Favorite. Easter. Ever.

The weather was bad.  Rain (even HAIL!) all day long.  Grey skies, wet streets, no cute pix of the kids by our spring flowers.  Mad dashes into the church made more difficult by the fact that Avé was convinced she was wearing rain boots (why wasn't she???  her parents totally should have thought of that) and jumped into several puddles in the church parking lot.  Church full of slippery floors and dripping umbrellas.  But nothing, NOTHING could put a damper on this day for me.

You see, both my sons were baptized this morning.
Easter Morning.  It was wonderful.

So wonderful that I really don't even have words to describe it.
So I won't even try.

My heart is full.  So very full.  And I'm so grateful.

Life isn't easy.  But it's beautiful.

And they were baptized by Uncle Gyle.  Even more special.

And her hair just looked like a little Easter Nest of love.  ;-)

"Easter Hair" Practice

We are on our 4th round of yarn braids and we are loving them!  So cute, so much variety, and so easy (once you get them in.)  ;-)  This last round only took me 4 hours- as opposed to 6 hours back on New Year's Eve.  I bragged to my best friend that I did her hair in "just" 4 hours, and Kelly said, "...Ummm... I think you need a perspective check.  That's still a really long time."  True... but now we won't have to "do" her hair for at least 2-4 weeks! So the time investment up front is worth it. 

We have been playing around w/ the braids to see what we want to do for Easter.  I think we've settled on this style which Ben has named "The Crown."  

Very fitting for an Ethiopian Princess, don't you think???

I think on Sunday I will try to get the "crown" to sit a little further forward on her head, and try to make the twists a little tighter in back.  But other than that, this is a very quick and easy style and we all think she looks like Royalty!!!

The "Good Advice / Bad Advice" Podcast

I was all for calling Episode 6 our "Return of the Jedi" episode, but that didn't fly w/ my co- hosts.  ;-)  Instead Kaysie named it "Gayla Wise."  You'll have to listen in to see why, but rest assured that title totally fits it's not because I'm actually wise.  More because of a certain baby-rearing book that I really, really, really, really disliked and which Kaysie didn't quite feel so strongly about.  WE HAD WORDS, PEOPLE!  Okay, so not a cat-fight per-se, but I do believe that Kaysie "shushed" me at one point and that Kelly looked away and said, "Oh, here we go" more than once.  ;-)  I love these girls and we are having a blast making this podcast... even if we don't always agree!!!!

Oh, and you can also subscribe on iTunes and each new episode will automatically download for you, and if you want to connect on Facebook you can find us by searching for "Three Moms and a Podcast."  Join our FB group and then you can add your two cents to our discussions.  Great to listen to while you fold laundry or run errands in the car!  Believe me when I tell you that between the three of us and our varied opinions and experiences you will find yourself feeling very, very NORMAL.  ;-)

Spriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love Spring.  It's my absolute favorite season for so many reasons.  I hate winter.  Maybe up north or in Colorado it's amazing, but here it's just dull grey skies, dull grey ground, dull grey trees, dull grey days.  And then suddenly... the tulips and daffodils and hyacinths poke up their heads...  and then those tulip trees (don't know real name) put on their incredible flowers... and then the pear trees start to bloom... and then the gorgeous redbuds... and then the dogwoods start putting on their show... it's just AMAZING!!!   It makes my heart so happy.  And we still have the azaleas to look forward to!  I LOVE SPRING.

HOME for a year...

Yesterday marked our arrival in America!  

(BTW, this is the ONLY photo I have of our arrival.  I think there were at least 4 people shooting video, and in the videos I can see and hear a camera flashing... but so far no one seems to know who was taking those pix and no one has sent me any except this one.  :-(  Guess I should have planned better and asked certain people to take pix.  And... if you are reading this and you are the person who was taking pix at the airport... please, oh please, oh please send them to me!!!!!)

She was SUCH a little, teeny girl last year at this time!  In this past year she has grown THREE sizes in both clothes and shoes!  And her little face... no longer the baby face she had when we first met her.  As she likes to remind anyone who suggests otherwise, she's a BIG GIRL now.  

