HE KNOWS!!!! HE KNOWS!!!!!!!!!!! HE KNOWS!!!!!!!!!!!

We mailed a care package to our adoption agency a few weeks back for our son. The agencies director's husband, Dave, went on this past trip to ET. (He is still there now.) He took the bag over for us. First we heard that his bags were lost in Dubai...

So all I know at this point, is that sometime in the 7-10 day trip that Dave is there, that Daniel Mamo will hopefully get it... we hope.. unless Dave goes to his orphanage BEFORE he gets his bags that were lost in Dubai...

I had a rough Sunday evening, (hit an emotional adoption LOW point) and late that night I emailed our wonderful Agency Director, Sue, to see if there was any word on Dave receiving his bags.... She said that Dave DID get his bags and that was all that she knew! So I am praying now that he has NOT already gone to our son's orphanage! I asked her that if she happened to communicate with Dave or if he gets a photo or anything, if she could please let me know.

I NEEDED it... It had been such an emotional day for me and I knew any information regarding the adoption of this precious child would be what I needed to cheer up! :)

She emailed me back Monday morning and said that she wasn't planning on speaking with Dave until she picked him up that Saturday night from the airport and not to expect any photos this trip. HO HUM. Bah humbug. Not the answer I was looking for, but we completely understood! Her hubby (who does not work in adoption), went on the mission to escort a child home for Sue, since she has been so many times recently...(Not to be our gift handler/photo/video journalist...) I so get that and felt silly for even requesting this of her! His mission was so MUCH bigger than my simple desire... So I picked myself up and tried to move along with my day. I tried to turn my attitude around, but was having little luck!

Later that afternoon I get back in my car and check my phone....

I have an email.. From Sue....

All it says is....

"Mamo knows and there are pictures!"

Those 6 words were the most amazing words ever....


On September 20th, 2010, he found out that we were coming for him! He was able to SEE us in a photo album that we made for him! He was able to see pictures of himself mixed in with our family photos! He was able to see a picture of his house! He was able to see a picture of his new room! He saw pictures of his new Mom and Dad! He saw pictures of Robby and Caitlin! He saw pictures of his new pets! He was told that we are going to be his Family!!! He was able to taste his mother's favorite candy (Hershey's Kisses!!)!! He got some new toys to play with and a few new outfits to wear...We sent the orphanage some DVDs (to hopefully help with his English...)!!!

HE KNOWS!! HE KNOWS!!!! HE KNOWS!!

It truly was the BEST day ever.. Never, have I ever, had that many LIKES and comments on my FaceBook page!!!

Wednesday morning Sue sent me the photo of him with his package. He is sitting next to the Orphanage director's wife in the picture. I was able to meet her on the trip. Mamo was very fond of her when we met him there. I remember how SWEET she was with him....and that made me smile!!!!

In the photo we received he is holding one of Robby's bouncy balls that we packed in his bag and is surrounded by all of his goodies. He is smiling, but honestly, I don't think he really understands what it all means. He is only 3 or 4 and he just arrived to the orphanage the day before we met him. He has never seen a child come into the orphanage AND THEN LEAVE. The courts in Ethiopia have been closed, so no one has come in and out of his orphanage yet.... He only sees more kids come INTO the orphanage. He has seen other kids get care packages, and probably heard that they were getting a family but I am just not sure how much he grasps that we are coming for HIM and what it all really means! I am soooo happy that he knows at least a little about us and I pray that his heart will be ok with the events that will soon take place in his little life! I pray that he will understand that we will love him and comfort him. I pray that he will be able to attach to us and will be able to love us back!!!

Payne Family Adoption Garage Sale Fundraiser - October 22nd and 23rd!

(OK- BIG money is coming DUE and we got to get back on this fundraising journey to bring our Little Daniel Mamo home from Ethiopia!!!! Please read below and let us know if you can help! :) For those of you who still want Katie's beads from, Uganda.... YES we are still selling them, so keep the orders coming folks!!! )

We are having a GARAGE SALE FUNDRAISER to assist with our adoption costs.

GOT STUFF?

We are asking YOU to help! If you are about to begin the task of turning your closets over or if you are about to make a goodwill run, would you please consider donating those items to our yard sale? We are going to need A whole LOT of stuff!! We are praying for a BIG yard sale that will yield BIG funds!! We are going the sale Friday October 22nd and Saturday October 23rd!We need STUFF and volunteers to help us man the sale! (Volunteer maybe a few hours of your time to help?- we will make if fun I promise!!!)

