Happy Halloween

How cool is this pumpkin carving. I can't take credit for this creative design. It was done by one of our fellow AWA ET families (Gibson family). If you are not up on your geography it is a cut out of Africa with the heart over Ethiopia. I love it.

Little Ms. Hannah had a great time today (up at 6AM proclaiming it is Halloween). So excited to be Tinker Bell.
As you can see from the photos she had her day (with turtleneck) and evening dress (sleevless and exposed neck).

We had fun at our church's Family Fun Fest. The kids have so much fun playing games and getting to purchase prizes with their reward tickets.

Hannah with SuperMan or is it her favorite church secretary...(Hey Girlfriend...that is what she always says to Hannah when she sees her).

It was a fun day and we look forward to next year....it would be so incredibly awesome if we could celebrate with our little one from ET.

Blessings,

Bliss

God is so Good

Please visit the Van Wetten family under traveling families on the right side of my blog.
I couldn't contain the tears as I saw the beautiful photos of their daughters. God is so Good!!!

Hannah continues to be a goof ball when it comes to styling her hair.

New Booster Seat

Hannah posing in her new booster seat. I have never seen a child so excited about something that will constrain them in a vehicle. She about attacked the UPS driver this morning...and insisted we put it together ASAP (which we did). We took it out on a maiden voyage...I'm not kidding she giggled like she had won a free pass to become Cinderella for a day. All I can say is I love the new seat as my little wimpy arms could barely lift into her old Britax seat. BTW if you didn't notice it is PINK...Miss Hannah's favorite color. Thanks to my YG for their suggestions...we went with the Graco Turbo Booster.

Blessings,
Bliss

Exciting Day

Here is the other pumpkin I carved today. It was a bit of a challenge but fun.

It was an active day with our YG as some families learned they passed court and are now able to share the photos of their little ones. All the children our so cute. Theses families also no for sure when they will be traveling. Also the families that are in ET updated their blogs and it was so fun to see them with their children and read of their experience. If you have a chance try and visit the Van Wetten blog under my traveling families they had the most incredible experience.

Blessings,

Bliss

Carving Pumpkins

We had fun carving pumpkins tonight. Ron dug them out and I carved the faces...I only got one done and will share the other one tomorrow. Hannah had fun.

I encourage you all to vist our fellow AWA families that our currently in ET meeting their little ones. Their blogs are listed on the right of my blog.

The other news to share from today is that Hannah gave herself a haircut. I have to thank my good Lord that it was quite minor compared to some children's self haircuts. She cut a good share of her locks off her right side. I just about lost it when I saw all the hair she had cut. I'm telling you I was more upset about her cutting her hair than when she cut my hair (most of you know the story of my three year old cutting my hair...sneaky girl). Thankfully I think I will be able to cover it up for our family photo we always take in December (Hannah's Birthday and Christmas card photo).

Whole lot of Rakin' goin' on!!!

Hannah and I spent the afternoon helping Grandpa rake leaves in his yard. Grandpa mainly just watched. Hannah was a big help when it came to smashing the leaves down in the box. She had a lot of fun. If I post tomorrow it will probably mention how sore I am from raking the leaves.

It was a beautiful fall day except for the wind which Ron and I had to fight on our morning run (he ended up giving up before me and headed home...wimp).

There were a ton of ladybugs in the yard. Hannah kept collecting them on the leaves. I happened to find one in her hair also...and I felt one in my shirt on the way home that freaked me out a bit.

Blessings,

Bliss

Adoption Update

We got an email today from our Family Coordinator informing us that our dossier is on its way to Ethiopia. I was kind of expecting that it would leave today as I knew it was being authenticated at the US State Dept. yesterday. I don't know if this is our official DTE (dossier to Ethiopia) as her email was a bit confusing. I will have to give her a call on Monday. Anyway it feels so good to finally get off the paper chasing list and officially taking our place in line for our baby girl.

It is kind of funny how this adoption is completely opposite of Hannah's. In the past it was very easy to get a healthy baby girl from China as they were basically discarded so the family could make room for a boy. Now they are loosening the rules on the one child policy and the wait time for a healthy girl is going upwards of 7 years. In Ethiopia it is just the opposite. The wait time for a baby boy is shorter than that of a girl as they tend to hang on the girls as they consider them lucky and they can take care of the family when they are older. As far as I can tell from the trend the wait time for a baby girl is about 9 months (we waited 8 months for Hannah's referral).

Please pray that maybe the wait time will speed up but we also trust God's timing as it is the only timing that counts. Also pray for the health of all the children in the orphanages and that God will protect them until they meet their forever family.

Have a great weekend and good luck to my nephew Blake and all the runners at the state x-country meet tomorrow. Run Blake Run!!!

Blessings,
Bliss

Tuckered Out!!!!

I was on my way to Fed Ex today when something EXTREMELY rare happened. Hannah fell asleep in her car seat. This child has not taken a nap in over 2 years. She goes full throttle all day long and then asks to go to bed around 8:30ish to be up sometimes at 5:45AM (I swear she is the energizer bunny). So when I saw that she was sleeping today I was a bit worried as this is soooo not her. She was OK, but I think we all have a bit of bug that has us run down.



About my trip to Fed Ex....

