LOVE!

Last October we received a referral for the most beautiful little girl. For reasons that Scott and I are totally at peace with, our referral did not continue. For the past couple months we have just been waiting and praying for the exact child that God has for our family. This past week we received "the call" from our family coordinator for a most precious 4.5 month old little BOY!

Scott and I were both on the phone as she told us a little bit about him and his background. She then told us that his given name is S*****. Scott and I both started to laugh (and cry) because his name is the very one that we had decided on using if we were blessed with a boy. Do you get how awesome that is? His birth family and our family choose the same name.

We told the kids and gave them each a picture of their new brother. Amelia's first words were, "I guess I was always meant to be the only Murray girl." The boys were cheering...

Here's what needs to happen next...
*Our agency to obtain/prepare our documents for court
*The Ethiopian court to accept our paperwork
*Get a court date
*Fly to Ethiopia to meet our son and go to court (maybe 3 months from now)
*Fly home
*Our agency to submit paperwork to the US Embassy
*US Embassy to perform an investigation and release a VISA
*Fly back to Ethiopia to pick up our son.

(I got this little list from another adoptive family's blog)

Nothing is ever predictable with international adoption. We are praying that we will receive a court date soon and that the rest of this process process will go smoothly. Please pray for our little S*****, for his health and safety. We are thankful for all your prayers and love.

I forgot to mention that we are not able to publish his picture until he is offically ours.

I'm Baaaaack!!!

It's with great joy that I announce that I'm back. After 6 months of the slowest computer in the entire world and over a month with NO computer at all, I am the happiest person in the world.

Say hello to HP.

So, here's the story... I knew that we didn't have any room in our budget for a new computer so I asked Scoot if I sold things, could I use the money for a computer... He said yes, and I sorted through the entire basement and listed all our junk on Ebay.

(you might see a mess, all I see is $$)

I listed over 20 items on Ebay.... then I packaged them up...

Put them all in garbage sacks and took them to the post office.

I made just enough for the computer! I have never had a new computer and it's awesome.I could not be more thankful and I know for sure the guy at Best Buy thought I was nuts.

Okay, so now in no particular order (phone) photos of the last month of our lives...
We were at the opening day of the first Pei Wei in the western suburbs of Chicago. Oh, yeah!!

Scott turned into Vanilla Ice.

BBQing in the snow...

We got a new shelf from Ikea in our laundry room.

We made a snowman. It's still looks exactly the same right now.

I drive Sissy to school just like this. Brrrrrrr.

The kids are as crazy as ever.

We went to zoo lights at Lincoln Park Zoo.

We finally hung something above our bed.

I became an aunt again to the cutest little brown haired boy!
Theodore John Rozeboom.

I'm sure there are a couple things I'm forgetting but we are all healthy and happy and surviving the cold winter. Check back tomorrow when I have the hugest announcement ever!!!!