Our Life as We Know It

G-R-O-W-I-N-G !!!!!

2012-02-08T19:22:00.000-08:00

Well, Ezzie had her 18 month well child check and she's doing WONDERFUL! : ) Well, besides that she had another ear infection which meant a trip to the ENT-and later determining that she is a great candidate for tubes in her ears....Since scheduling her appointment we have talked with a pediatric chiropractor and are going to try a couple of manipulation routes first before resorting to a surgery for our lil miss Ezra. I talked with Ryan today how hard it is for me to put her "under" not knowing her family history if we feel there are a couple other things we can try first....so, we'll head to the chiropractor on Friday and see how that goes!
Otherwise, she's growing (slow) but she is growing and moving in the right direction! If she were as chunky and tall as her PERSONALITY she would be a giant! : ) She's such a hoot, lil' diva-girl, but loves to get down and dirty with the boys too! She's talking up a storm, and starting to put a couple of word's together...tonight in the bathtub she said "I see you"! Makin' us proud baby girl! We love you-can't believe she is 18 months already! She's about 21 lbs (10th%) and i was not certain on the height, but regardless she's on the lower end of the charts, but that's ok-she's growing and we're happy with that!

Rylee went the week after for his 4 year (YES 4 year) well child check! He's 42 lbs (50th%) and about 41"(75%)....she said Big Rylee is like a string bean! : ) Rylee is loving school still-got a WONDERFUL 1st report card from his teachers, and we were even told he would be ready for Kindergarten after this year, but he misses the cut off date by 1 day, so it's ok we then aren't faced with having to make that decision, so he'll just be "extra ready" for Kindergarten after next year instead.....We were impressed, not gonna lie-that first kiddo getting his first report card is pretty special : ) Sooo, we rewarded him with dinner at Red Robin with Mommy, Daddy and Ezzie-ending it with a CHOCOLATE SUNDAE!

Our Holiday Wrap Up

2012-01-02T17:25:00.000-08:00

In trying to reach all of our closest friends and family, as sad as it is I think this is the best way to keep everyone in the loop as to what's been going on in 2011 and what we're all up to! So, this is gonna be our new thing, a lil' "year in review" for ya'll and for us to remember when we're like 60 : )

At the beginning of 2011 we were JUST settling in with our lil' princess-honestly-the first month it was a lil' bit fuzzy, so I'm glad that it's well documented-Rylee has adored her since day 1, and we are so thankful for that!

We have been so blessed by our 2 lil' munchkins, and I can't believe that we ever doubted what was going on in our lives. God's plan is ALWAYS better than the plan we have for ourselves, so I don't know what I was so worried about!

After settling in for a few months, we felt it was "ok" for mommy to take a lil' break and head out to some of our best friends wedding-Ryan was super sad to be missing out on it, but he bought me a ticket to California with my mama to visit my brother and attend our friends, Lisa and Shands wedding!!!

And while that was a fabulous get away, on my final day there we got word that Ryan had been let go from his job, and we were onto a different segment of our life-change was gonna be coming-and we knew as much stress as we were going to be under, it really was for the best....eventually it would get better, but it was a LONG summer. Blesse to have the summer months together, we just wish it would have been under different circumstances....so we took the next 4 months to spend together as a family, and as hard as it was to just emjoy that time. I truley believe that if we can get through that and come out "alive" we can get through anything! It has told us who we really are as indivisuals and who we have become as a couple, a family, a team....we have grown so much and learned a lot about life, and those who surround us....

We got home and enjoye Easter together with our family, and focused on the good in our life!

We took a camping trip up to Northern Michigan with family and friends-Ezzie LOVED it, and she was just learning to walk! She's a biggie girl! Rylee became a real outdoorsmen : )

Ezra turned 1, and we celebrated with all of our favorites!

See! Walking like a biggie-girl! I almost feel as if Ryan's time off was something "planned". This sumer my mom got very sick, and long story short required about 10-14 days in the hospital, in and out for about a month. There is NO way I would have been able to be there as much as I was for her to help out if I had to figure out something with the kiddos everyday-well, I would have-but it took MUCH stress away from that whole ordeal.....We were on our way to the hospital to visit their "nammy" in this pic!

We went to Tennessee for our adoption agencies reunion! What a wonderful weekend away that was, meeting everyone that we have all learned of via the internet during our amazing journey! CCI has done sucha wonderful job of keeping us all in touch, and gives us such great means to do so! We also got to stop and stay with some of our good friends The Haid's in Indianapolis on the way home too!

During this time, Ryan was still searching and searching, networking through ALL of this, and actually I don't know how I didn't jump off a tall building through it all. We learned not to get too excited, as it seemed everynight on the news we just kept hearing how the unemployment rate had grown. Never in a million years did we think that one of us would become that statistic, but that's why you just live your life for what you have "that day", as you're not guarenteed anything......at this point Ryan was considering a job that he knew probably wouldn't be "forever" but it was something that was able to get him out there again and still looking in the meantime. It's pretty nervwrecking to think about moving the family, leaving our home, etc-but we just do what we feel is right, go with our gut, that's all you can do!

We celebrated Rylee's "Gotcha Day" at the waterpark nearby, and on that day Ryan was "employed again"! Nothing permanent, but hey we were moving in the right direction! We felt "alive" again! And we cannot believe that we were celebrating 3 years of Rylee being home! How on earth did that happen!

The Bodine's and The Shrock's came to visit! We had an amazing weekend with our wonderful CCI family, and now our dear friends!

Kalvyn James was brought into the world on September 4th! A new baby cousin for Rylee and Ezzie to love on! Ezzie is in love with "Bubba Kal" : )

Uncle Jake came for a visit! Ezzie was not his biggest fan, thankfuly since then she has grown to not hate everyone that she doesn't see often!

We went to visit our friends Mark and Amy and their awesome lil' man Eli in Western Michigan! We are so lucky to have met such great adoption friends, that have now become more than just "adoption friends"!

Rylee Bona started preschool! Ok, let's be honest. Mommy was a MESS leading up to this day! We don't have to go through all of that, but we have loved where he is at-and he LOVES preschool. The first day as we were pulling out of the garage he says under his breath "finally, i get to play with my friends" Hahaha, o goodness-yes, that child is so deprived! : )

We played dress up on halloween, and Ryle was a shark and Ezzie a ladybug. Rylee did great trick or treating, was pretty laid back but loved all of his snacks! Ezzie thought she needed to sit down on everyones doorstep to put her treat in her pumpkin, this made for a long night : ) We lasted a good hour out on the town though!

We have had a great fall and holiday season together. We have been so very thankful for all that we have in our lives, even given all of the "set-backs". We've had all but the kitchen sink thrown at us, and we have managed to stay alive. Ryan has a job that he really loves now as an Account Manager with WLNS. I am in the salon 2 days a week, as Salon Manager, and taking appointments part time-and I am also Director with Thirty-One Gifts, in which I am still loving all of that! It also gives me the satisfaction of being at home with our kiddos too! We still don't really know what will be going on for 2012, we see some changes coming up, but I can honestly say I am ready for change! Last time I had been this emotional about life changes, God told me "I got this"-and a year later we brought our lil' boy home from Ethiopia (No, we are NOT bringing anymore kids home right now) : )...just when I think my world is crumbling, some how I am humbled how God is moving in our life, so I can't help but feel him moving mountains for us right now! We have been blessed beyond belief, and he is using us in ways we don't even know of right now, but I have to trust. Wishing you all a Happy and HEALTHY 2012!

2011-12-20T20:05:00.000-08:00

2010

2011

Our December has been crazy busy, but i have had lots of days of reflecting. This is the month that we came home last year, and let me tell you-we have had a LOT of stress in our life the last 6 months-lots of life changing events, HOWEVER-I can tell you-I am SO much more relaxed now than I was at this time last year......
This year, stress was about jobs, finances, are we making the right "financial choices" for our family - you see the "trend"-this year it's about $$$, money is an important thing and it does control almost every aspect of your life, especially when caring for 2 young children. HOWEVER-we have MOST definitly learned that $$$, believe it or not-really doesn't signify "who" you are in life, your status, etc...well, for us it doesn't-not anymore. After 2 (3) trips to Africa, 2 children that came from LITERALLY NOTHING, the LOVE we witnessed in a country that has NOTHING, the "simple" things, etc our life has been dramatically changed, and I am certain it was all part of God's master plan. I tell you, this silly "God" of ours-he makes me stomach do crazy things, he makes my mind wander in areas it shouldn't go, but ALL because it's in his plans.
One year ago, my stomach was in knots because we had just returned home with our baby girl. Our precious Ezra T. that NOW I would not CHANGE a thing for and we would do it a million times over again-it's the transition period from the trip to Africa, back home with a baby girl. It's the leaving our 3 year old at home (on his bday, and even though HE didn't know it-I did) while we were gone on a 18 hr plane ride on a short lil' jaunt across the pond, the 5 holiday parties we needed to tend to when we got home, the guilt of wondering if I really did have enough EQUAL love to give two children at once every.single.day.........the feeling of thinking i didn't have it in me to even travel to the market with BOTH of them at once, HOW ON EARTH would I do that without losing my mind, or for that matter ONE of THEM?! : ) Surpringly enough, one year later I do it all the time and I LOVE IT! (now, don't get me wrong-I never thought I would enjoy grabbing a Coffee and heading to Meijer for 2 hrs by myself either!) ....
I cannot WAIT for Christmas 2011-a year of Ezra T being in the family, our greatest gift of 2010 BY FAR-And Rylee continues to amaze us, even when she's being her diva lil' self-he helps, giggles, and sometimes tries to discipline her himself, we are so very blessed to have all that we have in our life, even if it meant lots of struggles a long the way, as long as we keep our faith we know we'll make it....Thank you everyone for all of your Love, Words of Encouragment, Laughs and tears you have shed with us a long the way-we are simply blessed in many areas of our life....Enjoy this CHRISTmas season with those you love.....

Merry Christmas, and a HAPPY HAPPY New Year!

Ryan, Meggan, Rylee and Ezra

How did he get to be FOUR?!

2011-12-09T10:01:00.000-08:00

Fabulous Cake by Erika Karber!

Rylee and his cousins Asher, Adysen and Avery

Yes, we love the Lions-happy they are not "O-fers" right now! : )

And of course at the end of the night i realized we hadn't gotten a family pic yet! Ezzie really did love her first birthday party for her brother! : )

Rylee had a football party for his 4th birthday. It was something to come to a decision on what kind of birthday he was going to have. We knew at this point it was going to be something sports related, because he is his father's son and his OBSESSED with it all already! : ) We had all of our closest friends and family over for snacks, drinks, cake and ice-cream and he was SPOILED once again by everyone! He has been playing with all of his new stuff non-stop. He plays football guys with daddy every night, has to take his motorcycles with him wherever he goes, sleeps with his LIONS pillow pet, wears his new shirts and loves his new games....We are so very thankful for all the people in our lives that celebrate our children's birthdays-from far or close to home, we are blessed to have you all in our lives!
So, Rylee is FOUR and a pretty cool cat. But, also on his day of birth-I think about his birth-mommy and how forever grateful we are for what she had to sacrifice. She has now given up all of her children to their forever families to provide a better life for them. Can you imagine making THAT choice? I still continue to pray for the day that we may be able to meet her and tell her how thankful we truly are IN PERSON. We have sent letters and photos of Rylee growing up, which is amazing in itself! I think about what his life might be like had she not made that huge decision. So, on his birthday we celebrate his life here in America, his Ethiopian values, his tummy-mommy and all of the sacrifices she has made for her children. Happy 4th Birthday little buddy!!!
WE LOVE YOU!!!

Ezzie's FIRST "Gotcha Day"!!!!

2011-11-29T18:09:00.000-08:00

Cannot believe it that Ezra has been with us for ONE WHOLE YEAR! At this time last year, we were in Ethiopia, I was so thankful to be there, holding our new baby girl, but my heart was torn being away from Mr.Rylee!
We miss Ethiopia every.single.day-I miss the culture, so beautiful and polite! So welcoming and so compassionate about their heritage!

So on this day, to you Ezra T......

We are so thankful for you. You have blessed us beyond our wildest dreams! Even at your craziest, your bright eyes and smile can light up a room. You make any "horrible" day, amazing. Your a lil' baby girl who know's what she wants, just like your mommy! You test us, and on some days you just plain hate things. You bop your brother one the head to show him you love him, you rub is head and love to lean over to give him smoochies, and you try your hardest even when he's not interested! Thank you Ezra Tilahun for bringing us more joy and headaches that we ever thought possible, it is ALL so worth it! We love you baby girl!!!!

Love and Hugs,
Mommy and Da-deeeeeeeee! : )

{Fall-ing Behind}

2011-11-28T20:02:00.000-08:00

Been a busy fall around our these parts! Ezzie is starting to talk! She says "No, No, No-Up-Dad-deeeeee-Mama-Nammy (grammy)-Reece-Rylee-Hot-Ouch-" and plenty of others' but those are her favorites! She cracks us up-her personality is a typical girls-she knows what she wants, drama queen with a lil' bit of diva-girl in her : ) We love her all the same, no worries here-but let's be honest, we know the future will be a tricky one with her! : )

Rylee is still lovin' school, his friends and daddy is certainly his BFF. He's obsessed with belts and ties now, because of course that's what daddy puts on everyday. But he waits to see what "day" it is, if it's the weekend he will dig out of his drawers close to what daddy puts on. I LOVE IT. Then of course when daddy tries to discipline mommy is the hero and he taddles on daddy. Knows how to work it already! Big week here with Ezzie's first Gotcha day tomorrow and Rylee's birthday-check back for some fun pics, until then enjoy some of our fall.....

Shark-man and Lil' Lady Bug

Been a gorgeous fall here in the mitten!

The great Pumpkin!

Ezzie's first visit to get pumpkins-she loved it!

And she even got to paint her pumpkin.....

until she put paint in her hair.....

Rylee's first preschool party!

AND....my Mama turned 60-so we did it in typical "McKean Fashion" Big ol' Surprise party with a DJ!

Thankful for Adoption!

2011-11-27T18:57:00.000-08:00

http://www.wilx.com/home/headlines/Local_Family_Thankful_For__134451408.html

Last week, we were contacted by a local news station about our adoption story, and what we are THANKFUL for. Couldn't think of anything more perfect! We were honored to say the least. But most importantly we did the story, hoping and praying that maybe we would help those considering adoption for their family! We are BLESSED beyond measure by R & E !
Enjoy! A blessed Thanksgiving to you all-by the way, Ezra "hated" her first Thanksgiving : ) ( She was dealing with an ear infection, I will blame it on that) As the day went on, she eased into the holiday, with pumpkin pie and a lil' bit of turkey....love our lil' munchkins!

