Kaleb is Two!

I forgot to post pictures from Kaleb's 2nd Birthday!!! His birthday is January 31st. But since Brad was leaving Ethiopia on January 20th, we celebrated on Brad's last night here. We got cupcakes from Cupcake Delight and had all the friends renting the house with us. Here are some pictures of our birthday boy!

Our Typical Day

We have kind of settled into a routine here in Ethiopia as we wait to be cleared to come home. Most of our days look like this:

6:30am the boys wake up

7am skype with Brad

7:30am eat breakfast, Isaiah loves cereal, Kaleb and Jacob will only eat eggs

8-10am play inside, watch the Wiggles or some other movie with songs

10am Winshet, the nanny, watches the boys so I can take a shower (I hear Jacob crying the whole time)

10:30-noon play outside with the scooter, little riding toys, and swing in the hammock

noon- eat lunch

1pm-3pm Kaleb naps well, Jacob fights it but finally sleeps

3pm-5pm find something to do; take a walk, play outside, anything that we can find

5pm-dinner

5:30-7pm keep busy (my least favorite time of the day because the boys are ornery and we can't play outside anymore or go anywhere) so we read books, play with toys, etc

7pm talk to Brad

7:30pm start bedtime stuff for Kaleb and Jacob

7:45-8:30pm play a game with Isaiah

8:30pm Isaiah goes to bed

I am usually so exhausted I go to bed not too far behind him!

There are a few little market type stores close by that we walk to, there is a Kaldi's Coffee that is a 30 min walk each way where we can get coffee and ice cream. We also have found a pizza place that is pretty close by. Everything else we need to hire a driver for.

The boys know the Skype ring now and they run to the computer saying "Dada Dada" Its so cute! Isaiah hates when Brad hangs up too fast and doesn't say "bye" and "I love you" enough times, one time is not enough for him :)

Birth Parent Interview

Today marks 7 weeks since we left home, 5 weeks since we passed court for Isaiah and Kaleb and we have had them with us full time, and 2 weeks since Brad left Ethiopia. Today we also found out the US Embassy scheduled their birth parent interview for February 27th-WHAT?? That's almost 4 weeks away. The Embassy is interviewing every reliquishment case, which is fine. But they don't have the staff to do it in a timely manner. I'm hoping the can figure out something to make it a quicker process so other families don't have to wait so long. If all goes well on the 27th, we should be coming home the first few days of March!!!

Thank you for the continued prayers- we really appreciate them!!!

Help Us Come Home!

Whenever we are cleared by the Embassy we will need to buy tickets HOME! Jacob and I bought one way tickets to Ethiopia because we don't know when we will be coming home. We are hoping to come home by the end of February. We are waiting for the Embassy to open our case and review our file. Then they will probably request a birth parent interview, THEN we should be cleared to come home. Once we are cleared we will need to purchase 4 tickets home. We expect those to be between $3,000-$4,000. Our stay at the first guest house ended up being much more expensive than we planned. We are so thankful for the opportunity to rent this house with 2 other families. It has been a great experience and we have been able to save so much money. But we still don't have enough to buy plane tickets home.

If you would like to help us buy plane tickets home you can donate through Lifesong for Orphans. They are a great non-profit that assists adopting families and offers tax-deductible receipts. If interested, you need to put Mowen #2363 in the memo line of a check and mail it to:

Lifesong for Orphans

Mowen Adoption #2363

PO Box 40/ 202 N Ford St

Gridley, IL 61744

Thank you so much for considering helping us home!! God isn't finished writing this journey yet, so many people have been a part of Jacob's adoption and now Isaiah and Kaleb's adoption. We are forever grateful to each one of you!!!

One Year Ago...

One year ago today we received a phone that changed our lives-we saw our son! Early in the afternoon we got the phone call that we had a 2 month old SON!! We were so happy to find out that we had a tiny son waiting for us in Ethiopia! After hearing the basic information on the phone we waited about 45 mins to see this precious face:

Jacob Jafar has brought so much joy to our lives!! He is constantly happy and laughs all the time. We cherish every day with him and thank God that we were lucky enough to add him to our family.
Happy Referralversary Jacob Jafar!!

Submitted!!

