Foust Family

Florida!

2011-03-09T10:31:00.000-08:00

We spent last week in Florida; the first half in Orlando and the second half in Bonita Springs. We had originally thought about flying since the kids would be free, but after thinking through everything we would need to take, we decided to drive. I'm glad we did since we stopped in Jacksonville on the way through and back and visited with my dad. He also drove down to spend the day with us at Animal Kingdom. We went to Animal Kingdom on Sunday and it was a lot of fun. I wish I would have gotten more pictures but it's so hard getting 2 toddlers to stand still long enough for a picture. We saw a lot of animals on the safari and nature walk and the kids enjoyed meeting the Disney characters. They both now know who Mickey and Minnie Mouse are. The weather was gorgeous and the kids absolutely LOVED the pool, Amaya especially. It was her first time swimming and she had no fears whatsoever as you'll see in the pictures below. Logan enjoyed the pool as well in his own way by just floating around. Amaya floated for a little while but enjoyed the freedom of kicking and splashing by using the arm floaties. Saturday we drove up to South Carolina to visit some friends we hadn't seen in over a year and a half. It was fun to get to introduce them to Amaya and Logan and to meet their new little 3 month old. We are so thankful the kids traveled so well in the car for the 2700 miles of the trip. We definitely miss the weather but it was good to get back home into our normal routine. Here are a couple pictures from our trip.

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Amaya and I with Grandpa Hall. We tried a couple pictures with Logan too but he would not cooperate.

Enjoying the pool!

Playing ball with Daddy!

Picture with Goofy!

Meeting Mickey! Logan sleeps with a small Mickey Mouse so he was super excited! I love the thumbs up he is giving. :-)

What's new?

2011-02-17T10:41:00.000-08:00

My goal is to update the blog once a month and to shoot for the beginning of the month. Well it's mid-February and I'm finally getting to it. Amaya has been home for 8 weeks now and yesterday was her 23rd month birthday! Only one more month and we'll have a 2 year old, crazy! We have had lots of exciting things happen since January. First, Logan started walking! At the beginning of January he began taking a few steps, and then would fall down and crawl. A couple weeks later he began taking 8-10 steps before falling down and after a couple days of that, he's been walking every since. He is much happier now that he can walk and he and Amaya are definitely playing more together as now he can keep up to her. Second, we found out January 19 that Logan and Amaya will have a baby girl cousin! Ryan's sister, Nikki, is expecting a little girl the beginning of June and we are so excited for them! Last, we have been potty training Amaya off and on since mid-January. We started up again about a week ago and she is really making progress. She's telling us when she needs to go (about 1/2 the time) and we've even moved her to the regular toilet. We're taking it slow and not pushing her but it would be great to have her out of diapers by the beginning of the summer!
A week from tomorrow we are leaving for a week-long trip to Florida! Ryan has a business trip in Orlando, and the kids and I decided to tag along. Our plan is to drive through the night Friday night into Saturday morning. On Sunday we are going to take the kids to Animal Kingdom. Amaya has been learning a lot of animal names and sounds so I'm excited to see her reaction to the animals. The rest of the week we plan on hanging out by the pool and going to the beach. We can't wait to get outside and soak up the sun, it's definitely been a long winter. I'll be sure to post pictures when we get back. I've posted a couple of new pictures below, but I find it very hard to take pictures of two toddlers who never sit still!

Logan walking around and getting into everything!

Amaya and Brady playing on the couch

The Stump, Mason, and Foust clan...we've grown a lot in just 2 years. :)

Happy New Year!

2011-01-02T17:50:00.000-08:00

Here are some updated pics of our little ones. Amaya is continuing to learn more and more English which is very helpful in decreasing the amount of tantrums. She took a trip with just Ryan for about an hour out of the house a couple of days ago and did great! She definitely likes to get out of the house! (I guess who doesn't in the these awful winter months.) We are learning that she is quite the social butterfly. We took her to church for the first time this morning and she LOVED the attention. She smiled and waved to all the people that came up to meet her.

Logan is learning to share mommy and daddy much better and I think he is finally enjoying having a playmate. He isn't quite walking yet but can stand alone for 15-20 seconds. Every once in a while he'll take a step or two but then chicken out and crawl the rest of the way. He definitely has a lot of motivation to walk since he sees his big sister running around and getting to places much faster than him. He's also starting to talk more and I think it's mainly from imitating his sister. We are excited to see how our little ones are going to grow and change over this next new year! Enjoy the pics!

My sister bought them this ball pit for Christmas and they love it!

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Our family of four on Christmas day!

Hanging out with our friend Jackson on New Year's Eve!

Adjusting to a Family of Four

2010-12-22T10:09:00.000-08:00

We have been home for 12 days now and it is amazing to see how well Amaya is adjusting. She is eating well, sleeping well, and adores her little brother Logan (although not when it comes to sharing her toys :-). She is also learning English very quickly. She repeats most words that we say. Her first words were "banana, Dada, Moses (our cat), bye-bye, and blue." Other words she likes to say are "applesauce, brother, baby", and pretty much all the animal sounds.

