Guess what we got??

We had a beautiful summer-like break from a cool fall this week. It didn't look like our house would get painted before winter. As you can see, it is a few unmatched colors, grey primer, white primed trim, the primed siding color and on the front porch, the original house color...plus a little soot. Yuck!

The finished product as of this morning. I should have waited to take this pic until the sun was in a better position but I was so excited! The only part that is painted is the front and the back and sides will wait until spring to get done. What a blessing not to have to look at the mismatched colors all winter!

A funny thing happened on our way to have dinner at Fasika Ethiopian Restaurant Saturday night! I backed into a dumpster and shattered the window into a million pieces. How did I do this? Well, I have to admit that I got frustrated when a man told me I couldn't park in my chosen space and too quickly backed up into the dumpster. Totally my fault. Lesson learned! No one was hurt as I had everyone go out to get us a seat, thankfully. Otherwise, Mihiretu was sitting in that back seat and would have had glass all over him. Thank you, God for Your protection! The obvious bummer was instead of enjoying wonderful wat and injera for dinner, we had to leave and opt for burgers...ugh.

Today was a wonderful and very exciting day! It began with our restoration company sending a crew out to our home to do their final cleaning.

I asked them, "What are you going to clean?"

They replied, "Whatever you want."

Me, "REALLY??? Are you serious?? Anything??"

"Yep."

So all day, these wonderful people cleaned our house from top to bottom, including windows inside and out! What a blessing!!

Then I got to go get my hair done this afternoon. It's a luxury I enjoy to it's fullest. It's 2 hours all to myself, doing nothing. I love it! Should do it more often.

Then, and here is THE MOST EXCITING thing of the day...are you ready??? I saved it till the end. We got a court date for Tarikwa!! Group S all have court dates on December 7th and 8th. Not sure exactly which families will have which day, but it's good enough for me. When Tarikwa passes court in Ethiopia, it means she is officially and legally our child. We are so excited to have our sweetie home and this is a huge step closer to that end. My friend, Jill also has the same dates as we do so I am praying that our girls will pass court on the first try and that we will get to travel to pick them up together! What a joy it would be if they could leave the orphanage together!

So if we pass court (I mean 'when'), they will let us know a week later the date we will travel. That date is 4-8 weeks from then. So I'm still thinking that we will go get our sweetie in January sometime. Sounds perfect to me!

Blaine, the little boys and I (not sure if I mentioned this before) had the opportunity to be part of a video of adoptive families done by our church. We were asked to explain how adoption has blessed our family. Blaine did a wonderful job of explaining his points in one take. Me it took several. I can only hope that the editing will make me look better that I actually did! Anyway, it is showing this Sunday at church. I'm super excited to see it! My boys on the big screen...awwww. We were so happy to be a part of something to promote adoption and the cause of the orphan.

I have to share one more thing with you. The other day I was so blessed to read my Amanda's blog. It effected me profoundly and I think it will you, too. Her blog address is:

afamilywithoutborders.blogspot.com

The title is "Finishing Well" and you'll want a box of kleenex nearby when you read it.

Blessings,

Laura