Two Months Already

Okay, so I'm not doing so great on the blog update thing. I really don't know what to write or what people would want to hear. So, I'm going to bore you with a few more of our family stories.

First off, Senait lost four teeth . . . in just over ONE WEEK! She found out she got money from the toothfairy (a whole quarter) so she just kept right on pulling. She is a tough little girl.



Meseret and Senait are now attending the school that has a deaf program. They receive instruction in sign language for most of the day. It has really helped improve their language skills. They are also learning other skills much faster than they were at their other school. There is one problem with them going to school however. Kylie gets very jealous. She want to go to school too. She came down stairs all prepared for her first day of school. She even put her backpack on. Needless to say she was very upset when I told her she wouldn't be going that day.

Adjusting

Okay, now comes the hard part. . . the honeymoon has ended and we are now in "the real world." The girls are doing extremely well (better than expected), but we still have some challenging times. Let's just say everyone in our house could use a little more patience right now.

We have been on the go with all of the doctor's appt., school meetings, and now our upcoming attorney/court dates. We have to re-finalize our adoption in the USA. Don't even get me started.

Meseret and Senait have both started school and love every minute of it. Of course, that is because no one can communicate with them and they basically run the show in the classroom. We have more school meetings set up to discuss what is best for our girls and if they should be moved to a school with a deaf program. I think it is pretty obvious though. I'll be really happy when our whole family is fluent in American Sign Language!

Introducing Meseret and Senait Ricks

Here are our two newest additions. Aren't they beautiful!

We're back

We are home with our two new daughters. We had a great trip in Ethiopia. The girls have adjusted a lot faster than we expected them to. We still have some things to work through, but overall they are doing really well.

Meseret and Senait are true girly-girls. They LOVE to do my hair everyday (they have some great styles as you can imagine.) I've also had my fingernails painted as well as my toenails. I don't think I've worn fingernail polish in approximatley 6 years. You can see the process in the picture above.

Dress-up is the new pasttime of our home. There is also a lot of swimming and princess play around this place. The girls bring so much joy to our home.

Kylie and Addison are doing surprisingly well. Kylie loves having two new big sisters. She gets to have playmates everyday. Addison gets plenty of kisses (sometime a few too many.)

We are now in the process of all of the doctor's appointments, hearing testing and immunizations. We also have to re-adopt them in the United States and apply for Citizenship. We still have a long road ahead of us, but everyday is a joy.

More adventures are soon to come!

We're Leaving

They moved up our travel date one week. So, this Friday is the big day. We'll be leaving our small town to travel across the world. We will meet two of our daughters for the first time and bring them home. We are so happy that the day is almost here.

I've been working on my "to do" list and am pretty close to getting it finished. At least the big one is finished . . . we have plane tickets for all 4 of us on the same flight. There are so many people going to Ethiopia right now that airplane tickets are almost impossible to come by. We did manage to get four of them on the same flight, however. Our travel agent wasn't sure that she would be able to do that so I took matters into my own hands and found what we were looking for. Hopefully the girls like flying because it is a LONG trip!

I'll let you know how the trip goes and post some pictures of our family of six.

Preparations

Okay, now that we know when our girls are coming home it is panic time. We are really working hard to get everything completed. Those of you who have adopted will totally understand my feelings. THERE IS SO MUCH TO DO!!!
We've been having phone conversations with our agency and the group of families we will be traveling with. We've also been busy filling out more paperwork so the girls can enter our country. Clothes shopping, school shopping and learning sign language have also been taking up our time. We've been setting up appointments with doctors and school directors, and working on switching insurance plans. Plus, trying to keep a 2 year old and a 10 month old out of trouble (and the refrigerator) has been extremely challenging this week.
Through all of the stress and craziness, we still feel blessed. We have four beautiful daughters and we will all be living in the same house on the same continent in approximately five weeks. It truly is a miracle.

Glorious Day!

We made it through court on the 4th of July. We got an email with the subject "are you awake and ready for THE call" and of course we were. We called our caseworker and she gave us the great news. We have two more daughters!!! Meseret and Senait found out that their adoptions were completed and they had a little party at the foster home. How cute. We will be leaving the USA to pick them up on August 16 (our 7 year anniversary.) We are so excited. There are a lot of things to do to get ready and we are trying to remain calm. There are some important decision that need to be made in the next couple of days . . . such as what are the middle names going to be and what day should their birthdays be.
We look forward to sharing more of our journey as we prepare to bring two more of our children into our home.

Not Again

Well, we did not make it through court again. It has been postponed until July 4th. Hopefully it will be an Independence Day to remember. We are getting really anxious to bring our girls home and have them fill up the room that is empty and waiting for them. It will be an exciting day for all of us.

Tomorrow is the day

Well, tomorrow is supposed to be our big day in court. We probably won't know anything before Monday. The power in Ethiopia is very unpredictable and they are not able to relay information very quickly. We pray that things will go smoothly and that the court process will not be delayed any longer. We are so anxious to have our family all together.

Giving In

Okay, I give up! Here is the official Ricks' Family Blog. I hope you enjoy it. I will try to be a faithful blogger, but life is about to get a whole lot crazier.
For those of you who do not know, we are adopting 2 more beautiful girls. They are coming to us from Africa. The older one is 9 and the younger one is 5. They are both deaf. We hope to have them home by the beginning of July. We have a court date scheduled for June 6th and we were told to prepare to travel approximately 6 weeks after that. We are very excited as you can imagine.