Fall Fun

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Father's Day

On Father's Day Sunday we spent the day with Angela's family.

Father's Day at the Toledo Zoo

We celebrated Father's Day with Scott's mom, dad and sister the Toledo Zoo. Lilliana had a great time at the new children's area and watching The Little People Live.

Lilliana's Birthday Party at School

Lilliana had a great time sharing her Birthday with her friends at Owens.

Lilliana's Birthday Party

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St. Mary's Festival

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Lilliana at Owens

Lilliana started at Owens this week. It is nice having her at the school with me. She is having a great time! Overall she is transitioning very well. Although, sometimes it is hard for her when she hears me or sees me, but she can't be with me because I am with my class. My students and the teachers are very excited that Lilliana is at there and she is getting spoiled. Two of the preschool girls have even named their babies Lilliana.

Ethiopia Update

Things are a little slow in Ethiopia right now. The Ethiopian Courts have been working to safe guard the Ethiopian Adoption Process. As of last week, a large group of children being processed in the courts for adoption finalization were listed as "abandoned". This prompted the courts to cease hearing cases involving children listed as "abandoned in Addis Ababa". The court is not failing these cases necessarily, it is simply investigating this issue right now. The court has so far not given any information as to how long this process will take. There is a possibility for some court dates to be delayed. Children abandoned in other areas of Ethiopia are still having their cases heard, as are children relinquished by family members and children orphaned for other reasons such as deaths of the mother and father.

But our agency has great news! They have 15 children/infants that they are working on getting ready to refer to families! That is a lot of children at one time. Usually we are lucky to hear of one or two a month. We still have awhile to wait, we probably have about 20 families ahead of us after the current referrals are made and at least four of those families are also waiting for two children.

Carnival Cruise

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Spring Planting

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Mother's Day

Dossier update

We got an email from our adoption agency saying that our dossier will be sent to Washington D.C tomorrow for processing and then it should be on it's way to Ethiopia next week. We will let you all know when it arrives.

And More Easter

After leaving the nursing home we went to Scott's mom and dad's to celebrate Easter. Lilliana, Madalyn and Kayla had a chance to hunt eggs again. Lilliana will be a pro next year and will be able to show her siblings how to do it.

More Easter

These pictures were taken at the nursing home of Lilliana checking out all of her Easter loot. We went back to the nursing home after eating lunch at Brunsons. Notice her digging to the back of her Easter basket to get to her Yo Gabba Gabba toys. There is also a picture of her with Aunt Gina and Aunt Tiffany.

Easter Sunday Morning

Lilliana woke up to find that the Easter bunny had left a trail of jelly beans. She had to follow the trail to find her basket. She would alternate eating a jelly bean and putting one in her bag.

Easter Egg Hunts

Lilliana had two Easter egg hunts. The first one was at Kenton Rehab and Nursing, where Angela's dad is for rehab, and the second one was at the Eagles in Tiffin where Scott's mom and dad are members. We were late for the one at Kenton so Aunt Tiffany and Uncle Mike went and got eggs for Lilliana to find. She had fun hunting eggs with her cousins at the hunt in Tiffin. The top pictures are from Tiffin and the bottom ones are from Kenton.

Gotcha Day

It is hard to believe that we have had Lilliana home for a year. The time has went by so fast and she is getting so big. We celebrated by going to Chuck E Cheese and then Lilliana got one of the gifts that we bought for her in Guatemala. This years gift was a backpack, which she had to put on right away.