Grace Caroline's birthday extravaganza and COURTS ARE OPEN!!

Grace Caroline had cupcakes at school with her Kindergarten class. We brought Drew over to join the party!!
After the school party, Momse and I took Grace Caroline to get a "princess" manicure and pedicure -- She thought she was really hot stuff!!

Wednesday evening (on her birthday) Grace Caroline had the first soccer game of the season. She loves playing goalie, and her friend Allie plays forward (and even scored a goal!!).

The BIG birthday party was at Run, Jump, N Play, one of those bouncy places. Everyone had a blast, especially the birthday girl!

On another note, but almost as exciting as our oldest turning 5, Ethiopian Courts reopen today. We are praying that everything goes smoothly (and quickly) as the courts reopen and begin reviewing files, including ours.

UPDATE!!!!!!!

We got an update on our baby boy yesterday!!!!! 4 new pictures and a CD in the mail with lots more!! Our son weighs 14.3 lb at 3 1/2 months, which is 75th percentile on the American growth charts. I had bought him size 3-6 months clothes, thinking that he may be a little small (since that's what I've been told by our adoption pediatrician and Matt who works with her), but now I have to take everything back!! Oh well, now I get to pick out more cute baby clothes!

These are the notes that we got about him:
[He] has a very strong will, the special mothers have learned to be always ready with a bottle to give it to him right when he asks for it, if not, he gets really upset, and his crying is quite loud. With this said he is a complete joy and we all love him. [He] is doing well, but growing unbelievably fast and fattening up as well. He has started talking (baby talk).

He'll fit right in with the Linams! Now we'll have 5 strong-willed people in our family instead of just 4. He's definitely one of us!

The one bit of news that made me a little sad is that they are preparing us for longer delays for travel than we had expected. We are hoping to get more specific information in the next couple of weeks, but for now, they are saying not to anticipate travel for 3-5 months! Please pray for us as we continue our wait.

Ethiopian Celebration

For Matt's birthday, we went to an Ethiopian restaurant here in Cincinnati. The food is served family-style on a large piece of flat bread (injera) that tastes a lot like a non-sweet wheat pancake, with the same spongy texture. Matt and I really liked it (I actually LOVED it), but the kids thought it was too spicy. I think we just ordered the wrong dish for them to like it, though. maybe next time.....

Two more weeks!!!

As I had hoped, the month of September has flown by so far. So much so, that I've been very delinquent on updating our blog.

Things of significance so far this month:

1. Labor Day weekend we traveled to Memphis to spend the holiday weekend with the Eggers family. This is a family tradition since Hamilton's (Leann's brother) birthday falls near Labor Day every year.

When we arrived (after 10 hours of travel time flying, but that's another story) we went directly to Hamilton's football game. The kids were very excited to see him after the game!

The next day, we went to the Delta Fair, where the kids had a ball riding all the super-sturdy fair rides and feeding farm animals!

2. Grace Caroline's First day of kindergarten!!!! What a big girl. She is loving every minute and even wants to go sometimes on Mommy's day off!

Painting the fish that will be used to mark her attendance.

This is what happens when you leave a 5 year old and a 2 year old unsupervised with paint!

Wake up sleepy head!! It's time for your first day of Kindergarten!

All ready to go. We had to go to 4 different stores before we found just the "right outfit" for her first day! Of course, she spilled milk on it at lunch and ended up in bike shorts and a t-shirt (hugs for $1) for the rest of the day!

Signing in

Hugging her teacher, Andrea. "Bye, Mom!"

3. Interviews for Matt at Vanderbilt and Little Rock. Interviews for both of us in Charleston, SC.

4. Ike. Yes, the news didn't lie. There was a hurricane in Cincinnati, OH. Thankfully we did not sustain significant damage and our power was restored quickly.

Things yet to come this month: Matt's birthday, trip to Knoxville for the TN-Fla game, Grace Caroline's birthday. Maybe October will bring some rest. Probably not, though because then we'll need to pack for ETHIOPIA!!!