Hello everyone! We officially have a court date:
Tuesday July 15th
Please be praying that are daughter Zamara gets through court successfully on this day. If she doesn't, than we have only 3 weeks until the court closures to get through court. We are trusting in God that all will go well. Please also be praying for the Cox family and the Moles family who also have the same court date.
Sorry it has taken so long to post. Last week I was gone at our annual Christ In Youth Summer Conference with our high school students. It was an amazing week! God really worked in a lot of students lives.
This Sunday June 29th is our baby shower. It is not a typical baby shower--guys and girls are invited. It is more of an open house for all our friends and family. We hope that all of you who are in Flagstaff will join us. It is at our house from 2-5pm. Let me know if you want to attend and I can get you directions to our house.
Lastly, I am picking up my older sister Bekkah from the Phoenix Airport tomorrow (sans children!). She is flying in for the shower. She has never had a chance to visit us in Flagstaff before. We plan on taking a trip to Grand Canyon, Sedona, and Jerome to show her Arizona. I am so excited to get to spend time with her this weekend. I don't think either of us will get any sleep--we will just be talking the whole time. Poor Craig! He will have to put up with us all weekend!
Thank you all for your prayers as we have waited for our court date. I eagerly anticipate posting good news about a successful court date here soon...
blessings,
Laura (and Craig)
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
We have chosen a name
After much, MUCH debate between Craig and myself, we have finally agreed on a name for our daughter (drum roll please):
Zamara Liyana Ducommun
Zamara is from a Hebrew word meaning "guarded by God". We feel this was appropriate since God has been protecting our daughter from the moment she was born. Both Craig and I feel strongly about the meanings behind names.
Liyana is the name that she was given in Ethiopia. It is a beautiful name and we wanted to keep it so that she would have a connection to her past.
For all of you who voted for a name, thanks for your ideas! Some of you will be happy that your name "won" while others are sure to be disappointed. Well, were happy with it and we hope our little Zamara will enjoy it too.
Laura
Zamara Liyana Ducommun
Zamara is from a Hebrew word meaning "guarded by God". We feel this was appropriate since God has been protecting our daughter from the moment she was born. Both Craig and I feel strongly about the meanings behind names.
Liyana is the name that she was given in Ethiopia. It is a beautiful name and we wanted to keep it so that she would have a connection to her past.
For all of you who voted for a name, thanks for your ideas! Some of you will be happy that your name "won" while others are sure to be disappointed. Well, were happy with it and we hope our little Zamara will enjoy it too.
Laura
Friday, May 30, 2008
Finally, some news
Ok, so I FINALLY got ahold of our family coordinator from our adoption agency. Here's the scoop:
Our daughter passed the 8-week wait period on May 12. They are currently finishing up the paperwork needed for her to go to court. They are waiting for one more document to be signed. Once that happens, our daughter can go to court in Ethiopia! We should hear about a court date sometime in the next week or two.
I also asked our agency about the possibility of our daughter not getting to court before the closures at the end of July. She seemed very optimistic about getting to court before that time. It was a HUGE relief to me. However, there are always variables beyond our control when it comes to international adoption. Please continue to cover this issue in prayer.
Finally, we got another picture of our daughter this morning from Ethiopia. They shaved her head! She looks so different without hair. She is still as beautiful as ever, but now she has a shiny bald head. It's adorable!
Craig's dad and sister came out to visit last weekend. We had a great time. I am including a picture of myself and Craig's sister Ashley taken while we were hiking in Sedona. ENJOY!
Our daughter passed the 8-week wait period on May 12. They are currently finishing up the paperwork needed for her to go to court. They are waiting for one more document to be signed. Once that happens, our daughter can go to court in Ethiopia! We should hear about a court date sometime in the next week or two.
I also asked our agency about the possibility of our daughter not getting to court before the closures at the end of July. She seemed very optimistic about getting to court before that time. It was a HUGE relief to me. However, there are always variables beyond our control when it comes to international adoption. Please continue to cover this issue in prayer.
Finally, we got another picture of our daughter this morning from Ethiopia. They shaved her head! She looks so different without hair. She is still as beautiful as ever, but now she has a shiny bald head. It's adorable!
Craig's dad and sister came out to visit last weekend. We had a great time. I am including a picture of myself and Craig's sister Ashley taken while we were hiking in Sedona. ENJOY!