We were submitted to the US Embassy today!!! When we got the call, I told Isaiah that God answered our prayer and he shouted the biggest "Yaaaaaahoooooo!!" All night he kept saying "I am very very very happy that my file is at the Embassy now!" Someone has told him all the steps of what happens in this process and he knows what comes next. Thank you to each one of you that prayed over this, we are so thankful that we were submitted.
I just now got an email from our agency saying they already need another piece of paper to be added to our file, but our agency thinks this should be easy to obtain and add to the file soon. Please pray that it is.

Some Pictures

Here are some pictures of the fun we are having at the new house!!

Busy Mama

So sorry for the lack of posts! I am one busy mama!!! By the time the boys are sleeping I am ready for bed too. Last week we moved to a house with two other families, the Marshalls and Myers. It has been GREAT! We are renting a house that has a maid and cook. We have also hired a nanny to help us mama's have a chance to take a shower! The boys are all loving it here. They get to play outside riding scooters, kicking a ball, or laying in a hammock. It's so nice to have other families around too! Brad was here the first few days after we moved to the house, but now I am on my own. Bonnie Myers is also on her own with 2 babies. We have ventured out a few times on walks with our kids, and we were pretty proud that we made it there and back with all 5 of our kids. Nichole and Aaron Marshall have a little boy too. So that makes 6 kids between our 3 families. It is so nice being with other waiting families and keeping each other company as we wait.

We are praying that we are submitted to the Embassy this Wednesday, would you please pray with us. We had been told that we had everything we needed last week but our medicals weren't there in the morning, so we are really hoping everything is ready in a file on AWAA's desk and its ready to go on Wednesday. We can only be submitted on Wednesdays and so if we aren't submitted this week we will have to wait another week.

When we made plans for us to stay in Ethiopia until we could bring the boys home with us, I thought I was the one that was going to have a tough time taking care of all three boys here by myself, but I think Brad is having a harder time knowing his family is half way around the world waiting to come home. Please pray for him! We are so thankful that he is willing to go home and work for our family and I am sure he will be lonely as he waits for us.

We have no plans for the next three weeks! Brads parents are coming in three weeks to help out and hopefully help us come home (depends how long it takes to clear us). They will be here up to 3 weeks, so we are hoping to come home in the next 6 weeks.

Thank you for all the prayers so far!! We really appreciate each person walking this journey with us!!!

Isaiah and Kaleb's Birth Town

Last week we visited Isaiah and Kaleb's birth town. It was a great day and a hard day. Isaiah was great! He was really looking forward to it. It had been over a year since he had been there. He was bouncing all over the guest house in the morning. As we were driving there, he kept asking "how much longer?" Once we got close, he started to recognize places. He knew the towns that were close by. Right on the edge of town is a dirt road and he said "this is the way to my school" and a couple of roads later he said "this is the road to my father's house". He was right! We got to visit both of those places later in the day. I want to keep most of the details private for the boys sake, but I wanted to share a little bit too. We got to meet several members of their Ethiopian family and many more friends that kept coming by once the word spread. Every single person we met gave us a kiss and said "thank you". I really didn't know how to respond and I really didn't expect to be thanked. We are grateful these boys are our sons. I was afraid it might be awkward since we love these boys and they are our sons now, but it wasn't at all. Everyone kept saying that we are all family now. Which is so true, we will never forget the people we met this day. These people helped make Isaiah the wonderful kid he is today. Their birth family is so kind and full of love. We are grateful they had so much love in their lives before we knew them. The day was overall great! But when it was time to say goodbye, I lost it. And I looked at Brad and he was bawling too (this doesn't happen often). I was hugging these people telling them we love the boys and we will take care of them and raise them to love Jesus and they were hugging the boys good-bye, maybe forever. We plan to bring the boys back here someday in the future, but there is a good chance many of the family members might not be alive next time. It is something that I will never forget. Adoption is such sacrifice. They were all so strong hugging us with smiles and with hearts full of gratitude. They were so thankful we took the time to come and meet them too. Kaleb didn't really care for any part of the day. He didn't remember anyone. He was less than 1 year old when was taken to the orphanage. He kept reaching for me or Brad whenever someone took him from our arms. This was great to see that he has started to bond with us (he usually could care less who held him) but it was hard to see him not want to hug anyone from his first family too.

