Another Blizzard

OK I am so sick of this winter...thank the good Lord we will be in Jamaica very soon. My husband got a snow day...his office was closed but he still had to go do his rounds as the hospital never closes. The only other place that doesn't close when there is a blizzard is McDonald's. We have kind of adopted this ritual to eat lunch at McDonald's when it blizzards. I don't remember how it started but it just stuck. So when there is a blizzard and it is lunch time you know where to find this family...and it isn't the McDonald's closest to our home. We make it an adventure and drive to the one on the other side of town.


As far as our adoption goes...we are excited to be sending M*** her first care package. A family that will be leaving March 6th will be taking it for us. We should also be getting a few new photos from a couple of families that will be arriving home from ET this weekend. But what I am most excited about is our agency has agreed to let us correspond with M*** by email. I know this is a not the norm but I think because our daughter is older they will allow it. Of course she doesn't have email. What I have to do send her message to our family coordinator who will forward it to the Transition Home in Ethiopia. Some one on staff will have o read and interpret it to M***. Since the process is a bit complicated I don't expect to send or receive more than a few emails. But still excited to be able to communicate with her.

I was just thinking about our upcoming vacation. This will be the last vacation we will take as a family of three. On our next vacation we will be a family of four. Can't wait!!!!

Blessings,

Bliss

Music, Music, Music!

I signed Hannah up for this class offered by our city Parks & Rec. dept. It is a six week class called Music, Music, Music! It is for kids ages 4-8 and kids have fun developing hand-eye coordination and valuable social skills while learning fundamental music characteristics such as rhythm, tempo and dynamics. She had her first class yesterday and she was the youngest but by far the most outgoing. I have to laugh when I read the class will help the children develop valuable "social skills". If you know my Hannah you know she doesn't need any help in this area. She walked into class went up to everyone and said "Hi my name is Hannah Wen Shu Rovang". She then proceeded to walk up to each mother and ask there name and their favorite color. When the instructor showed up I felt bad as she almost didn't have a chance. Hannah pretty much took over the class...she had her instructor following her directions from the get go...I am not kidding. Hannah started doing some dance moves that she made her instructor repeat after her. The instructor did finally find a window where she could actually begin class but Hannah kept her on a pretty tight leash. After a few minutes into class Hannah suggested they play "Duck, Duck, Goose" and guess what the poor instructor gave in and said they would play it at the end of class. Hannah had a blast at this class and I think the other mother's got a kick out of her. They did play "Duck, Duck, Goose when class was over, but Hannah was not done instructing the class. I'm not kidding this poor instructor didn't know how to end class. Hannah had them all on the floor following her commands. Had it not been so funny I would have wanted to crawl under the table. I was finally able to take control of my child and convince her that class was over. I am happy to say that we have not yet received a call saying we are not welcome back to the class.
Blessings,
Bliss

A simple Sunday

We bought Hannah some snorkeling gear for our vacation. She was very anxious to try it on. She was a hoot trying to walk around in her fins. We will be practicing in the tub until we go. We are very excited to introduce her to snorkeling as we love to do it ourselves.

We also did some shopping for M****. We are sending a care package with a family that will be traveling soon. It will include a nice sterling silver cross cutout necklace with the word "Faith" on it. We are also sending a little photo album with pictures of our family as well as photos we have of her, a little purse type thing that has lip glosses and finger nail polish, a watch, a couple pair of fun socks and Jelly Belly gourmet jelly beans to share with her friends and care takers.

We are so excited as we will be getting our first official update on M***this week. Once we read through it we get to email 5 questions we want to ask about her and we will receive the answers in the next update. OK got to go. Ron and I our going to write a letter to our new daughter waiting for us in ET.

Blessings,

Bliss

Family Dinner Night

So it is our turn to host family dinner night. We usually trade off Saturdays with Ron's brother. So I actually am cooking for tonight's dinner. I don't usually cook as Ron enjoys doing it (and honestly we all know he is better at it...I am the clean up girl). But today we changed rolls. I made the main dish (Mexican stuffed shells...they are really yummy and if you want the recipe I am willing to share) and Ron made this beautiful pie (just a bit over baked but will still be quite tasty). Do I have a good man or what. He likes to cook, bake pies and makes the bed everyday. Not that I am lazy and won't make the bed it is just that I don't make it up to his standards...they would make any drill sergeant proud.