Advice from a friend...

2011-11-09T10:04:00.000-08:00

This was my status on my facebook today. A friend told me that I should paste this in your scrapbook for you Ezzie, and since this really is your's and Rylee's "lifebook" that someday we will print for you guys, here you have it : )

"Today, I am thankful for one on one time with my sweet Ezzie this morning. We say she's just a crazy disaster of a 17 month old, but honestly-she loves to cuddle, read books, and sing songs too! Thank you God for bringing this sweet baby girl into our home and choosing us to be her mommy and daddy!"

And thank you for placing Rylee in our arms too! Our cup is overflowing!!!

[Cuteness]

2011-10-28T11:33:00.000-07:00

The love eachother. And I love it.

Growing Growing Growing

2011-10-23T19:55:00.000-07:00

First day of school, with his pal Mia : )

This is what Ezzie's fits look like these days-cracks us up.

Big Boy with his tooth gone!

Rylee LOOOOVES preschool! He's been at it for about a month now, and he is making lots of new friends. He is with a couple of girls from our neighborhood so he loves that. And let's be honest, this kid is a "people person" anyway, so he has no problem making friends. Who couldn't love him?! : )

I feel like the summer came and went and I was a not so good mommy blogger. This afterall is like their "life book" that eventually will be printed on paper someday. So, not only do we love to do this for you all to enjoy our slice of life, but for them too. So, at times i have to go back and "re-document" things I may have forgotten.

Let's not forget Rylee having to get his TOOTH extracted in September. This past summer he fell and chipped it front tooth. Aunt Jamie told us it was probably nothing to worry about, well about 3 months went by and finaly the ugly infection appeared right above that tooth in his gums. A big puss pocket formed and off to after hours clinic we went on a Saturday morning where they drained it with a sharp KNIFE! YES, to ME it was a KNIFE (ok maybe those scalpel things or however you spell that like Dr's use) my knees got weak, and i was a bit nauseous but mommy made it and so did Rylee like a BIGGIES! So our Mr. Mr. got to have the tooth fairy visit him at the ripe ol' age of 3.5 : ) 4 quarters were left for our big guy.

Ezzie is talking talking talking up a storm right now! Lots of words. UP, HOT, DOGGY, DADDY, MOM, POOP (huuuh?!), BALL, and I'm sure some others I can't think of right now. She LOVES to read books. She even says "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" : ) She's our busy busy girl-everyone just tells me it's "normal", I just didn't know it because Rylee was such an angel....certainly we didn't know what we were in for with Miss Ez!

Ezra has become VERY attached to mommy and daddy. She's not a big fan of men especially. Not going to lie, it makes me a very happy mama when she buries her head in my shoulder while clenching onto my shirt to not let her go....Thank you God for choosing her for us, she brightens up our days, that is FOR SURE!

Adoption: More than "the" child.....

2011-10-23T19:42:00.000-07:00

There's nothing like the bonds that have been formed through our adoptions.....Nothing. After uploading some new pics tonight, i sat at my computer and smiled to myself. Tears were welling in my eyes as I sat here and really just thought about the children. But then what got me thinking, is how God has brought ALL of these people into our lives. It's not "just" the children. It's their families too. Some of our closest friends are now the people we met through our children. They may live far away, and they may not have been our friends "the longest" but that doesn't make their friendships to us any less.

They are people who "get it". People that if we want to get on our soapbox about "it"-we can. If we need to relate to struggles, triumphs, milestones-we can. So to you-our friends in our lil' "adoption bubble"-we love you so very much and we are so blessed to have you in our lives!

Miss Zaela: She is from Ethiopia. We stayed at the same guest house in Addis. Rylee and Zaela have something "special" she is our lil' MISS Z! They have been buddies since August 2008 at the ripe ol' age of 8 and 10 months!

Miss Mia is from Guatemala-We are blessed to live next to our friends. Rylee and Mia are also in the same preschool class-Tammi and I met when we started our adoption process to help us get started and through all the paperwork madness!

Mr Luke is also from Ethiopia and live close to us as well! They are buddies and know how to ham it up when they get together! Luke now has a baby sister that was adopted from the U.S too-and is about Ezzies age!

This lady makes me smile. This is Debbie Wankel. She was our case manager for our adoption with Rylee throught CCI. She was the one who sent us our first pictures of our lil' man at only 3 months! She has older biological children, but also has 2 adopted daughters from Guatemala and Ethiopia, Heidi and Eden! After 3 years, we finally got to meet her in a Target parking lot on our way to Tennesee! See how God brings people together?!

Sweet Claire is from Ethiopia. They used our same agency and live in Indiana. Jolene and Darin are some of the sweetest people you will ever meet, but we have a blast with them! She inspires me - there is no doubt about that!

Mr.Ben was Ezzie's roomie in Ethiopia. It's amazing to me that I first held Ben while we were there to pick up Ezzie and now we get to watch him grow up with our kiddos! (Also Darin and Jolene's Mr Mr)

And then there is Mr.Marley! He was born in the U.S - Rylee LOOOOVES Marley. We met him and his mama Alison-who is now our sweet friend in a music class for the boys when they were almost 2. He is a blast!

This group is very very dear to us! We loooove the Motts and The McCoys! Our 2008 trip to Ethiopia to pick Rylee up! We traveled to Texas last Spring Break ... From Michigan to Texas to California, this friendship is something special!

This is Miss Ava( her sister Liza is below)! Tracy and Darren live in Illinois. When Ryan traveled to Ethiopia the first time by himself The Bodines took Ry under their wing and helped him out with Ezzie. We were fortunate enough to travel again with them on our pick up trip! She held Ezzie before I did and loved on her for me!

Love my sweet Jolene and Tracy (Let's not forget Stella who is also Darrin and Jolenes lil princess)

E-man! This is Mr.Eli and he is from Ethiopia too! Mark and Amy live in Michigan too so we are able to visit them often! We randomly met them via Facebook (thank you FB) they looked like "fun people" so we started chatting and the rest is history! Love this picture!

It's not always perfect! : )

2011-09-26T10:53:00.000-07:00

Today's visit to the grocery store is one for the books. I knew I was taking a risk by heading there AFTER getting Rylee from preschool. Why didn't I go before so I only had ONE child to take with me. Well, heck who cares-that wouldn't have mattered-Rylee was a sweet boy while Ezzie decided that Kroger was NOT the place for her at 11:45 today, right before lunch. Ezzie is our lil' diva girl. If Ezzie is over it, most likely she is going to convince all of us we're over it too.
It started after about 7 minutes in. She hated the cart, she hated my keys, she was not a fan of the Beaners card I tried to let her hold, the plastic bag that you put meat or produce in, and she definitly didn't care for the strangers in her face trying to "cheer her up". Love your effort people, but if you see a crying baby with snot coming down her nose, into her mouth and tears streaming down her cheeks with a mom trying to get her 4 year old to "keep up" so we can hurry and get outta the store-just smile and keep walking....finally i just needed buns, one more thing and we were off, outta the door! Ezzie was having a fit as I was making the final turn down aisle 1 when i caught eyes with Therese, the florist at Kroger we know-she offered up balloons to them she blew Rylee up a blue one and Ezzie up a pink one. From far away Ezzie LOVED it and was shouting "balloon, balloon"(in her sweet ezzie vocabulary) while pointing, then when the lady came up to hand it to her she about jumped outta the cart again-I should have just finshed up, grabbed my buns like I needed and woulda been outta there 6 minutes faster and one less crying episode. Soooo, we managed to calm her down from that one, that however was after now my shirt sleeve was covered with snot from wiping her nose, because WHAT MOTHER brings the diaper bag in on a QUICK shopping trip?! That would be silly....**SIGH** and after Ezzie snuggled into my shoulder she let out a big snort from her nose, it was then that i pulled her face toward mine to look at me and there was there a string of snot coming from her nose that had already started crusting on my shirt......I looked at Therese (the kind florist lady that we know) and said "Never did I think this would be MY life" and she said "Yes you did-and you couldn't wait for this to be your life".....
I finally was able to stroll off to grab my buns, and we ran into Miss Kami, well Ezzie hated her today too. SHOCKER. So, we calmed her down again-ALL I WANTED WAS TO GRAB MY BUNS-hamburger buns to be exact-but in the meantime Ezzie warmed up to the idea of the balloons, was loving them actually. Rylee was holding hers and Kami was ever so kind to tie them to his wrist so he wouldn't let go of them....we finally checked out and we were ON OUR WAY OUTTA THE STORE....finally!!! But before we could make it safely to the van Rylee says "UT-OH MOM" and is pointing at the ceiling, those magic balloons came from his wrist and floated up out of our reach. I looked at my poor lil' buddy who was so good and explained they were staying there. It's a good thing the WHOPPERS that I purchased for him in the check out line was enough to keep him at bay, and Ezzie, well she forgot about the balloons and was happy to be just with her mommy and Rylee off to eat lunch ; )
So, Therese is right-I couldn't wait for this to be my life, I just ask God for the patience during trips to the grocery store at lunch time!

What i thought I wanted.....

2011-09-05T20:17:00.000-07:00

What I thought I Wanted and What I want now are two VERY different things. What I thought I Wanted was a lot of money (tho, not going to lie-sometimes money just makes things a lot more "simple" to keep up in Amercia) a huge home with all of the "fixin's", white picket fence, 2 children, a boy and a girl-white ones, a brand new car every 3 years, designer hand bags, tiffany jewelry, the biggest diamond, the MOST friends, a boat, a cottage, exotic vacations, etc, etc (you get my point)....

I have always wondered the reason for the path that we have been taken on. As a matter of fact about 4-5 years ago, my faith was being tested. Like, Seriously tested. I used to think it was God punishing me. When we were trying to start a family, i just felt like my whole heart kept getting ripped outta me. I would be relaxed, I would let go and next thing I knew, it would happen all over again. How many more times was I going to go through all of that?! Well, finally after the 4th and final time, I finally told myself "I am done, I am done fighing with the higher power". Look at us now, look at how differently our life has turned out. What kinda stinks about it, is that we've learned this all "backwards".

Being "comfortable" does not always solve problems and it definitly didn't make me a better person. Life has changed A LOT for Ryan and I, we have learned how to live very differently, but ALL of this has come AFTER our eyes have been opened to the big big world that is out there. WE could not THANK GOD enough for where we've been in our life. Today, I would rather go to Africa than on an exotic vacation, I would rather have 2 cars for us to safely get our family around in and not have car payments every month, I am SO happy we have 2 lil' Ethiopian babies that call us mommy and daddy, I would love to be able to sell our home and down-size, I am happy with the small CLOSE circle of friends I call my favorites, I am thankful for jobs that allow us to pay our bills every month, I am thankful for the HEALTH of our family and friends, and so much more.

So, What I thought I Wanted and Where I am now are very different. My dream someday would be to join the mission field and serve in Africa, my eyes have been opened, I can't pretend that it didn't touch me. I can't just walk away from it. So, when I find myself complaining that I have nothing to wear, I am reminded of the little boy starting at me with no shoes and no pants running through mud puddles in the back of our guest home in Addis. When I complain we have no food, I see the children BEGGING for a pack of crackers, When I complain about how dirty our house is-I remember the women and children sleeping on the side of the streets, When I complain about how whiney the kids are, I am thankful THEY are here and call us mommy and daddy......with all of this I am so very thankful to God for taking me on this VERY different path in life, and even if it's been a struggle, we're making progress to where we're supposed to be in life.....

Happy "Rylee Bona" Day-3 years in our arms!

2011-08-23T11:17:00.000-07:00

Rylee Bona has been home 3 years and SERIOUSLY, HOW?! Where has time gone?! He brings joy and laughter to our days, makes us scratch our heads, his baby sister ADORES him, he loves the word "stinky", he asks things by making a statement "Mom, I can't have gum!" "You are right, you can't have gum" (but really is saying Mom, may i have some gum please) : ), He's our lil' ham, LOVES LOVES LOVES to play with his friends, a huge helper, loves to "race" and "win" at everything, so badly wants to ride a big boy bike without training wheels, thinks that "bottoms" are hilarious, and this list goes ON!

The memories of picking him up from his crib for the first time in Ethiopia is so freshly in our minds! Mr.Laid back personality, go with the flow kinda' dude-that's exactly how he is now! We thank God every single day for the blessing of adoption, and for choosing us to be his mommy and daddy!

Dear Sweet Rylee:

Thank you for bringing us so much joy, and teaching us what LOVE truley is! Thank you for shaping us into the people that we are, and what we hope to be someday! This world is such a big big place, it is truley an act of God that you were brought to us! Don't ever forget the country that you came from, your tummy mommy that brought you into this world, who still loves you very very much! We love you more than you will ever know! Thank you for being the best bubbies in the whole wide world!

XO, Mommy and Daddy

We spent the day at the aquatic center by our house! And then The Ballards joined us for dinner and ice cream! All of it Rylee's choices! It was a RYLEE BONA day doing all of the things that he loves! XOXO lil' man!!!! How do i ALWAYS forget to get a family pic on his special day??? UGH, it will just have to be late! Atleast we'll do it in the MONTH of August, how's that?! : )

ONE Year Stats are IN!

2011-08-10T06:37:00.000-07:00

We took Ezra T. to her one year appointment (at 14 months).....

Height: 29"

Weight 18lbs 14 oz

Bringing her to the 10th percentile for weight and 50th percentile for height! Maybe we have a lil' model on our hands....She also has 3 (almost 4) teeth that have popped through! She's such a biggie girl!

Hope for Africa | A Glimmer of Hope

2011-08-06T09:04:00.000-07:00

Can you donate even $5 ? 100% goes directly to Ethiopia!

Please feel free to become a follower, re-post this to your blog and see how many lives we can change!!!

Thank you!

Hope for Africa A Glimmer of Hope

Hope for Africa | A Glimmer of Hope

2011-08-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

Hope for Africa A Glimmer of Hope

Anything is great appreciated! $5,10,20,50,100-whatever you can do will change the lives of ONE-ONE person at a time, we can help!

2011-08-04T07:58:00.000-07:00

It's no secret that I have a heart for Africa.

Is it frustrating that those closest to us do not have the same passion that we do? Yes. Is that wrong? Maybe. But it's hard to just let go. It's hard that they can look at their niece/nephew/grandaughter/grandson/cousin/friends/etc. and NOT feel the need to make a change. I will be asking them all to take a challenge for one month, to give something up-because the images below are children that have touched our lives. They are children that may or may not still be in Ethiopia dealing with the drought right now. Because images that I have seen in the past week, very well could have been OUR children. We can't SAVE the country of Ethiopia-We can't CHANGE the world-but we can change one LIFE at a TIME! We can make a difference in the life of one child, so their picture won't be the next image we see scrolling across the headlines suffering from the severity of the drought in Africa.