I got a call from our Family Coordinator at our agency that our dossier was missing my (un)employment letter (I don't like that term I am definitely employed by the Rovang household). I was shocked as I know I went through our dossier with great detail before I sent it off. Turns out I found the original of my letter with our copy that I made of our dossier. No Problem easy fix. Just Fed Ex it off it will be at the office Tuesday morning in time for them to get it Authenticated on Thursday with the rest of the other families' dossiers.



This is where I have to say God had been watching over this paper work process for us. We were supposed to request all documents be bundled together when we had them certified with our State Sec. of State. I did this and our state refused to do this....no big deal. I am so thankful because I had a couple of mistakes that needed to be fixed (employment letter, immigration paperwork), that would have made a huge mess and big delay. So Thank You GOD for watching over our paperwork.



Just to add Hannah makes friends wherever we go so when I showed up without her (sleeping in the van) she was missed...the Fed Ex worker asked "where is my dossier girl? (Hannah has been talking a great deal about our adoption with the Fed Ex worker)".

Blessings to you all,
Bliss

Fall is Fun!!!

Hannah had a blast today. She spent most of the afternoon playing at our neighbors house. She has so much fun playing with them...it was strange for me to have so much free time. As you can tell (by the photos) I gave in and went over to join the fun. Hannah had so much fun raking leaves into a big fat pile so that she could jump in them.

Of course we had to take break and play with Rob the hamster.OK, Mom I'll sit in the leaves for a photo (so you can see that my bangs are in need of a trim) but

Jumping in leaves is way more fun!!!!

Hannah loves playing with her friend, neighbor and the best babysitter ever ).


Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Blessings,

Bliss

Progress

This is the Email message that I received from our family coordinator this morning.

Hi Bliss,

Yes, we received it today. Your dossier will be reviewed, certified and authenticated then shipped to Ethiopia within the next 2 weeks. We will contact you if there is anything missing. Otherwise you will hear from us on the day we ship it to Ethiopia. Congratulations on completing this major task!

Please pray the wait for a baby girl will get shorter.

Bliss

Dossier Out of Here!!!!

What a great day. I left Fed Ex feeling much lighter. With our dossier and all the copies and photo pages the paperwork weighed 2 lbs. It will arrive at our agency Thursday morning. They will take it to the US State Dept. to get it authenticated. It is such an awesome feeling knowing that our dossier will soon be in ET.

Now the long wait begins...we have a lot of experience in the waiting game (not fun). We waited 8 months for Hannah's referral from China. Then we waited almost 2 years for our second adoption from China before dropping out of the program. Now it looks like it will be around 9 months of waiting for our baby girl from ET. But you know the saying "A good thing (baby) is worth waiting for" and we are willing to wait on God's perfect timing for the baby he has designed just for our family. Please keep us in your prayers as we begin this phase as it can become a very anxious time. Also keep the health of the babies in your prayers as some of them don't get to meet their "forever family's" before they meet their creator.

Blessings,
Bliss

Dress Up & Update

Hannah constantly plays dress up...this seems to be her favorite dress from my collection...don't ask me about the poses...she does the strangest things. You might notice she is wearing a bracelet. It is a bracelet my parents gave me when I was about her age. I didn't even realize I still had it. I have no idea where she found it but I am glad she did. It makes me so happy to share something from my childhood with her.

Adoption Update

We are so excited as our dossier is on its way back from of Sec. of State's office after being certified. It will arrive Wednesday before 10:30AM. I will be so excited...but won't kiss the Fed Ex person...I'll save that for our referral...Oh I won't have to kiss any delivery person with the new on line technology (I like this). I just need to add a few photo pages and check and it is off to our agency. It will arrive at our agency Thursday morning. So happy to get the paper work out of my hands and where it need to go to get this adoption complete.

Blessings,

Bliss

Rainy Weekend

What a rainy weekend we have had...as Hannah has been sayin' (speaking Sarah Palin)Rain Rain go Away come again another day. This was a very bad weekend for the weather to be so bad as our city hosted the State soccer tourney...very cold, windy and rainy...YUCK.

Speaking of raining (donations)that's what happened on Saturday night with a fundraiser some of our fellow AWAA families organized. Check out the post below.

YG,Its late, but we wanted to give you the BIG UPDATE!!!!!The VanWetten fundraiser raised $40,000 for the ET Transitional Home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Its a miracle!!!!!!!!!!!!!Duni was presented a check for the amount.....100% of the donations are going directly for formula, diapers and necessities of ALL THE CHILDREN!!!God is good!!!!!

Praise God that is so awesome.

For those who need a little more information...YG stands for Yahoo Group, ET..Ethiopia, TH transitional home...this is where your child goes once you get a referral.

Blessings,
Bliss

Beautiful Day

I jumped for JOY when I saw this return address when I checked the mail today. Those who have been through the process of International Adoption know what I mean. This is the document that most families wait for as it is the last document in the long process of paper chasing that you receive. I was not expecting it today...but my bible study friends prayed yesterday for a speedy return and Praise God that is what we got. I was completely ready for it...had all my other documents in place to be sent off to our Capitol for Certification. We should have them back by Monday morning and will arrive at our adoption agency on Tuesday.

Beautiful day part 2...the colors are so beautiful this year and we don't even have to leave our back yard to enjoy the them.

I love this little row of trees right behind our house...they produce the best colors every year.

God is so good,

Bliss