New Court Date!

Court was rescheduled until 11/13. So we will hear more then. Let's pray it turns out that we get passed then. The agency director told me that the judge resched because there were many family members that did not show up. They hear these cases in groups so even though my kids don't really have many family members they resched the entire group ..I think..And if there are any family member (grandparents etc)..I am hoping our agency will take them to court themselves so the kids can move on with their lives.

Very Impatient!

I must admit that this process has been really fast so I shouldn't be impatient, HOWEVER...they told me we had a court date today...which technically was at some point in the early morning or middle of the night last night....(ethiopia time) and I haven't heard A THING....so I am just hanging around being IMPATIENT...but trying to act cool like some kind of middle school girl waiting for the boy she has a crush on to call...I wait but don't call them.....I may call tomorrow if I don't hear anything...Just wanted to give an update..

BTW...Andrew now has the fever that Matea had....baby is better.

Court Date TOMORROW!

Our Court Date is tomorrow 10/25. If it is not rescheduled (could happen) we will find out Friday or Monday about travel. I am FREAKING OUT...I don't even have drawers for the kids cause so much is in storage and haven't even thought about packing...SOmeone PAHLEASE HELP ME....I am calling my friend Monica to go 'hair stuff" shopping. Good to keep your priorities....

Pray for us...also have a Dr's appointment today. Pray I am healthy etc.

More Love Letters!

Okay..I am just about undone with the blessings that still are pouring into us from God himself. I just received two sweet letters from Ejigayehu. One is to us and the other is to Grandma and Grandpa (Shirley and Barney). What a delight it is to sweet talk eachother from across the globe.

Dear my Grandma and Grandpa,
How are you. Tank you for the leter. I very love you. I love dog. When I came american I want allways see you. I pray for you Ok. You can call me Eigi . Love Eigi....

Isn't that a sweet letter. Just want to say we still need to talk to her before we nickname her or rename her...See what they are calling her now. What their preferences are etc.

Okay here is the letter to our family.

Dear My Family,

How are you. I am good. I love you, I am praying for you ok. Pelys mom and Dad come to and pick we up at Layla. I want to sing with you and pray at church with you. I very love songs. I want you come to Layla soon. I get many leter from you. Tank you OK...kidist and Yared and me all love You....Ejigayehu Falchook

MY GOODNESS I am just over the moon with these sweet letters and just wanted to share.

D

Let's Celebrate for Martha and Melkem!

I don't have any concrete news on the status of Martha and Melkem. But I do know that there may be a family that is dossier ready to adopt them and if that isn't true I also know that there is interest by another family to adopt them. SO, I just want to praise God that these girls will have their dreams and prayers come true by having a family in 2008. I can't wat to meet them...I might have to hold back the good news but it will make me happy knowing in my heart that they will not have to worry much longer. And that other children at Layla House will find homes this year. I think of all the children that are not fortunate enough to even make it into a great orphanage and just try desparately to exist on the streets.

Mark had a sweet dream today about Kidist and Ejigayehu...he said he was in the airport with them on the way home watching them eating chicken nuggets with ketchup all over their faces and blissfully happy to be coming home to America and to our other children....what a sweet dream....

Last night Matea still had a fever....she would not leave my side. I literally held her for hours. My sweet 9 year old boy Andrew noticed that I didn't have dinner. I told him I wasn't that hungry but it was now 8 pm and apparently he didn't believe me. My sweet son left the room for a few minutes and came back with a salami, cheese sandwich (DRY-no mayo or nothing) and a full banana skin and all on a plate. He was so sweet in bringing me dinner. I am not a salami fan but I felt like I had heard some biblical words of wisdom about never turning down a meal from a child (I think it was actually Erma Bombeck)...but anyhow, it felt like a sin to say "Sorry andrew I don't like Salami" So I ate the sandwich because I was so touched that he thought about me...It was delicious..How thoughtful...he even brought the plate back and came back with a chocolate muffin...the next morning I found cheese wrappers on the floor. I love being a mom...

