It has finally arrived!

Our I-171H, that is! This is the last piece of our dossier. The I-171H is approval from US Immigration to bring an orphan into the United States as our son or daughter. We were fingerprinted one month ago and the paper arrived today. We need to get it notarized and state sealed then we can add it to our dossier! We are thrilled be another step closer to Lil Ailor 2!

One Year Ago Today ...

... A court in Ethiopia declared little Simon Kebebe to be an Ailor! You can read about it here. We were just so thankful for the news because in the days leading up to our court date, other families did not pass through court and we were very concerned. So when the phone rang around 9:15 a.m. that morning, we were truly prepared for news that we would be assigned a second court date. But our case worker told us we had passed and we couldn't believe it! The relief and joy was overwhelming. And what a year it's been since then. From our travel call coming on April 1 -- about 3 weeks earlier than expected and an unheard of 2 weeks after passing court -- to our time in Ethiopia and learning to be a family of 3. It has been an incredible year.

"Cheeessssse!"

Sports Confusion

What? Don't you play soccer with a plastic bowling ball while wearing a hard hat and your pajamas but first stopping to check out your reflection in the oven window?

Simon is a very bright little boy but he keeps us laughing with his sports confusion. He cannot keep basketball, bowling, soccer and football straight! He is constantly mixing them up and it's pretty comical. I don't know what we'll do when baseball season begins! : )

Cousins

We are grateful to my sister-in-law Jennifer and our nieces Danielle and Emily for spending the weekend with us in Lafayette. They took great care of Simon while I had a scrapbooking weekend and Mark had to go to his work out and to work. Simon loves his Aunt Jenny, Dani and Emawee. He got to eat pizza, ride a few rides at the mall, stay up late, eat oreos and ice cream, and some good play doh time, too.

Simon requested that Emily read the bedtime stories on Saturday night.

A few weeks ago, our niece Caitlyn had a sectional play-off basketball game about an hour from here. We were excited to have a chance to see Caitlyn play because this is her senior year. We made a special t-shirt for Simon to wear to the game. He loves his cousin Kiki and cheered whenever she scored a basket -- which was a lot!

We were very proud to be part of Caitlyn's cheering section! They won the game.

We're so thankful that Simon has cousins both near and far who love him very much!