Court day is almost here!
3 things keeping me busy while I wait
1. Spring Cleaning
2. Organizing the boys stuff
3. Spending lots of quality time with my man. 🙂
The Weekend
Matt and I had a very busy, but fun weekend. On Friday his Ergo had arrived, so we tried it out.
Can’t wait to use it with the boys!
On Saturday we went to the Botanical Gardens to see the butterflies and the wildflowers. The butterflies were great, but unfortunately with the lack of spring rain the wildflowers were not very plentiful.
Then we ran a whole bunch of errands including a trip to Babies R Us. I keep thinking we have everything and then realize we do not, but we are getting close to ready to travel. (I think) The nursery is now a mess again. Time for more organizing.
We also went to Lowes and Home Depot. I needed some plants for the garden. Thanks to the wacky spring weather (60s one day, 90s the next) not one of my seeds took.
Matt also made me some self-watering containers for my tomatoes. (I uploaded some other garden pics to the photo gallery.)
Yesterday we went to church then hung out with our neighbors. We went swimming for the first time this season. Their pool was at a very nice 83°!
We then went home and did yard work. The grass was in serious need of a mow and I had plants to plant!
Please vote for my niece Abby in a local baby idol contest!
And this just because the cats are silly. Carter was actually trying to sleep squished in there, I guess it is better than where Matt found him this morning, curled up in the bathtub.
5 days!
Only 5 more days! I am so excited.
5 things I cannot wait to do with Noah and Ezra
1. Cuddle
2. Laugh, I cannot wait until they fill our house with laughter
3. Read, I hope they get my love of books
4. Bake (I know I might have to wait a little bit on this one, but I plan on starting them young)
5. Garden, I cannot wait to share my love of gardening with them
7 Days!
One week left until court! Can you believe it? I thought today I would share 7 reasons I think Matt will be an awesome daddy.
1. He is fun, he loves to play. (see day 8 )
2. He is creative. I can’t wait to see the games he and the boys invent together and the creations they will make.
3. He is loving. He is great at giving comfort when you need it.
4. He is excited about teaching them things. I cannot wait to watch him finally get to share with the boys all the things he wants to teach them.
5. He is involved. I know he will be a very hands-on, involved dad.
6. Just the right amount of strict. He will be a good disciplinarian, but not too tough. 😉
7. Values. He lives out his values and expects the boys to do the same.
9 days
9 days until Ezra and Noah’s court date. Since I am a worry wort, I thought I would share 9 prayer requests.
1. That the boys stay healthy
2. That all the paperwork is done correctly and turned in on time for court and that we pass on the first try
3. That we receive a May 28 Embassy date, June 11 is the next possibility after that, and I am done with waiting, plus we kind of purchased plane tickets (I know, I know not the best idea)
4. That we are able to stay at the House of Hope, they only have two rooms and it is looking like 10 families will be traveling when we do, but I would really love to stay there
5. Safe travels (you mean we have to fly over the polar ice cap? seriously freaked out!)
6. Sleepy babies on the flight home 😉
7. Health for Matt and I
8. That Abby’s upper GI goes well on Thursday (hey not everything involves Noah and Ezra, I want their cousin to be in tip-top shape for their arrival)
9. My Grandpa’s health
Baby Shower #2
Me and the cloth diaper cake
Yesterday I had a wonderful baby shower and received some wonderful things for the boys. I had a great time celebrating the soon to be arrival of Noah and Ezra.
Of course, a few games were played. The most entertaining being the toilet paper diaper game.
The winners (they finished before the time limit and even put bows on their diaper)
All the diapered bottoms (my mom was in charge of the one on the left, note to self don’t let her diaper the boys)
Me holding the “quilt” Kimberly B. made for me
The quilts her mom made the boys, she even put their names and birthdate on the back (she encouraged me to color code the boys, Ezra is green, Noah blue)
The very chocolaty cake
The silverware my Grandma used with my dad
The now very messy nursery
I have a ton of organizing to do in the nursery! Thanks to everyone and their very generous gifts and donations.
Okay totally not related to the shower, but Matt took new pictures of Abby last night and this is my favorite picture. She is too cute!
Two Weeks!
OMG I have been freaking out lately. Only two weeks until court and then after that two weeks, one day until we travel! I am getting so excited, anxious, and nervous. I am starting to feel a little unprepared, even though we have been preparing and waiting forever, I don’t feel like I know enough or have everything they need. I am, of course, most worried about the flight home. I have been worried about this since we started the process and now that the day is drawing near I am getting scared. I have never even packed a diaper bag for a short outing, but now I have to pack for two infants and a total of 33 hours and 26 minutes of travel time (flight and layovers). Can anything really prepare you for that?
Okay beyond freaking out about travel, I am totally excited to meet my boys! I cannot wait to cuddle them, give them kisses, smell their little heads, watch them sleep, and hear their giggles.
We just can’t wait to be with them. 🙂
Also, I cannot wait to share their pictures with you. Please keep our court date in your prayers. I really want to share them with you in two weeks.
On a side note, if you haven’t been to our site in a while because you read blogs in a reader program, Matt added a new countdown to the top of the sidebar. At the time of this post: 28 days, 23 hours, and 34 minutes until we leave for Ethiopia.
