The Day Jordan has been waiting for

Jordan had his first baseball game ever on Thursday. It was a scrimmage game and they won by a landslide. Yesterday was their first real game. The boys did so well and they won again. Javier is amazed at how much they have improved from their first practice. They are a strong hitting team. Javier is so thankful he has a couple of other dads who help coach at all of the practices and games. He didn't know what to expect when he committed to coaching, but things are going well. You can see Jordan catching in the last picture.

Julia is 6!

More Easter Photos

Easter

We are moving

If all goes well, we will be moving soon. We were not looking at homes or looking to move, but a realtor friend found an amazing deal/investment and called us knowing that we would soon be a family of 9. It is a foreclosure that we are buying for much less than 1/2 of what it sold for in 2007. It has larger and more bedrooms and more land. The garage will also fit a big 15 passenger van which we will need soon and our current garage would not. It is about 15 minutes further out, thus the great price. We actually were one of 4 bidders the first week and we did not get it, but then 3 days later they called us back because the buyer fell through and then we got it for even less $. That was great, but the timing is also great. If it had been 1 month earlier, we would have been going crazy with adoption paperwork. Now we are just waiting and it will actually be a great blessing to be all moved in and ready by the time the boys come home. I sure would not want to be moving with 2 new little boys either.

So now, on top of birthdays, baseball, swimming (yes the kids have been swimming every day for about 1 week) and church activities, we are doing loan paperwork, inspections, packing, fixing, planning and trying to show the house to possible renters. Soon we will be painting, unpacking, decorating and landscaping. April and May will be a little crazy, so I doubt I will be able to post much the next couple of months.

Pictures

Here are pictures from Joanna's birthday party a few weeks ago and Janae's birthday party last week. Joanna had an animal party so all of the kids dressed up like different animals. Janae chose a delicious cheesecake for her birthday and we spent the day at a company party. The party was at Tumbleweed park and there was tons of food, a pinata, softball and an easter egg hunt. The boss put $ in some of the easter eggs for the kids, so each of our kids got between $3 - $15! We made out good with 5 kids :). It ended up being a great birthday for her. Julia's b-day is this week - so stay tuned for more b-day pictures! All of my girls (except for Jacklyn) and both of my sister's girls are all born within about 1 1/2 months (mid Feb. - end of March). It seems like one of our girls has a birthday party every weekend this time of year.

Janae's 9

Another answered prayer

Today the Orphan Officer at the PHX branch of immigration wrote me back and has been such a blessing. She was so kind and helpful and will have our I-171H document done by tomorrow morning. I will pick it up and take it and the FBI clearances to be notarized and then certified by the Sec. of State. Then they will get shipped overnight to my agency director. He will then send my complete pile of documents to Washington DC and then they will go to Ethiopia. The last things left are the official referral, court date to make them officially ours and then travel. This last part will probably take about 3-4 months total assuming the orphanage is still overflowing with babies. I should find out in the next couple of weeks if the twin boys are still available. Thanks for praying. After so many problems and set backs, things are really going smoothly and quickly.

1 down and 1 to go

Thanks for praying. We got our FBI fingerprint clearances back last week. They came in about 1 week instead of 4 weeks like they quoted! That was such an answer to prayer. Now we are waiting on 1 more document from Immigration and our dossier will be complete. There is a little glitch, in that they have sent us a notice to be fingerprinted again, but my sister gave me the contact information of the Orphans Officer at Phoenix's branch of immigration, so we are praying that she can take care of this glitch for us and expedite this last document.

We are still hoping to get the twin baby boys that we mentioned earlier. Hopefully they will still be available by the time we get our last paper in. Please continue to pray for us.

A lot of other things have been happening around here and I will try to update and post about that as soon as possible.

Joanna is 2

God speed

I got a call yesterday from our director urging me to get my contract, first chunk of $ and documents in asap. He just returned from Ethiopia and said that the orphanage is overflowing with babies. He also mentioned the possibility of twin baby boys. Unfortunately our last 2 papers that he requires for our dossier (the other agency did not require) will probably take another 3 weeks to come in the mail. We are praying that those documents come in God speed. Meanwhile, today I went to the Secretary of State's office and got the other 15 documents certified. Then my sister sent them, my contract and chunk of $ to the director via fed ex for me. So far things have gone smoothly with this agency, Praise God!

Here we go again

A few weeks ago, someone posted that these cute outfits were on clearance online at Gap for $5. I bought some in different sizes for our boys (luckily I had a gift card to use up). Arent' they perfect for our little African children? And short sleeves are perfect for most anytime in Arizona.

We changed agencies a week or 2 ago because of some crazy problems we had. This meant that we have a lot of paperwork to do over again. The new agency was willing to use most of our dossier (packet of legal documents), but I still need to add about 12 documents. I finished all of the documents, but am waiting for 2 to be mailed to me.

The agency's director is in Ethiopia right now filing our papers with the orphanage. He has told us he will have a referral for us within 4 months. Also, the babies/children are paper ready at referral - unlike our other agency in which most of the babies had a 3 month abandonment wait even after referral. We are hoping to have our boys home by fall, but we have learned to be prepared for anything.