Zoo lights

(Disclaimer: I feel like I can post pictures like this of my children without putting them at risk, one of the benefits of a private blog.)

I told the boys that tonight after dinner we would be going to the zoo to see the lights. Although I did not remember to bring my camera to the zoo I did get this picture of Oliver before we left. He got himself ready to go to the zoo all by himself. While he did remember a hat, I am not sure that he was aware that it is Colorado and it gets pretty cold at night. I love this kid!

Christmas 2009

This was our first Christmas in Littleton and it was great! Kevin's parents came up on Christmas Eve and stayed the night with us. It was really fun to have them with us.

We had fun on Christmas Eve going to church, having dinner together, opening a couple presents, and eating some birthday cake. We always have the boys open one present on Christmas Eve which is always pajama's and an ornament. This year Kaden got a Star Wars ornament and Oliver's was a Toy Story one. Here they are getting ready to open their pj's.

Here they are in their new pj's hanging their ornaments on the tree.

Here are the boys singing Happy Birthday to Jesus. We made a delicious pumpkin cake instead of a Kung Fu Panda cake like Oliver really wanted to make. I thought a pumpkin cake would be a little more practical.

Christmas morning was so much fun. The boys were very happy with their gifts and I don't feel like it was too much. They got a few gifts, some clothes, and shoes. They spent the rest of the day playing with their toys, they played so well and didn't fight over their new toys.

Here we are eating our Christmas dinner together. It turned out to be a delicious feast, even after a little trouble with the turkey, but it turned out yummy.We had such a fun Christmas. I feel like the boys are really starting to understand what Christmas is all about, the birth of Jesus. We watched a Christmas video and completed a Christmas coloring/sticker book. I really want them to learn that Christmas is not about presents and what they get, but about the birth of our savior and what they can give to others.

On another note, I called a travel agent today to talk about plane tickets to Ethiopia. It is starting to feel real now. I am so excited to go get our boy. Tomorrow I am going to wash all of his clothes and start packing our donations. So much to do, hopefully, so little time!

*Even though "K" is officially our son, our agency asks that we still do not post any personal information about him or post any pictures until he is home. Sorry you have to wait, but trust me it will be worth it, he is adorable!

WE PASSED!!!!!

I am so excited to announce that we passed court today, making "K" our son. Although he has been our son from the moment we learned of him, he is now officially and legally our son. I wish I had more time to reflect on this moment on this blog, but I have cleaning, cooking, baking, bathing, dressing, church, and many other things to do today. Most of all I want my boys to understand the gift that we are celebrating, the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! Merry Christmas!!!

Court Date #2

Tomorrow is our second court date, so tonight as we sleep it will be decided. I am a nervous wreck!! I really want to pass this time, I really don't want to have to wait another month for another court date. Please pray with us that we would pass this time.

We probably won't hear the outcome of our court date until Monday, so as soon as I know anything I will let you know. For now, I hope you all have a very blessed Christmas!!

Cookie Day

(When I was in high school my friend Ashley's grandma would make cookies every Tuesday after school. So after school and before whatever sport we were in at the time, we would run to Ashley's house for cookies. They were the most delicious cookies and we LOVED "Cookie Day". I had totally forgotten about that until, I titled this post.)

Today the boys and I made Christmas cookies to bring to our neighbors, and a few for us of course. They are such good helpers! They really do love to help and it is really sweet. We made my great grandma's white cookies, my moms sour cream cookies, molasses cookies, pumpkin bread, and chocolate cookies. The boys tried to help me frost them, but I thought it was best not to let our neighbors eat their cookies since most of them were licked at some point....mmmm yummy. Then after dinner tonight we delivered them, to the two out of six neighbors that were home. It was fun though and they seemed very appreciative. We will try to deliver the rest tomorrow.

Here is Oliver wearing my very dirty apron... This is the face I got when I asked him to smile for the camera.

My sweet boy and his crazy smile!

Look at that face, he is just adorable.

We are also one week away from our second court date. We are praying that we pass this time and can travel sometime in February to bring our little man home. If you feel so inclined, please join us in praying for a successful court date, thanks!

Pics

Here are a few pictures of what we have been up to around the Matthews house. A Christmas festival ....