I would like to take a page out of their book. They are humble, they are SO thankful for what they have. Now, don't get me wrong-we are Americans. So part of us are just programmed to be a typical American. To want more than what we need, to buy things we don't use, to gamble money away, get paid millions of dollars to be an amaing athelete or actor/actress-To live beyond our means, needs etc....At the same time, I'm going to do all I can to make sure we're caring for the orphan and the widow. We are ALL responsible to care for the orphan and widow .

If I could jump on a plane right now and I was sure my children back here had the care they needed from our friends/family-I MOST definitly would. I wish I didn't care so much, I wish it wasn't heavy on my heart every single day. I've seen it, I've touched it, It's not "made for TV" to get more money. Everyone asked us "What was it like" when we got home from Ethiopia. I simply said "The poverty is exactly as you see it on TV, but the country is so rich in their love for EACHOTHER" That's they part that hurts the most-I have seen the JOY and LOVE they have in thier hearts-and then to see this is heartwrenching.....

I have gotten a couple of message from our friends asking what they can do to help, where to donate to-here is a couple that we are partnering with-they give 100% of the proceeds directly to aid! I have started a campain on my own with a goal of $1000 raised by the end of August-We can do this! I will be posting a link soon!

Ezzie's ONE year pictures!

2011-08-02T11:03:00.000-07:00

Seriously, can someone pinch me because I still can't believe how BLESSED we have been! I look at these pictures, and think we must have done something right for God to allow us, and choose us to be the parents of these two! Ok, yes Ezra turned ONE on June 26th-however life has been busy so we're playing catch up!

Thank YOU-Cortney Tostevin Photography!

Missin' you

2011-07-30T11:56:00.000-07:00

Since I have been a bad blogger lately (Thanks Jolene!) I tried to get on here and upload some pics, but well-my battery is dead so while that's charging I thought I would reflect on some things that have been on my mind lately....

For instance lot's of things Im just "missing". Ya know where you have those days or those times where you're just missing something?? Well, I think I have been having lots of "those times" lately...Here's what I've been missing.....

Jake. Yep. I'm not really "sure" why, but yeah-we miss Jake here. He's the brother that you can love and hate all in the same second-no joke. It's true. But we'd love to have him home. I think it's wishful thinkin....

My Bestie-Jen. She's just on vacation for 11 days, but I sitll miss her.

The McCoys. Lisa and Shands are some of our closest friends, it's sad that they live about the farthest away from us. Come to Michigan soon guys-we miss you like crazy! (No worries Zaela, you're coming up....)

The Mott's. We MISS you guys in San Antonio! Come soon. PLEASE?!

My Mom to be 100% again! It's been almost a month since she's been sick. Rylee and Ezzie do not like their nammy sick. Long story on that, she had colitis, was in the hospital and left hospital only to come back with a staph infection-what a CRAZY few weeks it's been! Prayers for my mama to get well SOON!!!

Miss Z-you sweet lil' princess! Rylee and Zaela are boyfriend and girlfriend. No joke. He "calls" her all the time....too sweet.

And what might I miss in this picture? I miss drinking cocktails with Beth : ) Yep, I can't wait for our first happy hour again. She's been preggers for what feels like an eternity, so in a few short weeks after our new nephew arrives I will take Beth her favorite cocktail!

Oh, How I miss California. It's still in my dreams to move there someday. I can't tell you when or if that will ever happen, but I like to think someday it might happen if that's what's thrown at us!

Donald and Kim. We miss the Mason's like crazy! Kim's getting better everday and Rylee still pray's everynight for them! We hope to be able to get to Florida to see them!

Miss Emilie Voss. I really do miss her too....

Last but not least, because I think this is what I miss the MOST.....Beautiful Ethiopia. That country has touched our hearts in a way i never knew was possible.

Of course I miss a lot of things, but these are a few that strike me......

Coming Soon:

A heavy heart for Africa

What's Rylee and Ezzie up to?

Where have we been?

What's coming up for the Armbrustmachers!

And more!... : )

I kinda like that-keep y'all interested, but then sometimes you get the random posts like these ones to hold y'all over (yep, just got back from Tennessee)....Have a blessed weekend everyone! I miss YOU too!

AND....we have a walker!

2011-07-06T16:42:00.000-07:00

Ezzie has taken her first steps! Officially I would say she's walking but she still prefers to crawl....video to come! She was being a lil' DIVA tonight-Love that lil' munchkin!

What's meant to be will be.....

2011-07-06T08:17:00.001-07:00

For years now I have "dreamt" of moving away for awhile, exploring something new, getting away from it all, etc. Apparently that's not in our cards right now. I don't know if I take the approach "If it was meant to be, it would happen without much effort" or "If we really want something in life we have to go for it and look at ALL angles to get there" ????

We put our house up for sale, we wanted "lesser of a home", our debt and living our life were more important to us, we didn't need 2400 sq feet to live in, we wanted to live in an area with more diversity, more to do, more for us and the kids, etc-you get my drift.....but when it came down to it, and 3 offers on our home later, searching for jobs, etc we have come to the conclusion that we think we're right where we're supposed to be for now. We always say "never say never", but for now we're thankful we have a beautiful home for our children, a safe place to live and for our children to grow up in, close friends and family-BUT something tells me I'm not done dreaming about where our lives might take us in the coming years.....

Jobs are hard to find, there seems to be NOTHING. Peoples incomes are getting cut left and right-but we're thankful for what we have in our lives, we have love, family, friends, health and most importantly God in our lives, to guide us and keep us focused on what's important in life. Somehow we have to keep reminding ourselves, this isn't OUR plan, it's God's plan he has FOR our family! Enjoy some pics of our lil' slices of heaven.

Rylee Conversations: Part 2

2011-06-29T05:09:00.000-07:00

Eating lunch, Ryan and I are talking about dinner plans....

Me: I think I'll throw together like tater-tot casserole

little more conversation goes on.....

Rylee: But mama, what did you say?
Me: About what?
Rylee: What did you say about dinner?
Me: I said that I would probably make tater-tot casserole
Rylee: Hmmm, I don't think I'll be able to eat dinner.....
Me: Oh yeah-why's that
Rylee: I'll be busy....

Tehehe, needless to say-Rylee Bona was NOT impressed with the choice of dinner that night, I think he was at the dinner table for about an hour trying to finish it..... : )

My Montage 6/20/11 at OneTrueMedia.com

2011-06-20T07:19:00.001-07:00

Ezzie's 1st Birthday Party!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Beauty is pain.....

2011-06-01T13:48:00.000-07:00

And Ezzie learned that at the ripe ol' age of 11 months. Our sweet Ezzie got her ears pierced! Only to lose one of them 2 days later-in her bed, while she was sleeping. Thankful she didn't find it and put it in her mouth in the meantime. Looks like we'll be gettin' one ear re-done. Yes, I am a horrible horrible mother for inflicting such pain.
Sweet-Happy Girl

And we let daddy do this. Usually it's mama at Dr appts with shots. I thought he could handle this one : )

Love you sweet baby girl....

Get by with a lil' help from my FRIENDS!

2011-05-23T11:07:00.000-07:00

It's no secret that Rylee Bona is our lil' social man. He loves all of his lil' buddies-here are a few from the past month-Just hangin' out and lovin' life!

Art Festival with Cameron-makin' a lil slime.

Road trip to Indiana-Claire and Rylee being silly

ANd there are always private concerts held by Connor when we visit Uncle Jody and Aunt Beths

A trip to Royal Oak to visit Aubrey!

Mixed bag.....

2011-05-10T05:00:00.000-07:00

We had a great Easter this year with our TWO fabulous kiddos! Rylee had been dreaming of an umbrella, and whatta know-the Easter bunny knew just what to throw in his basket : ) Ezzie loved her bunny and some sunglasses, but her favorite was her puffs!
We spent the day at my parent's house, and the day before we went to Ryans moms for an Easter egg hunt with cousins and a BBQ-good good family weekend!
A few days after Easter it was also time for a lil' get-away for mama! For my 30th birthday Ryan got me a flight out to Cali to see my brother and hang with him, at the same time our fabulous friends Lisa and Shands got married!!! A lil' scary accident happened to our friend Chris Mott a week before we were all supposed to meet in Cali-she was thrown off a horse, broke her tail bone and had to cancel the trip last minute, we sure did miss her-but thank goodness she is doing wonderful now, and that was the worst of it!
Lisa was gorgeous, Lil' Miss Zaela stole the show and of course Shands-you looked pretty cool yourself! They have grown to be some of our closest friends, when you travel the road that we have to and from Ethiopia together, it's a bond that can't be explained! We are so blessed to have them in our lives!!!! Congratulations guys!

Catching up a lil' bit in the blogging world, so i'll be back to post a lil' of this and that of what's going on-big changes coming up for the Armbrustmachers! Please say a lil' prayer that we will be making the right decisions for us and the kiddos-we feel good about it all-just would love any lil' extra encouragment we could get thrown our way! : )

Conversations with Rylee

2011-04-18T07:15:00.000-07:00

Watching Dancing with the stars....Rylee is watching very intensly....

Rylee: I like her B-I-N-A's

Me: Her B-I-N-A's, what are those??

Rylee: (Point towards his chest area) These things, these right here-she's got fruities in there!

Me: (????) Oh Rylee, you're so silly (!!!) HEr name is Karina Smirnoff, she's a good dancer isn't she?!

Rylee: Ohhh, Moff's i like her Moff's (Karina Smir"moff"??) I dunno-

Me: No, Rylee her name is Karina Smirnoff......

Fast forward to the next day-

My mom is changing Ezzie's diaper, bending over you apparently could see down her shirt-Rylee squeals points and says

"THOSE! Those are what I'm talking about-those are Moff's!"

SERIOUSLY RYLEE??! Oh my word.....

Goin' North.....

2011-04-12T13:50:00.000-07:00

Who goes North for Spring Break? Yep, we do-and a long with some of our best friends we headed to Great Wolf Lodge with the kiddos! Drove home in possible the most bizarre weather on the way home-listening to Baseball on the radio, snowing an hr before that driving through sleeet/ice/rain mix with a little bit of lightning going on....yep, that my friends is "Pure Michigan" for you.....You would never guess that in this first photo tho-we had a random 83 degree day the final day of spring break....so for all those coming home from the south, they were able to ease back into the weather in the mitten! We all had a blast at the Lodge, with a lil' bit of girlie time for Jen and I in downtown tasting wine at a cute lil' place called Cherry Republic, walked away happy mamas with 2 bottles of wine each-score! The guys were happy-they had baseball on, kids napping and then we all headed to our favorite "B-dubs" for the final four games to start, lil boys did really well-had sprite, lolli-pops and wings for dinner-the babies content-one in his car seat, and the other in a high chair-'cause you know lil' Miss Thing needs to be up around looking to see what's going on now like a biggie girl! Rylee loved the water, and Ezzie crawled away like a lil crab outta the sand every time she saw the big, infamous bucket dump all of the water out-it was the cutest thing ever-didn't know she could scurry away that fast : ) We spent most of our time on the lazy river-while the big boys took the lil' boys to play basketball in the water! Such a fun weekend away with friends, nice lil' get away-just what the Doc. ordered!

83 degrees April 10th!

At the end of our week, basketball time at my brothers!

The expressions on both of their faces is too cute....Rylee with Uncle Jody

Practicing on the big boy hoop....

Leaving Great Wolf.....

I do find it crazy how much the resemble eachother....xo

My handsome lil' man!

All goin' a bit stir crazy.....

2011-03-25T04:48:00.000-07:00

Ezzie showin' off her new hair pretty mama found her at this cute lil boutique while in Indianapolis....one of those stores you walk by, stop go back and look in for a minute, then go up and realize you have about 15 minutes until the Indy-Go Bus is going to come...so the guys headed to the ATM-I headed to Periwinkles and came out a happy girl! Love stores like those! More to come from Periwinkles.....

This is poor Rylee's arm. Treadmills are NEVER a good thing for a 3 year old-but this was honestly a freak thing-Ryan was running, got off for a sec-in the meantime Rylee's ball had rolled under the treadmill-he didn't think twice about just going to reach under the MOVING BELT to grab his ball-simple task right? WRONG. Treadmill-1, Rylee-0 It's getting better.

Just a typical evening at home!!! Maybe getting a bit stir crazy from this Michigan weather...

So.Over.Winter!

Ezzie has 2 lil' chompers coming in the bottom! Finally they popped through...certainly she's been working on them for quite some time!

She now has added "b-b-b-b" while waving, so besides dadadadada, I would say that "Bye-Bye" would be her first word she's working on. Sad to think that she's now at the age that Rylee was when we brought him home from Ethiopia. Every stage is so fun, you want to just bottle it up forever!

Rylee is still obsessed with USHER. He puts his shoes on "These are like Ushers". Watching American Idol and says "That's USHER's friend" "Mom, when I was watching Justin Beiber, USHER came on and I was like freakin' out" (REEAAALLLLY?! did my 3 year old just say "freakin' out"???) He loves to dance, he has made me replay the Grammy awards where Beiber/USHER/Karate Kid (Jaden Smith) did their segment-yes, we had to DVR it-now we have it for as long as we "need", until he's over with this Beiber/Usher thing.

Rylee is like (if not worse as Ryan said) his cousin Maeva in the # of times he can/will/needs to change his clothes throughout the day....seriously, his room looks like mine did (or still does sometimes) growing up-clothes in his room EVERYWHERE....very particular about wearing the same color of shorts that Ryan does when they're going to play basketball. He looooooves shoes-very particular about his shoes.

So. That's a lil' of us as we close out winter (SEE-YA!!!!) here in the mitten. We're so over this weather, and are looking forward to spring to get out play, run, travel this summer and be away!

