Wordless Wednesday

It's a Girl!

We saw her picture a week ago but today it's official.  AAI email this morning with the good word that we can give our entire hearts away to her.  She is the sweetest little 5 to 7 year old girl with the most adorable big, brown eyes and pink lips.  We are hopelessly in love.  

Some fun facts about little Miss B -

She is a slightly shy little girl with a very sweet spirit.

She is super cute.

She is in excellent health and is described as happy and social.

She loves to help with the younger kids and babies and play with her

friends.

She loves to practice letters and numbers.

She wants to be a nurse when she grows up.

She's wearing a size 4T.

Her waiting animal is the bumble bee (get it...Miss B!)

Last night Noah's prayer went like this - 

"Jesus, thank you for the awesome, awesome, awesome new sister...Mom what's her name again...Oh ya B... what an amazing blessing Jesus."  I love that boy, and I love that he is so ready to be a brother again!  He did make it clear that he does not want her sleeping in his bed, and that we do not have room in our KIA for her so we need to get a new, must faster car.  

My check list is trying to come out of the drawer but I'm working hard to leave it alone.  But maybe, God willing, by summer our family of 5 will be together.  And maybe we can go to Ethiopia this winter to give Miss B a kiss and tell her that we choose her forever to be ours.  And maybe she will feel like she has a place to belong.

Happy Birthday Ichi Ban

Four years old and so sweet, funny and joyful.  What a dream baby boy!  The morning started off with a little chocolate milk in bed followed by the flag flying ceremony.  Noah is starting to understand the difference between Korean and American but he still does not quite get the whole flag thing.  Still I think it is a cool tradition and we will keep it up.

Some seriously fun birthday booty.  I set everything up last night so Noah would pass by it on his way to our bedroom in the morning. Unfortunately a midnight poop ruined the surprise.  While on the potty Noah stated, "I've been asleep a long time so...."  Very funny but no dice.  Back to bed for 6 more hours :)

After the flag ceremony we light a candle and pray for Noah's birth family.  In my imagination this is a hard day for Noah's first mom and dad.  We shared memories from our recent trip to the birthing center where Noah was born and talk about the memories that his doctor shared with us.  I'm glad we have actual facts to talk about this year instead of just things that we imagine happened.  We love Noah's first family and pray for their loss today.

The birthday breakfast by Noah's request was sausage rolls, soda and cheetos.  Gross.

We also celebrated Noah's birth a bit in the mountains this past weekend. Ms. Julie made the absolute best cake and we are still talking about it at least 7 times a day here at the Young house.

Art Co-Op

Nothing says Halloween like a mask.  The second installation of this year's Art Co-Op was a huge success.  We had a ton of fun and we are more than ready for Halloween!

Flash Back Friday

Dossier - Check!

Our Ethiopian Dossier is finished.  AAI makes it VERY easy, and with a little help from our friends and family in the states the paper chase took almost no time at all.  Everything is in the mail and should be in Washington in a week or two.  For the moment, it feels great to be finished with signature collecting.  I will say that dossier #3 did not produce the same amount of drama and crisis that dossier #1 created.  It was more along the lines of GITRDONE.

With the race to the paper finish line crossed, we can now begin the prepare for a new family member stage.  Oh how I LOVE this stage.   The best part is the opening of our hearts to another child, sister, brother, friend, son, daughter.   It is just fun to dream and long and wait for the one that is to come.  This stage was HARD with Noah but now we have learned to treasure it.  Bring on the wait!!!

So who are we waiting for?  We decided to switch agencies from CHSFS and AAI after many months of research and soul searching.  What a big decision.  So far we are happy with AAI and glad to be where we are.  AAI serves a different kind of children.  We think this is the way things should be more often. Back to who we are waiting for...we are waiting for a child or siblings ages 0 to 7 years old.  We are open to either a boy or a girl or both.  With both our children we knew their gender before we knew them.  It's been fun to not know and just wait and dream about both possibilities.

Waiting might be the wrong word to use because there really is no wait for us.  This whole thing has happened so fast.  We are certain that the bump in the road is just around the corner but so far no bumps.  Brian and I are like minded in our decisions.  Paper work, money, health care are all coming together.    So awesome to feel so together as we move forward.  I'm glad that adding children to our family looks so different each time.  I checked the CHSFS waiting children list for months until our home study was complete and then emailed Peg the same day for more information about Noah. 20 minutes later we had our referral.  With Myra the wait was long, ever changing and hard on my spirit.  So many time lines, check lists and unmet expectations (all created by me). But we needed that time to get our relationship with Christ, marriage, family, jobs in a better place.  Myra came home at the best time.  This time I'm letting go of the time lines, checklist and expectations, and having so much more fun.  Umut is the waiting name we've given this child (Noah's was Enoc, Myra's was Baby O).  Umut is Turkish for Hope.  Our child, Umut, is on AAI's waiting list waiting to belong to someone, some place, some how. We just can't wait to meet!

Home Study

Check!