This morning while doing laundry I was busy sorting and I turn around and Eli has on "brothers" football jersey! He was so delighted to be like "brother." He has quickly learned the word "football" and loves to watch his big brother play. It has been so wonderful watching him with Lauren and Trey. He loves them so much and wants to do what they are doing. :)
We had many people help us financially while in the process to adopt Eli. One of God's blessings to our family came from a local nonprofit called Seeds for the Fatherless. They were able to help us two times with travel exspenses to and from Ethiopia. This week they will celebrate their 5 year anniversary since their founding. To raise support they are doing a $5.00 donation (or more!!!!) to celebrate 5 years. What a great and easy idea, if you would consider giving up one trip to Starbucks or grabbing a quick lunch and send that money to Seeds for the Fatherless they would be able to help more families just like us. To see more about them check them out at.... www.seedsforthefatherless.com . You can mail your donations to Seeds for the Fatherless PO Box 57 Waverly, Iowa 50677. Thanks for considering helping a local foundation.
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I can't believe we have been home 3 weeks already. Eli is doing great!! It is going even better than we could've imagined or planned for. The weeks have been very busy adjusting to being a family and our new dynamics. Eli is learning a lot of new words everyday and amazes us with his understanding. Eli has had a lot of firsts....an ER visit to glue his forehead back together, trip to the park, ice cream, vomiting, church with so many smiling faces, lots of sporting events for his siblings, UNI football game, and many other fun visits by family and friends.There have been multiple times when Jim and I just look at each other and marvel at how God has picked the perfect child for our family. We find ourselves smiling all of the time at each other and enjoying how well he fits. Lauren and Trey are adjusting well also, they look forward to spending time with Eli everyday. Each morning everyone runs to get our first kisses and smiles for the day.
Thanks for being patient with me on my posting....I have realized that it has been awhile since I have had such a busy little one to care for. With Trey being 9, we feel like we are relearning so much about toddlers. :) I am hoping to continue to blog for awhile sharing more of our new life as a family. Thanks for all of the support we have received. God has blessed us so very much.
It is hard to believe that the end of the adoption process is here and the beginning of life as a family of five now starts. Today I have spent a lot of time thinking over how our life will be changing. I spent time looking at both of my kids today, studying their faces and thanking God for them. Life as we know it now is changing. We have been four for 9 years now and in two short weeks we will begin being five. I am excited but also a little nervous. Change has never been easy for me but I look forward to this change.
So are bags are packed, weighed, and ready to go. Our kids are excited this time for us to leave because they know this is the final step in getting their little brother home. One more day of work for both of us and we head out early Tuesday morning. We will be coming home on Sept 4th. In less than two weeks we will be home.
Please pray for safety for us traveling and in Africa but also our kids and their grandparents back here.
Pray for Eli- this little boy will have huge adjustments to make.
Pray for good health for all of us. My stomach had a difficult time last time, please pray this time will be different.
Pray as we pick up where we left off with Eli, pray that he will feel love from us.
Pray for the nannies as they will again say goodbye to another group of children they have cared for and loved.
Pray for our Embassy appointment on Monday, August 30th that everything will go smoothly.
Pray for wisdom for Jim and I with Eli.
Pray for Lauren and Trey as they stay home and have school. Pray that God will prepare them for the changes to come.
Pray for our parents as they will be taking care of Lauren and Trey.
Thank you for walking this journey with us. We have been blessed over and over again by so many wonderful people. This is God's story and we are thankful that we get to be a part of it. We will try to update while we are away, if not we will update as soon as we can get back on Iowa time again. :)
So are bags are packed, weighed, and ready to go. Our kids are excited this time for us to leave because they know this is the final step in getting their little brother home. One more day of work for both of us and we head out early Tuesday morning. We will be coming home on Sept 4th. In less than two weeks we will be home.
Please pray for safety for us traveling and in Africa but also our kids and their grandparents back here.
Pray for Eli- this little boy will have huge adjustments to make.
Pray for good health for all of us. My stomach had a difficult time last time, please pray this time will be different.
Pray as we pick up where we left off with Eli, pray that he will feel love from us.
Pray for the nannies as they will again say goodbye to another group of children they have cared for and loved.
Pray for our Embassy appointment on Monday, August 30th that everything will go smoothly.
Pray for wisdom for Jim and I with Eli.
Pray for Lauren and Trey as they stay home and have school. Pray that God will prepare them for the changes to come.
Pray for our parents as they will be taking care of Lauren and Trey.