As good as it gets....and I'm totally GREAT with that

2011-03-08T10:38:00.000-08:00

Since this is now our family blog and not just about our adoptions anymore, I thought I would take time to tell you all about the special "big man". He always says he wants to get on here and blog, and write and throw his 2 cents in, which i would love for him to do-but let's be honest. The man is B-U-S-Y. If he's not putting in 50+ hours a week in at his job, he's home with us hanging out, doing laundry that I slack on during the week (bad bad me), playing with the kids, rubbing my feet, putting our virtual wallet budget planner together on the computer, scrolling through the MSU message boards (boooo! love you babe), watching some sort of sports on the television, talkin' with the guys, traveling to Arizona (nice work sweets), etc etc etc....you get my drift. The man is busy, the man is dedicated and the man is a hard worker.
When Ryan and I first started dating-it was him in North Carolina, me in Michigan. (Why are we STILL in Michigan you ask?) Good question : ) But we're here, in the mitten-with our very different life than we could have imagined for ourselves 10 years ago. Our life together wasn't always "picture perfect", I love him more today than the day we married-I never understood how that happened with people. But-now I do, I totally get it and it totally makes sense. We got married when I was young, I was barely legal drinking age young. "Some" questioned if HE was doing the right thing, maybe I was the bad apple I dunno....I seem to think I was a good apple, who had a good heart, who cared deeply about him-but NOT enough to move to North Carolina to be with him. He came home-back to Michigan, you would have thought at that point i would have gained some points with "some", bringing Ryan back to Michigan. I still wonder what I was thinking when I told him that no, I couldn't move to North Carolina, MY family was here....and so was his. Lately, we have been reminded a lot about WHY it could have been good for me to go there.
But fast forward to where we are today. Fast forward through all the hard times in our marriage, getting used to living together, growing up, trying to start a family-and feeling like I was a complete FAILURE at that for 3 years....it's hard-anyone that has struggled with this knows exactly where i am coming from. It wears on you and it puts a strain on even the strongest of relationships.....and I felt at times, that it almost took us to the breaking point-but never got there. And I thank God everyday that he has taken us to where we are today. We've had to go through A LOT to where we are, to have our "picture perfect" family. I am SO thankful that He held my hand through this all and made me realize that what He had in store for Ryan and I was much more than anything we had planned for ourselves.
Ryan is one of THE most amazing guys I've ever met in my life. We get eachother. He does stupid stuff that only I get, and we have our "inside jokes". We've gone places together that especially now we never would have DREAMED of....The pictures where I see Ryan in Africa with these kids and the person that it has made him to be, is touching. He's not the person that he "used" to be-He's made me a better person. We compliment eachother-I just wanted you "all" to know a lil' bit more about the person that got us to where we are today....To Africa and back 3 times with the most amazing little blessings we could have ever asked for......

February Fun-and We have a Crawler!

2011-02-20T13:24:00.000-08:00

This would be USHER. And Rylee didn't budge for like 11 full minutes. He was a "surprise" at the Super Bowl halftime show, and the look on his face when he came down was priceless!

Biggie girl!

Rylee and his best buddy. Everything he does is just like cousin Connor

Ezzie got to meet Uncle Jake for the first time when he came home for my birthday and her baptism...

ANd.....Yes. It's official, i believe our life is about to get especially C-R-A-Z-Y! Ezzie is EVERYWHERE-behind chairs, wedged between furniture, attempting to go for the basement stairs-AND everything else.

So at almost 8 months she is:

*Crawling

*Eating Fruits and Veggies

*Has tried Puffs (doesnt love them)

*Pulls herself up at times

*Waves (with her left hand)

Annnnnd, she is still not sleeping through the night. Oh well-she is just sweet and we can't believe that she's almost been home with us for 3 months already!

TIME FLIES WHEN YOU'RE HAVIN' FUN!

RUNNING FOR ORPHANS!

2011-02-18T11:15:00.000-08:00

Learn how YOU can change the life of ONE by reading below......

Ok, so those of you that don't know me-I will first tell you that I am NOT a runner. I have never liked/"enjoyed" it-however, last spring i met an amazing person, Kim (see her blog: http://www.justanotherrunningdiva.blogspot.com/ ) through my fabulous cousin Sara! Well, I always joked I could never run out to my mailbox (which is within arms reach almost, haha)-without wanting to die. Well, I got hooked up with Kim-took her Running 101 class, and now Running 102 class, and whatta know-I have decided I am going to give ALL my effort into running the Chicago Rock n Roll 1/2 martathon! It's taking a lot of hard work and determination but let's be honest-there is NO way I can back out now....BECAUSE..........

I am partnering with ORDINARY HERO and will be RUNNING FOR ORPHANS IN ETHIOPIA!!!! AND YOU CAN JOIN MY TEAM!!!! ( http://www.ordinaryheroblog.blogspot.com/ )

Seriously, you have NO idea how excited I am to be running for such an amazing organization! Even if the thought of running 13.1 miles makes me wanna hurl-I KNOW that I can do this! I know that with every step I take there is a child that is walking 10 hours just to get FRESH drinking water for their family, I know that there are thousands of children in the city of Addis Ababa that are walking without shoes. Running 13.1 miles is the LEAST i can do to raise money for these children! PLEASE can you consider donating (a link will be coming soon, and I will post the official "start donating" post as soon as I get it) and would you consider joining our team to run for Ordinary Hero and the orphans in Ethiopia!? Kelly, of OH posted a link on her latest post about it as well, please pass this to anyone you know, become a follower of my blog and get the word out!!! Thank you ORDINARY HERO for doing such amazing things!! I am blessed to be a part of it!

Feel free to shoot me an email at megmckean@yahoo.com if you would like more information on joining our team in Chicago!! Check back soon and there will be a link to donate!!!!

Social Circles.....

2011-02-15T12:38:00.000-08:00

On Valentine's Day (not that it matters that it was V-Day or not) this year I left Facebook, and came back to Facebook all in the matter of 6 hours. I left because as of late it's consuming "too much" of me, more than it is me enjoying connecting with those we don't live close to or other adoptive families. Generally, it's me being annoyed by someones status updates-or people knowing way too much that's going on in our lives-which clearly is by "my doing" and that's my fault, but at the same time I didn't realize that everything we say or do is under the radar. In that 6 hour period i had many messages and many texts thinking that something was WAY wrong, or how to find me and get a hold of me for 31 questions, parties, etc...soooo that made me decide that it was going to be way more annoying to deal with the logistics of communicating the old fashioned way via telephone or just plain emails than it was to just deal with the world of facebook, take some smaller baby steps away from it all, and keep things a lil' more "under wraps" with our life. After all, does anyone "really" care that I had a mole removed from my butt-cheek on Valentine's Day morning and it's being sent in for testing? No, i didn't think so. : )
So instead I am going to limit myself to what FB is "used" for, stick to our lil' circle social that we love very much and carry on with our lil' family that I'm crazy in love with (how cute r my lil' Valentines?!-see below!)
Ryan and I had a lil' "date night" out-to dinner n a movie-it was great to get out and have "us" time, we laughed a lot, reflected a lot and really talked about how crazy life has gotten!

Ezzie T is ALLL OVER THE PLACE and she's not even technically crawling yet. I was doing laundry this morning, only to come back to find a soggy piece of popcorn (small small piece) stuck to the side of her cheek that clearly she was trying to get into her mouth-then later she was under our kitchen table and then at one point she was wedged between her jump-a-roo and our entertainment center grabbing at the black cable cord that was screwed into the wall-She's gonna give us a run for our money for a long time to come!

Rylee painted Daddy a picture frame for V-day and he says to me "All the best buddies can go in this frame" I said "Yeah, like me you and Ezzie" so daddy can put it on his desk at work-Rylee says "No, like me and Connor".....-I almost measure up to an 8 year old boy! : )

{I am a child of God}

2011-02-09T12:13:00.000-08:00

Ezra was baptized into Christ on Sunday February 6th! It was a great morning at church, and we were surrounded by our whole family! My brother flew in from California, and everyone went for lunch after church service for a lil' celebration!!! We love you Ezzie T!!!

Ezzie with Pastor

Love my family!

Pastor says "Wow-she's really good"!

Our lil' Tornado....

2011-02-08T10:39:00.000-08:00

Tornado Ezzie has made it's way around our home the last week or so! As of late she has started "army crawling" and making her way to anything she sets her eyes on....WOW, she's just so different "natured" than Rylee, she's a riot in a whole different way-

What else is Ezzie doing???.....

Starting to babble A LOT! Saying "Da Da Da Da" and clicking her tongue,everytime we're eating she puckers up her lips and licks and smacks 'em....really, doesn't get much cuter!

She loooooves eating her fruits/veggies! There really hasn't been any that she won't eat!

Rylee is THE FUNNIEST thing to her right now. He can make her giggle like nothing else.

WE have a fiesty lil' princess on our hands, wow-what a strong natured lil' girl she is-good work sister!
AND we're certain that ANY DAY she's going to start full blown CRAWLING! right now she pushes herself up to all fours and rocks...we all know what comes next...eeeeek-brace yourselves!

She was baptized on Sunday February 6th, I will post those pics as soon as I feel like going to grab my camera and downloading them.....It was a beautiful day, and was so very special!

AND- rylee still thinks she's pretty cool-he wants to get her up in the morning, he wants to see if she went "poopers", he wants her to sit by him at dinner, I'm thinking that next post I will be talking about how ANNOYING he thinks she is because certainly when she starts crawling, it's gonna go downhill from there!

Favorites!

2011-01-29T05:10:00.000-08:00

I am still waiting for the day when all _ _ _ _ breaks loose in this home and Rylee is asking for Ezzie to go home, away, someplace else-not really caring where, just away because she's annoying. I'm sure our time is coming, and I'm certain it won't stay this way forever-but for right now all is well between RB and Ezzie! He knows that he's cool, she thinks that he's hilarious-what more does a big brother want?! Thank you Rylee Bona for being such a biggies through this whole thing!

We are loving that he's asking for more attention, I think i love it because he's grown to be such an independant lil' boy, wanting to do everything himself-for him to want more of our attention and asking for more mommy and daddy time is sweet! If we pick Ezzie up, he asks "Can you hold us BOTH-sure can buddy, might explain part of my recent trips to the Chiropractor-but yes absolutly I can!

Here's some fun pics that are getting us through the winter! We are excited for some fun times in the next couple months to get away and outta the house!

Seriously, Rylee cracks Ezzie up-she thinks she got THE coolest big brother ever. I think Rylee thinks she got the coolest big brother ever too-

It's this stuff that brings our Ezzies giggle more and more everyday! Rylee got this police uniform from his cousin Connor, and for the first few days-we couldn't get it off of him-Im thinking this will be a familiar clothing choice this spring when he get's out in his new police car...

Our best friends kiddos with ours=special! Rylee, Ezzie, Cameron and Nolan-Cameron

Rylee with his Auntie Jamie after getting his teeth cleaned! He is very lucky that his auntie can do this, he did so well and got 2 treats after sitting so good! He thought he was pretty cool in the shades

First time to the dentist-January 2011! Nice work RB!!!

Changing the lives of ONE......

2011-01-23T17:04:00.000-08:00

I've always been a very emotional, sensitive person. Today has me all tripped up and it started this morning in church. We got a new pastor installed last week, i can already tell you I love him-I've gone to church all my life, my mind would tend to wander and get lost in what was being said in the sermon, but today it grabbed me. I listened, I learned, and I am going to run with it, but more ironically it really hit home! He talked a lot about our "missions" in life and what was our "mission" going to be? He said if you could just change the life of "Just One"-I couldn't help but be the sappy one in church that looked down at my sleeping baby girl, and our lil MR and think "we have changed the world for one, we've changed the world for two" and I want to change the world for many more. Now, it might not be necessarily in adoption, but I am a FIRM believer that God took us on the path in our life together, brought us where we are today for that reason. I then got home and spent the day with the family, Ezra slept in my arms for an hour and i fell asleep with her (this is really HUGE in our world, Ezra wasn't always the most cuddly baby-and it makes me believe the beginning of her first few days in life had something to do with this) Rylee was playing football (in the house, this mama says it's ok to throw the ball in the house) with his daddy-I come to do a couple things on the computer and I find an early birthday gift from our dear friends Shands and Lisa (you all know, Zaela's mommy and daddy) whom we met IN ETHIOPIA picking up Rylee. They are VERY VERY dear friends of ours now, and had our hearts not been led to changing the life of "just one" they wouldnt be in our lives now-I can't even imagine that. Well, they sent me a gift certificate to "147 million orphans"- (http://www.147millionorphans.com) again my heart was so full of complete thankfulness and joy-together, we all continue to change the lives of one! I know there is more that we can be doing in our lives, we just have to find the means and the tools to do it-and someday we will. We are going to change the lives of many many more! There are way too many out there that need love, mommies, daddies, education, clothing, shoes, etc, etc! What are YOU going to do to change the life of one?

6 month stats!

2011-01-19T15:24:00.000-08:00

Ezzie had her 6 month well child check today, she's gained about a pound and a half, so she's right on at 14 lbs! She has an ear infection, no fever and still acts like her fistey self and still thinks that her big brother is THE most hilarious to watch-

Dr. Christonson said that she is doing tremendously, and seems to be ahead of "the game" doing a lot of things that maybe babies do at 7 or 8 months, I am a proud mama-and not saying bc I feel that WE have done anything special since she's been here, more so that we are SO grateful that we know the babies that are from Ethiopia are taken very very good care of! They love them like their own and do everything they can to make sure they are big and strong!

2011-01-17T05:07:00.000-08:00

I don't think that there was a happier mama on December 4, 2010! The flight out of Addis was fine, we got a bassinet seat so Ezra was able to sleep in that-which is good because until now she was NOT a cuddler! She slept pretty well, we got some rest and before we knew it we were landing in D.C!
Coming down the escelator i was a bawling mess the moment that I saw Rylee standing there, a long with everyone else waiting for us! As we stepped off, he came running to us and at that moment my heart was full! He had a look of confusion, sadness, and shyness to him as we came to get him-to be expected, but goodness the moment that we all got in the car to drive home, he was on GO! So excited to finally be with us again and from that moment on he has done REALLY well with his baby sister! We are truley SO thankful for all that God has given to us in our lives! From this moment on, our lives were forever changed!!!

What a difference in 6 months!

2011-01-14T05:54:00.001-08:00

On July 16th, 2010 we got the referral of our sweet, tiny-5 lb baby girl!!!!

and TODAY.....

6 months later we have our princess home and she is growing like a weed! She even is getting some lil' chunky thighs! Get at it Ezzie T! WE love you!!!!

Our final day in beautiful Ethiopia

2011-01-13T02:51:00.000-08:00

We went out and did some final shopping on our last day in EThiopia with The Bodines, Kelly Meiser and The Nelsons. We didn't leave until 10:15 PM out of Addis, so we had the whole day on Friday to tie up some loose ends on the shopping front! Lots of begging, a little boy came to us more than once-it appeared he had been in some sort of fire, and his face was a very very hard image to remove from our minds, to this day I can see it so perfectly. It was one of those things where I woke up Friday a.m and was bursting with excitement to be able to say "We're going home tonight Ezzie!!!", but I also knew come time to leave I was going to be a wreck. Yes, in fact when it was time to go I had a hard time holding it together. Those final goodbyes were very very hard. One of those things, you can't wait to be home when your're there, but now that we're home and have been for over a month now I miss it. Very. Much! Can't say that we've never given the "thought" (if even for a very brief second) of moving to ET and doing work there, never say never-we're Ryan and Meggan-The "random, crazy" Armbrustmachers....never know what might happen next with us!

