Our son's personality

I have to smile every time something from his social report comes to mind. I am so impressed at the descriptions of our son. His social worker describes his skin color, his hair texture, his strength and our favorite physical description - his DIMPLES!! Our daughter Olivia (the one who celebrated a birthday on our successful court date) also has dimples on each side of her cheeks. Many friends and family have commented about the similarities in his features to our girls (round shaped eyes and similar lips) but it's fun to see one of our daughter's share this distinct characteristic in the cheeks.

His personality comes to life in his social report as well. We have one picture of him standing in a line with other toddlers singing. His eyes are wide and big and he is sporting a big smile with his adorable dimples.

He also sounds very active in that one of his favorite things to do is "wrestle" with his nannies. We have three girls and so wrestling will be a whole new thing in our house. The girls are working on their moves - watch our Yihun!! The report added that he is difficult to get down at night because he likes to (friendly) wrestle with his crib mate.

The part about his personality that makes me smile the most is that he loves hugs and kisses!! He will walk over to a familiar nanny, turn his cheek and wait for a kiss. This just makes me melt!! Can't wait to be the one he turns his cheek towards!

We feel so lucky to be the parents to this adorable, handsome and amazing 2 year old boy! Most days I have to pinch myself to make sure this journey isn't all but a dream. And the best part of this adventure is that the best part is still to come!

Social Report

We received our first social report yesterday with updated pictures and much more. I am so impressed with the professionalism and details of this report. We received 19 new photos of our son. They sent us a photo of him sleeping, eating, climbing stairs, playing with nannies, and playing with other toddlers. He has also gained almost 6 pounds in two months. God's love and grace continues to pour out on our family. Here are some of our favorite pictures of him:

Celebrating this sweet girl's birthday

Yesterday was Olivia's 10th birthday, so we had much to celebrate with news of passing court also. My emotions were so tied up waiting for and receiving our court news yesterday on top of planning for a birthday party, that I'm afraid Olivia didn't get the attention she deserved on her special day. And I didn't get around to writing this post about her until today.

Olivia is my most conscientious daughter. She cares for and loves each person she knows. She doesn't judge. When we throw a birthday party for her, she invites the whole class (girls and boys) because she doesn't want to leave anyone out.

Her teacher has pointed out that Olivia treats each classmate equally. When someone wins a competition, she is the first to congratulate them. When she wins, she is very humble.

When she grows up she either wants to be a Stay at Home Mom, a children's book writer/illustrator, teacher or a Missionary. She would be amazing at any of these. God has gifted her in all these areas. She is a mother hen to your younger sister Avery, she loves to write and draw and she has a heart of compassion.

It is cool to see how God is working through Olivia. Her love for Him is so evident in her walk. She is salt and light to the earth.

We Passed Court Today!!!

Here is our son!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No time to write. More later but just wanted to post an update and his pictures!! Isn't he adorable??!! We are over the moon!!!!!!!

Court Date Tomorrow

Our court date is scheduled tomorrow. Our agency usually sends a social report which includes updated pictures and measurements of your child sometime before your scheduled court date.

However, we have not received our social report due to power outages in Ethiopia. There are other families with my agency who are scheduled for court tomorrow and don't have a social report either.

But I'm still optimistic that our cases will still be heard tomorrow and that we will all pass!

Please pray for all the families scheduled for court tomorrow. Pray that there will not be anything that will keep our cases from being heard. Also, pray that we will receive our social reports still today.

"A Letter to My Brother"

Olivia wrote a letter to her new brother. I have typed it out below exactly as it was written:

Dear Yihun,

I cannot wait to be your older sister. It will be great to have a brother. Because I have never had an older or younger brother before. I think it will be a good thing to do. When you come Mommy is going to need a lot of help from me. We will have to feed you, put you to sleep, play with you and change your dipers. All these things will keep us very busy. And yes all of the attention will go all to you of course. I can't wait to meet you! Our family will change a lot when you arrive. Because we won't have five, but six! It's going to be a lot of fun with you here. I love you so much Yihun, and I know that God loves you too.

Love, Your Sister,
Olivia Marie

COURT DATE!!!!

We just received an email from our specialist this morning that our court date is set for JUNE 16th!!!! That's right!!! JUNE 16th!! Only 15 days away!!! This day is already very special for our family because this just happens to be Olivia's Birthday!!

We are praying with expectation that our case will pass the first time. When we do pass court, we will travel 4 - 5 week after our court date, which means we could be in Ethiopia as early as the end of July!!