Sorry I haven't updated in so long. I've been on facebook. If you want to join me there search for Jennifer Worden Garrison....

It was a muddy, wet party but lots of fun!

Yesterday we gathered to celebrate Aleena's 6th birthday with a party! The kids had a blast with water balloons, food and the mud pit...how did that happen? I must say there was only one thing that I was disappointed about. I didn't get a group picture. I didn't get a group picture!! How could I forget that! I so wanted to send one to Aleena's momma Medina. But here are the pictures I did manage to get...

The the water ballon fight begins....The boys don't care if they smash water balloons on sweet little girls do they!!Enjoying watermelon after a good water balloon fight!This is a great game we learned while in Missouri last year. You take water balloons and try to toss them over the net (we used an extention cord as our net!!) into the next teams sheet. It was really fun!The very handsome Muaz. Angie is going to have to watch the girls with this one!And baby brother Berekt. I still can not believe what a gift has been given between our two families. To have siblings living within miles of each other. We have an amazing God who brings blessings where it seemed impossible.It wasn't just the boys in the mud!!!Although it was the boys who stayed in there the longest!

My neice Abby with Aleena and Veda.

Sisters and Barbie...does it get any better than this? (ok, except for those who are anti-Barbie! LOL!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Today Aleena turned 6 years old! Six! I can hardly believe looking back almost two years ago how very much she has changed. So much change. We had plans to celebrate with a party today but had to postpone due to cousins with the flu...that didn't go over too well so we went ahead and gave her the gifts from us and she was all smiles! Tomorrow, the day after her birthday, two years ago, we saw our first glance of Birtukan Nasir. So I thought I'd share that once again...

She's lost her tooth!

Ahhh Major Cutie has lost her first tooth! When she first told me it was wiggly I think I was more excited than she was. I half wondered if I thought she'd ever loose a tooth as she seems so small to me still! But a few days ago she determined to get that tooth out and pulled it out when she woke up in the morning! She was so proud! The tooth fairy did indeed show up that night though he was broke by morning as our oldest daughter also decided she was going to pull her wiggly tooth out just before bedtime that same night!

My girls.

I have been given the awesome responsibility and gift, along with my husband, of these two girls...
I am so thankful for afternoons like this one. It's fuel for the days where it seems to rain all day...literally and metaphorically.

I've eaten a whole box of Godiva chocolates for Mother's Day thanks to my husband and kiddos! They were YUMMY! We've been pretty busy in our house hold this month and I haven't had much time to post. It's been 21 months since Major Cutie's been home and it is starting to feel like "normal" has arrived. It taken much, much longer than I had expected. We still limit her time that she can sit on laps, she still needs lots of supervision outside, and we still experience the occasional stuff that shows us she still isn't completely trusting that we love her. She continues to keep getting taller and now is wearing a size 5 and her hair is getting longer. Aleena seems to have grown emotionally as well and is doing well with school stuff. I feel confident that I'll be able to begin a kindergarten curriculum with her and Dru next fall. She is more spontaneous with giving me hugs and seems to want to connect with me more often. We seem to be taking two steps forward and now only one step back. This is good! There are very little memories for her of Ethiopia and she almost never talks of it anymore. I think that I think more often of her birth mom and sister than she does as her memory is just failing her in that area. I am in prayer as to how we can help her 13 year old sister still in Ethiopia. I am not sure adoption is the answer but we are trying to find a really good school to send her to in Ethiopia or look into the possibly of an exchange student (with us). Will you pray with me about that and if you know of any information as to how I can find out more please let me know. Here's a few pictures to cover that last few days here in our home!

Graham and his dad spent the weekend in Ohio at the Wright Patterson Airforce base with his Scout troop and came home exhausted but they had a blast! Graham is the one in the front with his friends arm around him.Every two scouts had a tent that they pitched on their own and then slept in.On Monday we celebrated with our friend Karsen his 5th birthday! He knows both our family and the Asperbergers (Muaz's family). We had a great afternoon together.It was so cute because as we were getting ready to take pictures Aleena took her hands and "fluffed"her hair several times! It was too cute!

