January Wait List Numbers

Today we got our monthly update call from our case manager with our new numbers on the wait list. We are officially 19 for boys and 31 for girls. She said December was slow but that is pretty normal, and referrals are starting to pick back up again this month. She even said there are a couple of referrals in progress right now that aren't accounted for in our numbers! So let's pray for lots of movement over the next few months!

Here are a few pictures from Christmas of my sweet nephew, just for fun!

Smiling at his Uncle Hans, as usual! :-)



Poor baby got a little too warm opening all of those presents in his super-cute Christmas PJs! Why do I love pictures of upset children so much? They are just the best!



All better with a t-shirt on and his new cell phone.



Yum!

Officially on the Waiting List!

It's official, we are on the waiting list! Here are the numbers...

We are "officially" number 23 for boys and 43 for girls! I am so grateful for those numbers, what an answer to prayer to actually be on the list.

I had this grand plan to surprise Hans with this oreo pie when he got home, and that's how I would tell him "the numbers". I made that plan under the assumption that our case manager would call me in the afternoon. I figured I could hold out for 2 hours...but instead she called at noon and I couldn't possibly wait 5 hours to tell him! So I called him right away, and then we told the world (via facebook of course). :-) But I decided to make the pie anyway, because it would make for a nice blog photo and I am so excited that I don't care who knows about my cheesy celebration of our numbers!

And so the waiting begins...I know, it seems like we have already been waiting, but it was active waiting. The kind of waiting where we had things to do. Now there is nothing to do but wait, and prepare for our little one. Other adopting families say this is the hardest part because we have no "control", as if we've really had control in any of this! I pray and hope that this will be a restful time for us, it's been a long journey to get to this point and we are ready to just be still.

"Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him..." ~Psalm 37:7

"Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!" ~Psalm 27:14

Dossier Complete!

So this post is overdue...technically we turned in our dossier on October 19th with everything but the home study report. We had our last visit with our social worker on October 7th and were just waiting for that report before our dossier could be reviewed. She called us on Monday (11/2) to let us know that she had finished the report and handed it over to our case worker, so we will officially be reviewed tomorrow, Friday November 6th! That means that tomorrow afternoon we will either know what documents need to be fixed, or we will have a wait list number! We are, of course, praying for a number, but more than that we are praying for the Lord's perfect timing in all of this. We don't know why it took so long to write up our home study report, but we do know that God has a perfect child picked out to join our family and we will get on that waiting list at exactly the right time. And since a post without a picture is no fun at all, here is a "family" picture of us with our dossier binder, the night before I turned it in.

Home Study Documents Complete!

It's official, we finished the paperwork phase of the home study! For anyone reading who doesn't know, we are adopting an infant from Ethiopia. Our agency is All God's Children International, and so far they have been amazing. Today we turned in the home study paperwork, so the next step will be home visits once we get assigned a social worker. Since Hans leaves for Africa next Friday, it's unlikely that those will be done before then, but that will just give us more time to work on dossier paperwork and preparing our hearts & home for our child! :-)

Thank you to everyone for your prayers and support in this journey! We are so excited and know that the Lord is definitely in it, we are so blessed to have this opportunity!

Traveling from Africa and New York

On our way back from Africa, we ran into a couple of delays and so Air Morocco gave us a free day in New York.  We decided to take advantage of it as best we could.  Here are some fun pics from our New York adventure.

I love the geometric photography in New York.

Rockefellar Square.

Times Square

My favorite picture from New York.

Africa Team picture in Central Park.

The Plaza Hotel

Another awesome building

Ouagadougou Day 3-7 - Kids Camp

Kid's Camp was unbelievable.  The kids were awesome and I was so blessed to be a part of the camp.  As part of the camp, 250 children were fed with meat and rice for 5 days which for many of the kids, was a total blessing.  The women from the church woke early every morning to boil water for the children to bathe.  They each received a cup full of water to bathe.  The kids were more joyful than most people I have met in life and they went after each and every game like it was the World Cup.

We played games, sang songs in English, Moore, and French, taught bible stories, and hung out with the kids.  We tried our best to show the kids the love of Jesus.  I think in the end, they were the ones that showed us the joy of the Lord.  To show pictures and write about it would take too long so here is a video that I think will help show you what it was all about.

Rasmussen Family Beach Weekend

Kel and I got a chance to get away for the weekend and hang out at the Ocean Lodge in Canon Beach.  These are some really cool pics from the coast...

Sunset from our room.

Self-portrait at Haystack Rock.  The place where I proposed to Kel 7 years ago.

Some tide pool pics.

A beautiful photographer

My favorite picture.

Starfish in the tide pool.

Another fun self-portrait.

Photographing the photographer.

What do computer nerds do on vacation?

The beautiful view from our room.