The Countdown Begins

Everything has moved so quickly with this adoption process, that we had not even sent a care package to Will "T". I was planning to mail it last Friday, but when we found out that we were going to be traveling so soon, we decided just to take the items with us. Then we spoke with Julie again late on Friday afternoon and she said that if we could get it to her by Monday, she could put it in a package that was headed to HH on Tuesday. So on Saturday morning, Helen and I went to Fed Ex and sent Will a few little goodies! My dear friend Marilyn made this "taggie" for him on Thursday evening! She embroidered his Ethiopian name on it and put the little silk tags around the edges. Both Beckett and Helen had them and loved them. Thank you Marilyn for making such a special gift for us to send to him! We also included a UT onesie, a Pooh Bear rattle and a soft plastic covered picture book with pics of Sean, me, Beckett and Helen so the special mothers can help him look through it before we arrive! Julie got it today and it will be sent tomorrow. Will will have his goodies by Friday!

Helen held the package tight all the way to Fed Ex!

After making our delivery, we headed to Beckett's baseball game. It was a great game! If you check out Beckett's blog, he will be posting about exactly how fun the game was! The picture might give you a little hint!

We did not receive any updates today regarding Will's health. Julie said that no news must mean good news, but we are still anxious to know how he is doing. Please continue to pray for his improved health! Thank you!

Amazing!

I'm not even sure where to begin. I'm quite certain that I haven't fully wrapped my brain around what has happened in the last 48 hours. This has been and continues to be an amazing journey. On Wednesday afternoon around 3:00, I received a call from our case manager, Julie. I was a bit surprised to see her name on the caller ID, but hopeful that she was calling with a court date. We were, of course, waiting to hear about our court date. We were expecting to receive a call sometime in the next week or so to hear that we had received a court date in mid-June. She began by telling me that she did indeed have a court date for us. And that court date was.....May 15th. WHAT? She meant June 15th, right? No, she said MAY 15th! Mind you, I was talking with her on May 13th! Yes. I. freaked. out. We have only had our referral of Will "T" for 24 days! This is not the time-frame that we had been told to expect! (Of course a wait time of two months on the waiting list was not what we were expecting either!) I'm not really sure what all I asked her, although I know that none of it made any sense! I asked her how this had happened and she wasn't sure. She said that the court appointments are always quite random, but she had not seen anything like this before. She even went back over paper work and made a few calls before she called us just to make sure that this date was not a mistake. We were thrilled and couldn't believe that this was happening! We got on the phone and sent out emails asking family and friends to pray. There were many prayers throughout the night on Thursday night/early Friday morning as Addis Ababa (capitol of Ethiopia) is 7 hours ahead of us. This morning, we talked about how strange it was knowing that our case had been heard and that a decision had been made, and yet we would have to wait through the weekend to find out what had happened. Wrong again. At about 1:00 this afternoon, Julie called to tell us that we had passed! Will "T" is ours! (I don't know if I can officially tell his Ethiopian name, so I'll keep it at "T" for now.) Will "T" Harper! AMAZING!

Julie also let us know that Will "T" is currently in the hospital. This, of course, is quite a concern for us. He has pneumonia and was taken to the hospital so that they could keep an eye on him while he is given antibiotics. Evidently, this is standard procedure when one of the little ones at HH gets sick. He had been having some difficulty breathing and they wanted him to be at the hospital. Just typing this makes me feel sick. It is hard to explain how my heart has been so drawn to this little one who I have never even held in my own arms, but it is truly love. Thinking of him there in a hospital room without a loved one to hold him is breaking my heart. Almaz was with him this morning and told Julie to assure us that he is doing well. Still. Hard.

One final surprise was the travel date. When I spoke with Julie on Wednesday, I remember telling her that we didn't know much about the travel aspect of the adoption process. Although I wanted to get him as quickly as possible, I wondered if, given how quickly this had come together, would we have a little extra time to make travel arrangements. She had said maybe three weeks. Well, today she said that our embassy date is June 1st. They need us to arrive in Addis Ababa on May 31st. Again, just typing this has made my stomach a little queasy. There is so much to do and not a lot of time to do it! HOWEVER. I am trusting in the One who has led us this far and who has placed this sweet child in our family forever, to help us in the details of the next two weeks. He is the God of order and I know that He is with us.