This transition has been much more difficult for Logan. He has spent his first year as the center of attention and now mommy and daddy have another child who needs just as much attention. He has definitely shown us that he was not okay with this at first. We also think he was a little upset with us for leaving him for another 9 days in the past 6 weeks. And on top of that, he is getting some new teeth which has not helped the situation.

I have to admit that this transition has not been the easiest for Ryan and I either. First of all we are jumping head first into the toddler stage of tantrums and independence. Adding a language barrier on top of that makes it even harder. God has definitely been giving us strength and wisdom for each new day.

It's hard to believe that just 2 years ago we submitted our formal application at Bethany Christian Services to adopt a child from Ethiopia. Now we have 2 beautiful children and so much to celebrate this holiday season. We hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

Playing with Daddy

Opening some early Christmas gifts from Grandpa and Grandma Foust

She LOVES yogurt!

Here is one of the pictures my friend Jenn took. You can see more on her blog at twiceshydesign.com/blog.

Ethiopia Bound this Wednesday!

2010-11-30T05:54:00.000-08:00

We finally got the call we've been waiting for since we've been home from court...We are confirmed for a U.S. Embassy appointment on December 7th! We leave this Wednesday (my 30th birthday) and arrive in Addis Thursday night. On Friday we will get to visit with Amaya. On Saturday we hope to take a trip to the city she is from and meet her birth mother. On Monday, we will attend a Farewell Ceremony at the orphanage and then she will come back to our guesthouse for the rest of the week. Tuesday is our Embassy appointment, we will receive her visa Thursday, and we return home Friday. That Friday is also our son, Logan's first birthday. We will always have much to celebrate on December 10th! Here are some Prayer Requests for this trip

~Pray Amaya reconnects well with us and is comfortable leaving the orphanage.

~Pray for our trip to meet her birth mother. We know this will be very emotional but also a very important part of this journey

~Pray for Logan that he would do well again staying with family

~Pray for the flight home, that Amaya will be able to sleep and that we can keep her entertained

~Pray for the adjustment at home for her, Logan,Ryan and I

~Here is one more prayer request, there are families that did not get into the December 7th date and are hoping and praying for the December 21 embassy date. Please pray that these children will be home with their families for Christmas!

This video by Steven Curtis Chapman says it all...

Embassy Date and One year pics!

2010-11-18T11:45:00.001-08:00

Monday night we received the news: Bethany has secured Amaya's birth certificate and we can "tentatively" plan on traveling for the December 7th Embassy Date! This means, we will be leaving Wednesday, December 1st and returning home with Amaya on Friday December 10th. We hope to get confirmation of this date next week! We are so excited to bring Amaya home and after the wonderful shower my sister and friends threw for me last weekend, I think we are well prepared.

Since we will be returning on Logan's first birthday we are planning on celebrating it right after Thanksgiving. My friend, Jenn, has once again captured our little boy perfectly in some one year birthday pics. Here are just a few.

Everyone calls this his "Zoolander" face...we haven't seen the movie, but I guess we need to. :)

We love you so much Logan and can't believe you are One year old already. We are giving you the best present ever...a Big Sister!! ;-)

Still waiting...

2010-11-12T05:23:00.000-08:00

We have been home for 2 weeks now and still no word about our next trip to bring Amaya home. The next trip is centered around a meeting with the U.S. Embassy in Addis, which for Bethany, happens every other Tuesday. There is one coming up on November 23rd and we have heard from some families we traveled with the end of October that they have tentatively been assigned this date. They still have not received confirmation and many of these families will be leaving next Wednesday! We are hoping when these families receive travel confirmation, then we will receive our tentative date. We are hoping for Tuesday, December 7th, which means we would leave Wednesday, December 1st, less than three weeks away! Please pray with us that we receive confirmation of this date in the next week (or even today!). Even though we have heard from many families that this trip is usually scheduled with short notice, that doesn't make the wait time any easier. This has definitely been the hardest part of this whole process, having spent time with our little girl, knowing she is now legally our daughter, but still not knowing when we will bring her home.

We did receive some very exciting and surprising news yesterday from our social worker. Someone made an anonymous and very generous donation toward our adoption! We will probably never know who this is, but we are praising God for their kindness and generosity. We have truly been blessed by family and friends through their support from the very beginning when we decided to begin the adoption process. We can't thank everyone enough for the sacrifices they have made to help us bring our little girl home. And especially to the family that gave of their financial resources...THANK YOU!!

Back from Ethiopia!

2010-11-02T08:14:00.000-07:00

Many of you already know, but WE PASSED COURT!! Amaya is officially our daughter!! Thank you so much for your prayers! We had an amazing trip. We spent the first 4 days in Tanzania visiting missionaries who work for Children of Promise which is a child sponsorship program. On Saturday, they took us on a safari through Tarangire National Park. It was really amazing! We saw so many animals including zebras, elephants, giraffes, wildebeests, warthogs, and even a few cheetahs. Here are just a few pictures. The first is of a Baobob tree and yes, Ryan and I are inside it. These trees are massive and were all throughout the park.

