Looking for Suggestions!

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First, thank you so much to everyone for all of your kind words of encouragement. This is so magical, and we feel incredibly blessed and fortunate to have everyone's loving support!

Thank you to all of the wonderful blogging families and for all of your beautiful hearts and souls...you all are truly amazing people doing God's work all over the world. Your words of encouragement are unbelievable--I haven't returned all of your acts of kindness but I do wish to speak to as many adoptive families as possible.

My email address is amygugger@yahoo.com. Please write to me "off-blog", if you can. Especially those who might be able to get together (we are in Philadelphia, PA area)...but we are mobile and willing to travel (as much as $$ will allow).

Ok, so Dutch (my Dad) is travelling with me and he is urging me to get suggestions...on EVERYTHING! We are mostly looking for suggestions on the best guesthouses to stay at, as well as anything else anyone thinks is important to know about food, water, altitude, cultural activities, travel, etc.

Oh Yes, and needless to say, our little guy will be going through quite the transition, so if there is any advice on that front...we would surely welcome it. Abe is going to be 5.5 months old when we get there, so feeding is of utmost concern to me to make sure he doesn't have any tummy issues, especially while travelling. So, anyone who had brought home a little one in this age range, please do feel free to share with me what you took for food/formula. I am concerned about switching his formula mid trip and running into digestion problems.

Thank you everyone, again, for your support. It means the world to have so many people sharing this experience with us, supporting us with love and prayer. All our appreciation, Doug and Amy

Abraham's Referral Photos (2.5 months old)

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The first pictures we saw of our beautiful boy....

Pictures--3.5 month

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And for the First Time in Public......

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I am so proud to introduce our son, Abraham Getamesay Gugger, born June 23, 2009.



We PASSED!

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WE PASSED!!!!!!!! My husband is home for 2 weeks for the holidays, Dec. 19 - Jan. 2. He will see his son before he goes to Afghanistan. This is a miracle!

A Guided Path

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Our little guy could officially be our son in 10 short days. November 10, 2009 is our court date--we received the call this past week. It is difficult to comprehend that this day is right around the corner. We started our adoption journey June 30, 2008 and here we are 16 months later! The process of adoption is long, emotional and trying. Doug and I have been through our share of hard times--but our path was guided every step of the way...leading us right to our child.

And we are not yet near the end of our challenging journey. Doug has been gone for 2 weeks--training in the states until the end of January at which time he will deploy to Afghanistan until November 2010. The total number of deployment days, as it stands now, is 391 days. My Dad is travelling with me to Ethiopia to bring our little love home while my big love will be sacrificing so much--the least of which will be seeing our son together for the first time.

As the Army-base physician for the unit he will travel with, he is serving something so much greater than just himself. He is living every day, not for himself but for a cause. His existence and his work is more meaningful than ever before. As sad as I am and as sad as I know he is to be gone for so long, he has a calling, a purpose and a mission to serve.

The path to our baby isn't the path taken by most, but it has been guided with a purpose greater than we can comprehend. Similary, the path my husband will follow this next year is not travelled by most, but it too is guided with a purpose far greater than any. These are pretty overwhelming times for us, but then again, following the road less travelled usually is.

I heard the view from the top is pretty bright after travelling through the valley of darkness. The road right now is winding and dark, but our spirits shine brighter than ever before...because we know we are serving His purpose. The power of faith will light the way.

Pray for a smooth court date--November 10, 2009...Here we go!

Our Baby Boy

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It happened....today...the best day! 9/3/09---we saw our baby boy's sweet face, big beautiful eyes, perfect in every way. Today was his day, and ours. Today was the day our family was formed. I will send more info but it has been an extremely emotional day--filled with tears of joy that have been waiting so long to be released. Thank you God for giving us this child, he is our special angel chosen for us by You, and we can't wait to bring him home! He is our miracle. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

D is for DEPLOYMENT

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Doug is deploying to Afghanistan for 391 DAYS. We don't know today how we will make it through. Today was our worst day since finding out a week ago. He will not travel to Ethiopia to pick up the baby. We have struggled for the past three years to become parents; now we must fight again through the end of 2010 until Doug comes home. My love and my heart will care for our troops as they fight for our Freedom. I am tremendously proud yet overwhelmingly horrified. If you have time in your day, please pray for my husband, LT. Douglas R. Gugger, MC and for all the men and women deployed. Words can not express how tough this is.

What A June!

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Ok, so we are home....back to PA--THANK GOD! Pensacola was, well, the beach. In the winter. Far from town. Far from people. I need neighborhoods, cars, people, stores to walk to, etc.... I am so happy we are home, still shocked Doug got stationed at Willow Grove but not complaining.

