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!