3 Months!!!

Sophia Rose age 9

Silas Jaxon age 7

Dawitt Kassa age 4

And...Sweet little Naomi Genet age 1

This is my favorite new picture of us!

This picture makes me want to sing, "We are Family!" Here is our family of six!

Today is 3 months since we became a family of six. It seems more like a year. We can't imagine our lives without them in it. Genet just had her first birthday last week and is every bit one year old! She is walking/running all over the place now. Dawitt is speaking sentences now in English. This is what his sentence might sound like; "mommy, me eat, bath, teeth, sleep, wake, and stool (school)?" He wants to know EVERYTHING we are doing! We stay at home most days and do our routine of homeschooling. But, if we get off that routine he will let me know about it! He is still learning his boundaries at home and away from home. He wants to touch everything and experience everything. When we go into Walmart or Target all he says is, "mommy, I want" and points to everything. He can't understand why he can't have it, it's right there. So, I guess that would make him just like any other American kid! He also does everything that his big brother, Silas, does. Some of which he is too young to do, but that won't stop him from trying. All in all, they are both doing very well.
I would say that I have had the hardest time adjusting to our new family of six. And having three animals in the house feels more like seven kids. I still have to feed, give baths and clean up potty messes with the three animals. And then you throw in homeschooling with a baby around and it gets crazy around here. Thankfully I have lots of friends that have helped me along the way. And, also a great husband to support and help us all. Sometimes I have to remind myself that it has only been three months. I couldn't imagine being taken away from everything I knew to a new family, new environment, new food, new language, new clothes and toys that they've never seen. So, the days that are hard because Dawitt forgets his boundaries or it just gets crazy around here with four kids, I have to remind myself that God brought us all together just three short months ago. It's ok to have hard days and struggle with communication. Ultimately God is in control and He brought the six of us together in His perfect way and perfect timing. We will let Him lead us and carry us when we need it.

One Month in our arms!

One month in our arms!


Well, it's been one month that our two newest members of our family have been in our arms. I have not had any time to update my blog or work on the "into video". Having four kids around makes it hard to get to the computer at all.

We are all doing great. I will just fill you in a little on our first moments with them. Just a couple hours after arriving in Ethiopia we walked over to the house where Dawit was and met him first because Genet was sleeping. We couldn't believe that this moment was finally here. We walked into his house and he was standing in his room ready to greet us. The bonding happened right away. He greeted us with kisses and hugs! Wow, what a feeling!!! We waited for that for so long! He was even more handsome in person! He was excited to come home with us right away. The caregivers asked him if he wanted to come with us or stay there and he said, "go with them!" So, then we were off with him in our arms to go get his little sister.

We drove to her house right around the corner and walked in and she was waiting for us upstairs. She just looked at us! Then, for the first time, we saw her beautiful smile! Dawit was so excited to see his little sister too! We couldn't believe we now had both of them in our arms. We walked away and headed to our guest house. We get back and realized, wow, we are all of a sudden a family of six! It all seemed so unbelievable! We spent the rest of the day at our guest house just playing and bonding! It was a very sweet day!

There is soooo much to tell about our days in Ethiopia. I wouldn't know where to start. The short version (for now) is We LOVE Ethiopia!!!! We want to go back (if at all possible many times). It is truly an amazing place and the people there are beautiful! It made me a little sad that I was taking these kids out of their culture there. I know that sounds crazy, but it's true.

Here are just a few pictures of us in Ethiopia. I will work on our video and more stories of our days there. But, for now, here are a few memories...


That's just a few pictures. I am uploading the rest to a site and when I am done I will put a link to it on here.

We are home from ET!

We are home and doing great as a family of SIX! I will update more in a few days when all the family leaves and things settle down around here. But, just want to say that we LOVE Ethiopia and miss it greatly! We loved Paris too! Had a perfect trip, everyone stayed healthy most of the time (nothing too bad), bonding happened right away with both of them. They are great kids!!! I have a TON of pictures and videos of the trip, including the ones of the new families that wanted pics of their kids. They are ALL so cute!!! Can't wait to tell you ALL about how great Ethiopia is and our trip! Thanks for all your prayers throughout our trip, I felt them the whole time!!! Love you all!

