Love In Our Absence...

Oh, MY, has life been busy since first "meeting" our son on Thursday, May 19th!  That first week was such a blur of GREATNESS!!!  We have been busy signing and sending photo consents to families who  have kindly reached out and offered to love on our sweet son, take his picture/video, and/or bring him care packages we are putting together for him!  We are extremely blessed by these families!

You can imagine what JOY it brings our hearts to know that the very people we have come to cherish and love, through this amazing adoption world, want to take time out of their visit with their own child or children, to love on OUR BABY!!!!

Words cannot express our gratitude, excitement and utter awe at their loving hearts!  WE CANNOT THANK YOU ENOUGH!!!!!  You are not only gifting us, as parents, a precious gift of watching our babe grow through pictures; you are also providing our son a priceless gift of pictures for his baby book!  AAAHHHHH!!!!!!  LOVE IT!!!!!!

The Rowells' already blessed us with our first pictures and video (other than the 2 pics at referral) last week ~ they caught so many different expressions, it was so fun to see!  Oh, and the VIDEO!  To see our little man in "real life" made me cry!  We were laying in bed the morning we received the pics and video and it felt like another "meeting" of our son!  He is so alert!  THANK YOU ROWELLS'!!!!


The Sorensons' had a court date Monday this week, and did not pass (waiting on MOWCYA letter).  They were one of the first families to offer to photo our son!  They have sent us a couple of pictures, and plan to send us the rest (and video too!) now that they are back on US soil!  WE THANK YOU, JOEY AND CRISSY!!!!


In addition, the sweet Nichols and Hendersen families were quick to offer to love on him and photo him when they travel; and we sent a care package to the Wanderers' ~ who will likely deliver it next week!

The adoption world ROCKS and 

AWAA families are truly A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!

Before I show you pictures of the care packages we sent, I want to ask you to PLEASE JOIN US IN PRAYING FOR THESE PRECIOUS FAMILIES!  Please pray for The Rowells' ~ that they receive Embassy Clearance soon;  The Sorensons' ~ that they pass court and get a swift Embassy Clearance;  The Nichols ~ that their union with their son is amazing and that they pass court the first time; as well as for The Hendersens and Wanderers as they travel to bring their children H.O.M.E!!!!!


The Mullis family is another very special family who has volunteered to take a care package when they travel.  For various reasons, their wait at every.single.stage. of their adoption has been longer than normal.  Including now, as they continue to wait for Embassy Clearance for their 10 y.o. son and little baby girl!  Please pray that they soon hear they are cleared to travel and get their kiddos!  THANK YOU, JACKIE for offering to take a second care package when you get cleared to travel!

GREAT movement was seen last week with passings of court, embassy clearances, etc, and we hope to see this continue!  We cannot wait to see the same movement for these particular families who have ~ or are planning to ~  love on our son!!!!!

Dear Lord,

We know that you have brought every one of these families this far in their adoption process, and we know that you WILL push forward on their behalf.  May you shield each family ~ and their children ~ from any attempt of the enemy to thwart your loving plans to join them as a family.  The enemy loves delays in this process.  May you remove any and ALL obstacles that could slow their progress forward to bringing their children HOME!  FOREVER!!!!  Bask them in your love and in your divine peace as they walk out the remainder of their journeys.  They are so excited to start the new chapters WITH THEIR KIDDOS.  May you bring them to their "new beginnings" smoothly and quickly!  We thank you for blessing us with these families.  We thank you for their generosity to love on our precious son.  May their visits help him to feel their love, our love, and most importantly, Your love.........

Okay.  So, now I can show you pictures.......

Here is Mommy and Daddy signing 

YES!!!!  

WE WANT THIS SWEET BOY TO BE OUR SON!!!!

CARE PACKAGE!

Here is a care package I rushed out 

to the Wanderers' ~ his first delivery!

Isn't the monkey surfer theme sweet!?!? 

Along with the outfit, we sent along little booties that have a little rattle sound whenever he kicks his feet.  We also included a soft blanket and a few small packages of baby lotion ~ in hopes that maybe she will massage it into his sweet little arms and legs......a loving touch goes a long way, right!?!?!?  OH, how I wish that could be US massaging him!......SOON!......Praying it will be us SOON!!!.......

