Turning 5 is so much fun!

We decided to do the fun cupcake stand instead of a cake this year.

She chose a Hawaiian theme for her party.

Brylie had her very first sleep-over with her best friends, Hannah and McKenna.

Many memories were made!

I can hardly believe my little girl is 5 years old! She is such a fun young lady and truly a joy to have around. We are so blessed to have her!

Thinking about our baby girl....

Since we have moved in and gotten settled our lives are slowing down, which is a good thing, but my mind now has more time to think about our baby girl half way across the world. Our agency has recently added another orphanage in Ethiopia, which brings the count to 5. Hopefully this means more referrals and less wait time. We do know that the Ethiopia program is becoming very popular with not only our agency but many others. This means that no doubt the wait times will increase. We should still be ahead of that though. Right now the wait time is averaging 3 1/2 months-6 months for a referral. We are just over 2 months now. All of this is consuming my mind lately, mainly because my arms ache to hold my precious Ruby. We are all anxiously waiting to see her sweet face. We were also just informed that the courts in Ethiopia will be closing from August 6 to some time in October. This is their 'vacation' and it happens every year. What this means is that if we receive a referral and they are unable to have a court date to proceed with our adoption before August 6 we could be waiting for several months to travel . Ideally a referral in May and travel in August would be awesome, but of course it is out of our hands and covered in prayer. Lots to ponder and pray about.

Easter Fun with the Arnolds

We hosted Easter dinner with Robb's family and had a wonderful day. Everyone brought food and it was really quite relaxing. It is so nice to finally have a house big enough to host family get togethers!

Thank you Jesus

More pictures

Here are some before and after pictures of Hunter and Brylie's rooms. The new rooms perfectly fit their personalities and they couldn't be happier with the outcome!

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE AFTER

2 Months Down!

We have reached the 2 month mark waiting for our referral. The time frame for a referral is still running at 3-6 months after turning in all paperwork. To think that we might get to see a picture of our little girl in a month is so exciting! Now that we are moved in we can start to get her room ready and prepare to bring her home. Each month is something to celebrate in this process!

We did it!

Finally, after 2 months of hard work, our remodel is done and we are moved in! Here are the before and after pictures that you have all been waiting for. I will just post of the kitchen today and more rooms during the week. We were able to get the countertop in Friday, moved on Saturday and Brylie's birthday party on Sunday. Today we are taking it easy!

BEFORE

AFTER

Worth Watching

Remodel update

I'm sure you are all wondering where the 'After' pictures are that I promised you. Well....there have been a few delays and our countertops will not be in until tomorrow, which has put us back a few days. It has been quite frustrating but in the meantime we have gotten a lot of other tasks done. The countertops will be the final project and move-in day is Saturday. We are having a birthday party for Brylie on Sunday soooooooo, we HAVE to get moved in and organized. We are more than ready to move in and get back on our regular schedule. The kids have had some really long days and late nights and we are all exhausted. Everything is really beautiful though and I can't wait to share it all with you! Just a few more days......

Happy 5th Birthday Brylie!

Happy Birthday to my SWEET, Shy, LOVABLE, Girly, sensitive, responsible, PRECIOUS little girl!

Favorite Photo Friday

I snapped this one before church on Sunday. I was pretty impressed that everyone was looking at the camera AND smiling! :)

To my precious Ruby: I don't know what you look like or where exactly you are or if you are even born yet. I don't know who is taking care of you. I don't know if you have a warm place to sleep at night or a safe place to call home. I wonder if you have little black curls on your head or chubby cheeks or a beautiful smile. I wonder if anyone is rocking you to sleep at night or singing to you as you are fed a bottle. I want you to know that although I know nothing about you, I love you with my whole heart. I pray for you daily. Your brothers and sister ask about you all the time and can't wait to show you your new home. Your daddy can't wait to hold his little princess and kiss your forehead. My heart aches for you. We are told that we may get to meet you later this summer or in the fall. The days seem so long. Until I get to hold you in my arms and look in your eyes and tell you 'mommy loves you so', I will be praying for God's hand of protection over you. He has picked you out for us and we know that you will fit into our family just perfectly. We love you precious Ruby. Love, Your forever mommy

It's crunch time!

The cabinets made it! They are already installed, but I am going to keep you all in suspense until the final reveal...hopefully by the weekend. Sorry. I absolutely LOVE our cabinets and can hardly wait for the rest. Our countertop will be here by the end of the week and the appliances are coming on Thursday. The carpet is being put in this week and Robb is starting on the kitchen floor tomorrow. The painting will all be done by sundown tomorrow. I have high hopes that we will be able to move in this weekend, but Robb is skeptical. Brylie's birthday is on Monday and that has been our goal move in time from the beginning. We'll see. I am trying to get things organized at our current house and doing some packing up. This week will be crazy busy so I won't be blogging much, but look forward to sharing the 'After' pictures with you all very soon. :)

Waiting for a sister can be SO hard!

Brylie came out of her room the other day with a full suitcase. When I asked her what she was doing she said, "I'm going to Ethiopia to get Ruby. I just can't wait any longer! I packed my toothbrush and my pajamas and even a stuffed animal for Ruby." I guess we're all getting a bit anxious!

Remodel Update

Our kitchen walls are painted this "nomadic dessert" color.

This room off the dining room is a chocolate brown.

The stairway turned out so nice.

