Update

It is hard to believe that 3 weeks from today we will be meeting our son for the first time. I am nervous but also really excited. Today, I am going to enjoy my time with my son and daughter and head out to the fair. It is a gorgeous day and it will be nice to be outside and eat unhealthy food.

My son was very excited this morning because I found his snake (I almost had a heart attack). I was washing my hands in the downstairs bathroom and when I picked up the towel to dry my hands, the snake was under the towel. I am not sure where the snake has been for the past couple of days because we cleared everything off the counter looking for it. However, I am thinking the we are probably going to need to let the snake go back into the wild before TJ comes home. Ironically, no one has offered to watch our snake for us:)

Snake Update!

Well......unfortunately, our son's snake escaped. My son was giving his snake a bath in our bathroom sink and lovingly put the snake back into the container. However, my son forgot to put the cover back on the container and when he came back to check on his snake two hours later, the snake was gone. He was devastated and cried all night long. We are 99% sure that the snake went down the drain. However, if it did not go down the drain, the good news is that the snake was basically the size of a pencil and will not get much bigger...so if it is in our house then it is basically like having a worm in the house. Also, we do have our fierce hunting dog (o.k. she is a wimp and quite small) but I am confident she can take on the snake....just not the cat that has been harassing her. Finally, his wonderful cousin has assured our son that he can get him another snake. I am not sure about that......

Travel Arrangements

I made our travel arrangements on Monday. We will be leaving on Sept. 17 and arriving in Ethiopia the evening of Sept. 18. We will be staying until Sept. 25 and returning home on Sept. 26. We had been thinking of leaving a couple of days earlier to take a side trip but decided that 10 days would be long enough. After this week, we will be leaving in 3 weeks! Unbelievable!

This is also my last week of the summer before I go back to teaching. It has been a lot of fun hanging out with my daughter these past few days. My son has been busy with sleep overs. He got to stay over at his cousin's house Sunday night and then he went to his other cousin's house on Monday and will be coming home today. He has also become the proud owner of a snake (yikes!!). I am told, by my sister, that it is a very nice snake. I am not sure there is such a thing but he has been wanting on for a very long time. So, we will see how that goes.....I am not really that good around reptiles.

TJ!!!

Here he is!!!!

Birth Certificate and Travel Date

We received TJ's birth certificate today! He is such a little cutie I can hardly stand it:) Our adoption specialist told us that he is "WAAAAYYYYYY cute". He really is and I am so excited to finally meet him. We also have an official travel date of Sept. 18. That is the date that we need to arrive in Ethiopia. We will meet him the morning of Sept. 19.

No News....

We did not receive TJ's birth certificate this week. I thought for sure that we would.....but what can you do. The wait to pick him up is taking a lot longer than I expected but in the world of adoption, you really need to learn how to be patient. I REALLY hope we hear next week!!!

Update

We did not get TJ's birth certificate but we did get an update on his height and weight. He now weighs 11.9 pounds and is 23.8 inches long. He continues to gain weight and grow so that is a great!