Army Crawl

Thanks for the Colts updates.  That is refreshing and exciting news.  Quick update.  Tegegn has had a great couple days.  Starting to army crawl around everywhere and try to climb on our legs.  He is actually sitting up on his own and standing with a little help ;-) The change in the routine has helped a lot and still wakes up a few times in the night but not as bad as before.  We have been doing some shopping.  The best place we have found is around the post office.  A lot of people have said the prices are fixed but definitely not the case.  We are glad to have our host family with us to help us bargain.  Went to Gullit today the local market and bought a few things to bring home such as Masheela, kind of like popcorn but not, coffee, and some spices.  I hope everyone is doing well and we can't wait to see you!
 
Love Chris and Sarah

Merry Christmas!

Good morning,
 
Yay! Internet that is almost as fast as dial up!  Which is good.  Merry Christmas to everyone.  We had a good Christmas although it felt a little diffierent without the snow.  We heard it was pretty cold in the midwest.  Tegegn had a rough Christmas, he was very grouchy all day.  He likes to yell when he's not happy, and he did that for about 2 hours in the morning, then he had a rough night waking up about every hour.  We got through it though.  We think he might be waking up and getting scared and also teething.  We changed the routine a little last night and he slept all through the night exept to wake up hungry.  He is very happy this morning.  We gave him a bath before bed and put him to sleep a little later.  We are all learning what works best. We took him back to the pediatrition for a follow up visit.  He gained about .4 lbs and the ear infection was gone.  We have mentioned to our families but I don't think anyone else but we think he is younger than the birth certificate.  The pediatrition guessed about 10 - 11 months old right now.  He eats great, and the doctor said the weight gain was good.  He is a little under weight 9.1 kg now.  Yesterday we went to St. George Church.  All the church's are beautiful and we have been doing a little more shopping.  We try to go somewhere different each day.  The weather is great.  It is about 50 in the morning and around 80 mid/late afternoon.  It gets very hot in the sun, and we usually don't do a lot around that time.  We usually wear jackets and long sleeves most of the day as there is no humidy.  No one wears shorts, I have not seen anyone yet that is wearing shorts.  We usually go on a walk  every afternoon as Tegegn LOVES riding in the backpack carrier.  He also loves being outside!  We also went to Tomoca coffee yesterday as it is one of the more famour coffee places.  Very neat shop.  Sarah and I were jking that we felt like celebrities after leaving the coffee shop because we literally had 5 beggers and 3 people trying to sell things to us as we left and up against the car windows as we were trying to leave.  We joked with our host family that it felt lile poperatzie.  I plan to put together a long list of things to know while you are here for the families getting ready to travel.  We read about it from someone else before we left and it was very helpful.  We are located in the Bole region of Addis Ababa which is about 5 minutes from the airport.  Proably the region with the most foreigners that we have been able to tell.  We might go to Bole Mini which Duress suggested which is kind of like a diner in the US.  The have hamburgers and french fries.  We have been really good to stick with the tradional food which has been great.  And Duress we also bought some Mortabella last night which Sarah and I plan to have soon.  Everyone has been so interested in why we have a baby that's not like us.  Our host family says a lot of people say he is so they don't understand there is adoption here and then comment on how lucky he is to be with us.  We plan on donating the money we were given to either AHOPE orphanage which is a place that takes orphaned children with AIDS or a Hope charities, which feeds hungery children a meal every day.  We will also be taking all the supplies to CWA on Jan 5th when we go to fill out our paper work for the Embassy visit.  As you may or may not have heard Somomlia is very volitile right now so security is very tight in Addis.  Alomst everywhere you go there is security that search you and check you car.  We feel very safe though and our host family is whith us at all times.  I hope everyone is doding well and had a Merry Christmas.  It's crazy but I don't even know if the Colts are going to be in the playoffs.  I hope!
 