So we spent the afternoon preparing for dinner and Hannah's contribution was she provided the entertainment. If you know this kid you know she has an imagination that is always in overdrive. She says the funniest things. Today while I was peeling the apples for Ron's pie (so I get partial credit) Hannah was right by my side pretending to peel her own apples. She said "so mommy why are you making those apples all naked?" Too funny.

Just a little news on our adoption. You may have noticed I added a little countdown timer to our court date. So if we pass court our precious M***could be home with us by the beginning us Summer. This would be great as would have the whole Summer to work on her English before she starts school in the Fall. I also received word from our Social Worker that the addendum to our home study approving us for a girl up to the age of 12 has been sent and USCIS should have it by Monday. So everything is in place on our part and we just pray all the paperwork will be in place and we will pass court on May 8th. And if we do pass you might not have to read my blog to know it as I will be shouting WOOHOOO!!! at such decibel level it might just shake the ground (not to mention I will also be jumping up and down so the two combined will have some kind of impact).

OK gotta go...dinner is about ready.

Blessings,

Bliss

Funny Girl

This is my girl who loves to play dress up with my...delicates. Check out her arms...her princess gloves are knee highs. Look at those shoes and the socks she chose to go with them. She even chose a name for this whole get up....PJ Sparkles. Should I be worried????

Two Years Ago

Two years ago today my mother went home to be with the Lord. I am still not used to the fact that she is no longer with us...hard to explain.

I was going through photos the other day and came across this one. It is me and my brother with our mother. It was taken 20 years ago in Denver. We were there for my brother's graduation. It is one of the few photos I have of me with my mother as she hated to have pictures taken of her. As you can see in the photo she doesn't look too happy.

I just have to share a funny from Hannah...she has the biggest imagination I mean it is off the charts. She was talking to her daddy on the phone yesterday...she loves talking on the phone. Anyway I hear her say "Some dolphins came and ruined up our house and now it needs to be painted.....by Poodles".

Speaking of Hannah. This child's language learning skills just blow me away. I never know what language she is going to answer me in or talk to my friends in. I can say she speaks more Spanish than I do. She has built up quite a vocabulary in Mandarin I think she has surpassed me. Her inflection is perfect...I am so jealous. I can't get it as easy as her. I am teaching her the little I know of German...and she gets it just like that. And the biggest challenge learning Amharic so she can talk to her big sister. No problem...this kid can learn any language and I am just going to keep encouraging it at this young age.

We are very thankful that we have two families that are going to be taking photos of our dear daughter M*** in the next week. We can't wait to see new photos of her .

Blessings,

Bliss

We have a Court Date!!!

We have our court date. May 8th is the day we will either pass court or fail. Please pray that we pass the first time around as our daughter will be 11 yrs. old and I don't want to miss anymore time without her. If we pass court the first time our precious M*** is officially our daughter and we can travel to get her and share her name and photos.


We are very excited that we do have a couple families willing to take care packages for our daughter and snap a few new photos of her.

Blessings,
Bliss

Count Down to Vacation

If you follow my blog you may have noticed the background changed from a winter scene to a tropical one. Oh I can't wait as we will be headed to Jamaica some time very soon. We have been to Jamaica several times and it is my favorite vacation spot. The Jamaicans are so lovely and spiritual and just beautiful. We are going back to the same resort we went to when Hannah was just two. She had a blast then and I know she will love it even more at four. This resort has all the Sesame Street characters that walk about the resort during the day and put on a concert at night. I will have to share some photos of Hannah dancing on stage with them. She was so funny as she didn't want anyone else on stage with her...she wanted to be the star. It was a very fun vacation and just like we did 2 yrs. ago we will celebrate Ron's b-day in Jamaica. Can't wait...
I just wish we could be taking our our beautiful daughter that waits for us in Ethiopia. She would fit right in and the women could braid her hair...and give me a lesson.


