playing in the sand!

Sometimes I wonder what our little Joseph is going to play with. When I look around us all I see is sand. When I was growing up my parents had a big tire in our back yard and they filled it with sand...haha!!! We have sand everywhere here!! We'll go out and play in the sand. Instead of making "snow angels" we'll make "sand angels!!" 

here's a picture of some sand dunes close by: 

When my parents where here visiting we enjoyed playing in the sand with some 4-wheelers!! I don't know...Grandpa might have to take it easy when Joseph is riding with him!! :) 

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wondering and praying

I often think about our baby Joseph in Ethiopia. I wonder what he's doing. Is he bonding with his care takers? Is he developing like other 5 month olds? There's so many things that I just don't know right now. 

I have a friend who just had a baby girl in September, a couple weeks after our little Joseph was born. I find myself paying closer attention to what little Layla is doing. Layla just cut her first tooth. Has Joseph cut a tooth yet? 

Here's a picture of me holding Layla...she's such a laid back baby. :) I wonder what Joseph's personality is like. 

Every time I find myself wondering about him, I pray for him. I trust that God is taking good care of him. 

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We got the call!!!

A few days ago we got the call!!!! There is a 5 month old baby boy waiting for us at the Thomas Center in Ethiopia. We're not able to post pictures of him until he's legally ours, but I can tell you that he's absolutely beautiful! I couldn't have hoped for a more beautiful boy. Since we're living overseas we need to go visit him once before we pick him up for good. We will go visit him during our weeklong break from school at the end of March . We don't have a court date yet, but we're expecting it to be around June. So, now it's the hard part of waiting to hold the baby, not just look at his picture. J

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keeping busy as we wait

People keep asking us "so what's happening with adoption?" There's not much going on with our adoption except that we're waiting on a very important piece of paperwork called the I171H, which should be arriving in the next few weeks from the Greece USCIS office. Our "dossier" (compilation of paperwork including homestudy, background checks, etc...) is on Conoleeza Rice's desk right now. 

During this waiting period we have many things to keep us busy. Learning Arabic is the top thing to do on our list. It's funny, the other day I was doing some online research of Ethiopia and Arabic was listed as a necessary language to learn for visiting this country. I'll get right on that! :) The language that is spoken in Ethiopia is "Amharic," a semitic language that is related to Arabic, Aramaic, and Hebrew. 

On Thursday my parents are flying across the world to come visit us!! That will help keep us distracted too!! We can't wait to see them! It's been over a year since we've seen them. We sure have missed them!! 

Here's a picture of the future grandparents just hanging out! One day the dog that's in my dad's arms will be replaced by a cute little dark skinned child! :) 

 

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dark skin!

Today I was working in the kitchen and I looked over at the fridge. There are times when I just miss our nieces and nephews. I miss playing with them and laughing with them!! 

I looked at the picture that Joshua drew for Uncle Tim and I realized that Joshua must like dark skin like we do. I have always loved dark skinned babies and children! I can't wait to shower our little dark skinned baby with kisses! 

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looking at video cameras

I recently found my husband looking at ads. That's one of his favorite things to do! He compares prices, searching for the best deal!! He loves to do research about electronics and likes to know about all of the features! We are thinking about buying a video camera for the upcoming adoption. We thought it would be nice to have some footage of the first time we see our child and some of the other "firsts." We have a small handheld camera that takes shorter video clips too. 

Because we're living overseas we will need to go visit our baby before he/she goes through court in order to get a certain type of visa that allows the child to become an automatic citizen upon crossing US soil. We would love to have some video to bring back home with us as we wait for the court date. That will definitely be a hard time. The second time we go back for our child we'll leave Ethiopia with our child and go straight to the states to take care of the citizenship and visit family before coming back home. 

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waiting for our I-171H

Here's an email we sent to some friends that we share a post office box with. We're waiting for our I-171H to come!!! Our finger prints were processed and they were waiting on our Home Study, which has been approved and sent to them. Since we live in the Middle East, we use the USCIS office in Greece. 

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Hey guys!

We just want you to be aware that we are currently waiting on a very important piece of adoption paperwork that will be mailed from Greece. If you see it in the box, let us know ASAP!!!!

:) Tim and Jeni

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praying for our own

We love babies!! We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning with some friends who have a 4 month old baby boy. We enjoyed playing with him and watching him smile! Lately every time I see a baby I think about our Ethiopian baby. I find myself praying for our child that he/she will be a happy, healthy, beautiful child!

 

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