My sister and her roommate came to celebrate with us..... And Kevin's sister, her husband, and our cutie little nephew....

We also have decorated our house for Christmas. Here is our tree after the boys helped me decorate it....
Notice the number of ornaments on that one little branch. I think there are about 10 ornaments on that one little branch. The boys were such good helpers and had so much fun decorating, they are so cute.

Counting down the days until Court Date #2.... 18.

Sad news....

We did not pass our Thursday court date and now we have a new court date of December 24th. I am so sad. Sad that we didn't pass, sad that our new court date is so far off, sad that now we probably won't travel until February IF we pass our next court date, sad that we are delayed another month in meeting our son, just sad.

Still waiting

.......

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tonight as we sleep the courts in Ethiopia will decide if "K" is officially our son. When we wake up in the morning and prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving with our families we may legally have another son. It is going to kill me to have to wait until Monday to find out, I am secretly hoping our social worker will sneak away from her holiday festivities to check her e-mail and then let us know the outcome. I know that probably won't happen but a girl can dream.

So tonight as I am getting ready for bed I am praying for a sweet babe on the other side of the world.... Lord please bring him home to us as quickly as possible, please let all the necessary paperwork be where it needs to be and have all of the information that it needs, please let the judge decide that we are fit to be his parents, please give "K" a peace that he has a family that loves him and can't wait to bring him home, and..... if its not too much trouble could our social worker call us tomorrow and let us know the outcome.

This year we have so much to be thankful for, Happy Thanksgiving friends!

One week...

until our court date. I know that we probably won't hear the outcome of our court date until the following Monday, but in one week the courts in Ethiopia will decide if "K" is legally our son. I am praying that everything goes well and that all of the paperwork will be in place for us to pass.

Today we got an update on our little man, with a lot of pictures! It is so great to see him in more pictures because all we have had is one picture and now we get to see him smiling, sucking his thumb, holding toys, laying on his tummy. I wish I could show him off because he is beautiful. He has the biggest most beautiful brown eyes. We also learned that he laughs and squeals, and cries when he needs something. I am so thankful for this update, but now I REALLY want to go get him, not that I didn't before but now I have a new urgency. Please join us in prayer as we pray for a successful court date on the 26th.

10 days.....

until our court date!!!! Let the count down begin! Since our court date is on Thanksgiving I thought it would be fun to write something I am thankful for as we count down. I am not promising I will post everyday, but when I do I will be thankful.

Today I am thankful that after two years of this process we have another son. I am so thankful to be able to pray for him by name, to know a little about him, to be able to stare at his sweet face daily.

I'm out!

I am officially calling it quits with the November blog challenge. I do not have it in me to blog everyday, actually I think it is healthy for me not to be on the computer everyday. I will try to write more often then I was, that should be easy.

Tonight

Tonight we heading out to see Rob Bell. I am so excited to go see him speak. I have heard him numerous times online and only once live, so I am excited to see him again tonight.

This is however, the first time that we have ever left our children with a babysitter. We have left our children before, but we used to live minutes from both of our parents and they were almost always available. So tonight is the first night that we are having someone that isn't family or a really close friend watch our boys. She is a sweet girl and I know she will do a great job but I have to admit I am a little nervous. They will be fine, they will be fine, they will be fine.......

Oh no....

I totally forgot to post something yesterday. We had some friends come and visit and we stayed up way to late talking and laughing. I guess spending time with friends is a good reason to miss.

Today

I made this today....A pumpkin spice latte that I found on my friend Melodie's blog. Lets just say that I am going to try again tomorrow and this time I am not going to try to make it healthier. Whipped cream and sugar here I come!

Shopping

Today I went shopping and picked up all of this for our sweet baby "K". I can't wait to use it all!

Happy Birthday....

to our sweet nephew Jackson. Today we celebrated his first birthday. He was sooooo cute when he ate his cake. He was so disgusted with it, he didn't want anything to do with it. They put a little piece in his mouth and he gagged on it until it looked like he was close to throwing up. He was so sweet. Happy Birthday sweet boy, we love you!

