Just found these pictures - Awwwwhhh

I was browsing through our AAI snapfish directory and these two pics were taken by Merrily, our director. What's funny is that it was under the folder 2/2006. I thought my Amira didn't get to the orphanage until January of 2008. If that is the case, my little princess has been there longer than Biruk, almost 3 years. She just looks so delicate. I love that little girl so much and I am so thankful I found a picture of her that young. Now I am really curious to find out when each of them got there.

Leaving in 2 days

Hm, another girlie shirt for Biruk. Can't wait to put my clothes on him

Today I have the day off from work so I can do my last minute shopping for the trip. I am not sure how the emailing and blogging will work while I am in ET. I surely will try if I can. I am not bringing a laptop. Also Kevin said he would blog for me. Ha, we will see, he has never touched my blog, but I told him how important it was to me so my friends know that we are all okay over there.., we will see what happens.

I really, really can't believe this is for real now. I will come back home with 2 children, one on each hand. So awesome.

I am currently returning on Jan. 17. You can see my ticker to the right in case if you wonder. Of course I gave myself extra time for the childrens' visas but hopefully those visas come back earlier. If not that's fine too, I am prepared to stay longer or shorter as long as I have my kids.

Email from Cindy

I love getting emails about my kids. Today I received an email from my friend Cindy and she told me that Biruk is quiet popular and her little Zene really tried to find him to give him a sticker. She also told me that he helped out the nuns with the baby formula and that he is a helper.
She did tell me that Amira seemed sad but she told her her mommy would be there soon. I have now heard that from more than one person. I think she really, really needs me to love on her like crazy. I am the true mommy for what she needs right now. I love loving little girls.. Does that make sense?
It is kind of interesting though. Pretty much everyone has the same story about Biruk and his personality. But for Amira, the story is different. In the beginning I have heard she is sassy and talk her Amharic away. But lately everyone that has met my princess has said that she is meek and quiet and she just likes to be loved. Actually when my friend Joy went to visit her she almost walked away with her had Joy not put her back at the orphanage.
Hm, it really doesn't matter, I am just anxious to find out for myself what my kids are really like.

This Weather Here

My friend Kathy had this picture up today on snapfish so I cropped it because there were 2 other boys in the picture and I don't know where they are in the process. I love this picture. Of course, Kevin's first reaction was, ugh he is wearing a girly sweater but we know they wear whatever they can find. But really he is wearing a true girl sweater. I just am so in love with my little guy and can't wait to put my hands on him. I feel so amazingly blessed that God has put him aside just for our family but especially for Kevin. I also am amazed how protective he already is over his sister Amira.

Now to the weather. I really can't believe we still have power. We are now up to 6-8 inches but its freezing rain coming from the skies. I know this is all in God's timing when I get to Ethiopia. My forecast does not look really good for next Sunday and Monday. Please pray for my travels if you could please. I just cannot wait anymore to get to my precious children.

Tagged by Chris

I have been tagged by Chris. This tagging game is easy. You need to go in your picture folder and take the 6th folder and the 6th picture and then post it and say what it is or what meaning it has. I am going to tag Andrea G., Leslie, Crystal, Amy, and Kelsey.

I only have five folders but this one below was my 6th picture. This is Anastasia. I had a relaxer/straightening perm done on her. She has Autism so she can get very obsessed with her her. When she was young she used to cut her hair all the time or just pull it out. Now she is 22 and she is finally letting her hair grow. It has been her wish all her life she just couldn't control it when she was younger. She wants to have the longest hair in the family and nobody can have longer hair than she does. She keeps saying "I want my hair to grow to the floor". So that is my story.

County is closed

Hm, I guess I wasn't joking last night about our weather. Today, Pierce County is closed! I have a 3 day weekend but today's work day will be taken out of my vacation time of course so obviously I have to return a day earlier as planned from my family leave with the children:(

Kevin went to the mountains with Danica to snowboard and I am home with the girls. We will have lots of fun right here baking, cleaning, and playing in the snow.

Winter Wonderland

Ha, some of you might think this little snow is funny because I know this isn't much snow for some of you. Kevin is from the East Coast and I am from Germany. We both used to get bitter cold, snowy, icy winters. We know what true winters can be like. Anyway, here in Washington State schools close, cars are crashing everywhere, it's just hilarious to us. Also I think our State really doesn't have the equipment for serious snow. We do get excited when it comes but it never lasts but a day or two. The kids here go crazy. Since we are a rainy State, the next day we are usually hit with power outages and stuff if the snow hit pretty good. Anyway, today was nice, we had black ice, it was freezing, it's still snowing so our County Executive just let us go home at 3pm. I drove home, started dinner and baked lots of cookies. I just love being home and taking care of my family. That is my favorite job. I only hope that this weather will go away soon because I am leaving next Sunday. Please pray for a safe departure from Washington State and the East Coast. Our airport is actually closed tonight because of the weather... Figure that.. The pictures below were just the beginning of the snow. We now have about 4 inches. I hope for no power outages tomorrow. I can handle the snow but I can't handle no heat. We are so blessed in this country with so many things, especially water that we take for granted every single day.

11 more days and counting!!!

Really need advice

Sorry I sound like a broken records; I know I have asked this question before. For those of you who have little kids like 3 and 4 year olds can you please help me? I have 2 different foot tracings of my kids. Amira is 8 and 9. Biruk look like a 9 and 10. Still waiting for one more tracing to come in the mail. I bought Amira a size 10 shoes. That is one size up. Does is sound right that at the age of 4 Amira could have a size 10? These shoes just look so big to me for her size. Could she just have a tiny body and huge feet? What size do they have? And what did you do when you picked up your kids?

