Happy Four Months Little Man!!!

Yesterday our little guy turned four months old. We also got a wonderful little gift from this family, they just returned from picking up thier daughter in Ethiopia and they sent us updated photos of our little guy. It is so great to get to see more photos of him and have updates as we wait for our turn to travel. We wish we could be there with him, but hopefully we will be soon.

Only SEVEN more days until our scheduled court date... if all goes well we will legally be his parents on Monday, January 4, 2010 and we will be able to post pictures of him then.

We love you little man!!!

Merry Christmas!!!

So many wonderful things have come our way this year. We are anxiously awaiting the new addition to our family, hopefully he will be home with us soon. We also found out today that we will be an aunt & uncle again soon - Ben's sister is now expecting her fourth child YAY!!!

We had a wonderful Christmas. We were able to spend a very relaxing day with our family and enjoy the holiday.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

Going to Court... (in a good way)

Yesterday, exactly one month to the day (four weeks and two days... but who's counting), we recieved notice of our court date. Our adoption is scheduled to go before the Ethiopian Federal courts on January 4th. We are so excited! There are still several factors (power outages, paperwork issues, etc) that could delay the our court date, but if all goes well we will officiall, legally, be parents on January 4th. When we pass court we will schedule an appointment to travel and meet with the US Embassy in Ethiopia to get a visa to bring our little guy home.

If things go well, we could travel as soon as early February... HOLY COW!!!

We love you little man... and can't wait to meet you in person!!!

Marking the day...

Today our little man is 3 months old! We wish we could be with him, but we are happy that a fellow adoptive family is in Ethiopia right now loving on him and hopefully able to take pictures for us (thanks Elisa & Brandon).

We love you little man - happy 3 months!!!

Nana & Papa are so excited to meet our little man - they decided to go birthday shopping to help prepare for his arrival... quite a haul!



Aunt Erin, Uncle Steve, and baby Stephen also gave him a little gift...

Thankful!

We have so much to be thankful for this year. We are very lucky to have an amazing family and group of friends who have all been so supportive during our adoption process. The obvious highlight of our year (so far) came a week and a half ago... most of all this year we are thankful for our little man.

On our way

We recieved notice from our agency today that they have recieved our official paperwork accepting the referral of our "little man." Now they will have thier staff in Ethiopian begin processing our paperwork to get a court date. It will still be several weeks before are notified of when our court date will be, but things are moving along!

Stay tuned for more news as we move through the rest of the process...

It's a...

...BOY!!! That's right, today was THE day, we got our referral call! We were #24 on the overall list, but we knew we would probably be getting a boy and that we were probably getting close (because most families ahead of us have requested girls or siblings). But we were still SHOCKED to get the call, we figured it would be AT LEAST a few more weeks.

He is PERFECT... I know all parents say that, but seriously he is the cutest baby ever (no bias - just honesty :) ). He is 11 weeks old, born on August 27, 2009. Currently 8.5 lbs and 19.7 inches long.

Sorry we can't post photos of him online yet - not until we pass court in Ethiopia, which should (hopefully) be a couple of months. But, rest assured we have seen photos and he is BEAUTIFUL!!! We can't wait to show him off to the world... stay tuned.

Aunt Kyla and cousin Blake came over after we got the call to see pictures of the little man, and they brought him something special...

So, tonight we are celebrating with something we have been saving for just THIS occasion.

Slow & Steady Wins the Race

By our count we are now number #29 on the waiting list! Little by little, inch by inch we are getting closer to meeting baby Haney.


What else have we been up to, well...

Some close friends of ours got married yesterday. The wedding was beautiful and the weather cooperated perfectly. Congratulations Misti & Johnny - we are so happy for you!












We also had a chance to spend some time with Ben's Aunt, who was here for a week from NJ. We spent an afternoon at the pumpkin patch with some of our family. It was so much fun!

Ethiopian Federal Courts Re-Open!!!

Every year the federal courts of Ethiopia close for the rainy season - this usually happens at the beginning of August and goes through the end of September. During this time families can still receive a referral, although referrals do typically slow way down. However, no adoptions can be finalized during the court closure.

We received notice from our agency that the courts re-opened this week - Yea!!! They expect the first few weeks to be pretty slow due to the back log, but adoption cases will start being heard by the courts again!

