OUR JOURNEY

Still here...doing good!

2011-08-21T22:10:00.002-04:00

I'm not real sure if anyone checks this anymore...but wanted to let you know that the Ponsler family continues to love life. We found a home and have been blessed by many visitors since we moved. Our children are growing and we are starting to settle into a routine. Thanks for stopping by...

It has been a long while...

2011-01-28T20:47:00.003-05:00

Have you ever questioned God's plan for your life? Just between you and me...God and I have spent some serious time together the past few months. In mid November, I was offered a job to work for GM in Detroit. Well, after much thought and prayer, Chris and I decided to take a leap of faith and make the move. At times, we have had second thoughts, but we decided to continue on and pursue this opportunity. We were very comfortable where we were, we both had jobs that we loved, our parents were close to us, we had finally fixed up our house to make it our own and then we decided to move. Hmmm....what were we thinking? Well, we are trusting that God has a bigger plan for us, bigger than what we could imagine.

The cool thing is that we are living close to my brother and his family. We are also close to Andrew, our nephew, who is attending Adrian College. He plays hockey and Chris and Tegegn have already been to the rink to see him (10 minutes away). For now, we are renting a condo in Canton, MI...we are almost unpacked and it is beginning to feel more like our home.

We were fortunate to have people come pack and move our stuff. It was amazing. These men never stopped. They are probably the hardest working men I have ever met. It was a wonderful experience and I can't imagine how tired they had to be when they finally quit for the day.

The kids are doing great! Tegegn is almost potty trained and continues to amaze us with his vocabulary. Mackenzie is mobile and is getting into everything. She loves her brother and enjoys laughing at him (she thinks he is super funny)! Mackenzie was baptized earlier this month at our Grace United Methodist Church in Kokomo.

Until next time...( I wonder what the next Ponsler family adventure will be.?.?.?)

Our Kids...Our Family

2010-10-19T21:00:00.006-04:00

Today we have been a family of four for six months. We love it. We love spending time together as a family and it has been so rewarding being able to experience the love of our children. Mackenzie has changed so much in the past six months...she actually can sit up, laugh from her belly at daddy, eat baby food and is getting her bottom two baby teeth.

Camping is the new thing that our family LOVES to do. It has been great to focus on our kids and get away for a weekend. We purchased a travel trailer and have not regretted it since the day we purchased it. We are sad that we are done camping for the season and we are already looking forward to next year!

Go Irish!

I'm speechless...not real sure what words to say other than she loves us!

Tegegn has been acting like a dog for a couple of weeks now. He wanted dog food for a snack, served to him in a dish on the floor, like Dillon, my parents dog. The only trick Dillon can do is place his dish on the table...my son finished his dog food and then proceeded to place his dish on the table like Dillon. He was so proud of himself.

A walk on the railroad tracks to see the bridge always ends up carrying Tegegn home...I should have known better.

She looks stunned...it could be because Tegegn was in her crib giving her toys and she was not real sure how to react.

Go Colts! The season is underway...we are cheering loud for our team!

Our little dinosaur....asleep....

Tegegn LOVES his baby sister....it is hard to keep him off of her.

Everynight Tegegn begs us to go on the railroad tracks behind our house. For Halloween, he is going to be a conductor...he thought of this himself.

On Saturday we went to the Notre Dame game. Afterwards, we met up with our friends, the Bells. Tegegn and Hudson (both from Ethiopia) are best buds and are only 2 days apart.

I am so glad that memories last a lifetime. Until next time....

What a 2 year old thinks...

2010-08-26T19:05:00.002-04:00

Not a whole lot of time, but wanted to capture the moment.... So, I was taking Tegegn and Mackenzie to my parents house and on the way there I was asking him what he sees. He said, "corn mommy." I asked him what else he sees. I said, "Tegegn, do you see the bright sun?" He responded, "Turn it off, Jesus!" It was one of those priceless moments.

The backwards post....

2010-08-22T20:14:00.007-04:00

So, I decided it was time to post pictures again...however, I wasn't thinking and I started posting in the wrong order....I thought it was more important that I catch up so I just kept going....

We have been busy....our kids have yet to slow us down. I love it! This summer we have enjoyed camping together. I'm not sure if many of you know, but we purchased a travel trailer one week after Mackenzie was born and we haven't stopped booking our weekends yet! We have found that it is great family time and we truly enjoy it.

We have also been doing a lot of other fun things....so instead of lots of words, here are the pics!

The Colts season has begun! Chris took Tegegn to the first home preseason game. He LOVED it. He also loved finding the horsey - Blue!

This boy LOVES his mama!

We went to the Monon Swim PArk with some friends and before we arrived we had some awesome pizza in Carmel. Tegegn had a lot of fun with the statues.

We went camping at Prophetstown State Park and took the kids to Columbian Park. How fun! Tegegn was worn out by the end of the afternoon. (He is bringing back the 80's sunglasses!)

Tegegn loving his baby sister, Mackenzie, on his bed in the camper.

Riding the train at the park. Tegegn was in heaven!

It seems to rain whenever we go camping, but that doesn't stop us from having fun. The joys of being a kid!
Our little girl is growing everyday. We count our blessings....

Our son LOVES his boots....and Woody!

Chris and I had a date night and went to the Jack Johnson Concert at Verizon. We had a great time and it was fun to be together!

In July, we went to Michigan with my side of the family for vacation. We had a great time! We even had the opportunity to go to Mackinac Island. Pretty neat place to visit....

My crazy brother and I on a midnight run to Wal-Mart in our PJs. Memories.

Earlier this summer we met up with some of our friends who we met through the Indy Ethiopian group. Hudson and Tegegn had a great time together. They are so funny together!

We went to Chicago as a family to visit the family we stayed with in Ethiopia. While we were there we bought Kenzie a Cubs shirt...of course, Tegegn wanted to model it....with a strange choice of shoes...

Our family continues to have lots of fun and create lasting memories. Until next time...

I took a break....

2010-06-17T22:30:00.004-04:00

It has been some time since I posted anything on this blog. I decided that while I was on maternity leave, I would focus on my kids and not have the distraction of the computer. I can actually count on my hands how many times I logged on and it amazed me that I really didn't miss it that much. We have had so much fun as a family of four. We love camping and hanging out together. Mackenzie really hasn't stopped us from doing anything. We are still as busy as before and loving every minute. She has been a joy and fits right in our family. We look forward to watching her grow...(it amazes us how much she has grown already.) Tegegn is a great big brother and loves his baby sister. He helps us out with her and is still crazy fun and makes us laugh all of the time.

A Post of Pictures...

2010-05-04T07:27:00.003-04:00

My family brings me so much joy. I am cherishing every moment I get to spend with them.

Hospital Again?

2010-04-24T11:03:00.002-04:00

On Friday morning, we brought Mackenzie back to the hospital to participate in St. Joseph's Healthy Beginnings program. This is a program where they double check to make sure that the baby and mother are off to a good start. Well, Mackenzie and I never left. We are still here in the hospital for two reasons...she lost 1 lb 1 oz and had high levels of bilirubin. We are doing much better today and hope to leave the hospital soon. We praise God that she is eating and getting the help she needs!

Welcome Baby Girl Ponsler!

2010-04-20T14:02:00.004-04:00

Introducing our newest family member....

Mackenzie Taylor

April 19, 2010

7lbs 3oz

20 inches

Born at 5:33 pm

Our first picture with our miracle times two! God definitely blessed us by allowing us to experience this pregnancy.

Our doctor told us that this was the second miracle...in all his years of practice he has never seen this...her umbilical cord was tied in a pretzel and we are so lucky she made it into this world. Praise God!

Thanks to all of our family and friends for the prayers, texts, phone calls and love you have shown us during this time. We are so blessed....in more ways than one.

It is that time already...

2010-04-17T22:22:00.002-04:00

I can't believe that my time of being pregnant is soon going to be coming to an end. I continue to be amazed at God's grace and mercy. We will be going to the hospital on Sunday, April 18th and the plan is to have baby girl Ponsler on April 19th. We are excited to meet this little miracle and have her apart of our family.

A visit to the hospital....

2010-03-13T14:12:00.002-05:00

For those of you who have been around me throughout my pregnancy, have at some point probably noticed my annoying cough. According to the doctors, there really isn't much they can do for me so I have learned to deal with it. This past weekend we were able to go to Michigan to visit my brother and his family and I noticed that when I coughed I had to hold my left side because it hurt to cough. I didn't think much of it at the time...just another annoying thing to deal with, but it was manageable. Well, on Wednesday night I woke up at 3 in the morning coughing so I came downstairs because I was trying to be considerate of Chris who was trying to sleep. I laid down on the couch and did my normal cough and I felt something pop. I was in extreme pain. Chris came down because I was moaning in pain and we went back upstairs. I laid down and any movement felt like a sharp knife going into my side for a few seconds and then it would be over. I tried to sleep, but that didn't work out so well. At 6:30, Chris called my doctor and he told us to go to the emergency room. We arrived at the ER and they took us up to the baby floor. As soon as I described what I was feeling, my nurse knew exactly what had happened because she had experienced the same thing. My muscle tore away from my ribs and that is what I heard pop. While at the hospital they monitored the baby and she was fine, it was only me that was in pain and for that, I am thankful. Although I do have to say I would not wish this upon my worst enemy. It hurts. I was unable to go to work Thursday or Friday. I was actually unable to do anything. On our way home, I told Chris that I wanted a recliner so as I sat in the van he went in and bought a recliner. It has been heaven sent. (It was probably the quickest purchase at Robert Miller & Son that they have ever had...it seriously took him 5 minutes to buy it.) It has been a long time since I have stayed in a chair and watched TV for days straight. Tegegn doesn't really understand why mom-mom doesn't move. He still wants me to "hold it" which means hold him, but I am still not able to and it makes him really mad. I am feeling much better today than yesterday so I can only hope that it will continue to get better. I guess it takes about 8 weeks to feel back to normal, so I have a ways to go but I am making progress. So, what are some positives that came out of this experience??? We know what to expect when I actually go into labor (the rooms are nice, the food is good) at the hospital, we have a new piece of furniture, family and friends never let us down and maybe the labor pain doesn't seem so scary based on the pain that I have been experiencing the past couple of days.

Having fun and enjoying our time with Tegegn!

2010-02-20T21:14:00.003-05:00

Like always, we tend to schedule our weekdays and weekends because there is so much to do and see these days. We have really enjoyed hanging out with Tegegn because he is learning new things each and every day. He is back into Thomas the train and loves us to play with him. He continues to develop new words and phrases each day. We often hear "blue truck" "mommom" "stink-a-bug" "toy story" "Thomas-watch Thomas" and "hi-n-see (hide-n-seek)."

As you know, we love to check on him when he is sleeping. This boy can sleep in some cRaZy positions. We thought this was the cute position this week. Good thing he doesn't wake up when I turn the lights on to capture the moment.

This past week when Chris and I were getting Tegegn ready in the morning, he was in rare form. he woke up and started bouncing on his bed. He then wanted to play "hi-n-see" and hid behind Chris. As soon as I found him, he wanted me to tickle him. Afterwards, we still had his pants to put on so we did and he tooted. He noticed what happened and he looked at me and said "Excuse You!" He burst out laughing because he thought it was so funny. The moment was priceless.

I also heard him say this week as I was heading to work one morning, "Mommom, don't go, play choochoo." I hope he always calls me mommom and it was so sweet that in his world playing choochoo was all he wanted to do with me.

Today Chris and I attended a prenatal class to help us prepare for our little miracle baby. I am still amazed that we are actually expecting a baby in nine weeks. I have been so blessed and really have nothing to complain about regarding being pregnant. I am so grateful for this opportunity and praise God that the baby is right on track. As we continue to plan, we continue to see God's mercy and blessings upon our family.

