Merete!

On Wednesday June 11th we got a wonderful phone call from our Ethiopia specialist at CHSFS, who gave us the news that we had been matched with a handsome little 3 year old boy named Merete (Meh-Ray-Tay) . We hope to bring him home between Sept and Dec of this year! We are all so very excited! I can't post his picture just yet, bu here is one of E, the big brother, checking out his little brother for the first time...

Busy, busy, busy

Lots has happened in the last couple of weeks! The weekend after we got back from ABA was our karate belt test, where E earned his yellow belt and I my brown w/ white stripe belt. Then we went to Jacksonville, Alabama to check out Jacksonville State University. And then on this past Friday E and I went to Lakeland, FL for the Sunshine State Games. E competed in the 5 and under beginner/novice kata division, and got a silver medal! Han came to watch and bring E and a friend home so they could spend Father's Day together, while Wendy and I stayed at the tournament to volunteer on Sunday. This week Han goes to New York, and early next week we both go to Baltimore. And in the middle of all of this we got the best news ever, but deserves a blog entry of it's own...

The Graduate

Today was E's pre-school graduation!!! The kids were so, so cute, and the staff did a wonderful job of making it a special day. We're very proud of our little graduate :-)

Girls Night Out

Last night a group of us girls went out for dinner and a movie, and to celebrate Angie's 20-something birthday. After some yummy food, a subgroup went to line up at the theatre...over two hours early. But we got the best seats in the house, after they finally let us in :-)

Chicago Continued

I fell behind at ABA updating the blog, sorry about that! On our major sight-seeing day, we got to the Aquarium in the morning...

...and the Natural History Museum in the afternoon, where we saw Sue, the mighty dinosaur, and were miniaturized to be smaller than a penny and ride on bugs.

The next morning we went to the Planetarium, before heading to the first sessions of the conference.

Some of the between-session entertainment included running around the park across the street from the hotel and enjoying some of the hotel's more unique amenities.

Later in the week we went to Navy Pier, where we enjoyed our morphed mirror images, the ferris wheel and the carousel. E also got his new pal, Pokey, at the Build a Bear.

We also went to the Ethiopian Diamond Restaurant, very highly recommended by others who have adopted from Ethiopia. The food, both presentation and taste, was so good! We all shared family style and ate with our fingers. It was an expensive cab ride there (we took the L on the way back), but it was totally worth it.

And on our last full day in Chicago, we went to the Science Museum, were E saw a huge U-boat, climbed a rock wall, saw an awesome train setup, and watched his new toy being manufactured before his eyes.

And this was the well worn traveler, on our way home...

Maybe it would have been smoother if he'd flown the plane!

Check E out, sitting in the captain's chair, wearing the captain's hat! The crew was so nice to E, extra snacks, juice when no-one else could get juice, and finally, he got to sit in the cockpit! It was hilarious when they said "now let's push the seat up for you" and it moved several feet. He was so, so excited.

As for me, after no sleep last night, two flights, and a horrible 1.5 hr cab ride, I decided to lay in bed while E and Han checked out the children's museum at Navy Pier. E apparently had a great time :-)

Tomorrow we can walk to the aquarium and planetarium. No more cab rides for a while. Actually, we may go try out an Ethiopia restaurant that we have to cab to...we'll see. And no, we aren't slackers...the conference hasn't really started yet. We came early to sight-see :-)

Birthday Party

This weekend we went to Jonathan's birthday party at the park, where E had a great time running around with friends and swinging (there was lots and lots of swinging). Next week we go to ABA in Chicago! We've been there several times already, but this year we're making a point to do some sight-seeing.