Halloween 2010!

This Halloween weekend proved to be one of the best our family has had yet! We started off on Friday night with some good old pumpkin carving. I think it is so funny that Grace has not questioned any of the weird things we do. Almost four months home and she just goes with the flow...

Saturday night was so much fun! We host a family Halloween party every year...this year, we decided to pass the reigns to our 8th grade daughter. She had an AWESOME party for her friends. We were thrilled to host the event and it turned out great. It was a boy/girl bash complete with an awesome DJ (a family friend who did a great job!). The kids danced, fooled around, and just looked darn cool in their costumes.Here I am with my daughter. Hopefully neither of us will look like this when she is really a bride (I really don't want her to have a barbed wire tattoo). I wasn't sure if I should wear a costume...I decided it would be easier to sneak into the party to see what was going on if I was dressed in something "dark." The hardest part of the night was not constantly checking on the kids...I was dying to see how the boys and girls were interacting. Hopefully I didn't embarrass my daughter too much - she was such a beautiful, creepy bride!

Some of the cute party guests that I know I can post on my blog...next time I should really have the parents sign a release so I can post pictures of them. They all looked so cool!

Finally it was Halloween and the other three kids could celebrate! Grace dressed as the Queen of Hearts. She does make my heart skip a beat when I look at her and think about all she has gone through in her three short years. She was adorable in her vintage dress...and the eye shadow was a compromise...she had to look like her big sister.

First time trying out the "trick or treat" line. It worked! I also have to tell you that she was the most polite trick or treater. She said thank you more often than the American kids that came to my door!

The four kids getting ready for trick or treating to start.

Wow! Grace said her pumpkin was too heavy! I guess I will have to help her weed through the candy...I am sure she will enjoy sharing her "heavy" chocolate with me.

All in all, Halloween 2010 was wonderful! And as my 8th grade daughter said, "we have to do it all again next year!!!!" - pretty sure she was just talking about HER party!!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Don't the bottle cap necklaces look great on pumpkins???? Imagine how cute they would look on your friends and family members... Click on the necklace image on the left of our blog for all of the details and ordering info. 100% of proceeds benefit Love In Action orphanage in Ethiopia. Please check it out. Your $5 purchase goes a long way to help out children in Ethiopia!!!

So Cute It's Scary

Here is a sneak peak at my youngest two in their Halloween costumes...How do you explain this crazy holiday to a three year old who has only been with us for four months? Why is her brother dressed like a bobble head skeleton??? Hmmm...

Grace isn't freaked out at all! She is loving the idea of dressing up. Now we just have to convince her to be a princess instead of a duck...wish me luck!

Something else cute: bottle cap necklaces and key chains! Sales are going well. Click on the photo on the side bar to check out our post about why we are selling these to help raise money for Love In Action Orphanage...

What will Halloween look like this year?

Mystery Gang - Halloween 2008

Halloween 2008- so much fun...my husband even shaved his goatee to get into character. We love to have a theme...we love to have a big Halloween party...we love getting dressed up.

Halloween 2009 - some of us were a little "dark," one of us was a good looking vampire from Twilight (he even sparkled), one of us was something "super cool" from Star Wars, and one of us was...ummm...I have no idea... - no theme last year - we were too busy doing adoption paperwork.

What will Halloween 2010 look like? Well, it will be different. We decided to skip having our annual party because we thought our new little one might be a little too overwhelmed by the whole thing. Turns out she probably would have LOVED it. She is a party animal at heart and doesn't seem to mind scary costumes at all. Instead of our usual family party, we decided to turn the party over to our daughter and her 8th grade friends for the night...Yikes...three more days until our first boy/girl party...any advice?

And as for Grace's costume this year...she is still not 100% sure. The obvious choice would be Princess Tiana -it just seems so predictable. She is also considering being a duck...hmmm, interesting.

Africa Hope Run

(this cute picture of Grace almost didn't make it to the blog because the pantry door is seen open...let it go...let it go...it is hard for me to actually post pictures of the chaos I live in)
Oh how I love seeing my little Ethiopian beauty hold up an adorable (and delicious) Africa cut out cookie...we have been making these super cute treats a long time before Grace was with us. I ordered the cookie cutter months ago to make special cookies for our big fundraiser/gold party. Since that time, we have made many Africa cookies just for fun. This weekend we needed to have some special Africa cookies because our family was participating in The Africa Hope Run and I thought it would be a fun way to "carb up" before the big race :) (obviously I am not a big runner).

Our church was sponsoring the 5K/10K run/walk to raise money for orphans in Malawi, Africa. We are so happy to be a part of a church that cares deeply for Africa's orphans and works closely to sponsor an orphanage and school in Funsani, Malawi. Our church's mission statement says it best...the goal- "becoming people of character with hearts for the world." Love it! I also love that one of our pastors and his wife are in Ethiopia right now meeting their new son for the first time! Awesome...

So, anyway...we needed Africa cookies...

It's so cute how flour shows up on Grace's beautiful skin. She was covered by the time the cookies were cut out.