WHAT SELLS AT GARAGE SALES?

We NEED clothes, shoes, home décor items, bed linens, baby stuff, toddler and kids TOYS, bikes, FURNITURE, outdoor furniture, sports equipment, kitchen items, lawn equipment, tv’s, cameras, electronics. Nothing is too big or too small.

If you have an extra TV, camera, exercise bike, piece of furniture that is just hanging around but you don’t know what to do with and you are willing to part with it, please consider donating to a good cause?

The bigger items will get the bigger price tags, and we would really appreciate it.

Do you have a lawnmower in your garage, but you use a yard service… and have no real plans to ever use it again? Donate it to a good cause!!

Think outside the box for items you can donate...—one family told us they even had someone donate an old car to sell!

We are happy to collect ANYTHING that you can part with, so if you can help us gather some goodies over the next month or so that would be great.

****Listen when your friends tell you they are getting rid of something….and ask them if we can have it!!

Will you designate a box of “donate-able” items in your garage and begin to add to it over the next month? You may find that you have TONS of boxes to fill for us or just one!!

We are happy to come pick them up when they are full- our garage is ready to accept donations when you are ready!!!

Would be so kind to send this message on to some of your friends or neighbors? Feel free to post on your facebook page or send emails for us!!!

If you know someone putting their stuff in a consignment sale, would you ask them for their leftover items? If you have a friend who is having a yard sale, would you ask them if we could have whatever is left that they don’t sell? (More than likely they will pack it all up and drop off at goodwill, so would you please ask them to donate to the Payne family Adoption Fundraiser instead?)

If you would like to help us with the sale or have items to donate could you please message us to let us know??? That would be so great! Trying to figure out what we have coming and who's willing to help us with this fundraiser!!Thanks for helping us bring our little boy home from Ethiopia and for being a part of this amazing journey!!!



ADOPTION UPDATE:
This week and next week are BIG weeks for us! Our Dossier paperwork JUST LEFT all the checkpoints in the DC area and is now headed via FED EX to our agency! Ya Hoo!(Hallelujah!)

No word yet on our I-600 paperwork... But it's out there.... somewhere! Ha!

Our son will (hopefully) be finding out that we are going to be his FAMILY NEXT WEEK! Our AGENCY directors husband is in Ethiopia right now... and he is waiting on his bags to find him! They got lost in Dubai...Aye ya ya... So pray his bags reach him quickly!!!

We will also start writing the first wave of the BIG checks NEXT week!!!….. So pray with us that we will have enough to cover everything that is coming due!

Remember to keep checking our blog for our recent progress with Daniel Mamo's adoption!!! Save it under your favorites on your tool bar for easy access!! Praying that we get our first court date BEFORE the end of the year!!!

Blessings,

Philip, Gina, Robby, Caitlin and Daniel Payne

So HOW did we get from being a comfortable family of 4.... to a family desperately pursuing an Ethiopian Adoption?

Here is a little background to HOW this journey started for our family..... Our church decided to roll out a "Living a Better Story Campaign". We had an anonymous donor doante $25,000 to our church and they handed the money out to our congregation. Rules were to give it AWAY outside the walls of our church. PRAY over the money; mulitply it like Jesus did with the loaves and fishes and see what happens... IF you would have told us that day that with this $35 gift, we would go on a mission trip to Africa and adopt a child from there, then we would have told you that you were nuts, or we would have looked in the pew behind us to see who you were talking to.

This African adoption, or any adoption, or going on any mission trip was no way, not even kind of or sort of, on our radar screen....

This was God's plan and we are humbly following his desire for our family... which has NOW become OUR desire. This story was shared and featured on the Belmont University "Living a Bettery Story Page". "The Living a Better Story Journey" is now being rolled out to Colleges and Universities across the U.S. We believe this is an amazing way to get involved HELPING someone else less fortunate. It is a GREAT teaching moment for young people and families alike to share in God's glory.

