What Now?

I am sure some of you are wondering what is next for us in our adoption process. This might come as a shock to you but the word

waiting

comes to mind. Yep we have to wait some more. This time we are waiting for Jordan's paperwork (passport and new birth certificate). I have to admit that I am done waiting. It seems all we did for the past year is wait. The only time we did something was when we were gathering our paperwork in the beginning. Thanks to Fil we were done in 3 1/2 months that was the fastest part of our adoption journey. Since then we waited for our referral (4 1/2 months). After that we waited and waited for our court date (almost 4 months) and here we are waiting again. I sure hope this part will go much faster. As you can see from pictures we are ready to go.
I had fun with the kids at my photo session and they had a blast playing in Grandma's suitcase (don't worry Grandma it is still in one piece). We are not planning to take the kids with us but they are as excited about our trip as we are.
The McIlrath left for Ethiopia on Wednesday. We were able to send a few small things for our baby girl with them. Tomorrow (Saturday) 5 more families are traveling to pick up their children. As some of you know we were part of that group originally so it is a bitter sweet for me.
I sure hope and pray we will get to travel soon. Meanwhile here is my new blog header. (Can you tell I am having fun?)

Snow (again)

It is snowing again in the North country. But is sure looks nice doesn't it? I took these pictures at night so I will admit that I did some (ok maybe more then some) editing. But I sure had fun. I wish someone would take a picture of me standing out there in the snow with tripod and umbrella (the first picture is our house and the second our neighbors across the street) .

SHE IS OURS !!!!

She is ours! I cannot stop shaking. We received e.mail few minutes ago that

Jordan Senteyahu

is official our daughter.

We are crying and rejoicing. It has been a long journey for us and we are so relieved at this point.

Anyway here she is!!!!

(our referral picture when she was 10 weeks old)(from Rachel at Christmas time)
( from Penelope in January)
and few weeks ago
Can you believe all the hair?

Sunday Reflections

"Jesus, I am Resting, Resting"

Pigott/Mountain, arr. Hampton

Jesus, I am resting in the joy of what Thou art;

I am finding out the greatness of Thy loving heart.

Thou hast bid me gaze upon Thee, and Thy beauty fills my soul

For by They transforming power, thou hast made me whole.

Oh, how great Thy loving kindness, vaster, broader then the sea!

Oh, how marvelous Thy goodness lavished all on me.

Yes, I rest in Thee, Beloved, know what wealth of grace is Thine,

Know the certainty of promise and have made it mine.

Simply trusting Thee, Lord Jesus, I behold Thee as Thou art;

And Thy love so pure, so changeless, satisfies my heart.

Satisfies its deepest longings, meets, supplies, its ev'ry need;

Compasseth me round with blessings; thine is love indeed!

Ever lift Thy face upon me, as I work and wait for Thee;

Resting 'neath Thy smile, Lord Jesus, earth's dark shadows flee.

Brightness of my Father's glory, sunshine of my Father's face,

Keep me ever trusting, resting, fill me with Thy grace.

I am finding out the greatness of thy loving heart.

More Snow

Just when we thought it cannot snow any more in the North country. Believe me if it was up to me I would be more then willing to share the snow with all of you out who would like some. Anyway we got 6 inches yesterday and the kids still enjoy playing outside. It looks like I took a lots of snow pictures this winter. I don't know what the exact snowfall record is but I am sure we have broken it this winter.

Nate is standing next to our tree that is covered halfway up with snow. I sure hope my flowers will survive all this snow.

Emma and Sam going down the hill. Emma holding onto her dear life. As usual mom was too busy taking pictures. And here she is coming home. (Can you tell she is a little bit mad?)Here is Fil and the kids trying to showel our front steps. We have not seen them since December because our and neighbor kids have been using them as luge run for the past few months.

My Favorite Homeschooling Product

This week's Friday Meme at The Heart of the Matter is "Your Favorite Homeschooling Product". It has been fun looking at other homeschooling blogs and seeing everyone's favorite product. I have so many things I love that we use during school. But the biggest one I would have to say is my Instructor's Guide from the Sonlight curriculum. People at Sonlight did such a great job and the guide saves me a lot of time everyday. I found the product below at a teachers store a few weeks ago and the boys love it. It is called History Pockets and it has great hands on activities to go with our history lessons. I am already looking into more Even-Moore Educational Publishers products.