The new railing upstairs

The living room is patiently waiting for some nice, new carpet. :)

Robb is building Brylie this closet for her room. She is thrilled about her new closet!

Since there was no fire escape upstairs, Robb made one in Hunter's room. (the outside windows were covered up when the addition was put on 15 years ago) They crawl out of this window onto the roof of the old house and down to the attic door and then throw out the fire ladder and climb down right by our bedroom. The kids think this is the ultimate in fire escapes! Robb even built a little platform for them to climb out on and a railing around it. Hopefully it will NEVER need to be used!

Yesterday my mom and I pulled out a record breaking amount of staples from the floor. Mom made it longer than I did. My hands were throbbing. Anyway, I will pull out some more today and tomorrow our cabinets and countertops will be here! WOOHOO! I can finally start cleaning and putting stuff back together. The next update pictures should be way more fun to look at!

A day of homeschool......

Okay, so you all know that I didn't send my kids to school yesterday because of the extreme cold. They are only 4 and 6 years old.....too little to be out in -24 degree weather. To add to that, on school days I have to make 3 trips to the school. I take them in the morning, go in at 11:00 to count Hunter's carbs and give him insulin after lunch, then pick up Brylie from preschool, then go back at 3:30 to pick up Hunter. So that is 3 times I have to drag Gage out in the cold also. Yeah, not fun! Also, influenza is going around the school. We all had our flu shots that apparently aren't working, so we have kind of been hibernating. Influenza with Hunter's diabetes would be a NIGHTMARE! It is important to keep him healthy.

So, what did we do on our day home from school? Well, Hunter completed a 10 chapter book that we had just bought the night before, we practiced counting money, Brylie and I did a lot of coloring, we read more books, practiced our counting, and just enjoyed our day in our warm home. That was actually the only day of school they had this week, so we are home for the rest of the week. Yeah, I'm one of those weird moms who really likes having all of my kids home! :) Today we will be working at the farm house. I will take some pictures to show you of the updates. It is coming together.

Brrrrrrr!

What does a mom do when she sees a forecast like this?

-26°F Feels Like -40°F

She keeps her babes home from school!

One Month Down!

Our paperwork has currently been in Ethiopia for 1 month now! We probably still have at least 3 months to go before getting a referral, but I will celebrate each month down. The wait is not easy, but it is such a great feeling to be in the countdown. We're really hoping for a referral the beginning of summer and travel to get her the end of summer. That would be ideal, but of course our trust is in the Lord. The only time table we are getting from the agency is to expect a child in 2008. Things change so frequently with international adoption, that is the only safe answer for them to give. Whenever we get her...the wait will be worth it! For today I am going to celebrate the first month down!

Happy Valentine's Day Sweetie!

My little reader

Hunter has always loved learning and it has always come very easily to him. When he was 16 months old he knew all the letters of the alphabet and would often pick out certain ones on signs or posters. He would amaze people around him. We would drive by McDonald's and he would point to the sign saying, "MAMA", meaning that was the letter that mom started with. So cute! He began reading when he was 4 and his teacher has now started him in the accelerated reading program at school. The Kindergarteners don't participate in AR but because he was reading so well his teacher thought it would be good for him. The teacher's aid takes Hunter to the library every school day and has him read a book and take an accelerated reader test on the computer. He loves this and has been doing so well. Today she told me he is at the 3rd grade level and she still doesn't know if he is challenged. We are very proud of him!

Remodel Update

The tape and texture guy has been REALLY slow, so we are still waiting for him to get everything textured. He is also going to paint the kitchen, dining room, and master bedroom. We are hoping he will be done with everything by Thursday.

We are also tearing up all of the carpet in the house and replacing it. I am VERY excited about this because the carpet was quite worn and the bid was less than we thought. Yay! As you can see we still have to get that border off. That is on my list for tomorrow. Ugh! We will then have the walls textured and painted.

With the living room completely empty the kids just ran in circles while Robb and I worked. I can hardly wait to have all the extra space.

Favorite Photo Friday

Tacos anyone?

Adoption News

Sorry I confused some of you with the adoption time table at the top of the page. The ticker is actually counting up from when our official wait time began. Our paperwork was sent off to Ethiopia on January 18th and that is when we were officially added to the waiting list. It is a great milestone and I thought it would be fun to see it count up and know every day that we are closer to our baby girl. Also....I think this would be a good time to share the name that we have picked out for our daughter. Unless we totally fall in love with her Ethiopian name, we have chosen the name.....drum roll please.........

Ruby Katheryn

Ruby is a name that we both fell in love with and Katheryn was Robb's grandma's middle name . So there you have it......what do ya think?

A successful Walk

Once again we had a very successful Walk to Cure Diabetes. We had 23 family members and friends that came out and walked for Hunter's Team. What a blessing! Our team alone raised $4000 for diabetes research! That was our goal this year and because of the generosity of so many of our family and friends we were able to meet that goal. Hunter is very loved and we are truly blessed. There were 500 people at the mall walking in support of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. It is such an emotional event because we see first hand all of the families that deal with this disease daily, just like we do. We are definitely not alone in these challenges. JDRF is working very hard to make a cure a reality. It is going to happen and I feel very confident about that. Seventy thousand dollars was raised this weekend at the Sioux Falls Walk. How amazing is that? That money will definitely help with the research needed to find a cure for Type 1 diabetes.