Merry Christmas

Grandma Lenz & 14 Grandkids

Only 1 child is missing....

He's in Ethiopia.

Waiting for us to bring him home.

Next year this picture will be

Grandma Lenz & 15 Grandkids!!

Noah (9), Cassie (14), & Jordan (11)

Yes, I made them get close to show how much they LOVE each other!

Noah's presents: SpyGear ATV, nightvision goggles, Brett Favre Minnesota Vikings Jersey, camera, ice fishing tip-ups, DS games, Wii game, socks, sweatshirts, pajama pants

Jordan's presents: cell phone, furry boots, lots of girly-clothes, earrings, robe, Wii game, Wega softball jacket, llama Webkins, sweatshirts

Cassie's presents: Wega softball jacket, earrings, necklaces, vests, shirts, shorts, gift card, purse, wallet, more clothes, University of Kentucky pajamas, sweatshirts

Brad's presents: wallet, ice fishing tip-ups, Menards gift card, bungees, pajama pants, money

Sue's presents: diamond earrings (WAY TO GO BRAD!), sweaters, earrings, tops, picture frame of Mom & Kris and I, money, star wall decoration, hand towels, snow plowing from neighbor, Learning Shop gift card, camera (St. Nick present), Ipod touch (early gift in November)

Brad & I at Grandma Lenz' home on Christmas Day

Girls in PINK!

I LOVE this camera!

I took this picture from across the room!

SO COOL!!

We had an awesome Christmas with our families. The weather was quite YUCKY! I honestly don't remember another Christmas where we got snow, sleet, and RAIN, RAIN, and more RAIN! The roads were all ice-covered on Christmas Eve, while we drove to Kris and Steve's home. I played on my Ipod touch and tried not to watch Brad drive. Brad was happy, so I wouldn't yell at him every second about slowing down and not passing people. Great Grandma Beck wasn't able to join us on Christmas Eve either, because the roads were terrible! We did call her and sand Jingle Bells though! :)

Everyone was asking us when we're leaving for Ethiopia and I just LOVED telling them ~ January 6th! YEAH! I'm getting so excited. This weekend, we'll put all our new things away and then we'll start packing for Africa. I'm nervous, anxious, excited, and just plain giddy, about meeting our little boy for the first time. It's just so much to think about. I can't wait to meet him and tell him that I LOVE him!!

Merry Christmas to everyone! May God bless you and keep you safe!

Exciting News!

I received an email today from Holt in Oregon, and it stated that our dossier has arrived in Ethiopia! YEAH!! That is such exciting news! It took 19 days to get there, but it's finally there. Now, we just wait for a court date! This is SO EXCITING!! I really needed to hear this today.

Jordan isn't feeling well and stayed home from school today. Luckily Grandma Lenz could stay with her so she wasn't alone. Cassie leaves for Indianapolis tomorrow for the National FFA Convention. She even gets to go to a Toby Keith and Taylor Swift concert. I'm so jealous! She's totally excited but I have mixed emotions. I've never let one of my kids go that far away without one of us. Guess I have to let her grow up sometime.

We had a really busy weekend. On Friday night, we headed to the high school football game. Cassie played in the band, Jordan did her cheer routine at halftime, and Noah and Brad were announced for Pee-Wee football players and coaches. It was cold (for me), so we left after halftime.

On Saturday, we headed to Jordan's cheer competition in Westfield. We arrived at 10:45am and needed to sit in the bleachers until 1pm, just so we could have a seat for the actual competition. Jordan's cheer squad got a 1st!  YEAH!! They were awesome and should be proud of themselves.

On Sunday, Brad helped Great Grandma Beck move into an assisted living home in Oshkosh. Noah and Brad loaded his van in Winneconne and then unloaded in Oshkosh. They loaded again in Winneconne and brought lots of things home for us.

Jordan was under the weather when she woke up on Sunday morning and stayed on the couch or in bed all day long. She had a fever and was pretty lathargic. I just hope she gets over this quickly and it's not H1N1.

Hopefully I can post pictures of the cheer competition soon.

What a great start to a busy week!

USCIS Appointment - Yeah!!

