New Asher Pictures!

Here are our first pictures of Asher COLE (still officially Mussie Cole)!

What a LOVE! Man, I cannot wait to squeeze him and just touch him. Did you notice the "tag" around his ankle? It appears to have his name on it. I am sure it has an extremely practical purpose and I get that, but it kind of rubs me the wrong way.... He's still amazing though, tag and all. It warms my heart so much to see his big smile. He seems so happy and I think he is going to fit into this Cole clan perfectly!

Julie

Ramblings.

So, I think I have relieved a little stress over the last couple days. I have scaled back a few things to make them more manageable. Also, probably 50% of stress for me is being unplanned/unprepared. So, I have been getting more organized and trying to get a game plan. I have about 50 "to do" lists flying around the house.

I have also been plugging away at my sewing. Ahhh...sewing. I really do love to sew (under certain circumstances). I also love to make things for my kids. To me it is a special thing to have something hand made by someone who loves you. I hope every Christmas each of my kids can get a little something special made by me. This year has been a little heavier than most. I obviously can't talk about Christmas on here and presents for the two kids I have that can read, but here's what I am doing for the 3 little ones.

**I made crayon rolls for them (and a cousin) that turned out pretty cute. (I am hoping to post pics of my completed projects soon). They look like this: http://www.skiptomylou.org/2007/04/25/on-a-roll/ Mine are a little different, but you get the idea.

**The last couple days I have worked almost exclusively on a play mat for Gee. It is one of the cutest things ever. Concept wise it was easy, but it ended up being very time consuming. It is a mat that when unrolled has a whole town with roads, etc. He can drive his cars all over the place since that seems to be his favorite pass time lately. When he is done it rolls up and snaps shut. (Let me say her that I LOVE my snap press. I bought it for Asher's diapers and I am using it for everything!) I also bought him some little wooden cars that I am going to make a pouch for. This ended up being the priciest gift for him. The fabric alone was $45 (I had extra though that I am making an outfit for him with). The little wooden cars were expensive also. I think he will love it! Here's what I patterned Gee's playmat after: http://jcaroline.typepad.com/jcaroline/2008/07/merryville-play.html

**The three little guys are getting a playhouse from Santa this year and I think that will be the next "to do" on Santa's list. It is made out of cloth so it folds up small and then it fits over any standard card table. I am going to make ours fit over a wood table that Grandpa Hidinger made for us. It is a little bigger than standard card table size and I am hoping it will fit both. Here's an example on Etsy (I love this place) of what I am going to make, although it probably won't be quite as elaborate. http://www.etsy.com/shop/missprettypretty?section_id=5577944

**Besides the little kids, I have quite a few other gifts I really want to make if I have time.

Lately, I have also been tackling the stuff we need to do to get ready to go to Ethiopia. I can't make travel arrangements until we ok Asher's new birth certificate, but I can do a few other things until then. Right now I am trying to be sure we all get the immunizations we need. I think it is going to be Leah and I traveling and we will both need Hep B (Leah may have already had this) and Typhoid. All 7 of us are getting the Hep. A vac. It is taking a little time to organize this and to find out exactly who needs what. I am also pulling together all the prescriptions/medicines that we need to take. I thank God for Chrissy. She is pretty much taking care of all the over the counter medical needs we have, as well as working with the doctors for the prescription stuff. It is a pretty extensive list and I am really wanting to take as much as I can to be as prepared as I can.

Oh, another thing I am doing to relieve stress is trying to get all my Christmas done now. I am about 85% there. Which is really good, but I want to be completely done within the next week (except for the sewing I am doing). Normally I am still picking up stuff up until a few days before Christmas, not this year. I am just trying to get myself to the point where I am enjoying this time. I love Christmas and even though the waiting stinks, I love preparing for Asher to come home. I want to be able to enjoy this spot in my life and not be stressing!

Julie

Stress is creeping in.......

Oiy.

I am starting to get stressed. Me, stressed, is not so good. I have a LOT to do. This time of year is busy under normal circumstances, but this year is way worse. Truly, I enjoy being busy and having things to do, so to some extent all is well, but on the other hand, WHEN am I going to get everything done. Here are some of the things rolling around in my brain right now....

-"have tons of Christmas gifts left to make"

-"have tons of diapers left to make"

-"I need to get into our Dr.'s office to shoot everyone up with a Hep. A vaccine"

-"have a decent amount of Christmas left to buy"

-"I need to pick up Asher some jammies and basics"

-"I really should start packing"

-"I want to pull some freezer meal recipes together for Mindy and I's freezer meal day"

-"did the kids lock the coop door before they went to bed?"

That is all the craziness I will subject you to, but trust me, I am feeling the stress.

