Care packages!!!

Our first carepackages to our kids will be in thier little hands very soon!!! While we sleep tonight over in Ethiopia another traveling family will meet our children and deliver them our presents!!! They will get to be my hands and feet, they will hold them and take pictures and show them thier very first picture of thier new family!!!!! I will get to see new pictures of my kids too! Next week our 2nd presents will be on thier way to my children with another traveling family, we are so blessed to have such an amazing support group with our extended adoption family! I could'nt survive this journey without you all!!!

Court date miracle...

It has been crazy since we got the call!!! We are lovin staring at our children's faces!!! I cant wait till we are able to share with the whole world! In order to do that we have to have judge declare us leagally thier parents..well...courts close Aug 6- sept. 27th so If a HUGE miracle doesnt happen looks like we wont meet our children till October:( Sooo I pray for Miracles!!!!!! Big ones...1) that we are submitted to court ASAP and 2) We get assigned a court date before they close they are already scheduling for Aug.2nd so like I said HUGE miracle!!! So please pray....also pray for my kids to be comforted while they wait for us..They are little and Im sure they are very confused.. Our first presents are on thier way very soon. I bought Hallmark recordable books, so when they open the book and turn the pages they will hear my voice and my daughters voices reading to them. They will also see a picture of thier new family soon...Thank you to the mommies that are going to see my kids and hold them.. It is so comforting knowing someone else will be there to hug them when we cannot..

Referral day...

Thought I would share the story of our referral day... I laugh now when I think back at the day! It started like every other thursday did since we went DTE.. I started the morning off with my daily text to my DTE buddy Kelly! Thursday we texted all day and prayed for each other all day! The day went on with the usual Facebook stalking and me whining about no phone call. I also watched my Blackberry for any emails of other families who may post about thier referrals. So as the day gets later and later us waiting for referrals get more and more discouraged as we know the agency closes at 5! So I have now instant messaged my husband (whom forget his cellphone that day) and called him to cry and complain that yet another thursday has come to a close and NO referral call... Now its 3:45 my DTE buddy texts me she is going to the chropracter because all this waiting is stressing her and odds are our call is not coming! So now we text-whine to each other that now we are heading into month 5 of waiting...little did we know;) So about 4:10 pm I get a call on my cell from my BFF in california, we just said hello when my other line beeped in....IT WAS A 703# Oh my the Adoption agency!!!!! Ahh!! " I have to call you back its my adoption agency!!!!!" RUN outside as I have work being done in my house and it is super noisey... Hello?" Hi this is Caitlin"( like I didnt know;)" Is your husband home?? "  "No hes at work... why??"( i was still being cautious to get too excited) "This is your REFERRAL call!!" AHHHH!!!! I am now suddenly naucious and weak in the knees.... "Uh.. he forgot his CELLPHONE but we can call him at work!" "Ok wait Ill call and conference you in..(now I hear elevator music and I scream outloud hoping my neighbors didnt hear me....waiting.... " um.. his secretary says he is on the phone and will have him call me back" " Do you want me to tell you or wait for him?" ( i paused a second UGH.."wait for him..." Did you tell his secretary it was the adoption agency?!" yes... Doesnt she get this is a 911!!!!! Yes I said all this to her!!! Ok so I now have to hang up! AND WAIT!!! I immediatly call the office secretary answers...I say " is he still on the phone!!!!!!!!" Yes.. GET HIM OFF ITS ABOUT OUR KIDS!!! So in the mean time I text my DTE buddy with shaking hands to tell her I got the call but am waiting... She texts me back.... I just missed a call from her too!!!!!! AHHHHH she is getting her call too!!!!! So he finally calls me back and says What?! I now scream its OUR CALL!!!! Our REFERRAL call!!! We spend about 10 minutes trying to call back and we get voicemail saying she is gone for the day!! Now im freaking out.... We finally get through.. and together we hear the info on our kids!!!! She sends me an email with thier pics and info BUT my husband and family are not home!!! We want to see them the first time all together but WAIT..he is at work the kids are 30 min. away so it will take an hour before they get home..UGH can I wait?! Ok I will... an hour later then pull up and all run into the house( for the last 30min. my sister has been here trying to convince me to let her take a peek first:) love her! NO! I'm waiting.. So we all sit in front of the computer and I make my nephew record it but at the same time POUNDING...and more pounding in my house so video is ruined but... Oh my! My kids are adorable!!!!!! Months and months of waiting and praying and I finally know who they are... It is so worth the wait people!!! Then in true Alleca style we all run off in different directions as our other kids have stuff going on;) I was up until 2 am that night and have been pretty much ever since!!!