We have a busy couple of weeks planned and then we will begin to lay low for a bit. We still have a lot of work to do in the baby's room, but I know it will come together soon!

Adoption Tax Credit? What in the world?

2010-02-11T20:50:00.004-05:00

As some of you may or may not know, the United States has been extremely helpful in supporting families with adoptive children, with an adoption tax credit. Unfortunately this credit is set to expire in December.

Unfortunately finances can be a major roadblock in preventing a lot of families from pursuing adoption because of the high costs and without this tax credit it will become even more difficult for many families.

I urge you to take a few minutes and learn what the credit is and if you feel like it is important to keep, please take a minute and email your state senators asking them to renew the credit.

Adoption tax credit information:

http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc607.html

Contact information for Indiana's senator's:

Evan Bayh

http://bayh.senate.gov/contact/email/

Richard Lugar

http://lugar.senate.gov/contact/contactform.cfm

Ironing Boards and Fire Trucks

2010-02-04T21:24:00.003-05:00

When: Wednesday

Where: At Grandma Coon's House

Who: Tegegn and Grandma

Setting: Tegegn was playing and my mother decides to get out her ironing board to iron a piece of clothing.

Around 10:00 in the morning I called my mom to see how Tegegn was doing and what they were planning to do for the day. My mother proceeds to tell me that Tegegn told on me today. I questioned her on what she meant and she repeated the same thing. In my head I was thinking, Tegegn is just starting to talk...what in the world is she talking about. She told me that Tegegn came over to her while she was ironing and kept saying and pointing, "what's that? what's that?" It was apparent to her that Tegegn hadn't seen an ironing board before...it is true, my dryer does our ironing the majority of the time. I guess kids tell it how it is. I just didn't think we would be at that point already.

Tegegn is really into fire trucks right now. I found this towel that was given to him that had a fire truck on it. He wouldn't let go of it. I decided to cover him up with it tonight and he was as stiff as a board when he told me he loved me because he didn't want to mess up the "blanket" with the fire truck. He fell right asleep. If only we knew that all it would take was covering him up with a fire truck towel, we would have done that weeks ago.

Monthly Update - Seriously, I can't believe it has been that long!

2010-01-30T21:48:00.003-05:00

Where in the world does the time go? I can't believe it has been a month and a half since I last posted. Well, I have a lot of catching up to do. We have been busy. We celebrated Tegegn's second birthday with family in December. It is actually kind of nice that his birthday is close to Christmas because we get to see everyone to celebrate his special day! He really enjoys opening gifts this year. My favorite is when he helps us open a gift and says he says "WOW!" He has really started trying to talk and is doing so well. He still signs when he says love you, more and please. He repeats almost everything. One of my favorite things that he does right now is when we tell him to say "thank you" he says "welcome." It is priceless.

At the last minute, we decided to take a road trip the week after Christmas to Florida to visit my Grandpa. We had a really nice time even though it was a bit chilly. We had some great family time and Tegegn did really well traveling. On our way down to Sarasota, we stopped overnight in Atlanta. We went to Snow Mountain because we thought Tegegn would enjoy the train ride and activities. We had a good time and all of us went to bed at 7:00 that night. We were exhausted. While in Florida we made it to the beach several times.

Our family of three....soon to be four! We are so blessed.

My boys. I love them dearly. They make me a better person and have shaped me into who I am today.
Tegegn was so serious when it came to playing in the sand. He really enjoyed himself even though his hands were covered in sand. (He hates his hands to be dirty.)

We really love our family time on the weekends. It was really nice to be at home the first couple of weekends in January. My cousin, Lauren, and her boyfriend, Cale, came to our house for one of those weekends. We hung out here and had a great time getting to know them better. Tegegn loves Cale so he had a ball.

Tegegn loves shoes. He loves to bring them to us and put them on. He would sleep in his shoes if we would let him. Silly boy!

Our Grandma purchased this snow suit for Tegegn last year, but it was a bit big. This year we decided to try it and if fit, but it was a little snug. No worries, Tegegn didn't care that he looked like the kid off of the Christmas Story. All he cared about was going outside!

On of Tegegn's favorite things is to play with his cars, trucks, trains and tractors at his table. Although this table takes up a lot of space in our living room, it is our saving grace. He loves it! It was a hand me down and we are so thankful for it....

As far as the pregnancy goes, I have been so blessed. I have nothing to complain about and feel really good. Most of the clothes that I wear these days come from the maternity section; however, I still can fit in some of my normal clothes so that is helpful. I can feel her kick throughout the day which is pretty comforting. I can still see my feet, but I can tell that I am pregnant when I try to get up off of the floor. This Wednesday will mark 29 weeks. It has gone by so fast and April will be here before we know it.

Exactly One Year Ago...

2009-12-15T21:33:00.003-05:00

we picked up Tegegn! What a wonderful day it was and one that we will never forget. Tegegn has come so far from the day we met him. We were able to see all of his milestones and we are so fortunate to be his parents! We truly miss Ethiopia and we look forward to the day when we can go back to Tegegn's birth country and visit our host family. Tegegn is beginning to talk and we really have fun seeing his personality shine through. He is a daddy's boy, but he loves his mama. He doesn't really like going to bed because he would rather be playing...if only he knew that sleep was a necessity. He loves trains, cars, trucks and planes. He is a busy boy. We have so much fun with him and we are so lucky to celebrate his GOTYA day today with his favorites...ice cream, tater tots, fish, cheesecake and juice. We love you Tegester!

Loving the Season...bring back good memories!

2009-11-30T21:30:00.006-05:00

I can't believe tomorrow will be December. One year ago (on November 25) we passed court and Tegegn legally became our son. I can still remember the joy I felt on that day and the sleepless night wondering the status of our case. Wow....I can't imagine our life without him. He brings so much joy to us and we are blessed that God chose us to be his parents.

In late October, we met up with our friends David and Abbe and their twins, Elaina and Grant, and we to a local farm that had fun things for kids to do in the fall. We had a wonderful time and are fortunate that we are able to hang out with them! The kids had a lot of fun and Tegegn did not want to leave. It was kind of emotional for him.

Since some of my family goes to Florida for the winter, we always celebrate Christmas before Thanksgiving. This year, Christmas was at my parent's house and everyone was able to make it. We had a great time together and we always eat to much and laugh a lot. I think Tegegn will have a lot of fun this year for his birthday and Christmas. I know that Chris and I have enjoyed thinking of gifts for him.

This year we decided to decorate for Christmas on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving because we started a new tradition with the Nicholson/Ponsler clan. This was our first annual Thanksmas. It was so much fun! Elli and Tegegn played around each other and wore themselves out and then the six of us had two gift exchanges. We had so much fun, I actually think that I am looking forward to next year's Thanksmas already.

One of our favorite things to do at night is go in and check on Tegegn right before we go to bed. He is usually on top of the blankets and pillows snoring away. We decided to capture the moment because it is one of our favorite things - a quiet moment with our son.

As Christmas approachs, we have a lot to be thankful for this year. This picture was taken the morning Tegegn woke up and saw our Christmas tree for the first time. There was a wooden train right below it and you would have thought the kid struck gold. His arms were flapping and he was talking with so much excitement.

Humbled.

2009-11-08T21:32:00.003-05:00

As I sit down to write this post, I am humbled by God's grace. It is actually hard for me to find the right words to express my thoughts because I am overwhelmed with feelings. I feel amazed, extremely happy, confused, sad, thrilled, shocked and grateful all at the same time. Depending on the moment, these emotions have been our life for the past six weeks. With lots of prayer, Chris an I actually decided to pursue our second adoption; however, out of respect for several of our friends and Tegegn, we decided that we would start the process quietly. We wanted the focus to be on our son and not on our adoption this time around. Our plan this time was to adopt a little girl from Ethiopia. As we progressed with the paper chase and only had a couple of items left to complete (home study and fingerprints) before turning in our dossier, God decided to reveal His plan to us. Towards the end of September we placed our adoption on hold because we found out that we are expecting. Not only were we shocked to find out that I was pregnant, we were even more shocked that I was ten weeks along when we first found out! (I have to tell you - I tried to think back about everything that I did and the worst thing I could come up with was waterskiing...whew!) To say the least, we have had a lot of emotions recently. To be honest, I had to really switch gears because I was already praying for my little girl in Ethiopia. I was really confused why God is allowing us to experience this when we were more than satisfied to adopt His beautiful Ethiopian children into our home. Please do not think that I am not excited about this pregnancy. I am thrilled and grateful. I think I have a mix of emotions because I understand infertility. I understand the pain and hurt that it can cause and I reached the point where I accepted it and I am simply humbled that God decided to give us this opportunity. I am extremely happy and pray daily for a healthy baby. When we found out that we were expecting, I actually went to my fertility doctor because they knew my history. When I showed up in his office, he was shocked to see me. I was one of the patients that he never thought he would see again. I think he kinda had me on that list of people he thought wouldn't get pregnant. After three visits, I was cleared to return to a local doctor. I am on quite a bit of medication and once a week Chris has to give me a shot, but overall this should be a normal pregnancy. Chris was able to hear the heartbeat for the first time on Friday at our local doctor's office. How amazing! We couldn't get enough of the sound. On Wednesday, we will be seventeen weeks along. We have been talking to Tegegn about the baby. Tonight, he decided the baby was thirsty and shared his water with the baby by putting his sippy cup upside down on my belly. He then proceeded to call it bubba for baby and gave it a kiss and high five. The moment was priceless. Tegegn will be a wonderful big brother to this baby and eventually another Ethiopian sibling.

Friends & Football

2009-10-17T06:15:00.004-04:00

As I mentioned before, at the beginning of September, Chris turned 30. Well, our good friend Greg, also turned 30 in September so we had a small get together at the Nicholson's. We always have fun hanging out and catching up with the gang. As our lives become more and more crazy these days, we find it harder and harder to get together. Hopefully, that will change this winter!

A couple of weekends ago we were blessed to have one of our good college friends, Dina, come down and spend the night. Although we don't live super far away, she wanted to come and visit before Tegegn turned 18 years old. We had a great time catching up with her and reminiscing about our college days at Manchester. Tegegn loved her and was such a show off on Friday night. He was in rare form; however, when he woke up Saturday morning, she was able to see the opposite extreme. Nothing we would do would please the little kid. Oh the joys of being a parent and trying to figure out children and what would make them happy. Unfortunately, we did not take any pictures. Bummer. Oh well, I guess that means that we can't wait so long to see her the next time!

We were able to get last minute tickets to see the Notre Dame/Washington game. We had great seats and Tegegn LOVED it. I think he liked being outside, watching the band and being in the pouring down rain. He was a trooper and we loved doing this as a family. Chris's mom was able to join us and she is an avid sports fan. You would have thought we bought her 10 diamonds. She said she hasn't had that much fun in years. Oh the little things that brighten someones day.

Chris and his mom sitting 15 rows off the field! Our other tickets were in the section above this one. They were also great seats!

Family picture with "Touchdown Jesus" in the background.

As most of you know, Chris and I love to go to the COLTS game to support our team. As the season is here, we always look forward to tailgating with Syd and Katie and Katie's family! They are die hard COLTS fans so it is fun to hang out with them before the games. Unfortunately, there aren't any home games until November.

Manning, Saturday, Manning and Wayne posing for a picture before the game.

Great picture, huh?

When we got home, we picked up Tegegn from my parent's house and had to run to Meijer to get a couple of things. He wanted to ride the 1 cent horse. I never have my camera, but since we came from the game I thought it was appropriate to capture the moment!

