Check out this Chicken Leg!

I haven't posted a picture of my dinner on here before but I couldn't resist adding this one. We are always trying to save money and so when I find an inexpensive yummy dinner I think it's worthy of sharing. I found the recipe in one of my older Real Simple magazines. It had a feature for a month of dinners. At Lowes Foods the other day they had like 16 chicken legs on a crazy sale! I think we got the whole pack for $3.00 and some change. I was in Harris Teeter today and they have the same sale going on. So, I cooked half of them and froze the other half. Without further ado, here is our lovely drumstick! I just salted and peppered them and then roasted them in the oven on 400F for about 35 minutes. Then I brushed on the glaze and let them cook for about 10-15 more minutes! Soo easy. The glaze is the duo you see behind the drumstick. Any variety of chili-garlic sauce (you find this on the Asian aisle) and orange marmalade!
It's sweet and spicy all at the same time!
















Spicy Orange-Glazed Drumsticks
1/4 cup orange marmalade

1/2 tsp chili-garlic sauce (a little more if you like it really spicy)

8 chicken drumsticks (about 2 1/2 pounds)

Kosher salt and pepper

1. Heat oven to 400 F. In a small bowl, mix the marmalade and chili-garlic sauce.

2. Season the chicken with 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper (or just eyeball it). Roast on a foil-lined baking sheet until cooked through, 35-45 minutes, brushing with the glaze during the last 10 minutes of cooking.

That's it!! Enjoy!

So what's going on??

Some of you have asked where we are in the process and what we're doing now that we raised the first $10,000. So, I decided to tell you. :)

*We had our orientation call with our agency where they review all of our contracts and official documents that we must sign and notarize to begin our dossier process.

*We applied to our homestudy agency. This is a separate agency because we are using All God's Children International as our adoption agency and they are located in Oregon. You must use a coordinating agency in your area since that social worker will be visiting with us. Our coordinating agency is Carolina Adoption Services in Greensboro. We sent in our application to them but received an email from them yesterday saying that it takes them 2-3 weeks to process applications. I checked with AGCI in Oregon and they said that seemed like a long time and advised us to give them a call and see if they are backed up or what's going on. If they are then we may need to find another coordinating agency here in the area so that we can get started. We cannot send in our AGCI contracts and documents until we have been signed on with our coordinating homestudy agency. So, I'm checking on that this afternoon.

* We were planning to go this afternoon to have everything notarized but I guess we'll wait and see.

* After we are set up with a homestudy agency then we can send everything in to AGCI and they can send us our dossier paperwork guide/packet. We will then begin gathering TONS of information in very particular careful order to be notarized, sent to DC, then sent to Oregon, then sent to Ethiopia. While we are doing all that our homestudy will be happening concurrently. This process usually takes 3-5 months.

*At the end of that process when it is time to send the dossier to AGCI we will then send in a second large chunk of money. The estimate is $6,000. That is why we aren't stopping with the fundraising! :) We still have some things coming up. Brian is going to guest blog one day about one particular fundraiser that involves any of your extra books/textbooks/cds that you don't want/need anymore. So, hold on to them and don't chuck them just yet!!

Alright, I think that's what we are up to in regards to the adoption.

Much love,

Re-decorating!

Hey everybody! Check out my new background! I've updated my blog with a new quilt design! I thought it was really fitting since my blog's name is Knit Together. I have moved some things around and added a couple things. Take a look! What do you think?

Will the world change your children...or will your children change the world?

So I love to read and I love finding new books that are all about things that I'm passionate about too. I found out about this new book called One Million Arrows. (by the way where is the underline function on blogger?) Anyway, I just got it in the mail yesterday from Amazon.com. I read the introduction and the 1st chapter and I already love it! It was written by Julie Ferwerda. It has gotten great reviews by Dennis Rainey, Josh McDowell, Franklin Graham, Ron Luce, and lots of others.

