A little of this and that

We are SO close to sending our dossier into BCS for it to submitted for review and translation.  Literally we have to mail two things tomorrow and I pray we are good to go!  I might throw a party :)  We started this process last year on January 25 with an informational meeting after sending in our preliminary application...so it has taken us a year to get to this point...partly because life is busy and partly because it is just a tedious process!  So excited to almost be WAITING for our child!!  Right now the wait times are 8-14 mths.  Pray for us that things happen a little quicker than that!

I just had gall bladder surgery last Friday and recovering pretty well.  Hard with little ones that bounce around on you.  Other than that...not much is new.  Just living life and thankful for every day with each other...even when it's chaos.

http://www.nogreaterjoymom.com/2012/02/if-not-usthen-who.html  This is a blog that i like to read, but that i can't hardly bear to look at or read today because of how disheartening the topic is, but i can't turn my back to it either.  I feel strongly that once we SEE and KNOW, we can't pretend we don't know.  It takes action, but it is very hard to figure out what we can do and how we can make a difference - but we CAN make a difference; through prayer, mission trips, donations, educating others and on and on...there are ways.  I'm trying to figure out HOW i can make something happen.  Something to think about.

Happy Days :)
jonna

All I Want For Christmas is My 2 Front Teeth!!

Yep this boy lost both his front teeth in the last 3 weeks...and "All I want for Christmas is My 2 Front Teeth" was the song they sang for their Christmas program too, so worked out to be true this year!!  We want those two teeth back :)  We also want that kool-aid mustache to go away - ha!
Life has definitely been busy in the Ebel household!  We had a good November, with some shopping, good food and a little rivalry going on in the family (as you can tell from the blog picture above) over the Husker vs. Hawkeye game.   Also got in a little wkend vacation with the Ebel Family at Bridge's Bay. 

In December we have had some yucky things happen, which i will save for another post, and another day.  But we are progressing ahead with the adoption stuff; which makes me happy!  We were approved for the HOMESTUDY, got our USCIS appt in Sioux Falls done and have begun the daunting work of the dossier!  Hoping to submit it in January!  Thinking about our future child everyday!  Such a long process, but we are so thankful we are on this journey!
Wishing you a Merry Christmas and Love and Happiness to all!!

Busy in October :)

We are doing good and keeping superbusy!  Lots going on in our household...Korey is working a lot of powerwashing jobs on top of his job at the Hospital.  Kooper and Kamryn just started gymnastics, and we started bible school on Wednesdays.  I am taking some online courses and we are still working on classes for our adoption.  We thought our homestudy would be passed end of August, but have ran into some snags so have done a couple classes on Transracial adoption and preparing your children for it and SOON the homestudy should be complete...which means we can work on FBI clearance and our dossier!  So we still have quite a long ways to go until we get to know our new baby/child that we already love...but we are talking about him or her constantly and SO excited!  All in God's timing and I have to remember that, because I have always been very impatient!

Meanwhile, we have a different kind of baby we are loving on at our house....kittens...i only have one pic right now of one of our bigger kittens...but we have 7 total.  5 that are 4 weeks old and 2 that are 12 weeks.  The girls LOVE playing with them.

 Who knew, but the new thing in school the kids spent the fall learning about was the monarch butterfly and the stages it goes through to become a beautiful butterfly.  So Grandma Vicki and Kooper went on many hunts for milkweed and the monarch caterpillar and then brought them to school and the kids watched them turn into chrysallis's and then butterflies.  Cool huh?

 I got this pic outside our house, one of our trees had over a hundred monarchs on it just one evening.  it was really neat to see!

 Posing outside.  This girl is a preschooler now and loves "nastics" (gymnastics)

 And these two goofballs...who knew a bath without water could be so fun!!

Thank goodness these girls and Kooper keep us laughing!  What would we do without them!! 
Well, one day i will get around to posting more often and i want to share some good recipes too...but until then...take care!
Joona

I'll Be Back!!

Okay, the point of having a blog is to actually update it once in a while :)  I am going to spend some time updating this blog very soon...but just wanted to let you all know that we are still here, busy with school, work, more work, getting over being sick (yuck), football games, homework, family time, and praying our adoption process gets going a little faster soon.  We at least want to get to the point where we will be on the waiting list...but more to come...plus some good books and a good recipe.  But until then... here we are!!