Chris had to work late one night and so I decided to go shopping with my mom. We went to Kohl's and I told her that I wanted to look at the kid's shoes. As we were going up the aisle, I spotted these awesome snow boots. Word to all parents - DO NOT TRY ON BOOTS IN THE STORE. Tegegn fell in love with them and seriously through a tantrum when I tried to take them off. So, we kept them on him and bought them. I have to say, it was a great purchase though...he hasn't taken them off for a week and a half. Sweet!

A diaper and boots - classic!

Super proud that he has his boots on!

Kids have a way of helping you forget the world around you. I love that! I love the priceless moments that we get to share with him. All of the love that he shares with us is amazing. The hugs. The kisses. The "no's." The uncontrollable laughter. The winks. The waves. The talking. The signing. The high fives. The crying. I love it all.

Precious.

Tegegn is really into glasses recently. His favorite thing to do is to wear my glasses if we let him. He looks so sophisticated. We tried to give him the safety glasses that I was wearing, but he didn't fall for them. He wanted mine.

This past Thursday, we were able to spend some time with Uncle Deres. It was wonderful to be with him and talk about his trip to Ethiopia. We stayed with his parents while we were there so it was nice to catch up with him. He is the busiest person we know. It took us two months to find a time that would work, but it was so worth it. We are so glad that Tegegn

Tegegn's newest thing to do is to hide. He recently found that he can "somewhat" hide in the fridge. He also loves to hide in the pantry. One evening, I was cooking and all of the sudden I couldn't find him. Everything goes through your head....is he in the bathroom, was a door left open, did he go upstairs? Well, our kid thought it would be fun to freak his mama out and hide in the pantry. Oh silly boy. You about gave me a heart attack!

He is such a good hider. You can barely see him! Have a great week!

Tegegn is a little BOY

2009-09-30T22:12:00.003-04:00

Yesterday when I looked back at Tegegn as I was driving, I realized my baby boy is no longer a baby. Tegegn is babbling a lot these days and I can say that he has mastered the word "no". He is also Mr. Drama when he says it because he always shakes his head and waves his arms. Let me tell you...at times it is not fun, but Chris and I make it fun by asking him if he wants things that always interest him...Here is a typical conversation.

Chris: Do you want a drink?

Tegegn: No

Sarah: Do you want a truck?

Tegegn: No

Chris: Do you want a train?

Tegegn: Choo, choo...No

Sarah: Do you want a cookie?

Tegegn: No

Chris: Do you want to go outside?

Tegegn: Ya! (with a huge smile)

Tegegn loves to be outside. A couple of weekends ago we were able to go camping for the first and last time this summer. We had a lot of fun. My parents church held a camping weekend and Tegegn loved all aspects of it, especially all of the attention.

I love how this picture captures the moment. He was laughing so hard with Jane and LeeAnn at the campground. It is priceless.

The events of the day wore him out. This usually doesn't happen so Chris was cherishing the moment.

As I get older, I really am starting to enjoy the fall. (Shout out to Julie!) I love seeing the leaves change colors, apple cider, pumpkins, FOOTBALL, apples and hooded sweatshirts with jeans. I think that Tegegn will really enjoy it this year. So far, he likes to hear the crunch sound that the leaves make when he steps on them. We raked leaves on Sunday and he had a blast riding on the tarp and walking through them. Right now, he is really fond of his swing. Every night he want to swing right when we get home, no matter what. Who can resist the kid when he grabs your hand and takes you to it to show you what he wants?

Tegegn still likes to push his Little Tikes car. I would have never guessed that he would push it more than ride it, but whatever works is great!

He thought it was a lot of fun to throw leaves in the air and watch them fall from the sky. The little things amaze kids. It is amazing to see the world through their eyes. As I think about it, more often these days, I thank God for the simple things in my life these days rather than only the bigger blessings. Tegegn has taught me that God blesses us everyday and we have so much to be thankful for all of the time.

To start the fall festivities this year, Tegegn put "Ba" stickers (Ba = Mickey Mouse) on a small pumpkin and he gave high fives in black paint to another pumpkin that welcomes people to our house. We had a lot of fun family time painting the pumpkin this year.

Labor Day Weekend - Full of Excitement

2009-09-08T13:30:00.003-04:00

What a wonderfull weekned! We were able to spend time in Ohio with our cousins. It was fair week and several of them showed pigs. They did great. We are so proud of them. It was also a great time to hang out with them and chill. We love being there. It is always a nice getaway.

While we were there, my aunt Nancy mentioned that they went to see Thomas the train when the kids were little. Well, what do you know, on Sunday was Thomas Days in Lebenon, Ohio so we decided to go. Tegegn has been all about "choo choo" lately so it was perfect. He LOVED it. The best moment was when he saw Thomas for the first time. He was strapped in his stroller and was pointing and trying to jump up and down. It was priceless.

I would have never known that there was a real Thomas train. What a great thing for kids!

Chris and Tegegn with the main charachter of Thomas the Train, Sir Topham Hatt.

A day out with Thomas - 2009. Mommy and Tegegn posing for a picture.

Tegegn getting ready to board the train for a 20 minute ride.

Tegegn loves his daddy -so much so he put his arm around him.

Thomas and more Thomas....choo, choo!

Tegegn looks thrilled! We had to buy something to add to our game room at home and a flag was chosen...

Today marks a special day in the Ponsler household...it is Chris's birthday. I am so glad that we are able to spend it together as a family of three. He also started a new job today...what a big day.

Football, Vacation and Ethiopians....LIFE is good!

2009-08-30T22:00:00.009-04:00

We have had a busy month! This month, Tegegn actually attended his first COLTS game. We had to start him early...he lasted through 30 minutes of pre-game action and through the first quarter and then he was done. We met up with Syd and Katie Nicholson and then walked around for a bit. He loved the cars and tractor in the Lucas Oil Stadium. We had a great time and we are glad that he could experience COLTS football at such a young age.

Tegegn taking it all in at the Colts game.

Go Colts! The Ponsler's are cheering you on - LOUD and PROUD!

This past week we were able to spend some time on vacation with my family at a lake not to far away from our home. Unfortunately we had a chilly and rainy week, but we still had a great time. The kids enjoy playing with each other and really enjoyed the kayaks and the sand. Tegegn LOVES the water and wanted to be in it anytime he was outside.

Our nephews, Nathan and Aaron in the kayaks.

Our nephew, Eli, playing in the sand.

You know how Tegegn loves his car....he loves it so much that he would not go into the water without it. Luckily, it floats!

He also experienced his first wave runner ride with Daddy. We think he enjoyed it; however, he was really cold when he came back to shore so we called it a day.

On Friday, we had the opportunity to experience The Wiggles firsthand. Tegegn really enjoyed the show. It was very entertaining. His favorite part was when the octopus and the dog appeared on stage. He waved to them like crazy. It was fun to experience this for him. I know that he probably won't remember it when he is older; however, we had a great time watching him enjoy the moment.

This is Tegegn at the Wiggles. He really enjoyed the show.

On Saturday, we met up with three other families in the Lafayette area who have adopted from Ethiopia. We are so blessed to have formed friendships with others whom have experienced adoption. We continue to get to know them and we always look forward to meeting the children who come home to their forever families. I often wonder if the children will form friendships like us as parents have formed friendships. I can only hope that this will become a reality in the future.

Here are the precious faces of the children. They are all so precious.

This is Isaac. He turned 1 today! Happy Birthday!

This is Jamin. He is 11 months.

This is Jamin's brother, Emet. He turned 2 in June.

This is Abeba. She just tuned 2.

Tegegn has allergies and has a runny nose right now. I hope he gets better soon. Since we have been at home, he had to find something to do to entertain himself. What better way...he cleared a space to put his truck in the fridge.

When Tegegn is sick, he likes to cuddle and sleep on us. He fell asleep on me this afternoon and I ate it up! He rarely sits on our lap so we take advantage of the times he does!

Life as a Single Mom

2009-08-12T22:24:00.004-04:00

The last week of July I was on TLO again. I think I am getting spoiled being off so much this year, but what a great year to be off work and with Tegegn. I had never been to the Fort Wayne Zoo (which is much better than the Indy Zoo) so Tegegn and I met our friends Ashley and Audrey. We had a great time catching up and Tegegn loved the tiger and the carousal.

As Tegegn would say, "choo, choo!" We rode the train and he loved it. I thought this was a really cute picture of Ashley and Audrey on the train.

Chris is in Florida this week for his business sales meeting. We miss him bunches. Everytime Tegegn hears a sound at home that he thinks is the garage door, he runs (he does this a lot now - running that is) from the living room, through the kitchen to the laundry room yelling "dada, dada!" He is a daddy's boy. Luckily, he will see him on Friday.

I am not sure that I have mentioned this recently, but Tegegn is a pretty good traveler. He loves bringing all his toys with him to keep him entertained. We are on the go a lot and he doesn't seem to mind. You can always assume he will pick a toy with wheels to spin. It keeps him entertained for long periods of time.

I have enjoyed my time this week with Tegegn, but it will be nice to get back to normal. I find myself waking up early in order to make sure that I have time to take a shower before he wakes up for the day. I am known to fall asleep when putting Tegegn to bed and this week I have fallen asleep with him every night. One night, I must have been really tired because I didn't wake up until 11:00 pm and I only woke up because he started mumbling in his sleep.

Loads of Fun

2009-08-06T21:24:00.005-04:00

We love the summer. We always think that the summer means more time...however, we are always non-stop. We thought that having Tegegn join our family would slow us down a bit. Nope. Not at all. I actually think that we are busier now than ever before. What a great busy though. The past couple of weeks included a trip to Chicago (Tegegn's first time to the city, but not his last). We went there with Chris's sister and her family. We had a great time. Tegegn LOVED the subway. We also took a boat ride and a bus ride. What a great time!

After Chris and I get home from work, we are usually outside because Tegegn literally takes our hand and drags us out there. He would live outside if we would let him. Silly boy.

My boys. I love them dearly. I never knew that I could love these guys as much as I do. I would do anything for them.

Tegegn still loves bath time. He loves having bubbles in the tub with him. As soon as the bubbles form, he sticks his mouth in the bubbles and creates a crazy ring around his mouth of soap. It makes us laugh everytime. Again, he is so silly and he doesn't even know it yet.

I thought this was a cool picture. We were in the backyard and he was going in an out of his pool. He currently likes the hose better than his pool. Maybe that will change next year. Who knows?

So, I thought I had a great deal at a garage sale in town. I found this Power Wheels 4 wheeler for $1. Great deal, right? Well, Chris ran into Walmart to purchase the 6Volt battery and $38 later it was working. Seriously, people. Who ever thought a battery would cost that much. I could understand $20, but $38. I am in the wrong business.

Tegegn still has some amazing BIG brown eyes. We call these Baby Einstein eyes because it reminds us of the first time he saw something on DVD.

Post Adoption Update

2009-07-12T22:36:00.004-04:00

I can't believe that it has been over 6 months since Tegegn has been in our lives. We continue to love being parents and the joy that he brings to us is unreal. We have had quite a bit of adoption things to do recently. We went to Indianapolis to register his adoption with the state of Indiana. This allows us to get birth certificates for hime through the department of health. It was a fairly easy process and by doing it ourselves, we saved a lot of money. It only took 20 minutes in the City Council building to get everything approved. I am proud to be a Hoosier when it comes to the ease of adoption. We haven't had any issues with Tegegn's adoption.

Our family picture outside of the City Council Building after seeing the judge and him approving the adoption.

On Saturday, we had our second post adoption meeting with our social worker. It was nice to meet with her and catch up. Her and her husband have also adopted a little boy from Ethiopia so we enjoy comparing stories. My parents had never been to an Ethiopian restaurant so it was a fun experience. I think they were pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed the food.

