Friday, August 29, 2008

Announcing the News, Part II

This weekend we gathered together with Micah's family for a little reunion.  His parents had rented a cabin in the Snowies and we would spend three days together.  We were very excited for this gathering because we had not seen all of his family in some time.  We were also excited because we were planning on sharing with them our news regarding the adoption. 
Friday was going to be the first day that we would all be together. We thought it would be best to share the news sooner than later.  We invited our good friends to come out and eat dinner with us.  We were so grateful to have them there because it was an emotional time and they helped keep us calm.  
We had the idea of printing out an Ethiopian flag and cutting it into puzzle pieces. On the back of each puzzle piece we wrote a part of our message, "We are planning our adoption!" We gave the envelope to Ms. Von and gathered the family. There was some hesitation to participate in the activity, and a little frustration when things didn't go quite as smoothly, but once the news was shared it was a joyous time. We are happy to have some of our family finally know, and can't wait to tell the rest of our family! 
Beginning to piece the puzzle together. 
The puzzle finished, but then they had to get it turned over to read the message.
Someone had the idea of sliding it onto this plastic sleeve and then pulling the paper out. 
But, that didn't work. :( We felt a little bad, but thankfully they stuck with it.
With the puzzle finally finished, the second time, Jon is the first to read the message!
Jon announces the news and LaVon is very excited to finally know!
LaVon, very excited to finally be a grandma!