At lunch after seeing everyone Isaiah said "it was a really, really, really good day". We were worried how his heart would take it all, but he just loved every minute of it. He said he was happy he has an Ethiopian family and an American family. I'm thankful he has a strong heart and could handle everything from this day. He was hyper, the most hyper we have seen him, when we got back to the guest house that night.

Isaiah's school

Isaiah was so happy when we pulled up to this gate

Isaiah inside his 1st house


Isaiah's old shoes were still on the floor of his 1st house


Waving good-bye from the van as we pulled away

Isaiah and Kaleb's Video

Our First Week

We have had the boys for one week now. Here is an update on each boy
Isaiah
He loves Brad! It’s nice to see how comfortable he is so quickly. He shows a little more affection to me each day too. He loves to eat hamburgers, but not french fries or ketchup. He loves playing with anything. We have been to a few playgrounds and he loves each thing. He loves building with legos and hopes we get some more when we get to America. We went swimming yesterday for the first time and he loved it. He is also hoping he gets some goggles, floaties and a kickboard when we get home too. He is a great big brother and loves to hold Jacob and play cars or ball with both Jacob and Kaleb. We are working on teaching him that he needs to tell us where he is going and asking for permission to eat things or go places. He loves to just take off, which can be scary for us when we turn around and he is gone. It is also normal around here to litter and throw your wrappers or garbage on the street, so we are also working on putting wrappers in a garbage can.
Kaleb
Kaleb wakes up each morning with a huge smile and likes to give kisses right away. The first few nights he didn’t want me to hold him when he was going to sleep but the last few nights I have held him until he falls asleep and wakes up wanting to snuggle too. He likes balls and cars, but he’s not too interested in books yet. He is getting better at not hitting as much. He is still obsessed with electrical outlets and cords. He is constantly sticking his fingers in the sockets or playing with the cords. He doesn’t like to be told ‘no’ but his meltdowns are getting fewer and fewer day by day, thank you Lord!! The first day was great, but days 2-5 were hard. Since the 2nd day he has been saying “hi” and waving to people. Then a few days ago he started saying “thank you” too. He still calls everyone “dada”. He LOVES lights, he likes to turn them on and off or just look at them. Kaleb wasn’t too sure about bath time the first few times, but he seems to like each bath a little more.
Jacob
Jacob has really warmed up to his brothers. He is doing much better sharing mom and dad too. He seems to be feeling much better than he did the first week we were here. He is now walking 90% of the time. He can go from one side of the room to the other!

We are having so much fun with all the family time. Life is crazy and busy now. But it’s great! And we both go to bed even earlier than we did before. Looking forward to many more family full-filled days!!

The First Few Days

I have been having trouble accessing blogger in ET, darn. Sorry for the lack of posts.
Our first few days together have been pretty good! We passed court on Friday and got to bring the boys back to our guest house since we are staying until Embassy. Isaiah was very excited to leave with us. When the AWAA employee came to tell us we passed court, they told Isaiah in Amharic to make sure he understood. He gave the biggest fist pump with a “Yeaaaah!” Kaleb of course has no idea whats going on, but he LOVED the car ride to the guest house. He was silent and sat still staring out the window soaking it all in. We gave the boys baths and we had to go buy Isaiah some new shoes. Isaiah wasn’t quite sure what to do in the shower and Kaleb wasn’t too sure of the bath either. Brad helped Isaiah with the shower and I tried to teach Kaleb how to splash in the bathtub. Kaleb hated the water over his face and wasn’t interested in splashing at all.
As we were pulling away from the TH with the boys, I realized that I didn’t ask when Kaleb eats or takes a bottle or how much or often. So I’m trying to figure it out on our own, ha! So far the boys schedule has been the same, and Kaleb seems OK with that. Both Kaleb and Jacob are taking 3 bottles a day and eating 3 meals. Kaleb acts like the world might end if he doesn’t get a snack within 5 minutes of waking up in the morning too. He has the longest arms and can reach everything. He can reach up on the kitchen counters and everywhere else that we don’t want him to, lol!
Today, Isaiah has really come out of his shell. He is laughing, and joking around a lot. He is so good with Jacob and Kaleb. He makes them laugh all the time. It’s such a sweet sound hearing my 3 sons belly laugh!! It’s great to see all three boys get more and more comfortable each day. God’s healing hand is on each of their hearts, we are so thankful for that.
We are looking forward to many more family days as we are getting to know each other and our new normal!