We eagerly wait to hear that we have a court date for our daughter (M***). We should definitely hear some news this week. We are so excited in how God has completely changed our direction in this second adoption. I can't explain how he has changed my heart about adopting an older child but I promise I will share in a later post.
Blessings,
Bliss

Happy Valentines Day

Short story short we had a good Vanentines day...started very early. Hannah was up at 4:30AM and ready to go...I was still fighting my cold but yes I got up with my girl.

She loved her V-day Gifts.

When your child never takes a nap you take every oportunity to photograph her sleeping in the middle of the afternoon. Wait...she had me up at 4:30AM and I was fighting a cold. When do I get my nap LOL.

Paiging Dr. Hannah

Hannah insisted on playing Doctor all day long. Which is good because she is the only one not sick at the Rovang house. Her dad who is the Dr. woke up sick in the middle of the night and he has to work all weekend. He came home around 1:30 today and slept the whole afternoon...with a few interruptions from his paiger. He seems a bit better and was able to eat some soup for supper. I have been fighting a sinus infection and finally started a Zpack today but by mid-afternoon I had developed a cold on top of it. I feel yucky. Dr. Hannah is taking good care of me.

I did receive some awesome news today about our beautiful daughter M*** (the 10 yr. old we are adopting from ET). I found out that she has been at the TH (transition house) for almost 3 weeks. This is were children are placed once their referral is accepted. We accepted her referral less than 2 weeks ago so our agency must have thought we were a sure thing.

This is exciting because we can now send her care packages and families traveling before us can take photos of her to share with us.

This was the most meaningful information I received about our daughter today. Duni described her as a wonderful girl and has such a deep faith for a girl her age.

Yes, this brought tears to my eyes. She has been through so much but still able to have faith in her God. I am so thankful that she is in such a loving Christian environment right now. I can't wait to meet our precious M***. I know she will bring so much joy to our lives. I wish I could share photos because her smile is so electric it would light you right up.

Blessings,

Bliss

Hannah Passed

Hannah had her last swimming lesson tonight and she passed.  It really wasn't a challenge as she is such a little fish...loves the water.  I am most proud that she actually follows instruction so well.  Does not follow her parents instruction so well but she did listen and follow her instructors directions each evening.
Hi Mom!!  It was kind of funny this was the last night of lessons and they put them in life vests...this was the first time they wore them.  Seems kind of backwards to me but Hannah seemed to enjoy it.
Gotta love this action shot.
High 5 for a job well done.
Hannah and her instructor...she was awesome.

I just need to share that I have been trying to learn a bit of Amharic so I can try and communicate a little bit with our new daughter.  I have a simple book/CD that is designed for adoptive families.  I had the CD playing in the van today.  The CD says the phrase in English and then says it in Amharic.  I kid you not my little Hannah recited each phrase in Amharic perfectly after hearing it.  I was like what the heck...how do you do that.  Oh to have the mind of a child.  

Blessings,

Bliss

 

This and That

So we met the with our SW today since we need an addendum to our home study approving us for a girl ages 0-12 yr. old (she will only be 11 but good to have all the bases covered). Much different than our current approval of an infant girl 0-12 months. So it was the first time we have talked to our SW since we accepted our referral...she was like WOW fill me in. She did have a lot of questions but nothing that we weren't prepared to answer. Ron and I have been doing a lot of talking this past week. Deciding to answer God's call and agree to adopt an 11 yr. old provokes lots of conversation. The meeting went well and it was nice talking with her again. It's funny as this person knows more about our personal lives than our closest friends or family come to think of it. That's what you sign up for when you decide to adopt. I have to say that she has been a God send (she has been dealing with us for more than 3 years now). She is so easy to talk to and always makes us feel so comfortable. Alicia if you are reading this (from our meeting today it sounds like you might be) know we think you are the BEST and thanks for being so patient with during the meeting.