Off we go!!!!!

Here we go... off the the airport! We will see you all on July 28th when we come home as a family of SIX!!!!! I will keep you posted on Facebook as much as possible! Love you all!

Dawit with his care package

Here are some of the pictures of Dawit getting his care package from us. Thanks Janet and Amy for taking it to him and loving on him for us! I love the video too! We can't wait to get our hands on him!!!!!!! 2 more days until we leave! One week from today until we meet them. I can't even put into words how I am feeling right now!!!!!!

Returning the Blessings!!!

Ok, there is so much to fill everyone in on right now. I can't though right now. :) We are just very busy doing lots of fun stuff for our trip.

We leave July 14th and will be back July 28th! We are packing, painting rooms and bunk beds, booking flights and rooms, more paperwork (can you believe that!), organizing more clothes in closets (fun!), shopping for the trip and trying to keep up with daily life! Oh yea, can't forget getting lots of shots!!!

Well, it's our turn to bless others and return the favor. If you want us to bring a care package to your child(ren) when we go to ET we would LOVE to! We have had so much fun sending care packages with others and getting new pictures and updates on the kids. So, we want to return the blessing to you! So, just leave me a message and I will get back to you.

Thank you to all who have hugged on my kiddos and gave them care packages and took pictures! It has been such a blessing and has helped us keep focused on their sweet faces during all this craziness! (not that I need much help thinking of them right now :))

Here is the latest picture we got from Amy when she was there last week picking up her sweet little girl.

Naomi Genet is "kissing" Sophia and Silas! How cute! And look at all that hair!

We also got an update on Dawitt from Janet who is there now in ET. Here is what she said about him...

"BTW your boy was so happy and smiley when I visited him. He's CUTE! He loved his package- put the rubberbands (Zaney Bands) on his wrists, stickers on him and he insisted on carrying the card all around with him. The one that sings. He LOVED it! "
Thanks Janet for the updates!
That's all for now!

Introducing Dawitt and Naomi

We passed court today! It is official!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

WE PASSED COURT TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, they are ours officially today! Praise the Lord!!!!!!!!!!

Tomorrow is hopefully the day! Court!

Well, we wait now until tomorrow and see if we will pass court (3rd try). God has been really teaching me about trusting him with His timing and not my own. Proverbs 3:5-6 is my life verse and it applies now as I have to lean on His understanding and not my own. We will let you know as soon as we know something. Thanks for all your prayers!

Happy 4th Birthday "Little Man D"

Today is our little boy's birthday in Ethiopia. We thought for a short time that we were going to maybe be with him on his birthday. But, our court date was changed again and now it is June 23rd. God knows the plans he has for us and they are way better than the plans I have for myself.

I can't imagine what his birth mother is thinking today. She must be an amazing women to give her son a better life by placing him for adoption. That is the biggest sacrifice ever! I am looking forward to meeting her when we are in Ethiopia. But, scared too. What do I even say to her? How will she be feeling? What will she think of us? Will we just cry the whole time? So many questions and feeling run through me when I think about that day we meet. So, today is the day that she had this sweet little boy 4 years ago and now we are so blessed to be able to raise him in our family. He is a gift from God to us. We can't wait to meet him and his sister.

Happy Birthday Little Man D!!! We love you so much!

Court Date Change AGAIN!

Yes, Natalie called today with the news that our court date got changed AGAIN! It was May 24th the first time. Then got moved to June 16th because MOWA did not form their opinion. Now they had to move it again because June 16th is a holiday in Ethiopia and the courts are closed. So our new court date is June 23rd!

