x's and o's

During the week Tess and Cameron earn points ( O's) for helping, good work, doing what their told the first time, etc.....they earn X's for backtalk, bad attitude, being mean...  when they earn 10 O's they get to choose to do something.  Both Tess and Cameron earned 10 O's this week.  Cameron chose to go see Monsters and Aliens at the movies.  Tess asked to go to an Ethiopian restaurant to eat INJERA and DORO WOT.  I had heard there was one about 30 minutes from our home so off we went.  Bennett had never had Ethiopian food.  Tess was so happy. She did not come up for air for 20 minutes!!  The Ethiopian ladies that ran the restaurant were so nice and full of tips (especially how to take care of Tess's hair). We loved the food.  If you have not had Ethiopian food, we highly recommend it!!

borrowed from Tymm...

I "borrowed" this from one of my favorite blogs (babyhoffman.com)...it says it all!!

A typical breakfast at the Jonas house...

We celebrate you Tess!!!

We had some family and friends over to help Tess celebrate her big day.  When we brought out the cupcakes we didn't know what to sing so we said the pledge of allegiance!!  She has been asking about it since they say it everyday at school.  She doesn't know or understand it yet so we all pitched in to help her learn it and become a great American!  (ha ha)

Our court hearing...

With the Judge after our hearing...Tess is an AMERICAN girl !!! Yeah!!!

We were 7th in line for our court hearing so we got to know some other adoptive families while we waited in the hallway.  This little girl was also from Ethiopia and her sister was from Vietnam.  I just love meeting other families and hearing about their adoption journey.
Here we are promising to "keep and love"  basically.  I thought it was cute that the kids put their hands up too.  We missed not having Christine and Bennett with us!!

They had a form for siblings so that they could promise to be good loving big brothers.  Cameron was so cute and nervous when he signed it.  He froze and looked at us and said "how do you make a capital J in cursive?"  The hearing was quick and uneventful but a very significant step in the process.  I can now take the official adoption decree and apply for her US passport.  Her new birth certificate,  with Jeff and I listed as parents will not come for about 1 year, but our adoption is now finalized in the US!!!

the home stretch...no pun intended

The Jonas family passports as they look today...but not for long!!
The notice we have been waiting for...our FINAL COURT DATE!!!!! We will go to court tomorrow to finalize Tess's adoption in the US.  After the hearing tomorrow Tess will officially be a US citizen and we can then apply for her US passport and a social security number.  The very long paper chase will soon be over!!  It will  be kind of sad that she will not be using her Ethiopian passport,  but it will make things much easier when we plan trips outside the US...(no more  getting turned down at the airprot again, YEA!!!!!)

Also, we will be adding a middle name so her name will be Tesfanesh Grace.  We are keeping her original name,  Tesfanesh,  because it is so beautiful and means  "you are hope"...and her nickname "Tess" really suites her!! 

I love you , mom!!

Everyday Tess tells me she loves me and asks if she can kiss me...it is just so sweet.  She writes the funniest notes to me about how much I love her!!  Isn't that cute.  In the pictures, Tess and I always have long straight hair...very funny because mine is short and hers is anything but straight!!  In her last love letter to me she wrote..."I know you love me so much and I love you so much.  You feed me and give me presents and you are the best mom in the world. I love you." Priceless!!!!

sad news...

I just received sad news that Haregewoin, the woman in the book "There is no me without you" died a few days ago from an unknown illness.  This is so heartbreaking, as anyone who read her book knows that she selflessly took in orphans, many aids/hiv kids, that no one else wanted.  At the time of her death there are 59 children living in the home that she runs.  Please pray for the fate of these kids, that someone will step in and continue the brave work of this wonderful woman, Haregewoin .

www.thereisnomewithoutyou.com

Tess and Cameron's award ceremony

Tess received an award for "excellence in learning".  She was so excited and then handed me the paper and said "what I do with this?"  It was so funny...a minute before she was all excited about getting the award and didn't even understand what she was getting!...too cute!
Tess's 2 best friends Greta and Paige also recieved awards! Way to go girls!
Cameron received an award for "Super Scholar in Reading".  He does read alot!!!  His cousin Jason also received an award!  Way to go boys!!!
The proud moms( with my sister in law Jane) and the boys at the award assembly.

CWA adoption advisor!!

We had such a nice dinner with Bob and Tomilee Harding (center in photo)- the founders of CWA.  Louis Fawcett, the director was out with the Hardings in San diego and we planned dinner at our house on their last night in town.

It was really an honor to meet  them and learn about their story.  They adopted 2 girls from Paraguay back in the early 80's when international adoption did not really exsist as we know it.  Tomilee spent 4 months in Paraguay to finalize their adoptions.  While she was there she helped many other families complete their adoptions and she realized she had been called to serve in this capacity.  She returned and told Bob that they were going to help people adopt orphans...the rest is history. They have worked and built facilities in over 20 countries and dedicated their lives to this amazing cause.  They now have 5 facilities in Ethiopia and are in the process of building a pilot facility called "ACACIA VILLAGE"  which I have talked about before.  It will house 250 orphans - they just started moving dirt in Addis Ababa!!.  What's amazing is that Tess was at the ground breaking ceremony of Acacia Village before we were even matched with her and now we are involved with the project.  

Christy (AKA Kidus' mom) and I were asked to be adoption advisors for CWA.  The list of responsibilities was quite long but I am really excited about it.  We are going to start training and then we will be running adoption seminars in south county.  I am really looking forward to growing with CWA and working to bring more of these beautiful kids into great families!!

contrast...