Readoption Day!!!

Today was our day in court- the day when the Judge would slam his gavel and declare what we have already known for a year now- we are a FAMILY.

Yesterday I got a call from the Judge's secretary saying that a copy of some of our ET paperwork was missing from our file- I should have submitted in with the rest back in February, but she thought it would be okay for me to bring it tomorrow.  But still... THE PANIC BEGAN!!!  To be honest, I'm still not really sure what piece of info they specifically wanted, so I just copied EVERY! SINGLE! PAPER! that we received in Ethiopia just to be sure.  We were filing Pro Se (no lawyer) and so I was extremely nervous about whether or not I had done it all correctly.

Then last night I noticed that there was one piece of documentation that I had totally overlooked.  MORE PANIC!!!  AND... it had to be notarized before we turned it in!!!  Geesh.  So needless to say I was a bit worked up about this appointment w/ the Judge.

I may have never had cause to mention this on my blog before... but I hate being late.  I mean... I'm using the word HATE here.  I would say that even the thought of being late makes me a bit manic.  I tense up and start to think frenzied thoughts.  My mind starts racing with all the "what if's...." and NONE of the scenarios I play out have positive outcomes.  Irrational... I know.  But there you go.  I'm irrational.  So thinking about the fact that I had to:
1.  Go to the bank and get that document notarized AND...
2.  Navigate parking downtown during the NCAA tournament taking place AND...
3.  Turn the notarized document and the ET copies into the probate desk and get them filed AND...
4.  STILL be on time for our 1:30 appointment w/ the Judge AND...
5.  Hope that I had filled out all the paperwork correctly...
...well... it all made me a bit, shall we say... unbalanced.  

And so I told Mick we had to leave home EARLY.
Because those notaries?  They can be quick or slow.
And the parking?  A complete unknown.
And the probate desk?  I waited 40 minutes to file docs in Feb.
And who knows what happens if you are late for your court appointment!!!  NO IDEA!!!  But it can't be good!!!
So we left home to accomplish all these tasks... a full 2 hours before our appointment.

See?  Irrational.  BUT! that made me feel better b/c w/ all those unknowns I was feeling really edgy.   And knowing that I had allowed for the maximum time each event might take was very calming to me.

And so what happened???
Notary took 5 minutes.
Parking was no problem
Probate filed all my papers in 5 minutes.
Which meant that we were 1 1/2 hours early for our court appointment.
Which meant that Mick wanted to officially sign me up for some sort of 12 Step Group for Psychos Who Can Never Even Think About Being Late.  For Anything.  Ever.

Oops.

I felt pretty bad, but luckily I was prepared.  (You know that "Be Prepared" song from the movie "Hoodwinked?"  (not the scary one from Lion KIng... this one is funny) - well my kids think it's about ME.)  I had a bag packed for just such an occasion and so we just found a bench on some floor of the Court House that didn't seem very busy and settled in to wait.

So we read books.  We ate snacks.  We used the restroom on various floors of the Court House.  We rode the escalator and elevators.  We peeked into court rooms.  Oh, and did this...

I *DID* mention that we were ONE AND A HALF HOURS early, didn't I?

That's NINETY MINUTES of keeping kids quiet and entertained.

And it was too chilly to go outside.

Actually it was too chilly for her to be wearing that dress...

...but she got it from her Nanny at the orphanage and she's about to outgrow it...

...and she wanted to wear it for this special day.  

So what'cha gonna do?

I'm telling you... it was a looooooong wait.  

The kids did GREAT, actually.  Here's what Mick did:

Seriously.  I was afraid people were going to think he was a homeless man who wandered into the Court House to get out of the cold!!!  What can I say.  

The man has two speeds:  100 mph or ZERO mph.  There is no in between.  ;-)

But in the end it was all worth it.  Our Judge was very sweet to all of us and made the boys promise to be good big brothers and to protect their little sister and look after her ALL THEIR LIVES.  They both took it very seriously and promised to do so.  I thought it was precious.  

And a "BLAM" of the gavel, and that's it!  

She's a US citizen, and we're a family.

But we didn't really need any court to tell us that.  ;-)