Family Easter Pictures

This year we decided that we would go to Holy Saturday services at our church. The mass started at 8:15pm (15 minutes after Muluken's bedtime) and we walked out at 10:55pm. Yes, that is not a typo. We were really there for almost 3 hours.

After about 30 minutes into the service, Muluken was getting tired. I put him on my lap and told him it was OK to rest his eyes. It didn't take him long that he was snoring. And SNORING loud! People started turning around at least 2 pews ahead of us. Cassie got embarrassed and told me to wake him up! LOL! I couldn't believe he could sleep through all the singing and clapping. He did wake up around 10pm, so I took him out and laid him down on a couch. He snuggled in until everybody else joined us.

On Easter morning, the kids all had fun looking for their TWO baskets. The boys found monster trucks in their baskets and the girls each received a movie in their basket. Though, Cassie never found her basket until we returned from celebrating Easter with everyone.

We went to Aunt Kris' home and ate a huge brunch. The boys started playing football in the very wet grass and of course Justin and Muluken both came in looking quite muddy! The kids also had an Easter egg hunt in the basement where they each had to find 12 eggs of a certain color. After leaving Kris' home, we visited with Grandma Rucks and the kids had to find 4 more baskets.

Without saying, we have WAY TOO MUCH candy in this house! I'm sure I will be finding wrappers all over by the end of the week!

Here are our family pictures from Saturday evening:

Pictures...

Yes, we received seven new pictures of Tinsae today! What a perfect way to start our long weekend. He's so adorable! He still isn't smiling, but he doesn't look too unhappy this time.



I can't post his pictures online yet (not until he comes home) but I will share a picture of the most adorable little hands and little toes. Oh my gosh, he is just so cute!

April Snow Storm

Wisconsin was blessed with ANOTHER winter snow storm. Too bad it's SPRING and April!

We didn't receive any school delay or closing, but we did get an awesome winter wonderland for about 12 hours!

Noah's First Turkey

I'm so proud of my little man! It took two weekends and some VERY COLD mornings, but he finally bagged this big one!

CONGRATULATIONS Noah!!!

The Wait...

Our dossier was received at Holt International's office in Eugene, Oregon on Friday, April 8th. Since that time, all we have done for the adoption is wait. We haven't received any new emails, mail, or phone calls. Not that I expected to hear anything, but I am hoping that our dossier makes it to Ethiopia in record time and we receive an email that we are submitted to court. I know we are a few months out before that might happen, but I sure would love a surprise!


I can't help my mind from wandering throughout every day and night. I think about the long flights to Ethiopia. I think about how long Tinsae has been in care. I think about how big he will be and if he is happy. I wonder what his laugh sounds like and how tall he is. I wonder how soft his curls are and what his toes look like.



I worry about traveling to Durame by myself, since Brad won't be returning to Ethiopia on the second trip. I worry about bringing Tinsae home by myself. I worry about how we are going to afford the plane tickets and hotel bill. I worry about what to pack and what I will do with Tinsae at the hotel all by myself. I worry a LOT!



So, what does a person do to keep busy?

I take my kids to the mall to walk. I go to work. I clean my closets. I call my family and friends. I surf the Internet for anything adoption-related. I love on my pets. I buy more pets (baby goats). I watch a lot of HGTV and any reality shows. I play on my iPad. I pray. I pray a lot. I thank God everyday for my family and I ask him to keep Tinsae safe, healthy, and happy. I ask him to hold him and love him.



The wait. It is so hard. I pray for patience with this process. Patience...I really need help with this!

Today starts a new week. This week I want to remember Easter and the importance of Holy Week. I want to continue praying for Tinsae, but I also want to continue to think about Jesus and everything he did for us.


Ethiopian people have so much faith. You could feel their love of God. Muluken has such a true love for God. When he talks about Jesus, his eyes light up and he gets excited. I have learned so much from him within myself.


Patience. Holy Week. Adoption. Tinsae. Muluken. Ethiopia. Family.


Telling myself to just BREATHE.


Taking one day at a time...and waiting...

Dossier to Holt (DTH)

That would be adoption lingo to say that our completed, notarized, authenticated, and copied dossier arrived at Holt International in Oregon today! Everything is in place and is ready for the next step.

The next step, according to Holt today, is to "obtain a state certified cover letter and then send the dossier to be authenticated by the US State Department and Embassy of Ethiopia".

So what does that all mean?!?!?  It means that the dossier will be going on a trip for about a month and then hopefully landing in Holt Ethiopia's hot little hands. All we can do is WAIT.....again.....WAIT!!!

We are now praying for a court date in July! That would be a dream come true. The Ethiopian courts close for August and September due to the rainy season, so that means that if we miss getting a court date before August, we will have to WAIT until October or November. UGH! That would mean that Tinsae would probably not be home until 2012.

But, we're going to stay optimistic and wait for that July court date! It's hard to imagine Tinsae being in the care center for so long, but we're trying our hardest to bring him home!

So, to finish off this monumental day...we received THREE NEW PICTURES of Tinsae today. He's still not smiling and looks so very sad. I just want to pick him up and hold him tight. Maybe even give him a tickle or two.

Finally!!!

Today we received our fingerprint approval letter from USCIS. Our i600-a was logged in on January 27, 2011. We had our fingerprints taken on February 16, 2011. We have bee waiting ever since.



It has been so frustrating, depressing, aggravating, maddening, etc. There have been so many days that I have come home from work, just to check the mail to see that our letter was still NOT here. Ugh!


So, after getting totally excited for about 5 minutes, I decided I needed to get the dossier to Holt International ASAP. That meant that I needed to make some more photocopies of some papers and then it needed to be overnighted to Oregon.