We are fundraising the $30,000 needed for our son's adoption to witness to people that "God funds what he favors." We know this was HIS desire for our family and he is very much still multiplying our $35 gift, just like HE did with the loaves and the fishes. We also want to advocate for the Waiting Orphans all over the globe. There are 147 Million Orphans who need a FOREVER family. 147 Million that don't have anyone to tuck them in at night, or comfort them when they are scared, or tell them that they are loved. If you would like to see photolistings of some of these children from our trip, please contact me. I would so love to share with you some pictures of God's children that are desiring more than anything to be picked and to have the opportunity to feel your love. Contact me at Paynegina1@hotmail.com and I will be happy to get you the information on HOW to see these precious faces....

Here is OUR story that we submitted to our church and to the "Living a Better Story" organziation.....

The Payne Family’s Story
Posted on August 31, 2010 by admin
Here is our story.

Our names are Philip, Gina, Robby & Caitlin Payne. We have been members of Brentwood United Methodist Church (BUMC) since 2003. As Reverend Wright told us about the journey we were going to be a part of, I was nervous, trying to figure out what we would do to multiply our gift. We each took an envelope that morning, not knowing what to expect.

Three of us received a $5 bill and my husband received a $20. We discussed what to do with our money and how to multiply it.
We knew that we wanted to support Katie Davis with Amazima Ministries, who is a local girl from Brentwood, who now lives in Uganda, Africa. She is 21 years old and is a mama to 13 orphan girls and feeds over 1,200 kids a day in Africa. My family was so moved by her story and we knew we wanted to raise our money for her ministry.
We held a yard sale, collecting donations from our friends and neighbors. Our kids, Robby, 13, and Caitlin, 11, spent the $35 gift on breakfast items and sold breakfast at the yard sale. We raised $563. All of this happened in May.

The kids had such a great time fundraising for Katie and we were quite sad for our journey to be over. Our family had read Katie’s entire blog, and had met some local people who were adopting from Africa. My husband and I spent time reading and talking a lot to each other over our Spring Break trip (April), whether God was putting adoption front and center of our hearts for us to adopt. We began researching this possibility. I was much more on board with this idea than my husband. He wasn’t not on board; it was just a lot to process for him, and clearer for me.

After the yard sale, I spoke to my son about the possibility of us adopting to see what he thought. He was immediately on board – just like I was. We knew we had to wait and pray for his father and sister to get on board with this. The next morning, he told me that he had a dream that he had a brother and that he was dark skinned. I told him to continue to LISTEN to what God was telling him.

End of June, still waiting for my husband’s heart to “catch up” with mine, I found a mission trip through Ordinary Hero leaving for Ethiopia, Africa in three weeks. They were about to close the mission trip, but they had a few spots available. In 48 hours, I convinced my husband that I was supposed to go on that trip.

That was the easy part; the hard part was convincing him that my 13-year-old son was supposed to go with me. He finally said yes, and we began fundraising with a very short window for our trip. We raised $4,000 to go on this trip. Again, a pure example of where God kept on multiplying our gift. I began to watch my husband’s and my daughter’s heart soften to the orphans we were about to visit, halfway around the globe. We began talking to others who had adopted from Africa, who had a heart for adoption, and asked some of the real questions we had about what it is like to become a multi-racial family.

It was a life-changing trip on so many levels. We fell in love with this beautiful country and its people. My son and I watched God provide more than enough on so many occasions on this trip. We prayed for enough food, enough clothes, enough shoes — and he always faithfully provided. I am so grateful to have been part of this trip. There were 22 of us on this trip and it was abundantly clear that God had handpicked each one of us to be in on this journey together.

On the fifth day there, our morning orphanage visit didn’t work out. In Africa, itineraries can soon go out the door and that is just how it is. That afternoon, we had a call from an adoption agency director letting us know of a new orphanage that had just opened the day before where eight kids had just arrived. She asked if we could go and provide some clothes, shoes or a toy if we had enough and to just play with the kids. They had all just lost so much.

This was such a special day for us. I will NEVER forget it. You see, it is here on this unscheduled orphanage visit, that my son and I fell in love with a 3 year old boy. He had just arrived here the day before. His mother had died and his father was a rural farmer that couldn’t provide for him and had made the gut wrenching choice to give him up for adoption. I texted my husband that evening (yes, from Africa) and told him about the little boy. The text he sent me back was amazing. He asked me what we needed to do to get the little boy home to our family!!!!

