Service Birthday Party!

Carter was invited to a "mad scientist" birthday party today and instead of bringing gifts for the 9 year old birthday boy, the invitation asked for the kids to bring "stickers, crepe paper, balloons, shampoo and baby wipes" for the Care Center and Sele Enat. What an amazing idea! My kids have so much "stuff" that I love the idea of service for a birthday party. Thanks Jen for thinking outside of yourself but mostly thanks Matthew for being so humble and willing to sacrifice your birthday gifts for others in need! Blessings to you and your family...

*Waiting on an Embassy appointment - Waiting is a four letter word to me!!!!!!

Prayer Works! We passed court...

What a journey this has been! I am so excited to announce that we passed court today at 4:44 am! Here's a quick run down of my night... Watched a movie with Morgan and ate food I shouldn't until 11:00. Prayed REALLY hard, basically begged for good news. Fell asleep until 2:45. Wide awake with anxiety and nervous stomach wondering if all was well in Ethiopia. Walked around the dark house, took ibuprophen because my arms hurt really bad from shots! Wandered into the office, looked at the computer and decided I would not let my computer addiction get the best of me tonight (HA). Went back to bed and watched Martha Stuart, felt guilty because my closets don't look a thing like what she was showing. Tossed, turned got out of bed back to the computer. Just took a tiny peek at the yahoo forum, posted one comment and went back to bed. Fell asleep watching the home shopping network, slept for about 45 minutes. Finally got out of bed and stumbled into the obsession room to check my e-mails. Here is what I found; (Aneata is our coordinator)

aneata: 3:49 am not yet

I know it's only 2 o clock in Addis and they are still working but I e-mailed Mitin and asked her to let me know about Demot's case as soon as she hears anything.

aneata: 4:44 am update

Demot Passed Court!!!!!!!!!!

Congratulations!

aneata: 5:26 if

if I had you phone number I would call you from home! Where are you???

Well, needless to say when I got to the 4:44 post I fell on the ground and cried and screamed and all of the kids came in and cried with me. I immediately called Mr. Mac (Shane) and gave him the good news. He's a Daddy.... to 4 kids! He was so happy and said "I was scared to come home if we didn't pass". Poor thing - he's scared of me :)

What a day to celebrate, here is what I have learned:

*Prayer does work the way God want's it to, not me!

*Miracles do happen

*Love is a gift

*Patience is an acquired trait (not so fun to learn)

*I truly am blessed by so many friends and family who love us and love baby Grace Demot

*Did I mention that prayer does work, this is a BIG lesson for me

Now for the good stuff: INTRODUCING GRACE DEMOT MCMILLAN

WE LOVE YOU AND WE ARE COMING TO GET YOU GRACE!

Two minus one = ONE

I truly never thought this day would come. I have read so many other blogs that post this same thing and have felt so envious wondering if we would ever make it to this point. Well, today is the day. Tonight as we sleep a judge in Ethiopia will hear our case and decide if we pass or don't pass court. I have had a lot of people ask if we don't pass does that mean we can't adopt. No, it just means our case is delayed. There really is no rhyme or reason to rescheduling I just pray we pass. Today has been an interesting day. I went for shots and went at the wrong time, the receptionist made me cry, I came back and hour later and had 6 shots plus H1N1 nose spray. I spent 3 hours at Starbucks with an amazing friend who has been an angel throughout this entire process. I am in deep gratitude for her advice, laughter and support. Friends are a gift from God! I picked up my son from school and was crying (for no given reason), lost my car keys and forgot to unlock the door for my cleaners so my house looks like crap. But the good news is it's almost 4:00 and it is Friday in Ethiopia. My prayer is simple;

I pray that all paperwork is in order and that we pass court tomorrow! That is all I ask...

Amen

*Please pray for us as well...Thank-you God for all of your many gifts!

Three...

Three days (sort of) until court. Today, tomorrow and then tomorrow night while we sleep our case will be heard by a judge in Ethiopia. Hopefully we will get amazing news early on Friday. I am getting very nervous.... Grace we pray for you every day and bless you to feel our love for you and ask God that our court date will be successful and we can come and bring you home.

And then there were 4!

