Christmas 2009

The McFarland's (plus the Pipkens!)


Showing our love for baby Easton!!!!


The Fulmer's!!

Proud "Grandparents-to-be"
Merry Christmas!!! We had a wonderful Holiday with the people we love the most, our family!!!

DTE- Dossier To Ethiopia!

We were so blessed to find our Immigration Approval in the mailbox on December 23rd!!! Merry Christmas to the Fulmer's!!! After stalking the mailman for 3 weeks we finally have the form that will allow us to complete our paperwork chase. The 23rd was exactly 5 months from when we made the decision to adopt from Ethiopia!!!
What this means:
1. All of our dossier (paperwork) will be reviewed by our agency.
2. The dossier will be taken to the Ethiopian Embassy in DC (the one Ryan and I visited this summer)
3. Certain documents will be translated into Amharic, the Ethiopian Language.
4. The dossier will be on it's way to Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa!!

Then what??? Now we are considered a "Waiting Family" as we wait for our referral. Our family coordinator will notify us when we have been matched with a baby. This could happen anytime but the trend with our agency has been 4-6 months for a baby boy and 9-11 months for a baby girl. When we receive our referral we will be emailed a picture and medical history. Hopefully, the next 4 months fly by as we wait to see our baby's face.

Most families have shared that this is the hardest part of the adoption process. Now that we have completed the dossier there isn't anything left for us to work on...well, actually, I take that back, we are going to start preparing a NURSERY!! =)


Tears of happiness!!!!

Thank you for our love and support! We cannot wait to share our baby's picture with you!!!
Have a very Merry Christmas!
Love, Ryan and Ashlie

Merry Christmas

This year we doing an electronic Christmas card on our blog.
It was as hard decision but we decided not to send out Christmas cards this year. After factoring the print and postage fees the obvious choice was for the funds to go toward our dossier expense. ($7,700.00)
We love all of the cards we have received and hope to return to our Christmas tradition next year, with a family of 3!!! =)

Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year~
Love, Ryan and Ashlie

Bottlecaps

Our t-shirt sales are going wonderful. Thank you so much to those of you who were able to purchase one and shared our story with others. We are overjoyed when a complete stranger orders a shirt, God is so good!!!

A friend of mine used our design to make a bottlecap necklace. We are very thankful for her and hope you will think they are as cute as we do. Her name is Kami Lake and she can put ANYTHING into a bottle cap. Feel free to contact her at 941*224*8227.
We are selling the necklaces for $10.00. Please email Ryanashlie@aol or use the Paypal link to order one.




We are still waiting for our Immigration Office approval, hopefully we will have it by January. The dossier is ready to go once we get the final piece of paper!! We'll be sure to post as soon as we have accomplished the last step of the "paperwork chasing".
With love,
Ryan and Ashlie