Miracle

Today we got to go to our friends Brian and Karen's house today to visit, and if you read this post, you know why that is something to blog about. Brian got to go home from the hospital this week and we couldn't wait to go see him. Every time we have gone to see him we are amazed at his progress and today was no different. He is completely done with physical therapy and now only has to do speech therapy and therapy for his heart. It was so great to just go hang out, laugh, joke, and cry a little with our dear friends. Here I am with my beautiful, brave, faithful, strong, committed friend Karen. I love her!Here is Kevin with Brian. He is a walking, talking, laughing miracle. Brian is proof of the power of God.

Court Date!!!!

We have a court date for November 26th!!!!! Happy Thanksgiving to us!!!! So, this means that on November 26th, an Ethiopian representative from our agency will represent us in court in Ethiopia. If we pass the first time then we will probably travel sometime around the first or second week of January. Please join us in praying that we will pass the first time. People don't always pass the first time and sometimes it is for silly reasons like a missing piece of paperwork, so please pray that everything that needs to be there will be there on the 26th. We are one step closer to our little man!!!

Friends

Although we have moved, I am so thankful that we are only an hour away from home. So on days like today when we have to go back home to have the boys TB test read so that we can update the rest of our adoption paperwork, we can stop by and spend some time with friends. Not just any friends, but some of our nearest and dearest friends. My husband and Jonathan became friends in the 4th grade. I met Jonathan and Becky in college, and I would like to say that we were instant friends, but that is not how it happened. We actually didn't connect well when we first met, but when they moved back to Colorado, and we were pregnant with our boys together we quickly became friends. Becky has become one of the best friends I have ever and probably will ever have. She is just so easy to be around, I never feel like I have to prove anything or be someone I am not when I am with her. So today I got to go and spend some time with this beautiful friend.... Not only are our husbands best friends but so are our children. Kaden and Grant are 2 months apart and they are such good friends. They are more like brothers then friends and I love it. Oliver would tell you that his best buddy is Truman, and they are great friends. Here are the boys....

It was so nice to be able to spend time with such a comfortable friend. Moving and leaving all of your friends is never easy, but being able to go back and visit is so nice. Love you Bec!

Post #3

Today has been a pretty uneventful day, laundry, dishes, unpacking (still!), dinner, baths, the usual. Nothing really worth writing about except that I cannot stop thinking about our sweet baby "K". Where is he? What is he doing? Is someone loving on him? Is he getting enough to eat? Has he been sick? Does he sleep through the night? What size clothes does he wear? Is he happy? I would love to get an update, maybe another picture to look at constantly. I would LOVE to get a court date, that would be awesome. Until then I will just continue to pray for our little boy and trust that the Lord is taking care of him.

I love you sweet boy and I can't wait to meet you!

Post #2

We have been busy lately and since I haven't blogged in a while I am going to let our pictures tell the story of what we have been up to...

A couple of weeks ago we went home to go to Emma's birthday party. Emma is the daughter of some of our dear friends. She had her party at a ranch so all of the kids got to go for pony rides. Oliver refused to ride the pony, but Kaden loved it!My little cowboys!After the party we went to the pumpkin patch with my mom and sister and her little guy Hunter.Kaden and his pumpkin. I love that smile!

My sweet baby!

Last week we got a crazy snow storm. I think we got around 2 feet of snow in our area. Here is our patio.The kids were begging us to go out and play in the snow. I think they were more excited to wear their new snow boots then to actually play in the snow. They both seemed shocked that the snow was so cold. We had fun sledding and making snow angels though.Oliver was too tired to walk so I had to carry him.We carved our pumpkins the day before Halloween. This is the only time Kaden stuck his hand inside of his pumpkin, he then informed me that I better clean it out because he didn't want to get his hands all disgusting. So I got to clean out both pumpkins.
We bought a pumpkin carving kit and let the boys pick out what they wanted their pumpkins to look like. We had no idea what we were in for, Kevin and I spent the next hour and a half carving their pumpkins. This is what Kaden's looked like when I was done.
Kevin's masterpiece for Oliver. We then put these out on our deck and some punk squirrels came and ate the teeth out of it. Luckily, it didn't look too bad and we were able to light them on Halloween.On Halloween we went to Boo at the Zoo. The boys had so much fun collecting candy and checking out all of the animals.That night we had some friends over and we went trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. Apparently our neighborhood is not a hot spot for trick-or-treaters. We went to one house and as the wife was answering the door we could see the husband running into the kitchen searching for something to give the kids. They told us we were their first trick-or-treaters in 5 years! They were so cute.
Sweet little Cora would stand at each door with her basket held out and she would bat her beautiful brown eyes, after she got some candy she would continue to stand at the door and bat her beautiful brown eyes and every time she got more candy. So cute! We had so much fun. The boys are at such a fun age for all of this stuff. Kaden ran from door to door and Oliver would pull out whatever he was given to show us what he got. It was so fun.