Love Chris and Sarah

Entoto Mountain

Sorry we haven't been able to respond to emails.  It literaly took me 20 minutes to get to this point.  And you have to pay per minute.  If there is something urgent please put that in the subject and we will make sure we try to read it.  We are doing good.  Tegegn has been fussy the past two days.  He is in to screaming and fighting naps big time.  It probably a combination of getting over his sickness and being placed in a new world.  He is still cutier than ever though.  Yesterday we went to Entoto Mountain, which for those getting ready to come here, this is one place you can't miss,  There is a beautiful church at the top and it over looks the city, and it is one of the most beautiful drives.  Tall Euchaliptis trees cover the road as you drive up.  We try to do something different each day.  We also DROVE through Murcoto.  Wow, kind of glad we just drove.  Very overwhelming.  We decided to stop and shop a little on the way to Entoto Mountain in a place called Entota Market.  Very nice and clean.  We bought tradition closthing for all of us, and something called a Gabi which is like a big blanket.  It sounds like thingsare going well back in the US and the Colts keep winning.  They were getting ready to show highlights of the game on TV but the satalite went out right at that moment.  That was painful.  We hope to update more when the internet is a little faster.  Ha!

Love Chris and Sarah

It Begins...

First Email From Sarah & Chris: 

Hello,

I wanted to give everyone an update.  I am at an internet cafe that doesn't have a good connection.  We picked Tegegn up yesterday.  We don't think that he was out the of crib much as they said he was crawling which is clearly not the case.  His back and leg muscles are pretty weak and can't really sit up straight on his own.  We have already seen improvement just in the day we were working with him.  It was a rough night as he has a lot of mucus in his chest.  Woke himself up coughing several times and scarey himself.  We saw this morning that he had drainage in his ears so our host mother went with us to take him to the doctor.  Doctor said other than the ear drainage he is in good heatlth.  Gave us a  script for amoxacylin(sp) and tylenol.  He is at home sleeping now.  The hospital was for children only and the doctor was very nice.  Our host family is incedibly kind and very protective of us.  We are very tired because neither one of us slept because we were worried about Tegegn.  Right now he is very warming to Sarah and still hesitant about me.  We knew would be the case because he is only cared for by women in the orphanage.  I can't get my blog to load so please pass this on to anyone who you think would like to see it.  Zac can you pass this on to your mom and dad.  I didn't have their address in my hotmail and sarah isn't with me.  Wendi please feel free to pass this onto the yahoo group and I couldn't get it to load either.  I will try to send updates again and hopefully post pictures sometime but not sure because it is very slow.  The flight was long but on-time every stop.  Thanks for all the prayers and support, we can defintely feel it.

Love 

Chris and Sarah

Email #2

Hello again,

 Ethiopia will change our lives for sure.  It is pretty incredible here to say the least.  I tink that Zac is going to update ourblog for us.  Tegegn is much better since we took him to the hospital, we were having trouble getting him to settle down last night.  He wanted to play and play and play. We think he may have been in some pain for a while and was enjoying feeling better.  CWA picked us up today and took us to the Embassy for blood work, they couldn't find a vien so we felt pretty bad for him, just like his mom, and then to a clinic to have the medical exam required for the Visa.  They were very kind in coming to the home of the host family to get us and bring us back.  There were two boys with us also going age 4 and 6 and they clung to us the whole time.  They adorable!  Wanted to hold our hands everywhere we went.  I wish we could get pictures to load but internet is very slow and they don't have wireless where we are, that we have been able to find yet.  Our host family again is very protective o us and won't let us leave their site, which we appreciate.  We are going to a market this afternoon to look at the foods that they have been preparing for us.  The maleria medicine was making us feel pretty lowsy and our host mom called a doctor and he said we shouldn't be taking it because melaria is not an issue in the capital.  we already feel so much better and finally have an appetite.  They prepare ethiopia food for every meal and it is great.  they also made french fries for us today which we devoured in out 2 minutes.  Tegegn has come so far already, he is saying momma and ababa (dad) bouncing up and down like crazy, waving his arms and legs like crazy.  The doctor at the clinic today said he was healthy but a little under weight for his age but we kind knew that. He is also very close to being able to sit up on his own.  we are starting to get a lot of laughs and smiles after getting stares and no emotion on the first day.  My hope is to get him crawling before we leave.  We were having a little trouble get him to go poop and our host mom said do you mind if I try what I used to do for my children.  She cut off a little piece of soap and put it up his bottom, ummmm he was going to two minutes and I am not exagerating, it was incredible, and he has been going regularly since.  She has given us so many tips and been such a blessing.  The blog should be updating soon with the help of my brother in law.  Thanks ZAC!  Like always please pass this on to those that we have missed.
 