Ava and Yonni

This is the 'norm in Addis

Ethiopia's Soccer Stadium

This little boy was sitting across the road from our gate at the guest home, Ryan reached his hand out the window and gave him the last couple of suckers that we had left-he went back sat on his shoe shining stool with THE biggest smile on his face, and waved us goodbye-a sucker ladies and gentleman, he was so happy and SO thankful for a sucker we had given him-sweet boy. One of my favorite pics.

Loved these peeps! Bodines, Antonio, Andersons, Douglas and his father all made our week that much more enjoyable for the week!

Embassy Day!

2011-01-11T18:38:00.000-08:00

OUr day started off with some shopping with the Bodines and the Anderson families-we were so blessed to be with such good families this time around again, it really "makes" the week in Ethiopia so memorable, from Rylee's adoption we made some of our closest friends while staying in Ethiopia-and same goes for this trip!
Shopping was cut a lil' short, we thought our Embassy was at 2:30-but around 11:15 Alazar tells us that Dereje said our Embassy was at 12:30, hmmmm-OK! It's Ethiopia, we'll go with it! Embassy went great, no worries and finally all of the paper part of our adoption was COMPLETED! We just had to wait for the next day to get all of her papers from Dereje, passport, birth certificate, VISA, etc etc etc!

We all went out to Absynnia and celebrated that night! It's amazing (food if you like Ethiopian, atmosphere, dancing, singing)! All of us families took Yonathon , and all of the nannies out for dinner for making our week at Addis Flower Guest House so great! They did so much for us all week, we just wanted them to know that we appreciated every ounce of it!

YAY! Officially we're DONE!!! (Our first family pic with Ezzie, on Day 5-oops!)

A trip to Blue Nile Gorge (Day 4)

2011-01-04T10:03:00.000-08:00

I was really excited for this day. After Tuesday being a pretty emotional day-I was ready for this trip! We were able to travel about 2 hours outside of the city. We went with the Bodine Family (see their blog here http://www.bodinefamilyadoption.blogspot.com/). Great great friends of ours now, and we are so blessed that we had them to share in such amazing part of our lives! The Blue Nile is like the "Grand Canyon" of the United States.

On the way there, we would drive through all of the small villages-each time we were waved and smiled at. Children were playing in the fields, I had asked Alazar if it would be "ok" to stop by a long side the road to see the children, give them some crackers and get a couple of pictures with them-so we did. Apparently, it was ok. We got out of the car and the children came running from all different areas....it's so sad but makes my heart so happy at the same time. They have such "simple-ness" in their lives, they have NOTHING, they wear the same clothes and shoes for days I'm sure of it-and yet they seem as though they have it all! They do-in their minds. I sometimes think as Americans we knock heads with people because of jealousy, expecting too much or all of the freedom that we do have, hard to put into words, but I can definitly tell you, coming home from Ethiopia each time has made me a different person. I see the simple things in life, leave the headaches for someone else. Let us live as we choose to live how we choose, to me I don't care what my neighbor thinks, a friend thinks, a family member thinks, as long as we're doing "right" by the lord-it is our life to live as we choose. I love Ethiopia for their simplicity in life-i am a little jealous they have that. I loved that we had the chance to get out of the hustle and bustle of the city of Addis, the exhause fumes, etc became a bit much for 6 days....

On the way we also would see women carring big huge bundles of brush on their backs. We found out that when they delivered their goods off of their backs to the city from up within the villages, they would get paid an equivalant of $2/day. I asked Alazar (our driver) if he had ever hit any cattle, donkeys, etc while driving through the villages, he says to me "No, Only 1 person"...(we all chuckled, because it was so matter of factly)....he says the person was drunk crossing the road, and he hit his arm-and broke it....love our Alazar-we know it was defintily accidental and he felt terrible about it. He made sure we were in good hands all week!

We arrived at the Blue Nile Gorge, I have never been to the Grand Canyon, but I can tell you if it's anything as good as the Blue Nile I will be amazed! This was the most breathtaking piece of land I have ever seen in my life! There was a trail that took you down to the Portugese Bridge that is thousands of years old, there were cattle, baboons with babies on their backs and a beautiful waterfall- the guys headed down there-us girls stayed up top with some random teenagers that were "educating" us, and then expected us to buy the items they made-which, yes we all did-we all bought something. Of course during this point, my mind wandered (wierd, right?!) Mind you, i am standing on top of a cliff in africa, really no one around-except for those that come to see this area, in my Dateline mind I had envisioned them being the angry people of Africa that really don't care for Americans much, they push us off the side and who would ever care or know what happened to us in Afrcia?! OMG, yes I know-I.AM.CRAZY.! (Incase you all were worried, we made it, no dateline special for me yet!) But, can't say my mind is narrow....So, now after ya'll have had a lil laugh-enjoy some pics of our day there!

Day 3 in Ethiopia

2011-01-03T06:44:00.001-08:00

This day was by far the hardest day for me. At this point it had been 4 nights without Rylee, I was missing him like crazy. We had had Ezra for a full day now-that was going extremely well! I didnt feel the best though, and we were supposed to go do some shopping, and some fun stuff that day and i was just not feeling it, so that didn't help matters. I remember Ryan and I just sitting out on the front porch of the guest house talking, Ezra was sleeping and I had just gotten off the phone with my mom and Rylee, I took one look at Ryan and he knew I was about to have a meltdown. Yep. I did. I think I spent most of my day Tuesday crying, the emotions of the trip, the sadness of being so far away from Rylee, the happiness Ezra had arlready brought into our lives, the country and the people of Ethiopia (yeah, you get it)-I also sat there thinking how I was the luckiest girl ever! I was back in Africa, i needed to take it all in as much as I could, enjoy it and relax. So finally by the end of the day I did just that. The Bodines had brought their girls back to the guest house, we all played and hung out-it was a good ending to the day! I made it through, wouldn't ya know?!

EZRA T DAY! November 29th!

2010-12-28T05:31:00.000-08:00

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-

2010-12-25T08:26:00.001-08:00

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!

2010-12-16T17:13:00.001-08:00

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!

2010-12-15T07:07:00.001-08:00

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

2010-12-13T17:20:00.000-08:00

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....

2010-12-08T08:03:00.000-08:00

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!!!

2010-12-06T09:47:00.000-08:00

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!!!!

2010-11-26T11:43:00.000-08:00

And we're getting ready to drop rylee off and head to the D to catch our a.m flight tomorrow on to D.C! I have been having a terrible time with putting my emotions aside and just taking it all in, on one side of the world we have an amazing son who Im sure won't even miss a beat while we're gone-he's going to have so much fun with his nammy and grampa his aunt uncle and cousins I am sure that he wont really even be sad. On the other side of the world we have a tiny baby girl that NEEEDS her mommy and daddy to come and bring her home-I cannot wait to do that! I just wish I didn't have such sad emotions about leaving here this time! Please Please continue to keep us in your prayers for safe travels, and amazing week in Ethiopia with our baby girl, an uneventful week here at home while we're away, and everyone stays safe and contines with their health! We love you all-we are so excited to bring Rylee Bona his baby sister he's been talking so much about!!!! PRAY PRAY PRAY!
ALL our Love-
Ryan, Meggan and Rylee Bona!

Through this crazy life, and these crazy times.....

2010-11-23T05:09:00.000-08:00

You're my EVERYTHING!

And we're down to one hand.....

2010-11-22T05:49:00.000-08:00

Yes. 5 days. 5 more sleeps.4 more nights of putting Rylee B to bed as our only child. 5 more crazy days of packing and organizing.5 more relativly un-interrupted nights of sleep (BUT WHO CARES!) : ) and im sure i can think of a lot more "just fives"-At this point, we are NO where near ready to leave on a plan to africa, however the HUUUUUGE donation bag (thanks tammi) is filled and that's one less bag (though, by the sounds of it we'll be getting more stuff in the next couple of days so we'll make room)!!! Thank you to everyone that has dropped off stuff for the orphanges, for us, prayers and everything! Please continue to pray for the safety of our family while we're gone-and for us.!!!

3rd Birthday Party!!!

2010-11-22T05:02:00.000-08:00

This year Rylee's Birthday was on Nov.21-plain and simple. In my mind I am sad about being gone to Ethiopia for his actual birthday, so this year i think I believe myself when i say, "well, this year its on nov 21" hehe...we're good with it.he's good with it. The Dinosaur birthday party with his favorite buddies was a success! This lil' man is just something. His facial expressions, the things that come out of his mouth everyday, and his sweet lil' heart makes me happy every single day! He asked me today if we can take Baby Ezra to blow bubbles when she gets home-"maybe" just maybe he gets it...........

We love you SO much sweet Rylee B! Happy 3rd Birthday Munchkin!!!

Final Countdown......

2010-11-17T05:40:00.000-08:00

In 10 short days I will be on a plane to get you my sweet baby E!!

Confirmed Tickets!

2010-11-16T05:31:00.000-08:00

Yep, that's right in 11 days we take off for Ethiopia! I am.a.mess. Normally I don't want to act like things bother me, I like to play it off that everything is a-ok! Well, last night after we confirmed out tickets with the travel agent I just sat my computer and had a few breakdowns. It's leaving Rylee that's doing it. I guess this is the first of many emotions I will be feeling and while I can't wait to get my hands on our lil' princess, I will be so sad being away from him too! I am thanking my lucky stars for all that God has given us, and this is something I will get through, it's going to be OK. My very dear friend Tammi has been in my situation before, only she was heading off to Guatemala to pick up their princess while leaving their lil' boy home and she says to me "I know the feeling, it's hard, but let me tell you it's going to be harder on you than it will be on Rylee"....so that's what I keep telling myself now. Is 2 days more really THAT much for me to be in a tizzy about?-YES : )

We would love to see all of your smiling faces at the airport again to welcome us home, as soon our itinerary is mailed to us, I will post it for you!

Until then, please continue to keep us in your prayers!!!!

XOXO

Meggs

Gettin' it ALL done!

2010-11-15T05:08:00.000-08:00

Not gonna lie, i like a lil' chaos in my life. Pretty sure the next 14 days will be filled with just that!

Decorating for Christmas:
Ryan and I have started a tradition where normally, I will go shopping on Black Friday-and during the day he will be bringing up all of the Christmas decorations so that day/night we can get the inside of our house done and we have a couple cocktails, listen to music and Rylee has a blast-Im certain this year he will love it even more. YES my friends that is still the plan, and still on my list of "to-do's" It would be next to perfect to walk in the door from EThiopia with our chidren to a decorated home for Christmas!

31 Parties:
I love my new gig being a consultant for 31-I have made great $$ doing it, and the parties are a blast! Who doesnt want to make money selling great items to great peeps for FUN!? Well, i have 5 of them to do in the next 14 days! Woot Woot

Thanksgiving:
SO much to be thankful for this year, Gonna make sure and work out extra hard the next 14 days so i can take in as much turkey and potatoes I want and maybe even a slice of pumpkin pie! :) Can't wait to spend it with family before we leave!

Working:
Being at the Salon for 3 more days before we leave Im gonna have to get in who I can before take-off, the girls at work will keep me loose! Love them!

Rylee's Birthday Party!!!!
Yeah, I'm pretty excited about this! Our sweet baby boy will be turning 3 while we're in Ethiopia (on Ezzie's Embassy date actually).....A Dino Bash for a sweet lil man is the perfect celebration before we head off to Ethiopia to pick our baby girl up~I keep talking myself through the fact that I will be so far away for the longest I have been without him, and on his birthday nonetheless! I can do this, it will fly by and we'll all be home as a family of 4 before we know it!!

PACKING PACKING PACKING!
I have already started this, her room has got things all laid out and in piles so I know what we have and what we still need to get for her. We have to set a whole suitcase aside for the peeps that will be dropping off donations this week(Thank you ALL by the way)-no one should ever go to ethiopia with an empty suitcase-never ever ever!! We're fillin' it up with goods for the children at the orphanages! This has to be my most favorite trip to pack for for myself, I dont have to worry about what im gonna feel like wearing, or what we'll be doing, Im dressing to go to Africa, to play with children and my baby! WHO CARES!!! : )

There is way more that i'll be doing on this list, but this about sums it up-14 days from now we will be boarding a plane to ETHIOPIA to bring Baby Ezzie home, CAN NOT wait to get my hands on that sweet lil' face!

Who's LEAVING for Ethiopia in a couple weeks?!?!

2010-11-13T05:45:00.000-08:00

Our case has been cleared and Baby Ezzie will be HOME for Christmas! We got word yesterday at 5:15 a.m that our case is settled with the US Embassy and we are able to go appear before them on Dec 2 (Rylee's Birthday)!!!

Ryan and I have been talking a lot about how this Christmas with our families is going to go-and just so you all know, it's going to be extremely LIMITED. We are going to make every effort to appear if only for just a bit at the holiday parties, but it's going to be EXTREMELY overwhelming for her, and for all of us involved-so we are making them all short lived. This is going to the time where it's really limited to what we do, etc etc. Please don't be offended if we are not willing to just pass her (or Rylee) off on people-we know the offer is very gracious, but we are going to need to take the time to bond as a family of 4-it's transition enough bringing a new sibling into the home(so we understand) and it's going to be a little bit more of a challenge after being gone from Rylee for 7 days and BAM we show up with a new lil' sister for him!-

Thank you all for your continued thoughts, prayers, donations, etc etc etc-we are so very very thankful!!! We need any items you would like to donate by next weekend as our suitcases are going to begin to get filled!

ALL OUR LOVE
Meggan

Bare with me while I pout....

2010-11-10T04:32:00.001-08:00

I don't know how they do it. I don't know how the people that are in the same situation as us turn the "frown upside down" and claim to just turn to prayer and fasting and know that it's all going to happen in God's time and be "ok" with it.....I am envious of them for being able to do that. The other day on Facebook i was really feeling a day where my girlfriend and I had a conversation-she too had gone through IVF and we were talking about that, and she said "IVF isn't for the weak"-she said a mouthful there, but now I can full on tell you-If having my children biologically was what we wanted for our family I would do that over and over and over again if I could just remind myself how this adoption process feels when you're at this point. This frustration is far more intense to me-to have the case of your child completly in someone else's hands and every.single.day you wait and wait and wait on them to keep pushing through your case, to bring your baby home-it's exhausting.....