On Monday, we flew up to Ethiopia. Tuesday morning we visited the orphanage and met Amaya for the first time! It was very emotional to see our little girl after receiving many pictures and updates about her for the past few months. She came easily to both of us but she was quite shy most of the day. We saw her every day of our trip for a couple of hours each day. It was so exciting to see how she warmed up to us as the week went on and even called me "Ema" (which means Mama in Amharic) the last day we were there. Here are some pictures of our beautiful daughter! Please pray with us that it won't be too long before we travel back to bring her home, we are hoping for the beginning of December.

Prayer Requests for our Upcoming Trip!

2010-10-18T05:34:00.000-07:00

Well, Thursday is almost here and that is when we leave for our court trip to Ethiopia! We are very excited about visiting missionary friends in Tanzania, going on a safari, and most of all meeting our little girl, Amaya. However, in the midst of the excitement in preparing to leave, we are also fighting to stay healthy. Last Thursday I got the stomach flu and today I'm finally starting to feel like myself again. Yesterday, Logan showed signs of getting it. He seems to be doing a lot better than I did, but he is not eating well. Please pray that he gets well before we leave. The last thing I want to do is leave my sick baby while we travel halfway across the world. Also, pray that Ryan does not get this flu. I can't imagine traveling on a plane and being away from home feeling the way I felt this past weekend. We have had so many people say they are praying for this trip and we appreciate that so much! Here are some more prayer requests and we look forward to telling you all about our trip when we return!

~Pray for our time spent with Amaya, that she would feel comfortable with us and that we would create a bond with her that we will not lose as we wait for our next trip to bring her home.

~Pray that we will pass court. We will know whether we pass or not immediately after the court hearing.

~Pray that Logan will be healthy and do well with his Aunt and Uncle and Grandma and Grandpa.

~Pray for Ryan and I to have peace while we are away from Logan and also as we leave Amaya to return home.

October!

2010-10-02T17:42:00.000-07:00

We finally made it to October! We got the call in August that our court date for the adoption was scheduled for October 27th and it is getting so close! Last Friday we received an update on Amaya and she is doing very well. We love to see new pictures of her, and it is encouraging to see the progress she makes... and her beautiful smile! We are still hoping and praying for her to be home with us before the end of the year. We have been working on getting her room ready and I've included some pictures below. The first is of a play kitchen I bought at a garage sale for $15! It even came with many accessories like plastic dishes, silverware, and play food. Thank you for your continued prayers for safe travels, Logan, and our time spent with Amaya...only 18 days until we leave...

End of Summer trip to Michigan!

2010-09-15T13:45:00.001-07:00

I am so excited for Fall! It is definitely my favorite season. The only drawback is that Winter will follow. Last week we went on a trip up to South Haven, Michigan and rented a house near Lake Michigan. We went with with our good friends Brian and Jenn, and Adam and Renee who also have little boys of their own: Brady is 21 months and Jackson is 6 months. It was so fun to have them all together! We had a great time and except for a couple of days of cooler weather, it was a great trip to end our Summer! Enjoy the pics!

Court Date!

2010-08-20T04:27:00.000-07:00

We got the call last Thursday from our social worker letting us know our court hearing will be on Wednesday October 27th! We were thrilled since we were expecting it to be in November. She told us we need to arrive on Monday and we can leave any day after Wednesday. We are planning on leaving Thursday, October 21st and returning the following Saturday, October 30th. We will actually be flying into Tanzania on Friday, Oct. 22nd to visit some friends of ours who are missionaries there, then we'll be flying up to Ethiopia on Monday. We are not able to visit the orphanage on the weekends, so the earliest we can see Amaya would be Monday. We have heard that we should be able to visit with her each day for about 2-3 hours. I know it is going to be awful returning home without her, but we pray the time will pass quickly before our next trip. Here are some prayer requests as we approach this first trip:

~ Pray the court date does not change! Our social worker said to try to get airline tickets that we will be able to change just in case something comes up and our court date needs changed. Pray that nothing comes up!

~Pray we pass court the first time! It is not uncommon to fail court 1 or 2 times because of missing paperwork or other minor legalities. We will not have to travel again if we fail to pass court the first time, but we do not want to have any delays in getting Amaya home!

~Logan- Okay, so this is more of a prayer request for me. I am so excited to travel to meet our little girl but as we are planning our trip, I get very sad thinking about leaving Logan for so long. Pray I will be at peace about leaving him and that he would do well with family and friends. We know he will be spoiled rotten!

~Meeting Amaya! Pray that she would come to us without fear and hesitation, especially Ryan. As we have listened to others' stories of meeting their children, it seems they have a difficult time bonding with the Father. We are praying that Amaya gets comfortable around us and that we do not lose the bond we make with her over the 4-5 weeks before our next trip.

Thank you all so much for your prayers! We appreciate it!

Baby Brother!

2010-08-13T11:36:00.000-07:00

No, Logan is not going to have a baby brother....Logan is going to BE the baby brother! About 4 weeks ago we received a referral for a 16 month old girl from Ethiopia! We were told that when we activated our adoption things would mover fairly quickly and they certainly did. We have received several pictures of her and she is beautiful. We're not allowed to post pictures of her until we bring her home so you will just have to trust us. :-) We submitted the acceptance paperwork in mid-July, and we received an email just last week that the adoption agency has officially filed for a court date. We are looking at the last week of October or early November, and hope to hear in a couple of weeks. After the court date, we'll travel home and then wait 4-6 weeks to return to Ethiopia to pick her up and hopefully have her home by Christmas.