We are planning to apply for Tegegn's US Citizenship as soon as we receive his birth certificates from Indiana. We hope to do this at the end of July. We have one more post adoption report with social worker next January (required by Ethiopia) and then one report done by ourselves until Tegegn reaches 18.

Other than that....nothing else is required. We can just enjoy the time with our son.

Summertime Fun

2009-07-02T05:17:00.008-04:00

What a summer! It continues to amaze me how much love I have for our little guy. He fills our world with laughter, kisses and incredible moments that I find myself putting off other things to spend a few more minutes with him. We recently took him to his 18th month well child appointment and he is growing!!!! He is now almost 25 pounds and 31 inches tall. He is still in the 25th - 30th percentile for his height and weight, but his head is still in the 95th percentile. Poor kid....he will grow into it someday.

This summer we have been so busy that we actually decided that we are not going to open our pool this year. We have been gone every weekend and decided that it was one thing that would have to wait until next year since our swimming season is almost half over. It needs a new liner and would be a lot of work, so we will be on top of it next year and we will just enjoy other pools for the time being.

Tegegn is a daddy's boy. He loves being with him at all times. Chris actually has a hard time stepping 5 feet away from him because Tegegn loves him so much and gets really sad if he is not right there at all times. Tegegn continues to understand more and more each week. He continues to dance and shake his head "no" quite often. He is still learning sign language with his most recent one being "love you." However, when he signs you, he points to himself. Cute.

Tegegn loves shoes. Here he is with both of his feet in Chris's shoe. He is to the point where if we ask him to get something, he will bring it to us. He really likes to bring us shoes.

The weekend of Father's Day, we went to Ohio with Chris's side of the family to go to King's Island. On Saturday, we went to the aquarium in Kentucky. It was fun. Tegegn did great. His favorite part was when he could splash in the water.

On Sunday, we went to King's Island. Tegegn rode a couple of rides, went to the water park and rode the train. He loved riding the train and would often say "choo-choo." Aunt Kristy and Grandma Gerry watched him for a bit while we rode a couple of roller-coasters. It is so funny how your priorities change with kids. I was totally content riding his rides instead of the adult ones. The smiles and flapping arms totally make it exciting.

We had to capture this moment. He loves playing with the hose and it was so cool how the water beaded up on his hair. This was close to his bed time so you can imagine how easy it was for him to go to sleep that night.

Our good friends, Syd and Katie, were married this weekend. We forgot our camera, so I don't have any pictures, but the wedding and reception were beautiful. It was a great time to hang out with friends. I really enjoyed catching up with Todd and Micah Nicholson. I went to high school with Todd and he is currently a pastor in Maryland. He officiated the wedding ceremony and did a great job.

Chris and I took a week off for vacation. Originally, we were going to go to Boston to visit some of my family, but we decided to stick around Indiana and Ohio instead. It has been nice. We have throughly enjoyed our time. On Sunday we went to Ohio to hang out with my aunt and cousins. Tegegn loves it there. He is always so busy and loved on so much.

On Tuesday, we decided it would be fun to go to Indianapolis and spend the night in a hotel (one of my favorite things). So we packed up and headed downtown for a miniature trip. Our original plan was to bike the monon trail and then go to the zoo. Instead we had lunch with Chris's sister, Angie, and then walked the canal. It was an overcast day and the zoo was sold out. After we walked the canal we went to the hotel to swim. Tegegn had a great time and has absolutely no fear when it comes to water. After a quick nap, Tegegn was ready to go so we had dinner at Rock Bottom and then headed to an Indians game. He was so busy on the lawn so we put him in his stroller and were actually able to watch a couple of innings. We headed back to the hotel and crashed.

On Wednesday, we decided to get up early and go to the zoo. Tegegn liked it. I think he will love it next year. He was more interested in watching other kids than the animals. He did great though. He was excited about our train ride in the zoo.

We also went to the butterfly observatory and the outside gardens. There were so many different kinds of butterflies. They are really beautiful. It amazes me that they start as a caterpillar. It was cool to see.

So far it has been a great summer. We are busy. We really thought that our life would slow down a bit with Tegegn, but we are on the go all of the time. We love it. It is fun. Until next time....

Take a minute!

2009-06-24T20:13:00.006-04:00

Take a minute and take a look at these beautiful necklaces our good friends Mark and Wendi are making to help support their adoption. We received ours and they are beautiful. Hand made sterling silver Africa pendents.

http://www.mwasilver.etsy.com/

The Past Six Years

2009-05-31T22:41:00.008-04:00

Six years ago, I stood in front of my family and friends to marry my best friend. As we continue to grow together and see God's plan for our lives unfold, we are humbled. God has been so faithful to us over the years and we continue to be blessed. This year we decided to celebrate by taking a trip to Chicago. We had a great time. We used our hotel points and were able to stay downtown for free (even better). This was our first overnight trip without Tegegn and he did great. He stayed with my parents and was attached to his Grandpa all weekend.

Chris and I have a tradition of going to baseball games. I had never been to Wrigley Field so we decided this would be the perfect time to go. The Cubs ended up winning and I was thrilled because we were able to sing the "Go Cubs Go" song. You got to love the Cubs spirit. Nothing compares to it.

We had great seats and we even arrived early enough to watch batting practice.

After the game, we decided to just walk around Chicago and take pictures. I really enjoyed doing this with our new camera. I thought it would be fun to take some creative pictures. Some of the pictures turned out great and others did not, but that is the great thing about digital cameras! While we were walking around the town, we stumbled on the best popcorn place ever.

Tegegn is growing...he insists that he can feed himself even though he misses his mouth half of the time. We have a therapist working with him once a week and we hope that he will catch up to his age group real soon. Every week he seems to awe us as he does something new. This week he is really into shaking his head "no". He still loves to dance and he would be outside all day and night long if we would allow him.

The Friday afternoon of my TLO week we (Chris, Tegegn and I) went to the Indianapolis Children's Museum with Cari and Elliot. We had a wonderful time and so did the kids. They did great and I was surprised how many activities they had for kids Tegegn's age. He really enjoyed playing in the water, the sand and on the foam maze. We ended up spending the evening with Katie, Syd, Greg and Cari. We grilled out and talked about camping sometime this summer. What a great time! Katie and Syd are getting married at the end of June. We are super excited for them and are looking forward to all of the wedding festivities.

This picture is of Tegegn at the Children's Museum playing in the water area of Playscapes.

Elli was fascinated with the mirror in the maze. What a precious little girl.

One of the few words Tegegn says is "car". However, no one would really know what he is saying because it is a hard, raspy "ca"sound. Well, as you can tell, he is in an Indy car and loving it!

I thought the colors of the blown glass were beautiful. I actually remember this being in the Museum when I was a kid.

Tegegn is not always smiles. I thought this picture captured his personality. He is a little stinker at times. Last week I was putting him to bed and he confirmed why I LOVE being a mom. Tegegn likes to cuddle. As I was laying there with him, he fell asleep and I wiggled myself out of his arms. Before I transfer him to the crib, I always like to make sure he is in his deep sleep. As I was waiting for that last big sigh, he sits up, stands up, leans over and kisses me on the cheek. He then precedes to sit back down, lay down and go to sleep. I couldn't stop laughing. It was such a special moment.

Tegegn decided he was going to help us wash the car. He was such a big help between eating the car suds and splashing in the water. It is so hard for me to remember our life without him. He is so fun to be around and provides us great entertainment.

Our nephew graduated from high school on Friday. We worked around the house on Saturday and on Sunday, our anniversary, we watched our pastor's four children. We had a great time and we are looking forward to watching them again on Sunday. They are in the process of moving to Indy and needed some time to get some things done. We have enjoyed their friendship over the past year.

LOVING my TIME off WORK

2009-05-19T12:46:00.001-04:00

What a joy it has been to bee off of work with my little boy. As most of you know, the auto industry is not doing so hot right now and so I am required by my company to take 8 TLO weeks throughout the year. This week is one of my weeks off and I value the time that I get to spend with him. He is growing so fast and has learned so much in the past 5 months. He is now 17 months old and he is WALKING!!! He loves this new found freedom. It has been fun watching him. He still falls quite often because he is a bit off balance, but overall he is doing great!

My First Mother's Day

2009-05-12T22:18:00.004-04:00

What a special day! We celebrated by going to church as a family, eating a lunch prepared by Chris, playing outside and hiking. Life can't get much better....

I am truly blessed that God has given me the opportunity to be a mom. There is really nothing like it. It is challenging and rewarding all at the same time. I honestly love it. I am shaping the life of my son each and every day. Boy, that is a big responsibility, but I wouldn't change it for the world.

Tegegn loves his car; however, he likes to push it more than he likes to ride in it. Silly boy.

Still Alive - I PROMISE!

2009-05-04T22:24:00.005-04:00

WOW - It has been hectic around here the past three weeks and I can tell you that our lives are finally back to normal!!! I have finished my last class or my master's degree! I feel like I have so much additional time on my hands - I LOVE IT! We have been spending time together as a family and it has been priceless.

Since I had to pick and choose what I had time to do, the blog was one that I had to put off because I can't just write on my blog. I have to check out everyone's blog and I knew that I couldn't do that so I had to stay away. :)

My little cousin went to prom so we made a quick trip out to Ohio to visit our family in the middle of April. We had a great time! We really enjoy hanging out with the kids. Tegegn loved riding the go-cart and four-wheeler.

The following weekend my brother's family came to Indiana to spend the weekend with us. It was a full house, but we love all of the fun with our nephews. Tegegn was baptized on Sunday so it was pretty special to have both sides of our family here to celebrate him.

It is really hard to get 4 boys to sit still and take a picture. We actually did get one with all of them looking at the camera, but I personally like this one the best. You can see our little boy pushing his 2 1/2 year old cousin off of his seat. His face is great!

Here we are sporting our Ethiopian attire on the Sunday Tegegn was baptized.

Tegegn couldn't get enough so he went back for more; therefore, he did not want to come back to Mommy or Daddy. He wanted to be with Pastor Steve. He let the entire church know this...

This past weekend we celebrated the upcoming marriage of Syd and Katie. We had a nice time hanging out with them and some of our friends. We are looking forward to their wedding! It is right around the corner.

Here are a couple of pictures of our son. He makes us smile.

Tegegn LOVES finding the toilet paper in our downstairs bathroom. I remember counting and he had 12 rolls out on the floor this time.

Not much has changed...Tegegn still slobbers and goes through atleast 5 bibs a day!

More to come....

How are your shoes holding up?

2009-04-17T09:32:00.003-04:00

We got ours!

www.tomsshoes.com

Fun Times!

2009-04-13T21:02:00.004-04:00

I haven't had a lot of time to blog recently due to my last class. If I get on the computer, sometimes it is hard for me to stop. Anyways, I tried posting this one other time and it didn't work. How frustrating. I know it is just a blog, but if I spend time on something, I would like it to work. Oh well. Here is my second attempt.

Tegegn loves riding in his backpack carrier....so much so it put him to sleep. This happens to be one of my favorite pictures.

Grandma Ponsler brought over an Easter bowl full of Easter eggs for Tegegn. He loved the surprises inside!

Our family Easter picture. Tegegn was such a sport - it was a bit chilly, but he didn't seem to mind.

One of my favorite pictures of my boys.

On Saturday, I was able to go over the the Child's home for a little bit. I spent a lot of my time over there when I was in high school. We had a great time together!

Bill showing Tegegn the dog.

Tegegn loves Jennifer. We always try to see her when she comes to Indiana from Tennessee. We value the time we spend with her!

On Friday, we were able to get together with some friends that we have met through our Indy Ethiopian Adoption group. We were fortunate to connect with Chris and Becky and their son, Husdson. Hudson and Tegegn are only 3 days apart, so the are destined to be friends forever. It is so great to get together with families that look like us. The boys had a great time and so did we. We were also able to catch up with Brad and Meagan. We look forward to following their journey and meeting their new addition sooner than later!

