Non-update update and photos

Another week has passed and , well we have yet to hear about court. We are so  wanting a date in March!- Well i wanted a date in February....but thats not happening. In the mean time we are getting the house somewhat set up, and trying to plan out school for next year . I am in Florida for a conference and to see friends and family :) Anyhow, I have some time to post pictures- some of Sam, some of the house and tortoise.
Several are from my friend Manda's wedding.

Sam at Mardi Gras festival 

Dresses for K's birthday

Your next update should be....

I have been trying to carve time out to blog and record how we are doing as a family, how we are preparing for another addition- the goings on of our lives. However, I am just too busy and/or exhausted from all of the 'goings on'- that I just cant muster up the small amount of energy needed. We are busy and I think I may be reaching my breaking point. We have moved into a larger house, closer to John's work, on more land in a better neighborhood. I have not moved in over 8 years. This means I had eight years of stuff, of weird boxes and odd mismatched furniture, of two closets of clothes, two wedding dresses, tons of baby stuff. Add to that all the things Gabe, John and Sam have accumulated, and the animals' belongings, and just STUFF!!! Slowly, we are finding our new normal within our new house. We are still in the clean up phase of the old house and tying up loose ends and red tape for what happens with the old house; (long story involving a horrible appraisal and a realtor who was sick for the first three weeks of our relationship- and couldn't get the listing up fast enough)
Anyhow- the kids like the new house lots, as do I. We have a funky looking cute goose who hangs out by our pond- she has been slighted by the larger flock that comes and goes from our property. Anyhow- we call her Widget and shes spunky and funny. I hope she doesn't get mean; that's what I have heard about geese. We also have moved our big tortoise over- Isadora. Shes so cool- and friendly and *fast* for a land tortoise, plus our dpgs are frolicking about their new yard. Its a zoo. We have a great big shed and a smaller brick garden room so we are researching the possibilities of goats and/or a pot bellied pig :)
Ok other news- we should be hearing any day about court. We both spoke with our case worker with WHFC and she still does not get updates about our paperwork- which I am just having to find a way to be content with. However, shes thinking any week now we should be notified about our court date. The excitement is finally building and now that we have the new house- my nesting sense can take over. It was K's 6th birthday last week, so I went to a nicer consignment store and bought several dresses and outfits :)We are getting her bed room set up.
John continues a big commute to work- but its working out ok. Its his birthday today! We have had a very stressful event happen to John and Sam yesterday. John was pursued by a crazed driver who had a gun, a block away from a middle school, at 7:35 a.m. in the morning. This man shot into Johns car, while Sam was there- no one was hurt but we have all been really shaken up. It didn't really hit me until last night- when John was out with a friend to kinda decompress while i put kids to sleep. I woke up in the middle of the night and he wasn't home. I was in such a fog and just upset- this weird tension and frustration just took over. I couldn't sleep all night. Needless to say we are trying to move past this. The man got away. John was so concerned about the seeing if he was hit or, God forbid, Sam was hit- that he wasn't able to get a plate number. I am just so sick of constant gun violence - nationally, locally, affecting my community and now my family.
Moving on- I am in a busy time for school- research and presentations, papers are underway. I am prepping for my comps and dissertation proposal. I am also working with a new STEMs charter school that is opening this fall. New opportunities with this school are exciting to think about.
Sam is doing well in school- for the most part. Gabe is doing super well in school and fencing. He is working on his "nice big brother" skills- those seem to come and go. His MAP test scores were great. We are still not sure what school he will be attending next year- our new area has several lottery magnet schools, theres an interesting charter school down town we could go for or we can request a transfer to a more traditional elementary that several other friends attend. We have to work this out soon
....but for now- ssssssleep

Travel Prep Phone Conference

This has been an eventful week. I believe we were submitted to court- either this week or last. We are a bit frustrated that our current agency does not updated about when we were submitted to court, but rather said from this point on the next "update" we get will be for our actual court date. Part of me is kind of excited about the possibility of getting an email any day now to be notified....but realistically we may have just been submitted last week and then from there its a 6 week average, so its not "any day now" just yet. However, we were requested to attend a travel prep phone conference for next week! So that's a good sign.