1st Trip of the Summer

2010-07-08T05:31:00.000-07:00

We just returned from a ten day trip out to Pennsylvania. It was a work trip for Ryan but we also saw some family and friends of Ryan's because he grew up there. Logan was not too happy about the long car ride. If he wasn't sleeping he was awake and crying, so we had to make a few extra stops to let him have some time out of the car seat. We did have a couple of rough nights of sleep (which were most likely from Logan being sick) but overall, he adjusted well to napping and sleeping in his pack n' play and he really enjoyed meeting a bunch of new people. A week from today we leave for out 2nd trip of the summer to Seattle, which is one of our favorite places to go. This will be Logan's first airplane ride, so hopefully he won't be the screaming baby that everyone is annoyed by. We are also curious to see how he adjusts to the 3 hour time difference. Hopefully we won't have too many days of waking up at 4 AM. Here are some pics from Pennsylvania:

These first two pictures are of Logan with a little boy named Jackson. Jackson is the son of one of Ryan's good friends growing up. Jackson is just 10 days older than Logan. They were very cute together!

Logan meeting his Great-Grandma Foust for the first time.

Logan with Great-Grandma Aughton.

And finally, we couldn't stop through State College without Logan meeting Joe Paterno. :)

Pool Time

2010-06-16T17:29:00.001-07:00

On Tuesday, Aunt Nikki came down to visit and we went to the pool. I had taken Logan a couple of times before but this was the first time he got to try out his new float (which I got at a garage sale for $2. :) ) He loved it, and it was nice to let him float around instead of having to hold him on my lap the entire time. She got some great pictures and here are just a few. Yay for summer!!

June 10, 2010

2010-06-06T12:17:00.000-07:00

This date is an important one in the Foust family. Not only is it Logan's 6 month birthday but it is also the date that we activate our adoption. We can't believe it is already here! Our adoption specialist said to expect a referral in a little less than a month from activating it, which means we will know if Logan is going to have a little (or older) brother or sister by the end of the summer. We are so excited and can't wait to see the child that God has chosen for us.

Friday morning Logan goes in for his 6 month appointment. We can't wait to see how big he is. We have introduced solid food and he has been eating green beans, peas, sweet potatoes, squash, and bananas. He has enjoyed all of them so far. He continues to spend most of his time on his belly and he is working hard at lifting his chest in preparation for crawling. We are also working on sitting alone. Here are some 6 month pics.

We dedicated Logan at church on Sunday, June 6.

Deciding if he likes green beans or not.

Rice Cereal

2010-05-03T06:49:00.000-07:00

This morning we tried the first cereal feeding with Logan. Here is a before picture.

He wasn't sure what to think of it at first, but he did a great job of opening his mouth nice and wide so we could get the spoon far enough in. He spit it out a couple times but we think he got most of it down. Here are some pics, as you can see he really wanted to eat his bib instead. :)

And here is the after picture.

4 months old!

2010-04-15T07:03:00.000-07:00

Logan turned 4 months about a week ago, but I delayed in posting until we had his pediatrician appointment. Today was his appointment and he is definitely a strong, growing boy. He weighs 16 lb 3oz (77%) and is 27 inches long (99%). He got a couple more shots but so far today he has been very happy. Hopefully he sleeps well tonight especially since last night he gave me a 9 hour stretch! Occasionally, he rolls over from his belly to his back and most of the time it is in his crib. The doctor recommended starting rice cereal when he's about 5 months, so we'll be looking forward to that. Here are some 4 month pics.

I love this one because it shows his chubbiness so well. We're not sure what happened to his neck. :)

This is my favorite! My sister took this just at the right moment!

3 months old

2010-03-10T07:50:00.000-08:00

Logan is growing and changing so fast! He coos and smiles all the time and is really working hard at rolling over. He's not quite there yet but I'm sure he'll get it soon. He has found his hands and I'm afraid he is going to be a thumb sucker. He doesn't take to the pacifier well, but he loves to find his thumb. :-) Most nights he is giving me 6 straight hours of sleep, but every once in a while he'll be up every 3 hours. I'm hoping those are just growth spurts. The weather has been warming up, so we have gone on our first few walks this week. Yay for Spring!! Enjoy the 3 month pics!

Adoption Update

2010-02-26T12:14:00.000-08:00

We met with our adoption specialist last night and she basically informed us that it is likely that we will have a referral for a child before we are eligible. What this means is that we will move to the top of the list and sit there until we are eligible to adopt again, which is 6 months from the birth of Logan or June 10^th. Once we are eligible, we then have to tell them we are ready for a referral. At that point we would become active again and would most likely get a referral within a month or so. Typical time between a referral and travel is 2-3 months; however, the courts in Ethiopia close for 6 weeks during the months of August and September so it is most likely that we will travel no earlier than late September. Personally, we are hoping for October or November, as the older Logan is the better for us to be able to leave him while traveling. We know God already has a plan for how this will all work out and we will put our full trust in Him. Thank you for your prayers!

2 months!