National Blog Posting Month

I think I am going to do this.....

I am not even sure if there is anyone out there reading this blog, but I am going to do it anyways, I think. So here is post #1. I promise to have a little more substance in the other posts, but thanks to the time change I am exhausted and need to go to bed.

My Baby is 3!!!

Our little man is 3! I can't believe that my baby is 3, the time has gone so fast. We had a party for him this weekend with family and a few friends. He had a blast. Here are a few pictures of the fun, and I mean a few, we really didn't take great pictures.

This is the cake that I slaved over for days. It is the first birthday cake that I have made for my children that didn't end with Kevin running to the store last minute to pick up a new cake. I spent weeks researching cake recipes, frosting recipes, fondant recipes, and cake designs. I think all of my hard work payed off. This first picture is before I put the toys on it to make it a Toy Story cake. The second is at the party all finished.

Here is my sweet birthday boy. He couldn't wait to get his hands on those toys.

Here is one of the few pictures of other children at his party. He had his best buddy Truman at the party and Grant, Carter, Jack, Xander, Hunter, Jackson, and of course his big brother Kaden.

We had so much fun celebrating his birthday.

Oliver we love you so much and are so thankful that God in trusted you to us. We are truly thankful to be your mommy and papa. Love you Moe-Moe!!

Crazy Times!

These last couple of weeks since receiving our referral for our sweet boy have been crazy. Not just a little crazy, a lot crazy. Let me start from the beginning.... The day after we received our referral we went to the hospital to see our friend Brian and his wife Karen. Brian had been admitted into the hospital the day before for chest pains and when we saw him he looked tired and you could tell that he didn't feel good. We sat and talked to them for a few minutes and showed them a picture of our new son, and then all of a sudden Brian looked like he was going to throw up and then he looked like he was having a seizure and then he just stopped, literally his heart stopped. It is the scariest thing I have ever seen. My friend Karen began screaming and nurses and doctors came running in and began preforming CPR on Brian, and at this time they kicked us out of the room. We were just standing in the hall crying and wondering if they were going to be able to save him. I am not sure how long it was until the nurse came out to tell us that they were able to get his heart beating and he was breathing on his own, but it felt like forever. They then told us that they were taking him to the ICU and we would know more later. We found out later that his aortic valve had torn and that he needed surgery immediately. They also told us that if this had happened outside of the hospital there is a 99.9% death rate (miracle). They then took him into surgery and about an hour into surgery they came out to tell us that his aorta had burst and there was a 50/50 chance that he would make it out of surgery alive... he did (miracle). They told us that they weren't going to wake him up until the next day to let him recover so we went home to get some rest.

We spent the next week at the hospital everyday waiting for them to wake up Brian but everyday they decided that his lungs weren't strong enough. One day I was in the room when they were waking him up and it was so hard to watch, he would just gag on the breathing tube that they had put in. He would gag until he threw up, it was awful.

That week was hard, we spent most of our time at the hospital and the rest packing and doing laundry. We had to take a few trips to our new house to clean and to bring some stuff up. It was such a difficult week, we were overjoyed with the news of our referral and overcome with grief over our friend in the hospital and his wife that was struggling.

We moved on Saturday, which was so hard. Moving is just hard. It is really hard work physically and really hard emotionally to leave all of our friends and family behind. Then right after we had moved we found out that Brian had had two stokes, one during surgery and one sometime after. They weren't sure if he would ever wake up and if he did if he would have any brain function. We were all devastated.

