The Kirksey Family

Camden Telu

2011-07-19T07:41:00.000-07:00

One year ago, Right after coming home

Camden has been home for 1 year 2 days! Wow!!! Where did time go? I can't believe he has been home that long. What a sweet blessing he is! Camden, mommy loves you!

Our next journey

2011-07-15T16:48:00.000-07:00

We have decided to adopt again! We would like to adopr a baby/toddler girl from Ethiopia. We will start the process in 2012 but we will start the fundraisers now:)

This shirt can be pink, red, white, gray, sky blue, or lime green (all will have the black writing.) I will be placing an order next Friday July 29th so please let me know a size and color if your interested. They will be $18.00 Thank you:)

You can e-mail AmB_monkeygirl@hotmail.com or leave a comment on here or my facebook to order.

Adoption

2011-07-05T20:38:00.000-07:00

We have decided that in 2013 we will be adopting agian!!!!! I know it is along ways away but, since we've made this decision we thought is would be a good idea to start fundraising now. We will open a seperate account just for adoption funds:)

We will start with www.zoesmother.etsy.com and www.justlovecoffee.com/kirkseyfamily

Please keep checking I will post everytime there is a new fundraiser coming up:)

We passed (1 year ago)

2011-01-08T18:53:00.000-08:00

This picture was taken by friends of ours who were in Ethiopia to bring home their son, exactly one year ago Jan 08, 2010

He had no idea that at that exact moment there was a court hearing that made him our legally our son and changed our lives forever:)

This picture is from Christmas Eve this year...What a big boy he is becoming:)

We passed court 1 year ago today:) We have been Casen Biniyam's legal parents for a whole year.....WOW! Time really flies!

shirts

2011-01-07T16:45:00.000-08:00

We have lowered the prices at our etsy store. All shirts are now $10....Please check it out! www.zoesmother.etsy.com

Please read

2010-12-21T19:26:00.000-08:00

Please take a look at www.weloveourlucy.blogspot.com
It is a heartbreaking stroy about 4 siblings that need to find there parents through adoption. Please pass it along if enough people will share this story eventually there parents will see this and finally they can become a family!

Halloween

2010-10-30T18:40:00.000-07:00

First: Happy 4 month Birthday to our baby girl:)

Little BMX Rider

Precious Puppy

Big Purple Flower

My boys Carved an Africa pumpkin....I think it's pretty cool:)

Giveaway

2010-10-19T19:05:00.000-07:00

There is a wonderful fellow adoptive mommy doing a giveaway! Please visit her sight http://mycrazyadoption.org/ to view the giveaway...All you do is buy a T-shirt from her store and you could win a spot to join her on a mission trip to Ethiopia in February 2011!!!!!!!! So awesome! She is giving away 2 spots!!!!

one year (and one day) ago

2010-10-02T11:07:00.000-07:00

I am one day late but one year ago yesterday we were seeing pictures of our boys for the very first time! I can't believe how fast time flys!!!! Camden has obviously grown a ton (he has gone from 8 weeks old to 14 months old.) The changes in Casens looks are AMAZING! He went from this tiny, sick, super skinny little boy to this sweet, amazing, healthy, chubby cheek little boy!

I LOVE my boys and I am so so thankful they are home forever!

coffee

2010-09-21T06:55:00.001-07:00

we are doing a fundraiser to earn money for our re-adoption of both boys as well as to pay off our adoption loan we used to get the boys home. Please check out our website www.justlovecoffee.com/KirkseyFamily we will recieve $5.00 for everyitem sold.
Thank you in advance!!!

late but better then never:)

2010-09-07T14:08:00.001-07:00

I know these pics are way over due....Casen's 3rd b-day was May 21 here are the pics:)

Update

2010-08-02T08:56:00.000-07:00

Oh how I love to sleep:)

Matching pj's...I love it!

Look, I'm a bear!

Finally!!!!! All 3 of our beautiful babies are home! Chloe was born June 30, 2010 @
6:15pm she weighed 7lbs 2 oz. Camden came home July 17, 2010 at 5:pm

Casen is such a good big brother...He loves both his little sister and little brother:)

I will post again later

New Plan

2010-06-28T13:35:00.000-07:00

Due to Labor and Delivery being packed we were rescheduled for Wed 5am!!!! So dissapointed we have to wait 2 more days:(

Chloe

2010-06-28T04:28:00.000-07:00

Today will be Chloes birthday....Headed to the hospital at 9am:) We are so so excited....will post pics as soon as I can!