Thank you for walking this journey with us. We have been blessed over and over again by so many wonderful people. This is God's story and we are thankful that we get to be a part of it. We will try to update while we are away, if not we will update as soon as we can get back on Iowa time again. :)
We finished painting Eli's room this weekend. Bought a toothbrush, an Iowa sweatshirt, and some snacks for the plane so we are feeling ready!! Called the insurance company, scheduled his first Dr.s appt when we get back, and picked up some children's Ibuprofen. We are working steadily through our lists of things to get done and ready for Eli's homecoming. It is fun to be in the home stretch and know that it won't be long now.
Last week we received an email from Bethany saying that they are hopeful we will get the August 31st Embassy appt. That means we could be to Africa and back in just 3 short weeks. That is so crazy to think about. We have been planning, praying, anticipating, fundraising, and now the time is actually coming! Please pray that we get our official invitation to travel early this week. Each day that passes costs more money in plane tickets!!! God knows all of this and has gotten us this far so we are resting in Him while we wait to hear the actual details.
Many of you are asking where we are financially, we are still a little short. If we get tickets early this week we are around $900 short, if it goes longer we will be paying more for our tickets. I have heard that the invitation could come soon or could be as late as Friday even. We still have 13 necklaces for sale at $20 a piece. Also some tshirts left at $15 a piece. Sizes will be posted below. Thank you to everyone who has helped us get this far, we are so full of gratitude to all of you. We will keep you posted as the week continues.
Tshirts sizes available are.... 1- 2xl adult
5- XL adult
6- medium youth
4- small youth
3-XS youth
Email me at bringhomeeli@gmail.com if you're interested!
Last week we received an email from Bethany saying that they are hopeful we will get the August 31st Embassy appt. That means we could be to Africa and back in just 3 short weeks. That is so crazy to think about. We have been planning, praying, anticipating, fundraising, and now the time is actually coming! Please pray that we get our official invitation to travel early this week. Each day that passes costs more money in plane tickets!!! God knows all of this and has gotten us this far so we are resting in Him while we wait to hear the actual details.
Many of you are asking where we are financially, we are still a little short. If we get tickets early this week we are around $900 short, if it goes longer we will be paying more for our tickets. I have heard that the invitation could come soon or could be as late as Friday even. We still have 13 necklaces for sale at $20 a piece. Also some tshirts left at $15 a piece. Sizes will be posted below. Thank you to everyone who has helped us get this far, we are so full of gratitude to all of you. We will keep you posted as the week continues.
Tshirts sizes available are.... 1- 2xl adult
5- XL adult
6- medium youth
4- small youth
3-XS youth
Email me at bringhomeeli@gmail.com if you're interested!
(For legal reasons, we cannot post pictures that show Eli's face until he's home with us)
We are home from Africa and adjusted back to Iowa time. However our hearts are still in Africa with a cute little African boy!!! Our time with Eli went even better than we could've imagined. From the first time we held him our relationship grew. You could tell that the nannies had prepared him for our visit. He was so laid back and interested in every little thing we showed him. Some of the things we loved about him are his smile with sweet little white teeth, his giggle, his huge dark eyes that lit up, and his playful personality!! The time with him flew by that we got to spend with him. He loved to carry around the "photo" book that we gave him and we said Lauren and Trey over and over again! He never did say there names though. He did say Dada, Mama, photo, yucky, and what. We are well on our way to him speaking english. :) Actually the communication went well, he seems to understand by our actions what we are trying to say. I think he will pick up english very quickly. His home where he is staying is so nice. The nannies love him and give him lots of hugs and kisses. It was so awful to leave him but good to know that he is well cared for while we wait.
The court date went well. At the end of our time with the judge she said, "Congratulation, he is yours!!" Those words were wonderful to hear. So he is officially a WEIMER!! It is so wierd to be his parents and yet not have him with us.
So now everyones question is.... When do you go back? We don't know forsure but we are now waiting on the US side of things. We are waiting to get his birth certificate, passport, and then be assigned an embassy appointment. They said it could be as soon as the end of this month or as late as October. Of course we are praying for the soonest possible date. Please pray with us that the paperwork goes quickly and we get him home!!!
Some cool God stories... the day we got home from our trip 3 little neighbor boys who had a lemonade stand while we were gone brought over a bag of money for Eli. How sweet is that! Then we sold Lauren's bedroom set for even more money then we listed it for in the swap sheet. God continues to provide! Thank you for following our story and praying along with us.
Me and Eli saying goodbye (for now).
PS - Our computer has a virus, so we haven't been able to check emails regularly. Hopefully it will be up and running soon.
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