Twinkies

This week I watched Top Ten Fun Food Factories on the Travel channel. I was very curious about American fun food. I had the pleasure to visit a few places mentioned like the Hershey chocolate factory in Hershey PA and the World of Coca-cola in Atlanta (twice). Most of the food items mentioned I have tried like pretzels or jelly beans. I was waiting the whole time to see what number 1 is. Well as you might guess the ultimate is: Fil was watching the show with me so I turned to him and asked him what in the world are Twinkies (remember I didn't not grow up in US)? They talked about this delicious snack that every child loves. So here I was sitting in my living room not even knowing what Twinkies are. So the next time I went to the grocery I looked for this "snack". It took me a while to locate it but as you can see it made it to our home. As soon as we got home I got it out and presented it to my children. Sam gave me this "are you crazy" look and both he and Nate were very firm that they will not eat this thing under any circumstances. I was trying to present the Twinkies in the best way possible like it is sweet and probably being pure sugar type of thing. Nope they didn't want anything to do with it. Emma on the other hand was very interested so we split one. I have no idea why it made it number one on the list. I was right it was pure sugar. I still have the rest of the box left here at home if anyone is interested.

(I am sure after Fil will read this post he will come home today and first thing he will ask for is the Twinkies. I better hide it well :)

Simply Love (and my 200th blog entry)

Last week we received t-shirts in the mail from our friends also with AWAA the Gibson family. Their son designed these beautiful shirts to help raise money to bring their baby girl home. Yes they are adopting from Ethiopia as well. They are still waiting for their referral at this point but I am sure it is going to happen very soon. Keri asked me to pose for them so here is Fil and me playing models.
If you are interested in buying there t-shirts let me know. You can look them up at the Gibson fundraiser blog.
It is SIMPLY LOVE.

Sunday Reflections and Scones

Praise awaits you, O Zion; to you our vows will be fulfilled. O you who hear prayer, to you all men will come. When we were overwhelmed by sins, you forgave our transgressions. Blessed are those you choose and bring near to live in your courts! We are filled with the good things of your house, of your holy temple. You answer us with awesome deeds of righteousness, O God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the farthest seas, who formed the mountains by your power, having armed yourself with strength, who stilled the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the rurmoil of the nations. Those living far away fear your wonders; where morning dawns and evening fades y ou call forth songs of joy.

Psalm 65:1-8
Sunday Scones

4 cups plus all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp sugar, plus additional for sprinkling
2 Tbsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
3/4 lb cold unsalted butter, diced
4 extra-large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup cold heavy cream
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
1 egg beaten with 2 tablespoons
water or milk for egg wash

Preaheat the oven to 400 degrees.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine 4 cups of flour, 2 Tbsp sugar, baking powder; and salt. Blend in the cold butter at the lowest speed and mix until the butter is in pea-sized pieces. Combine the eggs and heavy cream and quickly add them to the four-and-butter mixture. Combine until just blended. Add the chocolate chips to the dough, and mix quickly. The dough may be a bit sticky.
Dump the dough out onto a well-floured surface and be sure it is well combined. Flour your hands and a rolling pin and roll the dough 3/4-inch thick. You should see lumps of butter in the dough. Cut into squares with a 4-inch plain or fluted cutter, and then cut them in half diagonally to make triangles. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Brush the tops with egg wash. Sprinkle with sugar and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the outsides are crisp and the insides are fully baked.
ENJOY

Where Do You Homeschool?

That is a good question. Isn't it? It has been fun to look at other homeschooling families blogs to see where they do school. I had to sit down and think about this one. I am a person, mom, teacher ... etc. (you get to picture) who likes to have a schedule prepared ahead of time and keep to it if possible. Over the years I've learned to be more flexible, but for the most part our school time is pretty much set during the morning. We start our devotional on our sofa in the living room. We all cuddle together and spent at least an hour reading not just from Bible but other books as well. We move to the kitchen after that. I had to separate the boys so Nate sits at the table and Sam by the kitchen counter. Emma moves around from place to place. Sometime the kids move into the study or onto the floor. Nate started doing his math under the kitchen table a few weeks ago and he is doing well so I am going to leave him there for now. Finally we move into kitchen for our science expirements.

After thinking about it I will have to add that we do school all the time and everywhere. The boys ask questions all the time and I try my best to answer them. Even though our school time is set inside our house, our learning goes on wherever we go. But I am sure that is true for all families.

