Quick Update

Regarding our adoption journey, we have completed our home study and submitted our application with US Immigration about a week ago! Right now, there is about an 8-9 week waiting period for approval on this application. In the meantime, we will be finishing up our dossier paperwork so that it is ready to go once we get our approval from US Immigration.

Goodbye, Tonsils!

The boys said goodbye to their tonsils on August 5th. After reading several children's books about surgery and going to the hospital, and after taking a virtual tour of the hospital, the boys were ready for their tonsillectomies. They were so brave and were excellent patients. They enjoyed playing video games in the waiting room, and driving toy cars back to the operating rooms. Both procedures went well, but we ended up spending two nights at the hospital. Due to swelling, Spencer was getting less oxygen than the doctors were comfortable with, so we stayed so that they could monitor him. The boys were in separate rooms down the hall from each other, so this was a bit of a dilemma for us but we survived. They ate lots of ice cream and jello, and even felt up to playing in the play room on Saturday morning. It took a full week to recover, but I am excited to say they are feeling much better. Thanks so much for your prayers and well wishes!! Here are a few pics of the world's cutest patients :)

Mimi made this cute sign for the boys to welcome them home...

checking in at the hospital.....

Spencer "driving" back for surgery

Connor in his cool car.....

Watching videos a few hours after surgery....

Day 2......not so great :(

Keeping close tabs to make sure they were eating and drinking enough

Ready to go home.......

Cousin Camp and Potty Training

We have completed all the necessary paperwork for our homestudy and are now waiting for our social worker to finish writing it up - should be done by Wednesday of this week! Yea!! Next step will be applying with US immigration and completion of our dossier paperwork. We are making progress. In the meantime, we have been busy with lots of fun stuff! Last week, the boys spent the week with their cousins, Nicholas and Kaitlyn, at their Mimi and Poppy's house for "Wild Mountain Safari Cousin Camp." They slept in tents and had bedtime stories by the campfire, along with many other cool activities; needless to say, they had a blast! While the boys were away, Graycen and I spent most of our time at home potty-training. She is doing great with it so far!

Here are the happy campers......

Graycen putting a sticker on her potting training chart.....

Finger painting

Hanging out the clothes with a lacing activity.....

Our Little Sweetie is Already 2!!

Happy Birthday, Graycen!

We had a Candyland birthday party for Graycen this year. Some other folks took pictures at the party, but here are a few that I have. The first one is Graycen on her actual birthday blowing out her birthday candles. I (with the help of my mom, Ryan's mom and my sister-in-law) made the cake this year (or most of it :) - I think Graycen really liked it!

And One More Makes a Half Dozen!

That’s right, folks - the Dorr family is expanding!! Only this time we are adding an Ethiopian toddler to the family. We are so excited about what God is doing in our family and wanted to share our journey with you. Many of you already know, but we are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia. Adoption is something that Ryan and I have talked about at times throughout our marriage, but became something much more than an idea over the past year. The developments over the past year all started with a little boy named Blessing whom I met in a Nigerian orphanage last summer. He was about the age of our boys at the time. As I sat there holding him in my arms, my heart shattering into a thousand pieces, I just knew that God was calling our family to be more active in advocating for the millions and millions of orphans in the world. As Ryan and I talked about my experience and the experiences of so many people we know, God began to make it clear that he was calling us to adopt from Africa. We began doing a lot of research, starting with adoption laws in Nigeria, but soon learned that adoption is very difficult in many African countries. We have learned a lot about adoption in the last year and believe that Ethiopia has an excellent adoption program. We have several families in our church who have adopted from Ethiopia and even have an Ethiopian play group in town. We are really excited about where God is taking us and ask for your prayers as we work toward bringing our little girl home!

To give you a time frame, we are currently working on our home study application (we hope to complete it by the end of July), next we have to apply with the US immigration office and complete our dossier paperwork (international paperwork) (should take 8-9 weeks). After these are completed, we will submit them all to the US and Ethiopian governments and once approved we will wait for the referral of our little girl (could take 12-14 months). Once we have a referral (means they have matched us with a little girl) we will make our first trip to Ethiopia about 6-8 weeks after the referral. We will then make a second trip to Ethiopia 6-8 weeks after the first trip to bring her home! Even though we don’t know who she is yet, God knows and we would love it if you would join us in praying for her throughout this journey.

Gulf Shores 2010

I know, I know, I didn't get any pictures posted last weekend, but better late than never, right? We went to Gulf Shores in May with Papaw and Nana. The kids had a blast and loved swimming in the "sea" as the boys called it. They loved splashing in the big waves and looking for crabs at night with flashlights. We made the trip a week before the oil hit the shore - here are some pictures from the trip (in no particular order).

We caught these guys one night - best total was 18 in one night!

These are some exhausted little ones....

I just love that they are actually splashing themselves in this battle that

lasted forever one afternoon.......

Daddy's girl

We took one hike through a nature reserve ......didn't see a single alligator

Connor insisted on carrying these binoculars on the hike....

STAY TUNED!

Pictures from our recent beach trip coming this weekend :)