Numbers, Derby & B-Ball

January brings new numbers. We are 12 on the boy's list and 18 on the girl's list. At this rate we should be looking at a referral in about three months from now. That is so close yet so far away. Big D had his first upwards basketball game today and he loved it. Today was also the day of the big pinewood derby. He finished second but his car loooked the coolest! The design was all his idea and I loved helping him build it.




Tony

2010 to 2011

The beginning of a new year gives us a chance to reflect on the year past and prepare for the year before us. We have so much to be thankful for over this past year. We have stepped out in faith to follow the new calling on our life to adopt a child from Ethiopia. I truly don’t believe this would be possible without taking the finance course by Dave Ramsey in January. I really love telling my money where to go. So much so we have already built our budget for 2011. We served God through many different mission activities/trips, enjoyed a family trip at the end of July and then traveled to Nashville to enjoy a picnic hosted by our agency AGCI. Golf coaching and a brand new school year soon followed. We enjoyed Halloween, a Thanksgiving visit with my Dad at Dollywood, a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year celebration with the kids. During this entire year we have been praying and waiting for our newest family member. I found that the waiting goes a little easier when I have little projects to work on. The newest project is coaching upwards basketball for my son’s team and now we are building a pinewood derby car for cub scouts. 2011 is going to be so great! We plan to spend time in N. Carolina with my wife’s brother’s family in the beginning of July (they live in Hawaii), we also hope to have traveled to Ethiopia twice by this time and have our family all together. Please continue to pray for us and our child.
Tony

Teenagers and a Honeymoon

After eleven wonderful years of marriage my wife and I were convinced to take the honeymoon that we never got a chance to take. My mother planned a five day trip for us to the Rivera Maya in Mexico. We were reluctant to go because of the financial obligations we have made to our adoption. After my mother and some close friends shared with us that we may not take a trip like this for another five years or more after we add another child to our family. So, we chose to go on the trip just before Christmas and the kids got to hang with the grandparents, win-win in my book. We had a great time and it was nice to take our mind off of waiting for a couple of days.





Snowman or Sandman?


Beautiful!


A little excitement on the way back to the airport!


We are unofficially teenagers! Nineteen on the girls list and thirteen on the boys list. How exciting is that? So now we are back to the fun game of waiting. So I have come up with a few projects to take my mind off of it. One project for example was cleaning the white mortar joints in the shower as well as cutting out the yucky old caulking joints and replacing them. The newest project is carving out a banana shaped pinewood derby car for my son’s cub scouts.



The Holidays have been wonderful and we are so thankful for everyone’s health and wellbeing this year.
Tony

Dec. Numbers

Not much in the way of movement as far as number are concerned. We are still officially 15 for a boy and 23 for a girl. There have been a few referrals over the past week, so our unofficial numbers are a little lower. There are a lot a families traveling to Ethiopia this month for court dates and embassy dates. As children began going home with their new families I would assume that Hanna's Hope will have more children arriving soon. We are going to be in the single digit numbers before we know it. As every day passes we are one day closer to meeting our new little "D".
Have a Merry Christmas,
Tony

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We have had a lot of fun getting ready for the
Christmas season. We put up lights on the outside of the house and made holiday cookies from scratch with the kids. Now that was fun!









We are headed down to Pigeon Forge, TN to visit with my father. He is currently working at Dolly Wood in the show “T’was the night before Christmas”. He is playing the part or St. Nick. This is going to be great!




Have a safe and joyous holiday,
Tony

November Numbers

Our new number on the boys list is;



The new number for the girls list is;



We are so excited about the progress that we have been making towards our referral day. We can't wait to meet the little person that God has planed to join our family. I can only guess what wonders lie ahead. Carrie shared our plans to adopt with our church family this past Sunday.

Tony

Happy Times

Family outings, walks and dinners together have made me feel much more connected with my family. This month has been very exciting as far as our adoption is concerned. We are unofficially in the 20's on the girls list and in the teen's on the boys list. Families that have been waiting the past two months for the courts to re-open in Ethiopia all at once received their call. Soon and very soon we will be receiving that same call and our lives will forever be changed as we seek to continue to glorify our wonderful savior.

As we wait we continue to enjoy time at the zoo. We also had a fun evening out with friends to the local bowling alley, what a hoot. Tomorrow is trick or treat night, so the kids decided to carve up their little pumpkins. It was so fun seeing them dig out the inners. Good times!

Bowling




Zoo!





What are you looking at?


My wife took this amazing photo! WOW!


Hey pumpkin.


Here is a picture of the sunset looking out the back window of our home tonight. Just beautiful.


We are looking forward to sharing all of these fun activites and family outings with the newest member of our family, soon to come.
Tony