WE HAVE OUR TICKETS!!!!!!

Our case manager called with great news on Wednesday.  She had court dates for us to go see our little boy.  Nick, Kaitlyn, and I will be somewhere between Bismarck, ND and Amsterdam  8 Fridays from today.  We will get into Addis Ababa, Ethiopia late Saturday evening.  We will have Sunday to rest and find a Church.  Monday January 23rd we will get to go to Hannah's Hope to see our little boy for the first time.  We are beside ourselves with excitement.  We already had so much to be thankful for with Thanksgiving coming the next day, but know we had even more to Thank God for.

Nick and I are all done with all our shots.  Kaitlyn has two to go in late December.  She wanted to wait for basketball season to be over in case she got sick from these last two. 

We are in the process of remodeling "Y's" room.  We tore down all the old plaster and  insulated the walls. We still have sheet rocking, taping, texturing, painting, and putting in new flooring to finish.  We have lots to get done. Yikes!  Good thing we have finished off the basements in our last two homes.   It is much easier finishing off new construction than demolishing old work and then redoing the rooms, however.

Busy Days

Since accepting our referral for little "Y" we have been busy with phone calls, our transition plan, more paper work, shots, and now more waiting.  We have done everything we can do and now we must wait for the Ethiopian Government to give us a court date.  It could take anywhere up to 6 weeks, but typically it has been taking 2 - 3 weeks.  We are hoping to hear possibly this week or next.  Than we will be able to book plane tickets and start counting down the days until Nick, Kaitlyn, and I get to go see our little boy. That trip will last about 6 days.  We will get to finally meet and play with little "Y" and go to court and declare that we do indeed want him to be our son.  We will have to return home without him at that time and hopefully turn around in 4 weeks to pick him up and bring him home for good.

We are trying to keep busy and spend time focusing on our other kids as they will get a little less attention when we first get "Y" home.  Friday we celebrated Kelsie's 8th birthday (actual day is Monday Nov. 15th) with pizza, pop, presents, and a delicious cake made and decorated by Kaitlyn.  Saturday, Kaitlyn, Kassie, and Kelsie competed in the Federation Piano Festival.  They all did so well.  We are very proud parents.  Today we have church and CCD for the three youngest and adult ed for Nick and I.  The Packers have a bye so no football game today.  Tonight Nick and I have bible study and Kaitlyn has the final practice for the school play tomorrow and Tuesday.  This is the first year of drama for our school in awhile.  They are very excited.

Kelly