Love Chris and Sarah

Email #3

 
Dec 17 - We had a great day.  Tegegn is officially one!  Tegegn slept well for the second night.  He only woke up once and that is because he was hungry.  Mama and Baba (Mom and Dad in Amharic)  were happy.  He took a 2.5 hour nap in the morning and in the afternoon.  He really loves his mama now.  He is reaching for Sarah and always wants to cuddle.  Chris is the one that feeds him so that he can get used to being with a man.  He finally smiled and laughed with us last night.  It was precious.  
 
Dec 18 - Today we had to wake up and go to the Embassy for a medical appointment.  We went there with a few other children from CWA that will be leaving to go to the states soon.  There were two boys, ages 4 & 6, that loved us.  They wanted to sit by us, hold our hands, read to them and even one boy read to us in English!  We have no idea what families will be picking these two boys, but they will always hold a special place in our hearts.  They were so loving and it makes us happy to know that they will be surrounded by love soon. 
 
We are going to the market this afternoon.  We are excited to go out and about and experience the culture a bit more.  We have tried to lay low for a bit since Tegegn has been sick.  Since he is doing so much better we will be seeing more of Addis Ababa.  
 
This experience makes us realize a lot about ourselves.  We have so much and often take it for granted.  The Ethiopian people are so kind.  When we went to the hospital for Tegegn, the women that passed him would kiss his hand as they passed.  It is a way to show affection.  When people shake hands, it is a sign of respect to hold your elbow and bow.  
 
Our host family continues to be so kind.  They have made sure that we do not go hungry.  There is always plenty of food on the table and they insist that we eat more all of the time.  Chris and I had the opportunity to try to make injera (served with every meal) with the assistance of the helper.  I have to say, you know our host family is nice when they eat what we made.  It is supposed to be real thin - they considered ours to be double the size of what it should be.  They called it farmer's injera.  Today Teddy and her helper made us some potato chips (french fries).  I had ketchup!  It was so good!  
 
We will have to go to our agency on January 5 and then the Embassy on January 6.  We plan to see more of the city.  Captain Kifle and Teddy (our hosts) want to make sure that we do and see everything that we can while we are here.  It has been so nice not to be rushed.  Teddy has taught us a lot of parenting secrets.  We cannot thank her enough for her knowledge and "tricks."  All of the food here is organic and she is teaching me what to do to make my own baby food.  Again, they have been such a blessing to us and for that we are so grateful.  As Teddy would say, "Thanks God."
 
We will continue to update everyone as we get an opportunity.  Thanks for the continued prayers.  Tegegn is adjusting well and we are so thankful.

And were off!

We can't thank you enough for all the well wishes and support! We are headed out today. We are currently scheduled to arrive in Ethiopia around 2 pm eastern time on Saturday. Hopefully we will be able to continue to provide updates.

Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock

A quick update.  As you can imagine we have been a little busy since our court date.  Pack, pack, pack, double check everything we need to take, pack for a little one, buy airline tickets, wrap up work needs, double check the packing.  To say the least, it's been a bit crazy here at the Ponsler household.  We are leaving Indiana on Friday with stops in Detroit, Amsterdam, Sudan and our final destination - Ethiopia.  We are scheduled to arrive in Addis Ababa at 10 pm their time.  Our current plan is to let our bodies and minds adjust as much as possible on Sunday and get acquainted with our wonderful host family. Monday is the big day for both of us and our son.  We will meet him for the first time.  Poor thing, he won't have a clue that we are coming and all the love that we have for him.  Our hope is to continue to update our blog with pictures and details of the journey depending on how well the internet connection is while we are there.  The amount of prayers, donations for the orphanage, support have been overwhelming, we are truly blessed with an amazing group of family and friends, we can't thank you enough!  

Thanksgiving...the perfect time of year.

What a wonderful holiday season it will be this year! We hope that each of you have a great time with family and friends. It is such a perfect time of year to reflect on how many blessings we have been given. Sometimes those blessings are in disguise...we may not fully understand God's master plan, but we have to trust Him.