This has been the hardest part of the journey for me. I just cried when I got off the phone with Natalie. I just want to pass court at this point so it is final. Then I can just focus on traveling. I have been more emotional this past month then ever in the process. Our whole adoption process has gone so smoothly. And this is just a little set back. Some of you might just say, "it's only one week difference", but one week seems like a long time when you are waiting to see if these two beautiful babies will be Kingsburys!

Keep praying for us to pass court! We will keep you posted! It's all in HIS timing!!!

Getting Ready!

So, we are in "Get Ready" mode right now. We are getting ready for our babies to come home. We have our big yard sale this coming weekend. Our garage is packed full and we have more coming before the weekend. And, we are re-doing 4 rooms in the house (yes 4!). The boys are getting their room done in a sports theme. We have to paint beds and move dressers. Sophia has her own room now (but Silas has been still sleeping with her). We are getting her room together with new colors. She has our old queen bed so we had to get her new bedding. Her bed will also be our quest bed when we need it. And then there is the nursery to be put together. We still can't believe we are getting a baby again. It's so exciting! We have the crib all set up now. Lastly, we have the "school room" to figure out. We are moving the school room to our front office with my computer. We have lots of work to do in our house. Then there is the packing for a trip soon too. We ordered some of our humanitarian aid today that we have to bring to Addis Ababa when we travel. We got all our luggage ready to be packed. My mind is going all the time with all that has to be done before we leave. But we can't plan our trip until we pass court on June 16th and get our travel dates. We are doing everything we can before the court date to get ready for them to come home.

I can't wait to post pictures after we pass court too! They are so beautiful trust me!!! We can at least call them "little man D" and "Baby N" for now! That is all I can say for now!

Court Date Change!

Well, today was our court date in Ethiopia. And as they often do, they changed it. It is now June 16th (or sooner they said). We were afraid this would happen. The MOWA did not issue an opinion for our case. So, they could not continue in court today.

The Adoption Team in the Children and Youth Affairs Office (CYAO) operating under the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MOWA) is the primary adoption authority in Ethiopia. MOWA has responsibility for all activities regarding children in Ethiopia, including welfare, foster care, domestic adoption, international adoption and investigation of neglect and abuse. When an orphaned or abandoned child comes into the custody of the Ethiopian government, the police and MOWA create the child's dossier. So, they have to state their opinion the day before or the day of court. They just didn't give their opinion on our case yet.

So, we are all disappointed and a little frustrated today. But, we also are reminding ourselves that God in in control of every step in this journey and HIS plan is the best one! Not ours! So, we will continue to decorate rooms, get ready for our yard sale, raise money and do all the projects before they come home. I have said during this whole process that these beautiful kids will not be in our arms a day sooner or later than God has planned!

Thanks everyone for all your prayers!!! Keep it up!!! Love you all so much!!!

We got our COURT DATE!!!!!!!!!!

We got a call from Natalie exactly one month from the referral call that our court date is May 24th! AND, we made the cut-off so we only have to travel once now to Ethiopia!! We were in complete shock that we got our court date this early. We were praying we would get it before the rainy season in Ethiopia in August. So, this call came as a complete surprise to us on Monday May 5th! We are in rush mode now to get everything ready! But, happy to be rushed! Praise the Lord for HIS timing!

We are blessed!

We have been blown away at how many blessing have come our way in the past month. Of course, the first being our referral phone call and seeing the faces of those two children that God is allowing us to raise. Then the blessings just poured in after that. I just feel like sharing them and giving God all the glory. And I want us all to be reminded how BIG our God is! So, thank you everyone for being such a big blessing to our family and two kids in Ethiopia who have no idea yet what is in store for them.



