Happy Easter 2012!

This year, our Easter celebration was a bit more exciting than last year.  After eating breakfast, we all got ready for the 10:45 church service.

All this week, I had been talking to Eva about what this week means. We have a book about Jesus that she got for Christmas and she loves reading it. So we talked about Good Friday and how Jesus died on that day because He loves us so much. Then we talked to her about how Jesus fought the Devil and won on Saturday and went to Heaven today.

Last night John and I put Eva’s Easter eggs together for our family egg hunt. Last year we did the egg hunt in the house after her night-time bath. This year, we did the egg hunt once we got home from church and she was still in her pretty Easter dress.

I took her in the house and distracted her for a couple of minutes while John “hid” the eggs outside on the front lawn. As soon as I handed her the basket, she knew exactly what was going to happen and couldn’t get outside fast enough! It was just too cute seeing her gathering all her eggs....again J 

 

 

 

After the egg hunt we all had lunch and Eva got to enjoy a couple of pieces of her yummy candy. So blessed to be able to spend another Easter with my wonderful husband and daughter!

Palm Sunday Egg Hunt

Today was a fun day at our church for all the kiddos in the community. Our church celebrated Easter today (Palm Sunday) with a special service for the children. There was singing, dancing, story telling, puppetry and videos. Eva had so much fun singing and clapping her hands to the music.

Right after that was the Easter Egg Hunt. I was so excited for Eva and her experience. It was such a beautiful day. Perfect for the egg hunt which was held outside. Our church also has a Christian school (K-12) attached to it, so the egg hunt was on the football field.

After the service, everyone went outside to the football field. The field was divided into 3 sections. Eva was in the 'Birth -2 yrs' section. This is what the field looked like when we got out there:

It looked like there were a billion little plastic eggs out there. Truly amazing. Just looking at that put a smile on my face. While we were waiting, we were all given instructions. Eva was chomping at the bit. She knew EXACTLY what was going on, what she needed to do, and didn't want to wait any longer. We counted the 10-second countdown, and then............the air horn sounded and we were off!

 

It was amazing how quickly those eggs got picked up. Before we knew it, we looked around and the field was totally clear of all those little plastic goodies. My camera was about to die ( I couldn't believe I forgot to charge the battery) so I was so glad to get this picture of us as soon as we were finished.

When we finally got home, all Eva wanted to do was play with her eggs....and count them. A grand total of 30 eggs in just a couple of minutes. You go girl!!

Finally, you have to see her outfit. One of her aunts, John's older sister, got her 3 gorgeous dresses at my baby shower (over a year ago) and I've just been waiting until I could put her in one of them. I LOVE the dresses and Eva does too. She loves twirling around in them. The darling sandals are a present from her godparents. She adores them and was so excited to wear her sandals too! Such a girly girl :-)

 

  

Surprise in the Mail!

This past Thursday started out as a bit of a stressful day. As always though, what Satan meant for evil, God managed to turn it around for the good. And by the end of the day when I finally went out to get the mail, this was part of the stack:

We just had our fingerprints taken at U.S. CIS on the 20th. Is this really what I think it is?

It sure is! This is our FDL - Favorable Determination Letter. These results get sent directly to the U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia. Basically it says that our Fingerprints came back okay and we are cleared to go through with our international (Ethiopian) adoption.

And these are are the parameters we requested that we have been approved for:

One female child between 0 and 2 years old.

This was the very last piece of documentation that our Agency needs for our file. As soon as I send them a copy of this letter, the next batch of paperwork won't be until we get our referral. I can only imagine what the next 2 years will hold for us!