State certification and Ethiopian dinner

We have had a busy week with adoption paper work. We are in the home stretch of the paper chase phase! Tuesday we went to get our biometrics taken at USCIS and today we went and had the papers we needed state certified in Columbus. This is exciting because we only have 2 things left before our dossier is complete. One is our photo pages which at this point should only take a few minutes to put together since I finally picked our pictures. The other is waiting for that beautiful piece of paper to come in the mail saying our daughter can be a US citizen.

We had a bit of a run around getting these docs county certified since our notary wasn't from our county...even though she said she was when we asked. But we got it figured out and now here we are all certified and happy.  (and so excited!!!!!!!)

We decided if we were going to go to Columbus we may as well make a day out of it. So we packed up our kids and all the stuff that goes along with kids and we headed to our state capitol. We went with the Rogers because it is always more fun with friends. Timing worked out well since we left around nap time. This is the scene in our car on our way there.

Dan and Josh ran in and got the certification taken care of. Which was awesome because it would have been less than fun with 4 kids 4 and under.Then we got to head over to COSI which was a great place to play for a bit. Plus, since we have museum passes to boonshoft it was free to get in. I do love free fun. 

 Here is our family in front of the cosi entry.

Playing in the Clifford exhibit. 

Look at Levi walking! He is getting so big. 

Levi loved the kidspace. This thing made him so happy. He just stood there saying OOOOO.

Asher was loving all the dress up and imagination toys. 

Amaya joining the fun.

Isaac loved the craft. 

After Cosi we went to the Blue Nile restaurant. It is an authentic Ethiopian restaurant. I was a little nervous since I am not an adventurous eater, but the food was pretty yummy and filling! Even more surprising was that my boys loved the food. 

The boys thought the traditional tables were so fun. It was so great we had the whole restaurant to ourselves. There were 11 of us total and 5 of those were kids 4 and under. So it was great that our kids were not a disturbance to others as they really enjoyed the atmosphere. 

The tops to the tables were a highlight for our kids. 

All the food is shared on one plate. This is an Ethiopian tradition. If you share a plate you are bonded. Also, they don't use silver ware. They eat everything with a flat sourdough bread called injera. They boys loved this!

Every one enjoyed their meal...maybe a little too much. 

We all went home with full bellies. But not so full that we couldn't stop for some Starbucks on the way home. Yes, when cultures collide.  

All in all a great day that is moving us much closer to our little girl. One of the funny things today I can't forget to mention. At every stop  Asher kept asking in all sincerity. "Is this Africa." No, this is a McDonald's drive through, No, this is Cosi. No, this is a restaurant that serves food like in Africa. 

It is so sweet. They are joining in our excitement to bring home our baby girl.

and finger prints...

Today was our appointment to get our fingerprinting done for USCIS. So, hubby and I got up early (5:30am) and went to down to Cincinnati. We got there early and waited for them to open. We were in and out fairly quickly. So then we decided to have some breakfast together at first watch. (Yum!)

After that we ran to the bank to get our cover sheet notarized for our dossier. We are so close to being done. We will be going on Thursday with our friends to get a few papers state certified. Then we will be going to check out an Ethiopian restaurant that is in Columbus. I think we may even make a quick stop at Cosi while we are in Columbus.

We are hoping that we will get our results back in the next few weeks so we can send our dossier to Ethiopia and get ready to wait for our little girl. (Screams of excitement!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Pampered Chef for adoption

It is starting to get close to Christmas shopping time. I actually have most of my Christmas done for this year! Yay! Some of our good friends, the Rogers are hosting a pampered chef fundraiser. I thought I'd share with all of you in case you have cook in your life who may be excited about this for Christmas.

Our friends will receive 15% of the sales to go toward their dossier payment. (same thing we are working toward.) If you I were writing my letter to Santa I know a few goodies from the website I would add to my wish list.

 

I want this baby BAD! I love my stone so much I use it every day.  This bad boy has handles and I want it. :) So in case Santa reads my blog here is the link directly for this product.  :)

Now if you aren't Santa, but want something great from Pampered Chef for yourself or for Christmas here is where you go to browse all their great products. 

If you need reason to buy lots don't forget this helps our friends bring home their little boy from Ethiopia. YAY!

Oh, Spaghetti!

This weekend was AMAZING! The spaghetti dinner was a huge success. We had been praying that God would do big things and God is faithful! We weren't sure how much help we were going to have, but that was not a problem. 

 

We had so many friends volunteer I couldn't believe it. 

 

Saturday our house church was there serving food like crazy. We actually ran out of cooked spaghetti at one point. We had no idea how many people would show up to support us and eat some yummy spaghetti and Olive Garden salad.  Sunday we had friends from house church, youth, and many of the Rogers friends there to help us. It was amazing how many people came through to grab lunch. We were so thankful. God is good.

Isaac was so excited to help. He also loved chatting with Ms. Rita. She was so patient with him. :)

We were so moved that our friends sacrificed their evening to help us out! We are so blessed. 

Ben was our chef for the weekend. He kept the kitchen running. By Sunday we had a system down and we went through a ton of food. Tami and I knew what we were doing when we bought extra spaghetti and sauce. Even if our hubbies didn't believe us. They actually had to make a run after Saturday to get more food since we ran out. 

Even Isaac was ready to help. I think I may keep in mind that he now does dishes. 

Amaya really enjoyed the markers.

We were so blessed by the turn out of friends to serve, eat, and support us. We had so much fun joining with the Rogers. And like I said we prayed for God to do big things and did he ever. Each family raised over $1,300! EACH FAMILY! I mean, God is so faithful. I am blown away by how he answers prayers. 

We are so thankful to all who came out and supported our adoptions. We are blessed beyond measure to have the church family, friends, and most of all a God who loved us so much that he adopted us into his family. I so look forward to more understanding my relationship with my heavenly daddy as we adopt our daughter into our earthly family.