What a "normal" morning routine WAS:
Get up, lolly gag into the living room and hope that at anytime Rylee would be waking up so we could start our day and play-until then I would be excited for the TODAY show and Regis and Kelly,I would throw some laundry in, start to get done around the house what needed to be-my zest for life was at an all time high almost daily-I feel like I am a pretty happy go lucky kinda' girl (MOST DAYS) : ) We'd be gone for the day to the park, walks, playdates, shopping, errands, etc, etc!

My morning routine NOW:
Wake up, throw coffee in the coffee pot, run to the bathroom while that's brewing-because we wouldn't want to "waste" anymore time by not utilizing my time, fill the cup up head upstairs to my "office" and stalk, stalk, and stalk emails, facebook, hit the refresh button 43 times, close out my email stalk some other blogs for a bit, come back to my email-hope that Rylee doesn't wake up for a little while still so I could stalk without feeling guilty for not being down with him and if Rylee is up turn on "Dino Dan" to pacify him for a bit while I get through the first hour of realizing that nope, today isn't the day either....it makes me frustrated, short fused and I hate that-that is not me.

So, while I don't love the person I am during the process when it's nearing the end-the person that I have become since falling in love with our son and daughter and the country they came from FAR OUTWEIGHS anything I am RIGHT NOW. Im trying to keep the faith, keep strong and know that IT WILL HAPPEN....As i have said in the past, God's story for us is far more exciting then anything I could write up myself, so the ink pen is in his hands....I'm just asking that he get's off his coffee break and get's back to what he's best at-

All Our Love
((Hugs))
Meggan

Last T Shirt Order and NEW DESIGN!

2010-11-09T05:53:00.000-08:00

Placing a final T Shirt order before the holidays and added a new design! This one is available in long sleeve only, Youth or Adult for $20/shirt! Email me your order, I will be ordering before by Dec 11th, so let me know what you need for that special someone on your christmas list, or just because! I'm pretty excited about this design myself, tied in the pride of the Ethiopian colors! Or let me know if you want the Chosen or Hope design still as well! Thank you for all the support to bring Baby Ezra home and sharing our story with us! Place orders to me at megmckean@yahoo.com

FYI

2010-11-02T11:17:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I think this week we've had to have answered the "do you have a date" or "when do you get to go" like 109 times (seriously). I love everyones enthusiasm I do. There's also been some frustrating moments this week, and today happens to be one of them. I am having a day. Could things be worse? Absolutly. Am I frustrated? Yes. We're supposed to be getting submitted on Thursday, and then we don't really know when we'll hear anything after that point. In the past, after passing court we could fully assume to leave about 4 weeks after that for our embassy appointment-the way things stand right now is we are submitted to Embassy, they once again review our "case" (no idea how long this will take) and once they give the green light and approve we are able to go to the next available appointment time for our agency. Having said that, this also means it could be the same type of situation where we only have 4 days notice to book our trip again-it is what it is. We are trying to get our bags packed, arrangements made and really everything in order so it's just ready when it's time! Thank you all for your continued thoughts, prayers and some very very generous donations for the cost of our trip that we have recieved-we are so very blessed and I continue to Thank God every single day for giving us this life-I know how fast things can change-so each day that we make it through in a positive direction I am thankful!

Our lil' "Bonasorous"

2010-11-02T05:39:00.000-07:00

Rylee and all his cousins

Rylee and some of his favorite buddies! Mia, Jack and Bray

Our happy family!

Just so we have proof that I was the most ridiculously dressed.....

Halloween gets more fun every year with our lil' B! Each year he "get's it" a lil' more. This year his obsession is Dinosaurs! We did some trick or treating around E.Lansing with friends on Thursday and for Halloween we got together with the cousins at my parents and then met up with The Ballards and Hitchens to go around town. His favorite "treat" is lishorish (licorice)and the orange flavored tootsie rolls.

Ryan dressed up as a gorilla for our halloween party and Rylee didn't so much care for it-actually freaked right out to put it more clearly. I was a Banana. Yes. I thought of that. I hated it after the end of our evening on Saturday! Never again. Hope your Halloween 2010 was as enjoyable as ours!

Perfectly said.....

2010-10-28T10:05:00.000-07:00

So I wanted to share something that a long time client and dear friend said to me the other day that left me seriously just beaming, tears welling a bit in my eyes and thinking "Yes, Yes you are so right". We were talking of Ezra and how she came to us. She asked what we knew of her history and I said "We know nothing" and she said as she was walking out the door "Well, God does, He knows everything and he knew exactly what he was doing" with a lil wink and a big smile on her face she was off to enjoy the rest of her evening, and so was I.

We all know that God has a "plan" for us. God hand picks these children, and each child of every family has a different story, a different background-he knows exactly who will go with each family. Who knows-he may be "hand picking" one for you right now and you just don't know it. I'm glad that we do. I am stealing this quote from my girlfriends status from Facebook she posted the other day, and it couldn't be more perfect-

"Orphans are easier to ignore before you know their names. They are easier to ignore before you see their faces. It is easier to pretend that they are not real until you hold them in your arms. But once you do-everything changes"-David Platt

2010-10-25T05:00:00.000-07:00

I feel like the last couple of weeks are a complete bluur, that's already been said. I also feel like I haven't been doing a very good job of documenting all that's been happening with pictures as well as I have in the past-BOO. For that I am sad. When it comes time to document our process with Ezzie she will not have near the amount of "footage" of it all as Rylee did. I'm wondering what I'm going to have to "scrape together" or "stage" to have each special part of our process with her! Now I know how my mom and dad felt by the time it got to me, I know that's what they say that with each child the memories that are captured become less and less-that doesn't mean that she's any less of a JOY and miracle for us-she is! I've just been feeling a little bit guilty for not having as much for her, but then guilty for not having me camera for every little thing that we do with Rylee either-so all in all I have just been terrible as of late! With Halloween coming up, we have lots of fun planned for this week-I will be sure to capture all of that!

I also have been thinkin a lot about "stupid things people say". A girlfriend and I have been talking a lot about frustrating blurbs (for the sake of a nice word on our family blog) that comes outta the mouths of people. We are in disbelief that people could sound so stupid. It is what it is, I can't even say it's a case of "do you think before you speak" because it's clearly just ignorance. We understand that with adopting a child of a different race we will encounter situations where we will need to "educate", when in reality I would like to just knock 'em over the head and hope it clicks. For the sake of our children, I will go with the first option-or just walk away shaking myhead. Don't get me wrong, we have not ran into anything publicly-
We have met MORE amazing people throughout our adoptions, and know that's exactly another reason this is how our family has been built. The people that have come into our lives are here for a reason, and we are thankful for them! It's like a circle of family that we never even knew was out there, but our amazing children have brought us together! I look forward to many years of memories and bonding with each and every one of them!!!

((Hugs))
Meggan

Donations!!!!!

2010-10-21T13:10:00.000-07:00

Many of you have asked what items are needed at the orphanages in Ethiopia for us to take when we go-here is a list-and our goal is to pack one large suitcase soley for these items-so please if you feel the need to help, it is GREATLY GREATLY appreciated!!!

FORMULA
GERBER BOTTLES/NIPPLES
DIAPERS
CHILDRENS VITAMINS
CHILDRENS DVD'S

We will be taking donations up until thanksgiving-so please get anything to us before then!!! XOXO THANK YOU!

We Passed!!!!

2010-10-20T19:04:00.000-07:00

Introducing Ezra Tilahun!!!!!
Better late than never! WOW! Life sure has been busy the last week, especially the last 5 days while Ryan was off to Ethiopia! We got word on Tuesday Oct 19th that we passed court-Ryan said it was a breeze and our lil girl is officially ours!!! I will let Ryan blog about the trip when he get's a free moment-but wanted to leave ya'll with something to make you smile....

Fall trip to Wisconsin

2010-10-18T09:08:00.000-07:00

These are 2 peas in a pod if there ever were such a thing! We are so very blessed to have them in our lives! What a fun weekend we had in Wisconsin visiting the "McCoy Family"!!! : )

ONE DAY!!!!!

2010-10-18T04:51:00.000-07:00

Ryan called this morning at 7am (2pm in Addis)!!! He called yesterday when he got settled into the guest house. Not gonna lie, Sunday morning was tough-i was missing him a lot, and I just kept thinkin to myself "U never realize how much you love someone until you can't talk to them or see them"-we've never been apart where I couldnt atleast pick up the phone or vise-versa, so it was tough-but after he called my level of sadness quickly became not sad but giddy at the thought of him getting to see her this morning! Now back to his phone call this a.m.......When he called at 7am, he said "i know I told you i'd call at 9, but i couldnt wait-she's absolutly amazing and already has me wrapped around her finger"-and what's funny about that is he hadn't ready our blog, to see that I posted exactly them words in the previous post. Her hair is crazy, she's a snuggle bug and she is just a good good baby! He's going to have her all day today and actually she's spending the night with him at the guesthouse, so the nannies told him "be prepared for 3 wake-ups" : ) And of course the obvious question "what size clothes is she in"??? Up to 3 months, but she may be getting a lil big for them, so looks like 3-6 months is right on track to what we've been thinkin'!!

When I think about our place in life that Ryan and I are right now it shows me every-single-day that God has had this in his plans all along. We couldnt have planned this. This isn't something that he and I would have written up, because we would try to avoid all of our disappointments and try to make life "perfect"-no hardships-who wouldn't want that? However, those disappointments and hardships are what make us who we are-and has made our marriage what it is. I have more respect for that man than I do anyone, I never in my wildest dreams would have thought he would be so on board with jumpin' on a plan to Africa by himself-he continues to amaze me every day-and for him I am so thankful!

Tomorrow is the BIG BIG BIG court date, I am asking you ALL to please say a prayer today and tonight for us that we pass and the judge rules in our favor, and all of the paperwork is in hand, approved and ready for us to legally become her mommy and daddy! I am hoping that when I wake I will shortly hear from Ryan and it will be good news! Then finally I can show ya'll how beautiful she really is! We love you-asking for prayers and i'll post tomorrow!!!

((Hugs)) and love,
Meggs

2 days!

2010-10-14T04:45:00.000-07:00

I feel like I haven't even really had time to process what's going on in the last 2 days. So, this number here really represents more than Ryan leaving to go meet our daughter and appear before the judge in 2 days, it also tells the story that the last 2 days has been a complete bluuuuurr! When I got the email from our director, she said "I have your court dates and they're right around the corner"-she wasn't kidding! She also told us that if we traveled for the October 19th date, she's pretty sure she'll be home for Chritmas....can't really hang that over our heads and expect us to say, nah-we can't go on the 19th! Haha...So we pray pray pray we pass the first go around and she is able to be with us all for Christmas!
What I can't say enough about is Ryan! As if he's not swamped at work, he was all about leaving this weekend to go meet our baby girl! When I think about him going to meet his lil' princess by himself, i get all teary eyed-her daddy coming for her to see her to be with her, if only for a short while, she will know right at that moment that she's going to have him wrapped around her lil' finger....forever! I know all things happen for a reason and I am totally AT PEACE with Ryan traveling by himself and me staying home to be with Rylee. I think Ryan was far more than impressed when I proposed that idea to him-as much as I can't wait to get my hands on her, I know that this is how it's all supposed to go right now. The next couple of months are going to be crazy busy and full of such excitement and change for all of us-we can't wait to see what lies ahead! Thank you ALL for your continued love and support! Honestly, to know that we have such special friends and family in our life is all we can ask for!
Blessings and Hugs to you all!

3 days!

2010-10-13T04:32:00.000-07:00

And on the morning of our 8 year annivesary we got word that Ryan will be traveling to Ethiopia.....SATURDAY! We had 4 short days to book his trip for our court date! I am so blessed to have such an amazing man in my life, I thank the good lord that he gave me Ryan and we have eachother, I can't imagine going through all of this with anyone else! With this date it gives us hope that maybe, just maybe she will be home in time for Christmas! Thank you all for keeping us in your prayers, and I will update as soon as I know how court goes for us-our appointment is Tuesday the 19th!!

HUGS!

Patience is Hard.

2010-10-11T06:24:00.001-07:00

We've been waiting since August 16th for our court date. Now, keep in mind the courts were closed for about 80% of that time, however patience is still hard. I just keep thinking about how much she is growing while we're not with her and how much we're missing out on. Let's be honest, An average American wants instant gratification-and I am worse than "the average" so you can imagine how antsy i have been.

On the other note, Rylee Bona is such a joy! We have had such a blast with him this fall-every single day it's something new. I can tell turning 3 is going to be something with him! He's too smart for his own good, gaining a LOT of independance (like clothing choices that clearly I wouldn't choose, but this is where "picking my battles" is coming into play to an extent). He talks about his baby sister ALL THE TIME. He thinks she'll be here "maybe Tuesday". Maybe it will indeed be a tuesday, but many tuesdays from now Rylee Bona!

Thanks for keeping us all in your prayers during this time of wait. We've been keeping busy to pass the time, but we can't help but obsess over what our little princess might be up to! Patience is hard, but Rylee Bona sure keeps it lively around our home!

All our love-

Decision Making 101

2010-09-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

Oh how I wish it were an easy task to just make a decision. While we were on vacation this past weekend to visit our fabulous friends (pics from that soon) I had this emotion of complete ANXIETY come over me. YOU all KNOW I can't wait to get my hands on our little girl in Ethiopia, to see her sweet face for the first time-hold her and love on her for a week. However I was holding Rylee at the time while he was sleeping, staring at his sweet face and thought "There is NO way I can leave him 2 times for such long trips within a 6 week period to such a far away place". I can't do it. Clearly if i HAD to I would dig deep and find a way.
So I placed an email to our director and asked us what the process would be for one parent to travel for court. It's tenative right now, but after Ryan and I talked about it he was really pretty excited to hear that I would "for-go" my first trip to Ethiopia if we could. The positives really do outweigh the negatives and I am 96% at peace with my decision (I reserved the 4% after I opened up our NEW pics of our baby girl on our way HOME from Vacation last night) But I still really feel good about the decision WE have made. It will save us about $2000 as well, so we're hoping and praying that this is something that works out for us, and the judge will approve just one parent to travel. I have TOTAL faith that Ryan can do this, he has reassured and reassured me that he can do this. Stay Tuned.....

BTW , Ethiopian courts open in like 3 short days! Pray for word on our court date SOON!!!

THANK YOU!!!!

2010-09-20T06:35:00.000-07:00

We just wanted to THANK EVERYONE so far who has purchased one of our T-shirts or 3 or 4 or 5..lol! We are so very blessed to have everyone in our lives! To be honest, the money that we have raised for this is such a blessing to help with our adoption costs, but just seeing all of you that are so very dear to our hearts wearing them, makes me more excited than the $$$-They are still for sale, and we will keep our orders open until the 2nd week in December-if you are thinking Christmas gifts, etc please let me know, our next and probably final major order will go in the first week of December!

