One more week!

We are just days away now from our Court Date in Ethiopia. We would love your prayers for this day. Please pray for all of the paperwork to be there and in order. Pray for the people petitioning on Grace's behalf. Pray that the judge would be healthy that day. Pray that Grace can come home in April!

Donations needed!

As we are getting close to actually needing to start putting suitcases together, I wanted you all to know that there is a great need in the Transition Home as well as the Orphanages for some basic medical/health supplies. If you can donate a couple of any of these items, it would be so appreciated. Inflation is very high there and these supplies can be hard to come by!

They are requesting:

• multi-vitamins
• medicines,
• iv supplies,
• anti-dandruff shampoo
• hydrocortizone cream
• Miconazole cream
• Candacort cream
• alcohol swabs
• gloves, both surgical and disposable

Yard Sale

Our yard sale last Saturday was a huge success. Dan looked out over our driveway at one point and counted about 30 heads! Thanks to all of you that donated "stuff," we are so grateful for your support!

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.