Win One of Our Adoption Shirts

WIN ONE OF OUR ETHIOPIA ADOPTION SHIRTS!!! Make a $25 donation to your favorite charity between now and New Years Eve and I will enter your name in a raffle to win one of our shirts! This is being done on the "honor's system" so just attach a comment with the charity you gave to. Tis' the season to give joyfully! Good luck on winning one of our Ethiopia Adoption shirts! I will pull the wining name on New Years Day!

Waiting Patiently?

I don't know why, but today has been a tough day for me in the "waiting game". I have been thinking about our kids in Ethiopia all day. I also had tons of snuggle/tickle time with Xavier and Faith and wished our other kiddos could have been part of the fun!!! I am praying we get "the call" before Christmas, but am trying to prepare myself for waiting longer then that. There is a family in our agency who has been waiting for younger siblings (0-3 year olds) for almost a year! I can't imagine what their wait has been like. I think the holiday season makes me long for our Ethiopian Beauties even more...I can't wait to create so many wonderful memories with them! Pray for my patience!!!

Great Blog on Adoption

We have met so many wonderful people through our adoption journey so far...many of them via "blog land". Please check out this blog from another family in our agency...it is done soooo well!!! They are also doing an t-shirt fundraiser...check out their "Simply Love" shirts and blog at
mycrazyadoption.org

An Incredible Friend!

A friend of ours (Tiago Costa) has surprised us with incredible generosity! He has planned an incredible evening of music and is collecting donations at the event to give to us for our adoption! Isn't that amazing...what a blessing!!!!! Here is more information about the event from Tiago's post on Facebook:


This will be an awesome event with the best of Brazilian music and a set of great Christmas Carols (Tiago's style!)

Christmas Sounds like Brazil

Saturday, December 12th

www.kravingsfusion.com

Location:Kravings Lounge

Time:9:30PM

The event is FREE but we will ask for a donations to help some of my friends who are adopting two siblings from Ethiopia. Check out their blog. http://2plus2plus2.blogspot.com/

Kravings is a great Restaurant/Lounge and I got a great deal for us, so we will have a special Happy Hour Menu for food and drinks all night long!
*Parking is Free and there is plenty on the attached back building with validation.

Please come and bring someone with you!

Be part of Fundraiser #3

We are so thankful for the incredibly generous people in our lives! An amazing man from our church is a Grand Master (8th Degree Blackbelt) in Tang Soo Do. He is offering a "Self-Defense Class" and donating all of the proceeds to help pay some of our astronomical adoption fees. Isn't that incredible?!?! If you would like to join us, here are the details: 

Join Grand Master, Clarence Smith (8th Degree Blackbelt) for a life-enhancing training on self-defense. This class will show you how to effectively apply fundamental techniques of the martial arts to defend yourself in the event of an attack. Some benefits of this class are: enhanced self-awareness, effective techniques, better focus, 

 improved confidence, and it’s a fun class!!! 

2 times to choose from:

Saturday, January 16th from 10:00am-12:00pm OR 

Saturday, January 16th from 12:30-2:30pm 

Cost for the class in only $20 (if you pre-register) or $25 at the door!

Space is limited to 30 people per class, so register soon!

All ages, body types, and skill levels are welcome to attend.

Class location: The Offices of Church of the Beach Cities-

1807 Manhattan Beach Blvd. in Manhattan Beach (near Trader Joe’s)

Register by January 14th with Heidi Ballard @ 

ballarddesigns@yahoo.com or 310.940.4629 

 Check out the “Karate For Your Body” website @ karateforyourbody.com

Please pray for this fundraiser and our continual fundraising efforts. We could literally get the phone call any day to find out who our kids are! We are so excited!!! And can't wait to see all of the amazing ways that God is going to provide for us!!!!!!

A Great Night!

We are so incredibly thankful for the adoption agency we belong to! Through our agency we have joined a Yahoo Group with other families from our agency who are in various stages of the adoption journey. Some families are just starting the paperwork process, some are waiting for a referral, some are waiting for court dates, others are waiting to get travel dates, some are waiting to travel, some families are traveling right now, and other families are already home with their kids. Tonight we had an evening of prayer and praise where we just posted things God laid on our hearts. Some people offered prayers of thanks, some posted the words to great worship music, others posted their prayers of needs and desires. It is so awesome to be able to share this adoption journey with other Christian families and to be able to come together for encouragement, prayer, support and advice. Here is the prayer Kenny and I posted: "Thank you God for being the ultimate example of love, sacrifice, patience, and perseverance....qualities all of us need in this gift of adoption. Thank you for your example of being the ultimate adoptive parent. Thank you for adopting all of us. We praise you God for stirring in each of us a desire to care for your "little ones". Thank you for entrusting us with their care. What a privilege it is Lord to be parents to your amazing Ethiopian beauties. We thank you Lord for loving each of them more then we ever could! Help us Lord to be thankful for their lives each and every day. Help us to trust you with their lives. We love you Father!!! In Your Name...Amen."

Second Successful Fundraiser!!!

