a few pictures!

2 weeks down

So we have been home for a little over 2 weeks now and we don't wanna brag but we have such a brave and strong little man on our hands. He is doing amazingly well! He is adjusting to pretty much everything. The car seat is no big deal, the dogs are his best friends now, the cat not so much but they have a love/hate relationship, also he loves the bath now. All of the big things that were very scary for him he has tackled and shown us such resilience!

We can't thank everyone enough for all of the encouragement and for our amazing friends and family for surrounding our son with so much love! Thank you to everyone who has brought meals over.. it has been so nice! It is so great to focus on Zena and not what's for supper... you are all amazing!!!

Our journey has just begun and I would be lying if I said that jumping into toddler age is a smooth transition but with all of the frustrations there are so many laughs and hugs that make us forget why we were so frustrated!

I also wanted to let those who have followed us our travel companians are doing great as well. We love our ET friends and I have been blessed with 2 new amazing friends Michelle and Leah, who without words no exactly what I mean every step of the way! I love you girls both and I know God knew exactly what He is and was doing by sending us to ET with you and your families!

There are so many people to thank and our families have surrounded us with so much love and support and have really given Zena exactly what he needs for this to be an easy transition for him. We can't thank you enough for that and know God has put us in the right spot!

Thanks! We love you all!

We are Home!!!

We made it home!!! Zena is doing amazing!!! The plane ride was better than expected. He slept for a lot of the long part and screamed or the last hour or so, so not too terrible! :) He is REALLY afraid of the dogs right now so that is the next big challenge. He is settling in to his new house and toys just fine. the quiet shy Zena does not exist when we are home alone, he is a normal crazy 2 1/2 yr old boy!!!! Which is the biggest blessing we could have asked for!! We had a good trip Jason and I were both sick so it felt a little longer than it actually was in reality. I will post more later we just wanted to let everyone know we are home safe and sound and laughing!!! :) Again thank you all so for the prayers, we are so blessed by all the people that care and have been praying for our journey. :)

Z's Coming Home1!!

We got "the call" friday morning and we are leaving this coming wed. We will get there on thursday and be back home with our little man on fri feb 25! We are soooo excited and anxious to leave! We definitely were getting a little moody by the end of this journey and we want to thank those close to us that put up with the bad days/moods! We don't mind any questions that anyone has so pleases ask. Adoption is such an amazing process just as any process that brings a child into your life! God has been so good to us and we pray that he continues to watch over our Ethiopian families too as we travel back to see them all. We can't stop smiling and singing praises!!! Thank you everyone for all the kind words and prayers!!! There will be pictures of lil Z man soon!!! :)

Court Trip

We got the official word today that we passed court!!!! "Z" is officially our lil man! We now wait 4-6 weeks to get our date to go back to Ethiopia and bring him home. The time in between is when the court is getting his birth certificate and paperwork ready to legally come into our country. We got home this past saturday from what was a very long flight (18hrs) but so worth the trip. We met Z last tuesday for the first time and within the first ten to 15 minutes he was smiling and laughing for us. God is so awesome and He has given us a beautiful lil boy! Also we feel in love with the Ethiopian people! it was such an amazing trip. We went with a group that we feel so blessed to know and we are praying that we get to all travel again very soon! Also something very cool we met Z for the first time on tuesday and Brent and Brooke brought (well mostly Brooke but Brent was there) our newest niece Kyndall into the sunny lil world! Praise God everyone is doing so well!!!! We are truly a blessed family!!! :)

Awesome News

We leave in 13 days!!! We were not expecting to get an update on "Z" before we left and we got one today!!! He is doing really good and we got some more pictures that brought me to uncontrollable tears! I agree with a dear friend of ours that told us that we are going to cherish these pictures later. We definitely do now but i know when we look back years from now these pictures will still bring tears to my eyes. We are so in love and can not wait to let him know!!!! :)

19 Days

We have 19 days until we leave for our court trip!!! We are getting excited to meet "Z"! As long as we pass court he should be home end of January/ beginning of Feb timeline! Which is quickly approaching. We have had people asking so I thought I would post here and give a list of items that we are collecting as donations to take to the orphanage. Please don't feel obligated to donate I just wanted to get the list out there. Here are a few items that we are collecting:
cloth diapers
diaper rash cream
formula
onesies/clothes (any size)
wipes
liquid vitamins
No stuffed animals(they are too germie :) )
We can't leave anything specifcally for Z either, whatever we take is shared by all the children.
We have already started packing and we are getting ansy to get on that plane. Thank you all so much for your prayers!!! :)