God's outpouring!

Mark and I spent the past couple of days in the studio this week laying down vocals to our next christian CD. What a blessing this was. I was so nervous about finding a decent studio in Raleigh and was so impressed with the studio we are using. The engineer is amazing and it has been so professional. I did have to ask the engineer if they could not burn incense in the studio when I was doing vocals.. Yuck! Very 70's with LAVA LAMPS etc..but sonically very good. We completed the lead vocal on 4 of the 13 songs. So it may be possible that the main vocals would be completed before the kids come home which would be great. I used the AMY GRANT trick in eating Lays potato chips when your vocal chords get tight. Very fattening but effective trick.

Negative news this week though is that we found out that the group ahead of us had their court dates delayed now back to 10/29 meaning they will travel to Ethiopia end of November. This originally was going to be around the time we would travel. So we are still just waiting for a court date.

Baby has had a fever for 3 days now and threw up tonight so we will go to the Doctor tomorrow. Usually the fever's break after a day or two so this is too long for us. Pray for her. She had a fever about 3 weeks ago with a really gross throat which was negative for strep. It went away we put her back into preschool and then caught the gunk again.

In the meantime, we are not sure but there may be a family for Melkem and Martha. So i am happy for them. Also, some friends have reconnected with me that may be adopting in Ethiopia soon. A couple of people have mentioned they are starting the process...so I am praying that all of my friends find their children and that they are courageous to walk in God's journey for them.

We discovered that Ejigayehu is 51 inches tall and wears a shoe size of 13.5. But she is skinny. Yared is 42inches tall and the woman forgot to get Kidists sizes.

BTW...we are welcoming any second hand or gently used clothing in the sizes of girls 6-10 and boys 4-6..

Good night.

Letters from Kids and Martha and Melkem.

Please pray really hard that we can find a family to Melkem and Martha (Ej's friends) When I think that there is no mother advocating for these kids it makes me really sad.. So I take their pleas to me very seriously. Martha is 9 and Melkem is 11. We are not adopting more than our three kids but I really want to find a family for these girls and pray that someone comes to our agency at AAI www.adoptionadvocates.org and will adopt them. They have been there for two years and are really close to Ej especially. Here are the letters.

From Yared:

To my dear Family,

How are you doing. I am doin good. I am a happy child. Here I am playing with my friend and I like to play with car toys. I like all kinds of food. I can’t wait until you come. I love you ….my love and peace be with you…Yared

From Kidist:

To my dear family,

How are you doing,

I love you very much. I can’t wait until you come. I like the color yellow and I like doing gymnastics. I like to eat cake, chocolate and ice cream. I like the dolls made in persons image. I like dogs, cats and rabbits. My favorite subject is math. I am sorry that I haven’t written you a letter until today. I am very glad that you are my family.

From Ejigayehu,

To my dear Family,

How are you doing. I am very happy because you are trying to find a family for Martha and Melkem. So When I found out your were trying to help out my friends it made me happy. I always tell her good things about you. Whatever you are doing for my friends it is like you are doing it for me. And I am counting the days until you come. Please give a kiss to my Dad, sisters and brother

Letter from Martha:

Dear Ejigayehu Mother,

I wish you and your family full health. Even though you are not my mother I see you as my mother. I thank you for all the effort you are putting to find me and my sister a family. I have been praying and asking God to find me a family so I can be with Ejigayehu.

Let us know if there is anything we can do. I like your pictures a lot. Please tell Lydia and Naty hello for me and thank you for me. We want to thank you for everything you have done. We pray that God will pay you back. I continue to pray for you and your family. I love you from the bottom of my heart. If it is God’s will and I can come to America I would like us to be friends.

Until we talk with another letter. Good bye, Martha

From: Melkem

Dear Whom I love Ejigayehu’s mother,

How are you doing? I am doing great.

I wanna thank you for all of the effort to get us a family. God will pay you back for what you have done. My hope is that you can find a family so we can go to America too with Ejigayehu. But God is the one who can do everything.

