Praise God

Our passports (with visas) have arrived! Five days until we're on a plane to our sweet baby boy! Can you tell that I'm a bit excited?!?

Update on our visas

According to the tracking number that UPS gave us, our passports are on their way to us and should arrive on Monday. Oh, Happy Day! I still won't feel completely relieved until I have them in hand, but for now, this is awesome news! Good thing because we leave in ONE WEEK!!!!!

My baby is 30 weeks today!

What?!?

I was just doing the math, and Aidan is 30 weeks old. How is that even possible? He was only 10 weeks when we first saw his cute button nose, chubby little cheeks, big, coffee-tinted eyes and smooth brown skin. Twenty weeks have passed since then. Twenty weeks that I haven't been there to hold him and kiss on him and tell him what a miracle of God he is and how desperately his father and I dreamed of a child with a cute button nose, chubby little cheeks, big, coffee-tinted eyes and smooth brown skin. Oh, how I miss my baby boy!

More panic and drama

So the courier went to the Ethiopian Embassy to personally see that our passports were stamped and ready to send off. I guess he didn't actually watch them being mailed off, because THEY'RE STILL THERE! UGH! We've been able to track the package because we went through UPS and after stalking their website with no new information, we emailed the courier. Liam practically begged him to please help us get our passports ASAP. We leave next Friday! The courier went back to the embassy, and sure enough, there were our passports just sitting there as though we have all the time in the world. Long story short, he's mailing them today and says that we should have them by Monday. PLEASE pray that this will be the case. If not, we're going to have to look into cancelling our flights! They weren't cheap and we can't afford to throw away the money since we'll need it to book future flights. I think I'm going to be sick. We mailed our passports and visa applications more than a month ago. The Embassy's website says that it take 2-3 days to process applications. REALLY?!? This is WAY too close for my comfort.

A bit of a panic...

We sent off for our visas a month ago. Holt recommends using a courier, since you have to send your passport with your visa application. You can get your visa upon entering Ethiopia, but obviously you can't fly without your passport. We decided to get our visa before we left, because we thought it would be one less thing to do at the airport AND we decided not to use the courier, because we have several friends who used UPS with no problem and had their passports back within two weeks. BIG MISTAKE. So, two weeks before we leave and we still don't have our visas (and more importantly, our passports). A huge panic!

We called the courier that Holt recommends and Praise The Lord, he's going over to the Ethiopian Embassy first thing today and hunt through their stacks of mail until he finds our passports. He said it only takes them 5 minutes to stamp the Visa on your passport and then he'll have them on their way back to us. It's costing us a bit more than if we had just gone with him in the first place. So, moral of the story for all Holt families. If you are planning on getting your visa before you leave for court, just break down and go through the courier. Yes, it's a bit more expensive, but after this happened to us we learned of several other families that this has happened to as well. Believe me, the extra expense is well worth the peace of mind.

On another note, we have all our vaccines now. I am taking the pill for Typhoid now and will start the Malaria pill two days before we go. Liam, who already had the immunization for Typhoid and is on a different Malaria medication, started his Malaria pills yesterday. Everything else we got in shot form on Valentine's Day- nothing says "I love you, honey" like a shot in the arm. :)

Less than 2 weeks till we meet our precious little Aidan!

When it rains, it pours...

Only in a good way. We just got two new photos of our little prince~ and he's wearing BLUE! He's getting so big and his hair is just starting to get full and curly. He has the biggest chocolate brown eyes and the most kissable little lips. In the pictures that we received last week, his eczema seemed to have cleared up, but in these most recent photos (taken at the end of January) I noticed a few spots. So, if anyone knows of a good eczema creme or treatment, please share. Both my niece and nephew have had eczema, so he's already taking after his cousins. :) We leave in two weeks! I can't wait to finally hold my baby boy and kiss his oh-so-sweet little face.

A sneak peak

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!



I received an early Valentine present from our adoption agency when we got updated photos on our little man last Thursday. He's adorable, and even cuter than his referral pictures led us to believe. He has the biggest brown eyes and the cutest little button nose. He's absolutely perfect from his curly little head to his chubby little toes. The funniest thing is that he's wearing a pink shirt with flowers on it. He looks great in pink, not so sure about the flowers, though. I'm sure he'll love us showing these photos when he's 15.

We're in love and can't wait to finally be united with him. Two and a half more weeks until we see our little boy for the first time!

*If you would like to see his picture, please send me your email and I will be happy to send it to you so that we can both gush over what an absolutely wonderful child God has blessed us with. :)

Two Cuties

Just sharing more pictures...

Here's a new picture of my neice, Ava, with my husband. Isn't he going to be an awesome daddy?

And one of my favorites from the day before Liam returned to Afghanistan in July 2009.

One month from today...

We'll be on a plane headed to Ethiopia to finally see our sweet baby. We can't wait!