No MRI

We weren't able to get our MRI yesterday. She had too much chest congestion to safely sedate her. Although I really wanted to get it over with, I am happy that they were cautious. Once she is feeling better we will be able to reschedule. Thankfully, it shouldn't take as long to make the appointment this time.
Thanks for the prayers!

Zoey Update

I am finally getting back on here to blog a little. Sorry I am not the best at keeping it updated. Zoey is doing so well. She is such a happy girl. She has actually been sick for the past few days. She has an ear infection and quite a bit of chest congestion. It doesn't seem to affect her too much. She isn't cranky at all.
Tomorrow we go to Kosair for her MRI. They will sedate her since it is necessary for her to be completely still. I would imagine that it would be pretty scary for her so, so it is probably best that she doesn't experience it. She won't be able to eat anything tomorrow morning. I am really hoping that this isn't too much for her. She gets very upset when she is hungry. I will try and give an update as soon as we know more about the MRI results. I expect it to take a couple days.

Here are some pictures of a few of Zoey's "firsts". They are in a very random order. Sorry some of the pictures are sideways!


Zoey's First Cake. It was not only beautiful, but it tasted great too! Brittney added some Ethiopian Coffee to the cake batter. Zoey loved the icing!

Zoey's first picnic. Highview has a wonderful adoption ministry. Every few months they have African socials for adoptive families. A lot of the kids know each other from their orphanage in Ethiopia. This is Zoey with Feven. Feven was with Zoey in the first orphanage and moved with her to the second orphanage. It's pretty amazing that they went through so much together across the world and now live in the same town.


Zoey's first visit to someone's house. We went to the King's family's house for some pizza and pie. Zoey loved both the socialization and the food. This is her with Haley and Trina. The Kings have been unbelievably supportive throughout this process. I think Zoey will be pretty close to them!

Zoey's first trip to visit her cousins Jaleigh and Kiera. From the beginning, Jaleigh has been so excited about the adoptions. I was happy that she could finally spend some time with Zoey. The did great with her and both girls are quite the little caretakers!


First tattoo. Don't worry, it was temporary! We went to Family Palooza, a festival at our church. Our friend Betsy was facepainting and giving out temporary tattoos. Of course, Zoey couldn't handle having someone do something to her face, so she got a tat.

First Arise Family Fellowship. Every month, families from our adoption agency get together to socialize, share, and get news about their cases. It is usually the families that are still in process(which we are). We have been going so long, just waiting. It was nice to go with Zoey and to get the great news about the boys. This picture is with Susan, our agency director that found her in the first orphanage and rushed her to the hospital. We are super thankful for Susan's love for the Lord and her love for children.

Zoey's first trip to church. I love her in yellow!

First time sitting with Nana. Zoey is also sporting a cute dress that Nana got her.

Zoey's first UL/UK game. We spent it with the Armstrong family. Zoey loved hanging out with the kids even though they were wearing the wrong color!

First trip to the zoo. We went today with my friends Emily and Sally. Although she was indifferent about the animals, she had a lot of fun being around all the kids and rolling in her stroller.

First visitors. A few days after we got home, James and Brittney Armstrong came by to visit Zoey and to drop off the awesome cake.

News about Chera and Kenenisa!

Last night at our Family Fellowship we received some wonderful news about the boys. Their files are complete and the orphanage can file for a court date once the courts open up! In country, the director of the orphanage told us his goal was to be able to file them once the court opened back up and he was true to his word. Even though Ganano told us this, we did not really expect it to happen. After learning more about their case and about how things work in Ethiopia, I understand how hard it was to get this done. We are very thankful for all their hard work.
The next step will be for the orphanage to file for a court date. This can't happen until courts open back up. I think this will happen in a couple weeks. Once they are filed, we will get in line to be assigned a court date. Before court closed they were assigning court dates for October/November. There will be a lot of cases filed at the same time so we expect that it could take a few months to receive a court date.
I don't know if I have blogged about this, but we do know for sure that we will have to go twice for the boys. Even though we have seen them, the Ethiopian Government wants us to to attend their court date. They are also wanting both parents to attend. We were planning on only one of us to go to the court date. One change that we found out about last night is that the time between passing court and when you go get the kids can be quite a bit longer now. The US embassy in now investigating each individual case, but this cannot happen until after the kids have passed court. The investigation can take between 15 day to 8 weeks ( on top of the 4-6 weeks we have to wait after they pass court). We understand and are fine with all of this. We have grown used to the constant changes that happen when you are adopting! The boys are safe, healthy, happy, and loved right now, so that is all we need.
One really neat thing that we just figured out. Zoey, Chera, and Kenenisa all had/have the same name last name in Ethiopia! Zoey and the boys are from different ethnic groups, that have different languages, so the spelling is slightly different and we in no way think they are biologically related. Chera and Kenenisa's last name is Berhanu, which means "light." Zoey's last name was Birhane, which means "my light." Pretty amazing connection there.

Thanks for all your prayers and encouragement!