My soul is overflowing

I tell ya. Went to church tonight and God was definitely speaking to me through the service and the worship. The topic was "Just Say Yes: When you Don't Understand."

Our minister talked about God asking Abraham to slay Isaac as a sacrifice and I thought about how hard that would be to make that choice especially since he and Sarah had wanted a child for so long and God finally blessed them with Isaac when they were very old. I am not sure that I could have been as faithful as Abraham. I thought about how hard our journey has been to create our family and how I wished it hadn't been this difficult and all of the things we have gone through along our journey to create a family, outsider's preconceived notions of what a family should like (and ours doesn't match their image at all, etc and how this disqualified us from even being considered to adopt domestically in our home state). As I tell our son, everyone in our immediate family is brown except Mommy and I am pink!

I thought about how I believed we were led to adopt from Ethiopia from the beginning, but we shyed away initially due to the prejudices Ray and I had faced already being a mixed couple, but something in me, call it motherly intuition had a feeling our daughter was there, but we had to try to kick down 3 more doors--Guatemala, Nepal, Vietnam, and finally Ethiopia to finally arrive in Ethiopia where our beautiful, smart, wonderful daughter was there waiting all the time.

God had perfect timing. If we had been earlier to Ethiopia, she wouldn't be our daughter! So, I learned the lesson of making sure we say "Yes" to our God when he is leading us. I also became aware of how much I am truly grateful to be chosen to be our children's mother. God picked them out perfectly for me and my husband. As I tell them, I am your mother, and God was waiting to decide what family you were going to be with and he chose us and he chose you to be our children and I am so glad he did!

I am going to post the songs we sang tonight as they were truly uplifting and got me through some of the darkest days of our adoption process. Now, that our children are ours, I definitely know that God's hand was in this all the time, I am so embarrassed for lacking the faith at the time and not trusting that he had it all planned. Now, I know to trust in him. Took me 37 years, infertility and a brain tumor, but I think I am finally getting it!:-)

A little delayed post, but Teagan is HOME!

We arrived back in the United States on May 9th, the night before Mother's Day. I can't think of a better Mother's Day gift! She is beautiful, busy and adjusting well. I will post a few pics so people can see our new family!

Ethiopian "American Baby!"

So happy to finally post that Teagan is finally our Ethiopian "American Baby!" My cell phone rang today with the ring I have for BFAS, Dave Matthew's "American Baby" song! Man, I love that song! It rang that tone when they called us to tell us we had been referred Teagan and it rang again today!

Haile called me this afternoon and I really thought it was going to be him calling me telling me that our court date which was "scheduled" for April 9th had been rescheduled, or worse that we didn't even make it to court! He said, "You passed." I said, "Passed what? (Totally clueless what he was talking about since I thought our court date was for Thursday, April 9th, and I had everyone geared up to pray on Wednesday, April 8th). He said, "You passed court!" I said, "What?" He said, "Yeah, you passed court, "S" is finally yours!" I was driving by myself and I started screaming, "I can't believe it, I can't believe it, she's ours!" He said, "Yes, it's over!" I am still sitting here 10 hours later in a state of shock that she is finally our little girl--our 2.5 year journey through 4 countries has finally brought us together with our daughter! WOW! I have to pray and say a special prayer of thanks to the Lord tonight! WHOA!

Anyway, hubby is out of town for work and we were planning on texting/talking on Thursday when we thought our court date was. So, he was the first person I called. I called and left a message on his phone, "Honey, you have a daughter! Teagan is ours!" Not sure what else I said, but I know I broke down and started crying tears of joy and happiness and relief that our adoption was final! I couldn't believe it, but the tears just kept on coming! Never been that emotional any other time besides my wedding and when we first met our son when we adopted him. WOW! I have to pinch myself, we have a daughter! I was starting to wonder if this journey would ever end and we would bring her home! It is and we will be home together by Mother's Day! Can't think of a better gift!

Court Date Here We Come!!

We thought our court date was going to be on March 31st, but the Ethiopian government made a change to our court date. It is now scheduled for Thursday, April 9th. We are hopeful that we will pass on the first try and bring Teagan Elizabeth home somewhere around the end of April.

We have gotten new pictures of her and boy she is beautiful! Of course, I am her mother, so I am a little biased. In the meantime, I am just now washing her clothes in Dreft and we have her room painted a really pretty lavender. So that gives us a little bit of time to get her curtains up, buy a white chest, and decorate her room.

This process has been such a long one to bring her home--almost 2.5 years and 4 countries later, that I didn't feel like having a baby's room decorated with no baby. It's just too hard to have a room that's ready and no baby to sleep in the room. So, much like my wedding day (which coincidentally I had no doubts of it happening;-), I was out shopping for toiletries in my veil and hair piece at noon on my wedding day and getting married at 5 P.M), I guess we will be preparing for Teagan right up until the last minute. I guess I kind of just don't want to jinx it by preparing everything without having passed court yet. Crazy, I know, but this journey has been LONG--REALLY LONG! Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers on Thursday, April 9th. We would really appreciate it!

OUUUUUUUUUUUUCH!!

Well, it looks as if I am going to travel to go bring Teagan home! We were planning on having her escorted, but that will add another 5-6 months to the process, and can't bear for her to sit in the orphanage that long without us, or have us be here without her for another 5-6 months! Court is scheduled for March 31st. We are hoping for first time "GO!" Really hoping and praying!

So, today, I got my Hepatitis A and B shot and have to complete another round of Hepatitis A and 2 more rounds of Hepatitis B. Liam got his first shot of Hepatitis A and we think Ray is good with shots from the Army. I was able to get these at my doctor's office, too! YES!

Less than 3 Weeks to go to Court!

Sorry, it has been so long since I have posted. Getting really jazzed now. We are just starting to get Teagen's room ready. Bought a glider and footstool for her room last week at the consignment sale...I say it is for her, but who I am I kidding it's really for mommy and daddy so we can snuggle our little bunny!

We have MOVEMENT!

I can't say too much, but things are finally moving for our family and for Teagan! We have movement and hope to hear a court date in the next week or so. YESSSSSSSSS!!!!! (hear big sigh of relief!)