On Thursday, October 15, 2009 at 10am, Brad and I will be at the USCIS office in Milwaukee. This is for the I600A - Application for Advance Processing or Orphan Petition. YEAHHHHH! We need to have this completed and approved in order to travel to Ethiopia and bring home our little guy! I'm SO EXCITED!!!

Frustration

So, I came home from work on Monday (09/21) and noticed that we received a letter from Wisconsin's Homeland Security office. They logged in our I600-A application, but they didn't have our birth or marriage certificates. UGH!!! I must have missed that part. Will send that out on Tuesday via priority mail.

Then, I check my home email and see an email from Jenn at Holt in Oregon. She received our dossier documents but Brad's employer letter was never NOTARIZED! UGH!!! I was SO frustrated, upset, and almost near tears. Why does everything always have to be so difficult. So, Brad asked human resources to do it again on Tuesday. The lady was TOO busy to get it done. So he asked again on Wednesday and she FINALLY pushed it underneath his door at work after 5pm. WHAT IS THAT?!?!? Does she not know that our little boy is WAITING for us?!?!?! Again, I'm almost to tears and really frustrated.

Brad sent the letter and copy of the letter out on Thursday morning. He sent it priority mail and overnighted it. Over $17.00 later, its' on the way to Oregon. I never heard from Holt on Friday, so I'm just hoping they received it and everything is in order.

I know I need to find my PATIENCE, but it's so hard knowing our little guy is there and we're missing so much with him. By the time Friday evening rolled around, I was just wiped out. TOO much stress thinking about everything. Everything happens for a reason, but I'm thinking somebody is having a good laugh on me!

Saturday was an awesome day! Noah won his football game. AGAIN! The team is 5-0 and we have one more regular season game to find out if they go to Playoffs. YEAH!

I took Cassie shopping and it was ALL ABOUT HER! She needed shoes to go with her homecoming dress and also earrings. Then she needed pajamas for pajama day this week at school. She also needed a pink shirt (I know she had one of these, but she totally disagreed) to play in the band during a volleyball game this week. Everytime I looked at something for me, I put it back. I know we're tight on money for the adoption, so I'm thinking all about the NEED list, rather than the WANT list.

Cassie and I also checked out clothes at Children's Place for our little guy. Just taking a stab at his height and weight now, I'm thinking he'll be in a 4T or so. That just seems SO TINY since Noah is already wearing size 10. I can't wait to get another update on his growth, so we can start thinking about clothes for him. Now that puts a big SMILE on my face!!

Jordan, Noah and I are working on another package to be sent to Muluken this afternoon. The two of them both made cards and I put some stickers in the envelope with another card. Jordan also found some coloring pictures on the internet, so we'll send one or two of those too! I would just love to see his face when he gets the envelope!

Paperwork, paperwork, & MORE paperwork

It seems like that is all I work on lately. We have paperwork for Holt International and for LSS. We have paperwork for back to school registration and lesson plans. There is so much paperwork and so little time!

The kids have kept me so busy this past week and it's only going to get worse. Jordan and Noah are going to summer school from 8am - noon. Then Jordan has band lessons at 2:30pm and then they both have football/cheer practice from 5:30 - 7:45pm. Brad's also coaching the football team, so I won't see him too much either this week. Cassie also wants to ride her horse, so I need to make time to get over to the trainer's house too. We did finish up Little League last week, so that's one thing off of our to-do list. But, we still have dog project on Tuesday evening.

We are also having a Voss family reunion (my mom's side of the family). Many of my aunts, uncles, cousins, and cousins' kids will all be converging on Lake Poygan from Wednesday through Sunday. They have a ton of things planned for everyone, but we'll see how much we'll get to be there with our schedule. Hopefully I can spend some time with everyone and catch up. I can't wait!

And now a family of 6!

At 5:35pm central time yesterday, we received the phone call we've been waiting for.....We have been approved to become parents of the most beautiful five-year old little boy from Ethiopia! We're over the moon with excitement! Brad said he knew it was going to happen, but I didn't want to believe it until it was official.

Now, we have to get going on the rest of the paperwork for our dossier, but at least we have this little man's picture in our hearts, so hopefully it will make everything go a little easier. I wish we could share his picture with everyone, but for now we can only talk about him. We need to wait to pass court in order to post his beautiful face.

We thank God for all of his blessings he has given us!