Long time, no blogging

It's been a while since I've written...mostly because our home is not ready yet and we are still living with friends. We are *hoping* to be able to move in this weekend. Our contractor and his crew are working hard to get things finished up. It's been hard to be unsettled the past several weeks. Belachew's schedule has been thrown off and he asks to "go home" several times a week. I keep reminding myself of how great our house will be, how the past several weeks will seem like a flash once we are settled, how there are much bigger problems in the world. Once we are in the new home, I promise to post some updated pictures of the house.

Ready or not, we are moving!

We will be moving out of our house in 48 hours. Boxes everywhere, up late packing every night, lots of stress, and a little boy that is a bit confused by everything going on around him. Our new house is not quite ready, so we will be putting our things in storage and living with some friends for a few weeks. Once we're settled, I'll get back to blogging and share pictures of our new house. It's looking great and we can't wait to move in and get settled!

A few lessons I've learned from moving:
-I don't want to move again for a LONG time. Unless the Extreme Home Makeover team shows up at my house with a plane ticket to Hawaii and packs up my house while I'm lying on a beach. Then maybe I'd consider another move...

-We have too much stuff. Even after multiple trips to Goodwill and recycling, we have so much stuff!

-Everytime I think we are making progress and almost done packing, I find another room or closet.

-It is impossible to keep a house clean AND pack it up at the same time

My mom reminded me that the Obama's and Bush's are moving this week as well. I wonder how packing is going for them.

Snow!

Happy Anniversary!

Today is our four year anniversary! We plan to celebrate this weekend by going out to dinner, just the two of us. This will be our first date night since Belachew has been home- whoo hoo! Happy Anniversary, Paul!

Dating

Our wedding day

Belachew's first Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas! Belachew and I headed to St. Louis a few days before Paul. We had fun spending time with Grandma and Grandpa, and Belachew's cousins. Belachew was very busy- playing with his cousins, helping Grandma make Christmas cookies, going down the slide temporarily put in Grandma's living room, and meeting new friends. Belachew had so much fun! He got the hang of opening presents and loved every gift he opened. We went on a horsedrawn carriage ride to see Christmas lights, which Belachew loved every second of, of course.

Making cookies

Carriage ride with family

Now we are back home, and starting to pack things up. We are planning to move mid-January. The construction on our new house is coming along, although there is still a lot of work to be done in the next few weeks!

The First Six Months of Forever

This weekend, we celebrated 6 months together as a family. It is hard to believe- in some ways Kenyon seems like he has been with us forever. At the same time, it seems not so long ago that we were in Ethiopia, meeting him for the first time. Kenyon Belachew has brought us so much joy to our lives and we feel blessed to be his parents.

June 6, 2008

December 7, 2008

A boy's best friend