ENJOY THE LOVE IN OUR ABSENCE, SWEET PRINCE!

MOMMY AND DADDY SO LOVE YOU
and CAN'T WAIT TO MEET YOU!

XOXOXOXOXOXO

U2!......

........Need I say more!?!?!?!?

Jeff and I joined our dear friend, Lisa, for a quick down and back trip to Salt Lake City, UT for the U2 360 degree tour ~ yes, we saw them in Phoenix Fall 2009, but they were SO GOOD!  The concert was only days after getting the referral of our son!  We got THE CALL Thursday, May 19th.....Jeff returned home Saturday, May 21st.....and we were off to SLC Tuesday, May 24th!  Great way to celebrate our wonderful news!  That week was so eventful it felt like a blur!  

Weather was rainy the days leading up to the concert, but that evening the sun was shining and the weather truly could not have been more perfect!  I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

Having lunch and margaritas at 

Red Rock before standing in line!

Wow!  SO CLOSE to the stage!

(Waiting in line paid off!)

 Hangin' with Lisa pre-concert.

 Guess who opened for U2!

 .....oh, yeah......he was THAT close to us!

"THE EDGE"

.....is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!!

 U2....we love you!

 Cool red-lit mic that Bono sang into......

.....and swung through the air on!

BONO!  So close we could see his facial expressions!

Rock It, Bono!

YUP!  360 degree screen pretty much ROCKED!

REMEMBERING......

On this Memorial Day Weekend, I thought it would be good for us to remember........and give THANKS...........

(scroll to bottom of blog; "pause" the music player; scroll back to video and hit play)

So many people give, and have given, so much ~ so that each one of us can live this life of freedom, liberty and justice. I try not to take it for granted, but every time I watch a war movie, or discuss with a patient/friend/relative their involvement in a war......I am quickly reminded that the freedom in which we live, was not free. It came at a price. A costly price to many. To many who never knew me. Never even saw my face. But fought for me just the same.

I worry for the upcoming generations.........of their love for our God and country.  Do they love deeply enough to lay down their life for it?!?!?.............

I thank each and every person who has ever given of themselves ~ their time with family; their freedom to live in the luxury of our amazing country; or greater yet, those who have given their life.  May not one of you go unrecognized or unremembered.

May we all realize and remember, today ~ and every day! ~ the priceless gift these people have given us.

The Days After......

Although I cannot share our son's name with you, yet........and I cannot publicy share pictures of his sweet face with you, yet.......I can share the days following that Amazing and Life-changing call with you!

So once family was notified on Thursday, I moved on to sharing with a couple friends (it was getting pretty late by then).  Dear, Sweet Lisa wanted to come right over to share in the excitement with me!  She brought with her a sweet ballon and flower that said, "BABY BOY!" and "IT'S A BOY!"  They were wrapped around a bottle of champagne................which we immediately popped open to celebrate!  We were bummed that "Honey" couldn't be there to join in the celebration, as he (Jeff) was in Philadelphia, if you remember.  THANKS for being so excited, Lis!

Lisa.

Overjoyed "It's a Boy!" was celebrating OUR SON!!!

Everyone was so ELATED to hear the news throughout the weekend!!!!!  Little man, you have been prayed for by SO MANY MANY PRECIOUS PEOPLE!!!!!!  And they are all joining us in praying you HOME!!!!!

We were overwhelmed in a beautiful way by all the Joy, Love, Excitement, Celebratory wishes on Facebook, and Happy Comments here on the blog!  We were so surrounded by LOVE and we FELT it!!!!  Still do!!!!  Please know that each and every one of you ~ family, friends (both old and new) ~ enrich our lives, and we are so excited to have our son grow up knowing such amazing people!!!!!!

Friday night, the day after "meeting our son," was our first ever Girl's BUNCO night!  A few sweet friends asked if I wanted to cancel, as it was going to be at my house.  I just responded giddily (is that even a word.....giddily...?),  "Sure!  I can still host it!  But I was sick yesterday, and since getting to see my son's face, I have done NOTHING toward getting ready to host a BUNCO party, so we'll see how this goes!"  My friends were great about it, and I did manage to pull off making a lasagna that day.  That's about it, though!  I was just having too much FUN Friday chatting it up with friends and family about our little bitty baby!!!!!  Thank goodness I had bought the BUNCO prizes the previous weekend!

