and she is so happy! She drew this picture last Spring after we explained to her that her sister would not have blonde straight hair like she does. She has drawn many pictures since then, and the greatest thing for us is that she just naturally draws her new little sister into all the pictures, as if she were already here with us. Grace has no idea all the love that is waiting for her here! Haley can't wait to have a younger sister to balance the scales, Andrew is excited to have a new play-mate, and Joshua is very ready to be the Big Brother again (he loves to help out and entertain!).

Today I wandered the isles of Target looking at different things we'd need to take on our trip, but I am trying to hold off buying too much, because 2 months is such a long time yet!

We're preparing to have a BIG yard sale at the end of the month, hopefully to help pay for air fare, and certainly to get through some closets, toy chests, and bedroom corners, and make room in our home for another member!

Tentative Travel Date!!!

We received an email yesterday from our agency with our tentative travel information. IF we pass court the first time, on March 17, then we will be on our way to Addis on April 4, 2009! They sent us a big packet of information about travel, and so now we have to decide which direction we're going to take to get there! We can fly on United Arab Emirates from Los Angeles, or we'll have to go to Washington DC and take Ethiopian Air from there. The flights are sooooo looooong! So we need to do lots of checking around this weekend to figure out which will work best for us.

Ethiopia

I just found this on another family's blog. Thought you might be interested...

• One in six children die before their fifth birthday
• 44% of the population of Ethiopia is under 15 years old
• 60% of children in Ethiopia are stunted because of malnutrition
• The median age in Ethiopia is 17.8 years
• 1.5 million people are infected with AIDS (6th highest in the world)
• 720,000 children have been orphaned by AIDS alone, and there are 4.6 million orphans in Ethiopia.
• Per capita, Ethiopia receives less aid than any country in Africa
• In the 90s the population (3%) grew faster than food production (2.2%)Drought struck the country from 2000-2002 (first year no crops, second year no seeds, third year no animals)
• Half the children in Ethiopia will never attend school. 88% will never attend secondary school.
• Coffee prices (Ethiopia’s only major export) fell 40-60% from 1998-2002.
• Ethiopia’s doctor to children ratio is 1 to 24,000.
• In 1993, after 30 long years of war, Eritrea broke from Ethiopia and became an independent nation leaving Ethiopia landlocked without any major seafaring ports.

Well, Grace got her little gift/care package from us last week! We got to see some pictures of her looking at pictures of us!!! We sent her a soft little teddy bear, and she's holding it in all the pictures. Next week she'll get an outfit that we sent with another family. Every time I see pictures of her, I'm thinking she looks so much bigger than the measurements I've been given, so maybe if I can see the outfit on her, I'll be able to make a better guess at how big she actually is! We have absolutely fallen in love with her precious face. We've been told more than once that she is not shy and is very loving.

I just don't know if March/April will EVER arrive!

Just yesterday two families returned home from Ethiopia with their children. One of them took a little care package/gift to Grace for us, and we're anxiously waiting to maybe see a new picture of her and learn anything we can from them about our little girl. More to follow!