Hudson, such a precious little boy.

Hudson did a great job sharing his toys with Tegegn. He even let us borrow this toy so Tegegn could learn to walk. Thanks Hudson!

Friends for life - Hudson and Tegegn.

Lots of Sunshine

2009-04-01T12:41:00.006-04:00

Tegegn LOVES being outside and he is getting his fair share of the rays here in Florida. This is the first time that he has been around sand and the ocean and he loves it...literally.

We have had a lot of messy diapers lately and this could be the culprit...SAND. He loves to eat it. Strange, I know, but he must be a kid!

He loves his ice cream just like his mama.

Precious, innocent little boy.

One happy family sitting in one HUGE lawn chair. The guy who makes them lives in Indiana...go figure.

A sweet picture of Tegegn and his Aunt Angie having some fun times together dancing with the Easter eggs.

Also, here is a shout out to my friends Tyler and Lisa for starting their own blog! YAY! I can keep up with you guys now....

Captiva Island - Spring Break 2009

2009-03-30T21:25:00.005-04:00

This year we had the opportunity to join Chris's sister and her family on their family vacation to Captiva Island in Florida. It is beautiful! It has been a very relaxing week so far and we are looking forward to the rest of the week. Here are a few pictures of our vacation so far. I have tried to load more, but it keeps coming up as an error. Maybe tomorrow...

Clayton, our nephew turned 16 on Saturday and we were able to celebrate with him!

The sunset was beautiful on Saturday and Sunday. Our God is so awesome and He must be a great artist.

Here is a picture of the whole gang. From left to right....Chris, Gerry (Chris's mom), Riley (nephew), me, Mark (brother-in-law), Angie (Chris's sister), Clayton (nephew) and Tegegn in the stroller.

I am so ready for nice weather! It makes such a difference.

Items to take to Ethiopia

2009-03-19T22:06:00.002-04:00

There are several families traveling to Ethiopia real soon and I thought I would post a few items that we took that I am happy that we had while we were there.

Child Back Pack or Front Carrier (a must for the airport & carrying luggage)
Flashlight (Lights go out in Addis a lot)
Enough Kid Snacks (puffs, cheerios, mum-mums) to last the entire trip
Pants (no one wears shorts)
A few toys
$20 US dollars per person for visa at airport
Some diapers
Wipes
A couple bottles or sippy cups depending on age of child
A camera
Formula in case there is a shortage in Addis

I hope this helps! We are praying for the Whipples and the Gutweins as they leave next week to pick up their boys! I can remember the emotions and the anxiety we felt during this time before we left for Ethiopia. We are so excited for the parents of these beautiful children and the future playmates of Tegegn!

Not Slowing Down...

2009-03-14T22:26:00.004-04:00

So, when we were talking before we went to Ethiopia, we wondered if we would slow down at all. The answer is NOPE! We always seem to be on the go and we are so glad that Tegegn doesn't mind at all. He actually loves meeting new people and often has a hard time leaving. He gets really sad. Last weekend we went up north to visit our friends - The Bigelows. We had a wonderful time together and we were happy that we were able to meet the newest addition to their family, Little Miss Audrey. She is a beautiful baby. She seems so tiny since we are so used to Tegegn. It was fun catching up and exchanging what it is like now that we are parents!

The new mothers with their children - our first group picture.

A precious picture of Audrey

On Monday I started my last class at IUK - YIPEE! I am so thankful that it is only an 8 week course. It is a lot of group work, but it will be okay. I have class on Monday's and Wednesdays.

On Thursday, our niece Amy and her boyfriend, Brelin, came to visit us while they were on Spring Break. We had an amazing time with them. It means so much to me that they love our son and cherish the time they get to spend with him. Tegegn loves them so much!

Tegegn showing Amy where his head.

Tegegn playing with Brelin.

On Friday, Chris hung out with some of his guy friends and I had the opportunity to go to Lafayette to meet up with some of our dear friends in out Ethiopian Adoption group. This is the first time that they have met Tegegn. It was amazing! Since all of us are going through the same thing, we have such a deep connection and it feels like we have been friends for a long time. Several of the couples have referrals, three couples passed court within the last week, some should be getting their referrals any day and others are working on their paperwork. God has really blessed us with this group of friends. They hold a special place in our hearts and I think it will be wonderful for Tegegn to know that other families are just like us.

Speaking of adoption, today we had Brad and Meagan over to our house. I met Brad through work last November. He works at Roche and we decided to set up an "exchange of ideas" to benefit both of our companies. Little did we know at that time that our paths had crossed for a reason. Brad emailed me while we were in Ethiopia and when I responded to him I apologized for the delay and told him that we were in Ethiopia picking up our son. Brad emailed me back right away and told me that they just started the process to adopt from Ethiopia too! We became instant friends and decided to get together when we settled in a bit. We had a great time sharing our experience with them and we look forward to seeing them again in the future.

After Brad and Meagan left, we decided to go to Greentown to walk and play on the playground. We had a blast and Tegegn loved it. He absolutely loves being outside. What a great fit for our family! We played on the equipment and pushed him in the jogging stroller. What a great day!

Chris and Tegegn walking the balance beam.

Tegegn loved the swing. He was talking up a storm.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures of our little guy. We both decided to pick up a new hobby. We are really loving photography these days.

Tegegn was so tired at the end of the day. Isn't he precious?

He love his bunny. This is his comfort. He has had it next to his side when he sleeps every night since we met him in December.

Having some Ponsler FUN

2009-03-04T22:22:00.006-05:00

We have really enjoyed being parents! Tegegn has brought us a lot of joy and we want to share some pictures with you. We celebrated my birthday yesterday with pizza and ice cream and it was a big hit! Tegegn loved the pizza. He is just like his momma.

Another favorite family portrait...

Having some fun playing in the evening before bath time...

Just chilling on a Saturday morning with mommy and daddy...

"Look at me, I'm standing!" (this only lasts for about a second)...

You gotta love cardboard boxes...

Bath time, bath time, bath time....our famous chant at 7:15...

He was caught riding dirty....

Oops...he was caught riding dirty again!

We hope you have a great week!

Tribute To Uncle Greg

2009-02-25T21:12:00.006-05:00

I have to be honest. It has been a rough week. Last Tuesday, my Uncle Greg went to be with the Lord. Chris and I were really close to Greg and so this hit us pretty hard. Greg was only 43 years old and he has a beautiful family that resides in Ohio.

Death is really hard for me. I don't like the pain that is caused by death. My heart hurts for his wife, children, father and sisters. I know that God has a plan, but it is really hard to see what His plan entails at this point.

We were able to spend time with our family which always helps when grieving to loss of a loved one. The viewing was on Saturday and Sunday and I have never seen so many people come to show their respect to Greg and the family. The Memorial Service was on Monday and the church was packed. Greg made a huge impact on the people he knew and it was neat to remember his life in this way.

Greg and Nancy have been our role models for a long time. We look up to them in many ways.

The family is CRAZY! Here is a family picture that was taken in the fall. I love all of them so much and I miss my Uncle.

On February 15, 2009 (two days before he passed away) Greg and his family came to Indiana to meet Tegegn. We are so happy that Tegegn was able to meet his Great Uncle. While the family was here, Tegegn would not let anyone else feed him or hold him other than Greg. Greg will always hold a special place in Tegegn's heart.

I am thankful that Greg was my uncle and that he was a part of my life. I will cherish all of my memories and will continue to trust in the Lord because I know that He does not make any mistakes.

More Favorite Photos

2009-02-13T21:57:00.003-05:00

I thought it was time to update the blog with some of my favorite pictures. I hope all of you have a wonderful weekend!

Tegegn showed no emotion when we pulled him in the sled. I have to admit that I don't think that he was able to move so that might have had something to do with it. Since he is a bit short, we had to put hair ties at the bottom of the snow suit because he did not fill it all out yet.

Some mother and son quiet time.

Tegegn did a face plant in the snow and could not move , so he just laid there. I don't think that he was super excited that I took a picture before I cleaned it off his face. Oh well! I think the picture was worth it.

One night this past week we were getting ready for bath time and as we were taking off his shirt he loved having it stuck on his head. He seriously was a wild little boy for 15 minutes with a crazy shirt stuck on his head. He thought it was great - silly boy!

Tegegn LOVES driving with his daddy. I intentionally dressed him in his vest after I knew that Chris was wearing his. I am glad that they didn't mind sharing the same fashion for the day.

Happy Valentine's Day!

My Boys

2009-02-06T23:34:00.002-05:00

I have to tell you that I can't get enough of our son. Whenever we are together as a family it makes me happy. I seriously want to be with him and Chris all of the time because they make me smile. This week we are in our normal routine and it went better than anticipated. I think it helps me knowing that he is with his grandma's while we are at work.

Every night around 7:15pm Chris and I start chanting - Bath Time, Bath Time...Tegegn starts flapping his arms because he loves it and understands what we are saying.

This play mat has been our saving grace when it comes to changing Tegegn's diaper because it keeps him entertained. I think most people use these for infants, but not the Ponslers!

I think that one of Tegegn's favorite things to do is slobber. He has been slobbering nonstop since we met him on December 15. We now own more bibs than clothes.

We were biting this block for at least 20 minutes and he thought it was so funny. I love his laugh.

Tegegn loves his Daddy. He laughs really hard when Chris puts his nose on his tummy and sometimes he even snorts.

Here is a shout out to my friend Ashley who will be induced on Monday night - Although I have no idea what you are experiencing with the pregnancy, the end result is the same and nothing compares to being a mother. It is amazing! You are in our prayers!

Sleep?

2009-02-03T21:30:00.005-05:00

Been a while. Everything has been going really well. We have talked to a social worker with CWA and she gave us some tips on helping him sleep better. It has been working a little better. We are getting a solid 6 hrs without waking (knock on wood) so I think this is helping all of us. He has been such a joy. He is incredibly good during the day, spending full days with both grandma's this week. They tell us he is doing great as well. Hopefully he hasn't convinced them to cover for him yet. We went to church for the first time since getting back on Sunday and it felt so good! We missed it but we wanted to ease him into everything. A surprise to us he spent the entire service in the nursery without us. Sarah was planning to stay with him but as soon as we got there he jumped down and crawled right over to all the stuffed animals. We are so lucky to have an awesome nursery with only 4-5 kids so he gets a lot of attention. To everyone's surprise we have been staying busy on the weekends. We had a chance this last weekend to spend the night Greg, Cari, and Elli's. We had so much fun and it was great to just hang out, catch up, see Chris and Ehrin and their kids. I can't wait until all the kids are running around and we can go camping and take trips together. For some reason I don't think that is far away. Both Elli and Tegegn LOVE Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and if your kids haven't heard the Hot Dog song and dance at the end of the show, it's worth checking out. Elli and Tegegn love dancing to this song. We were already talking about our first trip to Disney World.

We spent a few hours at the Ghion Hotel one day while in Ethiopia and someone decided he was a little tired!

We have mentioned before how flexible he is. Those are his feet.

We were having a little fun with Photo Booth on the MAC. Someone was enjoying seeing himself on the screen, and Tegegn was having fun too.

Someone thinks it's funny to squint now when we take his picture.

This was on the flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. Poor little guys had his arm wrapped in a sling thanks to the pediatrician who helped us out, pooped all over dad's pants, we all smelled horrible, and we hadn't even taken off yet. Needless to say the guy beside me kept his headphones on the entire flight.

Family Time with the Coon Cousins

2009-01-26T22:18:00.002-05:00

When we arrived home, my brother was actually in China for work. Since they were not able to make it to the airport, they ended up coming to Indiana the following weekend. We had a great time hanging out at our house with four kids playing all day long. The kids were adorable.