BUNCO ROCKED!!!  It was such a treat to share the evening with eleven of my sweet, amazing friends!  Krista asked me how I could even concentrate on the game.......and I just pointed out how poorly I was playing!  Ha!  "I don't mind," I proudly stated, "I have the best prize of the night ~ the day! ~ the YEAR! .......OUR SON!!!!!!!!!"  {giggles and grins}.

Caycee and Allison gave me a few gifts to help all the Amazing Goodness seem real, and sink in a bit.  They brought me a sweet baby boy blanket, and INeSSCENTS African Shea Butter (great for diaper rash, chapped lips, dry skin).  How sweet are they!!!!?????!!!!!????

 Allison, me, Caycee.

My dear friend, Erica, came to BUNCO with a sweet Congratulations gift as well...........

me, Erica.

 Can you just see our precious babe in this outfit!!???  

OMGosh!!!!

I'd have to say the whole evening was a priceless gift!  As much as I wished I could be with my husband to celebrate, I was surrounded by amazing and precious friends, which made for an epic night!  My house may not have been cleaned to perfection (was feeling better that day but not great); my previously planned Tiramasu dessert never got made (was busy staring at my son's beautiful face and sharing our incredible news that day!).........

..............but my heart was overflowing.........

At one point in the night I stared into my son's picture and THANKED GOD (again) for him.  I then scanned the beautiful women surrounding me, and again THANKED GOD!  THANKS, girls, for a wonderful night of Celebration, Worship, Friendship and FUN!!!!  Looking forward to next month's game!

 Erica, Krista, Andrea (holding Catherine), Allison, Sonia.

 Amber, Caycee.

Sonia and her sweet daughter, Catherine.

Bummer that the pic Connie, Karie and Torrie did not turn out!

Next time, girlies!!!!
(We missed you Terra and Abby!)

Friday night was a late one, so I slept in on Saturday.  I laid their for about an hour having a wonderful chat with Doreen, my step-mom.  We went on and on about our sweet baby ~ how beautifully God orchestrated this family union and how blessed we feel as a family!

This was followed by me sharing the news with my sweet friend, Wendy, who wanted to drop her studying right then and there and come over to share in the JOY!!!!  She even brought me my most fav coffee drink!........a Skinny Milkway from Moxie!!!  Her congratulations card was Perfect!!!!

If you can't see the card, it is a boat full of 

kiddos of different ethnicities!  So sweet!

Well, before I knew it, it was time to go welcome hubby home!  I met him at the airport with the "IT'S A BOY!" flower and "BABY BOY!" balloon Lisa had brought me the night before.  I wanted him to be experiencing the love I had been showered in since he left!

F.I.N.A.L.L.Y we were TOGETHER to celebrate the news of becoming parents!!!!  I cannot explain how complete this made things for me!!!  As much love as I had received over the previous two days, hugging my husband and calling him "Daddy!" filled that empty space in my heart that only my husband could fill!!!!!  

Knowing the face of my son and being in my husbands arms.  Now my heart was whole!

WE LOVE YOU, SON!!!!!!!

OUR GIFT FROM GOD!!!!!

"THE CALL" DETAILS....

Well, we are still floating on Cloud NINE and grinning from ear-to-ear!!!  Its a wonder I got any work done at ALL today!!!!  Came home to the news that we have to update our home study, so I got right on that immediately!  Not without a bit of a grumpiness, I must admit.........that is, until I looked into the eyes of our SON!!!!!  Oh, how he just melts.my.heart!!!!!!!

I carry his picture into every room I go, when I am home.  He rides alongside me in the car.  He sleeps next to me (on the nightstand) when I am in bed.  I am totally AMAZED what a calming peace that overcomes me when I look into his precious face!!!!!!  It is absolutely B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L the effect he has on me!!!!!!!  (and Daddy too!)

