Good morning and what a fine morning it is

pointing to her balloon

Here she is checking out Grandpa John

Here is Tizu walking to meet us with her mama

We woke up today in our overly priced yet beautiful hotel room feeling so good about being grandparents to our gorgeous little Tizita Desta! Today I will share the pictures of the four grandlparents waiting at the airport. After our large $6.00 beers and one bloody mary we felt much calmer and ready to meet Tizu. (Tizu is the name they called her at the Care Center so we will most likely be using that name as a nickname) I will also post a few more pictures of her again.

We are headed over there after breakfast to visit with her some more. I will post about that visit later.

She is here and she is beautiful!

We just welcomed our beautiful new granddaughter to her new home. She is just beautiful. Enjoy the pictures and see for yourself how cute she is. She wasn't a bit strange with us and she smiled. She definitely knows her papa and mama. I am tired so I will close by sharing her pictures.

A few flight delays but everyone is holding up

Courtney called at 9:00 this AM from Washington DC. They were on schedule until the call at 1:00 when she said they had to sit in the plane on the tarmack for an hour more and were expected in Chicago in time to make a 4:30 connection so we planned on a meeting at 5:22 in Appleton until the next call from Paul. We are now hoping for a 6:15 meeting at the Appleton Airport. Pott and Mike arrived safely about 2:30 so we visited and help calm one another's nerves. We have now checked into the Park Plaza hotel. It is really a lovely place. We are relaxing now until we can go to the airport. A long day with lots of delays, but the end will be so sweet! I did hear Tizu making sounds when Courtney called this morning and she was playing with the cell phone buttons in true two year old fashion!
Soon very soon...

One more day

We are heading up to Oshkosh later today. Our job for today is to buy groceries for the new family, buy that potty chair for Tizita, and get the house ready for their return. Then tomorrow Paul's parents will be arriving in Oshkosh from Forest City, Iowa. The four of us will head over to the Appleton airport at 3:00 and wait to meet our granddaugter. What an exciting memorable moment that will be for all of us! Pray for safe travels for all of us, patience and peace for this lady during this wait!
Message to Tizita: Tomorrow I will finally get to meet you! I cannot wait! I hope your ride on the airplane is fun for you and not too confusing or frightening. It will be all worth it when you get home. So many people are waiting for you. Until tomorrow...

Tizita is officially with her mama and papa!

As of 10:00 today Tizita has been in Courtney and Paul's care full time. Here is the email I received today: "Tizita is asleep in her little toddler bed right next to our bed right now. She has been asleep for over an hour (she went to sleep at 8:01 and her bedtime is uisually 8:00, not bad for the first time parents, heh?) She was SO GOOD today! We had her with us all day, well starting after the good bye ceremony at the Care Center which was at 10:00. She was laughing and teasing saying all sorts of words after we said them. Oh, and please buy us a potty chair when you are out shopping for us. She is close to being trained right now and she may regress once home, but I want to keep her in the habit of going sitting on the chair. She peed after lunch and did a lovely number two after dinner tonight. Easy peasy clean up! She is just an amazing little girl and I can't wait for you to meet her. She might be a little strange at first, but once she sees you a couple times and can stare at you for awhile, she should be okay. We are reading lots of books with your pictures in them, so maybe that will help, too."
What a nice email to get today! It sounds like everything is going even better than they had expected! Friday cannot come soon enough for this anxious grandma!

Lstest news on the Van Auken Family

In an email I received from Courtney yesterday she said that Tizita is now mimicing their words and laughing and teasing them. She is able to stack her stacking toy and Courtney knew that would make her grandma preschool teacher happy and it indeed does. Today Tizita is in Courtney and Paul's full care so from now on she is with her mama and papa. They will fly out of Ethiopia on Thursday sometime. ( I have trouble with reading the flight schedules, never sure which time zone they are on) Anyway with a short stop in Rome they will be landing in Washington DC to do all the customs business and then on to Appleton to meet the grandmas and grandpas. That should be at 3:46 pm on Friday. (That time I am sure of)
John had a promising interview yesterday and that is all I will say on that for now. Keep the prayers coming for safe travels for the new family, John's job situation, and all of the waiting families' peace of mind.
Note to Tizita: I cannot believe that you are almost home and soon we will see you in person. Just to let you know I will be taking many, many pictures. You will probably think that the camera is a part of my face, how silly would that be? I hear you are having fun with the stacking cups from GiGi Marge. Good for you, you make this grandma teacher proud! See you soon.

Our first grandparent's day

Thank you, Kim for our very first wishes for a Happy Grandparent's Day. I didn't even realize it was Grandparent's Day today. It was also my grandpa's birthday. He would have been over 100 years old if he was still alive. I have so many good memories of him and it seems appropriate to think of him today, too. So if there are any other grandparents out there reading this, Happy Grandparent's Day to you, too.
(John does not buy into any of these made up days, he says they are just so card companies can make money, but we won't let him rain on this parade.)