EZRA T DAY! November 29th!

We got a "good nights" sleep on Sunday night after we arrived at the Guest House, and we were up and ready to go get our Ezzie around 9am....Alazar was on Alazar time (this man is VERY VERY busy) so we got to go to her around 9:45am. We pulled in through the gate, and all of the older kiddos were out playing on the swings and greeted us with smiles and were waving. We got out and played with them for a while, passed out some silly bands (WOW, What a HIT!) and then we met Tihitinna (her and her husband run the orphanage) and she took us upstairs to her room. Lots of babies. Ezra's nannies were getting her ready and all dressed for us-they truley want whats best for these children, and it shows. Her hair was all done for us : ) She was very clean greeted us with a smile! I took her from Tihitinna's arms and snuggled her and kissed her and just stared at her. She was just a peanut-but a perfect little peanut!

We also got to meet our dear friends Jolene and Darrins little boy Fikadu while we were there, so happy they are from the same orphanage, and they will grow up being Resurrection buddies!! :) We got to hang out at the orphanage for a while with the other kiddos, they gave us a tour of the grounds. It's very well taken care of, the children have school everyday and we were able to watch that for a little while. I hope to upload some video soon so you can all get a glimpse of a little bit of our trip! After talking with Tihitinna we got some more detailed information of Ezra's history, that we will forever hold onto. The country and the people of Ethiopia are truly remarkable and our hearts are forever in Africa!

As we were getting ready to say goodbye to her nannies and Tihitinna, a woman walks in with Ezra's medical form of her immunizations, etc. on them. She smiles at us, hugs us and asks "How's Bona"-well, it was Hiwot-Rylee Bona's nanny from the transition home-WOW! As if I wasnt a mess enough already, this was just the topper. Ryan then showed her some video of him from his 3rd birthday party-she had tears, I had lots of tears, we hugged again and thanked them all once again for taking such great care of our children! Our paths crossed again, and clearly all in God's plan!

A Christmas to Remember-

I don't really even know where to begin, there has been so much that has happened in the last few weeks, (and really the last 3 years to be honest) that has transformed us as a couple into such different people. I sat in the chair this morning holding Baby E, Rylee was sitting in his new police car that Santa had left for him and Ryan was making Christmas morning breakfast, it really was magical. We are so thankful that God has chosen us to be the parents for these 2 amazing children. It has been 3 weeks today since we've been home with our lil' princess, and grown into a family of four overnight! It really feels like she's been here forever....

There is an amazing story from yesterday and a gift that Baby E recieved that I want to share, but that will have to come at a different time, today is Christmas Day and I am going to soak in every ounce of craziness in our home that this day has to offer! Merry Christmas-may the love and peace be with you all!!!

5 days after Ezzie was home

Take-off Day!

Take-Off day started around 6:15 am on Saturday November 27th. I am glad that I got through the 26th-because that was VERY VERY hard to leave Rylee behind. He was fine, I wasn't. Once I got past all of that, got checked into our hotel at the airport I was ready for a good nights sleep and ready to get on that plane to Ethiopia! Too bad we took off at 10:08am, arriving in D.C at 11:44 am, and didn't leave D.C until 8:30 PM to head onto Rome then to Addis, but we got by! We got by with some good company we randomly met (wierd, that never happens to Ryan or I) and we had good conversation, a couple drinks with them and watched some good college football-what more could we ask for sitting in an airport for 8 hours! They asked all about our family, our story, etc etc-super super nice peeps, and so glad to pass the time with them for awhile! Rylee didn't know (nor did Ryan, until I got on the plan to D.C) that I brought along one of Rylee's dino's that he got for his birthday for good luck and to have a little piece of my buddy bud a long for the week! It worked!!! : ) Once we arrived in Addis he sat on our nightstand next to our bed all week!
The flight was really pretty un-eventful. I took my magic pill from my dr, which seemed like just a lil' jaunt across the pond after that-and Wa-La, we were in Addis! Our ride was waiting for us after we did the Visa thing and exchanged our money. We were off to Addis Flower Guesthouse(the same place we stayed with Rylee) and it's changed it's name, ownership and staff-they were good before, but we absolutly LOOOOVED everyone there that helped us for the week-such NICE NICE people!!! We got settled in, hopped in the shower and I was ready to get Baby Ezzie the next morning!!!!........... (Picutres are in reverse order, I dont know why I forget that everytime)

Right before we landed in Addis! Theo got us there safely!

He ate lunch with us!

On the flight from Detroit to D.C-and sad eyes still from the day before

Waiting to board our plane in the D!

Welcome Home Well Child Check!

Realized that I didn't post anything about Ezzies Welcome Home Well Child Check yet, and seeing how this is documenting all of their milestones into one-I better get on that! Dr. Christonson said she looks great! She did a couple routine things with her and said she wanted to do a bone density scan on her, just to be sure she's where she should be on her age mark-she was impressed with her ability to sit (pretty well) on her own, and her head control was good, she was thinking maybe around 7 months even....that came back and it shows her at right around 6 months (which is super close, within a couple of weeks) so looks like Ezzie is just doing really well for her age, which makes us feel good about the care she was recieving in Ethiopia(not that we had any doubts)-being that she was premature, and very very small (around 5 lbs) when she was referred to us-she is spot on for where she needs to be! Nice work baby girl!!!

5 month stats:

Height: 24"
Weight 12 lbs 8 oz

3 year stats for Mr.RB

Baking with his Nammy

Everyone gets this excited about new boots! Right?

YAY! A day in the snow with daddy!

Favorites!

Rylee had is 3 year well child check today. He did fabulous. I was extremely excited because the roads were terrible and Ryan decided to be father and husband of the year and take us to his appt so I didn't have to drive-love him.

He is continuing to grow very well. Dr says she's very impressed with his vocabulary-and his progress. He's 34 lbs and 42" which puts him around the 60th % for weight and 75th % for height. He was a lil' ham today, we never know what's going to come out of his mouth-luckily for us, he passed with flying colors : )

His conversation with me leading up to the appt was this:

Me:"Rylee tomorrow you have a Dr appt, and nammy is going to come and stay with Ezzie"

Rylee: "Why do I have to go to the Dr"

Me: "So, ummm-they can see how tall you are" (looking at Ryan, like was that a good answer?!)

Rylee" Hmmm, how about YOU go to the Dr-see how tall YOU are, and I'll stay home with Nammy"

Oohhhh, from the mouth of Rylee-always thinkin'.....love you RB

Settling In....

Christmas Tree Time!!

I feel like the last 4 days have been LONG-however, it's flown by. I think it's the combination of the time change, stomach issues for me, missing Rylee, Ezra adjusting to time and the new formula and new surroundings, etc etc-Rylee is LOOOOOVVVING his new baby sister. I don't know why I had been in such a "funk" but I hear it's normal, and that's refreshing, which means I am finally feeling like we're gonna make it!! : )

I stare at our 2 lil' bundles of pure joy and it makes my heart so happy. I feel very blessed that God has called upon us to be the parents of Rylee and Ezra-I am excited to get life back to normal, and continue with the everyday life of The Armbrustmachers! With Christmas fast approaching, it's going to be a busy few weeks and such an amazing time to be together with our families and friends and giving thanks to the good lord above for all the gifts he's given to us, for NO "THING" could ever top our two little miracles that stare us in the face every morning~I hope to get back here and document the days of our trip with you all-until then-a few pics since we've been home!

Home Sweet Home!!!

As a family of FOUR!!!! More to come, but just wanted to say I am ONE HAPPY MAMA to be home with all my favorites!!!!