It's official

2010-06-12T11:40:00.000-07:00

Brandon and his Aunt Mitzi will be leaving Springfield June 27 they will return home (Camden at there side) on July the 3rd!!!!!! I can't wait 21 days from now my baby boy will be in my arms FOREVER!!!!!!!

We are hoping miss Chloe makes her arrival before daddy leaves, for obvious reasons!

Can't wait to post pics!

We passed!!!

2010-05-13T14:46:00.000-07:00

We thouht our court date was next week....Well it was today, and we passed!!!!!! Travel should be approx 8 weeks from today, that is 3 days after Chloe is due:) Enjoy pics of our sweet Camden Telu Kirksey

NEWS!!!!!!

2010-05-11T11:39:00.000-07:00

I got a call yesterday that over 7 months after our refferal we finnaly have a court date for Camden!!!!! Because of problems with translation our agency doesnt know the exact date....they think the begining of next week, they do however know it IS before next Friday! We are beyond excited:)

venting

2010-04-22T18:39:00.000-07:00

OK, we have had our refferal for Camden 6 months and 3 weeks and still do NOT have a court date....Everytime I ask I am told 6-8 weeks how long can 6-8 weeks really mean? Casen is ready to have his baby brother home (while he is still a baby!) and mommy and daddy are even more ready!!!!!

Travel talk

2010-04-03T12:17:00.000-07:00

On to the trip home....

Leaving the hotel..headed to the airport! Poor child had no idea he was about to get on an airplane for a 17 hour flight!!!

We left Ethiopia at about 11pm Fri night. Casen was doing very well, his bed time is normally 8pm so for no nap that day and 3 hours past bed time...we were in good shape:)

Before the plane left the ground he was out:) We were sad that didn't last nearly long enough.....He usually sleeps 12 hours at night plus a 2 hour nap during the day so on our 27 hour trip home the 7 hours of sleep he got made for one cranky 3 year old!!!!

The first flight from Ethiopia to Washington was by far the worst! He slept about 5 hours then the other 12 was spent with us trying to occupy him and him being bored! Most of the flight was spent with screaming fits but there were short breaks of our normally happy Casen inbetween the screams.

There was about 2 hours spent with him in complete panic! He needed to go pee but was terrified of the flush on the toilet (it was way to loud for him.) There were a few nice Ethiopian women who tried to take him and explained it wouldn't hurt him but he refused to go in...He kept telling me he needed to go and as soon as we got a few rows from the bathroom he would turn and run back to our seats screaming! Well, he had a diaper on so we had someone tell him in Amharic to use his diaper and we would change it at our seats.. he told the man I don't want to use my diaper..I don't want to be changed! We felt so so bad for him so we finally held a towl around him at our seats and told him to go in a cup...I am aware this is gross but, you do what you have to! Problem solved!

Once we got to Ethiopia we had a 7 hour layover we went to the Hilton with another family who was so so kind (they paid for our room) and we ate a good meal with them...Thank you Maria and Tracey!!! This was Great for us we got to get showers and play and run around (Casen so badly needed to run!)

Obviously he was much happeier then during the flight! We got him to take a nap but unfortunitly we only had about an hour by the time he feel asleep. I carried him to and through the airport he slept probly 1.5 hours before waking up...Poor child the rest of the trip was awful for him, he was beyond exahusted!!! The whold time at the Washington airport was spent screaming, loudly!!!!! I felt bad for other passengers:(
But he finally fell back asleep and slept through his homecoming!!! Everyone at the airport was so excited to meet him and very disapointed that we refused to let him be awoken!!!!

When we got home we layed him on the couch while we talked to family..He slept right through it. Then they all left about midnight and he woke up about 30 seconds after the last guest left, he would have likly slept all night but I tryed to change his diaper without waking him...As soon as he saw all the toys that was it he was up:)

So , daddy fell asleep on the couch while Casen and I played...At about 6:30am I got him to go back to sleep where he stayed untill noon....Which was GREAT for mommy:) I got plenty of sleep in that way! And e has been on a normal sleep schedule 8:30pm-8am since that very next night:) So as far as time adjustment went as soon as we were home he did amazing!!!!!!!!!

Will post on the happenings since being home another day:)

Casen is home!! Be prepared...long post ahead

2010-03-26T12:02:00.000-07:00

I know it took a while but, I am finally ready to write about our trip....

The trip there:

We left Springfield about 10:15 am got to Chicago for a 2 hour layover than on to Washington for a 4 hour layover then the long fligt to Addis...we did have one stop in Rome but it was just for refueling...noone was aloud to get off... We arrived in Ethiopia at about 9:30 Sunday night which was 1 hour and 45 min later than expected.