Another interesting thing happened this week- I attended an interest meeting for a new Science and Math Magnet School. (Middle school). Being a doc student in curriculum/instruction, I was quite interested in this new endeavor. Plus Gabe loves science and robotics- and this school is a big contender for him. Being that he is in 3rd grade right now, we have time; which i am thankful for, since the school will just be opening for the first time this fall. Anyhow, I have been invited to attend/ be part of the curriculum development committee for this new school. I am excited about learning more and helping where i can. I believe there could be relationships built between the SC Science Academy and Sustainable Carolina and USC's College of Education. I would love to research how this STEM core model can also embed multicultural education in the STEM curriculum. So i am pretty excited about that

We haven't gotten pictures since mid October- i am hoping for some soon.

early nesting fever

This will be a busy semester- so much going on. Work (which ends in May because i am a teaching assistant at USC), courses, teaching, children, moving to a new house, selling old house, transition to new house, Ethiopia-court, comps for doctoral program and dissertation proposal for doctoral program. I have an antsy feeling that i need to get so much done right now- especially for K. All these school related and home related projects are things i need and want to get finished before she gets here- its my twisted sense of "nesting"- getting all these huge projects taken care of so when shes here things can be as calm as possible and it will be summer....the boys will be home, i will be home and we can try and find a new normal to our lives.....but for now my head is spinning

The Wait Is On for Court

I was told by my awesome case worker for Wide Horizons that our dossier was confirmed, sent and received in Addis before Christmas and that now we only should expect an update for when we actually get a court date. This is kinda awesome and weird at once. I would like to be informed that we are submitted to court- but i guess that's not part of their process. But she said from the DTE to court has been between 2 and 3 months on average. So lets estimate Dec 20 - DTE so the earliest we will likley have court is late Feb . I hope to have some sort of updates before then about the process (such as the birth family interviews and MOWCYA letters-) but i guess that may not be the case. .....so heres to about 6 weeks of waiting then expecting a big email/call about getting our butts on a plane. In the meantime we must expedite Sams passport- he will be going with us for court!!!
Autumn

Lucky 13

Happy new year all. We spent the eve's festivities at home, laid out sick, watching basketball and foot ball. Well I was actually watching sports, John was in and out of consciousness, as he fought off a 102 fever.- From Facebook:

 Its official- the sickies have been with us for one full week. Sam is better, Gabe is on the mend- but still has a horrible cough. John is the worst off.....we are pretty certain its the flu....i have had a constant low grade fever since Friday Johns has spiked to 102 a few times. Each day it seems the symptoms change....high fever with runny nose, now deep cough with lower fever and sinus pressure...ugh!!!!


Thoughts on 2012:
2012 was so hard because it was a year of growth and growing isnt always easy. Our newest son got repaired feet and can now walk without extreme pain. I made the decision to leave teaching full time in exchange for an awesome job at Sustainable Carolina. I have had more time for my boys. We have chosen to add to our family- and eagerly await more growth in 2013. A new daughter, a new home, a new school for Sam and i will be ABD by the end of 2013
*we did already add a new member, one i failed to mention- Ruby Mae, a super sweet rescue- and although she didn't work out with Meg's awesome clan in NC- we are so happy she is with us. She and my Boston Terrier are the best of friends and are constantly tearing through the yard, chasing and playing.

Sam has spent a great deal of time in PJs as hes battled the flu

Christmas excitement and sickies

Well Christmas has come and gone with much excitement from Gabe and Sam. I also feel that Gabe was disappointed to some degree because he creates delusions of grandeur and becomes to focused on gifts. We have had many conversations about this- but he still seems sooooo materialistic/gift driven and its starting to feel like i am nagging him or somehow upsetting him by explaining how this really hurts my heart that he is just so focused on what he 'gets'. Not to mention we are moving into a new house by February, in which he gets his own "living room"- which we just got a new couch for- but he doesn't see that as a gift. He wants a Nook or Ipad and Skyrim videos games- sigh....i give him a new bed and bedroom set (star wars) and he gets lots of gift cards and actual $. Not to mentioned he then complained heavily about the food i cooked and nearly refused to eat it. What the heck?!?! To top it off, his niceness to Sam is very weak- Gabe has little patience and treats him poorly at times. Of course Sam then retaliates because there is a tiny-tyrant hidden in this Ethiopian's body. Anyhow, we were all together, Sam had a wonderful time- Gabe had a pretty fun time on his new Razr scooter, and then got to go to his dads where he told me with lots of giddiness- there will be "more presents" UGH. I am thinking next Xmas will need to be lots different, but it will be K's first Christmas with us, so i am sure we will want to do alot for her....but maybe not. Any ideas on how to scale it all back and/or to enable our 9 year old to have more empathy and compassion? I really hope we somehow have the $ to pay for Gabe to come with us to pick up K. I think it will really be a life-changing experience.
Sam was caught up in the joy of new toys- he changed clothes like 3 times from being spider man, to chef to Buzz Lightyear. All of this fun masked his 102 temperature....which led to a crash out at 330- three hours of sleep...then back to sleep at 10pm all the way to 9am! But this morning his fever was gone! so happy. He did get medicine at like 2am- he never lost his appetite or desire to being a crazy-man :)

knee pads over pjs

Sickies creeping in while watching the Lion King....which is what he named his tiger- Lion King

Lion King tiger- meet Buzz Light Year