I cant figure out the picture extraction but wanted to get a few up. I dont think these are suppossed to be shown until friday so dont tell.

social report

Well we got some more ipctures and they are cute. ive been waiting for thes for a long time. I need to figure out how to post them so stay tuned when i get some down time. On another note the people we know from phoenix that are 3 weeks ahead of us just got there travel date of April 9th. So basically there time line was court Mar 13(passed) then got a travel date 2 weeks later and they wanteed them there 2 weeks after that. We want to travel a week early so that may be as early as April 23. Wont be long now.

Max year 1

Went and saw a buddy Jeromy Cushing and his new baby girl. I have forgotten a lot about babies. His kid was born at 8lb 13 oz so she was just about the same size as our boys. Wow that is little. It was precious to hold her. Can't wait to have our new kids in our arms. I pulled out a video i tried to make 5 years ago and uploaded it to youtube. The music apparently wont play as it is copywrighted. It is hard to remember him so small.

Winter '09

We had a great winter. The weather in Phoenix was the best i can remember. I taught Max to ski. I tried to get him to snowboard but he wanted to ski like big Max and Uncle Rob. So I borrowed Max's old skis and headed up to Dear Valley. Park City has a deal called Quick start for out of state residence, you can ski free on the day you fly into SLC at any of the 3 park city resorts. That worked out perfect for us if it is free take 3. toward the end of the season Max got a little cocky telling me how only him and uncle Rob could ski backwards. It was fun and he did well. Ann even came up one time

I emailed our specialist the yesterday as i hadn't heard anything for a while. No news is good news but no news is also to quiet. Anyway this is what she said when i asked about delays or what was happening. the good news is we will hopefully have some more pics in a week or two. We have also met a couple in Phoenix that are adopting from Ethiopia using our same agency. They had their court date on March 13th and passed. They haven't been notified as to when they will travel but we'll maybe be able to gauge our travel based on them. This will be their second adoption from Ethiopia. So 5 weeks after April 3 puts it around the first part of May.

Right now everything is looking good for you April 3rd court date. We have been receiving social reports about a week before the court date so hopefully next week we will receive your social report for the boys and you will have lots of new pictures to look at. J
Right now we continue to see families travel about 5 weeks after court approval. It’s been taking about 2 weeks to receive the birth certificate and about 3 weeks to travel. After court approval the court decree and birth certificate are being issued and received, there is a final medical exam of the children at the Embassy, Embassy appointment is set, and the passports are obtained.
Although we are still currently seeing 5 weeks from court approval to travel there is the possibility this timeline could change with new TB testing requirement that the U.S. Embassy will be putting into effect. We just recently learned of this new requirement and at this time we do not know if or how this will affect your case. The TB testing will be a requirement for the final medical exam for the embassy appointment, and can only be done by the panel pediatrician, IOM clinic. We have not been advised how this will all play out yet. We expect to have a bit more clarity over how this is going to be completed over the next couple of weeks or so...we just need to see how the embassy is going to implement this and then we will hopefully be able to better answer questions. We know that the Embassy doesn’t want children to wait any longer then they have to so hopefully the process will have a minimal affect on timing.
Also, we have learned that the Embassy is now going to assign agencies two dates a month to process children through for visas. However, the Embassy has stated if agencies need more then two days a month to process children through they will add additional dates when needed. So at this time, we do not believe this change will affect the process or timeline.

Lucy

I just learned about the exhibit in Seattle last week and this is the last week it is going to be in the States. Max was off school on Friday so we met my mom in Seattle for the day to go see it. Flying free is nice. This exhibit is of Lucy and Ethiopia. The first half of the exhibit was about Ethiopia. It is very closely related to stories in the Bible. They think that it is where the garden of Eden was. They claim that the Ark of the Covenant is there etc. it was very cool. Max liked feeling the difference between a bone and a fossilized bone and fossilized dinosaur poop. The second part was about finding Lucy who was one of the first animals to walk upright. they found her in Ethiopia and believe that she was 3 million years old. The neat thing about the find is that over 40% of her skeleton was discovered. It was really cool to see. After Max went to Grandmas house for the weekend and I came back to Phoenix. You forget that the rest of the country isn't 78 degrees in the winter.

Max's song about his new brothers

I'm trying to figure out this video thing and you tube/blog thing. It was a good thing i was hired for my body and not my brain. so this may not work. Any way this is on the day we found out that we were the proud parents of twins. We ran over to Max's school and picked him up early and this is the ride home. I think we were all doing a song and dance.I don't know how to edit or make all fancy yet But his song is kind of funny. I feel kind of like when Ann was pregnant with Max where i couldn't wait for the next Dr. apt. I am as excited about getting the boys as waiting for Max to be born and some of you know how that was. following the daily growth chart emailing updates, tape recording heart beats, Forcing Ann to listen to classical music 24hrs a day, giving her a time to drink a certain amount of water each day. Basically just obsessing. Its kind of the same way now without being close. everyone i talk to say the care is unbelievable but it is hard not being there.

What an orphanage is like

Monthly weight and wait

We got our monthly weights for the boys

Fetene

Now weighs 3.65 kg which equals 8lb 1oz
he is 52.5 cm which is 20 1/2 in

Wesegn

Now weighs 4kg which equals 8lb 13oz
he is now 21 1/4 in

In talking with our agency Ethiopian babies gain weight a little slower than American babies. She said 1/2 to 1 pound is normal. They both gained a pound which is great.

I also heard a rumor that the 2nd judge hears adoption cases that was on maternity leave is back so hopefully that will help their workloads and help our wait time. Our case is still scheduled for April 3rd and we will know a lot more info then. Until then the only updates we get are the monthly weigh ins or if there is a problem so all is good. Sure do wish we would get some pictures in the monthly update.