For those of you who have read this blog from the beginning, you know that in December of last year was one of the lowest points in our lives. For three years, we tried everything to get pregnant. It consumed my life. Every month was a dissapointment. I didn't understand why God wasn't allowing us to have a child. I had it all planned out in my head...I wanted to have a child, adopt a child, and have another child. In the month of December, we decided to go ahead and pursue in-vitro fertilization. I have never ever experienced the pain that I experienced that month. Each and every day I had shots, rounds of medicine and more shots...not to mention the emotional pain I experienced with all of the hormones going through my body. The big day was December 17th. This was the day that we would go to Indy and the doctor would place the embryos into my body. Little did we know at that time that God had a master plan. Our little baby boy in Ethiopia was born on this very day.

Time and time again, God has shown us that He is the one in control and if we trust him he will take care of us. Isn't God good? So, this Thanksgiving, I am thankful for many things. I am thankful for my best friend and husband, Chris. I am thankful for our son. I am thankful for our supportive family and friends. I am thankful for our church. I am thankful for a job. I am thankful for our home. I am thankful for my life. This Thanksgiving, I realize how blessed I truly am and I am so thankful that I am a child of God.

So this Thanksgiving, what are you thankful for?

YES! YES! YES!

We wanted to let everyone know we are legally parents of a new son! Thanks to an army of prayers, support, work of the agency, and grace of the courts we made it! More details to come, but we did it. We can't thank everyone enough for the continued prayers and support!


And in the spirit of a Colts touchdown (they play this song when they score) and how we are feeling a little song:

We are not alone...

This past Saturday we had the wonderful opportunity to join nine other families in Lafayette that are all in the process of adopting from Ethiopia! It was so nice to share with others and hear that we are not alone in this process. One family has a referral and the majority of them are currently waiting to be matched with their child. We look forward to developing friendships with this group because we feel it will be important for our son to know that there are other families just like us.

Please continue to pray for a successful court date on Tuesday. We continue to trust God as He is the one in control.

Leading the BLIND

I have a weird feeling right now.  The best analogy that I can come up with is that of a woman who knows she will deliver her baby on a certain day due to a scheduled C-section.  However, I think that both of us, Chris and I, are feeling the same thing right now.  We are anxious.  We have lots of energy.  We have no words.  We are excited.  We are scared.  We are thinking about our son.  We are thinking about our court date on Tuesday.  We are praying that it will be successful.  As his parents, we feel helpless.  Everything is out of our hands.  We try to keep ourselves busy.  We wish time away.  We are preparing to take a trip of our lifetime.  We are trying to learn about Ethiopia.  We are trying to learn about being parents.  We are nervous. We want our son to know he has been loved from the time that he was born.  We want his transition to be easy.  We know that we are a family that will encounter issues.  We want to have answers for our son.  We want people to know that we would not trade this journey for anything.  We miss our son.  We wish we could hold him.  We wish that he could hear us tell him we love him.  When we are missing him, we go to his room.  We go through his things.  We read his books.  We look at his clothes.  We talk about what we will take to Ethiopia.  We are excited.  We are anxious.  We are waiting...waiting patiently to hear if he is legally our son.  We are praying.  Praying hard.

Christmas before Thanksgiving? Yep.

November has been a busy month so far which has made time go by fast!  I decided to add some pictures when we went to Oliver Winery in Bloomington, Indiana with Syd and Katie.  We had a great time together.

On Thursday, Chris and I went to a concert at Ball State.  This will be the last concert that we attend for awhile.  We went to see David Crowder.  He is one of our favorite Christian artists.  His concert was awesome.  We love how he sings the entire time.  It was great, as we were leaving we asked for a set list.  It was hand written on the back of a menu.  As we were walking out, we noticed a poster hanging on the wall and what do you know...it was signed by the entire band.  What a great surprise!   It is now hanging on our wall in our game room.  Connersvine opened for David Crowder.  They were good.  Hunter (the Colts punter) likes to talk and so does his sidekick...

