It's a boy! AND It's a girl!

Grandparents, you may want to sit down. We have decided that yes, we will adopt a boy and a girl. The age range will be from 0-12 months. They may be biological siblings and they may not. I told Jim that perhaps we'll be thinking differently on our LONG plane ride home from Ethiopia with the babies:-) Cole and Julia asked to watch videos of them when they were little yesterday. I can't believe how little they were...so cute, so funny. But, it made me SO excited to go through that age again. We were able to spend time with our nieces this past weekend at my sister, Melissa's wedding. (Congrats, Melissa...it was beautiful.) The girls are so sweet and SO funny...all three under the age of three. Again, it's just such an awesome reminder of the joys of what is to come. And yes, it also reminds us of the struggles, too. We're expecting it, though. Jim and I thoroughly enjoy our Sunday naps, which will most likely dwindle away, but it's worth it. When we tell people we're adopting from Ethiopia, and babies at that, they tend to say one of three things: "Wow"...quickly followed by..."NOT ME...I'm done with those days!" or "Wow"...that's great!" What made you choose Ethiopia?" and finally..."What do Cole and Julia think of it?" We've asked ourselves the same questions early on...Can we do babies again(we're not getting any younger)? Can we, a family with white skin, raise a child with black skin in our community? What will Cole and Julia think? And there were many many more questions.

But, no amount of questioning or fear can stand up against God's leading you to your child. If you knew your child, the child you have now, we're all the way across the world, wouldn't you do anything and everything to go get that child and bring him/her home? That's exactly how it feels when you know God has called you to adopt.

In addition, the statistics are literally staggering. I'm not a numbers girl, so I won't attempt to explain in numbers, but there are young children who live on the streets with absolutely no one. If that happened in this area, there would be people flocking to take the children in. I wonder if we don't understand what's happening to these children and many more around the world because people just don't know. When I see the news, the stimulus bill is the top story every single day. It just blows my mind. There are children dying because they have no one...nothing. And our top stories are about the stimulus bill and a woman who has 14 children and can't take care of them. Have you ever noticed that most stories in the newspaper or on the tv, stir some type of negative feeling inside of you: fear, worry, anger. What if all the good that happens in the world was published as much as the bad? How would our lives be different?

I pray that God gives us a vision for the children of the world, who have been orphaned..who have no one. I pray that we can be the hands and feet that serve them.

Ponder this...

Sometimes I 'd like to ask God why He allows poverty, famine, and injustice in the world when He could do something about it..but I'm afraid God might ask me the same question.
~anonymous

Missing Watoto Choir

Well, it seems that C has a burden on his heart for the children of Watoto. He made them a picture today. It looks great. It depicts all of them singing, and he's labeled Fred, Davis, and Brian, the three who stayed with us. He wrote: Dear Fred, davis(no capital-teacher's nightmare), and Brian, thank you so much for singing for us. It was a lot of fun staying with us. When I'm older I want to come to Watoto. Sinserly, C It's so sweet. And J made her own card and notes to go with it. One says, "you guys are the best. I will miss you so so mach (that's much, for all you non-first grade teachers) from J

I have prayed for others to come along side me and carry this burden that I have for the children of Africa. I am SO thankful that my kids "get it". I don't have to explain it to them, and they don't look at me like I'm half nuts. If we would let C, I sincerely believe he would go to Uganda. This is the boy who was afraid to rock climb last night. There was something about the boys that you just can't explain. It was more than their politeness. It was more than their hugs. Perhaps it was their spirit. They had such a spirit of thankfulness and love.

Secretary Needed and other stuff!!!

Jim and I did indeed send our contract off to our agency and well, it will be promptly sent back to us. We missed initialing one section. We looked over several times...at least I did. Oh well. We'll initial it and send it back. We're waiting on one of Jim's clearances that failed to come through, so I doubt we can do much more without that anyway.

We emailed our agency this week and told them we'd like to proceed as though we will be adopting two children. We need to do two more trainings and one more meeting if we decide that God has two children for us at this time. You know, if you physically carry your children, you make none of these decisions...one or two, girl or boy, girl and boy, etc. Some people might like that. I'm just trying to be sure my connections are clear. I don't always trust my own random thoughts, but God is faithful and true. He will reveal exactly what we are to do in perfect time.

I've been thinking a lot about getting a new camera as photography is a growing passion in my life. But then again, so is spending time with my kids, my husband, playing guitar, singing, writing...so I just pray that God connects all of these things and that they're all done for His glory alone.

Good News...we'll no longer be getting free Internet. How is this good news, you ask? Well, I've been asking (really begging) Jim to get high speed Internet for months, and he reminds me that it is now FREE. I really want it to do our trainings, post some pictures to this blog, and just do some other things with it. So, he gets a notice this week that BU will no longer be supplying Internet...yeah for me.

Jim realized last night for the first time that we're going to need a van. Seriously, I have been talking about getting one for two years-maybe three. I always tell him that I've been thinking about something for years, and he one day he comes up with a "novel" idea. Ahhh...such is the difference between my husband and I. I love him so much!

Well, my quiet time is over. Noise is about the house.

Blessings.

Contract Sent

We sent our official contract to Dove. The next step will be to have our home study completed. We need just one document, which we should have received weeks ago. Apparently, they have no record of it, and we will need to reapply. We should receive it in about two weeks. The next step for us will be to receive our dossier packet and complete lots of paperwork. From there, it will need to be reviewed by several people here in the US and then sent to Ethiopia. At that point, we will begin our wait for our referral. We should be able to complete and send our dossier back in a few months.

There is a family who is adopting two children through Dove who are currently in Ethiopia picking up their children. You may want to check out their blog as they lay everything out by dates and show pictures of their children. Their blog address is: http://drubekadoption.blogspot.com