My daughter and her friend helped make cookies the night before the big "race."

I LOVE how excited all of my daughter's friends are about Grace, our journey to bring her home, and those left behind in Africa. Who says 8th grade girls are self centered? These sweet girls were so excited to participate in the run and help make a difference in the lives of those who the race is benefiting. They also proudly wear the Africa necklaces that we are selling to help support LIA orphanage...so cool...

The girls had to get up early to get to the run. Gotta love teenagers who are willing to wake up early on a Saturday morning for a good cause.

Here is another super sweet family who woke up early to join us for the run. This family has been so supportive of us throughout our adoption. We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends in our lives. They also love Grace and were excited to be a part of the first ever Africa Hope Run.

My dear friend Kimberly. Getting up early to run/walk would not be her first choice for fun, but she would do anything to help support Africa and orphans and is the kindest, most caring person I know. She has also been a huge blessing throughout our adoption (and it rocked that she is a notary and could help me with so much paperwork!).
Here we are ready to start running/walking. Half of us ran and half walked. Grace got to ride in the stroller and kept insisting that she could walk. Maybe next year sweetie...the most precious part of the run was when we were about a block away from the finish line and I decided to let Grace get out of the stroller. She has never seen a race and had no way of understanding what we were supposed to be doing that day, but when her little feet hit the ground, she took off like a shot. Her little legs ran so fast and she did NOT look back once. She took off for the finish line. It was the cutest thing ever (keep in mind that this is the Africa Hope Run and she was probably one of about three African people there). It was like she was the little mascot running across the finish line. The crowd cheered her on like crazy and the pastors were all at the finish line giving her high fives. She had a blast! Who knows, maybe she has some of that awesome Ethiopian running skill in her! (did you know that Ethiopia, not Kenya, has been the most successful long distance running nation over the past ten years?)

Hair!

I hope Grace will always love her hair!!!! I need to remind her of how cool it is every time we comb it...she is still not a fan of combs. Share this video with all of your AA/Ethiopian beauties!

Happy Friday!!!

(remember to pause the music at the bottom of the blog before watching the video)

It's Official!!!!

Yesterday was our re-adoption/finalization hearing for Grace's adoption. It is strange, but we had all but forgoten about the fact that there was one more, very important, thing that needed to be done. We needed the state of Wisconsin to recognize her Ethiopian adoption and agree to her name change.

We kept her Ethiopian name as her middle name, so she is now officially Grace Hiwot.

Going to the court house for a hearing was really interesting. The kids were excited to leave school early and head to the big, beautiful courthouse downtown. They had never set foot in the building, so it was interesting to watch them in awe at the beautiful architecture. It was also very interesting to witness all of the other people at the court house...many were not there for such a joyous occasion...as evidenced by the man we saw being escorted back to jail in his orange jumpsuit after being sentenced to five years in prison (we are really good listeners...his attorney chatted with his family after his sentencing hearing let out). Anyway...back to Grace. She was excited to become an official Wisconsinite and share our family name.

It was all so official. The judge started off by talking about a bunch of legal business that he needed to get on "record" and the stenographer was busy typing away...my daughter thought that was very interesting and noted that she would probably be pretty good at that job because of her practice with abbreviations while texting...So, after the official blah, blah, blah, the judge asked me Grace's given name. We answered a couple of questions, and then it was all over. He offered his congratulations and invited us up to "the bench" for pictures.

Grace seemed very comfortable sitting on his lap. She is a natural with the gavel too.

The judge did mention that because Grace was not born in the US, she is not eligible to be the president of The United States, but she can still be secretary of state (or at the very least an ambassador to Ethiopia). The kids and I had talked about his a few weeks ago...my oldest son thinks it is ridiculous that she can't be president...

It was a really touching experience. Even though Grace has been officially ours in our hearts since we first saw her picture in March, and officially our legal child according to the Ethiopian government since May, and officially a US citizen since landing in the US in July, it was still a very special moment. I asked her to tell the judge her new name and she recited it so cute with her little accent!

To celebrate, we headed to Curly's Pub at Lambeau Field (where the GB Packers play football). They have humongous desserts and we knew the kids would love to enormity of it all.

This is one of our desserts. I think it had about eight scoops of ice cream, hot fudge, caramel, Oreos, tons of whip cream, m&ms and green and gold sprinkles.

Funny to think this is the same girl who didn't like sweets when she came home three months ago. She is fitting right in now...

After we were all sugared up, the boys went to Drew's football banquet and Alyssa and her dance friends decided to get pink hair extensions to help raise money for breast cancer awareness. She looks pretty darn cute with a pink stripe in her hair (she looks pretty darn cute all the time...have I mentioned what a lucky mom I am to have her as my daughter?).

So...It's official. Grace is now officially and completely ours forever...When we got up to leave the court room, It was very sweet ...the judge and stenographer both wished us well and said to Grace, "Have a good life Grace." Wow...Through God's blessings, this sweet little girl has already lived a grace filled life and she is only three years old. I can not wait to see the amazing things she will do with the rest of her precious life. What an honor to be a part of it!