This past weekend we celebrated Christmas with my side of the family.  We had a great time and I have to say our holidays have been a little messed up this year due to us traveling soon.  Christmas definitely has a different meaning for us this year.  Material things are a thing of the past...we already have so much and there is really nothing that we need.  Our focus has been on providing for our son and that is really fun for us!  We have been wondering a lot lately...we wonder how big he is, what he is eating, where he is developmentally, who is loving on him, what a typical day is for him, how much time he is out of his crib, if he cries a lot, if he sleeps through the night...soon we will know.

We always wait till the last minute to fill my mother's stocking...so we took pictures of us kids so she could update the picture of us that she still has on her fridge from 5 years ago.  We love you mom!

Chris having some fun with a Colts spiderman, aka our nephew.

My dad hanging out with one of his 4 grandsons.

My grandpa was able to join us before he heads to Florida for the winter.  He loves his great grandchildren.

Snorkeling gear for Chris....

I forgot to include this picture a couple of posts ago.  Before a Colts game, we stopped by my college roommate's house to see her beautiful daughter.  We are so happy for Greg and Libby!  Congrats!

And a final shout out to Ashley - we just don't understand how you can dislike the Blue Man Group.  Can we still be friends?

One more week till our court date!!!!!!!  Please continue to PRAY!

Donation Update

We have received a great response regarding the donations for our agency's foster care center in Ethiopia. We have received plenty of children's vitamins, wipes, crayons, pencils and hand sanitizer. Thanks to those of you who have given these items! Also, thanks to those of you who have given money so we can purchase some items (including a camera for the orphanage, diapers, wipes, food, and clothing to donate) while we are in Ethiopia. We are so grateful for the overwhelming response. Please contact us if you are still interested in donating items or money. We will be happy to share God's love (and yours) with the children of Ethiopia.

Adoption Update

This week I actually started a countdown at work!  We are only 19 days away from the court date.  Thanks for the continued prayers for a successful day!

Also, thanks for the response about the donations.  The children in Ethiopia will be blessed!

This week we received THREE more pictures of our little boy.  He is so precious.  According to the pictures, he is pretty flexible.  He looks great.  He is healthy and we can't wait to hold him.

If all goes as planned, we will be leaving for Ethiopia on either December 12 or December 13.  We will be staying there until January 10.  We are so fortunate to be staying with the parents of one of our friends that is from Ethiopia.   I plan to write them a letter this weekend.  I think their lives will change for a bit while we are there.  I hope they are ready! 

This weekend we are going to Oliver Winery and Bloomington with Syd and Katie.  I have lived in Indiana my entire life and have NEVER stepped foot on IU's campus.  It should be a lot of fun.  I am excited to be with friends.  

On Sunday, Rod and Megan are coming over to watch the football game.  It should be a fun time!  Go COLTS!

CWA Care Center in Addis Ababa

Our case manager called the care center in Addis last week and notified us of the needs of the orphanage.  If you are interested in helping us donate any of these items or money, please contact us at ponzchris@hotmail.com.  

We plan on packing lightly when we head to Ethiopia.  We are planning to put all of our stuff in one bag and all the donations in another.  

Thermometers

Anti-fungal cream

Anti-bacterial cream

Latex Gloves

Hand Sanitizer

Children Multi-vitamins

Disposable diapers & wipes (we plan on using money to purchase this in Ethiopia)

If you want to contribute, thanks in advance!  If you have any suggestions on where to buy this or ask for donations, please let us know!

Please pray for all of the children and the foster care center.  We have so much and they have so little, but we share God's unconditional love. 

November 1 = 24 more days

By the way, if no one was aware, it is NOVEMBER!!!!!!!!!!!  YAY!!!!  This morning, I woke up and rolled over to Chris and my first words were "IT'S NOVEMBER!!"  (As a reminder, our court date is on the 25th of this month!)

I love Saturdays at home.  We were able to get so much done.  You should see our garage.  It is so organized.  Love it!  We also put stuff away in our barn for the winter.  The weather was beautiful.  

