We made it!

Here we are in Ethiopia. We arrived 2 nights ago, and are staying at a lovely hotel. Yesterday we spent time shopping in the Merkado and visiting some museums. - Which posed some interesting times finding transportation. :)

Miss I and Miss O - mommy and daddy miss you SOOOOOOO much! We want to give you bigs hugs and kisses right now! We bought you some surprises yesterday, and can't wait to give them to you!

Today we will spend some more time seeing the sights of Addis Ababa. Then after supper we will head to the CHSFS guest house. Tomorrow we will finally meet our little man!

I will try to blog every day now, as I believe we will have internet at the guest house. We are having lots of fun, but miss our girls terribly! We are so thankful to everyone helping out while we are gone. Thank you all!

Big hugs and kisses to Miss I and Miss O!!!!! We love you!

More Ato T pictures

Ending the day

We topped off the day playing Go Fish together. Miss I is wearing the birthday crown her sister made for her earlier in the day. :)

The Cake

Okay - I'm pretty proud of this cake. :)

More birthday gifts!

Miss I got a body book from her sister, and a guitar from mom and dad. - We're questioning how wise that decision was now that she's had it a couple of days. :)

Birthday!

Tuesday was Miss I's birthday. We started the gift opening with presents from Aunty Kristin, Uncle Scott and family. Baby Bear and the Baby Bear book were a big hit! Isabelle told me that baby bear is now her favorite stuffed animal. Thanks guys!

Early birthday

Grandma Lynn and Grandpa Bob stopped by with cousin Ray on Monday night to give Miss I her birthday presents one night early. She was pretty excited about them - especially GO FISH!!

Celebrations

We had the pleasure of celebrating Christmas and birthdays with Miss I's birth family this past weekend! They brought a cake for the girls, and we exchenged all of our Christmas gifts. The girls also got birthday presents!

Our treasures

I took the girls to Underwater Adventures this week. They have a fun play area with this treasure chest, which is perfect for pictures!

More Christmas

After celebrating our Lord's birth at home and with Mike's family, we headed to celebrate with Heather's family.

This is Mike trying to get the girls to smile for a picture. - No luck!

Christmas photos

Children's Christmas Program at church on Christmas Eve.

Mike's side of the family.

Grandparents and grandkids!

Christmas girls!

I don't know why, but Miss I. looks like this in most of our Christmas pictures. Go figure!

Oh Happy Day!!!

We would like to introduce you to the newest member of our family - Ato T! (Nickname) We passed court in Ethiopia today, and are hoping to travel to get him at the end of Jan. - the 22nd or 29th. Hopefully we will know next week. It has been so hard to not post anything about him - but Ethiopia requires no posting of photos, information, etc. until the adoption is final in the eyes of the Ethiopian court. We are so thankful to the government in Ethiopia for expiditing the process for us, as Ato T needs surgery desperately. To our knowledge, Ethiopia has never before expedited the process, and we are truly grateful!

TAto T is 20 months old. Welcome to our family T!!!! We love you!!!!

Sad news

Just before Christmas, we had some sad news. Mike's Grandfather passed away. The funeral was Tuesday before Christmas. We went for visitation on Monday night and stayed in a hotel. We are all sad so see him go, but we are joyful to know that he is with our Heavenly Father in paradise.

Gingerbread house

Mommy and the girls made a gingerbread house!

Family Christmas party

We all had a fun time with daddy's extended family at the annual Christmas party!

Time spent

Miss I spent some time being silly!

Miss O spent some time being sick. :(

Performances

The girls and I attended two Christmas theatre events this year. The first was Stages production of "Peef the Christmas Bear." We also attend The Nutcracker at St. Catherine's the next week. The girls loved both of them, and so did mommy!

Candy

I'm going to attempt to update what has been going on at our house this past season. We'll start with the beginning of Advent. We started off our Christmas preparations with our friends at Horizons, making Christmas candy. Thank you Lori!