Catching up in July

We have had some really fun times in July, the kids got to go camping with both Grandparents on different wkends!  Kooper caught this catfish while camping with Gr. & Gr. Conway. 

Kamryn got to play with her cousin Addy and these WORMS!  Yuck, she is crazy.  This girl loves bugs and picking them up and studying them...I asked her if she was going to be a bug doctor someday and she said - yes - ewwww!  She had so much fun and is really starting to grow up and act differently, (which is a blessing for us).  She is strong willed :)

This is a pic with all the Ebel cousins from camping with Gr. & Gr. Ebel, and aunts and uncles.  The campground was in Sioux Falls and is Yogi Bear Campgrounds.  The kids loved it!

We had a little photo shoot at Grandma's with the girls in matching dresses...will post more of that another time...Keely was being a stinker...but Mom still managed to get some cute shots.  Keely is showing some attitude lately too...she's just about 17 mths...and has been hitting and biting...and don't you dare think you will get close to her mom.  I haven't gotten to hold Koop or Kam for the past mth. because Keely sees them coming and dives for my lap!  Most the time tho, she is so much fun!

 The thumbs up is because as of July 19th, Korey and I have been married 8 years (and together for 16).   I am a very blessed person to have such a great husband!  Hoping for many more years of love, happiness, and chaos! 
Other things goin' on...I had my 15 year reunion, which was a lot of fun with some great friends and classmates! 
**We are finished with our homestudy adoption stuff and basically waiting for it to be approved to move onto the next step of sending our application into the country we choose.  We love Africa, but the only worrisome thing is the adoption times in Ethiopia are being extended.  It is for good reason as far as being even more thorough with the process, but just means the adoption would take longer.  Will keep ya all posted when we make some decisions soon!

**Another note, please keep my cousin Kayla and her family in your prayers, as she is healing from fighting cancer, but is now dealing with complications related to scar tissue and infection.  She is 16 years old and AMAZING.  Her family has faith beyond words! 

LOVE - Jonna

Summer Days

Summer has been flying by and we are enjoying it!  I am not going to lie though, our house is no fun to be in on the hot days...with just the window air conditioner, it's just not enough for this momma!   So we have kept busy by going and eating lunch with Korey, going to the pool, running through the sprinkler, visiting family...
We recently just went to visit my sister Tresa, and Travis and their 3 kids.  We went to the farmer's market, played in the yard, went to the park, the splashpad, and went to a triple A baseball game with awesome fireworks.  A fun 4th of July!!  We also made it back in time to go to Korey's Grandma's cottage up at the Lakes for a chicken barbecue.  Kooper and Kamryn got on the boat and Kooper even went tubing behind the boat for the first time ever!  Korey skiied too!

We also had another interview for our homestudy.  We only really need to meet one more time with our social worker to discuss the specifics of the dossier (documents sent to the country adopting from) and the profile of the child we will adopt.  Which means we could choose gender and so on if we wanted.  I will make a page about the reasons we feel adoption is important for us and the reasons it is important in general to the country we are considering (Ethiopia), when I get a chance sometime in the next weeks.  Once our homestudy is approved we can move on to sending our paperwork to Africa! 

Anyway, one of the main reasons for this blog is to ask for support and prayer that this process goes fairly smoothly and that we are able to follow what God's plan is for us through this adoption!  thanks!!

funny baby

This is Keely thinking that she is funny wearing Kamryn's "tangled" wig.  She is a ham and don't you love the cheeto face! 

This week has been busy...I worked at some concession stands at the city park and saved a little money to pay for some of our adoption education requirements!  I am thankful for the opportunity to do so!  Kids have attended games, swam, went to library hour, and picked on each other relentlessly.

We are in our homestudy stage in the adoption process with one interview left to go next week, so anxious for that!  Once the homestudy is done, we will begin the daunting task of completing our dossier to be sent to the country of choice for our adoption (which is Ethiopia).  Yay!

Hope you all have a safe and happy 4th holiday!