We didn't pass...

We just got the call from our Adoption Agency informing us that our case didn't pass in court.  Apparently, the Ministry of Women's Affairs in Ethiopia must write a letter to the judge for each adoption case and they didn't get ours complete in time for our court date.  I'm still foggy as to why they didn't complete it but the Director the the Ethiopia program at AWAA told us that MOWA has been very particular the past month.  There has been a much higher percentage than usual of families not passing.

Our new court date is June 18th.  Please pray that there would be a sooner court opening and our date will get moved up.  The longer we have to wait, the harder it is going to be on me traveling and the less time we will have to help Eden adjust before the new baby arrives.

We are confident that God is still in control of this process.

Court tonight

Tonight, while we are sleeping, an Ethiopian judge will review our case.  If they are pleased with our paperwork and Eden's paperwork, they will pass our case and she will officially be our daughter.  Hopefully, by Tues. morning we can show you pictures 0f our daughter!  We would really appreciate your prayers for a smooth court date.  We are trusting that God is in control of this adoption and has been from the very beginning.  Eden will not be in Ethiopia one day longer than God wants her to.

We had a really great time last night with two fellow adoptive families who have daughters from Ethiopia.  We took advantage of the opportunity to ask lots of questions about travel and helping Eden to adjust when she is home with us.  I'm so grateful for their openness and experience that we can glean from.  

I'll keep you posted!

Six more days until Court!

Our Court date in Ethiopia is May 25th (Memorial Day). If all goes well and the judge is pleased with the amount of information given about Eden's relinquishment, she will officially be our daughter. We would really appreciate your prayers that everything goes well. If we don't pass court, we'll have to wait for another court date which sometimes happens the next day or the next month, depending on what kind of information the judge is asking for.

This past weekend was Mayfest in Tulsa and I've been looking forward to it all year. Last year we found a wonderful vendor who makes amazing little girl clothes. We drooled over them for a long time but decided we should wait until we know the age of our little girl before purchasing anything. Well, since I now know the size of clothing we need, I was anxious to see if the vendor was back.....SHE WAS!! Here are the two outfits Eden got.

They are completely reversible so really, she got 4 new outfits. Brian and I bought the dress and Brian's parents bought the capris and top with the little hat .

I can't wait to see them on her!! Now she just needs some little girl toys.

Due Date...

Here is our little peanut at 8 wks. 6 days. The top of the picture is it's head ( Actually it's the right side of the picture but my computer won't let me rotate this picture.)

It looks like we are going to have a Thanksgiving baby. My due date is actually the day after Thanksgiving but I am being optimistic that I might have this one atleast a day early. Levi was born on his due date without any help. Cole was induced on a Friday, a couple days after his due date, so we wouldn't risk having him on the weekend when my Dr. wasn't on call. I really don't want to induce again...that was not a pleasant experience!

Anybody know if the Thanksgiving dinner at St. John's Hospital is edible? Let's hope my family will take pity on me and bring me left overs from home.

Just when I thought I was done with these...

I was so excited to find out that we are getting a 3 year old...no more diapers! Then a few days later I found out that we are pregnant! Time to rethink things:

1. Forget the garage sale where we perge our home of all things baby.

2. Perhaps our Honda Pilot isn't going to cut it anymore. Boo Hoo - I am going to have to grow-up and get a mini-van. (Brian tried to comfort me by saying, "Maybe they will throw in a couple of pairs of mom-jeans to sweeten the deal!" -- NOT FUNNY!)

3. I'm trying to enjoy cable television as much as possible. We've already decided it's the first thing to go and make more wiggle room in our budget. It's not like I'll have time for T.V. with 4 kids anyway!

We really are thrilled - especially the boys- the idea's just taking a little getting used to.

Ethiopia...here we come!

There has been lots of excitement at our house this week. I had prepared myself for a long and painful wait with this whole adoption process but it has proved to be much faster than I anticipated. We received our court date yesterday - May 25th. That is the day that Duni (one of the Ethiopia staff) will go to court in Ethiopia on our behalf and if the judge passes our case, we will officially become "Eden's" parents. (By the way, if you didn't already know, we are going to probably name her Eden.) Right now, we have a tentative travel date (TTD) of June 20-27th.

30% of families do not pass court the first time so we would really appreciate your prayers that we DO pass court on the 25th of May.

Yes, there is life aside from adoption at the Jennings Home. Cole has turn into quite the bike rider this Spring. It doesn't matter how cold and rainy it is, he wants to be outside riding his bike! Brian took him on a little "camping trip" out to the church camp last a couple of weekends ago and he had a blast riding his bike up and down the sidewalks.

This is a snap shot of a typical day in the life of Levi. He's such a little character that we spend much of our time watching and laughing. However, it's a rare occurance that we get a picture of him without a silly look on his face or where he's hiding his face or scowling (he's not a big fan of having his picture taken).

Lately, he's been fascinated with numbers. The boy amazes me. He already does simple addition and subtraction - he just doesn't know he's doing it! And be careful to not tell him your age unless you want him telling it to everybody he sees in the next couple of days!

It's starting to feel real.

A week and a half has passed now since we received our referral.  Levi and I went to Target on Wednesday and picked two outfits, an assortment or headbands and a mini photo book to send in a care package to our Eden.   There is a family from Broken Arrow who is also adopting a little girl from Ethiopia that is the same age as Eden and they will travel to get her in a week.  They are going to take some pictures for us, deliver the care package and get hand and foot prints of her if possible.  I am hoping for some pictures of her smiling.  The only picture we got with her referral is really sad.  It makes me want to hop on an airplane right now and go give her a hug.

Lots of people have been asking me when we will get to bring her home.  My best guess is in July sometime.  We should be getting a court date in the next week or two and that will give us a tentative travel date (about 3 weeks after we pass court).  

As I write this, Levi is coughing up a lung.  He started coughing yesterday evening and hasn't stopped (except for a couple of hours in the middle of the night when I gave him the last few drops of our beloved prescription cough syrup).  I am so sick of the boys being sick!  I just want my babies to be able to feel good and go to school and church and have fun.  Allergy season brings such mixed feeling for me.  I love Spring with all of it's flowers and budding trees and mild temperatures.  If only we didn't have all of the wind blowing the pollen in our faces!

Hopefully Eden won't have allergies too!  

Well, I'm going to go get some exercise and mow all of our weeds so Brian can spray them with pesticide in a couple of days.  Unless... maybe I could have the boys sell dandelion salad at little curbside stand to raise money for the adoption!