Life is good. Being a parent has changed our lives. We look forward to the time that we get to spend with Tegegn. His laugh is contagious. His smile melts our hearts. We are forever grateful that God had a plan because we would not have it any other way. Tegegn knows we are his parents. He looks to us for comfort. He knows he is safe with us. He loves to be held. He hates peas. He likes cheerios. He can wave. Children are amazing. I am happy that I am a mom. God is good!

Tagged

2009-01-23T15:08:00.002-05:00

I'm sure much to Kevin's surprise I am going to do this.

Three jobs I have had in my life: Landscaping, McDonald's (for a month), College Admissions

Three movies I would watch over and over: Man on Fire, Emelle, Knights Tale

Shows that I watch: Big Bang Theory, Dirty Jobs, PTI

Three places I have been: Ethiopia, Greece, New York

Three of my favorite foods: Cheeseburger, Filet, Ethiopian Tebs

Three places I'd rather be right now: home, out on a boat anywhere, Sarasota, FL

Three things I am looking forward to this year: Watching Tegegn grow up, the start of the NFL and MLB seasons (I know the NFL season isn't over but it is for me), all our friends children coming home for the first time from Ethiopia

Three jobs I would love to have: Missionary, beer taster (I have to stick with Kevin on this one), rock star

Everything has been going well. We are both exhausted hence the lack of updates, hope to put more pics up soon.

Reading some books

2009-01-20T21:36:00.005-05:00

We were fortunate to have Zac and Laura come visit this weekend with all the cousins. We all had a great time. Tegegn played well with all the cousin and the cousins played AMAZINGLY with him. They were so loving and fun with him. It was great. We are in the process of reading some books on the sleep issues. Not much has changed as he still wakes up 3 or 4 times a night. So we are looking for different methods to help him and us out. He is doing great with each grandma. He is starting to crawl more raised up off the ground and is pulling himself up, standing up, and climbing all over us. He is doing really good. And likes to feed himself now. We figured this out after grabbing spoons full of food! Yay! Sarah was really sick Sunday night so I am running on empty. I traded time with Sarah being sick and Tegegn waking up in between so this has been the reason for the delay in blogging.

This is a priest at one of the churches. Ty carry a cross around and people will come up to him and kiss the cross and he touches them on the cheek with it. It is a form of respect for the priest and a way of blessing. This is at an Orthodox Church.

We had amazingly generous friends and family who donated money and supplies to take to the Orphanage. Here is a picture of the CWA staff in Ethiopia with the donations at the CWA office.

Here is a pic from one of the local markets. All the food is organic and has so much more flavor than our food. And it's a lot cheaper. We wanted to get some Papaya from Miejer last night. $3 here, $.60 there.

Lamb is the main meat in Ethiopia. As you can imagine, they are sold everywhere. Most of the time they are being herded through town. When you need one let them know and they will bring one to your house.

A pic from the weekend. Looks like he is ready to starting climbing.

2009-01-17T08:26:00.002-05:00

A couple better nights sleeping. Starting to get filled up during the day and taking very little milk at night, which is the direction the Dr. said we should be heading. We had the opportunity to visit with our friends David and Abbe and there wonderful twins. They are all doing great. We had a nice dinner and a chance to talk for a while. Then all the kids, especially Tegegn decided they were getting tired and started to get restless. Zac and Laura are coming down today with all the cousins so we are really excited for all the kids to play together and be with everyone.

This is a catholic church service and during the service while they are giving communion they hold these beautiful umbrellas over the priests. Also while they are walking outside. This is a picture of the head of the catholic church in Ethiopia.

This is Tegegn watching Baby Einstein for the first time. We knew he had big eyes but my goodness we didn't know they were that big!

This is driving through Merkato. Merkato is the largest market in Ethiopia and VERY overwhelming. We didn't get out as it is well known for thieves and pickpockets. So we just drove through and it was quite an experience just driving through.

This is the helper making Injera for us. She makes it about every four days. She is actually making a special one with Berbere and butter that was very good. I can't remember the name.

This is a mini bus kind of like a taxi. These mini buses go up and down the same road stopping several times. What they do is the guy hangs out the window yelling where the next stop is and you flag them down if that's where you are going.

Some more pics

2009-01-15T20:57:00.004-05:00

First off, thanks for all the notes, comments, calls, food, support, emails. We can't tell you how much it means to us. We have an amazing groups of friends and family! Tegegn is doing awesome. He is playing great with both grandma's each day and we think the transition into them baby sitting is going to be good. Knock on wood right!? The nights are still pretty rough as he is waking up two or three times. We switched to Vitamin D milk so he wasn't real hungry at night just needed comfort and fell right back asleep.

Some have asked about the picture at the top and it is one I took walking through the Eucalyptus trees at Washa Mikel. There were some Ox roaming around. It was by far one of favorite places in Addis Ababa.

These are the ruins of the Washa Mikel church. It was carved out of stone. It was bombed by the Italians when they invaded Ethiopia. Around a hundred priests were killed when it was struck. It is on top of a mountain so it was considered an important position in the war.

Nothing like food on the forehead, tear in the right eye, and a filthy face. You know we had to take a picture.

Along with sheep, donkeys , dogs, there are also ox who own the roads. This is a major road and.....a guy is herding ox right down the middle.

This is outside Trinity Orthodox church. It is one of the most popular and important sites in Ethiopia. We drove through the gate and were greeted by a guard running towards us asking us why we didn't pay. We were a little upset at the idea that they were making us pay to see a church, so we just drove through. It is interesting, the sites are always triple the cost for foreigners. We later heard from some other tourists we met that they take you inside for five minutes and it's over. So we were glad we didn't pay to see it. The outside is beautiful though.

This is Kaldi's Coffee. The Starbuck's of Ethiopia. Very good coffee and it is also attached to a mall where we did some shopping and where I went to the internet cafe. This is about a block from our house and we walked to this area at least once a day.

2009-01-14T07:01:00.003-05:00

Another good day. Both grandma's came over again and he did great. Later in the evening we needed to do a little shopping so we took him on his first shopping trip. He is so curious about everything he just looked around the whole time taking everything in. Still getting used to the car seat as he has never been in one until now. Does pretty good. Cries a little putting him in but is fine afterwards. We head to the pediatrician this morning for his first check up. The only thing we are having a few problems with is the sleeping. We are going to switch somethings around. We think the crib is reminding him of his time at the orphanage so we are going to try some new things. We knew this was going to be one of the hardest parts and have heard the same from many adopting families.

This is inside the Saviour Orthodox church in the Bole region of Addis Ababa. This is the beginning of the Christmas service which begins at 8 pm and finishes at 3 am. We didn't stay for the service but wanted to see what it was like.

Hanging outside on the porch. We were able to get a few laughs out of him.

This is at Maryam Church (St. Mary Church) atop Entoto Mountain. Almost all of the older Orthodox churches look like this. There are many throughout the city.

This was our tenth attempt to get a pic with him looking at the camera. We were never able to.

This is a pic of the home we stayed at. In the pic is myself, Teddy, and the helper Genet.

Slowly catching up on sleep

2009-01-13T07:30:00.004-05:00

Good news, Tegegn woke up yesterday using his wrist like nothing ever happened. He was crawling around and climbing on everything like he was before. We already had a doctor's appointment scheduled for him for tomorrow so we decided to wait and have them look at it then. It was amazing, the first night of sleep, we all went to bed around 8:30 and he woke up at the same exact times that he did in Ethiopia but on our time. We were a little jealous. Because Sarah and I both woke up at 4 am and starving. We had both grandma's hang out with us most of the day yesterday to start to get aquatinted and he did great. Grandma Gerry even brought her new puppy over and he was making some interesting noises. We think that he was getting a little jealous when we pet the dog because he was fine when he pet it on his own. And ofcourse Grandma Peg was making him laugh more than ever. We had a great time being with family. We have really been surprised at how out going he is around new people. He is still very clinging to us but has no problem showing off, and warming up to others.

I know several of our friends have court dates coming up and some are getting ready to travel so I thought it might be helpful to see what the airport looks like. Get ready to scan your luggage and carry on luggage 100 times on your way over. All international airports we went through scanned our carry on every time we boarded a new plane. Best to be safe I guess.

Some of the food we had from left to right, Macaroni, vegetables, Shera Watt (red) Watt is the sauce and the first word is what you put in the sauce Shera is kind of like lentils, Barley, Fish, and Sarah's favorite Sambosa which is kind of like an egg roll with different things in it such as lentils, meat.

A couple teeth coming in

There are a lot of new building going up in Addis Ababa and this is one thing that continued to blow us away. They use wood posts for scaffolding and as you can kind of tell it's not real straight.

This was one of the first nights, we were rolling because he was sleeping on his arms. For some reason he loves to sleep on top of his arms.

A few pics

2009-01-12T06:32:00.002-05:00

I think they got everything.

Atop Washa Mikel overlooking the city

With our host family buying traditional dress for the three of us at the Entoto Market

One of our favorite pics, we were getting ready and we look over and he is folded in half fast asleep on top of bunny

Meeting for the first time, we don't know what happened to that little boy who didn't say a word and had a blank stare the whole day.

Neil Diamond

2009-01-12T04:40:00.002-05:00

Back in America! It feels good to be home. I had it all planned out just before we hit ground in Detroit I was planning to have America by Neil Diamond playing on the Ipod for Tegegn, well didn't happen. Pretty rough flight. I was letting him stretch out on the plane before we left and he was standing with my help and not sure if he slipped or what happened but his wrist popped, kind of sounded like when we pop our fingers, and it started hurting him. Of course we felt horrible and were very worried, so we talked to the stewardess and she suggested paging a doctor. She did and about 12 people came back, wow! There was an incredibly nice pediatrician and a family doctor who felt like he may have just sprained it a little, but we went ahead and braced it and put a little sling around his neck. So we plan to head into the pediatrician this morning and get it checked out. Then we found out from Sarah's dad that we had no heat in our house. Needles to say we were both a little emotional on the plane from Detroit to Indy. Wonderfully her dad was able to get ahold of someone to come and fix it before we got home. We had an amazing welcome from family and friends at the airport which felt better than we can describe. We will get pics up soon and talk more about our journey!

Tegegn's Homecoming

2009-01-06T03:58:00.000-05:00

Good morning,

This will be our last post before we get home. We go to the Embassey today to complete everything for Tegegn's passport and visa. Yesterday we did a little exploring. The Lonely Planet book talked about a church made out of rock at a top of a mountain called Washa Micheal. So we ventured out with Kifle. The book said you will have to ask locals how to find this place and did we. Once we found the road that headed up we had to ask about ten people where to go. It was up the rockiest bumpy road we have ever experienced. And guess who slept through most of the trip up. Tegegn! Sarah had him wrapped in her arms and somehow he slept. We were all laughing at how bumpy the road was but the Tracker battled through and we finally made it. This is a diamond in the rough. By far one of the neatest places we have visited and a perfect ending to our time here. Once you visit the rock church ruins the guide said do you want to go over look the city? Ofcourse! We walk through a forest of Euculiptis trees and it opens up to overlooking Addis. This totally blew Entoto Mountain away in my opinion. Tegegn was awesome the whole time. He loves being outside and we never heard a peep the whole time. He has been really great the past few days. Had some rough nights mainly because all the grocery stores stopped carrying formula and we found a few left at one and it was for very young children. We think that he isn't getting filled up like he was with the previous brand. Ouyr host family said it was common for places to just stop carrying things because of issues of importing. So we are going to try and adjust the amount. He was sleeping great until we had to change. Tomorrow is Christmas here because of the difference in the calendars. It sounds like they are preparing a feast. Not like they haven't been already. They bring our paperwork to us on Thursday and we leave at 11:30 Ethiopian time Saturday night. We are scheduled to arrive in Indy at 2:30pm on Sunday. Anyone who would like to come to the airport is welcome to. We are a little concerned about making our flight in Detroit because we have to get our bags and go through customs before we board our flight for Indy. We will be in contact with our family to let them know if we have any problems. We get into Detroit at 11:30. We will probably eat lunch at the Indy airport which is very nice if you haven't been there yet. We are coming in on Northwest. Again no pressure but if you are in the area we would love to see everyone. We are excited to see everyone again! Wendi, our USCIS took about two weeks to get our appointment for finger prints and it took about three weeks after the fingerprints to get our approval. We emailed the contact on the website about two weeks after our finger priints explaining our situation and we got it in the mail the next week. I don't know if it was coincidence or they actually expedited it for us. So total it took about 5 weeks.

