Here's Denby

I can't believe it's been more than a year. Like all things kid-related, time both flies and crawls. But when I look back over the year and all the things Denbele has learned and done, it blows my mind. She is now a walking-talking (potty trained!) social butterfly. She even has a nickname—Denby—so she could pronounce her own name. Denbele was too much of a mouthful for her. When I see the picture of Meaza with her bountiful curls, I can help but see a resemblance.

Denbele starts preschool in the fall. She loves to swim, run, climb and eat. She is the rock star of our playground—she often has an entourage of older kids or moms following her around. It's hilarious. Of course, she only has eyes for Willa. Most of the time.

And yesterday we got our court date for Denbele's re-adoption! Hooray! I don't know about other states but here in New York, we like to make things difficult so readoption is a process as laborious and bureaucratic as doing your homestudy or dossier and you cannot do it until your child has been home six months but if you wait longer than a year you have to re-do the homestud. The state treats a re-adoption as a new petition for adoption so you have to assemble all this paperwork (and get fingerprinted again) as though you don't already have the child. Which is nonsensical. But now we go see the judge! And then she will get her US birth certificate!

That's all the news from here. A sweltering summer and we are making good use of the public pools and beaches.

We love hearing from you and are so excited about Genet.

Here are some pics. The girls doing ballet together and Denbele eating cake from her "anniversary" party.

XX

Gayle, Nick, Willa and Denby

on our way back to ethiopia.

just got word that they are going to squeeze us in before the courts close in two weeks. we fly out this thursday/friday (we are still trying to arrange flights). we will be blogging the trip on our family site. please check it out to see what's going on www {dot} thyen-nies {dot} com.

--jason

Okay, so maybe i don't know how to attach the social report photo either!  Hopefully this try will work :)
 

Our summer has been fun but a little frustrating because I returned to work in early May for what was going to be a month but now has extended well beyond 2 months.  Hopefully if the government can sort out the paperwork soon, I will be officially retired before the end of August and able to stay home with the kids for at least the next few years.  We found a great sitter who is home for a couple months between graduating from college and moving to Honduras to volunteer in an orphanage for 2 years.  The kids are having lots of fun with her and with the exception of Abu's separation drama when we leave (okay really when Dad leaves) for work in the morning, it's going well.   Abu and Meaza seem to get busier and more creative every day.  Just when we think we are a step ahead of them, they can reach another shelf, climb another piece of furniture or come up with some other activity to keep us on our toes.  They are a happy pair and we have decided that their laughter is one of the wonderful sounds ever! 

We loved seeing the Nies, Laughlin's and Holloman's in April and would love to get together with a bigger group in Ohio or wherever works best!   We also love all your updates/picture and for Kim, Jason, Mac, TJ and Mitiku, we are so happy to hear about Genet!   

I couldn't figure out how to post Abu & Meaza's referral photos but here is one from their social report when they were about 4 months old and then one from earlier this month at 19 months old.

Elizabeth & John

 


 

 

happy one year anniversary

hard to believe that a year has passed since we were all together in ethiopia. we miss all of you and hope the past year was as great for all of you as it was for us. here is mitiku's referral picture along with a picture that was taken today.

I can't believe it has been a year already. It's been great for us to see your pictures - we wish we lived closer! Would anyone be interested in meeting in Ohio sometime (or whatever the midpoint would be)? (:

The first pic is Yonas' referral picture. He's growing up fast and welcoming home new friends. Tripp is pictured and lives a block away. He came home from Ethiopia a few months ago.

The other pics are from our vacation in Kentucky last week. We have horse lovers...

Hope everyone is well!

Ross, Erin, Ellie, Josie, Maggie, Miles, and Yonas