We got our referral!!!!

I am so happy to announce that we have accepted the referral for a beautiful 3 and a half month baby boy named Daniel. We received an email yesterday with his information and a picture and we fell in love immediately!

I was expecting a phone call so when I checked my email and saw an email from our agency director with the subject line Daniel I almost fell out of my chair. Larry was taking a shower and I ran in and told him that we got our referral and to hurry up so we could look at it together. It took every ounce of my willpower to not click on the email before he came out!

We can't post pictures until later in the process, but he is a little peanut! He has a wonderful little haircut that we can't stop giggling about (think mohawk). The best part about his referral picture is that he is smiling. A big, huge, happy smile!

We are all so excited and can't wait to meet him. He was in care while we were in Ethiopia, but he is currently at a different orphanage so we didn't meet him while we were there.

Ethiopian Trek

Two posts in one day! I finally have a day to try to catch up on things so you get a double dose. While we were in Ethiopia we took a trek. We are not overly adventurous people and this was by far the wildest thing we have ever done.

It was an amazing trip and I am so glad that we did it. We were really able to see how people live in Ethiopia and I feel like it was an "inside look." We walked for 5-6 hours a day and slept in Tukul huts at night. We were on the trek for 3 nights and 4 days. I have attached some photos so you can see what it was like.

We had one guide that was with us the whole time and then two or three local guides that would walk with us to the next meeting point and then pass us off to the next group. Our bags were tied to donkeys and we had a horse for the kids to ride on. The walking was very physically challenging because we were walking on top of large rocks most of the time.

We ate local food the whole time and we discovered that all of us really like Ethiopian food. Jackson even became a fan of Ethiopian coffee (with lots of sugar)! Here are some pictures from the trek.

We're Next!!!

I just found out this morning that we are next to get a referral for a baby boy! I am very excited. It doesn't look like it will end up being a baby that we met while we were in Ethiopia this Christmas. That is a little disappointing since I really thought it would be one of the babies we saw, but I know that when I see his face nothing else will matter! I can't wait to get that call and see what our baby looks like!

I am very curious about his name. We plan on keeping his Ethiopian name as a middle name and have several names that we like picked out, but I feel like I can't narrow it down anymore until I know what his Ethiopian name is. I think it is funny that we have been on the waiting list for 9 months, it is almost the same amount of time that you are pregnant. I need to post about our trip, I will try to do that soon.