twenty-five

The count-down has started! I wouldn't let myself "count-down" the days to our court date until one month before. Since Feb. is a short month that even shaves off a few days! So the #today is 25! 25 days until March 13th when hopefully Taye will become a Gutwein! Oh man, we are getting soooo excited!

Ryan and Betsy stopped by tonight and brought some fun presents for Taye-- a toy and cup (with his middle name d/t the fact that I doubt we will find anything with his first name). Thanks guys! Love it!

Baking Cookies

The kids and I had a great time making cookies today! They were completely LOADED with sprinkles and red hots but even that hasn't kept me already having 4. Kait and I had a couple with chai after we finished decorating-- trying to get geared up to start math homework- then I took a couple more while the kids weren't looking-- terrible! At least I refrained from eating any dough while I we were making them! I figure that alone saved at least 2 cookies. -- the trick to keeping yourself from eating the cookie dough and getting a stomachache is to chomp on gum while you are baking. It is the only thing that works for me.

So about the braids-- aren't they so fun! A friend did them on Saturday for Kaitlin. She had another friend there and we both did the beads while she braided. Two hour process. Kait LOVES them-- she was so sweet afterwards and told Angel--" I always wanted these and never thought I would have them!" She is also really excited about not having to do her hair! I'm not sure how long we will be able to keep them in-- she definitely has a lot of little sprouts of hair sticking out already. So far I have just used the dry shampoo on them-- kind of gross i know-- I was planning to wash them tonight but ran out of time before I needed to leave and she was in bed when I got home. I will definitely need to wash them tomorrow. Anyway, the dry shampoo seems to work pretty well-- no itching and her hair smells good. The reason I have it is for the times that I workout and don't allow enough time to wash and dry my hair-- just spray some on the roots, rub it in and you are good until that evening or maybe even the next morning.

Fireproof

Fireproof, have you seen it? Did you like it? We finally watched it last weekend and I really liked it. It started out seeming kind of low budget wit a lot of cliches. As the movie went on though it really drew me in! I would definitely recommend it if you haven't seen it! Any other good romantic movie suggestions with heart -day approaching?

Our Adoption "Process"

I was talking to Kev the other night about how excited/ nervous I am about getting Taye-- so many unknowns! I commented that I kind of just want to get it over with-- have him here, know what it will be like, the worries that are unfounded, the ones that are real. He was like-- you know, we need to just enjoy the process-- a saying that I have heard / said many times I'm sure. It really struck me this time though b/c that is not what I have been doing. It also kind of made me want to reflect on the process. God has changed our hearts so much over the last year and a half. A year ago we were both on the same page with adoption and were praying about God's direction for us.

We decided to use CHI for our adoption and sent our application on Feb 29th
3/2 Homestudy ( Gateway Woods)
3/17 Accepted by CHI
5/12 Fingerprinting in Indy
6/9 Received I- 171H
6/10 Dossier Authenticated
6/11 Fed-Ex dossier to CHI
6/12 Fed -Ex Birth Cert./ Marriage License to IL Sec of State-- (wished I would have known to do that sooner)
6/25 Dossier to Washington DC and on to Ethiopia
12/8 Referral for little boy!!!!

As I look over the timeline.. there were gaps where it seemed like things could of/ should of moved faster. But God has our child picked out already-- a different process could have meant a different child. WOW that's crazy! I still can't wait to hold my little boy but reflecting helps to trust in God's perfect timing!