We went out to eat dinner at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants tonight to celebrate. Here is a picture of my THREE children! Beckett (7), Helen (4) and Will (6 months)! We are truly blessed!
I must end this post with a special prayer request for our friend Elyse. She is the daughter of my good friend Marilyn and she is very special to our family. Elyse's boyfriend Joe passed away unexpectedly this morning. It has been a day of roller-coaster emotions for us as we have been shocked and saddened for Elyse and we are so grieved for her loss. Please remember this wonderful young lady as she begins the process of grieving and then of healing. They were a special couple and Joe was such a great guy. Please pray for Elyse and for the family and friends of her boyfriend Joe.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. John 14:27

I find great comfort in these words that Jesus spoke to his disciples and I hope that Elyse will too. I am praying for her inner peace in the midst of this unthinkable storm. I am also finding comfort in this verse, as I have a bit of un-easiness about Will "T"s health as well as all that must be done in the next two weeks. I am confident that God is faithful to carry us and that He will give us peace in uncertain times!

Weekend Fun!

It was a slow, rainy weekend...but we made the most of it and had fun! Two more baseball games were cancelled, so we spent a lot of time at home! (We will be playing over half of the season during the next two weeks, but at least we got rested up this weekend!) On Saturday afternoon, we decided to make pretzels! We are big carbohydrate fans here at the Harper Hullabaloo, so we took our yummy recipe from the old "Oliver Twist" pretzel shop and went to work! They were SO yummy and we had fun making them! Helen had fun playing with the (in the?) flour!
Another fun project on Saturday was pulling Beckett's second front tooth! (We pulled the other one earlier in the week!) It took up quite a bit of the morning! That tooth was just hanging in there! Sean was bound and determined to get it out of there! He ended up getting it out of Beckett's mouth by wrapping dental floss around the base of it and pulling tight! Ugh! There were a few dramatic moments, but we are all glad that it isn't dangling in there anymore!

On Sunday, we went to Nana and Papa's house after church to have lunch with Sean's mom. All of her kids were able to be there along with all of the grandkids (minus one little cutie who is still in ET!) We had a great lunch and a good time visiting and hanging out with family! The picture above is of Nana with all of the grandkids! The picture below is of Beckett and Lillie with their front teeth missing!

And finally, a picture of me with the kids at church on Sunday morning. I LOVE being a mom and I am so blessed with a wonderful family! It was a very special Mother's Day!

Love That Smile!

We had our "next steps" call with Julie (our case manager) today and she surprised us with new pictures of Will "T"! They were taken about one week ago and they are precious! I just had to share this toothless grin and his sweet dimple! He looks great and we can tell from these recent pics that he is putting on weight and doing well! We are so blessed to know that he is being well cared for at HH! We should hear something in the next couple of weeks about our court appointment! We will keep you posted!

To see another precious snaggle-toothed smile, check out Beckett's blog! He finally pulled one of his front teeth! The other one is just dangling in there! Maybe it will come out in the next day or so! He also posted about his fly fishing experience from last week! Check it out here... The SLAM! Let me apologize (before you visit his blog) about the annoying music on his playlist. He loves it....and it drives me crazy! But, it IS his blog, so I let him choose the songs he likes! Feel free to scroll down and mute the Crazy Frog! :)

Sweet Dreams

Just a couple of sweet pics tonight of my sleepy kiddos. Helen was up most of last night with an earache. She cried in her sleep and ended up vomiting every 15 minutes for a couple of hours early this morning. It wasn't until about 1:00 this afternoon when she was seemingly fine that she mentioned that her ear was hurting and I finally put it all together. So, off to the Dr. we went and sure enough, another ear infection. I am hopeful that with a couple of doses of an anti-biotic in her, she will have a much better night of sleep. (Hopefully I will too!) She and Pooh seem to be sleeping pretty soundly.....
Here is Beckett's favorite thing to do at bed time. He puts on a head-lamp and reads until he gets sleepy. He doesn't have a night stand with a lamp on it, so he got resourceful with the head lamp. That way, he doesn't have to get out of bed to turn off his over head light! Tonight he was reading about Extreme Sports. I hope he doesn't get any crazy ideas!