Our case manager called yesterday. Bless her heart, she didn't know that we knew and she thought she was calling us with this big surprise. Anyways though, right now we are waiting on Asher's new birth certificate. That is running about 2 weeks (which is quicker than it has been in the recent past). Once that is done all our stuff will be submitted to that Embassy and we will be issued an Embassy date. We will probably either be scheduled for December 30th or January 12th. I think there is a chance we could snag the earlier date, but it is unlikely because we have quite a few families in front of us. Our agency is only allowed 10 Embassy slots every other week. So, even if all our paperwork is there, we may have to wait because there are no earlier slots available. Obviously, the sooner the better, but even more so because we leave for Florida January 14th. If we get the January date, Ethiopia will run into that vacation. That is not the end of the world, I will just fly back into Orlando, but that is a whole lot of craziness for a baby that is sure to already think his life has been turned upside-down.

Well, I think I will head to bed. I am quite tired and I have lots of stuff to do tomorrow!

Julie

More Asher Pictures......

Now that I can post pictures of our boy, I thought I'd give you a little more!

This is the first picture I saw of Asher. Poor guy just looks scared and cold (and ready to fight).

This is one of the next set of pictures we received.

These were next in line. You can't see really well, but he has a rash/skin problem in these pics. His next medical report stated he had a skin infection (still beautiful though!).

This is one of the most recent pictures. He is at the foster home in Addis in these pictures. He has amazing eyes!

The first smile we ever saw! Very gummy and perfect!

I am still overwhelmed with joy. I just praise God that He entrusted Ryan and I with one more amazing gift!

Julie

Please let me introduce.........

Asher Houston Cole

By the grace of God we were surprised with an e-mail this morning that we PASSED court yesterday, November 25th. Apparently, they tried to fit into court some of the cases that had been postponed. We were one of the lucky ones to get an earlier court date and to pass!!! We got an e-mail this morning from our agency saying "surprise." Surprise indeed. What an amazing blessing and we could not be more thrilled. I think I am still in shock! Seriously, I can just hardly believe that we legally have son half the way across the world!

We don't know yet when we will travel (and probably won't know for another couple weeks), but it will probably be in early January. We will talk to our actual case manager on Monday and work out some of those details.

I just feel so humble right now. He is just so beautiful and he is ours. This Thanksgiving we have been especially thankful.

Julie

This is my life.......

Argh! Madeline is very honestly the most high maintenance child I have ever had. Now please don't harass me for blogging that thought because Madeline has a long list of amazing qualities, she is just a bit "difficult" right now. She is smart and sneaky. I feel like I have to be on her case ALL DAY long. Well, I know she sneaks candy and sneaks in to places in the house she not suppose to and sneaks out of bed, you name it. Well, I finally got them to bed tonight and I was

plugging my laptop in behind the couch and this is what I found.......

Those would be Hershey Kiss and Tootsie Roll wrappers. Give you one guess where they came from. It is just agonizing some times. This is probably the 4th or 5th time I have found wrappers like this around the house.

It is a good thing though that my life is full of so much more. I am so blessed, candy wrappers and all. Here, see what I mean........

Aren't they beautiful (and sleeping :))?

Julie

"Jonah.......where you going?"

I am putting up applesauce today and the 3 little ones are cracking me up. One kid will be "God" (I am guessing) and the other two will be "Jonah." "God" will sit in the kitchen and say (in a very deep god-ish voice) "Jonah, where you going......." The other two will run into the living room (two rooms over) and say "I can't hear you......" How funny is that? Poor old Jonah, always running away and pretending he doesn't hear.

Also, Gideon is such a corker today. Sometimes he gets this way and it is truly a hoot. I just think Gee is shy a lot, but more and more at home he turns in to a typical youngest child. You know, anything to get a laugh. A little bit ago he kept doing a little jig. He would put his arms up and shake his body and say "Oh yeah, oh yeah, I did it, I did it...." I had to get the video camera out for that one. He even did it for the camera!

I got some more Asher pictures today. Again, they were amazing! He was smiling in two of them and he looks so great!

Julie

He just melts me........

We got some new pictures of Asher Thursday. They are taken of him at his new place at the Addis foster home. I got two separate e-mails of pictures and the last picture I saw he was smiling. Not just a little smile either.... It was a HUGE gummy smile. It was incredibly beautiful. I have been worried about him and missing him of course, well, that picture was gold. Overall he looked well. It was so nice to get pictures of him playing with toys, with clothes on, just looking like a normal baby. Most of the pictures up to this point have been pretty stark and he has been scared looking. Oh, I ache for him.

My CWA buddy is leaving a week from today to pick up her little boy! I am so very excited for her. She was the gal that was one referral in front of me at our agency. They passed their October 26th court date. They only had a little over a month between passing court and their Embassy date. That is encouraging for us. Maybe it won't be quite 6 to 8 weeks to travel? Time will tell I guess. Still though, I am just so happy for her and her family. They seem like such good people....

Julie