More big news!

We've been so preoccupied with the house, that I haven't posted about much else in our lives. Our big news is- we are adopting again! We started the process in December, in the midst of packing and preparing to move. We knew when we brought Belachew home that we would start the process to adopt again pretty soon. We don't want a big age difference between children, we saw the reality of how many children are waiting for families in Ethiopia, and we felt a peace about moving forward. We completed all of our paperwork a few weeks ago and have been matched with a baby boy! We can't post any pictures of him until our adoption process is complete, but he is 7 months old and he is beautiful! If you see us around, we'd be happy to share a picture with you. We now wait to get assigned a court date, which can take a few months. Our hope is to have our baby home by the end of the summer or early fall. We'll keep you posted!

We love our new house!

We've been in our house for a few weeks now and are getting things settled. I haven't posted much lately because I've been spending every spare minute unpacking and organizing. I'll share pictures as we get things settled. We LOVE our new house! It has been a long, hard process at times, but is so worth it.

BEFORE

AFTER

My favorite 3 year old in the world

Seriously, I love this kid. Our life is feeling a bit more settled and we are having so much fun together. He loves to make me laugh and he is an awesome kid. I am so blessed to be his mama.

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