Jett

I am writing from my phone and won’t be able to post pictures until weare home. I have a lot to share about our past few days but will have to wait as it’s frustrating to blog from a cellphone

We have Jett! He has gained weight since we seen him last and he looks so good It is still completely crazy that we are here with him and that he is our son. We couldn’t possibly be more in love with him, he is absolutely precious. He is doing okay with the adjustment although he is still pretty uneasy and is frightened easily. It is clear that there is a lot of healing that needs to happen in his little heart before he can fully trust us. We are so seeing progress and that encourages us, we are also noticing certain situations that tend to stress him out and so we are avoiding them as much as possible. Every day we are seeing a little bit more of his personality and it is such a joy to see him begin to relax. Tonight was the first time that we have really heard him laugh and we received many smiles today (no smiles at all yesterday). He is such a precious gift and we are beyond blessed to get to be his parents.

If you would like to see how much our big kids are not missing us, read my parents blog, the link is on the right

Change in Plans

We are now leaving on WEDNESDAY instead of Friday. Our flights are booked, our guest house reservation has been made and we are starting to pack. We will arrive in Addis Thursday night at 9:30 pm and will take custody of Jett the very next morning! We are excited to have a few more days in Addis before traveling home, it gives us all more time to bond before making the long journey back. It’s been a little overwhelming to pack for this trip. I’m not quite sure what size of clothing he is wearing, I don’t know what kind of bottles or sippy cups he prefers, what kinds of food he likes…so we are bringing a variety

It’s crazy to finally be at this point! There were SO many times along this journey where it just felt like he would never be home. Now, in less than 2 weeks, he will be crawling around on our living room floor (if we ever set him down of course )

Thanks for sharing in our excitement!

He is coming home!

Taken the first time we met our boy.

After 23 months on this amazing journey, we are finally bringing home our son. It feels SO wonderful to type those words! God is so good!

We leave next Friday

One Year Ago Today…

Birthday Picture

I didn’t expect this, what an incredible surprise! Doesn’t he look so old??

Praying Mantis

There are a lot of things I truly love about homeschool. One of my favorites is getting to customize our lessons based on the things that Jaeger is interested in. It’s obviously more fun to learn when the subject is something you love. Jaeger is really fascinated with bugs right now and his favorite bug is the praying mantis. Last week, we had a “praying mantis” day and it was SO much fun. Well worth the extra time planning it.

These are the t-shirts we made with iron on transfers, super simple and so cute.

The only lesson I could find about praying mantis’ was meant for a 4th grade level. I decided to print it out and had intended to simplify it for Jaeg but it completely held his attention as written. He already knew most of their characteristics thanks to the insect portion of our animal encyclopedia. (I know I’m sounding all braggy…but we have seriously found him in his room pouring over his encyclopedia!)

It was such a great day in school. I am definitely glad we got through the core subjects first, after the paper praying mantis’ were made there was no room for silly things like math

Christmas

Today is Christmas in Ethiopia! Craig and I are still figuring out what our family traditions will be for January 7th. It’s exciting to think about incorporating Ethiopian culture into our home.

These pictures were actually taken on New Year’s Day. We decided to open stockings on New Year’s instead of Christmas so it would spread out the excitement a little longer (a tradition we plan to keep up).

Jaeg thought they should do a silly pose…

Next year we will have 3 sweet children to celebrate with!

Jett’s Birthday

Just over 6 months ago we received our referral for Jett and have been praying for him to make it home for his first birthday ever since. I feel like we are missing out on so many important things in his life and I really wanted to be a part of his first birthday. I wanted to bake him a cake, take him somewhere special and have video footage of him tearing into his first presents. We have those memories of our older two and I have been dreaming about having those moments with Jett as well. Of course, I know that the day can be recreated with him once he is home…I just really wanted those things to happen on his actual birthday.

I have never once felt like God was telling me or promising me that Jett would be home on my terms. Not once. I have felt His love and comfort over the situation, but never a confirmation that I would get the thing I was praying for. I felt this same love and comfort several times throughout Jett’s birthday…a husband who let me run off for coffee with a friend at a literal moment’s notice…a wonderful coffee date with a very special friend who just returned from Ethiopia visiting her own sweet boy (Jett’s roomie!), she had seen and held Jett only days before our visit…friends who called and texted me just to say they loved me and were praying…THIRTY-FOUR new pictures of Jett when I had been told only the day before that there were no new pictures.

Even though things didn’t go the way that I was hoping, it was still so apparent that God had not forgotten me or overlooked my request. I still have no idea why the wait continues to drag on, but I know that I can’t see the whole picture. I will continue to trust in God’s plan for our family, even when it doesn’t make sense…even when it hurts me to do so.

I am so thankful that Craig is able to see these things much clearer than me. This adoption has shown me characteristics of him that I don’t know if I ever would have seen otherwise. His trust in God is so solid and matter-of-fact. It feels like I need to work all these things through in my head before I can get to that point. Of course, I know that this is all in God’s hands, but my natural tendency is always to “figure” things out on my own first. We eventually come to the same realization, my way is just a little bit more painful

Thank you again for all of the support and encouragement you have all shown to us. We are looking forward to seeing how the rest of this unfolds! Here are some of our new pictures of Mr. Jett Wakuma:

Update: Yesterday morning we received an email from Jett’s nurse. He is sick, nothing serious, but he has a terribly sore throat and isn’t eating very well right now. He is being treated with antibiotics and will hopefully be over this very soon. Please pray for his healing and that he is being comforted.

Waiting

It’s really hard to wait. Our case was submitted to the U.S. Embassy on 12/27. We have received 2 emails from the embassy in the past week letting us know they are working on our case and then later requesting a little more information. The missing information was provided by our agency this week and so we are hoping to hear back really soon.

I have no idea what to tell you in terms of a timeframe. I have friends who have returned to Ethiopia within 6 weeks of their court date (ours was on 11/22) and I also have friends who have been waiting for nearly 6 months and still haven’t received word of when they can return to pick up their child. Each case is so very different that it’s difficult to guess how much longer we will be waiting.

At this point, we have done all that we can do. Our case is before the embassy and we are just waiting for their approval. Once they have approved us, we will be given an embassy appointment and will make our way back to Ethiopia and pick up our son. We will take custody of Jett shortly after arriving in Ethiopia and will take him with us to the embassy appointment. After the appointment, they will process his visa and it will be delivered to our guest house along with his birth certificate and passport and then we will be free to travel home!

So, for now…we are just waiting. I am SO thankful for email on my phone and so I can bring it with me everywhere I go I sleep with my phone on my bedside table and wake up often throughout the night just to check it (it alerts me every time an email comes through). I wish I were sleeping better, but it’s just so hard knowing we are only an email away from our boy coming home. We are holding up pretty good though. Craig is as steady as ever, eagerly waiting, but completely peaceful about it. The kids are excited and talk about Jett all the time. Jadyn refers to him as “My Jett Wakuma”, it’s very sweet. Jaeger calls his room, “Jaeger and Jett’s room”, even though Jett will be in our room for the first several months. I am doing okay, I am sad that we are missing his first birthday but we will have a party with him once he’s home. I’m also still holding out a little hope that maybe we will hear from the embassy on his birthday, that would be pretty amazing It just feels like our family is on hold, we feel his absence in such a big way.

It’s really, really hard to wait for that email, but I know that God has not forgotten us or this precious boy and I know that we will look back on this time and see how perfectly it all came together. It’s just a little tough to be on this side of things without knowing how much longer we will have to wait.

Sweetness