Love you and can't wait to see everyone again!

Chris and Sarah

Army Crawl

2008-12-31T08:36:00.000-05:00

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!

2008-12-27T09:36:00.000-05:00

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

2008-12-21T07:58:00.000-05:00

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...

2008-12-18T08:22:00.003-05:00

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!

2008-12-12T07:35:00.002-05:00

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

2008-12-08T22:23:00.004-05:00

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.

2008-11-26T12:21:00.005-05:00

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!

2008-11-25T10:26:00.005-05:00

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...

2008-11-23T23:01:00.005-05:00

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

2008-11-21T21:14:00.005-05:00

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.

2008-11-18T20:59:00.004-05:00

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

2008-11-10T20:55:00.005-05:00

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

2008-11-07T18:54:00.002-05:00

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

2008-11-01T20:42:00.002-04:00

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

2008-11-01T20:12:00.003-04:00

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

2008-10-29T21:49:00.005-04:00

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.

2008-10-29T15:22:00.004-04:00

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

World Vision

Christmas in October...

2008-10-21T19:59:00.006-04:00

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!

2008-10-14T18:34:00.002-04:00

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

2008-10-12T23:18:00.005-04:00

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...

2008-10-12T21:44:00.006-04:00

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!

2008-09-30T22:29:00.004-04:00

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

2008-09-20T22:02:00.004-04:00

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!

Flyin' on a Jet Plane.....

2008-09-16T11:43:00.003-04:00

I do know when I will be back again... That is all I know to that song. (I do realize that I swiched the words to apply to my situation) For those of you who know me well, I could listen to the same song 100 times and still not know all of the words. On the other hand, Chris can listen to it twice and know the entire song. I find that simply amazing. I also am not one to know song titles, artists, actors, actresses, or movies. The good thing about this is everything always appears new to me. For example, we can buy DVDs because I never remember the story line. It is like watching a new movie everytime. You gotta love it!

Anyways, I am at the airport waiting for my flight to go to Louisiana for business. More updates later...

Blast from the Past

2008-09-14T22:24:00.003-04:00

This post is late. Time got away from me and so I have to recap what has happened over the past week and a half. Last weekend, my friend Ashley and I went with our moms to a big garage sale in Wakarusa on Saturday morning. Although we didn't find a ton of items, we had fun looking and trying to find the deals of the century! I ended up purchasing a 2T tux for our little boy. In order to make sure that he gets its use, I figure he can use it for halloween next year and be a groom or a preacher. After looking at all of the sale items, we decided to go out to eat in Goshen. We had a great time catching up. After brunch, my mom and I went to The Old Bag Factory. It was a neat place. I which I could afford some of the furniture and pottery. The time together with my mother was invaluable. I really enjoyed spending time with her.

On Sunday, we had the opportunity to tailgate with some of our friends. We had a great time although we had 4 Bear fans at our tailgate party. It was great to reconnect with Kevin (our friend from college) and his wife Jen. We also were able to spend some time with Syd, Katie, Greg and Cari. Although the game did not turn out how we would have hoped, we had a great day!

Last week was busy. We were both sick at one point, but after we started feeling better we were out and about. Chris's birthday was on Monday! Although I was sick, I think he had a good week. On Wednesday, he went to the Journey concert with his sister and her family. It sounded like he had a great time. On Friday, we ran into Kokomo and then we headed into Greentown to watch the Eastern football game. Amazingly, the football team won! This is their first win in 24 games. We weren't sure if they would know that the tradition was to ring the bell. Luckily, they didn't forget and it continued to ring for awhile.

On Saturday morning, Chris and I participated in the Tour de Carmel. This is a 20 mile bicycle ride throughout Carmel. We completed it and then decided to go to Trader Joe's. After doing a little bit of grocery shopping, we decided to eat and When Harry met Salad. It was pretty good. In the afternoon, I went to my cousin's baby shower. She looks adorable and received so many nice things.

Around 4:30 we found ourselves and Indiana Wesleyan to watch our friend, Andrew ref a soccer game. It was fun to see him in action; however, I think I did more talking than watching. Andrew and Ashley came over to our house and we continued to keep the sports theme in mind. We had pizza and wings for supper and watched the Ohio State and USC game. It ended up being a blow out. We had a great time hanging out with them. It is crazy - I have seen Ashley more this past month than I have seen her all year.

In the picture below, Andrew is the ref in blue.

Today we went to church and then came home to get ready for the Colts game. At Chris's 10 year high school reunion we made plans with Rod and Megan to come over and watch the game since it was away. I have to confess, this is the first game that we have watched with anyone else other than our families. It went really well. They didn't mind me cleaning up the kitchen when I got nervous. We invited them back for all the other games and I think that we might make it a tradition. It is always fun to hang out with them and it is nice that they live close to us so no one has to drive very far to see each other.

God has blessed us with so many friendships. Often times we forget how neat it is that we have people to hang out with, share our lives with, learn with, laugh with, cry with... On that note, have a wonderful week.

It is that time...

2008-09-06T22:29:00.003-04:00

GO COLTS!

Enough said.

Is it okay to wish time away?

2008-09-02T22:00:00.005-04:00

Chris and I have been doing everything possible to make the time go by fast and we are excited to say that it is already September! We have had a great summer and we are truly looking forward to the fall months. One month of rainy season has passed and we only have one more month to go – what a blessing! For those of you wishing that we had an adoption update, there is no such luck. We haven’t heard anything, but I can honestly say that we think about our little boy almost all of the time. We love him so much already and we constantly make comments about him being around so he can enjoy his cousins, or the sunset, or camping, or the pool, or sports, or just being hugged and cuddled. I think we both have our days, some harder than others. We find it best if we talk about it, otherwise we hold in the emotion and find that it hurts. We knew the waiting would be difficult; it is just hard to prepare for something that would be like this experience.

So, what have we been doing to pass the time? I think we are doing a little bit of everything these days. My family rented a lake cottage on Lake Tippecanoe last week. Since Chris and I are saving all of our vacation days to go to Ethiopia, we decided to go up on both weekends to be with everyone. We had a wonderful time! We were able to be out on the water and hang out with the family. What a great combination! Both of us were successful with skiing; however, we were successful getting up on the wakeboard, just not riding it for a long period of time. We went sailing with my dad and we also took out the wave runner. Man do I love those things…I managed to turn it so fast that I did a flip off of it. Chris saw me do it and I think he was literally impressed that I tried to gun it and turn at the same time. The boys are as cute as ever. We have enjoyed watching them grow and become little boys.

We also became members at our church here in Kokomo, Grace United Methodist. We are excited to be a part of a church family and consider it our home. We look forward to going every Sunday and the fellowship has been amazing! God is good!

This past Sunday we were excited to meet up with Chris’s side of the family for dinner; however, our plans changed pretty fast. Before meeting up with them, we thought we would ride our bikes on the Monon trail. Unfortunately, Chris wiped out and was a little to sore to continue with our plans. Instead, we came back home and I helped my dad gather some landscaping material to redo my grandmother’s house in Ohio. I was able to spend some quality time with him as we went to Burlington and ate at Mike’s Pizza.

On Labor Day, we decided that we wanted to add some lights to our landscaping because it is really dark around our house and we thought it would look nice. It took some work, but the lights are in and we really like the finished product. Chris’s mother came over and helped us throughout the day. It was a good day!

This upcoming week starts regular season football games. Go COLTS! We always look forward to our games and spending that time together. I am also planning to spend some girl time with Ashley on Saturday! I have a test tomorrow and I can’t wait till this class is over. I will only have one more left and then I will have my master’s degree!!! YAY! I can’t wait to be finished for awhile.

We can’t thank you enough for all of the prayers our blog readers have prayed. Please continue to be prayer warriors for our little boy. I am positive that he is feeling God’s presence each and every day. Blessings to you and your family.

Olympics

2008-08-22T22:02:00.005-04:00

Over the past couple of weeks, Chris and I have developed a routine that is based off of the Olympics. We simply cannot get enough of the crazy events. We have planned our evenings around watching the events. The routine consists of working for 8+ hours, eating supper, either riding our bikes or working out on the elliptical and staying up way to late...and then it starts all over again.

Some of my favorite events throughout the Beijing Olympics include swimming, beach volleyball, men's 10m platform diving (I know David Boudia's father), gymnastics, basketball and track and field. I was also impressed by the opening ceremonies. I work with quite a few people from China and they have been so proud of it. It has been neat to talk to them about something that we have in common.

My company has been in the news quite bit lately. As most people know, the automotive sector has been hit hard recently because people are changing their buying habits because they are fed up with the cost of gas. This past week my company has decided to make a business decision to separate 600 salaried employees. This has been a difficult time and my heart goes out to the employees that have lost their job. My hope is that they will be optimistic and that they can find a position that fits their needs.

This weekend we are going to the lake to spend some time with my family. We usually go on vacation with them sometime throughout the year; however, we are saving all of our time for our trip to ETHIOPIA!

Colts football is back in season! We are super excited to go to the games again this year. The first pre-season game is Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium. It should be a good time. We actually had the opportunity to tour the stadium last Saturday with some of our friends - shout out to Syd, Katie, Don, Liz, Anneliese and Emmeline. Chis and I have also been riding our bikes recently so we also had the opportunity to ride the monon for 18 miles. It was a nice ride.

No news on the adoption front. We continue to think about out little guys often. We are so glad that August is about over. We really don't want to wish our lives away, but we can't wait to hold him. We love him so much already!

The Weekend

2008-08-10T21:03:00.008-04:00

We had a great weekend. It got off to a great start because Chris came home from Florida. It is one of those things...I really enjoy my personal time, but I am always so glad when he is home and we can spend time together doing the things that we love. Recently, we picked up bicycling. We try to go at least 5 times a week. The past two Saturdays we have taken some long rides. This past Saturday we rode 23 miles. We have really enjoyed it for several reasons...the time together is invaluable, it is good for us, Chris's knee doesn't hurt (he has had surgery twice), it gives us time to think and see God's creation and it is the GREEN thing to do.

On Friday evening, I was able to meet up with some of my girlfriends from Manchester. I have been able to stay current due to all of them having blogs; however, it was nice to laugh and cry with them. We ended up eating supper at the Mexican place and then we went to Dairy Queen for dessert. I was able to show the girls the pictures of our little boy. I loved their reaction. It means so much when you have the support of friends. I am excited about seeing these ladies again in the near future.

My family was here this weekend from Ohio. I have always thought that photography would be a fun hobby so all my cousins joined in on the fun!

Here is Jordan hanging from a tree.

And Carly, who was wondering why I made her sit on the floor for a picture.

Aaron, loving every bit of laying on the grass in the sun so he couldn't open his eyes.

Ashlyn, sitting in the corner with me standing over her on a rocking chair.

And finally, Lauren, sitting on a blue ball.