We landed at the same time as another plane which meant lines for Visa's....wow, let's just say it felt like we were there forever!!!! Then, it was on to luggage, one of our suitcases was missing along with about 20 others from our flight!!! It came in Tuesday afternoon though so we were lucky comparied to some of the other families missing 4 pieces of luggage which showed up just hours before our flight home!

We finally left the airport about 15min after midnight...and suprise we had no driver waiting for us....the hotel says that's because our agency didn't make our reservations (they say they did...who knows) but the hotel did have open rooms so it was no problem...we just took a taxi from the airport to the hotel.

Monday we woke-up early to go see our boys! We called the agency who said a driver would pick us up at 9am! Well we were told by other families to expect them to be late so we didn't think to much when noone was there at 9....Finally at 11:30 we were done being patient so we went to call the agency back and the phones in the hotel and entire surrounding areas were down!!! AGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! (they agency makes it VERY clear you are NOT to get your own driver!) So, what to do....we waited and waited and waited! Fianlly at 1pm I refused to wait any longer. So, we asked the doorman at our hotel to get us a taxi (keep in mind we had no idea where we needed to go,) Thank you Lord...the taxi driver he got for us actually works for Hope...he was just not scheduled to work for them this particular week! So, Jared (our driver) took us straight to the babies house. (Our agency never gave an expenation as to what happened to our driver...she just said, you should have called...we said the phones were down...she said, I'm very sorry...That was all)

We got to the babies house and we were told that is not where are boys are so, the woman in the office told our driver where to take us....we went to the big kid house-it was naptime so we just stayed in the office while someone went to wake Casen up...He came right to me...it was the sweetest hug EVER!!!!

Not a proud daddy or anything:)

We only stayed there about 15 min then went back to the hotel to play...They told us we would have to wait untill Tuesday to meet Camden.

Tuesday morning we went to see Camden...and much to our suprise he was at the first house we went to on Monday and we didn't get to see him:(

He is so so presious! I can't post pics yet because we've still not went to court:( He is almost 8 months old and the happiest baby we have ever meet!

Casen loved going back to his orphanage to see his friends but HATED going to the baby house...He would start screaming every time we went which was Everday Tue-Fri to visit Camden.

We didn't do much sight seeing while we were there because I was feeling sick the whole time and with a toddler who sleeps 12 hours at night plus a 2 hour nap in the day there wasn't much time to leave the hotel..

I will post about our trip home and happenings since being home in a future post

For now, just know we are VERY blessed with a GREAT little boy!

yea!!!!!!

2010-03-06T07:36:00.000-08:00

This is it, we are at the Springfield airport!!! Our first flight leaves in 30min!!! It feels so unreal, and amazing!!!

Four

2010-03-02T12:35:00.000-08:00

In four days we will be on our way to pick up this little bundle:)

Camden

2010-02-23T12:07:00.000-08:00

Today we got an e-mail that Camden's paperwork is finally donE:) We are now waiting for a court date!!!!! Yay:)

The good stuff!

2010-02-19T15:38:00.001-08:00

We will be leaving on March 05 to pick up Casen!!!!!!! That is only 2 weeks from tomorrow... Ahhhhhh!!!!!!!! We are so excited! We should be back March 13!

Feb 09, 2010

embassy!!!

2010-02-16T18:03:00.000-08:00

Finally, an embassy appointment! March 11...we were instructed to wait untill the end of this week to purchase tickets. We should be leaving Springfield march 6th. That means 3 weeks from now we will be holding sweet sweet casen!!!! Words can not describe our excitment:)

News

2010-02-16T09:14:00.000-08:00

Still no travel date or court date....In the meantime here is a new pic of Casen taken Feb 03!

update

2010-02-04T16:41:00.000-08:00

As of now we are waiting for an embassy date to pick up casen. We are expecting to travel before the end of this month:) we do not yet have a court date for camden, the estimated 6 weeks has now turned into a little over 4 months. The only thing we are told is that it should be soon. I sure hope they are right!

We also have exciting news, shortly after our refferal we found out we will be having a 3rd little kirksey. Due date is July 5, 2010. We found out 2 weeks ago she is a girl! Chloe Marie:)

2 fantastic boys and a sweet little girl:)

Casen Binyam Kirksey

2010-01-08T14:16:00.000-08:00

Yes, this means we passed court today! (Still waiting for a court date for Camden.) Thank you all for your prayers! And thank you Lord for hearing and answering those prayers!
Here is our sweet boy!