Here's the quick review from the back of the book:
Time is short and lives are at stake. Right now, God is inviting your family to become part of a bigger story a vision that will engage your hearts to make a radical difference. One Million Arrows is an inspirational call to raise your kids to impact their culture, community, and world for Christ.

If you want your kids to discover their purpose, if you want them to live with a passion for the Kingdom, if you want your family to go down in His-Story, then accept the mission . . . and leave a mark for eternity.


Josh McDowell said, "One Million Arrows is a great wake-up call for parents of this generation. If we want our children to take part in the powerful purpose and unique mission God has designed for them, we've got to take responsibility for raising our kids as disciples of Christ."

The title is based on the verse in Psalm 127:3-5 that says,
"Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, The fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them."

And, the proceeds from the book all go to international orphan ministry! On the website you can even download the first couple of chapters and read them. http://onemillionarrows.com/The-Book/

I Can Let it Go

I'm so foolish to believe that I can escape Your love. For my feet were close to slipping, You spoke to my heart in time. You have promised, so I do believe. You won't forget this wandering child.
-So Close by Bethany Dillon

The Lord almost always speaks to my heart through songs. He knows how much songs and words mean to me so I just love that He does that. Tonight I found this song by a singer/songwriter that I had listened to back around Christmas. Her name is Audrey Assad. I hadn't listened to her in a while but here's what happened. I was singing the Bethany Dillon song "So Close" over and over today. Singing the line, "You have promised, so I do believe, you won't forget this wandering child." I wanted to post a clip here and I was looking at it on youtube when I saw "Everything is Yours" by Audrey to the side. I was excited cuz like I said, I had listened to her before. Well, this song was meant for me tonight. Basically, I needed to know that I can give things over to God because He is faithful to take care of them. The lyrics read, "If everything is Yours, I can let it go because it was never mine to hold." Why do I constantly try to figure things out? Why do I work at juggling things that aren't even mine? Does His Word not say, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God"?

Tonight the Lord said, "Angela, just put it down. It's all mine anyway, it's not for you to worry about."


When all the world is under fire
the skies are threatening to thunder and rain
and I am overcome by fears that I can't see

If everything is Yours
if everything is yours
if everything is yours
i can let it go, it was never mine to hold

A Day at Barnes & Noble

So we (Brian, Isabel, and I) decided to have a little hope box/bag to keep things that we buy for our precious girl that is coming one day from Ethiopia. During the Rummage Sale I saw a cute little dress that I had to save. I really don't know if it will even be her size (but just in case!) and we found the sweetest little sweater w/ all kinds of beautiful bright colors (again, who knows about the size but we'll see).

Well, today, I was at Barnes & Noble with Isabel and my mom. Isabel was in search of a new Oliva book because she has memorized all her others. She found Olivia and the Missing Toy. It's actually pretty funny. If you've never read Olivia or seen her on television, let me just tell you that she is pretty much a cartoon pig version of Isabel. She likes to ask questions, crazy questions. She loves to play pretend and has a huge imagination. She also hauls her poor cat, Edwin around the house. Our cat, Jazzy, looks exactly like Edwin and if Isabel could strap her in a baby stroller, oh, she would. Olivia also tries to get away with whatever she can and tries to persuade her parents...to no avail of course. Her conversation with her parents at bedtime is just like our's. "Mom, I want to read 5 books tonight." "No, Isabel, we can read 2 books." "Well, what about 3 very long books?" "No, we said 2 books of normal length." "Well, I just really like to read." "Well, we're very glad that you like to read, but you also need to sleep." "Ohhh, okay (in a grumpy tone), I guess I'll just read 2 then." "Good."