More about USCIS

Just to answer a few questions about Major Cutie's USCIS...it took 13 MONTHS from application to receiving the letter in the mail from USCIS about our scheduled date to appear for an interview. We had about three weeks notice and had to show up in Detroit with all of MC's original documents, plus any name changes we did, and she had to come with us for the interview, although they didn't say much to her except how cute she looked that day! LOL! Our particular officer said she wasn't going to take MC's green card (permanent resident card) that day because we did not have an American passport for Aleena. She felt that her Michigan birth certificate would not be looked upon as favorably as an American passport. I do know some folks have to give their green card up at their interview. It must depend on the officer reviewing the case. So one week later we received the letter from USCIS to mail in her green card within 30 days or they would consider our case abandoned. So now we wait to receive the COC. We paid $420 in March of 2008 when we applied. We did not have to pay out anything else since that point. One thing that I found disappointing was that we had to stand and raise our right hand and take the oath that we were telling the truth but in the end we were never asked to say, "So help me God"...man is the world going to regret rejecting God...

Thank you USCIS!

Yesterday we received a letter stating that this little cutie.....is now a full-fledged US citizen. We get to exchange her green card for a Certificate of Citizenship!

Easter 2009

Easter seems to have been one long celebration this year. We celebrated a few weeks ago in Indy and then just this past weekend with my side of the family...and this coming weekend we'll drive down to Indiana again for the Garrison's Annual Egg Hunt. Here are the many photos to share our Easter with you...

We started with the tradition of decorating eggs...

Larry was very proud of his egg! Veda was with us I just didn't get any pictures that turned out of her... :-(
On Sunday we went to my sister's house along with our cousin and his family. My cousin Ryan made these lamb cupcakes...aren't they cute?I wish this was a better picture but you know how it is trying to get the kids around for a picture!The great grandkids and Gramma T and Grandpa T...Oh yes, more pictures...this is my mom and dad.The perks of Easter candy...

Family!

Look at this family! We spent the weekend together for a wedding, a birthday party and Easter! All four grandparents on my husband's side are still living. All of them in their 80s! What a blessing!

Is there such thing as normal??

I'm not sure if I can answer that question but it has felt pretty low key and "normal" around here. Well we do have the new puppy and she is now in a recovery period from her spay and having her dew claws removed so she is in confinement most of the day to keep Finnegan and her from getting too wild but other than that life has been relatively easy for us. Major Cutie continues to grow physically as she is just about to outgrow her 4T pants! She is also academically progressing. Another praise is that she is feeling the need to tell lies much more less often! As far as our attachment goes it seems to have leveled off. Don't read that as a bad thing. We aren't backsliding and she seems to be open to growing deeper. We are just keeping a steady rhythm around here. Major Cutie has spent alot of time with her older sister playing barbies, dolls and house. This is something that is new as they can play up to an hour together and they both seem to be enjoying one another. Major Cutie still can feel what I call this sense of "mistrust" with our older daughter and this comes out as acting pretty silly (over the top kind of silliness) when they are connecting more intimately. Maybe others out there can relate to this. The two of them will be playing and then MC will act out in a way that feels frustrating to Veda. I don't believe it is MC's intent to frustrate her sister but there is something within her that when they are together, getting along really well, that that something inside of her forgets about her fears and lack of trust. But when the something inside notices it feels something good it moves back into that fear/mistrust state of being and comes out in this uncomfortable silly laughing, really loud expression. Does this make sense to anyone?

This past week we also had a chance to have a play date with MC's brothers and their family. Things went well and my oldest daughter snapped a few photos that I will share with you all.

I'll also post a few pictures of Pippin with her leg bandages on. Poor baby!

I'm still here....

I haven't left for a far off vacation on a beautiful white sandy beach or taken a cruise to...anywhere, I am still here. The computer has been in the shop for a week and we decided that we didn't have enough going on over here so we rescued a 7 month old puppy last weekend. Just when things were beginning to settled down....I'll catch up here later with ya all!
We've named her Pippin. She is a Welsh Terrier and had never been outside since at least December. She is doing great and seems to be pretty smart. I had forgotten how much work new dogs are esp. when they aren't completely potty trained! She's about 9 1/2 pounds.Finnegan didn't want to be left out of this post either!

And the beads are now all out....

Look at this beautiful head of hair.....
This is what her hair looked like when I took all those beads out! I thought it was really cool. I pulled it back in a couple pony tails before we left the house but not before I snapped a few photos!