Another "connection" made!

What a big suprise yesterday to receive these photos of Hailu!! We JUST put this small package together a couple of weeks ago and sent it off....and to now see him looking at it all, half-way across the world, is so crazy to me! We are so blessed and thankful to the Lord for the constent gift of monthly updates and photos of him....it is truly something that I have learned NOT to take for granted! I LOVE getting these pictures especially because , after seeing his expressions, and knowing that he has seen everything we sent, I feel like another "connection" has been made. It is all we have right now....pictures, letters and a few videos....but it is SOMETHING at least. At least he will be familiar with what we look like and knows now from our letters that we love him and that we are so excited to meet him!!

In the photos below, he is opening up one of those musical cards....I think he really liked it, judging from his smile.

I wonder what he is thinking about as he looks at these photos of us.....I think that in the photo in the middle he looks like he is JUST looking at Mike.....maybe not, but if so, I wonder if he is thinking about how he now has a Dad..... When I pointed this out to Mike, he had a HUGE smile on his face....

It is so hard for me to believe that we will soon be traveling to bring him home to our family! It feels like a dream sometimes to me. I have to say, that this is a similiar feeling to when I was pregnant with Isaac.....we had gone through a lot and after thinking that I may not ever have a baby, to finally be pregnant was surreal! I am so thankful to God for the challenges and hard times that He has allowed us to experience along the way to each of our boys. We have grown closer to Him and I think that we appreciate the gift of these boys much more than if we hadn't experienced some of these things. He ALWAYS knows best! Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6

Hailu is no longer an orphan!

I am way too excited to type out a post right now!

Everything passed and went well with the court case and Hailu is now legally and officially our son!!!!! Hailu Darcho Barrow is no longer an "orphan"...... I will type more later....but I wanted to post the videos that many of you have been waiting to see and a photo of our handsome guy!

Praise God! We are so thankful !

The court date is set!!

  On April 27th 2010 , somewhere in the city of Addis Ababa our court hearing will be taking place!  We just got word yesterday....although it is a crazy story, because I emailed our case manager just to see if anything new was going on...I hadn't heard anything for several weeks and I was so curious.....we were wondering why we hadn't gotten a court date yet.  Well, she emailed me back and said that nothing new was going on except for waiting for the outcome of our court case on Tuesday April 27th!  I was shocked !  Court on Tuesday?!!!  I didn't even know we had a court date!  So, I immediately emailed her back and expressed my excitement, but also told her that I never knew until now!  She called me right away, AND emailed me to tell me that her and Emily B. had both emailed me 2 weeks ago!!  They forwarded me the emails that were sent.....I have no idea why, but they never came through in my email account....I know I didn't just miss them or accidentally delete them, because I have been obsessed with checking for this announcement...I wouldn't have passed over it.  Those of you that are adoptive parents, KNOW what I mean.....any time you see an email from someone from your agency you are anxious to open it up and see what they have to say!!  For whatever reason, the emails didn't come through then, but I am glad we know now!

Now we have less than a week to wait!  It is hard to believe that after next Tuesday he could officially be our son!  My heart literally aches with excitement when I think of how close we are to going to pick him up and bring him home!  All I can do is just praise God and thank Him for what He has done this past year throughout this whole process!  So many lives changed and touched just from one simple adoption....and he isn't even home yet!  God works in amazing ways and I feel so privileged that He has chosen to use our family to do this amazing thing for Him and this child.  My heart's strong desire and my sincere prayer has been that we continue to follow Him and what He would have us do and say.     

One more thing before I end this and get started on my day.....Anya also sent his measurements yesterday.  We immediately pulled out the measuring tape and began to compare his measurements to Isaac's.  He is the EXACT same height now, exact same leg and arm length, his waist is a little bigger than Isaac's and his foot is one inch larger? (not sure if he had a shoe on when they measured his foot)......and his chest was exactly the same as Isaac's!  He was weighing 2-4 pounds less than Isaac, and now is 3 pounds more than him!  We couldn't believe it!  We thought it was so funny how similiar they are going to be!  I love it!

Gifts

Last week Isaac and I eagerly opened up a package that came from CWA.....any emails, packages and letters that come from our agency always brings excitement and curiosity!  What a nice surprise to open it up and get these gifts from them! I thought that this was such a nice thing to do and it achieved the result I am sure they were hoping for when they sent it!  It brightened my day and their thoughtfulness encouraged me!

We also received another VERY exciting gift this week!!  3 new videos clips of our son in Addis!!  This was unexpected, and when we saw the emails with videos attached, Isaac and I were so happy (Mike was still at work at this point)!  We watched him kick the soccer ball around, sing a wonderful song (he has a great singing voice!) and say his ABC's and count in English (he did really well)!  In one of the clips she asks him his name and he says his name and then OUR last name.."Barrow"!!  It gave me "butterflies" in my stomach.....and when Mike came home and he saw that particular video, he smiled really big and chuckled a little ( he really liked that!).  He is more handsome than ever and he seems to have matured and displays much more confidence than in the video we watched of him 1 year ago.  What a gift from God to have this little glimpse of our son so far across the world from us right now!  We are so greatful to the staff in Addis and to God for this!
We should be hearing of a court date within the next week or so.....we are getting very close to the end of this process and will soon be meeting him face to face!
One more gift I will mention that I think about daily and we are SO thankful for.  I will devote an entire post to this some day soon.....  We have some very dear friends in our lives now, that have wrapped their arms around us and made us feel so supported and loved.  They are Ethiopian, born and raised there....and they have 2 children that were born here in the United States.  The amount of support and information, and love that they have given ,and are promising to give when our son comes home, is overwhelming to me!  God has handpicked them and placed them in our lives, and for this I am SO thankful.   More about this to come....
I am praising God because He not ONLY gives us everything that we need, but MORE than we deserve because He loves us! May I never take these obvious gifts and provisions for granted!

Easter

When my dad was preaching today, I found myself wanting to cry several times.....cry for joy that God has chosen ME to choose HIM and that my eyes have been opened to the truth that IS!   Also, I felt sad and my heart ached for those that just don't "get it" or those that are selfishly choosing to ignore the very One who gives them breathe.  People saw Jesus with their own eyes....the many miracles He performed and most importantly, many witnessed that He indeed did resurrect from the dead!  There has never been anyone, or anything like the story of Him that has held fast and true, and spread worldwide throughout the years.  I have seen Him change many lives, and I KNOW that He has changed mine!  I am so thankful that I can celebrate in confidence that I am His and He is mine!

After church we hurried home to let the dogs out and then head over to Mike's Aunt and Uncle's house for dinner.  Isaac was bummed that his cousin's Yana and Val wouldn't be with us this year, but he ended up having a great time.  We all did!  The food was great, the conversation was wonderful, and it was a beautiful sunny day!  

Ethiopia celebrated Easter today also....apparantly this doesn't happen very often....our calendars lined up for Easter this year.  I hope our little man had a wonderful day there as well!  I can't wait to have him with us next year!

In the pictures below, you will see Isaac letting their dog lead the way as he looked for eggs....she was sniffing them out the whole time!  It was really funny and cute.....so he didn't have his cousins to do the egg hunt with, but he had Sandy. :) 

Coconut Layer Cake I made: Recipe was from America's Test Kitchen Ron and Christine!

Good Friday

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=As8opDEkc9o   I started to type out a post for today, but there weren't any words that seemed right...this song says it all.