I am so excited that we are headed to Indy this weekend to meet up with my fabulous adoption friends from all around the state!! When we met last year Wuby was just home for about 2 months and most of the families were still waiting for referrals. This year I am sure I will be gushing at all of the cute Ethiopian smiles and beautiful big Ethiopian eyes!

This is the cute outfit Wuby picked to go to the dentist today (okay...she picked a white shirt with tiny purple flowers to go with this skirt but we are getting closer!) Wuby had to get impressions for an appliance to help with her under bite. She was nervous but after some extra hugs and the promise of a balloon she went followed the hygenist with no problem and did a great job!!! Hopefully next week goes just as smoothly! She will get the appliance put in the day before the kids head off with daddy on a road trip to Georgia to attend Uncle Luke's graduation from his army training. (Did you catch that I will have 4 full days to myself...I keep contemplating headed to Ethiopia for those days but know that we need to save the money and I can really use the time to just relax.)

The last 2 weeks have been a roller coaster of emotions. Please continue to pray for our little girl and our adoption. We are still waiting on her medical report...today marks 4 weeks since our "referral". We hope it comes this week but there are no promises. So really our timer hasn't even started yet...we still have not been submitted to court to be assigned a court date and we don't know how long it will be before this will happen....it could be another month....we don't know and can't seem to get any information...only requests for us to be "patient". Court dates are extending into late May already for those submitted to court weeks ago. So our new conservative estimate would be that we would be lucky to travel by July but are thinking it will be more like August or September. Wubitu is having trouble waiting too. Last night she broke down into tears she said "it is taking tooooo long mommy!". The boys are ready too. Carter has already assigned Sifan's seat next to Wuby at the dinner table.
However, I must say I can feel your prayers. I have had a peace the last few days. I am excited that several families are traveling over the next few weeks and we should receive some great updates! Pray that God "greases the wheels" as my friend Julie says to get things moving with our adoption!!

Please be in prayer for our family regarding our adoption. I cannot go into details (please don't ask.....). Just know that we need your prayers this week. We will keep everyone posted when the time is right.

We get to send off a care package today!!! We are sending:
1) A photo album of our family- we have had this ready for 6 months now...I had to update a bit.
2) A magnifying glass-Noah picked this (we left the tag on that says not to look into direct sunlight...hoping she doesn't burn her eyeballs out...)
3) Tooth brush and tooth paste-Trisha told me she would help teach Maree to brush her teeth!!!
4) Necklace & bracelet- Wuby made these yesterday when we were working on "patterns"
5) Fisher Price educational song player
6) Bouncy ball
7) Size 4T shirt
8) Pink backpack (to store all of her stuff)
9) Recorder- Carter picked this one!
ALL packed into a gallon sized ziplock bag!!

2 BFAS families are traveling 2 weeks to pick their children up!!! Trisha (my hero) will be delivering our care package for us along with some puzzles and a puzzle stand to donate to the orphanage!! (There are 8 here and I plan to send 4 more later!) I am so excited!!! It felt so good to be able to send something!!! Trisha also made my day when she said she would help teach Maree to brush her teeth while she is there! (Did I mention she is my hero?!!!) I can't thank Trisha enough!!!
Here is a picture of the shirt in Maree's care package on Wuby. We hope that maybe Maree will be wearing it in some of the pictures that families take as they travel so we can get a good idea of how big she is and what sizes I need to stock up on!
We are still waiting on medical information and a name...I am hoping we will hear by Monday at the latest. We were originally told it should be 1 day-1 week but others have waited an average of 12 days...so I am holding the crazy back until then (day 13).