The next morning, while I am still in Africa, he called and set up our first home study visit to pursue adoption. God had worked on his heart so swiftly, and he was as happy as I was about starting the adoption process. At last we were at the same place for what God was asking us to do! He told me when we returned that he knew this was God’s plan for our family!! We knew that we might not be able to pursue this little boy; we had just started our paperwork journey with this process. We knew that God had already selected a child for our family and we were anxious to get this long paperwork process going!

Amazingly, six days after our return home, and the morning of our first home study appointment, I received an email from the same agency director telling us that if we could move at lightning speed that we could pursue this little boy we had met on our trip!!!! What a blessing!

We announced our news on Aug. 7 to our friends and family!!

We need to fundraise the $30,000 needed for this adoption – again desiring to watch God fund what he favors. I keep hearing him tell me more than enough. I know that it is his plan for us to share our story through fundraising for this adoption, and by doing this we may open the hearts of others along the way. We desire to educate others about the orphan crisis that exists here in this world. There are over 147 million orphans in this world, who need a forever family.

Can you believe all of this started with the $35 gift? It is surreal at times. Africa and adoption was the farthest thing from our minds that day we took an envelope. I knew he had plans, but we didn’t realize they would be so BIG!

We want to thank BUMC from the bottom of our hearts. We want to thank the wonderful donor who made the Living a Better Story journey possible for our family and our congregation.

It has truly changed and is still changing our family! He is still multiplying that mere $35 gift and it has touched people we know here and people we met abroad. Thanks to God for always being faithful and showing us his Love in a way that we had never felt!

We invite you to read our family blog that chronicles this entire journey that we have been on. Visit our blog at http://paynefamilyblessings.blogspot.com.

Love in Christ,
Philip, Gina, Robby and Caitlin Payne

AT LAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The "D" paperwork is LEAVING Tennessee!!!

We have talked with many other adoptive families and have heard all kinds of stories of the Dossier paperwork.... it's the BIGGEST and MOST IMPORTANT document you prepare when you pursue an International Adoption. Some of the stories were how they knocked it out in "lightning time" and how "it was a breeze", "ya know no big deal at all"... to all out HORROR stories. Our journey was some where in the middle of the two, but closer to the "Oh my gosh, don't talk to me, I am loosing my mind, what did I do with that piece of paper" version. I know Philip is sooo glad that this paperwork found its way to the mailbox today. There was a LITTLE stress mounting between us this past week,(just a little, right honey?) and we both just wanted and NEEDED this journey to be complete. We finished our homestudy preparation documents in ONE week, so super overachiever like I am, thought THIS would be a cake walk. WRONG!

We practically had to do EVERY STINKING piece of our homestudy paperwork OVER. We learned A LOT about the notary process do's and dont's in Tennessee, we learned a lot about dates and signatures of dates,sworn oath wordings and I don't even remember what else!

Hats off to our girl, Sherry Cardwell, who is the sweetest gal and best notary this side of Nashville...She was sooo patient with us.... I THINK she is still talking to us after all of this! :) Let's just say she used a WHOLE LOT of ink from that stamp of hers!! :) Thanks again Sherry!!! You ROCK!!!

We had some documents that were done once, twice, thrice and lastly a 4th time. If I told Philip that he had to go back to Vanderbilt to redo his info one more time, I am not sure what would have happend!!! You know it's bad when your doctor office isn't happy to see you coming with another piece of paperwork for them to Fill out AGAIN!!... We are sooo glad it's ALL in the mail.

Please PRAY that it is all CORRECT and that it doesn't find it's way back to our home! :)




Caitlin and I assembled 4 sets of documents yeterday, making sure that each copy was the latest revison.... Man, I hope we got that right! :)




2 inches thick. Caitlin and I thought it would be FUN to measure this gigantor stack of paperwork for y'all to see! THIS is what we have been working on EVER SINCE we have been home from our Ethiopia trip (end of July). I AM an overachiever and those of you that got this done in a week or two are NUTS, LUCKY or something I shouldn't type!!(haha) :) Happy for ya, but man, I don't know how you did it!




This is the final COVETED State of Tennessee Seal that we got for the Power of Attorney and for our Dossier Cover Letter.... Gathering all of this paper was like a giant scavengerhunt! Got this today over my lunch break- that was our last and final piece of the HUNT! Had to get a county seal too, because of course, Tennessee is one of the States that requires BOTH!




This was my new friend, Ramona, who helped me get all of this paperwork into the mail and prayfully to the right people. By this point, my brain was fried, it was a zoo at Kinkos/FedEx(it was lunchtime), and I was barely able to fill out my address. I was so stinking NERVOUS I was going to do something wrong! Lord forbid we have to REDO anything because of my nerves getting in the way!

