I found this fun website where you can put words in and it will scramble them into the shape of something.  I did it with Africa and LOVED it!

I forgot to mention we need to be re-fingerprinted at the Immigration office in Milwaukee.  These prints expire 15 mos. from when you had them taken.  Of course they expire at the end of October and you need them to be good through your travel- possibly one month too soon!   So we are sending out a form to them tomorrow to get another appt.   We just have to take the appt. day and time they send us and head downtown and wait and wait and wait…hoping it won’t take as long as it did last time!   This is not a hold up, but needs to happen between now and when we go…the sooner, the better!

Thankfully, we do not have to update our immigration approval (I-600A).  That expires 18 mos. from when you received approval, which will not be until next April!  We are so glad we don’t have to re-do this, as it took MANY weeks to get approval in the mail!

We’ve been a bit spoiled lately!   The boys moved sometime this summer from the orphanage in Hosanna (3-4 hour trip from the capital of Addis) to the Thomas Center (care center run by our agency) in Addis.   Because of this, we have gotten some more new pictures- actually 2 sets in July alone!   It was a great surprise to get them in an email!  I so wish I could share them here, but we can’t officially until we pass court and they are ours!   All I can say is, they sure are growing up, changing, and cute as ever!  I love their curls and big eyes.  Elijah has much darker skin and lips than Jonah- a sign one of their parents probably did as well.   One looks to have the two upper teeth and the other has the two bottom teeth.   From friends who have gone to pick up their children before us, we have learned that they can sit up if you put them in the sitting position.  It does not appear that they are crawling and definitely not walking.   This is a big improvement from February though when it looked like they could hardly hold up their heads.    They are also sharing a crib, so we wonder if they will want to be in one crib together for a while once they come home.  We do have their cribs right next to each other and Evan in the room too, as we know they are used to being in a room with many children.  We’ll have to see what happens!   We’ve also been told they look healthy and happy- full of smiles!   It appears they look to be around 6-9 months of age because they were preemies.   In July they weighed about 14 1/2 lbs each.   It’s funny- Landyn was big to begin with and has had no trouble gaining weight- I think he might be almost 12 lbs already.   I think  they will be about the same size and doing the same things as Landyn when they finally come home!!   It will be kind of nice to be working on the same skills with all three of them.   We’ll catch them up quickly with weight and developmental skills, I’m sure!  I’ve been so fortunate to have many friends go before me on this journey, who have been able to share these wonderful details with me, as well as hold them and love them for us and take items like clothing and toys to them for us!   Thank you to my dear friends, Julie, Jill, Lori, and Melissa!  I am blessed to have you in my life, as well as my other two prayer warriors and friends, Amy and Melinda!

Yesterday, August 11th, I found out that our homestudy update had made it to our agency.  That was quicker than I had guessed, so I was very happy to hear that!  Our wonderful caseworker said that she had looked it over, along with our doctor letter, and that it looked great!   She said that a supervising social worker would have to look it over and that this person would probably not get to it til early next week, but then she could give us the green light and we could apply for a court date.

Well today, I was away from my phone and our caseworker had called saying to call her back, but not what about!   I was puzzled.  It was the first time in a long time I had that pit in my stomach feeling- probably since the devastating news of being put on hold back in March/April.  I was hoping it was at least something good or just a question she had.

I got a hold of her around 4:30 p.m. and she said that there was good news.

God moved many mountains today!   Prayers have been answered for sure!   This supervising social worker, who happened to be the same one I had dealt with during the “not so fun time of the adoption” reviewed our homestudy update today and APPROVED us!   Talk about a relief!!   Maybe God made her see that these boys really belong in our family and that we will be great parents for them…at least that’s what I’d like to think!

This wasn’t all though!!!!   She continued by saying, “Because your paperwork for the boys has been complete for a while now, we called our lawyer in Ethiopia and he was able to get you a court date!”  You heard me right, a court date!  FINALLY and all in one day!  I was in shock and it felt surreal!   And of course, Rick was out of town again, randomly.  So I celebrated one of the BEST days of this adoption rollercoaster with Evan and Landyn!!

The courts were considering staying open this year for the rainy season (they usually close in August and September).  Because they closed in July for 2 weeks to consider this, they stayed open until August 2oth, rather than about August 5th (when they usually close).   But, the new court dates being assigned are for October  (when they usually re-open).  So though they have not officially said they are closing, this sign pretty much means they are closing.  

We thus got a court date for the first week they re-open- October 6th!!!!    We need some major prayers between now and then and especially on the night of October 5th (Ethiopia is 8 hours ahead of us so the court date will be happening in the middle of the night on Oct. 5th/6th) that we pass the first time!    Many people do, but many people also have to have 2 dates and there are even some unfortunate people that have to have 3, 4, or 5 dates (a friend of mine had to have 5 and I don’t even think I could handle that).

I am praying God will allow us to pass the first time with what we have been through already.   All we can do is have hope and pray hard!   Your prayers are very much appreciated!

