House of Hope

We were very impressed with the HOH. The facility is well taken care of, the staff is amazing, and the atmosphere is full of love. We were so glad that our little girl had been there for the past 3 months.

This is Tsegay, the director of the House of Hope. He is an amazing man with a heart of gold. He and his wife, Almaz, love all of the children and do a wonderful job managing every aspect of the HOH. He was so organized with all of the paperwork we needed while in country and took care of everything for us. What a relief because we were on cloud nine after getting Ruby, there was no way we could be worrying about paperwork! :)

This was one of Ruby's nannies that loved her so much.

The staff worked endlessly on all of the laundry.

These are the cooks in the kitchen. They were so friendly and always made wonderful meals.

This is Ruby laying in her crib at the House of Hope one last time.

This is one of my very favorite Bible verses and it gave me goosebumps to see it on the wall of the children's rooms. The Lord has a plan for each and every one of the orphans.

Robb and I kept saying how thankful we were that Ruby received such amazing care until we got to her. Later in the week we were able to visit the orphanage that Ruby spent 3 weeks in before coming to the House of Hope. The orphanage was nothing compared to the HOH. I will share those pictures later this week.

Funny stuff

We took Ruby to church for the first time yesterday and of course she was the center of attention. So many people have been praying for her for so long they were so anxious to love on her. A few people were amazed at how soft her hair is and several said, 'oh, I thought she would have curly hair', but we totally got a kick out of one church lady who very seriously asked if we had been able to communicate with her alright. A little confused I said yes. Then she went on to say how great it is that she has siblings who can help her with her English. Hello?!?! She is 5 months old...she DOESN'T speak ANY language yet. So funny. Robb and I laughed all the way home imagining this poor lady thinking we were trying to talk Amharic to her so she would understand. Bless her heart, but she sure gave us a good laugh. We knew we may be faced with some funny questions, but never thought about this one. So here are the siblings trying to teach poor Ruby some English. :) And here's a cute pic just cause Kerrie asked for one. :)

Donations for the House of Hope

Our agency's transition home, where the children go from the orphanage after being matched with a family, is called the House of Hope. We were given a monetary donation from our church to purchase some donations for the HOH. We brought along 2 radio flyer tricycles and another suitcase full of misc. items, (colors, bubbles, balls, frisbees, paints, paper, stuffed animals, snacks) and also bought some things while we were there. My mom also bought this great glider rocker to donate. Those nannies will be in Heaven sitting on a cushioned chair! Ruby and I even tried it out! :)Robb brought along some tools and put the trikes together as the older kids at the HOH watched from the doorway. It was so great to see their excited faces as they saw the trikes come together.

These were such a hit the whole time we were there. The kids were so good about waiting for their turn. Since we aren't supposed to take pictures of other people's kids, we couldn't photograph their pure joy. bummer! It was priceless!

Ruby loved the rocking chair!

And of course I will add a few more pics of our sweet girl. :)

The first time we saw her face

Here are some pictures of the morning after arriving in Ethiopia. This was the day that we had waited for for so long, the day we met our daughter.

The hand off.

FINALLY! I think she likes her mommy! Oh that face is so cute! She thinks her daddy is silly! :) I'm showing her pictures of her big brothers and big sister. We looked at this album several times while in Ethiopia and she would just stare at the pictures. Thank you God for this precious child!

Three of the 4 kids have come down with a flu bug so we are sleep deprived and barely hanging on....but life is good, we have all of our children home together! (Hunter is the healthy one)

We are home!!

I am so sorry that you have all had to wait to hear about Ruby. I tried several times to update my blog while in Ethiopia, but I could never get it to work. Thank you all so much for the prayers, they were felt. We had a very blessed trip and were able to come home early. We left Ethiopia on Friday night and arrived in Sioux Falls yesterday afternoon. We missed our other kids terribly and were so happy to be able to get home 3 days early. I will post a couple pictures of Ruby that my sister took and share more later. Of course we have so much to share about our trip and about Ruby, we are just tired and trying to get caught up on things at home. Our little girl is absolutely perfect and the transition went wonderfully.

We're off!

The day has finally arrived! We are off to get our Ruby. It is so surreal. The wait has been almost unbearable at times, and here we are just hours away from holding our Ethiopian daughter for the first time. Wow! Our suitcases are all packed and waiting by the front door. My mom is donating this wonderful glider rocker to the House of Hope where Ruby has lived for the last 4 months. There are 25 babies in the HOH and not one rocking chair. The nannies sit on plastic lawn chairs. This donation will be very appreciated. Thanks mom!! Kissing my children goodnight tonight was very difficult. I can't let myself think about being away from them, it is too hard. Being a SAHM, I am very rarely ever away from my kids. This will be by far the longest time I have ever been away from them. I have covered them in prayers and know they will be well taken care of while we are away. Thank you so much mom, Tonia and Corinne for watching our precious children while we are gone. It is such a blessing to have these 3 ladies, who love our kids so very much, taking care of them. Robb's brother-in-law Wesley, who is a nurse, will be caring for some of Hunter's diabetic needs. This is also a huge blessing. I bought small presents for Hunter, Brylie and Gage to open each day and we made a paper chain to count down the days until we come home. I pray the time we have in Ethiopia is wonderful, getting to know the people and the country. It is so important that we experience all that we can to share with Ruby someday. We will try to update as much as possible. Please keep us in your prayers.

THREE MORE DAYS!!