As I walked out the door of Kinko's I lost it! Tears streaming down my face!!! Of course they all knew that this was a monumental occassion for us--- I mean we were taking photos at Kinko's!! :) They were all wishing us luck and congratulating us.... I was a HOT MESS when I left there! I was soo happy, so relieved, so READY to get our little guy home! I think this was the equivalent of OUR FIRST ultrasound... We have seen him now, and we have done what we are supposed to get him, and so now we just PRAY that everything goes RIGHT from here on out. Tears of joy, my friends. Tears of Joy!

So here is what happens next (at least this is how I understand it) ( Lots of room in here for error folks- it's a LOT to figure out). Our paperwork went 2 places today. One set (originals) went to my "Assistant Stork" Courier service in Virginia, who will hand deliver it to the US Department of State and then later to the Embassy. Once everything gets Authenticated they ship the documents back to our agency.... My other package we mailed today contained 2 COPIES of the Dossier and went to our agency. Next week, our agencies husband will be traveling to Ethiopia, so he will take one of our copies over (while we wait for the Originals to be approved) and he will hand off to their people over there. They will begin to TRANSLATE our documents....soon to follow that will prayfully be the originals, once everything checks out and then we WAIT for the courts in ET to reopen. We THINK they are opening late September or the first of October.... Whew!If all goes well, then WE MADE IT!!! We were striving to have our paperwork sitting there, waiting on the courts to reopen!!! Ok, still we have to PRAY that everything was done correctly and we have NO corrections....Then once that happens we PRAY for the courts to OPEN so we can be assigned a court date. Also, we are mailing off the I600-A form in the morning- so let's hope we got that paperwork right too...

So next week our paperwork will be in ET (copies only), they will begin to be translated, our I600a will be sitting on someones desk AND our little Daniel Mamo will find out that we are going to be HIS FOREVER family!!! Next week is such a BIG week for our family!!!!!!!!!!! :) At last!!!! I know this is a LOT of work, but wow, he is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO worth it!!!

His name shall be...

After much prayer and many handsome name considerations, we have agreed to name our Ethiopian son:



Words from his American father, Philip and WHY the name DANIEL was given to this child:

I wanted to name our newest child after my Father, Daniel Payne. I told my parents that I wanted to name him after the greatest man I knew!! My Dad was the kind of Dad I always strive to be. He made time to throw the baseball around, he made time to listen to me when I had a problem. He made time to go camping out with me in boy scouts and taught me to love God. My Dad has gone through some very hard times and his faith in Christ has never waivered. He is a very kind and loving man and is a great role model for what a father's love looks and feels like. I love you Dad and thank you for everything.

His middle name will remain Mamo for now. We are hopeful to meet with his father to understand more of the meaning behind his given name of Mamo. We have been given 3 different translations of Mamo and we weren't exactly thrilled with a few of the translation's meanings, so we are praying his father may be able to provide some answers here. IF we find out his name indeed does translate to one of those meanings, it is quite possible that his middle name will change before we leave Ethipoia to bring the little bit home! :) We will continue to pray about it and see where God leads us. In the bible names were often changed and we want our little guy to have a stong name!

Daniel Mamo Payne.... We love you and can't wait to welcome you into our fold!

These are a few of my favorite things!!!!

HE'S GONNA FIND OUT NEXT WEEK THAT HE IS GOING TO BE PART OF OUR FOREVER FAMILY!!!!!!!

I took pictures of the inside of his photo album but I can't share with y'all just yet. I had enough pictures of him from our trip that I was able to put one of him on each page (1 of 4 pics was him) ( which is why I can't show the pics). This way he won't just be looking at pictures of the Payne family as we look now, but how we will be and how we feel already!! We thought it was important to weave him and out of each page- sharing things about him as we did with ourselves!! It really is so stinking sweet! When Caitlin and I travel back to see him for our first visit, we will be able to add photos and go through the book with him!!! Oh, don't know if I told y'all that, but the plan is next trip Caitlin goes with mom. Last trip daddy-o and I go to bring him home! That way everyone gets to see where their little brother is from and appreciate his homeland! ( Robby went with mom on the July Mission trip and met his little brother there!)