Our referal picture!

Just 1

2010-01-01T19:29:00.000-08:00

Only 1 week untill court!!!!!!!!!!!

Finally!!!!!!

2009-12-21T15:37:00.000-08:00

This morning I got a phone call-we have a court date:) Jan 08, 2010 This court day is for Casen only. We are still waiting on a court day for Camden. This means we could be traveling early February to pick up Casen!!!!! Please pray we pass our first try and that Camden is assigned a court date very soon!

Estimated time....

2009-12-16T11:04:00.000-08:00

Well when we recieved our refferal we were told the estimated wait time for a court date was 2.5 months. For us, that was yesterday! Yet, we still wait with no sign that our court date is coming soon:(

Someday I will post a happy post with great pictures of our sweet boys...That day is coming!!!!!!! Soon I hope :)

Pictures!

2009-12-09T17:23:00.000-08:00

Today has been awsome!!! Thanks to the Johnson's we recieved the first pictures we've gotten since our refferal over 9 weeks ago! We are thrilled! They are so cute and look very healthy!
Thank you Ben and Kate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hard Time

2009-12-08T18:39:00.001-08:00

Now that we are 2 months and 1 week waiting for a court date (still with no news that one will be coming soon) I am starting to have a difficult time waiting! I just can't understand for the life of me why it takes so long. I know there are alot of other families waiting and that are in line ahead of us and not many judges but please please please speed things up!!!!!! I just keep telling myself everything comes in God's timing NOT mine!

New info...

2009-12-02T09:19:00.000-08:00

Not the information I was hoping for but, I will take what I can get! We found out today that Casen's paper work is "complete" and he is ready to be assigned a court date but, Camden's is still in "process" so they are waiting to assign a court date so that they can both go at one time. She said in the process stage it has been taking between a couple days and a few weeks to complete. Hopefully this means soon very soon we will pass court and be on our way to bringing home our boys:)

2 months down ? months to go

2009-12-01T19:48:00.000-08:00

We recieved our refferal for Casen and Camden 2 months ago today. This means our boys are 2 months older and we have yet to hear any news of a court date. Please pray hard!!!!!!!!

Court

2009-11-12T18:30:00.000-08:00

I don't care what anyone says-waiting for a court date is way worse than waiting for a refferal!!! After you have seen those sweet little faces all you can think about is hugs, kisses, bedtime stories, and all those other fantastic things you day dream about!

etsy

2009-11-03T09:35:00.000-08:00

We have slashed prices at our etsy store, if you are interested please take a look at zoesmother.etsy.com the bracelets and 2 styles of shirts are also on sale.

They money will be used for travel to Ethiopia to bring Casen and Camden home!

Travel

2009-10-27T09:51:00.000-07:00

I have decided it would be a GREAT idea for me to travel to Ethiopia now and visit my boys everyday! untill we get a court date-and pass!!!!!! Forget that i would have to take off work and spend lots of money to stay there for an undetermined amount of time, my babies need me! ~If only:(

Our boys

2009-10-07T08:59:00.000-07:00

What I can tell you... Casen is 2.5 years old and slightly under weight otherwise healthy and Camden is 9 weeks old very healthy! They are both very good looking boys ( no I'm not bius, haha). We are waiting somewhat patiently to hear more about our boys or to see more pictures.

It's a boy-and another boy!!!!

2009-10-01T22:01:00.000-07:00

Today was 5 months and 2 days in to our approximated 8 month wait. We got the call about noon-2 sweet boys! We can't post pictures untill we have passed court but we are thrilled to show them off!

5

2009-09-29T18:39:00.000-07:00

Today is month #5 for us. We are really hoping this means we are just a couple months from getting our refferal. As fas as we know average with our agency is still 6-9 months. So here is to the next few months!

Poor Yaris

2009-09-15T17:53:00.001-07:00

I wrecked my poor little Yaris today:( I will post pics soon.

Happy Birthday

2009-09-12T17:26:00.000-07:00

Happy first Birthday to our angel Zoe Ann!

please help

2009-09-01T10:55:00.000-07:00

I need to find a place in the Springfield area to have my jeans hemmed. Oh the joy of being short. If anyone knows of a good place please let me know.
Thank you

#4

2009-08-29T19:44:00.000-07:00

Today makes the 4th month of our "offical wait." It is strange how it feels so long and short at the same time. We are just glad to have the first 4 months of our wait behind us!