Well, for those of you interested, and to help me remember the details of getting "THE CALL"  (like I would ever forget such a moment as this!), I wanted to share "the story" with you all.........

It was Thursday afternoon, May 19, 2011.  I was feeling sick ~ well, my not-so-nice friend "Flo" was having another cranky visit, if you want to know the truth of it!  So I wasn't up and moving around much that day.  I was standing in the kitchen, and I cannot describe the SHOCK and AWE I felt when I saw those three area code numbers on my phone.  703!  

I literally gasped ~ even stepped back AWAY from my cell in disbelief!  What was I thinking!?!?  I then tried in my "oh so faith-filled manner" to convince myself that this wasn't THE call.  "It must just be a paperwork question kind of call" I told myself (yes,out loud).  However, deep down I knew that I knew THIS WAS IT!!!!  THIS WAS OUR CALL!!!!  And I was covered in this overwhelming peace, excitement and SHOCK!!!

Having processed all of this in a matter of moments, I took a deep breath and answered the phone, trying to sound all calm and unsuspecting ~ doubt I was very convincing {smile}.  Lauren explained she was helping out Caitlin, our FC, while she was on vacation and proceeded to say that she was calling with our REFERRAL FOR A LITTLE BOY!!!!!!  I immediately started crying.  BAWLING in fact.  Right then and there.

She went on to tell me that he is only 2 1/2 months old!!!!!!  Hearing his age brought me to my knees!  Literally!  The tears flowed even harder.  Yes, I was on my knees, face to the sky/God, crying OUT LOUD like a baby!  You see, I had prayed and prayed for a child as young as possible, hoping to experience as much infancy as possible with our son.  And Lauren just told me that God answered even those little details of my prayers!!!!  (of course his physical, mental and spiritual health were the bigger details I prayed about!)

I have felt, over the last month, that God had confirmed to me that he was bringing us a son who was going to be 2-3 months old.  But again, in my "oh so faith-filled way," I often questioned if that was just my heart's desire, or if that really was confirmation from God!  

Well......it really WAS confirmation from God!  I could hardly believe my ears!

Though Lauren continued to speak, I heard nothing.........except....."We have a 2 1/2 month old baby boy for you!"......."He's GORgeous!"  Oh, I did manage to grasp her words, "He has the most BEAUTIFUL big brown eyes!"  

AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

She was looking at.......and describing to me....OUR SON!!!!!  

PINCH ME!!!!!  IS THIS REALLY HAPPENING!?!?!?!?

I began to think clearly enough to ask Lauren if she could try to conference call Jeff, as he was at the airport about to leave any second for TWO DAYS!!!  His plane must have barely been in the air when she called.  His phone was off.  I couldn't believe he was missing this!!!!

I then apologized for "losing it" and asked her to wait before talking further, so I could collect myself and actually process the other information she was sharing with me.  She graciously giggled and assured me my response was more than okay and appropriate and to "take my time."  I thought to myself, "Oh, honey, you have NO IDEA how LOOOONG this is going to take to sink in!"  {insert giggle here}.  I somewhat gathered myself and tried to listen to the remaining information ~ with a quickened heartbeat, a monstrous grin on my face and joyful tears rolling down my cheeks.

I didn't want to share this ~ THE MOST AMAZING NEWS OF MY LIFE! ~ with anyone before my precious husband!  WHAT!?!?!?!?  How on EARTH was I going to keep this news quiet for two plus hours!?!?!?!!?  

I must have called Jeff's phone ten times, knowing full well he couldn't answer from the plane.  I even went to the email titled "REFERRAL!" reminding myself that I didn't want to open it without Jeff.  God gave me a little extra strength to refrain, as our internet began to malfunction and I could not even open up the email!  I took that as my sign that even "snooping" at the first sentence was a no-no.  

I went to my naturopath appointment (okay, I did share the excitement with her and her front office girl.....but I had to share with someone......who better than mere strangers, as I had only met with her two times previously!)  Then, as time ticked away, I caved and called my mom and shared the news with her!  I knew Jeff would totally understand, which he did!  {sweet guy}

F-I-N-A-L-L-Y Jeff landed in Denver.  He wasn't even off the plane yet, and just as he turned on his phone it began ringing (it was only my twentieth time of calling, I'm sure), and I shared with him the news that he was a DADDY!!!!!  He was so stunned and excited, he made me repeat it to him before it really sunk in!