We have sold over 100 t shirts which has exceeded our "goal"! Courts open in just 10 days, so we are anxiously waiting to find out when our court date will be, which then means we will know when our first trip to see Baby Ezra will be-Lots of mixed emotions right now, can't wait to get my hands on our little girl, but so sad at the thought of leaving Rylee for that period of time and being so far away-please keep us all in our thoughts and prayers that we get through the next 3 months (and then after) without too much chaos!

New Video of Baby Ezzie!

2010-09-07T11:13:00.000-07:00

So, just got pics last week via email from our directors quick trip out there, and today we got a DVD of all of those pics and live video. Since we can't post pics of her until after our courtdate (which we hope to find out in like 3 weeks)-I will just tell you that she is GROWING! And blowing bubbles, looking around and maybe even has a lil' dimple on her right cheek! She still has TONS of curly hair so I will have my work cut out, OR be setting aside "hair budget" for her for when she comes home! : ) I mean, after all Ryan or I don't pay to get ours done-so what's a lil $$$ to make sure she and Rylee Bona are looking their best! hehe
We are anxiously awaiting courts to re-open so we can find out when our first travel date will be! Then it will be a little easier to "wait" and to have a date to be focused on and we'll have a better, more concrete idea as to when she might be HOME!!! Thank you all for your continued prayers, thoughts, t shirt orders, etc etc! Placing another order next week, so lemme know if you're interested! WE've sold over 100!!! Praise the Lord!!! : )

{First models}

2010-08-20T12:07:00.001-07:00

I am asking that you ALL email me a pic of you and yours with your shirts on for our blog! I love to see them and where they all went to! Let me know if you need one and haven't ordered yet!!!
This is lil' Miss Mia-our very close friends' daughter who was adopted from Guatemala-she came home a few weeks after Rylee!

This is Rylee and 2 of his favorites! Cousins Connor and Maeva!

Happy "Gotcha Day" Rylee Bona Roozie

2010-08-19T08:27:00.000-07:00

We had a fabulous day yesterday spending the WHOLE day together as a family. ON. A. WEDNESDAY. nonetheless. Ryan took the day off from work and we headed out for the day! A day to do whatever we wanted! We started off with some stops in town to mail off our t-shirts to the peeps that have ordered them-dropped them off to Auntie Trish for her and Uncle Derek and then we were off!

We've taken a lot of trip to different zoo's this year, but let's be honest-the 2.5 year old doesnt know the difference, and I'm certain he would like to live at the zoo. So no matter how many meerkats, red pandas, sea otters or even the provacative Spider Monkeys we have seen in the past 4 weeks, if the boys happy=we're happy! The tiger was VERY active and just kept pacing back and forth, would occasionally stop to take a peak right at Rylee Bona and Rylee was certain that Tiger was after him. Funny.Stuff. And after all, had never ridden a camel or pony before, so heck why not-let's head back to the zoo for the 3rd time in the last 4 weeks! :)

We then headed off to lunch on a patio-the weather was absolutly Gorgeous-slight breeze and about 78 with complete sunshine! What a perfect day for patio lunch! Rylee had his favorite, chicken fingers and french fries with chocolate milk (did i mention it was his day-he could do or have really whatever he wanted) I put aside that there wasnt really any fruit or vegetable available to him-there's always tomorrow, right?!

We did a lil' shopping to find some digs for his fall wardrobe, but really what we ended up with his his halloween costume for this year and some undies for him, and a bag full of CHEAP, to die for items from the Baby Gap for Baby Ezra Tilahun! Rylee was happy and content though-he loved playing with the new tutu we found for her!

After a long day we headed back to dinner with some of our closest friends The Ballards and The Essells and that my friends was just a complete. train. wreck! Needless to say, we had a tired boy, awful service and after 2.5 hrs there our checks were comped and Rylee man was in bed by 8:45! A perfect ending to a perfect day my friends! We couldn't be more thrilled to be his mommy and daddy!!!

The day we learned of our Princess......

2010-08-10T19:03:00.000-07:00

I do love that everytime I have myself a Reduced Calorie, Skinny Carmel Marvel from here I think of our referral day! It brings a smile to my face instantly! I never shared the story of how we got "the call"-

It was Friday morning July 16th and we (I, because really Ryan is so patient that he wouldnt know if it was a week or 5 months that went by waiting) ....had just gone through the whole week after hearing it would be "this week" probably that we'd hear about our little girl. Well it was Friday morning, and I figured since I didnt hear that morning that I wouldnt be hearing anything and my week was then ruined....so I was about to plop down on my facebook and pout through my status-then this "calmness" came over me (not even kidding) and I said to myself "Meggan, get over it-there are SO many other things that could be wrong right now, we have a healthy family, this, that, bla bla bla" so instead I quickly got over it and was heading over my brother/sister in laws to pick up Rylee Bona who had stayed the night there....

I first had to make a stop at Biggby Coffee to grab us some drinks and then to play for the day over to their house. I left my phone in the car cause it needed to charge as the battery was dead, I go in get our drinks the drink people ask me how my day's going and I say "Pretty good, coulda been better" bla bla bla-right?! Well I leave with my hands filled with coffee, get in the car and 3 seconds later as I am trying to get situated my phone starts to ring and I look down to see the "407" area code!!!! OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But I answered the phone all calmly and said "Hello Angela"....hehehe She says "Hey Meggan, I just sent you some pictures" (PAUSE) Me: "You did?!" ANgela "Of a Baby" Me: "You did?!" haha....I said OMG Ok I am driving to my brothers, I will have to call you back OK!? I think I dialed Ryan 54 times until he finally answered and was a HOT MESS...of course that was a day he couldnt leave work so I got there, emailed ryan the attachments (didnt look at them) and we both opened them together while on the phone with eachother!

NEVER did we dream that we would be opening pictures of a newborn!!! We had NO idea, but God was truly with us on this one, as secretly that's what we had hoped for since we believe this will be our last child.....Everything about that day was nearly PERFECT and so many signs of what is really meant to be! We thank God every single day for all that he has given us and has taught us!

We ended our day with a celebration at my brothers house and it was a day we'll never forget! We can't wait to get our hands on our lil' princess!!!

Brotherly Love

2010-08-09T05:48:00.001-07:00

Our agency put together a wonderful reunion this year at Brookfield Zoo in Chicago last weekend. We had the pleasure of meeting many families that we often chat with throughout our process-it was such a wonderful weekend! We were able to meet Sue and Angela-the director and her assisitant that does SO much for the children and the families itself.

It was also an amazing weekend as Rylee Bona was able to meet his birth sibling, that now lives in Wisconsin! After watching them together, we can see a little bit of resemblence within the two of them! We love that they will always have the option to be in touch throughout their lives and it's not too far away-what a blessing!

BOOOOO!

2010-07-27T10:20:00.000-07:00

Just found out today that our court date probably won't be until December and bringing her home in January/Februaury is looking more like reality. I'm sad, but it's something I'll get over. I have to have faith that everything is going to work out as it should. All in "God's Perfect Timing" right? Our lil' peanut is safe and is getting great care from the nannies, that's what I need to remind myself of!

Thank you all for your continued thoughts, prayers and.... T SHIRT ORDERS!!! I am stoked about them, I guess this gives us more time to save save save doesnt it???? I have faith this will be "OK"!!!

T-Shirts for Sale!!!!

2010-07-21T09:39:00.000-07:00

Back

Front

This time around we decided to design a tshirt for our adoption! I am super excited about this-please let me know you are interested in either design and how many-send a message to my email: megmckean@yahoo.com with T-shirt choice, Quantity, Sizes, Shipping Address(if necessary) and phone number. Thanks so much! If you have any other questions let me know! On the back of "Chosen" it reads "16,380 Miles of Love"

CHOSEN:(In Black)

XS-XL ($3 extra for XXL-up)

Short Sleeve: 15.00

Long Sleeve: 22.00

Infant/Toddler:(In Black) 6mos-5T

Short Sleeve: 13.00

Toddler-2T,4T,5/6T

Long Sleeve: 15.00

HOPE: (In Black)

Long Sleeve Black (Womens ONLY) Fitted T

S-XXL $22.00

Wahoooo!!!!!

2010-07-17T12:04:00.001-07:00

WOW!!! What an exciting way to kick off the weekend! We got a call yesterday from our agency at about 10:30 am with the referral of a beautiful, itty bitty baby girl!!! We are not sure on the exact age of her right now-we're thinkin somewhere around 5-7 weeks old. She's about 6lbs and 18" long-and tons and tons of dark curly hair!! Please continue to pray for us that all falls into place as it should, her healthy while in the care of the nannies and for the country of Ethiopia!!! We are on cloud nine!!

This week?!

2010-07-11T11:24:00.001-07:00

So I know there hasn't been much discussion on here as of late about Baby Sisters adoption-I guess it's because I have been thinking all along that we probably won't hear much of anything until early Fall. Well, that may be the case still, however I got an email from our director last week saying that maybe just maybe this week we might get word on who our daughter is going to be!!! It's been a lot of mixed emotions through this whole process the 2nd go at it all is a little bit different than the first. It's not that we're not just as excited, it's just "different". WE have our Mr.Man that's keepin us busy and on our toes and makes our days fly by! I can't believe we've been waiting for our referral for almost 4 months-time is flying!

We've also been a little bit anxious about the 2 trips that are now required by the embassy for our adoption. We will travel for her court date (which previously, we had a POA that would do this for us), meet our daughter and hang with her for a few days, leave Addis without her and then she would come home about 4-6 weeks later. All of you know my passion for adoptions is HUGE, my passion for flying is NOT and my passion for leaving Rylee Bona behind that far away for that long and two times is NOT....So i continue to pray everyday that I get a little bit more peace with it all and things are going to work out as they should.

We ask that you please continue to keep us all in your prayers, so that everything will fall into their place and we all remain healthy and safe!

Words of Wisdom....

2010-07-07T15:49:00.000-07:00

On our way to Mark and Amys on Friday Rylee says "Mama, we goin' to Mark and Amy's" Yes buddy we are! "Hmmm, Ok You can have beer if you want"......yes the words of a 2 year old! Thanks Buddy-you're the best!!!

Crazy June!

2010-07-05T10:24:00.000-07:00

Apparently the month of June was busy, because it came and gone and there we're no blog posts! What in the world! We've just been hanging out and taking in the gorgeous weather that Michigan has been giving us since May! I think it was owed to us being that last summer was the PITS!!! Rylee is such a character! The things that are come outta his mouth everyday have us just rollin'-WE got to welcome 2 new friends home this month-so that's BIG news-Our friends Jaclyn and Scott welcomed Baby Ayla into their family and Mark and Amy brought Baby Eli home from the airport-WElcome Home little ones! Rylee loves his new friends!!! WE also found out that some close friends of ours are expecting-so babies babies everywhere!!! Let's hope that means that we soon hear of news on our baby girl soon!
Father's day was kinda "low key" this year as Rylee was a lil' under the weather, so Ryan did his thing with his dad and I did our thing and then we just hung out as a family later in the day-no fun being sick-especially in the summer.
4th of July pics coming soon-I promise I wont let a whole month go by without a post/pics again! Our life as a family of 3 is just plain F-U-N! WE can't wait to add the last piece to our puzzle!

Welcome Home Mark, Amy and Eli

Rylee loves his buddy Luke-very traumatic night leaving him.....

Pool time at Aunt Cindy and Uncle Lukes

Cousin Connor makes everything just.plain.nice

Drink break!

Uncle Jake is Crazy and Im a knuckle.....

2010-05-30T09:22:00.000-07:00

A couple days with cousin Nicole was nice too!

Lisa, Shands and Zaela

THe cutest lil' couple EVER

Go Tigers!

Crabby Crab

At a Pier in Malibu Shopping in Santa Monica

Lunch at a great Mexican rooftop

Lovin' life at the Beach

Daddy, Rylee and Uncle Jake

We had so much fun on our vacation to California to stay with Uncle Jake. The title is exactly what Rylee said to his uncle Jake one day in conversation-we about lost it. We traveled on a Wednesday and brought my mom, mind u she HATES flying-so sometimes I felt as if we were traveling with 2 toddlers instead of 1-however she did GREAT! Can't wait to go on vacation with her more often! Grandpa Mike flew in on Friday to stay for a long weekend with us as well-I don't think California is "the place" for Grandpa Mike, Rylee did have a great time with his grandpa on vacation though!

We stayed in Santa Monica for a few days, lots of fun days at the beach and did a lot of walking around (Rlyees Nammy did so well) : ) We were able to see a big huge crab in Malibu that a man had just caught-which Rylee happens to be OBSESSED with crabs right now, so that was pretty cool. We hit up the Dodgers/Tigers game at Dodgers stadium, Tigers lost-that was a bummer-but fun to be cheerin' our Tigers on all the way in California!

We were also able to stay a couple nights with Lisa, Shands and Zaela-and goodness gracious-if Rylee and Zaela were not SOOOOO excited-they even had to peek on eachother while the other was sleeping when we got in that night! Such a fun trip, and a great place to visit-even though we wish Uncle Jake would be back home, atleast he lives in a cool place to visit-

Mother's Day 2010

2010-05-13T04:19:00.000-07:00

The crazy thing is, I was just going back through the blog and was looking at a pic from Mother's Day last year-SERIOUSLY....where does time go?! Sounds cliche I know, but seriously, this past year FLEW! Every single day I thank God for our life with Rylee Bona-especially after I had spent 9 days in the hospital with this silly gallbladder issue, if you don't have your health-you dont have anything....we need to all be thankful for our health!!!
Rylee is growing up by the day! Lil' man is smart, active and can't wait to find out who his baby sister is going to be! : ) We've been waiting almost 2 months for a referral, but really we sometimes forget that we're even waiting right now, things are MUCH different with one arleady at home-not in a bad way, our minds are just consumed with a lot more! But nonetheless we CAN'T wait to find out "who" our baby girl is!!!! Here's some pics for ya'll to enjoy!!!

My mom and dad on Mother's Day with Rylee and his cousins

My Mother's Day gift....i do love it.

Like Father Like Son-Rylee loves Saturday mornings with daddy

Fun day at Jumpin Jacks with the boys

Rylees just itchin' to go to school....not so fast Rylee Bona!

Paper Ready!

2010-04-05T18:21:00.000-07:00

Rylee Bona is going to be a big brother! WE are officially waiting for a referral of baby sister!!! We don't really know how long to expect the wait to be, but we're preparing for 6 months or so...please keep us all in your prayers for a smooth process! We'll keep you posted....Stay tuned!

Here there and everywhere.....