Before our meeting with our SW Hannah had Kindermusik. Today was her Valentine's Day party (Hannah calls it love day). She wanted to take cup cakes and I didn't have time to bake any so we headed to the grocery store before class to pick up some cup cakes. The only ones they had were huge individually packed ones that cost a buck a piece. Are you kidding me...I am claiming a conspiracy of some sort...did they know that I didn't have time to bake the cupcakes and my daughter would settle for nothing less than the pink valentine cupcakes??? I have never seen the individual cupcakes before...OH well before you all get nuts that I had to spend like 20 bucks on cupcakes. We only purchased five because fortunately her class is small and we even had one left over to give to our SW (who Hannah adores).

The Happy News of the day is that our agency let two families know that they have children waiting for them in ET. Know that there are two families celebrating this evening as they got to see photos of their children for the first time. There is no way to describe how these families are feeling...you would only know if you have experienced the joy of adoption. And we have....

Blessings,
Bliss

Weekend with Rovangs

Just want to share some good stuff from our weekend.

We bought our first item of clothing for our new daughter...winter coat. It was cute and on clearance. We couldn't resist. It is hanging in her closet. I just have to prepare myself for her to discover she has her own closet and her own bed.

This is a child that has known nothing of her own. That can be a little overwhelming to a child. Keep us in your prayers...for this huge transition.

I did get to watch "Gifted Hands" a TNT special and I highly recommend you watch it when they offer it again. My mother gave me this book to read about the gifted Dr. Ben Carson and it inspired me and the movie moved me to tears.

The other movie I watched this weekend was "Eagle Eye". Wow what an interesting plot. I enjoyed it.
Blessings,
Bliss

One Silly Girl

Can you find the photo where Hannah is doing her Gene Simmons (from Kiss...not a fan) impersonation?

Hope you enjoyed the silly photos of Hannah...she is an easy subject. Hilarious seems to be her middle names these days.

I have been cleaning out Hannah's closet's (what a girl she has more than one closet) these past few days trying to get ready to add an 11 yr. old to our house. I would have been more productive about putting all of Hannah's baby clothes into storage sooner had I known God wanted us to adopt an older child. I will share more in a later post on how we got redirected in our adoption of a second child. Oh, I know every mom goes through this when looking at their baby's clothes...It has been one big walk down memory lane. There were a few outfits that I will keep forever...all the silks from China and everything my mother made for Hannah.

The process also made me a little sad. It made me realize that I won't have any baby clothes or baby photos to share with our new daughter. I am still a little overwhelmed at this thought.

Just please keep us in your prayers as our family is going to be facing huge changes in the near future.

Blessing,

Bliss

What Next?

If you follow our blog and have questions to what happens next as far as us getting our beautiful girl. We now wait for a court date where somebody who has power of attorney for us in Ethiopia pleads our case. Once we pass court our daughter is officially ours. Currently court dates being assigned are in mid April. If you pass court on the first try you will usually travel within two weeks to get your child. Passing court on the first go around has really become difficult as of late. If you want to know why passing court is becoming more difficult please visit our agency's blog update AWAA.

I also want to share some comments about our daughter that I have received from my AWAA YG that have met her.

I remember that she and the girl she is with in the photo with our son were pretty tight. She was outgoing and smiling a lot. She did not seem shy and seemed to rally the little ones around. She started games in the courtyard with most of the school aged kids down to just above toddler age. (things like singing/clapping songs in a big circle with motions, etc - you get the picture) and seemed to us that she was one the little ones looked to for direction. The older girls were excited to show us where they slept - it seems to me there were 2 bunkbeds and the girls slept 2 to a mattress, so 8 girls in there. They seemed so happy with the arrangement since they were with their best friends! I loved it at Kids Care - a highlight of the trip for me. The kids were so happy and polite. When we handed things out, all of them, no matter the age, patiently waited until we got to them. The staff there were so loving and just precious to the kids. Our little guy had been so very clingy to me thus far and I watched the recognition and sense of calm come over him there - it was definitely a safe, comfortable, happy place for him after uncertainty and hunger and I don't know what else prior to that. I will always feel a connection to that place because of that. And your daughter was one that Elijah obviously loved even though he was there only 3 months. He was happy to have her carry him around. I think she'll love having a little sister.