I just had a moment to sit down after a VERY full day which started at 6 am with me dropping Bennett off at morning weightlifting,  and ended with me hosting a dinner for the founders and director of CHRISTIAN WORLD ADOPTIONS ...I will elaborate more on this tomorrow  since I'm am about to fall over...(Jeff is in Portugal)

but as always, I check some of my favorite adoption blogs right before bed... staring with ours and couldn't help but notice the unplanned contrast between my last post and today's post with some clips of Tess skiing...but for the grace of God...she could have been one of those kids in the photos of my last blog.  WOW! It made me stop in my tracks and be so thankful that everything little thing happened exactly as it was supposed to for Tess to end up in our family.  We are so lucky to have her and to be meeting such amazing inspirational people...all because we said YES to God's call.  My biggest wish is that one person is inspired enough by our simple story to say yes...

More Tess skiing ...

I finally had the time to go to Apple and get help with the videos from our February ski trip.  Here are a few short clips of Tess on the go.  She loved skiing and is excited to go back over Easter break and ski some more!!

Tess 1st time skiing!

a heartbreaking video...

As usual I was reading blogs from inspirational people and I happened on a blog of a couple that does mission work in Africa.  The video of them coming inot the village and finding 2 little starving kids on the ground was just too much.  I tried to find it today to post but couldn't and it's probably for the better because it is haunting me...It made me think that we really need to do more.  When I see these children (one was 7 years old and looked like a small 2 year old) I just can't stop trying to do more.  I wish I could tell everyone that adopting is such an amazing gift!  We did not adopt because we had extra time...or energy...or money.  We adopted because these children need a family and we had one.  You don't need to be special or perfect or amazing...you just need to open your heart to a child that otherwise has nothing.  Our family was far from perfect..We've been through thick and thin , hissy fits, backtalk and just plain old melt downs.  I hit the bed each night completely pooped!!  But I wouldn't trade a thing.  We are here to do more.  It makes me sad that our world has become about "stuff"...it needs to be about people, children, giving, reaching and doing.

Please go to kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com

Read about what this amazing girl is doing.  She is now mothering 14 orphans and teaching hundreds more.  She is in her 20's, single and has moved to Uganda to help these kids...WOW!!

Cat in the Hat day @ school

Tess had Cat in the Hat day at school.  She loved everything but the green eggs and ham.  She did not try them...can't blame her.  She also was excited to spend part of the day in 2nd grade.  We have decided to let her do part of her day (socail studies and something else) with the 2nd graders in order for her to start to know some of the kids so that her transition to 3rd grade next fall is easier.  She really had fun and asked if she could do it again.  I'm glad she is all for it.

Bennett is officially 'ON THE ROAD"!!

Bennett passed his driver's permit test today and is officially ON THE ROAD~~~look out!  He is so excited.  It was so cute to go through the process with him!  He was so nervous to take the test because he wants to drive soooo badly!  He never gets nervous for anything.  Well all our studying paid off and he passed on the first try.  Then we proceeded to get in the car with him drivng and he begins to fiddle with his ipod!!  We have a long road ahead...no pun intended!

spring break!!!

Christine is home for the week from SMU for spring break.  It is so nice to have us all together.  We went down to Doheny and walked from "hole in the fence" to Proud Mary's for breakfast.  It is such a beautiful day here!  Feels like summer is on it's way.  Christine has 2 more months of school and she'll be home for the summer...can't believe her freshman year is almost over!!

Tess and the boys are very excited to have her home.  Bennett asked if he and Christine could go out to dinner just the 2 of them!! I love that they are such good friends!  I love having the whole gang home!!!

...such good news!

We got the call today with results of Tess's bone age x-ray.  The pediatric specialist said that the age according to her bone scan was 8 years 5 months.  What good news.  She is 8 years 2 months according to her given birthday so we are right there.  I was so relieved because if it  had  come back that she was 10 we would have to re-evaluate a lot of things.  This way we are on schedule with her to be moved to 3rd grade starting in September and that is perfect. Also this leaves Cameron as the big brother-which is also great... Thank you God! 

...a forever journey!!

I'm not sure what I thought this whole adoption journey would actually be like.  The whole thing was a leap of faith and an answer to a calling to do more.  So now that the adoption is over (well, not technically, we are still waiting for our court date to re-adopt in the USA to make Tess a US citizen) anyway, now that the adoption is over...why don't I feel done?  I am forever reading other adoption blogs, checking the waiting children lists and google-ing all things Ethiopian!  I just look at beautiful Tess and think of how many more just like her there must be...and really, it just isn't that hard.  I do not feel overwhelmed at all...I actually feel like it has been relatively easy (thanks to Tess).  Oh, we have our moments, but they are just moments like those I have with Cameron or Bennett.  Who knows...I just keep reading and learning and we'll see where the Lord leads us next...

Playdate @ the Jonas house

...complete with nail painting...

...and a backyard soccer game.
Kidus came over too...he has his little routine at our house...give the dogs a bone, ask for candy, sit on the couch and watch frosty the snowman...and play a few bars on the piano...
Greta's turn to be goalie...
...the BFF's...

Ethan and Tess square off in the soccer match...

Tess loves having kids over.  She asks all the time.  This week she starts at the boys and girls club a couple days a week.  I think she'll really like the extra activity!!