I tell you all of this because today I saw a miracle. Karen called a couple of nights ago to tell us that Brian had woken up and that he smiled at her...smiled!!!! He then kissed her! Kevin and I could hardly believe it. The next day they called us to tell us that he had high-fived his daughter and given a lot of smiles. He is unable to speak at this time because they gave him a tracheotomy to make sure his oxygen levels are safe, but he has been responding. So today Kevin and I had to see it to believe it and we were blown away. We walked into his room and he was sitting in a chair and he saw us and smiled. Kevin and I were so happy we couldn't stop smiling and hugging him. We asked him some questions and he answered by nodding. Kevin kept cracking jokes and he would smile. It was so amazing to see him today after we felt like we had lost him. It was also great to see Karen smiling and laughing again. It was an amazing day. Kevin and drove home talking about miracles we have seen in our lives. Brian is a miracle. I know that he has a rough road ahead, but all of the odds were against him surviving all that he had gone through, and a miracle is the only way he could have survived. Tonight I am so thankful!

13 months and 1 day....

is how long it took to get our referral!!!!! We are thrilled to announce the referral of our beautiful 4 month old baby boy! We got the referral this afternoon and it has taken me this long to be able to form a coherent sentence. I was watching Lost on hulu, with headphones in, so I didn't hear my phone ring. Kevin came home and told me that my friend Karen was trying to get a hold of me and she wanted me to check my messages and that is when I heard the message from my social worker. She said, "Lori, I have a referral for you. You have thirty minutes to call me back before I call Kevin." I ran to the phone, with Kevin, and got the news. Then we got to see his beautiful face through the e-mail. I cannot stop looking at him. I wish I could show you all his beautiful face, but we are not allowed to post his picture online. So, if you live in town I would love to show him off. For those of you that are out of town, I will do my best to describe him.... he is a little chunk, I always pictured a tiny little baby, but he is not tiny. His little cheeks are handsomely round and his lips are full and kissable. I can't wait to get him and kiss those lips. He has big beautiful brown eyes, he looks a little scared and that makes me want to go get him even more. I am not sure what else to say except he is one of the most beautiful babies I have ever seen.

So whats next? We now have to sign the acceptance papers, send them off and then wait for a court date. Once we pass court then we will be assigned an embassy date and that is when we will travel. All of this can take around 3 to 4 months, maybe a little more, hopefully a little less. So please pray that we will be on the shorter end of this wait. Now off to try to sleep....

13 months

We have been waiting 13 months to be matched with our little one. I think I am officially past being impatient and have moved on to feeling desperate. I am desperate to know who our child will be... a boy or a girl... a baby or a toddler.... one or siblings??? Do we need to hold on to all of our baby stuff? Do we need to hold on to all of our baby boy clothes? Do I need to sell the cute baby girl bedding that we bought or the cute baby boy bedding that was Oliver's? Do we need to set up a crib, toddler bed or buy a twin bed? I am driving myself crazy with these questions on a daily basis, but lucky for me our lives are a little crazy with transition right now, so I am able to keep myself busy with that too.

In two weeks we are moving to Denver to join the Adullam church. We are really excited to join this ministry and all that they are doing. If you would like to learn more about the ministry here are a couple of websites: tangiblekingdom.com, adullamdenver.com, and missio.us.

We found a really cute townhouse up there that I think will be perfect for our family. It is in a really cute area with a lot of big grassy areas, a playground and pool right across the street, and lots of bike trails in the area. We also rented our house here to some really great friends, so that is a huge relief.

So even though I am desperate to meet our child, I am thankful for all of this to keep me busy while we wait.

???????

Tonight we were driving home from Denver and I am pretty sure Kaden asked me close to a million questions. Okay, I am being a little dramatic, but in the hour drive I think the car was only quiet for about ten minutes. Here are a few of them...

How do we get splinters and why?
Why does papa want a fast car?
Are your fingers bigger then mine?
Did Anikan really turn into Darth Vader? (not sure of spelling but other mothers of boys know what I am talking about)
Where is the moon? Why can't we always see it? Where does it go?
Can we have a baby? Can we just have Hunter (my nephew)?
Why are we driving so fast?
Why is Denver so far?
Why is it called Castle Rock?
Why is my papa so silly?

Needless to say our ride home was full of conversation. I love my sweet boy and I am trying to enjoy this stage of questions, even though it can be exhausting. I love to see him discovering the world in his own way.