Please say hello to Lydia, Tsetuna, Erksalem for me.

Thank you and I love you,

God Bless You…Bye..Melken

Getting closer/finally shopped!

Both groups before me have passed court and we are up for a court date any day now. That means we'll probably get a court date around 10/23 (guessing) and then if we pass court I think we leave 3 weeks after which now puts us at the end of November....but in the world of international adoption that could mean a week sooner or later....Anyhow, I am getting excited and very nervous.

Funny thing: Last night Matea, Andrew, Mark and I went to hear the African Children's CHoir at Duke. There were only about 20 of us who came to their dress rehearsal (they didn't advertise just called some people they knew to come)...anyhow, Matea was quite upset when we left because she didn't understand why we weren't bringing our kids home. Apparently, she thought that Ejigayehu, Kidist and Yared were on stage. We tried to explain to her (she is only 2 and a half) that they were still in Africa but I am convinced she thinks we left our kids on stage in the auditorium at Duke.

So, I also attempted to register a LIST at Target of potential gifts for our family. Many people are asking and we do not have any clothing for girls ages 6-8...so I bought a few things today but realized that every thing costs 3x's as much (DUHHHH???) so I will try to put a link to our gift registry..it is not under BABY registry but rather under Lists..I think...You can look for my name Deanna Falchook or LIst name is FALCHOOK ADOPTION created for: Yared Falchook (the easiest of the 3 names) and list ID (hope you don't need this) is 012399301018007....

Don't officially have sizes but looking at size 6 or a little smaller for Kidist, Ejigayehu 7 or 8, Yared 4...but have no clue about shoes...they told me they would send me sizes before we left. Good thing otherwise the kids will be barefoot..

"Do You Know My Mommy"

Last night I had the pleasure of speaking with Brigette from Alabama who just brought her kids home from Ethiopia. She wanted to deliver us a message from Ejigayehu. Brigette went to Layla House and Ejigayehu and her friend greeted her and made a point of asking her if she knew her Mommy and Daddy in North Carolina. She then brought out the photo album to point out her family and then asked her "when are they coming to get us?"...So she is very excited and anticipating coming home. And the woman also told me the kids don't even eat the food until they pray for every meal....which made me think that I needed to be more diligent praying at all of the other meals besides dinner ....these kids are truly going to keep us accountable. They also love to sing and I am over the moon with how much love I feel for them...

Also, the house sheet rocking is finished....but still looking at January to move in...So we will have MANY children in this house before we move to the big one..very cozy....

D

Group V!

The previous post said LABOR PAINS...man was I feeling them (and mom I am not premenopausal...I don't think). I am in NY today and God has totally blessed us with replenishing our business account (a huge relief for a future mom of 6)...AND...I just got this letter from our agency..

HI Mark and Deanna,
Your case was submitted to court today as part of Group V. In the next two weeks, a court date will be set and we will inform you of that date. Gail, our adoption coordinator in Ethiopia, will be scheduling visa interviews at the US Embassy in Addis for families who plan to travel. So, please confirm for us your plans regarding travel. Will you travel? If so, one or both of you? If you will travel will you have room to carry supplies for AAI?
Thanks and congratulations!

I AM SO EXCITED and scared...I read this and was thrilled then realized I had no idea what this means. So I called our agency AAI...This means basically that documents will be reviewed and in two weeks we'll have a court date that will probably be two weeks from then...AND then we travel 4 weeks after that which means...MERRY CHRISTMAS to the whole Falchook clan. Meanwhile, I don't even have underwear for these children or shoes....our house isn't done so we will be camping on mattresses in the house we are trying to sell...but looks like the beauty of it all is that we will be moving into the house as a family......

Keep us in your prayers...pray for my friends the MESTAS who are also waiting for a date. I am praying we travel together. And pray for ANdrew and Matea who both have had really high fevers and bad sore throats this week...but no strep...thank you JESUS....

Cousin Connie....still don't have the sizes of my kids for clothes so I have no clue what size to buy...maybe things with elastic...

D