Now when we head to bed, I can't help but think about little Will "T" and wonder what he is doing. Is he sleeping well? We certainly rest easy knowing that he is being well cared for at Hannah's Hope. I just can't wait to have him tucked snug in his bed here at home with us!

Good Night to All! Sweet Dreams!

Whirlwind Week/Mega Post!

Aren't those just the sweetest little hands? I can only show bits and pieces of his cute little self on the blog, but if you see me, you better believe that I have my little book of pictures ready to whip out and share with anyone who asks! "He" by the way, has a name and although we are not able to tell his given Ethiopian name on the blog, we can tell you that we have decided to name him Will. We are planning to keep his given name as his middle name. That name begins with "T" so he is Will "T" Harper. When Beckett and Helen were born, we chose to not find out if we were having a boy or a girl. So each time we had to have a boy name and a girl name picked out. When Helen was born, we would have named her Will, had she been a boy. We just love the name and as with both of our biological children's names, the name honors family members. Sean's father and grandfather both share the middle name Willard. Although we shortened it a bit, we wanted to give Will a strong name that honors two very special and influential people in Sean's life!

So, this past week was a complete whirlwind. We were so excited and blessed to receive our referral last Monday! It came at the beginning of a very busy week as we were planning a MEGA yard sale for Friday and Saturday. About a month ago, we decided to have a yard sale to help off-set some of the expenses that go along with an international adoption. So many friends and family members donated items for us to sell and it was amazing! After our garage was full, we had to stack stuff in our living room. It was over-the-top! So, not only were we busy organizing and pricing yard sale items, we were now finalizing all of the paperwork for accepting our referral! That included a couple of conference phone calls with our agency and with an international pediatrician, as well as getting signatures and having many papers notarized! Needless to say, we were quite busy. But it all came together and turned out great! We sent our acceptance of the referral back to AGCI last Thursday afternoon and it arrived in their office on Monday morning!

Quick summary....my sister, Susi came in town on Thursday night and we went to Beckett's baseball game. Came home at 9PM and made signs and came up with a game plan for our set up. We slept for a couple of hours and then Sean, Susi and I got up at 3:30AM to begin to set up. Sarah and her kids, Susan, and Nana and Papa showed up at 6:30 to help us finish getting set up. (Fortunately, the majority of the items were already priced bc there was SO much stuff that it took all of this time just to unload it from the house to the driveway!) Our first customers showed up at about 7:00 and we worked all day long and did it all over again on Saturday! It was hard work, but a lot of fun. So many friends blessed us by coming to help, by donating items to be sold, by baking yummy treats for our bake sale, and by generously giving way more than their purchased items cost! At our "check out" table, we had a picture of Will and a sign telling why we were having this sale. It generated a lot of talk and we enjoyed being able to tell everyone all about this journey of adoption. Everyone was so positive and encouraging! It was just an amazing weekend!

Here are some pictures from the weekend. This first one was taken bright and early on Friday morning. I just wanted to remember the set up and how much STUFF we had to sell! To the left was our "check out" station with the baked goodies and bottled water for sale!

Here is Helen paying for her items. (That is our friend, Matt, taking her money!) Nana took Helen shopping at her own yard sale, and she got to purchase some of the things that she had been checking out in our garage since they had been donated! (Auntie Mame, do you recognize our cash box? That is the jewelry box you gave us full of your old jewelry! It made an awesome cash box!)

It was my initial intention to photograph all of our friends and family who helped and who came to shop! However, this became quite impossible. It was funny how one minute we would have no one shopping, and the next minute there would be 25 people there who needed help or were asking questions. That was great but I missed getting pictures of lots of people! I thought I'd go ahead and post some pics of a few friends who came by, but these are just a few! Everyone was so kind to drop in and visit, help, hang out and eat bake sale items! Here is my sweet friend Carrie and her mom and grandmother! She was celebrating her 30th birthday with a special girl's day, and they came by to support us!

