Mosaic

"Mosaic consists of multi-colored glass and stones; some are broken and fragmented, specifically placed to make beautiful artwork. That is how I view adoption. Adoption includes various colors of glass...ethnicity, cultures, families, backgrounds. Many will be "broken," but God specifically sets them in place...not at random...but with purpose in mind. What seems like a broken piece of glass becomes beautiful artwork."

-author unknown

Please pray for our health and safe travels...we promise to update as soon as we have our sweet Grace Hiwot in our arms!

We Are Almost Ready...

I feel like a terrible blogger lately. I have followed so many bloggers getting ready to travel and bring their little ones home...I would cling to all of the details they shared about their trips, first time meeting their kids, etc. I am so disappointed with the lack of posting I have been doing. The thing is...we are really busy getting ready to travel! Between packing 200 pounds of stuff, going to baseball games every night and getting our house in order, I have not had time to do the fun blog videos and updates that I had always imagined doing before we traveled to Ethiopia.

I promise to update much more when we get home. I am so excited to experience the beauty of Ethiopia and can not wait to meet our little girl. We are on the home stretch now...almost everything is in order and the bags are (almost) packed.

I remember reading the following quote when we were deciding whether or not we would adopt...

"Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just the first step."
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

At the time, I thought it was a great way to focus our course...wow...now we are on the staircase and getting ready to reach the top step! I can't believe it.

Please pray for our safe travel and health as we head to Africa. Please pray for our little girl Grace Hiwot who will be joining our family very soon. We are hopeful that she will sense our love and feel comfortable with us.

Thank you for all of your support as we have traveled this adoption road. I promise to keep you up to speed and share some (hopefully) wonderful photos as soon as we meet our little one!

Nineteen Days!

In 19 days we will be a family of six! We will all be together in 19 days! In 19 days we will introduce our little girl to the rest of her family...Amazing!

And in less than 19 days, I will get to tickle these sweet little toes. We leave in less than two weeks to bring our little one home. I have so many things to do and so many lists made. We have donations to pack, suitcases to weigh, copies of paperwork to make. I am feeling a little bit overwhelmed, but each day I feel more and more ready to get on that plane and bring our girl home!

An Amazing Celebration

My wonderful friend Lori (who I have written about many times) threw an adoption celebration/shower for us yesterday. The party was a great time. We had the pleasure of celebrating with many special friends and family members and were so blessed to receive so many special things for our little Grace.
Our little gift helper kept bringing on the packages...we now have a huge supply of adorable girl clothes and so many thoughtful gifts. It was so surreal to be opening gifts at a "shower" again - I never would have predicted this day would come...It goes to show you that you really never know when you are "done" adding to your family. The blessings keep coming even when they are not part of "our plan."

In addition to wonderful friends, there was plenty of wonderful food at the party!

Amazing Friends...

It was so nice to share the morning with everyone and to be able to celebrate what is to come...

The party was for moms and daughters, so there were many super sweet girls celebrating with us. Grace will be having a lot of big "sisters" looking out for her!

I am truly touched by all of the incredible women in my life. I feel so blessed to have all of these ladies share this special time in my life. Even though we all have so much going on, these ladies took time to celebrate with me. They are all so generous and have stepped forward to offer so much support and encouragement. (wish we could see more of your cute face in this picture Stacie!!!)

Our little gift helper (and a sweet adoption inspiration).

This is a picture of me with my sister-in-law. We are both expecting our little ones to arrive at about the same time...One very nice thing about adoption is the lack of stretch marks and weight gain :)

Some awesome "adoption buddies." These ladies are really understanding and can relate to all of the excitement, stress, and joy that is involved with adoption.

Thank you Lori for hosting an incredible party. You are the best friend a girl could ever ask for. I am honored that you care so much about us and our little Grace. I can't wait to share our adoption experience with you and look forward to the adventure of a lifetime when we travel together to Ethiopia to bring home our little blessing!!!!! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

Beautiful Art

Take a look at this beautiful painting that Alyssa made for me for my birthday. I love it! She is so thoughtful and is very excited for her little sister to come home. I love the detail she put into the painting. She even gave little Grace a bow in her hair! I love how we are all sending our love to Grace.

Very soon, this painting will come alive because we were told that our tentative travel dates will be sooner than we thought! We will (most likely) leave the end of this month! Our little one will be home by the 4th of July. I promise to post more details soon - only six more days of school and then I will have much more time to post :)