With only 3 more days until we leave for Ethiopia, I am busy making lists, packing, and loving on my kids as much as possible. The plane tickets arrived via Fed*Ex yesterday. Robb picked up our $260 worth of travel medications at the pharmacy yesterday, ouch! Our suitcases are almost full. We have one suitcase full of donations for the orphanage, so that leaves one suitcase to fill with things we buy in country. I am excited to get some Ethiopian dresses for Ruby and Brylie, some fun toys for the boys and some African decor for our house. I always want Ruby to be familiar with where she came from. Today I am going to town to try to get some things crossed off our list. I will probably end up making one more trip before we go. Tomorrow evening we are having a little birthday party for Hunter. He will have a party with his friends after we get home. We ordered his gift so he should get that while we are gone. It is all getting so close and I find myself incredibly excited, a little nervous (a third world country scares me a little), and sad that I have to leave my 3 kids. There are so many people praying for all of these aspects and I do feel completely covered. This will be an amazing journey that will have a lifetime affect on both Robb and I.

Holiday Weekend

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend. We were blessed with wonderful weather for the 4th. We took in the parade, food and fun at Robb's mom's house and fireworks with my family. Then yesterday after church we decided to head to Sioux Falls for the night to spend some extra fun family time with the kids before we leave for Ethiopia. Hunter's birthday is next Monday and we will be gone so we went to Chuck E Cheese's for an early birthday treat.

Waiting for the parade to start. Candy toss!!

Score! Just hanging out at Grandma Corinne's. We love the fireworks show at the Watertown Stadium. Fun at Chuck E Cheese's! Swimming at the hotel.

This will be a busy week at our house as we are getting ready to go to Ethiopia. We are so ready to have Ruby home with us! Our suitcases are getting full, the lists are getting smaller, and the kids' schedule while we are gone is filling up. As you all know, I really don't like leaving my kids. This will be the hardest part. They will be in great hands and hopefully the time goes quickly for all of us.

It's a first at the Arnold house!

Hunter was so excited to lose his first tooth. He couldn't stand that it was loose so he went up to his room and wiggled it until it fell out. As you can see from the picture he was quite proud of his accomplishment! :)

He carefully placed the tooth into his tooth fairy pillow at bedtime.

He woke up the next morning to a $2.75 surprise!

A little more about our baby girl

Today Ruby is four months old! Her birthday is February 27th. Ruby's Ethiopian name is Sifan. She was 2 1/2 months old in the referral photos and weighed 12 pounds. She is very healthy and growing and developing well. We are really hoping to get updated photos soon. She spent 3 weeks in an orphanage before coming to our agency's transition home, the House of Hope. We will pick her up at the HOH the morning after we arrive in Ethiopia. Right now we are planning on leaving Sunday, July 13th and returning Tuesday, July 22nd. I am hoping to finalize travel arrangements today. I have our suitcases laid out in Ruby's room and am slowly adding to them. This is all such an emotional roller coaster! I am so excited that we will get to meet her soon, a little nervous about the long flights, sad that we have to leave our other 3 children, and anxious about all that has to be done in the next 2 weeks. I am trying to keep my calendar to a minimum so I don't get stressed out. I want to leave feeling confident that everything at home is taken care of. We feel so blessed that we are at this point in the adoption journey. We are officially Ruby's family and we can't wait to bring her home!

IT'S OFFICIAL!

I would love to finally introduce to you Ruby Katheryn Arnold.

TODAY IS THE DAY!

Please say a prayer that we will get court approval and by the end of the day we will officially be the parents of Ruby Katheryn. I will let you know as soon as I hear something.

Great Find!

Here at the Arnold house we are starting to go a little green. I love the idea of reusable shopping bags and found a great set here. I purchased this starter set and absolutely LOVE them! They are durable and hold an unbelievable amount of stuff. I can fit an entire cart full into these 6 bags. It makes carrying in groceries so much easier. They aren't anything real stylish, but the practicality far outweighs style for me. If you are looking for some great reusable bags I would highly recommend these. Just curious, what types of Green things do you do at your house?

It's important.....

to be ready for anything!

We're getting closer!

We are 6 days away from our court day and about 3 weeks away from travel (if all goes well). The Arnold family is in high gear baby mode!

We set up Ruby's crib. We got out the baby car seat. And we SHOPPED!

I forgot how much fun it is to baby shop. Brylie and I can't go into a store without checking out the baby section. And because we were positive that we wouldn't have any more kids after Gage, we got rid of all of our baby things except for the crib, highchair and car seat. So, we have had to buy rattles, pacifiers, baby blankets, you name it, it is on our list. We still have a lot to get but moderation is important right? :) Can't wait to share her picture with you all next week!

It's my weakness

Caramel Frappuccino

What's your weakness?

Father's Day and our Anniversary

Yesterday we celebrated Father's Day and 12 years of marriage. We had a fun day as a family and have so much to be thankful for. Robb has been a father for almost 7 years now and I can hardly remember him before his fun daddy self. He is truly the best daddy I could have ever hoped for for our children. He loves our kids so much and it shows! The kids and I got him this fun fire pit for Father's Day so we spent 2 nights in a row making S'mores right in our front yard! Yum!

We had some friends over on Saturday night when we tried out the fire pit for the first time. It was a perfect night to sit outside.

Sunday was also our 12 year anniversary. Robb and I reminisced about the day we got married (the heat was almost unbearable) and each year since. We were married 5 years before we had children. This was God's plan not ours, we thought we were ready after just 2 years. :) It worked out perfectly and we are so thankful for those years we had as a couple. Our children have brightened our world and we consider ourselves to be very blessed people.