He got the person sitting next to him to take his picture to capture the very moment he heard the news of his son!  

I was alone at home (in the nursery) at this time, so my computer took my pic, to capture where I was as we opened our "REFERRAL" email together!  Please remember I wasn't feeling well.........

Jeff found got off the plane, found a seat, pulled out his ipad, and we clicked on the "REFERRAL" email simultaneously.  We browsed through the letter and reports rather quickly, wanting to get to our son's pictures!  HUH!  There.he.was.  Right before our eyes!  His precious sweet face.  His GORGEOUS big brown eyes.  His sweet little lips (like his mommy and daddy!).  OH, MY!!!!  

The tears flowed.  Again.  Wonderful, beautiful, tender tears.  Our babe was so little!  Yet he looked rather healthy!  He had immediately captured both Mommy and Daddy's hearts!!!!  We just kept oooing and aahhhhing over him!  We couldn't get over the fact that we had "met" OUR SON!!!!!  The son we had grown to love long before ever laying eyes on him.  And now, seeing him, we were even MORE IN LOVE WITH HIM!!!!!  There was no question in our minds that HE was THE little one we had been waiting for all this time!  HE was the little one God had so Divinely orchestrated to bring to us to create our family!  Not "just any boy" would do.  It was meant to be our little K*****!  

AND HE IS WORTH THE WAIT!!!!!!

People told me when we laid eyes on him we would totally understand why we had to wait so long.  TOTALLY TRUE!!!!  We understand that pain of our longer wait was because he wasn't even born yet, when we were 6 months DTE!!!  Oh, how the wait seems trivial as I gaze into our precious son's face.

We went back up in the email and reviewed the previous information and learned more about our precious babe.  Praising God for His health!!!!  It took Jeff's plane being called to board to force us to move from our spots ~ well, Daddy, anyway.  Mommy stayed in the nursery a while longer just staring at his face.  His picture has never left my presence since ~ although it is hidden when not at home.

You see, unfortunately, we are not allowed to share with you the beauty of our babe.  Yet!  To protect his privacy, we cannot publicize his face until he is officially OURS.  This occurs when we PASS COURT!!!!!!!  

"So what is next?"  We begin waiting.  Again.  Only this time, we know WHO we are waiting for.  We know WHO we have been loving all along this journey.  We know our son!

We wait to hear of when we can have a court date.  When we receive this date, we will get to travel to Ethiopia to meet K***** for the first time and go to court to state our commitment to love and cherish this little boy for the rest of our lives.  To PASS court (which means it becomes official that he is our son), an Ethiopian agency must produce this one ever-so-important letter stating Ethiopia's approval of this adoption.  NO adoption can be final without this letter.  If this letter is not present, we do not pass court.  And won't until that letter is written.

This burdens our hearts, in that this agency, MOWCYA, has inconsistently had this letter present for people's first court date.  They do get it written in time, but there is not real way to predict when it will be produced.  

Here's where YOU come in!!!!  We ask each and every one of you to PLEASE PRAY OUR SON HOME!!!!  Please PRAY that we get a court date in JULY and that we PASS that first court date!!!!

You see, the Ethiopian courts close for (TWO MONTHS!!!!!) in August due to the Rainy Season over there.  With all the rain, travel is nearly impossible (think dirt roads with large pot holes), so they close down the court system.  If we do not pass before this closure, it could delay our son's arrival HOME by 2-4 months!  

That is a difference of passing court in July and coming home early September or not passing court and hoping to have him home by Christmas! 

PLEASE, PLEASE PRAY WE NOT JUST GET A 

COURT DATE IN JULY BUT PASS IN JULY!!!!!!!  

HELP PRAY OUR LITTLE GUY HOME!!!!!!!

Please also pray that God will bring him nannies to love on him, nurture him, attach to him (so its easier for him to attach to us!), feed him and encourage him to thrive.  That he will be able to feel God's presence and love, as well as Mommy and Daddy's love.

