Happy Halloween

If you look closely, you'll see the lolly pop in Colton's mouth that I used to bribe him to hold still--great parenting skills!

Viking-I made that cape and tunic (my mom helped)

Ballerina

Our football costume makes it's third appearance--down, set, hut.

Just Love Coffee Fundraiser

Nick and I signed up several months ago to be a part of this coffee fundraiser. The site officially launched today. It was started by a man who was in the coffee business and adopted two girls from Ethiopia earlier this year. He wanted to find a way to give back to Ethiopia and help other families through the adoption process. If you purchase coffee through our store front, we receive $5 for every bag. There are six different original blends. The Ethiopian blend is certified organic for anyone that is interested. If you'd like to help support our adoption, you can view our store front at www.justlovecoffee.com/TheIrvins. Please feel free to pass this site onto anyone who might be interested. This would make a unique gift idea as we approach the Christmas season!

Dossier in Ethiopia

Our dossier was excepted last week on Monday the 12th, then sent for authentication in Washington DC and back to Georgia. It arrived back at our agency in time for the director to personally hand delivery it to Ethiopia. He had a trip planned for the 16th and was able to carry our dossier with him along with the care packages that we had sent for the girls. How cool is that? Coincidence, I think not. We got pictures this Monday of our girls opening our care packages. It is amazing to see them holding the bag of things that we sent them. Our little one looks scared in a lot of the pictures that we've seen of her. I'm glad she has her sister there, but I can't wait to get them home.

Court is reopened now (it closes every fall for the rainy season). Court dates have been assigned to many of the families in our agency this week. Our dossier will be translated and then submitted to the courts for a court date. We're hoping to have a date before the end of the year.

Please keep praying for the safety, health and well being of our girls while they wait.

Family Photos

I took some pictures of our family to put in a photo album to send to the girls with our next care package. I'm not sure when the next families will travel, but I want to have it ready. I wanted to get close up pictures of all of us so they can start to recognize us. Above is my attempt to get one of Colton. He is such a mischievous boy these days. I think these photos capture his little personality well. I settled on the last shot of Colton to send.

Travel Shots

Nick and I had to get shots for our upcoming trip to Ethiopia. I ended up getting 4 shots. Nick got a bonus one, bringing his total to 5. For anyone that knows Nick, you know how much he avoids needles. He was brave though and we made it through.

Sand Castle Day

Today Nick took Caleb to the beach for a school field trip. The kids have been learning about the Medieval time period and castles, so they had a friendly castle building competition. Nick researched a design, packed a load of supplies (large shovels, small shovels, buckets,spray bottle, forks, chisel....). His planning paid off-Caleb won 2nd place!

Labor of Love

I sent our second dossier off this evening. I had all 3 kids with me while I made 271 copies for our dossier (they each ate 3 tootsie roll pops while they waited (the were the mini ones, so it's not as bad as it sounds). Our agency requires 7 copies of the entire document which amounted to about 2 .5 inches of paperwork when I stacked it all up. Regrettably, I forgot my camera, so you'll just have to take my word for it. It was a massive mailing.

I don't think I've mentioned this, but I happened to call our old agency last month and ask them if the had sent our dossier away yet. It had been 3 months already, so I was certain they would have already sent it, but thought it wouldn't hurt to ask. Well, they had not sent it yet and they were able to ship the whole thing back to me. This saved me the trouble of reordering birth certificates, getting employment letters, medical clearance letters.....another one of God's provisions in this whole thing.

So now we enter into another waiting phase. The dossier will be sent to the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington DC for authentication and then onto Ethiopia for translation. Hopefully everything will be ready for us to apply for a court date by early November. A court date could be assigned as early as mid December. Please pray for a smooth process from this point on.

Birth Order

As we've mentioned before, our last agency discouraged us from placing children out of birth order. The following is a link from a mom that had three biological children and has since adopted 6 Ethiopian children. I think her explanation of birth order and "displacement" of children from their birth order is right on. Our current children's birth order is technically being preserved (Caleb is still the oldest, Caroline is still in the middle, and Colton is still the baby-a role he is excelling in these days). However, if we had focused on only bringing children home that were younger than Colton (as our last agency required), we would have missed out on our sweet girls. Blessings from Ethiopia: A Greater Capacity#links#links#links#links (scroll up once you go to the link to see the post).

Couldn't Resist

I hadn't bought anything for the girls until my mom and I went shopping on Monday. Aside from the care package items, I just couldn't resist these adorable matching pajamas. I can't wait until my three little girls are all here together to fill them up.

Care Packages

We officially accepted the girls and sent our letter of acceptance on Saturday. Monday, I got confirmation that they received our letter and the agency invited us to join their Yahoo group. We got to see videos and pictures of the girls from families that have recently traveled. Everyone that has met them says that they are so, so sweet and that the older sister (H.) is very motherly to M. (her little sister). They are so cute! It is really fun to see them in action. In one video, all of the kids are dancing around. H. has the cutest shoulder action going.

We were also able to send care packages for the girls. My mom and I rushed out Monday night to get them ready (they have to be in Georgia by Friday). The director of the agency is traveling to Ethiopia soon, so he will deliver them to them. We should get more pictures and an update on how they are doing as well. This will be the girls' first indication that we are coming for them. I included a picture of our family in the package. Please pray that the news of their new family will be well received by them and for their upcoming life altering transition into our family. We want it to go as smooth as possible for them.

I wake up at all hours of the night thinking of them, what they are doing, how they are, all the things we need to learn and do in the next few months. I should have our dossier done this week and then we'll be on our way to having our documents translated and applying for a court date. We are so excited!!