2010-02-10T18:34:00.000-08:00

Logan had his two month check-up yesterday. He weighed 13 pounds and was 24 1/2" long. The doctor said he is a very happy and healthy baby. He is starting to smile more and more each day, and when the doctor was listening to his heart and lungs he was cooing and smiling at her. It was adorable. Then he was given his immunization shots so there were no more smiles the rest of the day. He slept a lot during the day and was a little fussy throughout the night. We're hoping he bounces back today. For the past week he has started giving me four hour stretches at night. I am hoping in the next couple of weeks that stretches to 6 - 8 hours. :) Enjoy a few more pics!

Logan's One month check-up

2010-01-15T10:05:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday we visited the pediatrician for Logan's one month appointment. He weighs 11lb 6oz and is 23 inches long! He's gained three pounds since he was born!! The doctor checked him over and said that he is a very healthy little boy. We go back in February for his 2 month check-up which includes shots. :( He is now wearing three month clothing and it was so sad to put away the newborn outfits. Some he didn't even get to wear. Last night Ryan introduced Logan to a bottle of breast milk and he took to it very well which made his mommy very happy. Now I can leave him for more than 2 hours at a time. :) We are going to move him to the crib at night since he is only waking me up about two times to feed. Hopefully then Ryan and I will get a little more sleep since we won't be hearing all of Logan's cooing and grunting. Here are some recent pictures.

Logan's First Christmas

2009-12-27T07:37:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of pictures from our Christmas celebrations this year. He got to meet a lot of new family members and everybody has adored him. You may remember back in October my friend Jenn took maternity pictures. Well a week ago she took baby pictures of Logan and I added the link to her blog at the bottom. They are wonderful!! I am having trouble narrowing down the ones I want. (Ryan has already said that I can't order every one.) :( We hope everyone had a great Christmas!

http://www.twiceshydesign.com/blog/

LOGAN JACK FOUST IS HERE!

2009-12-17T06:42:00.000-08:00

We are proud to announce the birth of Logan Jack Foust born December 10, 2009. He was born at 9:20 p.m. and weighed 8lbs 7oz and measured 22 inches long. The labor and delivery went great! The best part was that I only pushed for 40 minutes and he was out! We have been home since Saturday night and everything is going really well! He sleeps most the day and likes to be awake from 10pm - 2am but that's Ryan' shift (except when I'm feeding him in between:) ). He had his first pediatrician appointment yesterday and the doctor gave him an A+. When we left the hospital he weighed 8lbs 1oz. and at the appointment he was up to 8lbs 6oz. She checked his eyes, ears, heart and lungs and everything looked healthy. God has truly blessed us with an amazing little boy and we thank Him every day for the opportunity to be Logan's parents. Here are a few more pics:

39 Weeks!

2009-12-08T08:39:00.000-08:00

We had our last doctor's appointment this morning. I am about 1 - 2 cm dilated and my cervix has lowered and is about 50% effaced. We went ahead and set the induction date for Wednesday, December 16th, if I do not go into labor before then. Of course, we are hoping that I will naturally begin labor but we look forward to meeting our little guy next week at the latest! Bags are packed and ready to go! I am feeling well, just a little tired from restless, sleepless nights and getting up to go to the bathroom every 2 hours. :-) Ryan will post updates and pictures on Facebook when he's born and we'll update the blog once we are home from the hospital. We appreciate your prayers for a healthy (and fast) labor and delivery!

37 weeks!

2009-11-21T09:32:00.000-08:00

We had our 37 week doctor's appointment yesterday. The doctor is checking my cervix now and the past two weeks I have been dilated 1 cm and my cervix is still quite high. She estimates that he's about 6 1/2 - 7 lbs. I haven't had any contractions yet and am anxiously waiting for him to drop since he's been kicking my ribs for the past 4 weeks. :-) I'll post an update after our doctor's appointment next week if there are any changes. We hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving tomorrow!

Maternity shoot

2009-10-26T13:09:00.001-07:00

My friend Jenn is an amazing wedding photographer. She is the mother of the little boy, Brady, who I watch twice a week. This past weekend we went to a local park and she took our maternity pictures. She already has some up on her blog. They are wonderful and I can't wait to see the rest! Thank you Jenn!!

Here is the link: http://www.twiceshydesign.com/blog/

Baby Showers!

2009-10-12T07:09:00.000-07:00

I had two baby showers these past two weekends. One in my hometown and the other here in Fishers. Ryan and I learned that we are very blessed with wonderful family and friends who gave us so many baby gifts. It has been so fun to go through everything. Below are a couple of pics from both showers. The first four are from my shower in Greenwood. Thank you to my mom and sister for throwing it for me and to my grandmother for making the yummy cake. My sister made the cute diaper cake in the first picture. :-)

These next pictures are from my shower in Fishers. Thank you to my friend Jenn for hosting it at her home, to Marcia, my mother-in-law, for the fun games, to my friend Renee for the cute Lion cake, and to Nikki, my sister-in-law, for the cute diaper wreaths! Yes, in the last picture we are drinking juice from bottles. We were timed to see who could drink it the fastest. I think I only got an ounce or two down in 5 minutes! :-)

Nursery Pics

2009-09-05T06:16:00.000-07:00

Next week I am beginning my third trimester. I can't believe it! Time has flown by but we have been very thankful for God's faithfulness and protection through this pregnancy. We have been working hard at completing the nursery and I posted some pics below. We really like how the closet turned out. Ryan did an awesome job building the shelves and I am proud to say that I put the drawers together. :) We still have a lot to do before this little guy comes in December and that mostly consists of finishing the basement. Ryan has most of the drywall up and his father, Lonnie, has completed the plumbing, so we are almost there!