I missed day number 5 but whose counting??? We spent the day in Las Vegas and had such a great time. I can actually say I had moments when I did not obsess over the adoption. Sorry to say that I did not win any money but did not lose any either (I did not gamble). We went to an authentic Ethiopian restaurant called "Ethiopian Cafe". It was an amazing experience. The restaurant is owned by a husband and wife from Ethiopia and we spent quite a while talking to him about the people of Ethiopia and the adoption. Of coarse I showed him pictures of Grace and of coarse he said she was beautiful. The food was wonderful and my kids actually loved it. Carter loved to make balls out of the injera, Jenson was very brave and ate everything I did (we ordered the vegetarian platter). Shane and Morgan are the adventurous eaters in this family and lived up to the call. They ate the meat platter and spicy lamb. The entire experience made us all so appreciative of Ethiopia and even more excited to go get Grace Demot. After dinner we went to Planet Hollywood to see the V Variety show. Ok I have not laughed so hard in a really long time. All of our cheeks hurt from smiling and that is a good thing! Laughter truly is good for the soul. I can't believe it's Tuesday and look forward to a safe drive home. Thursday my Mom and I go for a series of about 7 shots so that in and of itself will give me something to look forward to (ha, ha).

I will post some pictures of our trip to Vegas when I get home.

Six Days!!!

My guest blogger today is Shane (my amazing husband). He titled the post and it is very creative. My wife gave me permission to blog today so let me tell you how excited I am to become a blogger! Wow! We are down in St. George enjoying the sun and amazing country of southern Utah. I love the red rocks and the great energy of this area. We look out at Snow Canyon from our casita and the views are amazing. We have six more days to the much anticipated court date. I pray that we pass for my wife's sanity and for the sanity of our family! Amber has learned a greater level of patience through this process! I appreciate her capacity to love and the passion she has for life. We are all excited to bring Grace home. Thanks to Amber for being the motivator for this to happen as the experience will not only change Grace's life, but our lives as well. Thanks to all who have supported Amber through this process and thanks to her awesome friends for being so good to her. We love you Grace and will soon hold you in our arms. Your love bucket (you will soon learn what this means) will soon be over flowing with love from your family.

Lucky Seven

Lucky Seven because were down to seven days until court AND we are leaving for a little family getaway to St. George Utah and....LAS VEGAS BABY! Maybe I will come home a bazillionare.

Eight is great!

Lucky number eight!

Eight days to court...

There is a lot more to blog about right now but I can only focus on eight. Eight days until we find out if you legally become a member of our family. You have been a heart felt and treasured member of our family since August 20 (or before :)) but this will mean we can start the coundown to come get you and hold you and kiss you...

Love, Peace and Joy...

Nine and feelin' fine...

Nine days until court!

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can....

For those of you who know me well and how incredibly difficult this wait has been for me you will relate to the words of this song:

Uh Hu "The Dark Sadness" :)

The countdown begins...10

Ten days until our court date!

We have a lot to learn...

Last night we were blessed to be invited to an Ethiopian celebration for families who have adopted children from Ethiopia. It was a last minute invite but Shane and I decided to go for our weekly "date night". I was not sure what to expect except that I was really excited to see all of the beautiful Ethiopian children and sample some authentic Ethiopian food. What a treat we were in for. The food was amazing. I am not really sure what we ate, I was told the names and it was beautiful but I have a lot to learn about the food. I do like and know what injera is(don't know if it is spelled correctly). I told Shane that I could eat that with peanut butter and jelly in Ethiopia when we go to pick up Demot. We were also entertained by the cutest little Ethiopian dancers. They did traditional and not so traditional dances (you will see what I mean in the pictures below). Then two beautiful young women came out to entertain us with authentic Ethiopian dances. All of the children then gathered on the stage to sing Ethiopian songs for us. Most of the parents sang along (I have a lot to learn). There was a clipboard going around for heritage camp this summer, I had no idea that even existed. Needless to say it was a wonderful evening and got me even more excited for Grace Demot to come home. I also felt a great responsibility to learn more, do more and give more to the Ethiopian culture. If I am going to raise a beautiful girl from this beautiful land I get to teach her about her heritage, her culture and her country. So Shane and I have work to do and things to learn, it feels a bit daunting but I know we can do it and I am so excited to move forward.

2.2 WEEKS AND AWAITING YOUR ARRIVAL!

Only 2 weeks and 2 days until the infamous court date. I am trusting that all is in order and we will pass with flying colors. I am also a realist and have learned that ANYTHING is possible in the adoption process. Ok so if ANYTHING is possible, there is a very good chance we will pass court on the first try!!!

I have finished Grace's bedroom with just a few minor things still to do. I have bought enough clothes to spoil her rotten and Lucy our fat cat is enjoying Grace's crib. For all of you germaphobes and cat haters, I will sterilize the sheets before Grace gets home. And please don't tell me the stories about how cats suffocate babies (I have 3 kids and have had 6 cats over the past 19 years and all of my kids are alive).

Below are some pics....Enjoy!

Also if you are a sucker for sappy songs like I am listen to the words of the song playing for you now! It is called Angel's Lullaby, get a tissue....

Christmas Eve Jammies, such a fun tradition!

The Court Date Chain, it started with 22 chains.

The finished product!

I can't even wait to rock Grace and read her a story in that chair!

What? I'm just testing it out.....