This is one of Sean's former youth group members, Jesi with her husband Kyle and their little girl Blayke! They came and visited for a while and we got to see how much Blayke has grown!

The Kirkland family was a very valuable asset to our yard sale! Sarah came early in the week and spent a whole day helping me price items (along with Nana and Papa) and then she also returned on Friday and Saturday mornings at 6:30 and spent all day helping! She also baked lots of goodies for the bake sale! The kids were here to help as well as to play with Beckett and Helen which was lots of fun for them! We appreciate them so much!

Our neighbor Matt stopped by with Carson and the twins, Noah and Turner to breeze through the sale and see what they needed! Martha (Matt's wife) isn't pictured here, but she was so sweet to coordinate our bake sale! It was so nice to have those goodies for sale. People really seemed to enjoy having the opportunity to purchase something yummy to eat. Especially those hard core yard sale people who go so fast and furiously all morning! Thanks again, Martha! (And thanks to Nana for making sausage biscuits to sell on Friday morning! I'm not sure how many were actually sold, because I think they were eaten up pretty quickly by all of the workers!) :)

Here is a picture of my sister Susi with Beckett on a piece of exercise equipment that was for sale! She helped us so much! She is a visual merchandising specialist and she helped us to lay out our sale in a very "marketable" fashion! We loved having her with us for two nights! We just don't get to see her very much and I'm sorry that we had to work so hard and didn't get to play much, but just having her here was such a blessing!

So many people helped us in so many ways and we want you all to know how much we appreciated your help!

Last week was such a whirlwind, that Sean and I felt like we had barely had a chance to talk! We would lie down at night, exhausted, and try to cover the items that needed to get handled the next day and then we would fall asleep in minutes! So Sean decided that he would take Monday off so we could just re-group and connect as a family! On Monday we headed to Tellico Plains to the Cherokee National Forrest for a day of rest and relaxation! It was a beautiful day and we had a great time. Of course, relaxation for Sean includes a fly rod, so here is a picture of him doing what he loves! He also spent time teaching Beckett some of the finer points of fly fishing and Beckett did really well! In fact, he caught a few fish on his own! He is anxious to tell about his day and to share a few pictures on his blog, so we will try to work on his post sometime on Tuesday afternoon. Check out his blog, The Slam, in a day or so to see his fish and hear how he describes the experience!

We had a picnic lunch and the kids even braved the cold water temps so that they could float down some small rapids in their inner tubes! They had a blast!

I'll leave you with a couple of silly pics of Sean and Beckett and then one of Helen and me. We had a great day as a family enjoying the wonderful weather and just being together.....our favorite thing to do! Now we just enjoy these days with the anticipation of adding Will to the hullabaloo as soon as we can get him here! :)

This is our prayer for all of our family and friends who went above and beyond the call to make this weekend's yard sale a huge success. We love you all!

The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.

(Numbers 6:24-26.)

A Special Day!

What an amazing day. We are so happy to share with you that today, we received a referral of a beautiful 6 month old baby boy! We were totally taken by surprise to get the call so soon! He is perfect in every way. The next couple of days will include lots of paperwork and a conference call with our agency as well as an international pediatrician, and then we wait some more. God has definitely been preparing our hearts for this little guy because we were instantly in love! This has been and continues to be an incredible journey and we are amazed at each new turn to see how God is working!

This is a busy week for the Harpers! I think I made Beckett's day when I told him that we had decided that this was going to become a Spring Break week! I had spent the morning preparing for our yard sale by making phone calls to local newspapers and designing a flyer all to advertise and I was planning to begin Beckett's lessons after lunch. Well, that is about the time that we received the call. Needless to say, I quickly turned on the waterworks and became a bit scatterbrained, so it was clear that school would not be happening today. When we looked at all of the paper chasing and continued preparations for the yard sale that are on tap for the next few days, we decided that an impromptu Spring Break was in order! We will be doing school until the beginning of June, but that is OK....just one of the blessings of homeschooling!

I'll post more in the next few days after we receive a packet from AGCI with more info and we learn what the next few months will look like for us! Thanks for your continued prayers!

We have been blessed!