Graduation (and some birthdays!)

Today was middle child Emily's graduation from Elkhorn High School. We are so proud of her. She graduated with an honors GPA and received a great scholarship to Iowa State, where she will be majoring in architecture.

Today was also my mom's 70th birthday and the twins 5th birthday. Happy Birthday Mom, Candace Selam and Sarah Fikir!

So much to do, so little time!

Only two weeks until we leave on our trip. Gosh, it's been busy. We had a diving meet over the weekend in Columbia, MO at University of Missouri. It was fun and Anna did well, but it's a five and a half hour drive. Tiring. This coming week is Emily's high school graduation. Both sets of grandparents are flying in from Indianapolis... must clean the house and get ready for guests. I still have lots of things to purchase for the orphanage and we aren't quite done with our immigration paperwork yet. Not to mention the packing. And of course, all the usual stuff we have to do anyway! Busy, busy, busy.

Travel plans

We finalized our travel plans today. Since the kids will be out of school and Tom is available, we are going to take a trip to Egypt before we go to Addis. We are leaving Omaha on May 24 and will stay overnight in Washington, DC before leaving on May 25 for Addis. From Addis we will fly to Cairo and spend three days touring Egypt. We will back in Addis on May 30, anxious to meet the twins on June 1. Everyone will fly home together Friday night, and we will be home in Nebraska by dinnertime on June 6. We're flying Ethiopian Air because the flights worked out the best and we got a really great price since we're flying on to Cairo. We've heard mixed reviews about the airline, so I'm hoping it all works out. Actually, I don't even care, as long as we get the twins home!

God be praised... we passed court!!!

We got the best phone call ever this morning... we passed and are now the proud parents of our beautiful twin girls! Introducing Candace Selam Spears and Sarah Fikir Spears!

Please continue to pray for all of the families who are still waiting to pass court.

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This week's adoption update

Well, basically there isn't much. Our coordinator's update today wasn't exactly brimming with positive news. The agency's lawyers in Ethiopia have asked the court to order MOWA to make recommendations on the open cases, but no one knows if this will have any effect or not. All we can do is trust in God.

Birthdays

My kids say the blog is boring without pictures. Therefore, I'm posting a couple of pictures of recent birthdays. Emily turned 18 in March. Anna had her 15th birthday last week. Here are pictures of both of them with their cakes. Not sure how Kenneth stayed out of the photos, but there is indeed an older son in this family. :)

More frustrating news

We got this message today from our agency: "We heard today that due to 2 of MOWA staff being out for training they haven't been able to work in any of the open cases." This after hearing that they were feeling positive about our case passing by the end of last week, which obviously it didn't. We're not sure where this positive feeling was coming from based on this latest news. I am frustrated, disappointed and a little bit angry.

Happy Easter

Blessings to all on this day of resurrection! May the love and peace of Christ our Lord be with you and your families on this holy day and throughout the year.

Not the best Good Friday ever

When we got our referral on December 3, I never dreamed that Easter would be here and we wouldn't have the twins home with us. I have their little dresses hanging upstairs in the closet. I feel so sad and discouraged.

Prom night

Here is our elder daughter Emily all dressed up for prom. Isn't she beautiful? We're so proud of her.

Letting go

As far as this adoption procedure goes, frustration leads to lots of second guessing... what should we have done differently to make everything go perfectly? I realized yesterday that the answer is "nothing". If we had done just one thing differently, we probably wouldn't be waiting for these precious twins to come home, and that idea is just unbearable. God chose them for us and God will choose when they come home. I feel some peace in trying to let go of the need to be in control of the timing, and just accepting that it will happen.

A new weight loss plan!

This weekend, Emily and I went and cheered on her former teammates at the Nebraska state meet for gymnastics levels 7-10. I haven't seen many of the other moms for a few months, and several commented that I appear to have lost weight. I shared my secret... the international adoption diet! The pounds just stress away! I think I've lost about eight pounds since January.

And, by the way, congratulations to the 2009 Nebraska State Champions in levels 9 and 10, Premier Gymnastics!

Feeling down

The week is almost over and we really have no news, good or bad, on the status of our case. Also, Anna has struggled all week with migraines. Both situations make me feel very helpless.

Didn't pass again

Just got word that we didn't pass.

Here is the latest word from our coordinator:

"I just got off the phone with Shimeliss at Hope Adoptions. He said that your case was not approved because MOWA (Ministry of Women's Affairs) did not provide their recommendation to the court in time. According to Shimeliss, Hope has to provide their information to MOWA 8 to 10 days prior to the court hearing but MOWA only has to provide their recommendation 24 hours before the court hearing. Unfortunately, because of the difficulties with MOWA in that region, the reports were not provided on time. Shimeliss says that MOWA is not very organized there and is having some difficulties but that this doesn't mean they don't want the case to be approved. The good news is that they were able to get the court to leave the case in "open" status. That means, whenever MOWA does get the report ready, they can go to the court with the MOWA recommendation and should be able to get the court approval right then, without having to get another court date. He is hoping to get this resolved this week. I will check in with them daily until I have some answers."

I would like to ask everyone to pray for this to be resolved as soon as possible.

Sometimes, bigger really IS better

We got a new car this weekend to accomodate our soon-to-be larger family. It's a 2009 Buick Enclave with eight passenger seating. My old Pacifica had over 101,000 miles on it and was starting to seem a little decrepit. I like my new car. :)