Now that we know the ages of our children we can start planning better and getting ready for them to come home. I got rid of all Sophia's baby things and kept some of Silas's things. But, we didn't have any "baby" things left. The day after our referral my girlfriend says we can have her really nice crib that turns into a toddler bed and some other baby things and clothes. Then, my other friend is letting us use her high chair. We have been getting lots of yard sale donations for our fundraiser in June. My garage is packed full already. My preschoolers at work are handing me Penny Jars and their parents are handing me $20 bills to put in the jars. Those kids are so excited to put pennies in the jars. We had a friend at church say we can use some of their frequent flier miles for our trip to Ethiopia. Another friend at church gave us their washer and dryer because our washer was so loud and moved so much that it sounded like a helicopter was landing on our roof. We are going to sell our old dryer in our yard sale. We had another friend at church hand us $1000 check and tell us to go buy a new bed for us because we were hurting so bad from our other bed we had. We got a great bed for half off and feel better already. And this may sound small but, we were planning on putting a privacy fence up soon in our yard for the kids to play. One day I came home from work and our neighbors put up a privacy fence in their yard that backs up to ours. Then my other neighbor next to us came over to ask if we wanted to split the cost of the last part we would have to put up. That cut our cost by one third. Then I got the call that we got a matching grant for $4000 and a $5000 interest free loan from LifeSong for Orphans. And as of today we have already reached that goal and so now it's over $8000.00 So, that is just the big blessings that we have had in the past month or so. We are so humbled and amazed once again at God's faithfulness. We have raised over $15, 000 and have another $5000 in interest free loans from Life Song. We are really close to reaching our goal of $25,000. After looking at flights, etc, our goal my have to go up a little. But, if so, we will reach it!!! Don't forget about our BIG yard sale/bake sale on June 12th!!!



It's so fun and exciting for me to sit back and watch God's hand at work all around. He is always at work, we just have to look and see where and go and be a part of that work. And, He is at work in Ethiopia and here in Tulsa and with so many families that are a part of adoption in some small way. All of you who have donated time and/or "pennies" and prayed for us have been a part of God's work in our adoption. Thank you so much! We love you all very much!

We got THE CALL!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, we got our referral yesterday!!!!!! We got to see pictures of our kids for the first time. We have a new handsome 3 1/2 year old boy and a sweet beautiful little 5 month old baby girl! Yes, one of each! Perfect! This is exactly what Sophia and Silas have been praying for. He wanted another playmate and Sophia wanted a baby sister. God is so GOOD and FAITHFUL! It's so great when God shows our kids how faithful He is in answering their prayers.

Here is the story of how it happened yesterday... First let me start by saying that our whole family and church did a 10 day Daniel fast last week and it ended on Friday. A year and a half ago we did that same fast and that is when God confirmed in us to start the adoption process and so we did. So, this time doing the fast I was praying that we would get our phone call while we were fasting and praying. So when Friday came around I was a little sad, but still knew God had the perfect time. And He sure did. It's just like God to wait until Monday to bless us with the call. He is so faithful.

So, I was at work and was finishing up for the day. It was 2pm. I saw Scott walk in the door to my classroom and I asked him what he was doing there. He never comes to my work at that time of day. He paused and then said, "Are you ready to meet our kids?" I just fell apart and cried! I was shaking so bad and crying so hard that everyone at work was wondering what was going on. Most of them knew right away. I think everyone in the gym heard me! Mrs. P (my boss) was there and in the the middle of my excitement and tears I asked her if I could go. So, Scott and I went to the church right away to call Natalie back. She said she was going to send the email with the pictures. Lots of our friends were in there with us during this time taking pictures and video. Natalie asked if we wanted to know the ages or just see the pictures. And about that time the email came through and we saw their beautiful faces for the first time! I fell apart again and couldn't believe we had one of each and that I had a baby! We accepted the referral right away! These were our kids!

Then we went right home because Sophia and Silas were just getting home from school. We couldn't wait to tell them. This is exactly what they have prayed for. So we sat them on the couch and pulled the pictures up on the computer. We said that we got the call and Silas jumped up and down and Sophia sat in shock and couldn't believe it. They saw the pictures of their new brother and sister and just fell in love. They are so proud to have them and can't wait to go to Ethiopia!