2010-03-24T06:28:00.000-07:00

Ok, so excuse the fact that this is going to be so out of order! We'll atleast know that this was our crazy month of March that we wouldn't trade anything for! We are blessed!

We traveled to San Antonio for the week of March 17-22nd to be with our friends we met/stayed with in Ethiopia! It was our first lil' reunion since we brought all of our kiddos home-and what a riot it was! All of the kids have grown up so much and played so well together, just as the adults did too : ) Lil' Z is something else-one night we're eating dinner, the kids were already done and Parker comes flyin' down the steps "the babies, the babies have cookies", Lisa knew instantly "Ohh, this has Zaela written all over it" Sure enough, upstairs in the corner we're Zaela, Rylee and Helena scarfing cookies down that Z had gotten from the diaper bag in the bedroom...that about sums up the week in San Antonio! We are so thankful for all of them, and clearly God knew what he was doing when he had us all staying at the same guest house in Ethiopia together, life long friends were made and we cannot wait to see everyone again!!! Lucky for us, we'll be able to see Shands, Lisa and Zaela in about 2 months when we head to California to see Jake....we cannot wait!!!

Shands, Zaela and Lisa: Greg, Chris, Helena, Me, Ryan, Rylee, Parker, Blake: Reagan and Caitlin

Two peas in a pod=trouble!

Sit down Z we're goin for a ride!

Lil' Miss Helena

Lil' Miss Z

Rylee and Parker we're lil' buddies! His fav'-football!

Waitin for Miss Z to arrive!

We've had a busy month of March-par for the course for the Armbrustmacher's! That's us! Our month of March we started off in Chicago-Ryan was flown there for work to accept an award for being top producer in Michigan! All of his late nights in the office paid off! Great work sweets, we're so proud of you! Rylee and I jumped in the car and took a road trip and met him there a day after he arrived-we had such a fun week-Rylee loves Chicago just as much as his mommy and daddy do! We went to Shedds aquarium and for all of u that haven't been there, I totally recommend it. We all loved it. We were able to go to Navy Pier on one of the warmer days-it was nice, we can't wait to go back in the summer to enjoy everything it has to offer! The view of Lake Michigan from Chicago is breathtaking!

Shedds Aquarium

Our lil' penguin!

Sea Otters were havin' a good time with Rylee-he was just a gigglin'

That's a biiiiiig fish mama!

Navy Pier-where we even scored some Ethiopian flags

Chillin' just watchin' some basketball at ESPN Zone

Games at ESPN Zone After lunch at Cheesecake Factory-

After a few days in Chicago we came home to "regroup"-work a bit, get our life back in order and Ryan and I went to Indianapolis for the Big Ten Tournament! This was our 3rd year going, and we're pretty sure it's just going to become tradition....It's now gotten to be about a group of 20 or so people that head down every year-a nice split of Michigan and Michigan State fans amongst our group...one of these years Michigan will be right there at the top fighting for the top position! Until then no worries for us, we're just there to have a good time!

Rylee was a lucky boy and was able to stay with his aunt and uncle and nammy for the first night, and then we're ever so lucky to have friends that love to have him! He went to stay with his "Auntie" Amber and had so much fun with his friends Aylah and Emerie! Im pretty sure he didn't really even know we were gone.....

Winter Fun!

2010-02-25T09:24:00.000-08:00

Normally this time of year is when I start to cranky and "short fused" with Winter in the mitten. However, this year has been different! Rylee loves to be outside, so when the snow falls, that means more outdoor fun! (I will be o so happy when it is gone though, and we can put the flips on!) We celebrated 3 birthdays this month-Mommy's, Emmas and Marleys-lots of cake, sundaes and party fun!

"Aunt" Kim is doing amazingly well, God is so good and the power of prayer continues to amaze us all! Pair that with the fact that she's the strongest person we know, and an amazing person is exactly why she is where she is today! Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers!

Outdoor fun!

Eatin' a yummy cupcake he and nammy made for my birthday!

Made slime and played at Impressions 5 museum for Emma's 5th birthday-so fun!

Rylee sings Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" when he decided to wear his football helmet like this!

Rylee's Closet

2010-02-08T05:59:00.000-08:00

Feel free to Link my new blogsite to your own blog! I have started and online Consignmt Boutique for some of Rylee's things! It's www.ryleescloset.blogspot.com -Enjoy!

Potty Training or bust.

2010-01-26T12:12:00.000-08:00

You see, you all know our son is a complete ham. We have him "thinkin" about the potty, even wearing the infamous Elmo Undies (I will have you know, it's the ONLY character item of clothing he will ever own while I have my say in this) There are "some" exceptions. But that's not what this post is about. We've been workin on this for almost 2 weeks, and he's doing pretty well. If we ask him if he has to go he says "No Problem". Well, clearly he has that confused, that's his nice way of saying "No". It works. It's cute. If potty is on the brain, we have to go with it and continue, even with setbacks...It's Potty training or bust....

Praying for our friend....

2010-01-11T05:57:00.000-08:00

Asking for some much needed prayers for our dear friend Kim-She is in critical condition at a hospital in CVICU in Cinicinnati....Praying that they find an answer to her condition and she can begin the road to recovery so soon!!! We love you Kim! Just a couple pictures that make me smile when i look at them. XOXO

She's from Florida-she was freezing!

Derby 2009!

A Year in Pictures from The Armbrustmacher's

2010-01-10T10:41:00.000-08:00

JANUARY

Fun at Great Wolf Lodge-13 months old

This place is crazy!

FEBRUARY

Happy Valentine's Day-we had some pics taken for Daddy of his 2 fav' peeps

MARCH

Finally got to meet Anaya!

APRIL

Happy Easter!

Mommy and Daddy went to California to visit Uncle Jake

MAY

Fan Apprciation Day on the filed-Let's Go Tigers!

Mommy, Nate Robertson and me-I am Tiger's #1 Fan!

Also hit up the Detroit Zoo with the DeLeon's and Essell's

A trip to Cincinnati to see Donald and Kim-Derby 2009!

I'm growing like a weed!! Newport Aquarium

This is my Mommy, Nammi and Aunt Jamie on Mother's Day

1st Mother's Day with my Mommy!

JUNE

Rylee 18 month pictures! 18 months, really?!

Hangin' out in the sand!

I finally got to meet Luke-he's from Ethiopia too, and he's my good buddy!

JULY

This is my buddy Brayden-4th of July in Grand Haven

Chillin' at home with my sprinkler!

AUGUST

Our 1 year Famiversary! We celebrated "Gotcha Day" at the zoo!

Mackinac Island

SEPTEMBER

Uncle Johns Cider Mill-pickin out some pumpkins! How does this one look?!

Mommy got to go to the Big House for Opening Day of College Football! She'd like to forget the last couple of seasons.....

This is Great Grandpa Graff-he's my buddy.

OCTOBER

Happy Halloween!

Mommy and Daddy went to Las Vegas with some friends. I had fun back home with Uncle Jody, Aunt Beth and Nammi and Grampa

Me and Mommy like to make silly faces....this was our 2nd Annual trip to Leo's Lodge Aunt Mindo's bonfire!

NOVEMBER

We went to pick out a real Christmas tree this year! We went with the Essells!

I took a music class-I met some good friends there!

DECEMBER

My first time playin' in the snow, last year I was too little. I don't know what mommy's talkin about not liking living in Michigan-this place is pretty cool!!

My mom got me this crazy hat-I guess I do look pretty cute in it!

A Blessed 2010 to you all!!!

Christmas 2009

2010-01-06T13:29:00.000-08:00

First time in the snow-and loved it.

He loves his Uncle Jake

Yeah. About this. This pretty much sums up 5 days in a row of parties.....

His new drums he got from Aunt Beth and Uncle Jody-loves them!

First picture with my new camera Ryan got me for Christmas=LOVE IT

We hope that you all had a blessed Christmas season! Where in the world does time go? I swear it seems like I was just blogging about Rylee's first christmas home last year! We were very blessed to have all of our family around for Christmas this year! My brother flew home from California and it was an awesome week with everyone! We pray for a HEALTHY and JOYOUS 2010 for you and your family! Never take for granted the health of loved ones!!! Enjoy some of the pics from our holidays!

The MOST wonderful time of the Year!

2009-12-14T11:21:00.000-08:00

The Birthday Party was a hit-we had it at the bowling alley and had about 22 kids under the age of 9 and about 25 adults as well. Rylee was blessed with many gifts and loved his birthday cake and bowling! Thank you everyone for such a special day for our lil' man.

We then went to a hotel to swim for the night and spend the night with my brother and his wife and the Ballards joined us too. The kids loved swimming in the middle of winter-Rylee is such a lil' water bug-he didn't want to get out! I took Rylee for his well baby check and he continues to grow like a weed! He is now in the 75th% for his height-Dr.Mitchum estimates we'll have atleast a 6'2" son on our hands by the time it's all said and done : ) He's in the 50th% for his weight, and is 28lbs. His personality continues to crack us up, and every day it's something new. Lately when he thinks we're "crazy" he says "MOM, Seriously?!"....Apparently he's picked that up from me because now I have caught myself saying that quite frequently about everything....I guess now we'll be a lot more "aware" of what's coming out of our mouths. It's so funny to see how much he knows now, what he is aware of, what he picks up, etc.-he's like a sponge!

As you all know we are not fans of the weather this time of the year here in Michigan. But if we're going to live here, we might as well make the best of it and get out and enjoy the things goin' on this time of year! We went to pick out our Christmas tree this year with the Essells-Rylee's best bud is Cameron-their lil' boy who is about a year older than Rylee-they play really well together, and have a riot. We also went to this really cute place that took us on a train ride to see Santa, live reindeer, hot cocoa, sleighs and all-we had such a good time! Christmas season is absolutly one of my favorite times of the year (weather aside) snow is ok until right after Christmas and then I'm about over it. We're curious to see how well Rylee likes playing in it, since last year he never really did because he was too little.

Pics to come soon!
~Meggan

Happy 2nd Birthday Sweet Rylee Bona

2009-12-02T06:58:00.000-08:00

Dear Rylee Bona.

We cannot explain to you in words what a blessing you are! I cannot believe that you're 2 years old already! It seems just like yesterday when we first learned of you! We love you-and hope you have the best birthday with all of those you love!

Love, Mommy and Daddy

We have a well baby check on Friday I will post updates and stats and write about all the birthday fun from the weekend next week!

So FUN to be 2!

What Im Thankful For.....

2009-11-25T08:32:00.000-08:00

First and foremost this Thanksgiving season I am thankful for GOD: I am learning every single day how important it is to make sure that I listen to what I'm being told by the man above! There have definitly been times that I have doubted my faith but I have learned so much the last few years especially, and our faith has grew stronger because of that!

I am thankful for RYAN: What an amazing daddy and husband he is. I thank God every single day for that man, and I appreciate all of his hard workand dedication to support our family, so that I can stay home the majority of the days with Mr.Rylee. In the past few months we have grown closer than we have ever been the whole 9 years we've been together. We do make a great team, I'm not gonna lie : ) We're so different, yet so alike-we get eachother-and we'll never let anything come between us.

I am thankful for RYLEE BONA: Seriously, this little boy can light up a room! On what could be the most "terrible" day, I look at him and think "really?!" How did we get so lucky!!! I cannot imagine our life without him!

I am thankul or our HEALTH: I honestly feel like lately we've been hearing of so many people getting ill with cancer-I pray every single day that God will continue to keep us all healthy!!!! Every single day is a gift and nothing that should be taken for granted-seems to make me a little bit more paranoid now that we have a child! Who am I kiddin, i'm a hypo-now it's just gotten worse!!!

I am thankful for FAMILY and FRIENDS: Take the good with the bad, and realize the people that are in your life are there for a reason. We would not have gotten to where we are today without the amazing people we have to SUPPORT us! We don't take our relationships in our lives lightly-we value those close to us and appreciate them all! We especially are thankful for our friends and family who continue to support us even though they may not always agree with us-lifes a dance, you learn as you go!

A Blessed and Happy Thanksgiving 2009!

All our LOVE-Ryan, Meggan and Rylee Bona

Halloween 2009 and this and that....

2009-11-01T06:25:00.001-08:00

Lovin' our lil' Lion

Cousins Connor and Maeva

See Ya guys Later

Um Mom-Dad-a Ghost!

One of our pumpkins "turned out"

Wasn't a fan of the pumpkin goo

He looks like a scary lion doesn't he?!

He made this "bed" all himself...hehe

We had a lil' Lion on our hands this Halloween! He loved his costume, couldn't wait to put it on all day. He only took a 2 hr nap, he was fired up for what was going to be a big day for the lil' guy. He was awake in his crib, I walk up to his bedroom and as I walk in he says "Hi Mama (waving being all extra cute like he had done something "wrong")....I go over to his bed, there lays his diaper at one end of the crib and he's sitting on his knees with a big wet spot under his bottom...hmmmm-Oh Rylee, let's not take your diaper off again. We went to the grammies and grampies to visit then spent the evening with my brother/sister in law that Connor and Maeva at my sister in laws parents. Rylee had a riot with the kids-Connor was taking him around in the wagon, sometimes he wanted to get out and get treats and sometimes he didnt. That was fine. Next year he'll be into it a lot more I can bet. Thank u everyone who dropped of treat bags for Rylee, he loves all of his goldfish, play-doe, books, juice boxes, candy, suckers, etc.....what a spoiled and loved little boy he is!!!

We were gone to Vegas last week with some friends, while we were gone had had croup and and ear infection. Thank goodness it was at the end of our trip, and we were coming home the day that my mom had taken him into the ER-poor lil' man wasn't feeling really himself until Thursday or Friday-just in time for halloween. We had an awesome time on vacation though with great friends, we are thankful for family here that loves having Rylee stay with them while we are gone. We are blessed.

Thursday was also Ryan's birthday. Funny how things change as we get older and have different priorities. This year to celebrate Ryans birthday we went to Rylee's music class! : ) Ok, we did have some yummy dinner and drinks at PF Changs after music class! Happy 35th birthday Ryan! We love u!

Otherwise Rylee Bona has been growing like a weed! He continues to crack us up daily! He sings his ABC's and counts-a lot of times it's 1, 3, 4, 9....other times he's "spot on"! He can draw a circle, he knows a sqare and a circle, in a size 7-8 shoe and it saddens me to have to be buying 2T clothes instead of the "months".....Can we stop the clock please?!?!? Him and his kitty have a love/hate relationship-he doesn't understand that when he buries his head in Beanas belly he's going to come out with marks...which is funny, because that's EXACTLY how I was when I was little. I wouldn't give up!

So that's us in a nutshell-as we prepare for the holidays and his 2nd birthday we are blessed daily by all that we have! Blessings to you and your families!!!