We got the green light (sort of)!! :0)

The story continues to unfold! As many of you know, we got a call from our agency Friday asking us if we could be ready for the July 29th US embassy date!! The problem was, it was not confirmed that we would definitely get that date!! What were we to do except go for it?!! So we scrambled to reschedule our flight and guest home in Ethiopia, hoping to leave Wednesday 22nd. So the weekend came and went, Monday, and Tuesday dragged on with no word confirming the date. Our coordinator did all she could to find out, but no word came until this morning. Steve and I decided yesterday afternoon to try to reschedule flight and guest home again for Saturday, the 25th. So, as I said, we did get an update this morning. Out of the 4 things needed to be confirmed for a US embassy date, 3, adoption decree, birth certificate and passport, are completed for Girma. Last one to go is results of his TB testing and we are confident it will be negative. Our agency of 96% sure the results will be fine. Of course, they won't know until FRIDAY! Nonetheless, we are leaving Saturday to be with our son! HALLELUAH!! Because this is so last minute, we are wait listed on our return flight for July 31st, arriving back in Denver August 1st. So, we might be there a day or two (or three!) longer. The important thing is just getting over there to be with Girma. Speaking of which, our friends, Christen and Javier brought home their lovely daughter on Sunday! Selamawit is a beautiful girl and is so sweet! They had much to tell us about Girma! The verdict on what type of shoes he wants was, "yellow shoes"!! Luckily, Christen asked him for a back up choice, which was red. Funny, huh? Our friends took a little video of Girma waving and saying, "Hi Mom and Dad, love you!" Our hearts continue to melt for our amazing son. Christen and Javier had the kids at the orphanage do some art work for our project and they said Girma was practically the only one paying attention to their instructions and made a beautiful drawing us, Mom and Dad. I'm the blue oval with the brown trim and Steve is the multi-colored one ( I want to be the multi-colored one!!) :0) Isn't it beautiful? It's awesome for a 4 yr. old. Mommy is especially proud! Last night, we went out with several friends and family members to Habesha Ethiopian restaurant. We wanted to introduce this delicious cuisine to everyone! It really did our hearts good to be surrounded by family and friends who are so supportive of us and are so excited about Girma!

Construction is coming along great on our home addition, we're getting there! The siding is up, windows are going in, electical is about done. Next, we get the plumbing and electical inspections, then it's drywall time! We should be completely done in October! It will be fun to have Girma watch the completion of his room. :O)

Tyler and Taelyn are being very supportive. We had a long talk about how things will affect our family and they both were great. Tyler is so easy going and will be fine. Taelyn volunteered to babysit Girma! They are both great with little kids and will be awesome big brother and sister.

We will try to update the blog in country, but we're not sure how well it will work. They have power outages in Ethiopia often. If not, we will definately update as soon as we get back! We are so excited! After all the planning, paperwork, emotional roller coasters, love and support we are finally going to get our Girma. Thank you all for everything!
Love,
Steve & Denise