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
No News
Hello everyone! I haven't posted recently because we don't have anything new to share about the adoption. We have been waiting for over a month now to hear about our court date in Ethiopia. Our daughter has one more week to go on her 8-week waiting period in Ethiopia. Some of our friends who received their referrals on the same day we did have gotten their court dates--June 10th. We are so excited for them, but are a little confused on why we didn't get our court date for the same day. Hopefully we will hear from our agency soon.
Last week we received some new pictures of our daughter from Ethiopia. She has gained some weight and looks very healthy and happy. We sent her a little book with pictures of us and the family. They took a picture of her with the book. The book looks so big on her lap! It was cool to see her with something that we had sent her. I guess it made the whole thing feel more real.
Last week we also received a short video of our daughter taken by the Harbaugh family when they were in Ethiopia last month. It was only a few seconds long, but it was unbelievable to get to see "live" video of our baby. My heart aches to be with her and to hold her in my arms. I could just kiss those chubby little cheeks for hours on end...
Please be in prayer for a court date to be assigned to us soon.
Have a great day!
Laura
Last week we received some new pictures of our daughter from Ethiopia. She has gained some weight and looks very healthy and happy. We sent her a little book with pictures of us and the family. They took a picture of her with the book. The book looks so big on her lap! It was cool to see her with something that we had sent her. I guess it made the whole thing feel more real.
Last week we also received a short video of our daughter taken by the Harbaugh family when they were in Ethiopia last month. It was only a few seconds long, but it was unbelievable to get to see "live" video of our baby. My heart aches to be with her and to hold her in my arms. I could just kiss those chubby little cheeks for hours on end...
Please be in prayer for a court date to be assigned to us soon.
Have a great day!
Laura
Thursday, May 15, 2008
New Video!
Hi everyone! I don't have a lot of news to share today except to say that I have finished the video of our daughters room. It is on youtube at www.youtube.com/ducommunfamily . I am going to try to add it to this blog page, but just in case that doesn't work you can view it at the site above. It turned out ok, but the audio is a little wonky.
Today is also my nephew Travis' 12th birthday...so happy birthday T!!!! We love you!
We have 3 more weeks until our daughter is eligable to go to court. We do not have a court date scheduled yet, but please join us in praying that we will get a date soon.
love, Laura
Today is also my nephew Travis' 12th birthday...so happy birthday T!!!! We love you!
We have 3 more weeks until our daughter is eligable to go to court. We do not have a court date scheduled yet, but please join us in praying that we will get a date soon.
love, Laura
Monday, May 12, 2008
Mother's Day Surprise
Ok, so I still can't get Craig to post anything, so you are stuck with my ramblings again.
Yesterday I go in to work to find a mother's day gift on my desk from my friend and co-worker, Cody Bayles. He is an artist and I have been dropping very un-subtle hints that I wanted him to make us some art for our daughters room. So I open the gift to find this amazing picture for our daughter! He also included an incredible poem--it make me cry. Perhaps I will put it on the blog later this week. So first of all I want to thank Cody for this heartfelt gift. It is amazing! Also, here is my shameless plug for his work: go to www.sole1.etsy.com to view more of his work.
Also this weekend, Kari Gibson (an AWAA family who received a referral the same day we did) called me hysterically laughing. She had just received a video from the Harbaugh's (another AWAA family) of the Transition Home in Ethiopia. I ran to check my mail...but the video was not there. Kari proceeded to describe the video. There was something about our daughter laying next to their daughter on the floor, our daughter's crazy hair, and how our little peanut was looking right into the camera. I didn't catch the whole thing because Kari was laughing so hard. Anyway, she tried to send the video via email, but it was too big. So, now I am eagerly awaiting our mail carrier to show up so I can run out and meet her at the curb. Anyway, thank you Kari for calling me and sharing the video via the phone. I hope it comes today! I can't wait!
I want to thank all the people who texted me this weekend wishing me a happy Mother's Day. I felt completely loved and honored that everyone would think of me, even though we don't even have our daughter home with us.
Lastly, I want to wish both my mother Mary and Craig's mother Sharon a happy mother's day! You both have been so supportive of our adoption. Thank you so much for putting up with my tears and rants along the way. I hope that I can even be 1/2 as good a mom as both of you were to us growing up.
