Psalms 143:8.............

"Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you."

Tomorrow is our new court date. I think this verse describes what is in my heart right now. I am just trusting that God would answer our prayers with His unfailing love. Thanks for those of you who are praying with us.

Jaclyn

To Our Parents...........

We want to say thank you. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for supporting us. Thank you for giving us the best you could, even when you didn't get our best in return. Even now that we are adults, you continue to sacrifice for us so that our future and that of our children is brighter.
We thank God for you. Not just for the things that you do for us. We thank Him for shaping us through you. Your love, kindness, humanity and strength have given us the courage to live our lives to the fullest. Without all of you, we wouldn't be the same; our children wouldn't be the same.
We love you Moms and Dads and wanted everyone else to know that too!
From our hearts,

Jeff and Jaclyn

If You Could Please.........

Turn your attention to the right side of the screen you will see a new slide show. It shows all of the pictures that I have of Cooper! Yay!

BOYS UPDATE..............

Grace sent word from Ethiopia. She mentioned several of the kids and a little about them. Here is what she had to say about our boys:

“Minte- very excited for his Mom to come; goes and visits Theo often who is ADORABLE, smiling all the time with a full head of hair.”

Awwww! I am so happy to know that the boys are already bonding now. I am so glad that Hope is allowing them to forge a relationship now and that Minte wants to see his brother! It makes me so happy that they have each other!

Never too big...............

Never too big to snuggle your dad!

Did I really just THINK that................

Jeff really wants me to home school our kids. If you know me, you might agree that this is not a good idea. I see the benefits to homeschooling. I see the benefits to private or public schooling (depending on the school/school district). I have always always always said that there is no way I could home school. I have friends who home school and have very well adjusted, socially mature, intelligent kids. These friends encourage me to look into homeschooling. I have friends who say that kids who are home schooled are socially stunted and immature. These friends don't recommend it.
Here is where my problem comes in. I have this sweet baby (Minte, the older baby of the two) coming to a new country with very little English-speaking capability. He needs the services of ESL (English as a Second Language) which the very good public school near our home provides. At the same time, he also needs time with his new brothers, his new mom and dad. He needs time to be a kid that is part of a loving family and have "kid experiences". Some adoption experts say that internationally adopted children should have a full year home before they begin school. But how do I fulfill Minte's needs without having Aiden resent the fact that he doesn't get the same special treatment?
Maybe I should start researching homeschooling.......wait.......Did I really just THINK that?
I guess I did. But don't worry, I'm not committing to anything right now!
Oh, I would like to give thanks to my new friend and homeschooling mom Cyndi! She seems to be a plethora of knowledge on the subject of homeschooling and I plan on learning lots from her (she has a homeschooling blog)! Oh, I should mention that she is also adopting from Ethiopia and her son just so happens to Minte also!! How cool is THAT!

**Disclaimer- I would more than likely not begin homeschooling until next year so that Cooper gets plenty of Mommy time. This way Minte gets help with ESL, Aiden gets to go to the school he has been asking to attend for over a year, and everyone is happy. That gives me plenty of time to figure out what type of homeschooling and curriculum would serve my kids best. That also gives me time to snap out of it and change my mind about this venture!

Romans 12:12...................

This is the verse that I am trying to live right now:

"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."

Romans 12:12 NIV

So we know now that we have a new court date. July 1. We thought that our case was going to stay on the docket but evidently the judge wants us off of his desk so he assigned us a new date. This doesn't mean that his paperwork is ready but we are trying to be joyful in our hope, patient in the affliction of missing them so badly, and faithful in our prayers that this will all come to an end soon. We won't hear anything from Ethiopia until July 2nd probably. Grace is there now and she is going to find out what she can. However, she has many families that she needs to "find out what she can" about so more than likely we will not hear until July 2nd. We would love it if you all were faithful in our prayers with us.

Thanks. With lots of love,

Jaclyn

The day that Addis came to play........

My friend Grace and her daughters Miranda and Addis came into town yesterday. They are on their way to Ethiopia to pick up their son Anteneh. Anteneh is a friend of Minte's from Hope. Addis came home from the same orphanage in January. We went to play at the Dallas World Aquarium while they were here. We met our friend Joann (another Hope mom) and her daughter Eden. It was fun! Aiden had a blast playing with Addis. He was practicing for when his baby brother comes home! Here are some pictures. For some reason I only got pictures of Addis and Aiden!

Here they are:

Aiden and Addis with red lips!

The cause of the red lips: strawberry slushy!

Free horsey rides!

Bean bag rides!

Addis the alarm clock.

Yay, Aiden's awake!

In Love...........

I don't know who is more in love with Cooper, me or Aiden. Of course Jeff is in the running too but he doesn't really have the time lately to stare longingly at the pictures on the computer. I do stare longer than Aiden so I guess I win for longest attention span but, come on, he's an 8 year old boy. I better be able to win that one or all my children are in for a long road.

Theo, but you can call him Cooper now........

Here is a new picture of our baby. Isn't he so un-freakin-believably cute?!

Mom- I think Cooper needs his own "Chubby Cheeks" shirt. We should totally bring that one back! I can't wait until I can post Minte pics! I have one of him doing a karate kick............on the top bunk of his bed. I'm so in for it!!

PROOF..................

I count this as proof that I really have been waiting "FOREVER" for this adoption:

My momma sent me this picture. It is me when I was around 3 years old. I'm holding one of my favorite baby dolls. I seem to be waiting on something. This picture has been in a frame in my mom's house for as long as I can recall. I guess you could say that I have been waiting for my adoptions to be complete for about 25 years now. Ha..... beat that!

A little love from home.............

Today I spoke with our adoption agency owner. He shed a little light on our court issue. We need the death certificate of Minte's mother to prove he is a true orphan. Makes me sad to even think about. But Shimeliss was hopeful that we would have it soon. It sounds morbid but please pray that they can locate that death certificate.

With that information I resigned myself to the fact that I would not be delivering Minte's gifts myself so a sweet woman, Emmebeth, who is also adopting through Hope will take them for me. Here are pictures of what we are sending:

For Minte we are sending and A&M hat, sunglasses, a Donkey Kong game, baseball and football cards, a shirt, a Batman watch, and Nerf ball, a skateboarding hand held game, and a photo album filled with pictures of Minte and his friends from the orphanage. As well as a couple of us back at home. The baby is getting an outfit and a duckie rattle. I can't wait until it is us traveling to Ethiopia. Thank you Emme, kiss my babies for me!