Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all! Despite most people's rush to pass Thanksgiving in order to rush into Christmas preparations, I love this holiday. I love making delicious food, spending time with family, eating the delicious food, watching the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade, and mostly stopping to reflect on all of the wonderful things God has blessed me with. It is so easy to loose sight of all the great things we have in our lives when we are immersed in a world of wanting more and more. I very often fall short, but I am striving to "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."
(1 Thessalonians 5:18) I won't list all that I am thankful for, but I will mention one thing. I couldn't help but check fedex this morning to see if our dossier has moved any more. I am happy to announce that not only has it moved, but it is ready for pick up at the final destination, Addis Ababa Ethiopia. I am very thankful for this. By for now.

Anna

Tracking our dossier

We have had such a fun time tracking our dossier to Ethiopia. So far it has traveled from Virginia to Tennessee to Paris and is now in Dubais, AE. We are so close.

Drum Roll Please

We are DTE today, Nov. 19, 2010. I get such a kick that God brings us such joy in the little things. This very important date follows a line of other important dates for our family. Nov.16 is our 2nd child's birthday, Nov.17 is our 1st child's birthday, Nov.18 is Brian's mom's birthday, and now today is a hugely significant date in bringing our 3rd child home. We received an email from our family coordinator congratulating us on all our hard work. We also were given a fedex tracking to track our package all the way to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. I decided to let any of you who are interested follow it as well (796471317492). We are now on a waiting list for a referral. We have one more great thing to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Now I get to put a date under our name. YIPPEE!!!

Anna Baker
11-19-2010 DTE

Miami Man Triathlon

What an exciting weekend. It started off great with us finally receiving our 171H, the last form needed for our dossier. We made a quick trip to Fedex to send it to AWAA, and then headed down to Miami for Brian's big race. There were a few bumps in the road along the way, but everything turned out great. J missed school on Friday because she was throwing up all night and morning. This was sad because they were announcing the spelling bee participants at chapel and she was very excited about this. We did get a phone call from her teacher later in the day to congratulate miss J for earning one of the three spots in her class to represent the school in the annual spelling bee. Go J! We are so proud of her and how hard she worked on this. We decided at the last minute to brave the 5 hour car trip to Miami. Although she was not feeling well all weekend, she did have fun hanging out with grandpa, grandmommie and G.G. She even enjoyed some birthday cake and presents! On Sunday, the kids hung out with the grandparents while BrIan's brother, Lowell, and I cheered Brian on in his 1st half ironman distance triathlon. He did so well. This was his favorite race ever and did awesome. All of his hard work definitely paid off. He hoped to finish in 5 1/2 hours, but did way better, finishing in 4:58:41. He had a blast, even high-fiving people during the run. What a goof. Well, I need to go plan for the kids birthdays this week, but have included some pictures from the race. Enjoy!

It's here It's here It's here!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The mailman saw Brain and I walking toward him and he grinned as he shouted out to us "It's Here!!!!!" WooHoo I am sooooo excited. Off to Fed ex we go. Ahhhhh. What a relief. We have completed our dossier. 171H and all. Yippee Yippee Yippee!!!!

Immigration Officer

Yesterday I received an email from our immigration officer stating that she had been out sick and just got back to the office. She also was very apologetic and told me that she would process it right away. Today, she called me and apologized again for the amount of time it had taken and told me that she had just processed our 171H and it was sent to us in today's mail. WoooHooo. She was very nice. Anyways, I asked her if it was ok to resume stalking the mailman and she laughed and said absolutely. And so the stalking begins.....again.