Here is what went in that bag----- Cars Pj's, Titans shirt and track pants, track shorts and shirt, Cat in the Hat DVD, Cars DVD, Elmo DVD. 2 sticker books--(Counting and Farm Animal theme), a coloring book, crayons, 3 CARS matchbox cars ( BTW, those are crazy pricey for a matchbox car), 4 of Caitlin's littlest pets (one that looks like Copper), 2 of Robbys matchbox cars, Robbys bouncy lightup ball, a seashell, a wooden cross we bought in Ethiopia, some of mom's favorite candy ( Hersheys kisses), some Sixlets candy and gum! That was all going in that ziplock bag! :)

I cant wait to hear how he reacts when he gets the bag of goodies!! I can't wait till he sees the photos-- and sees himself in OUR pictures!

I can't wait till he has HOPE that we are coming!!!

Rain drops on roses, and whiskers on kittens,
bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens,
brown paper packages tied up with string,
these are a few of my favorite things.....
When the dog bites,
when the bee stings,
when I'm feeling sad-
I simply remember my favorite things
and then I dont feel so bad!!!

Where God closes a door, he opens a window!!!

Well, today was full of emotions. I was sad most of the morning thinking there would be NO WAY that we would be able to submit our Dossier, as my overachiever personality wanted to do. We were NOT able to submit our paperwork today and it will now be sometime NEXT week before we can submit all that massive paperstack to DC... Ho hum.

I kept telling myself its all in God's time, not ours, but I couldn't help feel responsible for not having HIS paperwork in the mail on the way to DC today. I just couldn't shake it and so I called our agency at lunchtime(when I was hoping to be downtown collecting our county and state seals), expecting to talk with one of the wonderful workers at Celebrate Children and our Agency Director answered the phone. Let me first tell you how AMAZING it is that an Agency Director ANSWERS her phone. We didn't go with a large adoption agency, and the benefits of a small agency in our opinion are PRICELESS! Our Agency Director just got home from Ethiopia last night at midnight, yet she was at the office taking calls by lunchtime. Also, what I failed to mention is that when I woke up this morning and opened my email we had 15 pictures of our little guy waiting on us!! She is such a doll, and seems to know just what I need when I need it!

Anyways, she answered soooo many questions that I had about the paperwork and the travel process. We threw around some scenarios of WHEN our travel dates may POSSIBLY be and some new developments may just have us there sooner and him home sooner than we had discussed a few weeks ago!! Yay!!!

Start praying everyone that we may travel THIS Nov/Dec for our first visit to Ethiopia! There will be MANY things to pray very soon about so we will keep everyone posted....

Also, we still have to get that pesky paperwork (that I now loathe) on its way and off of our kitchen table! Our hands are tied for the moment and are waiting for some items to be re-notarized and to come in the mail from out of state in order to do so. So for the time being, we are moving on to the NEXT pile of paperwork and a VERY important package that we just found out about today that will go out tomorrow!

So, the BEST news that we got today was that not only what our travel dates MIGHT look like, but that our agency director or her husband will be going back to Ethiopia next week ! She told us we can go ahead and get in the mail to her some "items" for our little bit-- family photo album, some toys, some candy,dvd's a few clothes-- really whatever will fit in this 2 1/2 gallon ziploc bag. That won't be a whole lot we can send over, and she mentioned the MOST important thing will be the photo album!

Back to work I went and when I got home I found out my husband had went shopping.....

this is what I came home to--------------------









So how is all of that, gonna fit into this?






AND we still have to add a few toys and a photo book!!!

I think SOMEONE got a little excited today shopping for his little guy, don't you??? Funniest part to me is that Philip bought him a swimsuit and swimshirt. ??? Why you ask? I am still scratching my head on that one too!!!! :) Got to love it.

We will get the rest of his goodies tomorrow for his ziplock bag and now THIS has become the most important thing that goes in the mail THIS week! We can't beleive that next week HE WILL FIND OUT THAT WE ARE GOING TO BE HIS FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I so hope there are pictures to follow his getting our bag of goodies, and him looking at the HIS family album!! I am putting pictures of HIM in the family album too, so he will see that he is already part of our family!!! I even have one of he and I while we were in Ethiopia!!! I can't wait! It was a VERY emotional day, and it was sooo good! Our family is on Cloud 9 tonight! Watch out little man.... WE ARE ON OUR WAY!!!! :)