Beautiful Girls

The other day Victoria and Samara decided they would dress up. Well actually Victoria dressed up in her Chinese dress first and then of course Samara wanted to do the same thing. I thought they looked way too pretty to let the moment pass without taking pictures. Here they are:

They were both in a really silly mood so I'm fortunate to have gotten a few good ones. Here's how the majority of them turned out:

My new niece . . .

. . . Samantha!

Congratulations Bryan, Michelle, Breanna, Zachary and Cassandra. She sure is a cutie!

Disney on Ice

My sister-in-law and myself have a tradition of taking our oldest daughters to Disney on Ice. This is our third year doing it. However, the tradition of the four of us going just didn't happen this year as Michelle decided to have a baby instead. I guess that's a pretty good excuse to back out. I wasn't sure if I was going to do it on my own or just not go this year either. I left the decision until the very last minute and bought tickets the day before.

I'm glad we went because it was a great show. I think it was my favourite so far. The girls had a great time and loved every minute of it. We missed you Michelle but look forward to continuing the tradition next year with you!

Some pictures of the show:

The girls having fun!

Our family . . .

. . . through the eyes of a five-year-old.

Austin came home with this piece of artwork the other day and I absolutely love it. First of all I love seeing the way he portrayed everyone in our family (i.e. four of us have brown skin and two have yellow skin) but I especially love the fact that he included Denver in the picture. How great is that??

Violin Recital

Victoria had her second violin recital yesterday. This is her second year playing violin and she's come a long way from when she first started. It used to be such a big deal for her to stand in front of people - even if she was in a group. She wouldn't even stand with her whole class on the stage at school to sing or recite something. It helps that she has a great teacher that she loves. She really encourages Victoria without putting pressure on her. Now she just gets right up there on the stage and plays her violin like it's nothing.

Victoria - Mommy and Daddy are very proud of you. Even though you don't always like to practice, it pays off and you are becoming such a talented violinist. Keep up the hard work!

P.S. Thanks Michelle for taking care of Austin and Samara at the last minute (on an already busy day) so Mike and I could both go see our girl at her recital!

A little getaway

Last week Samara and I were able to get away for a few days and we drove the three hours up to my sister's place. Samara has "a thing" about my sister. For some reason she has always been a little strange around her. We think it's because her and I look somewhat alike and it's weird for Samara. If we're in the same room, it's okay but if Samara is playing and my sister will walk in the room without me, she freaks out. So we were curious how she was going to react going to Aunt Denise's house.

She actually did pretty good. The first day it took a while to warm up but once she did, life was good . . . until the other kids came home from school and then it took a while for her to warm up again . . . until Uncle Tony came home from work. Then after a bit everything was all good again. She slept really well there but every morning she was kind of unsure about the whole situation. She's not used to being away for so long with just Mommy and without Daddy, Victoria and Austin. One morning when I was taking a shower in the basement bathroom, Samara went all the way up two flights of stairs to look for Aunt Neese to play and when I came up to find her, she was having a great time playing. So I think she may be coming around.

We had a lot of fun and although the plan was to get some scrapbooking done, we did more chatting and catching up than anything. It was a great time away and it all went by way too fast. Thanks for your hospitality Aunt Neese.

The last morning we were there, Samara and her cousin Erin were having a lot of fun playing dress up. Here are some shots of the two girls as a bunny, sheep, princesses, monkey, giraffe, angels and spinning in grass skirts. Too cute!

Adoption Update

Here's a letter we sent out to some family and friends as an update.

The latest news we’ve heard is that our court date in Ethiopia has been scheduled for May 13th. This is further away than we had hoped but we continue to trust God’s perfect timing. We are not required to be there for this date but rather someone from our agency will act on our behalf.

Similar to the Canadian judicial system, there are times when adoption court cases cannot be completed on their scheduled date and often times cases are put over to a second or third hearing. We are praying that this will not be the case and that everything will go through at the first hearing on May 13. There are a number of things that need to happen in order to prevent the court case being postponed and therefore we are asking you to pray for the following items:

Please pray that the judge will be able to hear all the scheduled cases that day.

Please pray that the Ministry of Women’s Affairs will write a supporting letter to the courts and file this document with the court prior to our file being heard on May 13.

Please pray that Baheran’s (Denver’s) biological mother will appear in court on May 13 to provide her verbal consent to the adoption.

Once our file passes court, there is more paperwork with regards to Denver’s citizenship and finally a facilitation visa will be issued and we’ll be given the okay to travel. This has currently been taking approximately three months. So if all goes well, we should be able to bring Denver home in August.

Thank you very much for your continued love and support. We appreciate all your prayers and ask that you continue to pray for patience for us as we anxiously await the day we can finally take Denver home to be with his forever family.

Mike, Karen, Victoria, Austin and Samara

Happy Birthday Samara!

Soon after you joined our family, we celebrated your first birthday.

A year later you turned two years old.

And today we celebrate your third birthday. You are already three years old and we have no idea where the time went! Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you and we, along with Victoria and Austin, are so happy that you are part of our family. We can't imagine life without you and we're so glad God picked you to be a Carmody! We love you Samara and pray that God will continue to bless you.