Today we also met our friends, Wendi and Mark, at Starbucks.  They live in Lafayette and were headed to Mark's family in Peru.  Chris and Wendi worked together at Manchester College and I actually went to Niagara Falls with Wendi when I was a senior at MC for a conference.  Anyways, it is such a small world because we are both going through the adoption process.  They are also adopting from Ethiopia.  What a neat connection.  We plan to go to their house later this month to get together with the Lafayette families adopting from Ethiopia.  I think we are farther ahead in the process than anyone there, but we are excited to share our experiences and the joy of adoption with them.  

The Week in Review

Family is a big part of our lives.  This past Friday my mom and I traveled to Goshen to hang out with my Grandpa's sisters and their families.  Although this might not sound like fun to some, we had a blast.  These ladies can outlast me.  They stayed up until 2:30 in the morning.  WOW!  There was a lot of food and laughter all night long.  

In the picture above are the sisters...Claira, Celesta and Martha.  Claira is so funny!  She totally reminds me of my grandmother that passed away a year and a half ago.  She has a way of making people laugh.  It was great to get to know her better.

I ended up leaving at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday morning to come back home so we could go to choir practice.  Our high school teacher has been teaching at Eastern for 25 years and she invited alumni to come back and sing.  Although the rehearsal was practically all day long on Saturday, we ended up having a lot of fun.  We were able to see old friends and reminisce about the good old days.  I have to say, the choir students are spoiled now with the performing arts center.  I was a bit jealous.

The Colts are having a rough start this year.  I am not quite sure what is wrong with my team, but I hope they come out of this slump.  They are good...it is just taking them awhile to figure out what works...We are going to the Colts versus Patriots game on Sunday.  We will cheer really loud, get a souvenir cup, get to the game early, eat in the food court, wear our jerseys, I will wear my beads - I hope this is a recipe for success!

We have had a friend hanging out with us for a few days.  Chris took some crazy pictures of this creature.  I think they are kinda creepy!

When we were in Ohio we went to the Sauder Outlet store (RTA furniture) and purchased a few cabinets for the garage to help us get organized.  We could not believe this was only $25!  We ended up buying 2 of them.  We were super excited!

On a serious note, the pastor at our church suffered a massive heart attack.  He is currently scheduled to have surgery tomorrow morning.  Please keep Pastor Steve in your prayers.  He is at Methodist hospital in Indianapolis.

Since this weekend is Halloween, I thought I would share this picture.  It made me laugh so hard.  This was on our way up to Goshen.  I had to take a picture.  Who does this?

Powerful Video.

Sarah and I have seen this video a couple times and it really puts things into perspective for me.

World Vision

Christmas in October...

I guess you could say that my family is a bit nuts, but we don't mind.  This past weekend we sang Christmas carols and unwrapped Christmas gifts.  Although there was no snow, we had a wonderful time spending some quality time as a family.  This year we went to Ohio.  We ended up getting there on Friday night.  On Saturday, we attended my cousin's volleyball game at her high school.  Her team won!  It was fun to support her.  I think she had the biggest fan club there.  We also went to my aunt's chocolate shop, Stella Leona.  It is not quite open, but she served us all kinds of warm drinks.  They were delicious.  It was so much fun!  

Brotherly love...

A little football action...

Christmas in action.  Every year the adults do not exchange gifts, instead we donate money to a worthy cause that the host picks.  This year, Greg and Nancy, chose to give it to the orphanage where our son is in Ethiopia.  We were so blessed and we know that the orphanage will definitely use it.

Chris and I crammed into a chair for at least an hour while Greg read the Christmas story and the children opened gifts.  

The colors of fall are so beautiful.  I love this time of year.  I always think of my friend Julie because this is her favorite season.  Julie lives in West Virginia.  I met Jules when I studied abroad in England in 2001.  We have kept in touch over the years and she is married to Adam and in April, they became parents to beautiful Ella.  Here is a shout out to Julie - I miss you and thanks for praying for us every night! I wish you lived closer...

I have been so impressed with Chris's photography skills.  He has a super creative side that I did not know existed until recently.  I give him all the credit for the fall photos.

And in the spirit of the season, I had to post one of my favorite pictures of my nephew.  This picture was not taken during halloween, these are his pajamas.  However, the mask is not part of the outfit.  Anyways, I was trying to take a picture of him and I asked him to put his arms out so I could see the netting under his arms.  He followed my directions and put his arms out - just not the way I wanted.  How adorable!