Adoption update: Ryan talked with our adoption specialist yesterday. We were excited to find out that when our paperwork goes on hold in December, Ethiopia will hold our spot on the waiting list until after the 6 month wait time. For example, if we make it to 10th on the waiting list for a referral before our biological baby arrives, then when we open our case back up next summer, they will reinsert us in that 10th spot. I hope that makes sense. But we know that God has it all planned out in his timing. (even though we still try to have some control) :)

It's a BOY!!

2009-07-30T13:53:00.000-07:00

We had our 20 week ultrasound today. Everything looked very healthy and we are praising God for that. However, the little one was being very stubborn by keeping his legs crossed. The nurse thought we might not be able to find out the sex. After some pushing and jiggling of my belly, he finally revealed to us that he was a boy! We are very excited and can't wait to meet him in December!! Here is the 4D picture of his little face. He's so cute!! :)

Dossier submitted!!

2009-07-10T13:21:00.000-07:00

Today we submitted our Dossier to our adoption agency. It will be sent to the National office in Grand Rapids and then they will put a hold on our eligibility to receive a referral until next summer. It feels very good to have all that paperwork turned in!

I had my 18 week appointment today and everything is still going well. We are very thankful to hear a strong, healthy heartbeat each time we go. :) We scheduled an ultrasound for Thursday, July 30th to find out the sex of the baby. We can't wait!! We haven't had an ultrasound since 8 weeks so it will be fun to see how big he or she is now. We will definitely post that day to let you all know what we find out!! We are off to Seattle and Canada for the next couple of weeks. Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!!

Change in Adoption Timeline

2009-06-15T11:29:00.000-07:00

Sorry we haven't written in awhile. We have had a lot going on and we're now ready to give an update on things. In mid-April we found out we were pregnant. Because of my history, we went to the doctor right away for blood work, and had three ultrasounds up until 8 weeks. Everything looked really good. When we made it to 10 weeks, the doctor said it was time to talk with our adoption agency. Bethany Christian Services told us that we could go ahead and submit our Dossier, but they will put a hold on the referral until our biological baby is 6 months old. Our due date is December 12th, which means about a year from now they will re-open our adoption case so that we will be eligible to receive a referral. Last week we received our I-171H approval form in the mail and that was the last piece we needed for our Dossier. We will head down on Friday to the Secretary of State's office to have it State Sealed and then we will drop it off at Bethany. We appreciate your continued prayers for the pregnancy and for the timing of the adoption.

Fingerprinting completed

2009-04-13T17:21:00.000-07:00

We had our fingerprinting appointment yesterday morning at 8:00 downtown. There were quite a few people waiting so we were a little concerned it might take awhile. But at 8:05, we were called back! It only took about 15 minutes. Ryan had a person who was training so his took a little longer. :-) They scanned our four fingers together and then thumb on each hand. Then they did each finger one at a time rolling it on the glass. It was neat to see our prints on the computer. So, now we are officially in the FBI system. We expect to wait about 3 - 6 weeks for the 171-H approval form so we can finish our Dossier.

Homestudy

2009-04-08T09:17:00.000-07:00

I picked up our homestudy at Bethany this afternoon. We will now mail it to the Department of Homeland Security. We are being fingerprinted on Monday and then hopefully within 3 - 6 weeks we will receive the 171 approval form so we can finish our Dossier. Then we will be completely done with all paperwork until the Referral! I am on spring break this week so we decided to paint the nursery. Here are some pictures.

Fingerprinting Appointment

2009-03-23T14:17:00.001-07:00

Just a quick note to inform everyone that we received our fingerprinting appointment notice that will be at the Department of Homeland Security. It is Monday April 13th at 8:00AM in downtown Indianapolis. This is part of the process of the I-600A application. We are still waiting to receive our home study from Bethany, but hope to have it in the next couple of weeks to submit that as well.

One month down...

2009-03-13T14:14:00.000-07:00

Our Home Study was approved on Friday, February 13th which was the official start of our waiting period. One month has flown by. We pray the next five to seven months go just as fast. On Monday we filed the I-600A which is the form sent to the U.S. Center of Immigration Services to get approval to adopt an orphan. It usually takes about 3 months to process. In the next couple of weeks we will be looking for a letter that informs us of the date and time of our fingerprinting appointment. When we receive the approval form we will submit our Dossier and officially be done with all of the paperwork! Please continue to pray for no delays in paperwork and that our I-600A form will be approved quickly!