Some have asked- why would you not pass??  Good question!  It’s hard to say why this happens but usually it is because a birth parent does not show up to court (we do not need to be there by the way, but one parent does if they have a living one) or because of a paperwork issue, usually not the fault of the adoptive parent or the agency, or because a document was not signed by MOWA (ministry of women’s affairs).  If you do not pass, you get a new court date re-schedule and more time passes.

The final step is travel to pick the children up and go to your US Embassy Appointment.   Unfortunately, the US Embassy in Ethiopia reduced the number of embassy appointments from 4 a month to just 2, which really limits the times you can travel each month.   This also is one of the reasons why you have to now wait about 6 weeks after passing court to travel, along with documents/visas taking a bit longer to process than they used to.   You would certainly think they would have increased embassy dates, not decreased with the flocking number of people choosing to adopt from Ethiopia these days, but no.  Gotta love politics!

So our tentative embassy date, should we pass court the first time, is November 24th.   This would mean we would not be home for Thanksgiving.  But boy, this sure would be the best Thanksgiving ever- we’d really have A LOT to be thankful for!   And, with most people having one or two days off of work, it would help with our family being able to help watch the boys for the week, as we both intend to travel to see the country where our boys come from and to meet them in person for the first time (this experience is like the birth of your biological child in my mind and I don’t want to miss it for the world).

Floating on cloud nine right now!

Thank you all for your support, your prayers, and for following our journey!  God bless!

October 6th will be here before we know it, so it’s on to preparing for travel and for collecting supplies to take to be donated to the orphanage and care center, as well as how we’ll get the money to afford to take all the bins of supplies with us as they are about $200 per 18 gallon Rubbermaid bin from what I hear!  The boys’ room is ready, their cribs are set up and bedded.   They will be sharing the biggest room in our house with Evan- he is beyond thrilled!

Okay…it’s hard to know where to begin and how to keep this part short.

I haven’t posted much besides the boys birthday because after all the many delays we had experienced during the first year of our adoption proccess, we hit yet another major bump in the road in March.

After having our son Evan, I had two miscarriages.  I was tested and found out I had something called Protein S Deficiency, which is a blood clotting issue that can be brought on just during pregnancy.   Basically the blood clots were blocking the placenta and causing me to miscarry…..so upsetting, yet I was thankful to find out what the problem was and how to fix it.   They said Evan was just lucky it did not happen to him.  He was a real miracle!  The fix was to take a baby aspirin every day- crazy how something so little can do something so big!

 Knowing we wanted a large family with our children close in age, and having gone through two losses, we did not want to stop trying to have more biological children.  We very much wanted birth children and adopted children.  We specifically looked at our agency’s contract when signing to make sure we could get pregnant during the process without being put on hold or terminated, as many agencies have a clause about this.   The agency we signed with said that it was your choice and if you were to put it on hold, to notify them immediately.  We became pregnant and were thrilled.  I was taking the baby aspirin every day and things were going great.  I had to have special growth ultraounds throughout the pregnancy and then stop taking the baby aspirin at 36 weeks for a hole in the baby’s heart to close (this is when it happens for all babies apparently).   We chose not to put our adoption on hold.

Well..when we told them about our pregnancy in March (we waited a while to make sure the pregnancy was safe and because of our past losses/diagnosis/doctor’s advice), they told us they were going to put the adoption on hold until I had delivered and had my 6 wk. check-up appt, at which time we would have to update our homestudy.   The big blow was when I said, “How is that in the best interest of the boys?” and she said “Oh no, we’d re-refer them to another family.”   Rick was out of town and I was home with Evan and I literally fell to the floor on my knees crying out to God at the injustice of this for everyone’s sake.   We were attached emotionally, spiritually, and financially.  We loved the boys and prayed for them and looked at their pictures and watched their dvd all the time!   There were many signs they were to be a part of our family.  Evan even knew them by name and had been just as anxious to get them home!

We fought this decision by writing a letter to the agency and getting a letter from our doctor.  It took about 6 weeks total from the first phone call to their final decision.  It was 6 weeks of torture!   Talk about stressing out a pregnancy!  The best news was that they decided that we could adopt the boys, but that we would need to still be on hold.   It was devastating, but we were just so thankful we could continue the adoption!

So the wait began and this time was tough, so I chose not to post.

On June 22nd at 11:54 p.m., Landyn Grey Henningfeld was born, weighing in at a very healthy 8 lbs. 9 oz. and measuring 21″ long.   He was a miracle in my mind and was perfect!  Everything went great and we were both healthy!   We would now be the proud parents of 4 BOYS!  Yikes!   Talk about a lot of energy and testosterone.  I am surely outnumbered now and hope that the next time we have a child I will finally get my girl and that maybe my dream of adopting a sweet little Asian girl will one day come true as well.  I did not like being the only girl in the family and so want to have at least 2 girls!

Six weeks from Landyn’s birth passed quickly and we had our home study update on Wednesday, August 5th.   That went well.

We were back on board!

To be continued….