UPDATE ON KOKO!

This just in from Joanna in country:

“She is a charmer! She is very responsive and her expressions are easy to read! She uses her entire body to express her emotions, her face not excluded! She is observant, happy and over all healthy! She has a perfectly ‘rub-able’ head and prefers not to be tickled! She is also trying to roll over, all the time!”

Weight- 10.36 pounds

Thank you Joanna! We got another pic of her today, too! Sweet, sweet, sweet baby!

Now on to our educational moment...there seems to be some confusion over how court works. (adoption blog community excluded) WE WILL NOT BE IN ETHIOPIA FOR THE COURT DATE. We wait until AFTER the court date is completed and successful, AND THEN make arrangements to travel to get our bundle of beautifulness. So often, the court date is unsuccessful the first time around and it becomes delayed, rescheduled, etc. for miscellaneous reasons.

But...first things first. We need a court date to look forward to. Word is that they are working on preparing our file for submission for a court date. It's a process, folks. Hang with us.

We are so desperately anxious to GET THERE! But it is sooooo out of our control, so we will keep working, praying, and looking at those beautiful pictures we get and, of course, pray for patience...

May there be peace in the waiting, for everyone.

smj out

ONE WAY TO PASS THE TIME

Helpful waiting tip: One way to pass the time is to remodel your basement.

What started a couple months ago as a nasty, stinky, disgusting, nasty, ugly, smelly, (did I mention nasty?) unfinished basement is seriously close to completion. Thank goodness!

This will be our movie watching spot, and Koko's most excellent play room. So, we're painting. This is what the basement looks like at this point - carpet will be installed Friday. Still need to finish the bathroom, too.



We were marveling at our paint job last night when I noticed a drop of water out of the corner of my eye....hmmmmm!?!??!!?!? Bad. This can light was dripping water from the ceiling. Bad.


Chad crawled into this scary hole in the closet wall that IS the crawl space to do some detective work. I'm not sure why it seems so scary, maybe I think something creepy will crawl out, not sure.


Any way, there was water coming from upstairs somewhere near our dishwasher. Bad. Our dishwasher was backed up, and after some detective work we decided that we caught the problem soon enough not to have to worry about it (hopefully). We're letting it dry out, it wasn't too soaked, thank goodness!


Still more painting to do - still waiting on that beautiful phone call from Jessica to tell us when our court date will be - No one knows for sure what will happen in the wild and crazy world of international adoption - stay tuned!

smj out

BLESSINGS

We have received a few new pics of our little peanut, and what a blessing it is! The travelling families have been so gracious to offer to take photos of us waiting families' kiddos. We've gotten some new photos of Koko as a result. Since our referral call, we can't get enough of her sweet face! Such a blessing!

Thank you, thank you, thank you travelling families!!! AND CONGRATULATIONS!!!

So, we're still waiting for our next beautiful phone call to hear when our court date will be...."JESSICA, CALL US!"

We're still making preparations. Need to get stocked up on the baby essentials yet, and still need to make that pediatrician phone call. Our basement is getting closer to being finished - need some carpet and to put finishing touches on the bathroom. It will be fabulous when it is finally done, and the contractors are gone! (dirty house. dirty, dirty house.)

Koko is on our hearts, in our thoughts every day. We still pray for patience. Patience to wait for a court date to come, patience to wait to hold our little Koko.

Onward with the wait,
smj

NAMED AND GIFTED

What a great Mother's Day! Although she is thousands of miles away from us, we know she is our daughter. This is real! We also couldn't go another day without sharing with everyone the name we have chosen for her -- Koko.

As soon as it came from our mouths (honestly don't know who thought of it first), we both knew - Koko would be her name, and so we have been calling her by name for months, waiting, hoping, praying. We will use the name her birth mother gave her and her mother's name as middle names, but of course we can't share that on the blog until our successful court date. From a fave song, "Name above all names, how great is our God!"

The awesome 4th graders in my Sunday School class threw a surprise shower for us today in class. They are so sweet, wonderful kids, and it was so much fun! Special thanks to Louisa who organized the whole thing - she is a blessing to teach with.

We think of Koko, look at Koko every day, every hour - she is a part of our lives forever. It often seems so hard to comprehend this process we are in, all I can say, and keep saying, is what a blessing it is to even be on this journey, what an amazing life experience, what a gift we are being given.

Here's to another round of waiting. Waiting for that beautiful court date, waiting to hold her in our arms, waiting to bring her home.

Onward - smj

THE DETAILS...

So, Chad called me twice on my cell phone this morning after I got in to work. He was excitedly telling me about other people who have gotten their referrals and we said to each other, maybe it will happen for us soon. I went about my work and then my phone rang, AGAIN, and I thought it was Chad again to tell me more. DJ, one of our facility nurse consultants was sitting with me in my office and when she heard my phone vibrate her eyes got HUGE, and I casually looked at it, and saw "UNKNOWN". Oh my goodness! I started shaking, serious shaking and calmly answered. When I heard Jessica say, "I have some good news for you," I couldn't even answer because I started blubbering and crying. Finally I choked out something dumb like "sorry, I'm just crying" - brilliant, nothing like stating the obvious. She told me to call Chad to let him know, and then call her back. I could hardly dial Chad's number I was shaking so badly! We all got on the phone together a couple minutes later and Jessica told us all about our baby girl.

She is two months old, (TWO MONTHS!) has big dark eyes, and chubby little cheeks. They say that she is very calm, hardly ever cries, and is very sweet. We got to hear about her birth parents, her birth mother wants to meet us, and Jessica told us all about her medical information, which there isn't much to say about since she is very healthy, hasn't yet had to see the doctor except for her physical. She was only in the orphanage for a few days, and then moved in April to the Gladney foster home where we are certain she is being well loved! Chad and I both had tears of joy and heard each other's sniffles over the phone while we listened to Jessica. We accepted the referral on the spot and now we wait for a court date as they prepare our files to submit to the judge. She says 4-6 weeks before we hear when the court date will be, and ideally the court date will happen a few short weeks after that, then we travel! We are still several weeks away from going to Ethiopia, but have plenty to do before then. (Like finish the basement remodel and other exciting projects.)

Chad and I went out to celebrate, of course we had Ethiopian food, and then stopped at Dairy Queen! Here are a couple celebration photos! Enjoy! We are so blessed. She is amazing, beautiful. We have her photos printed out and sitting on our fireplace mantle! We'll keep ya'll posted!

YOU WANT TO READ THIS

Ummmmm......so just a little update....

WE GOT OUR REFERRAL CALL THIS MORNING FROM JESSICA!!!!!!!!

Jessica called at 11:30 am mountain time this morning to tell us all about our beautiful 2 month old baby girl! She is absolutely precious.

I'll post more details later.

Amazing. Simply amazing.

smj

WE'RE THROUGH 14

14 weeks down. We know that with each passing day, we get closer and closer to baby K. Every day is a blessing! Short and sweet post this time. We pray for patience routinely now!

Onward. smj