Wednesday, Nov. 15th

Hey everyone- sorry we haven't updated lately. For us, we feel like it's the same day everyday so we haven't taken pictures every single day. Basically, we go to the baby house in the morning around 10:00 am and feed Emily her breakfast of rice cereal and milk tea, and then we play with her until noon. We think she naps from 12-2, and then when she's up at 2:00 we feed her again, this time mashed potatoes with some sort of meat (Chris calls it "horsey¨ meat cuz they eat that here). In the meantime, we come back to the "hotel¨ where we graze for lunch, usually crackers, yogurt, cheese, or something like that while Taylor naps before we head back for our afternoon visit.

It's a good routine, and I have to say that even though we go from one prison to the next, the highlight of our day is spending time with Emily. She is definitely benefiting from our twice-daily visits. She smiles when she sees us now, and the other day she cried when I handed her back to the caretaker! That was a first!!!! It's neat to watch her change and improve daily. Her legs are much stronger now, when I hold her up she can stay standing for longer. I think she will really like something like an exersaucer to stand and play in when we bring her home.

We got some bad news last night. Our court date has been set for Nov. 27th. Our last official visit with Emily is this Saturday, Nov. 18th. That means we have NINE days of nothing before we go to court to petition to adopt Emily. NINE days of nothing in Taldy Korgan feels like a prison sentence because it's very boring here. Chris really pulled out all the stops with Tatyana (adoption agency coordinator) to see if she could work out something better for us. After much bantering, she said she would have the lawyer talk to the judge one more time to see if he could "fit us in.¨ We're thinking there has GOT to be a way to get to court sooner. Of course we could visit Emily for those nine days, so it's not terrible- it's just a difficult routine for that long. The good news is that we can leave the day after court, so once we get the official date we will be able to rearrange our travel plans.

I hate to sound like we aren't enjoying it here. We enjoy Emily immensely. We enjoy the fellowship with our neighbors and friends Alicia, Lexi, Bev, and Mel. We enjoy watching three episodes of 24 each night before drifting off to sleep in a semi-comfy bed. We enjoy this quality time with Taylor as she assumes her new role as a big sister. Mostly she just copies Emily. Pretty cute. Looks like I have two little babies now.

We are thankful for a warm room, a roof over our heads, a shower and bathroom, food in our bellies (even if it's not Chili's!), and time to wait on the Lord some more. His plans are always for good, and we're trying to be patient and learn His ways are not always our ways. It's hard.

I think Emily will be wearing 6-month clothing now. Nine months might be too big. Everything they put her in is a little too big, so it will be cute to see her in the right size clothing. It's nice that she was born in April, so size-wise she can wear all of Taylor's hand-me-downs and they will be the right seasons.

Oh yeah! The GOOD NEWS is that we got a contract on our house! Thank you, Becky, for taking care of it for us! We are thrilled that we may have sold it already! And the closing date is Jan. 15th, which is exactly what we asked for. God is so good! We couldn't have done it without George and Shirley acting as the messengers via Gretchen our realtor and Becky our neighbor and good friend with the Power of Attorney! That is something to be excited about. We hope it all works out. Thank you!!!!

I guess that's all for now. Please pray that our court date can be moved up so we don't have to spend an additional nine days here in Taldy Korgan.

Love,
The Abes