Exciting news!

Last week, Briana and I went to see the movie Julie and Julia. It was cute. If you are not aware, it's about a women, Julie, who cooks her way through Julia Childs cookbook and blogs about it...EVERYDAY. It dawns on me that people actually write on their blogs everyday. Now, between blogs, Facebook, Twitter, work, home, and family, I have no idea how people get the time to BLOG everyday. Most of you know I am not a fan of FB and you maybe see me once a week throw something on there.

My new thing will be to post once a week on this Blog. It's intended for friends and family to keep up with the adoption, but since I have a capitve audience (of about one I am guess. ha!) I will post something else. Maybe interesting facts about Ethiopia, and funny family story (which usually involves, a child, a pet, or some sort of injury). This way I can train you all to come out to the Blog, so when it comes time for updates on the adoption you are already checking the site.

Onto the Exciting NEWS!!!

We got an update on our daughter waiting for us in Ethiopia. Our referral photo can't even really be called a photo. It was the size of a postage stamp and Xeroxed so many times that all we could see was a silhoute. Obviously to us it doesn't matter what she looks like because between this photo and about 3 sentences of information we decided she was the child for us. However, after all this time of paperchasing and paying money out for this and that I didn't realize until yesterday how much I needed that photo. It's my tangible evidence that I do have a daugther and she is not just a paragraph on a piece of paper.

Let me tell you. She is absolutely, 100% gorgeous! She looks healthy and happy. She is smiling and already missing a front tooth! (That makes me a little sad, I am missing the milestone of no front teeth). Not only were we blessed with a photo, but a 6 page assessment report!!!

I can not share her photo with you online or any personal information, but Iwill tell you she is beatiful, an intelligent girl and loves to jump rope! Our family was so excited last night gathered around the computer. We printed off her photo and put it at the empty chair at the table and from now on she is with us in spirit until she can be with us forever!

When is forever going to get here you ask? Well....FOREVER...ha! We are waiting for our final piece of paper from the government and then we can send our whole dossier off to the main agency and they will make sure it's complete. It will be sent to Ethiopia, where it will be translated. This takes about a month. Right now best guess is January-February time frame. Of course, with adoptions nothing is set in stone. It's like trying to nail jello to the wall.

Thanks for all your continued prayers and support!

HUGS and LOVE~ The Grabers