Cat in the Hat

I am super far behind in blogging but wanted to quickly share this cute picture from today....Garrett and I went to meet the Cat in the Hat! We had planned to meet up with some friends but ended up running into our neighbor and a few other people, too. Apparently, all of north Dallas got the memo that The Cat was going to be in town. Fun, fun times!

Celebrating One

Today a sweet little girl, half-way around the world, turns one year old. I have no doubt she is being loved and kissed on, is scoot-crawling to and from her friends, bouncing to the sound of her care taker's songs and so much more.

We celebrate your life today, Ellie T, even in your absence from our arms. We know your life will never be short of love as is has proved so even in the past 365 days ... your birth mother loved/s you, your care givers love you and so do we.

In your honor, we'll blow out one candle and make a wish for a speedy journey to your new home and continued love, health and blessings. We love you, sweet girl. You light up our life already.

Don't mind me, I'm just recovering from a bit of jet lag.

You know, from going to see my daughter in Africa!

Where do I begin? Well, about a week and a half ago we received the news that our court date for our daughter's adoption finalization in Africa had been moved to February 27th. Which meant that the earliest we'd travel to bring her home would be the end of March or early April. Earliest. I was crushed (and so was Kenny). We've known about our sweet girl since the middle of September and waiting for her has been so hard - and that's putting it mildly.

By the end of that day things began to turn around. Our friend Luke (of this sweet family) was planning to leave for Africa on that Friday - just 2 1/2 days later. I e-mailed and spoke to him and found out he had a spot open within the group he was going with to do some non-profit work. It was a long shot but we thought it was worth pursuing. I checked on airfare - it was reasonable. I checked with the agency and orphanage director - both cheered me on to go. I had one last immunization to get and wasn't sure if it would take effect in time to travel - the nurse said it was okay, to go. All lights were green and I was good to go.

Doing something spur of the moment like this is SO not my character. I am a planner. I like to think things through a million times and then re-analyze it from every possible angle. But being on such a quick time table I didn't have the chance - I just picked myself up out of the pity party I was having and packed my bags for Africa.

Last Friday afternoon Kenny and Garrett took me to the airport and I began the 1 1/2-ish day journey to meet our daughter.

On Sunday (Saturday evening US time) I fell in love for the third time (first Kenny, then Garrett) with the most beautiful, precious and amazing little girl. I am having trouble putting into words what it was like to meet and spend four days with my daughter. MY daughter. OUR daughter. HIS sister. All I can say is that my time with her was a blessing.

I will write more later after I have slept some more and processed all that I have seen. Just wanted to let you all know that I am home safe and my heart is resting easier having seen with my own eyes that sweet Ellie T is loved and safe until she's home, too.

Disappointed

Well....yesterday was a roller coaster of a day for me! I woke up excited for the day, flipped on the news and pretty much stayed glued to the t.v. most of the day. I don't want to go all into it, but I was beyond thrilled to watch our new President take his oath. Garrett and I made a little popcorn picnic and took it all in.

Until the phone rang.

It was our social worker from our adoption agency and she didn't have good news. Our court date has now been pushed out to February 27th. That's right, another month of waiting. *IF* we pass court that day, the earliest we would now travel would be the later end of March.

Most people have asked us "WHY?" and the answer is really simple: the court system in this particular country of Africa is very overloaded and overwhelmed right now. They looked ahead to next week and realized there was no way they could process our case (and I'm sure others) and so reassigned us to another day. Doesn't make sense and isn't what we expect as Americans. But we are not at the mercy of the American government for this adoption. We are at the mercy of a government that does things in a way we don't understand.

Are we upset? Yes. Are we disappointed? Heck, yah. Heartbroken? Just a bit. Okay, now I'm lying. Totally heartbroken.

All we can say at this point is that our God is Sovereign and His plan to unite us with our little girl is better than what we could have planned for ourselves. While we are still sad, we know - KNOW - there is a reason for this delay.

Hoping for the Best

Well, there is little to no hope of me posting the rest of our Christmas in pictures. I am totally not motivated to sort through pictures right now...lazy, yes, but I'm just not gonna do it. I think it is because I psyched myself up just to get through the holidays and now that they are done, I have moved on to my other projects. Like preparing for Ms. Ellie...

Our court date (January 27th...actually, it will be in the wee hours of the morning while we sleep....who am I kidding....while YOU sleep, I will not) is fast approaching! Garrett and I made a little countdown chart a few weeks ago and when I first looked at it, I thought that we'd NEVER get down to the single digits. BUT, we are 11 days and counting (some beg to differ on my counting methods but trust me, 11 days). ELEVEN. The single digits are right around the corner!!!

Just for clarification:

1. We do not travel over to Africa for our court date. Our adoption agency representatives and attorney go on our behalf.

2. There is a good chance our court date could either be delayed or initially denied on the 27th. From what we have seen with other families, it is quite typical for the courts not to hold sessions on any given day for a variety of reasons...no electricity, judge not showing up, etc. And, from what we have unfortunately seen with other families is that the judge may hear our case but require further information before finalizing our adoption; doesn't mean our adoption is denied, just that it may take 2-3 (please Lord, no more) dates. The word in the adoption arena that just came through this week is that 30% of all cases require 1+ court date sessions. We've been told our case "looks favorable" but you just never know.

3. Once we do "pass" through court, our adoption is final and we can travel 3-4 weeks later. Right now we have flights tentatively on hold for February 20th-March 1st.

There are so many thoughts and emotions and to-do list swirling in my mind right now! So, if you don't "hear" from me for a while on this blog, you'll know it's because I'm busy just being a part of this process!

Celebrating Christmas: Round Two-ish

The second day of celebrating Christmas 2008 entailed our annual family trip to the Gaylord to see Santa and all of the fun decorations/trains AND then celebrating with Kenny's extended family. I did a decent job of photographing the first part of the day but TOTALLY forgot to whip out my camera for the second. Here is the first half of the day in pictures:

We got in line early that morning before the doors opened near Santa's chair, and while we were waiting in line Santa snuck up behind us! Garrett (who is really not a shy or quiet child) got VERY quiet and even hid behind Kenny's legs. After Santa moved on to the next family, Garrett got giddy and his eyes lit up with excitement. He proceeded to tell us all about Santa!

I wish I had a digital picture of the actual "Seeing Santa" visit because it was even more priceless. No, I do not have a scanner. Yes, I am behind the technology of 2009. Yes, I hope to get one soon. Anywho, there were these LARGE decorative boxes on each side of Santa's chair and Garrett sat down on the edge opposite of Santa to chat with him. The picture is just priceless!!

This is Garrett's annual picture in the poinsettias. You can see from past pictures that he has grown, grown, grown. Tear.

Our little family in a sleigh....


A little candy cane action..

And, if you remember from various posts, Garrett is a big fan of benches...not sure why but here he is checkin' one out! I love that he never disappoints!

Icebergs

I have no excuse as to why I haven't blogged the rest of our Christmas and in an effort to get back into the swing of blogging, here is a little glimpse into our icy day:

Having our "popcorn and books" picnic by the fire this morning!

Garrett just couldn't wait any longer and insisted that he needed to go outside and take the "icebergs" temperature with the digital thermometer.

Garrett not only took all of the "icebergs" temperatures, he also proceeded to knock them all down off his swing set. Hmm.