Finally!

We got some exciting news today.  They have scheduled a court date for us at the end of November!  Our agency will be acting on our behalf in court and once it is complete, he will legally be our child.  All we can do now is wait and pray that everything is approved on the court date.  If everything goes smoothly our embassy appointment will be scheduled 5 weeks afterwards.  We are tentatively planning on traveling the middle of December and returning the first of the year.  

Glasses - Gotta share

My friend Megan introduced me to a very cool website and I think many of you can benefit from it. If you have glasses or need glasses, check out the following link. All you need is your script. It is a legit site because Megan ordered her glasses from here. Check it out...

http://www.zennioptical.com/

She purchased her glasses for $30. This is a deal!

I'm back...

Here is my confession...I love blogs.  I could spend the entire evening on the computer jumping from blog to blog and then surfing the Internet.  In order to finish my class, I gave up the computer in the evenings to watch my class, take a test and write a paper.  I am proud to say that I finished my class this past Saturday and I am back!  Can I tell you, it feels great not to have the pressure to choose between classwork and the computer.  I only have one class left; however, I am taking a 3 month break for several reasons...the most important being that we will be traveling to Ethiopia to pick up our son!  Another reason is that this class would push me over my limit for the year for tuition assistance, just another positive for waiting until January.  

Last weekend on Saturday we went to our nephew's hockey game.  He plays for North Central even though he goes to school at Ben Davis.  He is the goalie and I can say that it was great to watch him play.  NC won the game and this was the first one that I wasn't a nervous wreck for Andrew.  I think it was a pretty easy game for the team and for the most part he had few shots against him.  Every time I see him, he changes.  This time I think he was 3 inches taller than the last time I saw him and that wasn't very long ago.  He is taller than Chris now.  

On Sunday, October 5, several people went in together to throw me a shower(Cousins, aunts, sister-in-laws, mother, mother-in-law).  Here is a shout out to Cari for organizing it!  It was AMAZING!  There were so many people and so much love in the room.  It still amazes me how generous people are for others.  We received so many gifts and could feel the love.  As a recap, our son is set for a year on clothes, has toys to play with, books to read, diapers to do his business, books to scrapbook his life, cocoa butter lotion, DVDs and enough money to purchase our second ticket to Ethiopia!  God is so good!  

Here is a plug for my friend, Andrea, the Pastry Diva.  She made the cake.  I would have shown the other one, but his name is on it and so I rather not post it quite yet since we are using his Ethiopian name.  Let me just tell you about this cake - there were three different flavors: carrot cake with cream cheese icing, chocolate cake with chocolate mousse, and white cake with raspberry filling.  

Look at all of these beautiful ladies!  This is at the end of the shower...I know that I am missing several because they had to leave early.  Thanks to all who came and showered me with love.  It was a special day!

While I was at the shower, Chris had some of our friends at our house watching the Colts football game.  I wore my jersey during the shower and it was a good thing that I did this...the COLTS squeaked by with a victory.  I was able to watch the highlights and I think this game will go down in history.  They came back in the last 2 minutes of the game from being way behind.

Rod and Megan...

Syd and Don...

Katie is playing "the water game" (pool) with Anneliese.   

Liz and Anneliese...

Last week for work I traveled to Rose-Hulman to attend a career fair.  I am also planning to go to the University of Cincinnati this week.  This weekend we had the opportunity to watch out other nephew, Clayton, perform with the Brownsburg marching band at Ben Davis.  It was fun to hang out with family and the weather was beautiful.  Although we didn't get to hang out with Clayton, he is growing up so fast.  He is 16 and is also taller than Chris.  He is probably one of the quickest wit kid I will ever meet.  I love that about him.  We forgot our camera this time around...more pictures to come soon.  Also, Mark and Angie are painting their house.  It looks beautiful.  I am a bit jealous.

Today we went to the COLTS game.  It was a great game.  We dominated.  It was nice to see the team back again.  This is the team that we know.  

As far as the adoption front goes, please pray for the children in Ethiopia.  We recently heard that some children have some high levels of lead.  We trust that God has a plan and we know that our son is in His hands.  We still have not heard about our court date.  We continue to hope that it will be in October.  