Man do I love these kids. I have been able to watch all of them grow up and it has been so rewarding. All of them have different personalities and I always look forward to spending time with them. Family means a lot to me and I am so fortunate to have a close family on both my side and Chris's side. We are blessed.

The Life of Sarah

2008-08-04T21:44:00.005-04:00

**My pictures would not post for some reason. I will try later.

For those of you who keep up with the X Games or MTV, the title of this blog comes from The Life of Ryan. It amazes me how interested I can be in the lives of people I do not know and will never meet. The Life of Ryan follows a skateboarder around his daily routines, with friends, gigs and his family. I also find myself watching HGTV house shows...I love seeing inside houses and dreaming or thinking about what I would do if I had the cash to spend 800K on a house. Actually, I can honestly say, I never want a house that would cost that much. I am happy with what I have and I would rather spend my money on something much more meaningful.

I have to do a shout out to my friend Ashley! She called me out today...I told her yesterday that I was going to post a blog last night. Oops! At least I know I have one stalker! I actually had the opportunity to visit with Andrew and Ashley yesterday at Dairy Queen over some ICE CREAM. It was fun catching up with them. They are expecting their first child and were updating me on all of the details! Love it!

Speaking of babies...my dear friend Abbe had her twins today! She had a baby boy and a baby girl. Mommy and babies are doing well. I plan to go to the hospital tomorrow evening to visit. She has been such a blessing to me and has been my cheerleader throughout our adoption. I praise God that her children are healthy!

Chris is currently in Florida for work. I have been keeping myself busy here at home. I am trying to get ahead on my class and just take some time for myself. I ran some errands yesterday and I also cleaned our house. It felt good to dust, vacuum, clean the bathrooms, do the dishes and wash the windows all in one day. I worked until 8:15 today in order to get caught up.

Since a lot of my students are leaving, I am not able to focus on the International portion of my job. I was able to catch up a bit and that makes me feel good. Chris and I recently changed churches. It is amazing what a difference that can make in life. We are so fired up about church. It is a great feeling. We are actually going to a new members class next Sunday. It makes us feel so good that we have found a place to call home. We are excited to get involved in our new church. It has a great mix of people which really fits us. God is good!

As far as the adoption goes, we received an email today from our agency. I was going to try and paraphrase it, but I think it is worded extremely well. It is kind of frustrating; however, we have to TRUST God and know that He has a plan.

Dear Families:

Ethiopia is now experiencing their annual rainy season, and this impacts much of their daily lives. Roads that were somewhat accessible before are now all but washed away, and transportation is challenging. We can all imagine daily life for those who must endure this season every year.

The judges of the Federal Court are now beginning their two month leave, and are expected to return in late September. Only a few more court cases will be processed this week. A few cases have already been scheduled for court in mid October. We do not expect to receive any new news of court dates until early October.

We realize that many of you are wondering what will happen during the next two months. It seems like an eternity to wait, most especially if you already have a referral. It is our prayer that the next two months, and beyond, will pass with ease, peace, and comfort, both for the children and for all of you waiting mommies and daddies.

The process with paperwork and getting the children to the places they need to be will continue, in as close to a normal process as possible. We will continue to send over your completed dossiers to our office in Addis. The orphanages will continue to receive children who need families, so referrals will still be given. Your dossiers will be translated and then submitted to the Ministry of Women's Affairs for approval. The paperwork to compile the dossiers for the waiting children will still be gathered and processed.

The travel dates for Embassy appointments will continue as normal, for families who already have court approval. The children will continue to be moved into the Foster Care facility, as space becomes available there. The second medical exams in Addis will continue as well. The point at which all of the paperwork and processing stops will be at the court. When the judges return in early October, they will receive all of the waiting dossiers/cases and will begin the task of scheduling court cases on their calendars.

We expect at some point that the Foster Care facility in Addis will become filled to capacity with waiting children. When this occurs, the children in the orphanages will remain there until the courts open again, adoptions receive approval, parents receive Embassy appointments, and travel to Addis to get their children. This will create open spaces at the Foster Care facility to begin moving in children from the orphanages once again.

Our Ethiopia program consists of between 150-160 adoptive families, on a continual basis. As of today there are:
1. 15 families on our referral waiting list (dossier complete). Practically ALL of those families are waiting to receive referrals of little girls.
2. 6 families have court dates scheduled for this week or mid October.
3. 49 families have referrals and are completing their dossiers, or are waiting for court dates in October.
4. 17 families have approved court hearings, and are waiting for Embassy/travel dates.
5. 70 families are in the dossier phase.

Please contact your case manager with any questions you have about the processes over the next two months, or about your adoption in general. Again, our prayer is that all the waiting will pass with ease and God's comfort and presence. The timing may never fit into the calendars we keep at our fingertips, but God is always there, and He is working out a perfect plan for each one of the children, and each one of you.

Based on the email, we will not really have any updates for the next couple of months. We have always known the WAITING would be the most difficult part, and it is hard to understand, but God will see us through. We have already been blessed abundantly and we need to remember that we are not in control. Please continue to remember him in your prayers. I am sure that our prayers are being answered and that he is feeling loved.

I did email our case manager to see if our son is feeling better. She said that she hasn't heard anything, which means he hasn't gotten worse. Hopefully, I will have an update on his health later this week.

Well, it is that time. I decided not to work on my class tonight; therefore, I have to work on it the rest of the week.

Ponsler Update...

2008-07-23T22:40:00.003-04:00

It amazes me that so much time has gone by since I last had the opportunity to blog. Work has been keeping me super busy recently. I have been working with the student interns and co-ops a lot lately. We recently went to the Catapillar plant in Peoria, IL and Chicago to the Science and Industry Museum for the student trip. I have an extremely rewarding job because I get to interact with the students and they have such an impact on me. Even though I only get to spend a little bit of time with them throughout their time at work, I feel like I know them and have the opportunity to impact them in some way. Today, they SURPRISED me with a baby shower! It totally caught me off guard. I have to say, I have never been so surprised. I had no clue! I was actually speechless. There were probably 50 students at the shower. I cannot thank them enough. It was truely amazing. They brought tears to my eyes.

The students were so generous. They bought us several bath items for our little angel along with cups, spoons, lotions, soaps, and a baby kit. I can't begin to tell you how much love they have for our little boy already. I have students telling me how to take care of his skin, how to parent him, and how to take care of his hair. I love it! We are so blessed!

We have had a lot of fun telling our friends and family about our boy. It has been fun seeing the expressions and reactions to the pictures. We were able to spend some time with my side of the family recently. It was fun to hang out with the extended family. We had a great time catching up with our aunts, uncles and cousins.

This weekend we are going to Chicago on Saturday to go to a Cirque show. We purchased the tickets a year ago and we are looking forward to some time together.

I am trying to finish my current class and my new one already started. This is my last one for this year. I will only have one left after October!!!

On the adoption front, our boy currently has viral bronchitis. Please pray for him as he recovers. We trust that the doctor in Ethiopia will treat him and make him feel better. We are still waiting on the local paperwork before we can get a court date. The case manager told us that we should know in mid-August when our scheduled court date is. We will travel 5 weeks after a successful court date. So right now we are looking at traveling in November.

It's A BOY!

2008-07-07T22:09:00.006-04:00

We would like to announce that we have received our referral!!! We are going to be the proud parents of a baby boy. He was born on December 17, 2007 in Ethiopia. He is so precious. We love him so much already.

This is a picture of us right after I looked at the pictures for the first time. Chris received an email at work and he thought it was not meant for us because our documents were still in Washington D.C. He called our case manager and he found out he was for us! He tried calling me 20 times in a span of 15 minutes. I picked up the phone at work and bursted into tears! I left work immediately and we set up the camera to record this moment of our lives. Talk about feeling all the emotions at once! We have been so blessed and are so lucky that we were chosen to be the parents of this baby.

We would love to share pictures of our baby boy here, but we signed a contract with our agency stating that we would not share them electronically in any way. We have actually had this news for some time, but we wanted to make sure that everything was in order before we shared the wonderful news with our family and friends. Since we never had to wait for a referral, we have had to wait on other items that usually people don't have to worry about. It took a week for the dossier to reach Ethiopia, one week to translate it, one week for the agency to move our baby from the orphanage to the CWA foster care center and one week to receive the second medical report.

We are currently waiting for a court date. Since the courts actually close in August and September, we have a slim chance of getting one in July. If we do (please pray for this) then we will travel toward the end of August. If we don't, we will travel in November. God has been so good to us and we know he has a plan! We have left this in God's hands. He has opened so many doors for us and we totally trust in Him.

We will keep you posted on news as we get it. We have also chosen not to share his name on here until after we pick him up. We decided to be super cautious because we don't want to risk anything. If you are interested in knowing the baby's name, please feel free to email or call us.

I will post about our weekend another night. We traveled to Michigan to visit with my brother and his family. We had a great time. I will leave you with this story... Our oldest nephew read a book about bunnies. There was one bunny that looked different than the others, but it was still a bunny. He then took that and described his cousin (our son). He said that he will have different color skin, but he will be a boy just like him. He will also have a nose, two hands, two feet, two arms, two eyes... It was so cute to see into the world of a 3.5 year old.

Friends

2008-06-29T21:36:00.004-04:00

Do you ever wonder what it would be like to go through life without friends? I honestly cannot imagine what that would be like because we are constantly surrounded by people that love us and that we enjoy hanging out with. Although there are several people that I wish I could see more often, I love how we can pick up right where we left off. To me, that is a true friend. I like being myself.

I am having trouble with my pictures so things are a bit out of order. For those of you who know me, I sometimes jump from one thing back to another so I might as well in my blog too! On Friday, Chris and I went to a birthday party for one of our dear friends, Syd. It was his 30th birthday and we had a great time! His girlfriend, Katie, threw a great party! It was fun meeting different sets of their friends to celebrate Syd's birthday. Chris and I thought it would be fun to take a slip and slide. We didn't realize it at the time, but it was a little short. No wonder it was only $4. It was fun to watch Chris, Syd and Kevin (Katie's brother) enjoy themselves in the rain.

This is my dear friend, Katie. I am so glad that I have had the chance to get to know her over the past year. She has been so supportive of our adoption. I love how God places friends in your lives for a reason.

Skipping ahead to Sunday, Chris and I decided we wanted to make something. So, a corn hole set was the result! It is actually up to the Official Corn Hole Set standards! Now the big decisions...what do we paint it? We are thinking we are going to go for a sport theme...Colts, Notre Dame, Cubs....so many choices. I think that we decided to paint it for the Colts and possible make the bags out of ND material and Cubs material...It was a fun project and nice to start something and finish it in the same day.

Chris is playing softball this summer. His games are usually on Monday or Tuesday evenings. I had the chance to see him play this past week. It was a double header. His team won the first game and lost the second game. He plays on the church league with Greg and Syd down in Indy.

Back to the birthday party...we took our washer game and we had fun playing it with Liz and Don. Chris works with Don at Wiley. This was the first time that I met Don's wife Liz. It is always nice to meet someone that you hear a lot about. They have two girls and they are adorable! We really enjoyed getting to know them better.

So, Katie's father owns a rental place in Indianapolis and for the party, there was a moonwalk! Although few adults actually ended up jumping in it, I was waiting for my opportunity. I honestly don't have any idea how kids jump in this thing for so long. It seriously wore me out. It was fun though!

It was great seeing Mike, Syd, Greg and Chris together at something other than a wedding! These guys hung out all the time in high school and can always pick up right where they left off.

It is a short week at work. This week is actually the first week of "shutdown" at Delphi. This is great! Things will slow down and I will be able to catch up so that is really exciting for me! Like I said before, please continue to pray for our adoption. We are so grateful we have so many friends that pray for us everyday. May God bless you this week!