Hubby & I agree....she is STUNNINGLY BEAUTIFUL!!!I will tell you....Hannah wanted us to bring home M*** sooooooo badly. Begging badly!!!We knew after praying as a family that God has a very special family just for M***!!!She has been loved & prayed over for a long time.I fell in love with her when we met her at Kids Care. Hannah wanted me to tell you that she is such a happy joyful spirited girl :))))We are so happy for the Rovang family!!!!!!!!!!

We are happy too,
Blessings,
Bliss

I Love How God Works

From my last post you must all know we are adding a beautiful nearly 11 yr. old girl to our family. Yes she is from Ethiopia and yes she is black. So by now you know we truly don't care about the color of our child's skin (except I will be be so much a Mama protecting her if somebody wants to make an issue). My big fear in adopting this beauty is how am I going to know how to fix her hair.
I have no idea when it even comes to my own hair...I get by with Hannah's hair because I know how to comb straight black hair.
So tonight we are at the YMCA for Hannah's swimming lessons. This woman I kind of recognized starts walking up to me and calls out my name. I instantly recognize her as the woman I replaced for a job over 4 years ago. We had an instant connection then when she was training me...and I can't even to exlpain how God works. This woman is one of maybe a handful in our city that is black (from a Carribean country) and knows how do braid girls hair (she has 2 little beauties herself). She gave me her phone number and basically said that she would show up on my door step if I didn't call her for help. How about that for God's timing.

Blessings,
Bliss

Today was our day!!!

I don't know how to start...I received a phone call around 12:30PM from our family coordinator (Terra). When I heard the words this is your official referral I just started shaking. I knew this day was coming but didn't think it would be so soon. (More to follow after the message we received)

The following was an email we received from our Family coordinator about our adoption.

Dear Ronald & Bliss,

Congratulations on your referral! Thank you for opening your heart and home to one of these precious children. Attached are the referral photos and translated medical information. The attached documents are the complete and translated referral documents with all medical information that has been provided by Ethiopia.


I just want to say adoption is definitely an adventure. It is so easy to get caught up in this is what I (we ) want. This is how God worked in our 1st adoption. He let us say OK God this what we want and this want we choose. We prayed and received what we asked for...the best baby and we could not have asked for the bonding and adoption process to go any easier.

Now God is answering back. This adoption is not about you it is about answering my calling to fulfill a true orphan's need in Africa. That is what we are going to do...we can't wait to meet our beautiful daughter. Please keep us in your prayer and can't wait to share photos when we are able.

Blessings,
Bliss

Super Weekend

We had a fun weekend. We picked up Hannah's grandpa Saturday morning and headed to the Twin Cities. It is a six hour drive for us and I get so much accomplished on the drive...I get to read or watch a movie or listen to music on my ipod (while Hannah watches her movies or looks at her books). This trip found me studying my Amharic (the language our daughter from ET will most likely be familiar with) and reading my latest book...from one of my favorite authors. I love Ted Dekker and I am currently reading "Sinner" it is so fascinating. Just like everything that man writes.

Yesterday we celebrated Super Bowl Sunday and Grandpa Wes' 85 birthday. We had great fun eating yummy appetizers and cake. I watched the 1st half of the game and then got so hooked on playing Wii (and Wii fit) that I missed the whole second half of the game. I am way sore today after playing Wii fit and using muscles I'm not used to using and then sitting six hours in a van...oh so stiff. But so worth the fun I had...I need a Wii...calling cupid...tell my husband I want a Wii. OK I guess I will have to forget about that gift as he is taking us to Jamaica in a few short weeks. Maybe the resort has Wii.

Today (Feb 2) we are a bit sad as this would have been grandma Charlotte's B-day. But I know they had a great big B-day party with Jesus in heaven.

Have to give a big shout out for the three families that passed court today take a look at their gorgious children. The Blacks, Chans, and Reno families.

Blessings,

Bliss