A lot has happened this past month. First, Doug graduated from flight surgery school. .. But only after he grew a hideous mustache that i had to be seen in public with for at least 6 weeks. Was awful, trust me. Anyway, so he had a great graduation at the naval aviation museum in Pensacola...

We left the morning after this photo, travelled Fl, AL, GA, SC, NC, VA, WV, MD, to PA. There might be one or two more in there. Anyway, we finally saw green trees in WV and felt we were approaching the northeast, which just felt so good. Molly, our beloved greyhound, travelled in the back of my car...here was her position for the total 20 hours:


















We had great luck finding a place to stay in WV. As it turns out, the one hotel we called had a history buff working at the front desk--he loves military so he waved our pet fee and gave us suite at the regular rate. What a peach! Made our night...highly recommend Hampton Inn--who would have known it would be such a comfy night's rest after such a long haul?

Ok, so we finally got to our new house 20+ hours after leaving. Here we are finally arriving at our new home.....



















Molly was psyched too!











THEN...IT TOOK 3 WEEKS FOR OUR FURNITURE TO ARRIVE~and the Guggers WAITED AGAIN! All adoptive families can you please support me when i say, I think my patience is running out. This was not an easy 3 weeks, we bounced around from parents to in laws to siblings houses. All of my work clothes were in my car. And then...our stuff arrived! and then, we had a slumber party with my sister, her two daughers Mia and Eva, our sister in law Aunt Courtney, and our great friend Amity and her daughers Adelaide and Amelia.....

There was ice cream:There was face painting....And of course, there was spa night with Aunt Courtney:
And Finally, Everyone has to fall asleep watching Princess Ella at a slumber party:


I can't express our absolute joy of being home with our family and friends after living far away for several years. The chance that we got stationed in willow grove was slim! Very Slim! We are psyched. We celebrated Father's Day the next day with all of our parents, including my sister's in laws as well...here are the Guys!


And then, Doug went to the middle east for work, where he is now. Actually, he's on his way back and is currently in Ireland, tomorrow night he'll be back in the States officially. He only went for two weeks, but accompanied a squadron being deployed to Afghanistan and I know he too will go before long. We are very proud of our patriot who is happy to be serving his country!








Ok, so this was June. What a month. We are almost at 7 months on our wait and needless to say, it has flown by recently. More to come on becoming parents....we have A LOT to do now that we are getting settled. We anticipate our referral perhaps within the next 1-2 months (we hope)...and again, we have A LOT to do. It's nursery painting, planning time. We want to wait on some of the specifics to see the age(s) of the children and whether we will have boy(s) or girl(s).....MORE TO COME SOON! HOLY COW!

A Mother's Day Blessing

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I went to church by myself on Mother's Day...I usually give my husband a hard time when he doesn't come to church with me; today, I let it lie and went on my way. I was a little early, so I parked on the beach and spent a couple of quiet moments wading in the shallow water before mass. When I finally pulled into the parking lot, I realized that the beautifully dressed little ones accompanying their parents were all celebrating Mother's Day! How could I forget? How could my husband not join me today for church? I would be alone, everyone else would be together--The Mothers--note to self, "do not pitty, do not compare; your life is your life, and theirs is theirs".

I sit in the back row; I wait for church to start; I put my head down; I lift my head up. I try not to dramatize my scenario. I pray, to myself, alone. I put my head down; and then I lift it up to the most beautiful brown skin and big black eyes, peering...no staring right at me as if an angel came and sat on top of the pew in front of me....whispering through this baby's eyes...telling me that my baby is waiting for me to be his/her mommy. The family was interracial, which made it all the more compelling for me personally. I couldn't believe that God had sent this little sign that our time was coming; our Mother's Day and Father's Day will soon be here--to share with our Miracle!

Happy Mother's Day to all of our dear friends and family--and to our mom's who are waiting right along with us with all of the loving support only mothers can provide.

Tomorrow is 20 weeks waiting!

Welcome to the world Mia Catherine! Welcome Back Guggers!

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So, I'm realizing more and more that I'm more of a "What's New" blogger, rather than a "Streaming Thoughts" blogger. I'm probably not going to be one to report regularly (until of course the kid(s) come then i'm sure i will become a crazy photo posting blogging crazy lady). But, until then, I will leave it to News Reporting....and we have some big news to report.

