A special moment

I have so much to write about..our trip, meeting Zeri, seeing our YWAM family, and reuniting with Olivia. However, I just don't have the time to write about it right now. Hopefully I will find time soon!

Please pray for our next step in our adoption journey. We just had a bunch of documents signed, notarized, and sent off over the weekend. We are praying that we bring Zeri home in 6 weeks and not 2-4 months. We want our little boy home with us!

I can't end a post without a picture of our little Z! He is definitely a Cox and I can't wait to tell you more about meeting him! When we were in Ethiopia I kissed all over that sweet little face! :) I couldn't stop kissing his face-seriously! We had waited so long to kiss him and I just couldn't stop!

Zeri was pretty scared of us. Every day he ended up warming up to us (after an hour of crying!), but then he was scared of us again the next day. The last day I was holding him and he was crying (like a "Why is this lady holding me!? I'm terrified of her!" cry). I started telling him how much we love him. I told Zeri over and over that we love him more than he'll ever know and that we have been praying for him for over 2 years. I told him that I know it's scary and that I know he'll learn to love us. I told him that we won't stop loving him and that it doesn't matter how much he cries, we'll never give up on him. It was a moment that I will remember forever. My words didn't make him stop crying (and nothing did..except for his bottle) but I was so overwhelmed with love for my little boy. My little Z was just looking at me with tears streaming down his face and I had tears in my eyes as I was trying to comfort him. I was just smiling at him and quietly whispering these words of love to him. And as I held him so close to me and felt his curly locks against my face I realized that he is my boy. The one whom I have prayed for and fallen in love with over the past two years. It was the love that only a mommy can feel and it made me realize that I love this boy with my entire heart.

One quick Olivia story to close this post. Every time we give Olivia a kiss she wipes it off. Jeremiah and I thought she was trying to goof around and pretend like she didn't want our kisses. Tonight I asked Olivia why she wipes our kisses off and she responded, "Because I don't want anyone else to take them. I want to keep them for myself." Then I asked her where she keeps them and she said without hesitation, "In my heart." Bless her sweet little heart.
 

In just a couple of days....

  We will be holding our Zeri!!!!!!! Yay!!:) Oh, I just CAN NOT WAIT to kiss all over his sweet little face and just tell him how much we love him. It doesn't seem real..it feels like a dream. I can't believe we are actually meeting our Zeri.
 Jeremiah and I will be flying out of Indy on Wednesday, April 17 at 6:00a.m. and arriving in Addis on Thursday, April 18. We will meet Zeri on Friday morning! Please pray that we have a safe flight and enjoy our time in Ethiopia. We are looking forward to seeing Ethiopia and interacting with the beautiful people there.
 You know I don't like being away from Olivia. I am so anxious about leaving her for 8 days, but I know she will be in good hands.
 Olivia has been collecting money (in her shark pig bank!) for awhile. She wanted to collect money for the kids in Africa. Yesterday we let Olivia use her money to purchase coloring books and crayons for the kids. She was so excited to buy these gifts for the kids. It was precious watching her talk through why she was buying a certain coloring book for a girl or why she thought a little boy needed a pack of crayons.

Here is Olivia picking out the supplies for the kids in Africa.

 When Olivia woke up from her nap yesterday, I told her I was giving her a super special job. She was thrilled! I told Olivia that I needed her help packing up all of the donations. Side note-For my 30th birthday back in September I posted a challenge on Facebook asking people to donate items. I wanted to see if I could get 30 items donated for my 30th birthday. Well, we are taking way more than 30 items! My friends and family were so generous and we are taking 3 full suit cases with donations!

Olivia told me her job was to line the shoes up before I put them in the suit case. She was a huge help because she made sure I had matching shoes!

 We packed most of our clothes yesterday (yes, I know they are going to be very wrinkled!) and we just have a few things left to do! We will try to update the blog when we are in Ethiopia. It will be so exciting to share about our trip! We can't post any pictures of Zeri until after our court date on Monday. Please pray that the judge says that he is our child and that all of the paperwork is in his (judge) hands that day.
 Another neat thing we get to do is meet our  YWAM family during this trip. We are looking forward to meeting this mother and daughter!
 Please continue to pray that things go smoothly for us and that Zeri comes home soon. Please pray that we feel God's loving arms around us as we leave Zeri on Saturday (we will only see him on Friday and Saturday) and that it takes the minimum amount of time (about 6 weeks) until we can bring home!!
 Thank you for your support!:)