What an amazing experience that was. I am still on cloud nine today and can't stop looking at their pictures. They are perfect. Now we wait for the court date.

PJP Yard SALE!!!

Penny Jar Yard Sale... Yes, we are doing another fundraiser, but this time it is here at our house on June 11th and 12th to raise money for our adoption. We are getting soooooo close and need to raise the rest of the funds soon. If you are spring cleaning, please set aside some things to drop off at our house for the yard sale. We will take large or small donated items. Our kids and their friends will be selling baked goods and snow cones also. It will be a fun day and we hope to raise lots of money to get our babies home soon!!!!!! Let us know if you can help in any way! Email me at tonikingsbury@cox.net . Thanks so much for all our faithful Jar Heads!

And now our UPDATE for the month of March is up to $2700! Thanks so much everyone. Our babies already have so many friends and family that love them so much and we are so thankful for all of you! We love all our Jar Heads!!! :)

Penny Jar Update...

Just wanted to praise our Heavenly Father and thank all our family and friends for our donations coming in. Just in the month of March already we have raised $1157.30 in Jars! Wow! Thank you everyone for all your donations! We are so excited to see God at work in orphan care. We can't wait to tell our kids all about how you helped them come home to their Forever Family!

James 1:27 You are helping to look after orphans. Thank you and may God bless you all!

Big Changes

Well, we are over six months in our wait now for our referral. Today we got notice that the Ethiopian Embassy has changed their policy in the court date for the adoptions. Read what our agency said (the short version):

"Our in-country staff were notified today by the Federal courts in Ethiopia that a new policy has been implemented, effective today, requiring all adoptive parents to travel to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for their court dates before their adoption can be finalized in court. This policy will now require families to travel to Ethiopia twice during their adoption process (once for adoptive parent to appear in court and once for them to pick their children and bring them to the US)."

So, that means we need to raise even more money so we can travel twice. We were hoping to bring Sophia and Silas with us on the trip. We hope to still do that, but we don't know which trip they would go on. Probably the second one. And that is if we can raise all that money. If anyone has international sky miles they want to donate, that would be a great blessing. The Penny Jar Project will have to collect a lot more pennies!!!

Other than that, our wait has gone smooth. Last week I thought I got "the call"! I have the Gladney number saved on my phone as "the call from Natalie". My phone rang and that came up. My heart sank! I had a quick moment of "THIS IS IT!" And then quickly realized it was our caseworker returning one of my phone calls from earlier. Then my heart sank again in a disappointed way. Oh well, God knows the perfect time!

5 Months Waiting

We can't believe it has been 5 months already. Time is going fast on our wait. When we started the waiting process we didn't know what to expect. The first month I watched the phone, although I didn't think we would get the call that soon. But, now we are busy getting prepared for them to come home so we are staying very busy. We are updating paperwork because it had been over a year since we started this process. That is hard to believe. More paperwork! And we are working on fundraising and grants. The Penny Jar Project is going very well. I will keep you posted on the progress because great things are continuing to develop with the PJP. Thank you again to all who have given jars so far. We have raised just over $5000 in "Penny Jars". God is so good and He will finish His work He has started in us! Praise HIM!

Change has happened in the Kingsbury home!

The Kingsbury home has had some big changes in the last week (big for us anyway)! No, we did not get any news on the adoption, unfortunately. Scott and I have been doing a lot of talking the last couple months about how we could simplify our lives by adjusting our schedules, creating more margin, and making more money. Simple right? We haven't been seeing much of each other lately with him working days and me working nights. It's been difficult. Everytime we talked about it, it seemed the only solution was for me to go back to work. Ughh! I love being home with the kids all day and homeschooling them. In fact, if it were up to me I would always stay home with the kids and not work at all so I could school them, make nice meals for my family and keep my house clean and in order.