First, my sister had her 2nd baby, March 18th...>Mia Catherine joins her big sister Eva, as the lights of the lives of all of her family. Going home tomorrow back to PA and will be taking my usual b-line from airport to Mia and Eva's!

Second bit news report: Doug and I are moving back to Philly...amazingly, he was stationed at Willow Grove for the next 2 years...HIS HOME TOWN! We are so excited and can not wait to be so close to our family and friends. We are shocked, thrilled and ready to go......my brother will be 1 mile away, Doug's parents about 15 minutes and my parents, sister about 1 hour.

We already found a great house in what seems like will be a great neighborhood. We learned that there are 2 families, just on our street, who have formed their families through the blessing of adoption. We can't wait to meet them and their kids!

We have been on "in country waitlist" for 18 weeks (4.5 months). From what I can see, referrals for children are taking a little longer....and so we are giving ourselves 9 months (again, hopefully it will be sooner and we'll be surprised but at this point, we're expecting 9 months or so to receive our child's referral and see the photo/s of our miracle). So, that will definitely take us in to 2010 before we travel to Ethiopia. The wait is long, but we can not believe 4.5 months has already passed. Time only seems to be moving quickly when you see it in writing and reflect on it, because the days can seem so slow.

So, this is just another update....June 1 we head home. We will probably start some decorating of the nursery, so then i'll be excited to post photos of that!!! YIPEE! But, we won't go hog wild until we see whether its a boy or girl, more than 1????, age(s)????

Look out, things are going to pick up in a few months....Bring It On!!!


Eva and Dutch

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Look at that rainbow!


Eva saying Cheeze for the Camera

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Really, is there any more explaining necessary? This is our niece and Godchild....such a proud aunty.

A Gift from Betty

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I haven't updated our blog in a while because there really has not been much to report. We are about 11 weeks into our wait for referral and we aren't expecting to hear anything before about week 30 and maybe longer than that! We have a long ways to go but sometimes its amazing to think that its already been 11 weeks since we got put on wait list. So, all in all, it's a bit of a hard time for Doug and me...however, we have many things keeping us busy. We find out in a few weeks where we are moving in May! So, more to come on that.

In the meantime, I received an awesome gift this week from my friend Betty from the Netherlands! In December I went to Haiti for two weeks to work in an orphanage. I was assigned 8 little babies that I would work with each day--1 hour of individual time for each baby, every day. There were several other volunteers there with me, all of whom were staying for several months. So, the last day of my stay I had a terrible, all day long migraine. I couldn't see and spent the whole day in bed so I didn't get to say good bye to my kids other than a couple of blurry-eyed hugs. Betty, who I just love and my trip wouldn't have been the same without her, took the time to get all 8 kids upstairs to the terrace and photograph them together! Here is the picture that Betty took--Betty, again thank you so much, what an amazing gift! The second photo here is of Betty and me.......

All our best, please keep praying! Love, D&A

WAITLIST!!!

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We made it. We're on the waitlist as of 12/30/08. What a wonderful New Year's gift. We are more than excited over this news, of course it means most of the paper work is done and now we can officially begin the wait to meet our baby/babies.

We shared the news with our parents (the grandparents) Dutch and Nanna, MomMom and Poppop. Of course, they were also ecstatic. We have 4-6 months to wait to see our baby/ies faces, again we don't know if we will have 1 or 2 babies, either way we know its God's plan. These months will be agonizing as we wait, but of course we are moving at the end of May so time might not go by that slowly. I have to curb my enthusiasm as not to make the wait process more difficult.

We will begin looking for a new place some time in March (that's when we find out where we're going). BUT, we get to think about our nursery!! while we look for our next home. I just can't wait to plan out our nursery and i know that moving and decorating will actually make the time go by so much quicker.

So, its 4-6 months or so until we see pictures of our little one(s) and then we travel a few weeks after that. Courts close down for rainy season in Ethiopia Aug-Sept so we are preparing our hearts now that we won't be travelling until close to end of year 2009! Hopefully we'll be pleasantly surprised but we are prepared.

We again know that our anxious energy pales in comparison to what our birth mom is undoubtedly experiencing right now. I hope that she feels the spirit of love from thousands of miles away and takes comfort in the hope she has for her baby's future. We know the burden of our gift, that we will love and raise our children and hers, in this we are reminded that we are all God's children. Again, If you read our blog, please pray for these birth mothers, for the babies and their caretakers in the orphanages, for the babies to make it to their forever families as quickly as possible. Pray for the courts and the decision makers that their hearts be kind and the urgency be appreciated by those who hold the destiny of so many.

Grace and Mercy through God in Heaven we continue on!