We cannot THANK YOU enough for all of your prayers, love and encouragement through this process!  Although you may not be able to look into our precious son's eyes yet, trust us!  

HE IS WORTH EVERY PRAYER!  EVERY TEAR!  EVERY MOMENT SPENT WAITING!!!!!  

But we hope to have the remainder of this process go smoothly and quickly, so as to bring this amazing boy HOME!!!!!!!!

WE GOT THE CALL!!!!!!!!

IT'S A BOY!!!!!

A PRECIOUS MOST AMAZING BABY BOY!!!!

A 2 1/2 month old sweet baby boy

 with the most gorgeous big brown eyes!

We are SO BLESSED!

Since we cannot share his photo with you until we officially pass court, we asked our dear friend, Rick, to make us our own Ethiopia ultrasound!  I've been saving it to post with our REFERRAL announcement!!!!!  

And-it-is-FINALLY-time!!!!!!

MAY 19, 2011 at 1:51pm 

our lives were changed 

FOREVER!!!!

Yes, you read that right!  We actually got THE CALL on THURSDAY afternoon!!!  Why have we waited until Saturday to "go public" with our AMAZING news!?!?!?!?  

Jeff was out of town (can you believe it!?) when I got the call (details next post)!  He spent all Thursday traveling, and worked literally all day and night Friday in Philadelphia.  Given this weird travel and work situation, I phoned my family throughout the day Thursday while Jeff travelled (MAJOR bummer for Daddy!), and we tried to conference call his side of the family once he arrived (LATE) in Philadelphia.  

He was so jam-packed full on Friday that windows of opportunity to contact other friends and family were very limited for him.  So, once again, I got to enjoy phoning friends all Friday and Saturday, while Daddy worked!  It was SOOOOOOOO hard for me to not post our glorious news on FB or the blog, but I did not want to steal Jeff's thunder and have the world know before he had a chance to share our news with others personally.

We apologize if we did not get to call you!  It is NOT that you aren't important.........it's just that we have been sitting on this MOST WONDERFUL NEWS long enough and are about to EXPLODE with JOY!!!!!  

We can wait no longer to share with the world........

WE HAVE A SON!!!!!!

THANK YOU, GOD!!!!!!!

Lord, I am so incredibly sorry for my moments of impatience on this journey. You DO know BEST and your timing IS Perfect!  We stare into the face of our ever-precious son and we know that we know that we know that HE is THE CHILD you hand-picked for US!!!!!!  

We are OVER THE MOON HAPPY!!!!!  

We praise you for your faithfulness, Lord!!!  Each time I come to you in prayer to praise and thank you for our son, I am moved to tears.  I strive to find a way that captures our gratitude, but no words seem to suffice.  A dear friend reminded me that raising our son as best as we can.........and to teach him to know you as Lord of His life.......this is the best way we can say THANK YOU.  Lord, you know this is  our deepest desire.  To love him, cherish him, encourage him, provide for and protect him.  But most importantly, we want to teach him to know you intimately and to respect you as Lord of his life.  We praise you for the ways in which you are preparing us to do just that.  

We love our son, Lord.  He is perfect.  He is worth every tear cried.  Every moment spent waiting.

We love you, Lord.  Not just for what you have just given us, but for what you have already done for us~  dying on the cross and creating a way for relationship with our Heavenly Father.  But tonight, and these past two days, we humbly come to you with a deep sense of awe and gratitude for this most precious gift of life.  Our son's life.  How you orchestrated this family will forever amaze us.  It will forever remind us of your love, faithfulness, and desire to bless us beyond our wildest imagination!!!!!!  

THANK YOU, LORD!                                                   

 AMEN.  

Friendship and Fun

Life has been crazy BUSY as of late.  That's okay.  Helps feed my mind and heart in this loooooong drawn out wait.  

Don't you just LOVE having dinner with special friends!?!?!?

These are our oh-so-precious friends from West Africa!  They live in town and bless our lives by their very presence.  God's peace and joy just oozes from them!  We LOVE it!  And THEM!!!!