Our first fundraiser, selling our adoption t-shirts, was a HUGE success! Today we had our second fundraiser, a "Cash for Gold Party"! It was so much fun to see everyone so excited about getting cash and leaving with more money then they came with! It was a very fun and successful fundraising day! Our next fundraiser? An amazing self-defense class taught by a friend who is an 8th Degree Blackbelt...January 16th. It is so cool to see all of the creative ways people are stepping up to help us bring our 2 Ethiopian beauties home! It is also cool to see how God is providing for us!!!

Why Are We Adopting?

What a Day!!!

WOW! What a day! FIVE families in our agency received referrals today! I haven't seen that happen before. FIVE in one day!!! I cried tears of joy for each of them. Those referrals moved our family up to #11 on the unofficial wait list, and the exciting part is we are #2 in line for siblings!!! The excitement has my hopes up again that we won't have to wait too long, but I need to remain patient because realistically it could still takes months and months. It is fun to see so many referrals coming through though!!! Wouldn't be awesome if we had a referral by Thanksgiving or Christmas?!?! What a gift that would be!!!!!!

Questions that plague me

Since we are hoping for 2 children between the ages of 0-4 years, chances are at least one (maybe both) of them is probably already born. Our desire is for an older boy and an infant girl, but we are open to who ever God has in store for us. I think about our child (or children) who is already alive and in Ethiopia a lot! There are so many questions that go through my head on a daily basis: Is he or she hungry? Lonely? Sad? Happy? Sick? Healthy? Anxious for a family? How much has he been through in life already? Does he know he is loved? Does he already understand that God loves him/her? Will they connect to me? When I start making myself a little crazy with all the questions, I have to remember that God is in control and he loves my kids more then I ever could. I also do my best to offer the questions up to God as prayers. It is amazing how much love God has put in my heart for these children I do not even know yet!


Here are a couple of verses helping me to get through this "waiting" stage:
Romans 8:25 "But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently."
Philippians 4:6 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

Thanks to Everyone for Supporting Us!

Just wanted to take a moment to thank all of you who have supported us in our adoption journey so far. We know many, many prayers have been offered on our behalf and we have seen God do some amazing things already. We have raised over $5000 for our adoption through our t-shirt fundraiser! We stepped out in faith in this journey knowing we did not have all of the financial resources in place for this adoption. We also have full confidence that the "financial" aspect of this adoption is a small detail for God to work out (although it seems like a big detail to us sometimes). It is cool to see God work things out! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for all of your love and support of our family during this process. We are blessed that each of you will be part of our adoption story! Please continue to lift us up in prayer...especially pray for our children in Ethiopia.

We are officially "bloggers"!

          Okay, so we finally did it! We set up a blog for our adoption!!! And I thought getting the adoption paperwork together was a major chore...hahaha! Those who know me, know that I am not a technically savvy gal (isn't that what husbands are for???) Kenny has no time to do this, so I decided to step up and try to figure this out. So if you are reading this, that means I have been somewhat successful so far. Thanks to God!
          We are so excited about God increasing our family through adoption! Kenny and I have already been incredibly blessed with our 2 amazing biological children and we are excited to find out and wholeheartedly embrace the 2 Ethiopian children that God has in store for us!
          When we first started our adoption journey I was asked to write a letter explaining why we wanted to adopt. Here is what I wrote:

“There are over 140 million orphans in the world. That means there are millions and millions of children living without a mommy and daddy, living without a parent to believe in them, living without a parent to unconditionally love them, living with out a parent to tell them they matter and can make a difference.

My husband and I were overwhelmed by these truths after attending a Global Aids Conference, watching movies like Hotel Rwanda, and hearing stories of the children from pastors and other leaders in countries where the numbers of orphans are staggering. I remember being brought to tears at the Global Aids Conference at Saddleback Church (Pastor Rick Warren’s church) when I pictured the faces of children living without anyone to embrace them. I asked myself and God, “What can my husband and I do to make a difference? The problem is so huge! The numbers are so overwhelming.” Quickly a sentence came to my mind…“One at a time.” There was my answer. We may not be able to solve the problem all at once, but we can help each orphan “one at a time”. From then on, our plan (after having two biological children) was to adopt children into our family. We originally only wanted to adopt one, but after attending an adoption seminar, we decided it would be great to adopt two in the hopes of keeping siblings together.

Do we have enough space in our house for 2 more? Nope. Do we have enough money for 2 more? Nope. Do we have extra time for 2 more? Nope. Are we going for it anyway? You bet! Is this the most sacrificial thing we have ever done? Yes. Do we have all the details worked out? No. Do we know it is going to work out? Absolutely! Are we extremely excited? YES! 

We know that this is exactly what we need to be doing and hopefully through our experience others will be encouraged to follow in our footsteps. My husband and I believe that if everyone is willing to sacrifice a little of their time, resources, and comfort, and truly embrace an orphan into their family, the overwhelming number of orphans in the world would be eradicated. “One at time” we can erase this problem and make a difference in the lives many.”

I hope this gives you a little insight into why we are so excited about God opening this opportunity for adoption to us. I am amazed that God allows us to be His hands and feet to His "little ones". It is such an honor to be used by God in this way, and I know that the children He is going to bring into our family are going to be 2 of the greatest blessings in our lives!