Ethiopian Insight meeting

2009-02-28T05:17:00.000-08:00

On Monday I attended a meeting at Bethany that focused solely on Ethiopian adoption. Ryan was out of town for work so unfortunately he wasn't able to come. It was great to meet other people in the program and hear how their process has been going. There were probably about 20 - 25 families there and most of them were at the point where we are. There was a family who had received a referral the end of January for a little boy . It was fun to see their pictures. Their court date is set for April and they plan to travel the beginning of May. The meeting gave more information about Ethiopian culture and what to expect when we travel. They recommended traveling 3 - 4 days before our Adoption Week to adjust to the time change and to spend time learning more about the country. One thing Ryan is very excited about is participating in a coffee ceremony. Ethiopia is considered the birthplace of coffee and I got to see pictures of people having a coffee ceremony. They roast the beans right in front of you and serve popcorn with it. I will stick to just the popcorn while Ryan will surely drink enough coffee for the both of us. :-) They spoke very highly of the orphanages and how the nannies are very affectionate with the children. There is about a seven to one ratio of children to nannies. We also learned the process of the court systems and all of the legalities that must take place in order to make the adoption official. I also got to hear from the pastor of an Ethiopian Evangelical church in Indianapolis. He passed around a Bible written in Amharic and talked about the culture of Ethiopia. Ryan and I most definitely will visit his church. Overall the meeting was wonderful and I went away with a lot more knowledge of the country our child will be from. Currently we are still waiting to receive a copy of our home study so we can file the I-600A form. Again we are learning to be patient...thank you for your prayers!

February 13th...

2009-02-14T05:30:00.000-08:00

Today we get to celebrate love with some great news. We received an email from Holly last night that are Home Study has been approved and it is headed to the National office in Grand Rapids. This means that Friday, February 13th was the official start to our waiting time to receive a Referral!!! We are hoping for a 6-8 month wait for the referral. At that time, provided everything goes smooth with the referral, our court date in Ethiopia will be 2-3 months from the date of acceptance of the referral. We could travel before Christmas! Happy Valentine's Day to all, may you celebrate and love well!

2nd Seminar completed

2009-02-10T17:33:00.000-08:00

Ryan and I attended our second workshop this evening entitled "Come Out and Play With Me." In this workshop we played different attachment based activities. It was very interactive and we had a lot of fun. Some of the games will also be fun to play with my students. We are looking forward to attending the Ethiopian Insight workshop on February 23rd. We are in a waiting period right now. Thankfully Ryan called and found out his criminal history check from Pennsylvania is in the mail. We are waiting on that in order for our home study to be approved. When the home study is approved and we receive a copy of it, we will file the I-600A which is the document that we send to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to obtain a visa for our child. Once that is approved we will be able to submit our Dossier and wait patiently for our referral. We have learned there are many times where we have to be patient through this process. Please pray for us to be patient!

Final Home Study Visit

2009-01-31T05:03:00.000-08:00

Holly came to our house last night to complete the Home Study visits. We gave her a tour of our home and showed her where the baby's room will be. The discussion was mostly about our childhoods and how we were raised. Then we talked about what we look forward to about being parents, how we will discipline, and the values that we want to instill in our family. We finished up with a family assessment checklist to verify that Holly has covered all the information with us. Her goal is to submit the Home Study report to the directer of Intercountry Adoption at Bethany this coming week. It will take them a week or so to review it and then she will send it to the national office in Michigan. Once it is approved in the national office we will officially be in the waiting period for a referral! Holly said she will call us with the specific date, so of course I will post that when we hear. :-) We are still waiting on Ryan's criminal history check to arrive from Pennsylvania and he has one more book to read. Then we will be able to submit all of the paperwork to Bethany and focus on completing the Dossier. Our goal is to complete the Dossier in the next two weeks. I want to take a minute to say thank you to Ryan for his hard work with all of the reading and paperwork. He is also in the process of finishing our basement and I know that he is sacrificing time to work down there to get the reading and internet course done. :-) I Love You Ryan!

AIDS Crisis in Africa

2009-01-28T05:13:00.000-08:00

I just finished reading a book called, There is No Me, Without You. It tells the story of a woman, Haregewoin Teferra, living in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia who, in the year 2000, begins opening her home to orphans who have no other place to go. Before she knows it, families stricken by the AIDS pandemic are coming to her home daily to leave their children in her care. In her heart she can not say, No. By September of 2005 she is housing about 80 orphans ranging from infants to 14 years of age in two different compounds; about 30 of the children are HIV positive. The end of the book shares encouraging stories of families who have adopted children from her orphanage. I learned so much from reading this book and here are some of the shocking statistics that I read:

- " In 2005, Ethiopia had 1,563,000 AIDS orphans, the second-highest concentration of such children in the world; and 4,414,000 orphans from all causes, the second-highest number in the world."

-"HIV/AIDS in children generally takes one of two paths. 80 percent of children infected in infancy will die before they reach the age of two. The remaining 20 percent may reach their 8th birthday."

-"At least 30 million Africans are expected to die from AIDS in the next twenty years."

