Adoption--The Latest

I wish I could say I was posting something good, but unfortunately will are still stuck in a bit of an adoption black hole. We have been waiting since December for a simple letter from the local government where T. is from. We don't know why it is taking so long, but nothing can progress until we have it. The only news we have received is that of the 6 families all stuck in this same place, 3 of the families received their letters about 2 weeks ago. It is rather frustrating to be on the wrong side of 50%. We are, as we have been these last months, hoping our own letter comes soon! It is all in the Lord's hands, and we must trust to his timing.

As long as I was posting pictures of the boys, I thought I should add the boys school photos from this year. All I can say is we paid way too much for way too little.

So while we did ask that they wear their jackets for the pictures, we had no idea they would zip up their jackets all the way to their chins. Tell me again why I bothered to put them in nice shirts?

My Little Boys

I have been blessed with some of the cutest boys on the planet. I have also been blessed by a dear woman in the ward who offered to take free family photos for anyone who wanted one. Unfortunately, D was already out of town so we were unable to get a full family photo--maybe when he gets back--but I did take the opportunity to get some pictures of my boys. It's funny how hard it can be to get 3 boys to pose for something simple like a few photos--I felt like I had just finished a long wrestling match when our session was finally over. (If the pictures seem a little dark, it is because the transformer for one of the lights wasn't working and so we had to do with much less light than expected, but beggars can't be choosers, and I am well content with how they all turned out!)

As you can see, my children were showing off the silly parts of their personalities.

I couldn't decide which of these pictures of K. to put in, so I went with both of them. :)

Adoption Saga

On Dec 15th we were informed that our orphanage cleared all investigations and everything should be moving along again--at snail pace! On Fri we were told they are still waiting for letters from the government that allow them to petition for a court date. When are we ever going to get moving forward again? Our hearts are breaking knowing that T. is waiting for us, in the orphanage, not getting the love that we can't wait to give her. We know the Lord is with us and helping us through this waiting that is nearly unbearable

Tae Kwon Do

While we wait for news about our little girl, life goes on. I thought I would show a little of what I spend my life doing--or at least a little of why I'm always on the go. For the last several months, I. and A. have been taking Tae Kwon Do. Just tonight they tied on their Tiger Cub blue belts (it's a white belt with a blue stripe in the middle). I only have a picture from when they tied on their green belts, but all the award ceremonies look the same. I think we are about to take a break from Tae Kwon Do, but I had to show they at least once in their totally cute uniforms.

Their new belts are tied on.

Here they are with their certificates.

They always take their old belts and throw them in the air at the end of the award ceremony. Their own little graduation tradition. (Yeah the picture isn't the best, sorry.)

Adoption Update

Here is the latest report--and we only wish we had better news to report. Apparently, our agency's orphanage in Addis Ababa is one of the ones being investigated after some bad press from the Australian BBC a few months ago. The story was about some pretty horrific behavior on the part of a particular adoption agency. Our agency was not listed as an offender on the show, but they must have gotten some of the children in the orphanage from similar areas. I am still working on getting more information from them as to why they are part of this investigation, but getting information from them is like pulling teeth. I really have not been impressed by our agency in the least since we always get our information by looking at other sources, and are only told information long past the fact and only through prodding. I had actually asked my agency if they were involved in this set of investigations over a month ago to which they had replied no. These investigations--at least on other orphanages--began in early Nov, but I was only informed on Dec 8th because I've been pestering them for more information for over a month as to why we do not have a court date scheduled. Their previous response was that the courts were backed up, however, I knew this was incorrect from a friend who is also adopting from Ethiopia. So the moral of the story--be very careful what agency you choose to adopt through. If I could go through another agency, I would, but there is still a very beautiful, innocent little girl that we cannot bear to forget. Hopefully everything will be worked out soon.

The Best Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year, we did the funnest thing ever. We went to the Bern Switzerland temple! A short 8 hour drive, makes it a good trip for a long weekend like Thanksgiving. And since it was a planned ward temple trip, there were many people to trade babysitting (I think this was the first time in years D. and I got to go together), and many of our best friends were there to share some fun time together. We were able to stay at the hostel there at the temple and had the funny coincidence of running into the Harris' from Loveland who are serving a mission in southern Italy!

This is a quick picture we took from the road on our way there. Switzerland is such a pretty country, we could have filmed the whole drive nearly. It doesn't represent any of their tall mountains, but some of the beauty of that country.

The temple is so beautiful, don't you think!?

Here is a quick family photo of us outside the temple. We took the children on a night walk around the grounds so we could admire it at night and have a good talk. In the morning of one of the days, all the Primary kids there got to meet with the temple president and talk with him. It was a very neat experience.

The boys were fascinated by this simple Christmas tree on the temple grounds.

Before heading back, we spent half a day in Bern touring the city and checking out their Christmas market. This was a candy store our friends showed us that has a slide into their below street level store. Here I. takes his turn.

And now A!

K. says, "I want to eat it all up! Candy, candy, more candy!"

Our friends next showed us a store with an open elevator that you jump on when it's level with the floor your on and that you can ride full circle (up one side and then down the other) without getting off, so you see all the mechanisms. Neat and creepy at the same time.

We also visited a church known for having an amazing 360 view of the Alps and all the surrounds. D., K., and I didn't go up top, but I. and A. went to the top with our friends and took some photos for me. I thought this was a pretty good representation of the view.