Biruk will get a size 11, he is just a little bit bigger. Honestly I really don't want to buy crocs because I don't like crocs but that might be the only thing I could get away with to be fair to the sizes. I am just worried none of the shoes will fit.

Dreaming

Ever since both of the kids finally made court, I keep dreaming and dreaming about them. It's so sweet and precious. I love going to bed now. I really hardly ever dream. Before I had sleepless, restless nights when all these uncertainties were going on. Kevin keeps cracking up at me and he thinks his precious wife is finally coming back to life! 17 more days!

So little time, so much left to do

It's hard to do everything if you go to work all day and than there are only a few hours left in the day. Family time, baking cookies, cleaning, gift shopping and so on. I still haven't finished the kids room ($$) and I know they don't care but just the bare necessities aren't getting done. Amira still needs her mattress. Biruk's bed is all done, including the mattress. Now I am working on Amira's side piece by piece. I pray that it will be done before I leave here. I can't trust Kevin with the bedroom. I think I have a half suitcase left for myself so I gonna have to see what I can bring. I also still have to buy some comfort foods. I'll get it all figured out.

To be honest, I am really excited I am stuck in Ethiopia for almost 3 weeks. That will give a great time to really bond with my little ones. I am so looking forward to it, just them and me and no one else. I know I shouldn't think ahead of time but the thought of me only having them until February 16 all day and then I have to go back to work makes me wanna puke. Before I became a Believer, I had to be the tough career, just had to work. Now I want to stop working so badly but that is just impossible at the moment because Kevin is in college full time. Keep dreaming Andrea:) But I am so thankful that I can finally pick my kids up and that God will give me the time that I have to spent with them even though it will only be so many hours each day, really I am jealous of Kevin because he gets to have more time with them than I do. I hope Amira is not going to start acting like a boy being around him all day.

This is not intended to be a negative post, I am really grateful to be able to have a job and feed my family and I am so thankful that God is finally granting me my precious children in his own timing. I just wanted to voice how badly I want to be a stay at home mother. Kevin and I working on it. When he is done in 3.5 years we will just swtich places were I ought to be a long time ago.

Best Friends Forever

Zena, Amira, Eden

This is one of my favorite pictures. I have it enlarged at my house and at work. With the permission of the moms of Zena and Eden, I would like to introduce them. It's really funny, I don't know how you feel but when I got to chose from the AAI video, those three were my absolute favorites of all the girls. Erin can attest to that. Now I am friends with both of their moms and our kids are coming home very close together. Actually we were all supposed to travel together but Lisa and I didn't make court again in Oct so Cindy is on her way today to get her precious Zena. Yeahh Cindy! For some reason I just think those three are really good friends at the orphanage. I am not sure when Zena and Eden got there but they were there when Amira was there. They have been together at least a year. I get to travel with Lisa to pick up our kids together and am so looking forward to that. I also really want to travel with Melinda but I am hoping to catch up with her in Ethiopia. We share many of the same passions and I think have a lot in common.

I know there a little boy named N. at the orphanage that is always with my Biruk but I haven't figured out whoelse is really his good friend. I surely will ask SR. L when I get there.

Family tradition continues

Yeah, we got our fresh cut tree tonight. We don't like articial and never will. We like how the whole house smells like pine. Danica came home from college so she could help pick out the tree. She is so picky all the time; the two of us always end up fighting over which tree because no one else cares but us what the tree looks like. Ever since she was very small. We then all end up going to Starbucks afterwards for some hot chocolate. But it was so much fun. Well tonight may have been the last picture before we are a family of SEVEN. YEAHHH. Lets keep it growing. See why we need a boy in there?? Poor Kevin.

Danica, me, Anastasia behind me

22 Days and Counting

This was the first picture I ever received from a parent of the kids together. I never forget this day. Thank you Julie Armstrong! I don't think you realize how much joy you brought to my live that day.

I will leave for ET on Dec 28 and have my kids in my arms on Dec. 30. Wow. I just can't believe it. Okay so I am already stressed out because I have to get my Christmas tree (tonight, family tradition, fresh of course), decorate the house, buy a few presents for the kids, and have to pack. My head is spinning because I really can't think about Christmas right now (I am talking the dumb commercial Christmas) except for picking up my kids. I had already packed up the kids 2 months ago but as I was going through their suitcase last night and I noticed I had packed too much. I can only take 2 suitcases because I am traveling alone. So I have no clue what I am going to do. I also need to bring some toys and blankets because I understand it gets cold at night. After all I have to plan on being there for almost 3 weeks. I am stressing, I need to calm down or I am going to give myself a heart attache.

This weekend I need to concentrate on my family at home and get that all in order. I think once the house is all decorated and they are ready for Christmas then I can focus back on my trip. Oh and I have to bake cookies with my girls. It will all work out.

Yeahhhhh 22 more days!!!!

IT IS FINISHED!!!!!! HE IS MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE

With a humble heart and so overjoyed, I can't begin to describe, I "FINALLY" like to announce my amazing son Biruk Isaac Hill. He became my son on paper this morning, on December 5, 2008. It is hard to fathom that it is true at last and I am the proud momma of Biruk and Amira. How I have longed this moment. I am so thrilled to finally add a “boy” to our family. It was long, long overdue, especially for my husband Kevin. From what I understand is that my son is all boy and that is what we need in this house. Girls are overpowering this place.