Referral!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today was the day!!!!!! We got the much anticipated call!!!!! Siblings!!!!! Our little girl is  2 1/2  and our son is 4 1/2. They are adorable!!!!!!! Now we wait some more....we will have to go to Ethiopia  twice...once for court and then a second time to bring them home. Courts are closed from August 6th till Sept. 27th so most likely we will not be meeting our kids until October. I am sad about that but I know they are in good hands. Many families will be able to check on them, take presents and take pictures for us. For now we pray for them until we can get them home. Thank you everyone for your prayers and support!!! Im am also excited to be sharing this with my DTE buddy!!! They got thier call today too:)))))) I am loving staring at thier pictures!!!

On Deck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are officially ON DECK!!!!!!! What that means is we are up for our referral! We knew this unofficially but It is great to get the news from our adoption agency!

Dear Anthony & Paige,

I’m sure that your family is increasingly anxious and excited to receive your much anticipated referral. This email will answer many important questions you may have about the referral process, travel, and other important details relating to completing your adoption. I cannot overemphasize the importance of the following details, so please take the time to read through all of the information contained below.

Estimated Referral Timeframe

While there are many unknowns in the referral process, and this email gives no dates or guarantees, America World anticipates that your family could receive a referral within the next one to three months. Referrals arrive sporadically throughout the month. For this reason, families with the same DTE date frequently do not receive referrals at the same time. America World issues referrals as soon as a child’s paperwork is completed.

*This estimated timeframe does not apply to families who request to wait on a sibling set referral. Families requesting to wait on a young sibling referral will not receive an estimated wait time due to the lack of history and consistency in receiving these types of referrals. Please note that families requesting siblings ages 0-4 years could experience an unknown extended wait time.

( we know with siblings there is no guarentee but we are still hopeful it is soon) God is bigger than timeframes!!!

Age request

So I changed it again: so we want 1 boy 1 girl ages 0-2 and 0-5...anything can help right! Maybe there is a boy/girl twin set out there?! LOL

Emotional basketcase!!!

Today is one of those days...one of those not so good days! I Thank God for all of the families who are getting families but weep because we are not! We were told siblings were VERY rare and we could wait indefinatly but I had faith that this would not be the case. Yet our wait is getting so hard. Our specific request is 1 BOY and 1 GIRL yet many families since we made the list have gotten sibling referrals but they were either boy/boy or girl/girl. Families only waiting a month or 2 months. I know God has already chosen our children and we must wait on the Lord but my heart is growing very weary. We most likely will run into court closers. What that means is we are most likely looking towards fall to winter before we might bring our children home, or we continue to wait even longer. My prayer is that we get the call soon, I never imagined waiting on a boy and a girl sibling set would be harder than waiting for twins!!! Please continue to pray that our children are revealed soon. Today is thursday which is a good day for referral calls, I've pretty much stopped watching my phone but I rejoice with everyone elses news and pray for everyone who is on top of the list! Praying July is a good month.

Whlie we WAIT....

Yes we are still waitng... lots of families are being scheduled for court dates but referrals arent really moving! I am hopeful it will be soon! While we wait we are still keeping busy. July 4th was crazy but fun! Our oldest had a softball tournament all weekend and then our annual family picnic, parade and fireworks! I'm very big on familiy traditions, we go to the same place for fireworks that I went to as a child. For my kids it all about the candy at the parade:) Praying we can celebrate soon with referral news! But for now here's some updates..

Francesca got MVP at one of her games!








Running the bases..

                                                                       

Pitching..

where's the candy?!