I couldn't let this evening of love, joy and fun pass by the blog.  Besides, I actually remembered to take some pictures!.  How could I not, with such an extra special babe to photograph!

Sonia, Everest and 

baby Catherine.

Jeff and Catherine......I wonder if 

she realizes his beard is gone!?

Sweet precious babe

awaiting her playmate(s).

LOVE this little one!

   

Pure Bliss!


Hope this finds each one of you maximizing your days.  Daily!
This really IS a Wonderful Life!

AFRICA DAY!

Want to know how SWEET, CARING and PRECIOUS my friends at work are!?!?!?!?!?.........

They decided that they wanted to have an "AFRICA DAY", where we all wear our family's adoption t-shirts and everyone tries to bring some form of African food ~ didn't have to be Ethiopian, specific, but we were to try to bring African food.  We have two clinics, and I work at both on alternate days, so there was actually TWO Africa Days last week!

The intent of this day was to send good vibes, prayers and love to our little one(s), in hopes of bringing our referral soon!!!!!

GREAT, IDEA, RIGHT!?!?!?!?!?

I AM SO BLESSED TO WORK WITH SUCH AMAZING FRIENDS!!!

Well, my dear DEAR friend, Allison, heard of this special event and wanted to contribute!  She wanted everyone to be able to experience authentic Ethiopian cuisine, so she volunteered to make us lentils!  As she started making them, her enthusiasm took over and she made us TWO different kinds ~ one Alecha (?), (which looks like baby poop but tastes amazing) and Mesir (which is more spicy because of the berberre...everyone loved the "kick" it had)!  BLESS HER HUGE HEART!!!!!

My awesome friend, Caycee, gave me the number to a local precious native Ethiopian woman, Baylenesh ~ "B"~ (totally not sure if I spelled that correctly).  "B" is the woman who demonstrated how to make a variety of ET foods the morning of our ET Christmas in January.  Very sweet lady.  She makes a lot of authentic Ethiopian cuisine for her own family as well as for purchase, so I ordered some injera to go with the lentils.  I also requested an item or two that goes well with injera.

Injera still in plastic wrap

Well............Baylenesh made us FOUR foods to go with the injera:  ATKILT WOT (curried vegetable stew....she made two versions, one spicier with jalepeno peppers); GOMEN (collard greens), MISIR WOT (split lentils with ET spices).

THANK YOU, Baylenesh!

Yummy cookies that reflect all the LOVE 

showered on our babe(s) on Africa Days!

It was an INCREDIBLE array of food!  It was so FUN for everyone to try each one and RAVE about the flavor!  Jeff even stopped by both days and got to be a part of all the FUN, GREAT FOOD and GOOD WISHES to our babe(s)!!!!

 Brian (fellow therapist) and Hubby!

Oh, but that wasn't the end of our awesome African cuisine!  Heidi made Bobotie and yellow rice.......it ROCKED!!!  Danielle made this churizo/carmelized onion sandwich that was to-die-for good, and Tawnya made African Peanut Soup that was soooo yummy!  There was fresh fruit, desserts ~ Sweet

Shara even made Coconut Macaroon cookies (yes, SHE made them......not her mom!  ha!)

Heidi (one of our massage therapists)

Bobotie and yellow rice are the 

first two items in this picture

Danyelle's African chorizo dish!

Tawnya's African Peanut Soup!

I just LOVE how everyone googled "African food" and really went to town with this!  There was SO MUCH each day that I hope I didn't leave anything out!  

Getting a picture of all of us at one time in a physical therapy clinic is rather difficult, but here are some of the photos I was able to get on our Africa days!

Kathy~sweet friend and fellow PT

(yes, in middle of treatment)

Part of the downtown clinic crew!

(had a patient take the photo ~ didn't realize we were so far away!)

(From R) Front Row: Teresa, Danyelle, Pam, Teresa
Back Row: me, Frank, Brian, Michelle

Please know that Jeff and I THANK EACH and EVERY ONE OF YOU!!!!  For your friendship, love, good vibes, prayers, continued support and encouragement on this journey to our babe(s)!  

WE.CHERISH.YOU!!!!!

Here's hoping all this positive energy and prayers 

brings our babe(s) referral SOON!!!!!!