So, I headed to the Fremont Library to make copies. After that, I headed to Appleton. I went to the FedEx Building near the airport. Almost $62 later, our dossier is on it's way to Oregon.


We are now another step closer to bringing Tinsae home! 

Thank you God!

Birthday Fun...

Even though my birthday is today, I've been celebrating with my family since last weekend. My Noah made me a big Sunday dinner last weekend: old-fashion cherry-chocolate milkshakes, stuffed mushrooms, steak on the grill, potatos, and smores pie. Yum-yum!! It was awesome!!

Yesterday I spent a few hours with my best friend, Dorinda. We went to my favorite restaurant, Red Lobster. We ate in the bar, on the special fish table, and talked for almost an hour and a half. Then she drove me around Appleton, Neenah, Menasha and Darboy, looking at potential apartments for herself. I can't wait until we can go "IN" the apartments and check them out.

This morning, I woke up to breakfast in bed. Eggs and hashbrowns and a cold Diet Dew. Brad and the kids gave me a few more charms for my bracelet that they gave me for Valentine's Day. They were perfect!

Then, we took a trip to Iola to pick out my "other" birthday presents. Here they are:

They are fainting goats and are just adorable! We bought two little boys. We haven't named them yet, but we're working on it! :)

We then celebrated at Culver's for lunch and then watched Brad play in the WF alumni basketball tournament. It was pretty entertaining!

Jordan made my birthday cake, which will be served tonight for dessert!

It was a PERFECT birthday!! (Even if the weather was really yucky!!)

Snow Day

The winter snow storm started yesterday around 9am. We knew it was coming so we did all of our errands and grocery shopping on Saturday. So, when the first flakes started flying, we just settled in for Snowstorm Dana.

The 5pm and 9pm o'clock news kept predicting over 12" of snow for our area. Yeah! No school for Monday! Yuck! 12" of fresh, heavy snow!

My school district canceled Monday classes at 9pm Sunday evening and the kids' school canceled about 9:15pm. The kids were all in bed but I was excited for all of us!

How come the day that I DON'T have to wake up early, I can't seem to sleep in. Brad went out and started plowing the driveway with the four-wheeler. I laid around and watched tv and snuggled under the blankets. It was SO NICE to be home and not trying to drive those snow-covered roads to work.

I spent the majority of my day scrapbooking our adoption journey to Africa. I really want to get this finished before we bring home 'T'. On Sunday, I completed a small picture album for 'T' and also made a book for his birthfather on Shutterfly.

I LOVE scrapbooking and got to spend 2 days working on all things scrappy! YEAH! I did have to do my scrapbooking in my bedroom, spread all over my bed, but that was OK. I was able to shut the door when the kids were getting on each other's nerves. I was able to watch MY tv and MY shows. It was SO relaxing!

The 4 pups and 4 cats were NOT happy with me when the door was shut! They just couldn't understand why I didn't need their help.

So, it will be back to work tomorrow for me and back to school for the kids too. But, it sure was nice to have a SNOW DAY!!

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day fell on a Monday. A work day. A school day. A BUSY day! But that didn't stop my family from making my day PERFECT!

I usually complain that Brad doesn't get me much for Valentine's Day. (I also complain that he doesn't get me much for Christmas or my birthday either!) But that isn't totally true. Brad always gets me something, even if it is a sappy card. But this year, he really over did himself. With a little help from the kids.

We woke up on Monday morning to the alarm clock beeping at 5:30am. Brad turned the alarm off and wished me a 'Happy Valentine's Day'. (Hmmm...Brad remembered?!?!) I got up and started to get ready for my day at work. Mondays are SO HARD to get up in the morning.

After I was dressed, hair done and make up on, I headed down to the kitchen. I started to make my lunch and threw 2 waffles in for breakfast. I filled up my red juice glass and loaded my backpack. The kids all came by and wished me a 'Happy Valentine's Day'. (Hmmm...all 4 kids remembered?!?!)

I was just about ready to walk out the door and finally spotted a large red heart box on the cupboard with a smaller square box on top of that. The small box had a note on it to not open until I get to work. That was from Jordan. I then opened up the heart box and found a Valentine cookie inside. Breakfast for the whole family. :)

I thanked everyone and headed off to work. I got to work about 6:45am and started out my routine like every other day. I opened the office door, turned on the computer and then headed down to my classroom and opened that up and turned on the lights. I went back to my office and sat down to open up my present from Jordan. In the box she had placed a $5 bill. She put a note in the box stating that the money was for our trip to Africa. Jordan knew that I was stressing out about how much money we needed for the trip and adoption, and here she was giving me her money. SHE IS SO SWEET!!!

I was just going to put my purse under my desk when I noticed a small ribbon peaking out. I looked inside the purse a little bit closer and there was a box. I opened the box up and found a new bracelet with charms. Just what I told Brad I wanted. It's AWESOME!! I called the kids on the phone and they were dying to know if I found the present. They were all mad at Brad because he didn't just give it to me that morning. The girls had never seen the bracelet and the boys were excited because they helped pick it out. I LOVED IT and thanked everyone!

Later that afternoon I received ANOTHER delivery. I got a dozen red roses, box of chocolates and a small teddy bear. I called Brad right away and asked him if something was wrong! He just laughed and said that he ordered the flowers a long time ago and then the boys talked him into the cookie. The bracelet was all his idea, which the store just happened to be located near the cookie store. Gotta LOVE that!

I'm always talking about my kids but I never brag enough about my hubby. He's the one that puts the smile on my face! He's the one that makes everything better! I have no idea what I would do without Brad by my side. We've been together over 20 years and married for over 17 years. He's my best friend and I love him more every day! I never thought I could love him more than I did on our wedding day, but our love has just grown stronger!

I LOVE YOU Brad and can't wait to spend the next 20 years with you!