It will be October when I wake up!

YAY! Rainy season will officially be over when I wake up in the morning! Praise God that we made it through the two months of waiting. We really do not have any adoption updates other than they will submit our case to the court and we will wait to hear what court date we will be assigned. We are still hoping for a date in October (towards the end of the month) but it is in God's hands.

We had such an amazing weekend. It started off on Friday night just being together. Even though we are often together at any opportunity, we took the time to go out to eat and just hang out. We had a good evening!

On Saturday, we set the alrm to get up and go to Indy to the Corporate Challenge. Chris's work, Wiley, participated in the challenge and he was in the tug-of-war competition. Even though they did not win their event, the company ended up getting 9th in their division. I was impressed!

Right after the challenge, Chris and I headed over to Fort Benjamin Harrison Park to meet other adoptive families that are or have adopted from Ethiopia. It was such a nice way to meet people that have been in our shoes. It makes the world seem so small. We hope to develop friendships with several other couples. It is great. Since children are such an important part of our lives, it is like we have a bond right from the beginning.

After we spent an hour at the picnic, we headed back home because my good friend Jolane was throwing a baby shower for me. It was spectacular! The theme was polka-dots and it was held at the chapel at MC. Some of my dearest college friends and co-workers were there. It always amazes me how generous people are when it comes to giving. Sometimes it overwhelms me because I love to give to others, but to allow others to give to me is somewhat difficult. Why? I guess it is how God wired me.

Our son is going to be spoiled! I love it! The ladies above showered me with love and him with presents. He is going to be a clean baby with more clothes than his mama with books to read, toys to play with, and a beautiful blanket to keep warm (knitted by Ashley). Thanks to all who attended the baby shower. It was so nice to see each of you and be with you for a couple of hours.

The COLTS had a bye week this week and I think it was much needed. Chris and I watched football on Sunday inbetween picking up the house, working outside and cleaning. Man, do I hope they can pull off the game this weekend.

My class is wrapping up and I am trying hard to finish it. I only have one more class to watch, a test to take and a paper to finish. I am so excited! It will be nice to not have to think about it for a few months.

The rest of this week is busy. We are going to take supper over to my parents because my mother had surgery on her shoulder. She is doing great. I stopped by to see her tonight and she made me laugh. I asked her if she was tired. She said, "no, not at all." I looked away for two seconds (literally) and she was out cold. I started laughing and she said..."stop laughing at me, I am so tired."

Please pray really hard that we will hear about our court date sooner than later. We know it is in God's hands...we are just getting really excited!

Loving Life

Well, another week has passed.  I had a good time in Louisiana at Southern University.  I have to say that I do love the southern hospitality.  Everything is "yes ma-am, no ma-am."  I have to say it kind of catches me off guard.  Am I old enough to be called ma-am?  I took the students that were in the student program out to eat.  I loved it, it was bbq family style!  Afterwards, we went to this place called Coffee Call and had beignets.  Mmmm, good.

On Saturday, we had the opportunity to meet up with our friends, Don and Liz, at the Irish Festival.  It was at Military Park in Indy.  It was a lot of fun hanging out with them, like always.  We also had the opportunity to be with their beautiful daughters Anneleise and Emmeline.  

Chris and I have been in a bit of pain recently.  A tree fell in our yard and Chris was removing it from our yard earlier this week.  While he was doing this, I thought I would mow.  Well, everything seemed okay until about Wednesday.  Both of us starting itching like crazy.  Below is a picture of Chris and his allergic reaction to something he touched...

If you can't tell from the picture below, I have poison ivy again.  This time it is on my neck.  Somewhat uncomfortable, but it could be worse.  We ended up stopping at Med One in Kokomo to get a prescription for Chris.  I guess this means we can't be outside unless we are covered from head to toe.

Here we are trying on our back porch.  I am so excited for the fall!  We actually bought some apple cider at the store.  This is a sign that fall is almost here!  I am excited for the fall festivities.

On a sad note, I am not sure what is happening to my Colt's team.  I am still cheering them on loud and proud, just a hard loss today.  I think they need the bye this upcoming week to regroup and heal some of the injured players.  GO COLTS!