God had other plans though. We really want to pay off some debt along with preparing for the adoption costs and despite my efforts, I couldn't come up with a better idea so... YEP... I've gone back to work. In the future I can hopefully, again, be a house wife, but for now we had to make the tough choice.

I called my boss and asked her if she needed anyone during the daytime to work. She was so excited. She said it was a miracle that I was asking because they really needed someone and she would love to have me. That means we would have to put the kids in public school (yikes!). I have always homeschooled them. So, we asked the kids what they thought and they said no way! We continued to talk about it a lot more and somewhere along the way God did an amazing work in their little hearts and in mine too. Within just a few days we were all excited about the change. ONLY God could have done that in our hearts!


Scott and I walked them into their classrooms together and met their teachers. They are both very sweet. In fact, Silas's teacher is a friend of ours from church and was in our community group for awhile. That was a nice suprise.

They started school on Tuesday this week and I started work on Wednesday. We are all tired from the change in schedule, but we had a great week. I love my job and the kids love school. In fact, Sophia is at a birthday party now with all her new school friends and was greeted at the door with hugs from four of the girls in her class. Praise God for that. Our children adjust to change so well. When we moved here to OK from TN they never skipped a beat and now it seems the same. Silas loves his class too and his teacher. He was tested this week and is one of the top in his class. That doesn't surprise me at all. He could probably do just fine in 1st grade, but I want to keep him with his age group. I will just have to challenge him more at home. I didn't realize how much "busy work" they give them in public school. It is crazy how many papers Silas brought home in the four days he went this week and to me it all seems like preschool work. So, it will be a challenge to keep him from getting bored. Sophia's class seems to be right on track for her. She is doing great in her class and participating a lot already.

Anyway, just wanted to let everyone know what the Kingsbury's have been up to in the last week. Crazy change around her, but God is in control!!!!!!!! I prayed at the beginning of the week that God would take care of every little detail so that I wouldn't have to worry about them. And He did more that I could have ever done on my own. It really is amazing how faithful God is in every situation when you give Him control. Thank you Lord for Your Peace!

4 MONTHS...

Well, it has been four months waiting now (as of Dec. 26, and I am late getting this updated). We are in wait mode and fundraising mode right now. We just spent the holidays with family and friends in MI and TN. It was a great holiday season for us, but very busy also. I talked to our caseworker at Gladney a few days ago and I was telling her how fast this process seems to be going. Time goes so fast anyway when we stay as busy as we are. I try to cherish each moment with the kids because they are growing so fast. I can't even imagine how fast life will go with four kids at home.

I just called our caseworker to see on her end how things were going and touch base and I had some questions for her. Of course, I knew that she couldn't "tell" me anything because she doesn't know anything yet either. She will get a call from the in-country staff to say that our referral is ready and then she will call us. So, I just filled her in on what we have been doing in the waiting period. I can't wait until the day I see her number come up on my phone.

Well, the Penny Jar Project is going great! Just in the month of December we collected 75 jars. In real dollars that equals $750.00. Praise the Lord! We want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who has donated to the PJP. We greatly appreciate all of you and you are already a part of our children's lives. They will one day realize how great of a gift it was from all of you. Again, we really want a picture of you when you fill your jar so we can make a picture of all your faces so they can see who brought them home from Africa. We are also now connected with a non-profit organization called Life Song for Orphans and can receive tax deductible gifts towards the PJP. Email me for more information or send your pictures to tonikingsbury@cox.net .

Ethiopia just celebrated Christmas there on January 7th. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church's celebration of Christ's birth is called Ganna. You can read more about the holiday in Ethiopia at

http://christmas.howstuffworks.com/traditions/christmas-traditions-around-the-world-ga4.htm

Merry Christmas to our kids in Ethiopia! Or should we say Merry Ganna?

By the way, Sophia wanted this to be our #4 picture. She did it all on her own with her geoboard in math yesterday and brought it to me. I love that they are always wanting to stay involved in every part of the process. They are so excited to have a new brother(s) and sister(s).