Game

2009-08-09T13:40:00.000-07:00

We are getting ready to head to a Springfield Cardinals game. Gonna be alot of fun!

Another Day

2009-08-06T11:17:00.001-07:00

Well we are doing nothing new as usual. Just work work work. But we are one day closer to bringing home our babies!!! To all of you who have purchased shirts and blankets, THANK YOU!!

#3

2009-07-28T22:13:00.000-07:00

And the trail continues...

Today is our three month mark on the waiting list! We are so excited!!!!

BBQ fun

2009-07-20T08:31:00.000-07:00

Last night we had a picnic with some great friends it was a blast here are some pictures.

Excited

2009-07-10T19:29:00.000-07:00

I am so Excited I think I finally got the background set up the way I like it!! It may have taken a while but I love it!

P.s If anyone whould like to order a shirt they are $20.00 Free shipping and we have the following colors available

Red, Pink, Blue, Navy, Orange, Black, White, Green, and Yellow

Just let me know the size and color. You can e-mail me at AmB_monkeygirl@Hotmail.com

We got them!

2009-07-09T15:37:00.001-07:00

So excited we got our first set of shirts and I Love them!!!!!!

2 months

2009-06-29T17:49:00.000-07:00

Today marks two months on the waiting list!!!!!! WOW, time does go by much faster than you expect it to. We are really hoping the rest of our wait goes even quicker! We can't stand the thought that our children are out there somewere (in Ethiopia) just waiting for us to bring them home!

T-Shirts

2009-06-21T19:58:00.000-07:00

We have decide to sell t-shirts to raise money to bring our children home from Ethiopia. The shirts are costing us $12.33 each so we decided to sell them for $20.00+$2.00 for shipping. I would like some feedback as to weather or not that sounds like a good price. The company making them is really busy this week so it will be 2 weeks before we get our shirts they will be black with yellow writing (at least the first batch will be these colors.) The shirts will have the words Adopt, pray, Ethiopia, Africa, Hope, Peace, and Love arranged to the shape of Africa.
Please let us know what you think!
Thank you

Difficult

2009-06-20T19:58:00.000-07:00

This blogging thing turns out to be much more difficult than I thought. Trying to get everything to show up the way you would like is just not that easy! I am learning though.

Thank you

2009-06-17T13:56:00.000-07:00

We would like to thank everone for there prayers. Brandon's mother is doing much better and may get to come home soon! As for the adoption, no new news yet:(

Pray

2009-06-14T14:20:00.001-07:00

Please be praying fror Brandon's mother, she was hospitalized last night for blood clots in her lungs. This is a very serious thing! She will likley be there for a while.
Thank you ahead of time for your prayers.

Adoption Fundraiser

2009-06-13T17:58:00.001-07:00

We are also selling afew items to raise money for our adoption. Please check them out at www.zoesmother.etsy.com

First Blog

2009-06-13T17:05:00.000-07:00

This is my first time to blog. I guess I can start out by telling a little about our family. I will start with what led to our decision to adopt from Ethiopia.

We have always said the we wanted to adopt but our plan was to have biological children and when they were school age we would adopt from the US. We should have known better than to make plans, when God tells you to do something you should listen immediately not when you think your ready. Back to my story, after four miscarriages we went to a fertility specialist in Tulsa, OK (Tulsa Fertility Center Dr. Blackwell, highly recommended.) We went through two rounds of in-vitro before finding out we were expecting. Our trouble are over, or so we thought. Zoe (our daughter) was born 17 weeks early for no apparent reason. Unfortunately at 15oz she was just to little and there was nothing that could be done to save her. She was and still is the best thing that has ever happened to us. Zoe Ann Kirksey was born Sept 12, 2008 at 6:46pm and went to heaven Sept 12, 2008 at 9:35pm. I guess I should also tell you I work in the NICU at the hospital where she was born, every time I go to work I see the room where she died as well as the wonderful Doctor and nurses who did their very best to save our angel. I still haven't decided if that is helping me heal or hendering it.

After Zoe was born we decided we have had it wrong all along and our children are already out there somewhere. We decided toward the end of Nov 2008 to go to an adoption meeting with Adoption for Families in Springfield, MO (also, highly recommended). We hadn't realized until we got to the meeting that Ethiopia was there main program. Our plan was to sign up with them for there domestic program. As soon as she started talking about the Ethiopian program I knew. That was all it took. So we are in the process of waiting for our referral. We have requested an infant and a toddler of either sex. We are overjoyed and can not wait to have them home with us!!!