Update Pics and Travel

So we are almost ready to leave. I can't beleive in a few short days we will finally meet our son and get to hold him and love him!!! We got to welcome home a couple of Nashville families this past Sunday as they returned from Ethiopia with their little girls. It was very emotional. I can't wait to see our son's homeland and experience his culture. We hope to pick up as many souveniers as we can so as he grows older he will have items that give him a direct link to where he was born.

Another traveling family sent us some new pictures of Jack. It is so nice to see him smile!

Leaving Soon

We got confirmation today that our approval is in Addis Ababa so we can leave in the next few days.

We are packed and have our tickets and lodging booked!

Not really much left to do. This past weekend we finished putting some final touches on Jack's room.

For people that are waiting to travel I have been gathering items for our trip for the past couple of months. Actually longer then that. I really did not want all the dollars that we needed to spend to hit the pocketbook at one time so we spread it out over a few months. We bought the big ticket items early, the items that we knew we would need as soon as we got home: strollers, carseats, swings, activity playmat, bottles, little tub to bathe him in, etc. We also went to target and each weekend for a few months we bought travel items that we would need, bottles, diapers, clothes, medications etc. Again, it was just nice to not have it hit all at one time.

Baby Shower

This is a belated post to tell you about the baby shower that my coworkers had for me. It was fantastic. They really did a nice job pulling everything together. It was so fun to get together with everyone and enjoy some laughs and good food. Everyone was so generous and we were given so many great gifts.










The Party Planner Girls- Lori, Sue and Tonya. Thank you so much!

Introducing Jack Bedlu Baker

Dusty and I are so excited...we got the news today at 11:38am that we are now officially the parents of Jack Bedlu Baker. We are expecting to travel to Ethiopia around July 16 for a visa interview on July 22 and return home around July 27. This could all change if the paperwork takes longer then expected. If it does it would be pushed into August probably. But...I am not thinking about that we are aiming for July 22.

We are so happy!


This is the referral picture that we saw on April 14. How sweet!




Here is a more updated picture from last week.

Family

Dusty and I recently traveled to his hometown of Somerset Kentucky to visit with his family. We had a great time and really enjoyed seeing his nieces and nephews.



Hannah, Josie and Austin.



Aunt Candi and Sweet Hannah.

On the adoption front we are just waiting for our next court date, waiting for fingeprint extension and packing.

Court Results

Well...we did not pass court yesterday. Nicky our consultant called in the morning to let us know that the paperwork from the MOWA was not ready in time. So that means our next court date is June 16 with a tentative embassy date of July 22.

Court Date!

We have a court date of May 25th. Keep us in your prayers as we wait to hear back from the Ethiopian courts if we will officially be Jack's parents. I will post as soon as I hear something. If all goes well we hope to bring Jack home in July.

In the meantime we have registered at Babies R Us and Target and have been busy getting all of our stuff together for the house and to travel.

Back From Destin

We just got back from a family trip to Destin. We had a great time and enjoyed the weather and spending time with my family. My favorite part of the trip was the Dolphin Cruise. It is the second time we have done the cruise and it was just as fun as the first time.

This is my sweet nephew Charlie!


And his little brother Osby.





Like father, like son. Independent of each other my brother and his son decided to show us their grill stuffed with oreo cookies. What a pair!




We also came back the day before the rain started. It started Saturday and seemed like it never stopped. Now we have widespread flooding and many people have died. It is a disaster here. Thankfully we were not affected except for a 12 hour power outage on Sunday when an F1 tornado hit our area. Again...we were lucky.

Everything Is A Go.

We had our consult with Vanderbilt International Adoption Clinic and everything looks good. We signed more paperwork and sent it back to CHI officially accepting our referral. Now we wait for our dossier to be translated and submitted to the courts for a court date. We did some spring cleaning this weekend to get the house ready to bring our little one home. We have some of the major baby items we need already but are going to be registering soon.

A New Chapter

Welcome back! I have not blogged in a long time but we have some big news. We have received a referral of a 3 month old baby boy from Ethiopia. The call came April 14, 2010 at 10:59am. We are just so excited. He is the most beautiful baby boy we have ever seen. Next up...medical review by Vanderbilt International Adoption Clinic and then wait for our court date. Wooohoooo.