-"The cost of fighting the AIDS pandemic in the 1990's with brand-name drugs was estimated at $3 billion a year. The drugs were not expensive, the patents were. The patented drugs cost $15,000 per patient per year although production cost was closer to $200. Though the U.S. government subsidized the cost of Americans, Africans governments were too poor to do the same." (doesn't that make you sick that it costs so much)

So I hope you are thinking, "How can I help?" I have put some links down below to some websites where you can help get involved. Ryan and I sponsor a child from South Africa through Horizon International. I hope you will take some time to get involved.

http://www.horizoninternationalinc.com/

http://www.worldvision.org/

http://www.savethechildren.org/countries/africa/ethiopia.html

Second meeting with Holly

2009-01-24T18:49:00.000-08:00

We met with Holly to work on our Homestudy again this morning. She asked us how we were coming along with all of the paperwork and what we learned from the internet course and books we have read so far. Then we began our discussion of our marriage. She asked us how we met, what attracted us to one another, what we each thought are the best and hardest parts about marriage, how we deal with conflict, and why we want to start our family throught adoption. It was fun to reminisce about our college days, but tough to talk about these past 18 months. Reflecting back, we are very thankful to see how we have grown closer together through the trials. Our next meeting will be at our house this Friday evening. That will most likely be our last meeting together. Holly will have our homestudy written soon after and then it is up to us to finish gathering all of the paperwork. We feel blessed to have such a diligent caseworker! Thank you for your continued prayers!

The Dance of Attachment

2009-01-22T18:51:00.000-08:00

This evening, Ryan and I attended an Educational workshop offered through Bethany. The topic was on attachment - the affectionate bond between two individuals that endures through time to join one another emotionally. The speaker was Pat Johnston, an award winning author, adoption educator, and mother of three adopted children. She shared her attachment struggles with her youngest child. They adopted her when she was ten weeks old and previously she had been in two very different foster homes. She gave us a list of practical tips to help transition from the orphange in Ethiopia to suburbia in America.:-) Even for a young infant, the transition can be quite dramatic. I think an important, but difficult, tip that we learned was that Ryan and I should be the only ones to hold the child for the first two weeks home. This will help the child to know that we are his/her primary caregivers. (But that doesn't mean that family and friends can't visit. :-) This leads to the two key elements in attachment - stability and consistency. When I heard that this evening, I immediately thought of beginning each kindergarten year as a teacher. The first few weeks are critical for the students to be able to adjust and feel safe so my main goals are to develop stablility and consistency in the classroom. She reminded us to be patient because with infants, a rough estimate of how long the attachment process can take is to take how many months they have not been with you, and double it.

Update on Adoption paperwork and requirements:

I have finished the 8hr internet course and have read one book. Ryan has also read one book and is working his way through the internet course. We've both had our medical exams and have ordered our birth certificates and marriage license. (Thank you, mom, for picking up our marriage license at the courthouse!) We are excited to meet with Holly again this Saturday to continue the work on the Home Study. It is so encouraging to see it all coming together and to know that each completed step gets us that much closer to welcoming our child into our family!

First Home Study Meeting

2009-01-17T19:10:00.000-08:00

We met with Holly, our case specialist, today. She is wonderful and we are so excited that she will be helping us through this process. First she shared with us what we will expect when we go to Addis Ababa to meet our child. The name of the orphanage that Bethany works with is called Galgulla (not sure of the spelling). When we receive and accept a referral, our child will be moved from the orphanage into the Bethany Foster Care Center. Holly said the children are well taken care of and the caregivers will give us lots of important information about our child. We will get to visit our child for a couple of hours each day for the first 2-3 days we are there. Then we will be able to take our child back to our hotel with us. One of the last few days we will be in the Embassy finalizing the adoption. We will be there for about 7-8 days.

She also reviewed with us the procedures and guidelines for completing our Home Study. We will meet with her the next two Saturdays, and then she will be ready to write our Home Study. We are required to attend a couple of educational workshops offered through Bethany, complete an eight hour internet course, and each read three books. We have a lot to do in these next 2 - 3 weeks, but we are up for the challenge. The best news we heard today was that as soon as our Home Study and Dossier are completed, we should only have about a 6 - 8 month wait for a referral!! This will be our motivation! After we receive the referral, we will have to wait for the court date in Ethiopia to be assigned (about 2-3 months) and then our travel plans will be finalized. We will travel about two weeks after the court date. :-)

While we will be completing the requirements for the Home Study, we will also be working on obtaining documents for our Dossier. In the mail today, we received the Ethiopian Dossier Packet that lists these documents. Needless to say, we have a lot that we will be working on in the next 3-4 weeks. Please pray for us to prioritize our time and take each step of this process one day at a time.

From the beginning...

2009-01-10T17:15:00.000-08:00

When Ryan and I married four and a half years ago, we had planned for adoption to be a part of our family; however, we did not expect it to happen so soon. A year and a half ago, we decided to begin trying for a family. Well, we've learned life does not always turn out the way you plan it. After two miscarriages and lots of prayer, we decided to attend an adoption informational meeting last October. At the meeting we heard a couple share their experience of adopting a two year old boy from Ethiopia. Listening to their story deeply touched both of our hearts and in December we submitted our formal application to adopt from Ethiopia.

So here we are in the beginning of this adventure that God has called us to. We are working on completing lots of paperwork and we're excited to meet with our case specialist for the first time next Saturday, January 17th. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to use this blog as a tool to keep you updated on developments throughout our adoption process.

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and future." ~ Jeremiah 29:11