Conference Call Invitation

Once you become a "waiting family" of AWAA in the Ethiopia program you start receiving conference call invitations once a month to hear Duni Zenaye give program details and answer questions. Today, I received our first conference call invitation for Tuesday, Aug. 5! The only problem is.... I'll be on a plane during the time frame of the conference call and seeing as how flight attendants do not look kindly on the use of cell phones while in air, I'm guessing I'm going to miss it! BUMMER!!!!!!!!!

Please AWAA/ET waiting families.... FILL ME IN!!! Make sure and share with me all the details, okay? Pretty please?

Thanks,
Cindy

Some AWAA Families Passed Court TODAY!

A few AWAA families who have waited quite a long time for a court date - were passed through courts today successfully! Scroll down a ways and on the right of the screen look for the family names:

Ducommun, Moles and Cox

All their babes are so precious. The Ducommun's have a baby girl - Zamara - who is just stunning! And the Moles and Cox families have precious boys!

For those who don't know how Ethiopia adoptions work... once a family receives a referral (a picture of their child) they have to wait for a successful Ethiopian court date before they can post any pictures of their referred child on the internet. I bet it's so hard to keep that precious face to yourself when all you want to do is post it on the front page of the New York Times!

Congrats families! So happy for all of you! We'll be praying for safe travels... Only 15 days away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cindy

Update on Gibson Family!

For all who have been praying for the Gibson family, I have a praise to report! All the people involved in getting their paperwork corrected worked together and by God's grace it is all completed and they were able to leave ET. They are flying out of Dubai currently and should be back in the States this evening! They were supposed to be in ET for 7 days when they received word about the paperwork problems. They thought they would have to stay 1-2 weeks longer. But God heard all our cries on their behalf and just 5 days later they are almost home!!!!!!!!


Praise the Lord Jesus Christ who is full of lovingkindness and who hears us!

Cindy

One Month Ago...

One month ago, our paperwork was shipped off to Ethiopia! I have been thinking and praying for Aria so much more since then. It's all so much more real now. There are a multitude of things to pray over. Besides some very specific things I'm praying over Aria and her character, heart, protection, etc. I am also learning how we can be praying for the adoption journey itself. There have been several families who traveled to ET and discovered some technicalities that could have (or did) keep them from traveling back home when expected. There is one specific family in ET right now who thought their paperwork went through court successfully. But when they arrived in ET they discovered that the husband's name was typed wrong in the paperwork (not by AWAA but by someone in ET) and the ET courts now consider this family to have not been successful in court and they have to stay in ET a week or two longer to get it all straightened out. This family's baby girl is also very sick with pneumonia and had to go to a hospital in ET yesterday bc she was having trouble breathing. Please visit this family's blog by click on "Gibson Family" (scroll down and you'll see it on the right side of the screen). When you get to their blog/site, click on "mom's daily journals from ET" to read their story. Please be praying for this family.

As I was saying... the trip to ET has it's difficulties and I'm asking our friends and family to be praying even now that all our paperwork will be PERFECT, without any typos, etc. We're praying their will be no changes in our travel dates (so I won't have to leave Libby and Billy for any longer than necessary)! We're praying also for our little girls health. We are asking that she have no colds, sicknesses, etc so that our transition with her can be as easy as possible - for her and for us.

There are many other details to be prayed over, but I thought I'd share those for now. I can't believe it's already been a month since our DTE. I hope the next 6-8 will go by even faster!

Cindy

Special Photos!

The new CD is finally finished and will be available on our site (www.billyfoote.com) or on www.independentbands.com in a couple of days. In a couple of weeks it should also be available on iTunes and other digi-music stores!


Libby gives daddy a big thumbs up for being the best daddy in the world! Aria, you are gonna love this man! This pic was taken on Father's Day! Billy, you rock!


Libby has a special baby doll that represents baby Aria. Libby usually has baby Aria and baby Ling together. So cute!


Libby is comin' in for a kiss! Aria - be prepared, Libby's gonna LOVE you!



This is a pic of Billy and I just before we left for a date to celebrate our dossier being shipped to Ethiopia. The grimace on Billy's face is from Libby hitting him in the "you know where" (of course, she didn't know that's what she was doing) bc she was made that he was touching me. Just a little bit a jealousy going on! Anyway - Billy was in serious pain!


Trying to forget what happened, we pressed on for the family photo!


Libby says Aria has some big shoes to fill, but we think she can do it!


Libby loves to pose with baby Aria!


MY FAVORITE PICTURE OF ALL TIME! Can the look on Libby's face be anymore cute!


The new house! Can't wait to walk Aria through that door!

WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YABADABADOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OUR DOSSIER IS IN ETHIOPIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YIPPEE!!! Here's what FedEx posted:

Jun 19, 2008

5:00 PM

Delivery exception

ADDIS ABABA ET

Future Delivery Requested

5:00 PM

At local FedEx facility

ADDIS ABABA ET

7:30 AM

Int'l shipment release

ADDIS ABABA ET

12:45 AM

In transit

ADDIS ABABA ET

I'm not sure what "future delivery requested" means - but I do request the future delivery of Aria!! And pronto!

Celebrating today!

The Foote Fabulous Four!

Dossier Landed in Frankfurt, GERMANY!!

Many thanks for all the comments and answers to my question. It's a unanimous opinion - our dossier landed in Frankfurt, Germany. The FedEx site also says our dossier is in transit. When I read one of the comments to my last post Janet said that after her dossier went to Frankfurt it was in Ethiopia the next day. When I read the words "Ethiopia the next day" in her comment my heart did a leap!! I'll be ready to track our dossier first thing in the morning. YEAH!

By the way - it's a bit crazy 'round here as we are packing up the last items in our house. We move to a new home on Saturday. I have moved many times in my life, but this is the first time with a toddler by my side. I am seriously pooped! Libby wants to help with everything - which is so incredibly cute for the first few minutes and then I look around the house and think "this is never gonna get done". But here we are - almost done - with packing that is. Just a closing, a move and lots of unpacking left to do. But at least the unpacking can be done at my own pace - no deadlines or anything.

I am not complaining. We are so very blessed!
Cindy