In other news - there were more referrals this week... we are now #31 and counting!

Another Milestone...

A little background information: Almost a year age we submitted our dossier (aka six months worth of paper work detailing our lives) to our agency. Since then it has been stored in thier main office in St. Louis. The process is to forward this information to thier facility in Ethiopia (House of Hope) when you get closer to a referral. This is truely just a filing space issue - we are still in the same place on the waiting list whether it was here or at the House of Hope. However, we recieved notice today that our dossier was officiall sent to Ethiopia last Friday (September 25, 2009)... Yea!!! We are so excited - it may seem like a small thing, but it's another step forward and we are very happy to be getting even a little closer to meeting Little Haney!

33 and counting!!!

We're movin' on up! This week there were five referrals - all the families waited between 11 and 11 1/2 months. Last December, when we initially got on the official waiting list, we started out at about 100, now we are 33 on the waiting list. Well, more or less... it's not an exact science since there is only one list and not all the families have the same criteria (boy/girl, single/siblings, healthy/special needs).

Six Years Ago Today...

We got hitched! It has been the best six years of our lives. Today we took the opportunity to spend the day together on a nice 30 mile bike ride. It was amazing - although I'm pretty sure we will be feeling it tomorrow.

Ruff.... (More still waiting)

Ruff...........Ruff......

-Lloyd

(Translation: Seriously, I'm so bored, these guys are like so totally lame, I mean I just lay around waiting for this baby, you know someone I can blame for pooping on the carpet, not that I do that or anything, but like you know, just knowing I could if I wanted to. But anyhow, I'm sooo bored. Where's this baby at?)

Summer of Haney

Ok, so you're probably aware that when we started this process over a year ago we thought we would have our little one by this summer... but we are still a few months out. So, we get a second "summer of Haney" (still being able to stay up late, sleep in, and go anywhere at the drop of a hat) and we are going for it!

We realized we had never been to McMenamin's Grand Lodge (which is basically a sin for someone from the Willamette Valley), so we spent a Saturday winding our way up to Forest Grove. On the way we stopped by the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museam... literally "Stopped By" we didn't actually go in. Then it was off to McMenamin's where we played a round of Frolf and enjoyed some Ruby!

Our "annual" trip to SF over Memorial Day weekend:

So, we camped in downtown Santa Rosa yet on a lake... it was a little weird to be in a little "oasis" (well, at least by Bay Area standards) yet in the middle of Santa Rosa. But, it was pretty nice - so we took the opportunity to get out our kayaks. On the way back from the lake Ben was following me and thought I looked like a giant waddling bug from behind. Of course that meant we had to get a picture of it.

Haney, I am your tent!...

Basically, I think our tent looks like Darth Vador, and I mention it everytime we go camping.

Enjoying a lake outside of Redding on the way home... and of course Ben had to utilize the natural body of water - he can't resist it!

Graduation Party - Four of our good friends all graduated from PSU, so a party was definitely in order...

The Crew - Ol' School,

from back in the day yo..............................The WAG... Missy & Andy

..Point... Counter-Point...................................................Ben & Missy

..Erin & Missy....................................................The Essence of Adam

More Waiting

Erin here...

Wow, I never realized how hard the wait would be. Since we started the adoption process (June 2008) it seems like we never do anything, it's just so boring... I wish we had something to keep us occupied and take our minds off the endless wait.

.............Gatherings with Friends - June '08............................Orcas - July '08

A Night Out w/friends - July '08 .....Camping - Aug. '08 .......Vegas - Sept. '08

................Football Season ...................

Ben hid all the really good pictures from last football season... you know the ones that are all GREEN & YELLOW, and the ones from Civil War - GO DUCKS!!!!

Wine Tasting - Sept '08.....................Grape Stomp - Sept '08

................Halloween........................... Winter Snow Storm - Dec '08



.........................................Christmas..............................................

Nikki & Auntie Erin..........................Ryan, Megan, Uncle Ben & Nikki

.....................Missy & Andy's New Years Rockn' Eve..........................

...........................Yurting - Jan '09............................

The Expecting Couple at a football party - Jan '09

.........................Seafood & Wine Festival - Feb '09..........................

...................Yurting with Friends - April '09......................