Well, I was wrong. It turns out Mark was unable to even leave the airport due to some restrictions. He did get some zzzz's and had fish and chips.

He said the b.o. sucked, but he combated it with his overhead fan. Then he was cold, but said it did help. He said that the airline offered in-flight entertainment with lots of movies, documentaries, etc. and the flight went really fast. He got to choose a window seat on this next flight, in case he can see Africa as they fly over. So, cool.

Hopefully, in 5 hours or so he will be landing in Addis and then soon after that will be holding our little one. He will have a a representative from our agency waiting for him at the airport.

I'm so excited to get any new information and see new pictures!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's an update, sort of. Mark's flight landed at 12:45 London time and now it's almost 5 hours later and I haven't heard a thing. If I know my husband, this leads me to believe that he has left the airport to cram in a few cool things in London before he goes on to Addis. I guess time will tell.

Mark is off. He got on the commuter plane no problem. When he got to L.A. he paid $60.00 for the extra bag which should get it all the way to Ethiopia. No discount, but not as much as I expected, which is great! He also ended up taking a ton of kids toothbrushes (with Shrek on them) and small toothpaste tubes that Katie and Ella's dentist donated. We went to Wal-Mart and bought some little toys, candy and t-shirts that we added as well. He actually took very little personal stuff and he will probably have plenty of room in his luggage for bringing home a few souvenirs.

Here's a funny one. He called and said he is behind a guy on the plane with b.o., but he said it's only a 10 hour flight. He called me again as they were taxiing and said the b.o. was bad.

Good luck, Mark.

Mark is taking some donations of formula, diapers, wipes, etc. to Ethiopia. **

We met another adoptive family a while back in San Clemente who had collected these donations, but they were unable to take them all with them when they went to Ethiopia. So, we took them off of their hands and off they will go today.



We are kind of hoping that the airlines will
"overlook" the approx. $150.00 extra baggage fee, since these are going to a good cause. Sometimes this can happen. We will keep our fingers crossed, otherwise we will have to pay it.

**Beautiful little girl not included.

2 days until departure!

Mark leaves on Wednesday, flying first to L.A. for a duration of a whopping 44 minutes. He has a 2 1/2 hr. layover and then he then flies to London, for a duration of 10 hrs. 30 min. After that, he gets the joy of staying in the London airport for 9 1/2 more hours. I'm certain he will work or sleep to fill his time. After that, he will fly to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for a duration of 7 hrs. 40 minutes. Once he arrives there, it will be 8:45 a.m. and he will be fully rested and ready to start his first full day in Ethiopia.

Exciting news!!!

Mark just couldn't wait!!! He bought tickets today to go and visit baby "H". What a good Daddy. He will go and get to spend 4 days visiting her at the Transition Home. We aren't sure how long he will get to visit each day, but we are hoping it's several hours per day. He will hopefully gets lots of time to hold her, feed her, talk to her and just give her a bit of her Daddy while she's waiting on us to come and get her and bring her home. Of course, he will also bring her gifts and kisses from her Mommy and some other donations for the Transition Home. He also wants to make sure that she is doing well, gaining weight, etc.

This will potentially mean that Mark will NOT go with me (Jenny) when it's time to pick the baby up, which will allow him to stay home and take care of Ella and Katie. This is very important, because we know that Ella would miss us terribly and it was one of our biggest concerns. If Mark stays home, Ella will most likely be just fine. That's worth a lot to us.

Also, Mark needed and got permission from our agency to let him visit and stay at their Guest House. And there's no need to mention that Mark's adventurous side just couldn't pass up a trip that will take him halfway around the world on a few days notice. Mark also has several days off for the Thanksgiving break, so he won't miss any classes.

So, all in all, we really think this is a good decision. Financially, it will most likely be more expensive than if we went at the same time, but it's worth it to us. God will provide. It's hard to have a child in a 3rd world country and have to wait months to hold her, feed her, love on her, etc.

Just think of the pictures that we will get from his trip!!! Absolutely priceless. We will have pictures of her with her Daddy at this age that we wouldn't have had otherwise. It brings me great joy that he will be there with her NEXT WEEK!!!

Thank you, God.

Our agency received our acceptance letter and payment today. So, now we wait for a court date. Here's a bit of the e-mail we received today...

"After America World has received a family’s acceptance letter, we will move forward to request a court date. Families will be notified of this court date roughly 2-5 weeks later. Currently court dates can range approximately 4-12 weeks after the referral has been officially accepted. Roughly 60% of families will pass court on the first issued date, while 40% of the cases will require a second court date for successful completion of court. Second court dates can be issued 1 to 8 weeks after an initial court date. Once a family has successfully passed court they can anticipate traveling 4-5 weeks later."

So, it could be awhile. Let's pray that we receive a court date quickly and that we pass on the first try. :)

A blessing happened in the last few days that I thought I'd share. We've known for a long time that when our referral came, we would be sending a check for another payment toward adoption fees. Well, Mark has been working very hard trying to make extra money for these adoption expenses and because his salary at work was cut by 10% this year. Well, it just so happened that two checks reached our mailbox this week. One was a property tax refund for overpayment due to the dive in the real estate values in San Diego. Another was an extra work check for Mark that arrives about every 3 months. The total of our adoption payment was 5,485 and the 2 checks totaled 5,263. Is God providing? I think so.

Wow! Have we been busy since we got the call! We have sent in our acceptance letter, another signed agreement and payment. We've contacted an international doctor to look over baby H's medical forms. We've shared her pictures proudly with lots of people and made copies and framed them. We've contacted a family traveling next week to ET and sent them a signed photo consent form so that they can take pictures of H when they are there. We did buy a few toys for her that we will send with another family going in early December. We've also had Ella's 3rd birthday since then, continued doing our best to nurse Katie since her tonsillectomy and tried to work in there somewhere. Has it only been 4 days?

Our agency posted this update on their website. Note the infant girl referrals dated DTE 1/9/09. One of those is us!!!


Ethiopia Referral Update!
November has kept the Ethiopia program busy with a total of 11 referrals so far! Congratulations to these families! Find below the list of these children and the DTE dates of the families. Please keep in mind some of these referrals may be sibling sets as well as children with special needs.

Age and Gender of Child
DTE Date

7 Male Infants
1/16/2009

6/12/2009

6/19/2009

6/26/2009

7/2/2009

7/17/2009

7/24/2009

2 Female Infants
1/9/2009

1/9/2009

1 Male Toddler
8/28/2009

1 Female Toddlers
8/28/2009

Due to the recent trends of received referrals the wait time for an infant male is now currently 4-6 months, while the wait time for a female infant remains 9-11 months. This trend is based on recent history, but is subject to change.
We are excited to watch and see what the Lord has planned for the Ethiopia program for the remainder of 2009. Your prayers are truly appreciated!

It's so wonderful to start a new rock color in our "waiting for baby" project. We are now entering into the "waiting for travel" stage, which will be at least 2 months, but could be longer. But, at least while we are waiting, we now can look at our beautiful, little girl's face.

Today was the day!!! We got our referral!!! We got a call at 10:22 a.m. that we are the proud parents of a 2 month old baby girl. She is absolutely beautiful and looks great! I was at work and Mark was at home tending to Katie (who had surgery yesterday). I quickly had another teacher take my kids and we did a conference call with Mark, Katie and me. It was very exciting. I cannot give details about her or post pictures just yet, due to agency policy, but I will as soon as we are allowed. Just for the record, she is adorable. She has big, beautiful eyes and is very little. We love her already.

Next step...sign the acceptance and wait for a court date!