Love, Laura
Yesterday I go in to work to find a mother's day gift on my desk from my friend and co-worker, Cody Bayles. He is an artist and I have been dropping very un-subtle hints that I wanted him to make us some art for our daughters room. So I open the gift to find this amazing picture for our daughter! He also included an incredible poem--it make me cry. Perhaps I will put it on the blog later this week. So first of all I want to thank Cody for this heartfelt gift. It is amazing! Also, here is my shameless plug for his work: go to www.sole1.etsy.com to view more of his work.
Also this weekend, Kari Gibson (an AWAA family who received a referral the same day we did) called me hysterically laughing. She had just received a video from the Harbaugh's (another AWAA family) of the Transition Home in Ethiopia. I ran to check my mail...but the video was not there. Kari proceeded to describe the video. There was something about our daughter laying next to their daughter on the floor, our daughter's crazy hair, and how our little peanut was looking right into the camera. I didn't catch the whole thing because Kari was laughing so hard. Anyway, she tried to send the video via email, but it was too big. So, now I am eagerly awaiting our mail carrier to show up so I can run out and meet her at the curb. Anyway, thank you Kari for calling me and sharing the video via the phone. I hope it comes today! I can't wait!
I want to thank all the people who texted me this weekend wishing me a happy Mother's Day. I felt completely loved and honored that everyone would think of me, even though we don't even have our daughter home with us.
Lastly, I want to wish both my mother Mary and Craig's mother Sharon a happy mother's day! You both have been so supportive of our adoption. Thank you so much for putting up with my tears and rants along the way. I hope that I can even be 1/2 as good a mom as both of you were to us growing up.
Love, Laura
Thursday, May 8, 2008
More Pictures
So, several people have commented that we have not posted in a few days--we did get your voice mail Angie! : ) We have actually been gone at the annual Arizona Pastor's Retreat. It was very fun, but we are glad to be home and in our own bed. The speaker was a pastor from Flat Irons Christian church outside of Boulder Colorado. He had some very challenging things to say about the direction of the modern church. I found his honesty to be both refreshing and thought provoking. We have been challenged to rethink our own ministry and philosophy about church. I think I still need a few days to digest all of what he said.
On another note, this morning we received several pictures of our little baby. She is so cute! It really is killing us to not be able to share pictures yet. Still no word about a court date, but we really weren't expecting to hear anything so soon anyway. Well, our little peanut has changed a lot in 2 weeks. She has gained some weight and is very healthy. We received one picture from Rachel Ward at the Transition Home in Ethiopia as well as several pictures from a family that just arrived home with their son yesterday from Ethiopia. It was so selfless of them to take some pictures of our daughter while they were there--thank you Jill and Marshall, you have been amazing! We are looking forward to also getting a short video taken by another one of the America World families who was in Ethiopia last week as well. We have been blessed to get to know these amazing families who are also adopting from Ethiopia. We cannot believe their support and friendship through this whole great adventure. Since we still do not have a name picked out (by the way, make sure you have voted for a name!), Craig likes to call her our little "mocha cub". (this is for all you Scrubs lovers out there!)
That is about all of the exciting news that we have right now. I have been trying to get Craig to post here, so hopefully he will post something in the next few days. In the meantime, you have to put up with me.
On another note, this morning we received several pictures of our little baby. She is so cute! It really is killing us to not be able to share pictures yet. Still no word about a court date, but we really weren't expecting to hear anything so soon anyway. Well, our little peanut has changed a lot in 2 weeks. She has gained some weight and is very healthy. We received one picture from Rachel Ward at the Transition Home in Ethiopia as well as several pictures from a family that just arrived home with their son yesterday from Ethiopia. It was so selfless of them to take some pictures of our daughter while they were there--thank you Jill and Marshall, you have been amazing! We are looking forward to also getting a short video taken by another one of the America World families who was in Ethiopia last week as well. We have been blessed to get to know these amazing families who are also adopting from Ethiopia. We cannot believe their support and friendship through this whole great adventure. Since we still do not have a name picked out (by the way, make sure you have voted for a name!), Craig likes to call her our little "mocha cub". (this is for all you Scrubs lovers out there!)
That is about all of the exciting news that we have right now. I have been trying to get Craig to post here, so hopefully he will post something in the next few days. In the meantime, you have to put up with me.
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