Another quick kid story, tonight we were taking communion at church and Kevin explained the meaning of communion to Oliver. He thought he had done a really good job until Oliver yelled over to me "Mommy look, Jesus gave us bread!" He is too cute. I love my boys so much!!

Camping....again

We are camping fools. I am so happy that we are becoming a camping family. I have always loved camping and being outdoors and I love that it has become something that we love doing as a family. It is such a great thing to do with little boys too because they just love being outside, discovering news things and getting dirty, very, very dirty.

We went with some of our good friends and there three boys, and we had such a great time. It was nice to go with them because they are expert campers and could teach us the ropes a little more. They also have a lot more stuff then we do so we didn't have to rough it quite so much this time. Here is the view from our campsite.....

Lisa and I cooking up some yummy dinner.....
Our boys with their Clone Trooper masks....

Jason went fishing from about 10:30p.m. to about 2:00a.m. Yes, he fished in the dark, and it was pretty cold that night too, but it was worth it when he caught a 12 to 15lb catfish. The thing was huge! He brought it back and we ate it for lunch, all of us, and they still had a huge bag of fish to bring home. It was delicious!!

Here are all of the little guys with the fish, they were so impressed. Kaden and Oliver had never seen someone catch a fish, clean it, and eat it. I think they were disturbed by the whole idea, but they did eat a little bit with lunch. We did keep them away while he was cleaning it, we didn't want to scar them for life.

We had such a great time and the boys are already asking when we are going to go camping again. Hopefully we can fit one more trip in before it starts getting too cold, we shall see.

One Year Ago Today....

Our paperwork left for Ethiopia and we were put on the official wait list. On that day I never thought that we would still be waiting for a referral twelve months later. Instead of making this a negative post about how much this wait sucks, I thought I would write some things that I am thankful for as we wait to meet our new child.

I am thankful for my mom and her willingness to open up her home to us. She has made us feel so welcome and loved.

I am thankful for Kevin's parents and there support as we venture out into a new ministry.

I am thankful for our baby Oliver. My baby is not a baby anymore but he is becoming such a fun little boy and he is learning and talking like crazy. I can't believe my baby is almost three, it just doesn't seem possible.

I am thankful for our sweet boy Kaden. I can hardly believe he is four and that he will be starting Kindergarten next year. He is such sweet spirited, loving, and outgoing little boy. He is such a blessing to our family.

I am thankful for my sweet husband Kevin. He is such a good dad and husband. I am thankful for his willingness to follow Gods calling. I am excited to see what God has for us in these next twelve months.

I am thankful that we aren't in this wait alone. I am thankful for all the encouragement from other adoptive families, it is really nice to talk to someone that understands how we feel.

Although this adoption journey has been much more difficult then I had imagined, I am so thankful for Gods many blessings.

Wondering...

I keep wondering if I can wait to update this blog until I have news of a referral, as you can see that has not happened. Our agency hasn't given out a referral, that I know about, for two months. Two months!!! That seems like FOREVER. We have got to be due for some referrals soon.

Our New Blog

We have some new and exciting things going on in our lives right now, if you would like to learn more about it Kevin has started a blog to keep everyone up to date, it is kmattshoes.blogspot.com.

Camping

This past weekend we took out first family camping trip. We drove to a beautiful lake area in the mountains and drove until we found the cutest little campsite and set up camp. We had a blast exploring the mountains, collecting firewood, building our fire, making smores, and seeing the beautiful stars. Sleeping was another story, as you can see below our tent isn't very big and we found out as we were sleeping that it was on a bit on an incline, so all night we all kept sliding to the back of the tent. Then our early riser (Kaden) was up around 5:30 very excited for the day to begin. So needless to say we were not very rested on our first family camping trip, but we did have a great time. Here is our beautiful campsite. My boys sitting on the log that Kevin rolled down the hill so we would have more seating.

My handsome boys!

Here is our campfire that we worked so hard to build. We had fun roasting marshmallows and making smores. The next morning we went to a lake for some hiking and the boys favorite past time.. throwing rocks in water.
We had such a fun time camping. It was nice to just get away for a little bit, no computers, phones, cartoons, or other distractions. I can't wait for our next camping trip.