Are you getting ready??

That is the question of the month! But who has time to pack??!! Kiddos, Work, School for Mommy, School for Big Boys, House Hunting, Wedding Planning (Yippie for my sister!!), Baby Waiting (Yippie for my other sister and her twin baby girls!!), and living out of boxes for two months  makes it really really hard to think about even packing for Ethiopia! 

I don't know what to bring.. I don't know what to wear.. excuse for new clothes?? hmmm..... I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE MY SUITCASES ARE!!!!

We have been looking for a house for months now... well since March to be exact. We have put in multiple offers, all which have been accepted and then we waited for nothing! All short-sales and all taking WAY to long... so randomly we looked at a house that was farther out of town than we thought we wanted... about a half mile on a dirt road. 15 min from TARGET!!! I know... don't worry after the shock was gone I think I will be ok... Anyway, we looked it this past Sunday and fell in love! It is everything we wanted and MORE and all the things we didn't think we wanted but God said "Oh ya, you do!" and we do!

Here is one of the amazing views from the house... 

So on Monday (yes today is Thursday) we put the offer in on the house... after multiple back and forth with the agent, myself, the other agent, the seller... we agreed on a price and on Tuesday we signed the Sale Contact!!!

Sooooooo.... I am going country people! I have no idea how this will play out with my three inch heels... guessing I might need a pair of tennis shoes? We will be the proud owners of a beautiful house on 1 1/2 acres in hopefully less than 30 days!

Did I mention we leave for Ethiopia in 31 days... lol! 

We are oh so excited and Ricky has been looking at all kinda of weird stuff on Craigslist... like fainting goats and chickens... hmmmm.... I think no on the goat but I am willing to talk about chickens...

Here is the garden... and I think I could do chickens and fresh veggies! We are planning lots of fruit trees and some grapes for a little home made wine making! 

So anyway, lots going on over here and not a lot of time to pack for Ethiopia! 

An Update and Wonderful News!!!

Ya… probably been to long since I blogged. Life can get that way sometimes. We are still in-between houses so without the normalcy of our own house I think it feels different to sit in front of my laptop and write. Anyway, enough excuses…. Here is the latest on the adoption!

We received a Court Date!! We are scheduled to leave Los Angeles on Nov 20^th at 4:00 and arrive in Ethiopia on November 22^nd at 11:45am. We are getting to have an overnight in Dubai!!!  I am really excited about that since I have never been anywhere in the Middle East!! We will be gone a whole week this trip. We bought our tickets and have confirmed our reservation for the Morning Coffee House near the orphanage. We have Court on the 25^th, the day after Thanksgiving… and boy will we be THANKFUL!!

Our big man “G” has been sick the past two weeks but we finally got a report this morning that he was completely well and they were happy with his response to the antibiotics. He lost about 2.2 lbs while he was sick and is still lacking an appetite but it sounded like they were doing a good job at enticing him  to eat good food to gain that weight back.

We have close to 200 pairs of Croc’s to take to Ethiopia!!! What a huge blessing! We really need you all to be praying over getting them into the Country. It seems in most recent trips families who have brought a lot of one item have been held at customs for some time. We have been in contact with our Agency and they are speaking with the In-Country coordinators to see if there is anything they can do for us. A letter? Someone from the Orphanage to come receive the items? I guess customs thinks we will sell them there? It makes me sad to see goods being held up in customs when they are needed so much in Ethiopia.  So please please be praying with us that all will go smoothly through customs for the Croc’s!!

I am so thankful for all who participated and made collecting these Croc’s possible! We are so blessed by each of you and especially my sweet friend Terri, who took it upon herself as mission to collect from all over the world!

I am sure we will update again soon!!