Here are the boys "hungry" for learning and some snacks. Nate is like a explorer and Sam is our teacher. Emma is our princes (Snow White). Yep we cover it all during the day.
Some of our books for this year (and as most homeschool families there is never enough bookshelves in the house).Nate working on his decimal street (math) on the floor in the kitchen.
Our artsy girl.
Sam is into World War II.

Gp & Gm

Are you wondering what Gp & Gm means? That is how Sam writes when he addresses Fil's parents. And when Grandma (Gm) writes back she signs GG or 2G's. As you can see from the pictures Fil's parents stopped by for a quick visit. The word STOP is exactly what they did. They flew in Tuesday night and left Thursday morning for AZ. They will be visiting their supporting churches and friends in AZ and Southern and Nothern California. They have been looking forward to this trip for a while. They would have stayed with us longer if we would have been traveling soon but since we have no idea when that will happen they headed out to the west. It was great to see them even for a short period of time. They always bring something silly for the kids and as you can see from the pictures it was a Scottish hat this time.


Here is Fil and Sam enjoying a hockey game in our driveway. We got more snow this week.



Here is Emma with her new hat that Grandma (Gm) made for her.
And here is our little girl with grandpa (Gp) at the airport.
I think she had him wrapped around her little finger the whole time. Here they are looking at the planes.
Grandma (Gm) with the boys. They are looking looking forward to our trip since grandma and grandpa will be staying with them.

Tuesday - Peace

I wanted to say thank you to all of you. Thank you so much for all your comments, emails and phone calls. They were most encouraging to Fil and me.
We had a great weekend as a family. We were all at peace and looking forward to any news on Monday.
I remember talking to Penelope back in December when their court date didn't go through. She told me she felt numb. Well guess what? Now I know how she felt. That would pretty much describe my Monday. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what emotion I was feeling. In a way I experienced every feeling there is to feel. I had a hard Tuesday morning but by noon I felt God pouring out His grace & peace. I was just calm and peaceful. I know all of you have been praying for us and God heard your prayers. (It also helped that Fil's parents were coming later that day and I had to clean the whole house).

I borrowed this following from Kari's blog. She pretty much wrote down what I wanted to say. (I hope you don't mind Keri?!)

Our human tendency is to escape, run, fix or jump out of a trial too quickly...they hurt so bad. I'm reminded that God is in control...the good, bad and ugly!! If I jump too fast, I might miss out on a life-changing lesson from my Savior!!!

1) Count trials as JOY
2)Trials are part of our daily lives: they will come. God allows pain.

3)Trials come for MY benefit.

4)Trials bring GREAT results!

"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths."

Isaiah 2:3

New Court Date

We got an update from Duni. While apparently all the paperwork is now in order we will need to appear in court again. Our new court date is February 25th. Although Duni didn't mention this but I feel it is quite certain we will not be traveling with the group families that just made it through the courts (I don't see how this is possible). Thanks to all for your prayers. We pray that we will be sucessful at the next court date. We are emotionally and physically exhausted with the process but also realized that we are very blessed and look forward to bringing our girl home in March. We are slowly moving forward.

Sunday Reflections

All joy (as distinct from mere pleasure, still more amusement) emphasizes our pilgrim status; always reminds, beckons, awakens desire. Our best havings and wantings.

-- C.S. Lewis, Letters
Thought you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal fo your faith, the salvation of your souls.
1 Peter 1:8-9

One More Paper

We wanted to all let you know that we didn't make it through court today. We cannot go into details but we need another paper. We will let you know as soon as we know more. Probably early next week.

One Year Ago Today

One Year ago today we officially started the paperwork process. I cannot believe its been a year. A Lot has happend since then. These pictures are from when we finished our paper chase. As I said before I have to give credit to Fil for all this. This paper pregnancy, as most people call it, was his and he did a great job. Here are the kids back in May when we sent our dossier (all those papers) to our agency and our wait began.
If you look up at our ticker you know that tomorrow is our court date. We are praying that everything will go smoothly and nothing will need to be rescheduled. We received our referral for our baby girl back in October and it has been a long wait not only for us but for the other 4 families who received referrals on the same date as we did. We are looking forward to meeting them on our trip. Please pray for us so we can go pick up our children soon. February sounds good to me.