Earth Day
I am going to be honest, I don’t really do anything for Earth Day. I looked I didn’t even do a post last year. It’s not that I don’t care, but that to me every day is Earth Day. I strive each and every day to take care and be a good steward of the resources I am blessed with. I don’t always succeed but I do try. I thought I would take the time to just share a few quick things with you.
Being green isn’t more expensive, most people think it is, but it isn’t. Yes I do spend more on my food than the average person, local and organic is not cheap. But I spend considerably less on my electricity, less on my water, and overall less on consumables. We hardly use anything disposable so we don’t have the recurring cost that comes with those items (think paper towels, napkins). I make most of my cleaning supplies, vinegar is a cheap basic ingredient for this.
Earth Day is not about marketing.
According to this guy biking isn’t an answer to global warming, but I disagree. Anytime you are not using a fossil fuel to do something you are making a difference. I thought as an ode to the bike I would share some cool biking stickers from peace supplies.
Always a plus
Crazy, Just Crazy
18 days, 33 days
18 days until our court date! 33 days until we potentially travel, wow that is coming up quick. Please pray that we pass court on May 8 and that our travel dates stay the same. Right now we tentatively have an Embassy Appointment on May 28, if it doesn’t happen that day it could be June 11, and I don’t want to wait that long to hold my boys. (please, please pray that we get the May 28 appointment) I have already waited long enough, in my opinion. 😉
We received new pictures and this update from Hollie this morning:
Here are the pictures of the twins. I saw them twice while I was in Ethiopia. The first time they were in their room and the second time they were getting their sunbath outside with all the babies. It was so cute! One of your little guys was peeing as he was sun bathing.:)
That’s my boy, pee freely!
Also, last week while chatting with Autumn over email, she realized she had met our boys at the orphanage and had this to share:
I told Dan that I was in contact with you about your little ones and he reminded me that one of them was sooooo smiley at him. Dan called me over to see how smiley he was. They were so cute…really.
Awwwww, don’t they sound just precious?
25 days and a little glitch
Only 25 days until court! I am getting more excited and anxious every day. We are trying to get everything prepared and it is keeping us pretty busy. We went to the doctor this morning to get the last of our travel vaccinations and I am sick (nasty cold) so she said I should wait :(, but Matt is all done with his shots and is ready to go! We received our car-seats on Friday as a gift from my parents. We decided to see how well they fit in the car.
That would be Matt completely crammed into the dash, he could only operate the clutch with his hand. Needless to say that just won’t work. Since, we have two rear-facing seats, we can’t just put them behind the passenger seat, we need to be able to put them behind both of us. 🙁 We went to a couple of dealerships on Saturday night to get a feel for what fits, NOT a lot fits Matt and two car-seats (Pathfinder, Camry, Pilot, Rav4, Forester, just to name a few, basically all mid-sized cars and small SUVs). One salesman even joked that I should have just married a shorter guy. The only vehicles that fit in our price range get around 20 mpg :(, makes my environmental heart sad, but safety and family first. Right now we are trying to decide between a Forerunner and a Sienna, used of course, the newer models now get 25 mpg, but too expensive for me. The hybrid Highlander would also work, but that one was way out of our price range. Matt really, really likes the Forerunner, so that is probably what we will end up with, but we will see what we find.
Midnight Feedings
When we tell people how old the boys will be when we come home, they are quick to say, “Oh good, they will be sleeping through the night.” Or something like that. While we hope that they will sleep through the night there is no guarantee that they will.
For the next couple of weeks I will be going through a test run of midnight feedings. Yesterday I managed to find kittens to foster. They are very young and need to be bottle fed. I am feeding them every 2-3 hours during the day and every 4 hours at night. Last night was my first night and it didn’t go so well. The kittens weren’t used to bottle feeding and just couldn’t get the hang of it. I felt so bad that I couldn’t deliver the nutrition that they need. I swung by the vet this morning and got a small syringe and let’s just say they are now little eating monsters! I don’t mind getting up a couple of times a night to make sure these little guys get a good start to life. I know they will be a lot of work, but it will be worth it.
The group (six total, three black/white, two all black, and one black/white/charcoal)
One of the little ones in my hand to show the size
Yes I am aware of the fact that we will likely travel to Ethiopia before they all find homes. I have a back-up foster home for when the time comes. They just couldn’t do all the work of bottle feeding.
One month!!!
I am starting to feel like this might actually happen! We have been keeping ourselves busy preparing for the boys and doing stuff we think we won’t have time for once they are here. The nursery is pretty much ready, house projects are getting done, and we are trying to have as much time together as we can. The next 30 days are filled with church events, mountain biking, trail running, a baby shower, house projects, doctor appointments (couple more shots), home study visit, and a couple of trips to the vet, and maybe even a movie.
We know a few more families traveling before our court date and we will be receiving a steady stream of updated pictures. Seeing new pictures of the boys every few weeks sure makes this wait a little more bearable. Please keep Noah and Ezra’s health and our court date in your prayers.
Update and Pictures
We received an update and pictures of the boys today thanks to a traveling family. We learned they share the same crib and are in 0-3 month clothing. Still so tiny! She also said they were healthy looking, strong, and super sweet. I wish I could share the pictures with you. Only 32 days until court, hopefully I can share pictures on then.