So, while Isabel was perusing all of the Olivia books with my mom I came across the cutest stuffed animals ever! One of them in particular just stood out to me. It just has this cool African vibe to it and it's so pretty. I thought it'd be really special to save and then when we go to see our little girl for the first time (for our 1st trip) we could take it to her and she'll have it when we leave. We'll make sure to sleep with it beforehand to give it the smell of our house. :)

Oh, and before we left we got an apple juice and one of the best stinkin' sugar cookies I've had in a LONG time!

homestudy application

Filling out our homestudy application! Oh, we got our contracts for AGCI in the mail today with our orientation packet. Now, to make friends with a notary. :)

update: i apparently have friends and relatives that are notaries!

Treasures

Almost every night Isabel prays for her sister in Africa "to come home soon because she needs a family." Her heart is so amazing sometimes. One night she said, "I know Jesus lives in heaven but He also lives here in my heart and He is with my baby sister in Africa too and He can take care of her."

The video I attached is not a new video from Shaohannah's Hope but Isabel likes it and so do I.

Today's News!

Today we received a phone call from our agency. Today they told Social Services that we raised the $10,000 that we needed for official approval and they called us to congratulate us and officially welcome us to their agency! We will receive our orientation packet probably by Friday. Early next week we will have another a call with them about the whole program and the documents that we need to begin gathering. We also got the go-ahead to call up our local agency and get the homestudy going! We are calling them tomorrow! Yay!! I seriously can't believe it!

Tomorrow I'm posting about the new changes w/ the Ethiopian Adoption program.

Brian's blog

In case you didn't know, Brian has a blog too. He doesn't post things as much as I do on my blog but when he does post things, they're always good....really good. I just love his heart. You should check it today's post: http://brianwhatsthatabout.blogspot.com/

The best news of the year.....so far!

Alright, I am about to fall over here at the computer from exhaustion but I can't NOT write this post!!! I have been holding this news in and just can't wait to let it out!!

This weekend, we have officially passed our goal of $10,000!!!

We prayed that the Lord would provide it within 90 days from when we received our conditional approval with AGCI. That would be around the end of March/beginning of April. Well, you know God is soo good and we prayed that He would show off His power and His provision and His glory, and guess what?? HE DID!!! I don't want to post an EXACT total yet because we are still waiting on some donations to be finalized but I will say that God has provided MORE than $10,000 in LESS than 90 days!!

Ahh, we seriously can hardly believe it. We are SO excited to be able to sign our contracts and begin our paperwork and homestudy now to adopt our sweet baby!

Thank you to ALL of you who have helped with your time, money, prayer, gifts, love...I could go on. You rock! I'm hoping you all are still reading this blog, haha, share your excitement with us by leaving a comment!

Oh, in case you're wondering this is definitely NOT the end of our fundraising but this was our first big hurdle. We will keep you posted on what's next! I will give some clues though. It involves spaghetti, the 80's, and cool things to bid on! Oh, and I'm going to get our t-shirt page up and ready too!


Love, Love, Love,

Come and see!!

You guys have to come see our new Rummage Sale setup at The River Church!! It looks soo good! Again, our wonderful design team, this time with a few new members, have made it look like a cute little consignment shop! We have almost every item of clothing hung up and organized! There is some great stuff there! We got a 4 poster bed, antique rocking chair, several sofas, coffee tables, dressers, chairs, and of course toys, clothing, shoes, books, kitchen items, housewares, electronics.....you name it we got it! Come and see!!
Tomorrow from 8am - 2pm. We're on the corner of 150 and Welcome Arcadia Rd. (also known as Frye Bridge Rd.).

2nd Rummage Sale in a few days!

Again here is all the info about our 2nd Rummage Sale this Saturday! We had two trailers full of of stuff not including more items that we have picked up since the first sale! We would love for you to share this info with everybody! If you go to consignment sales for kids' clothing, come check out our sale cuz we have a TON! So here come the details!

WHEN: Saturday March 13th
8am - 2pm

WHERE: The River Church
4307 Welcome Arcadia Road
Lexington, NC 27292
(It's on the Winston-Salem side of Lexington though. If you go Peter's Creek Pkwy (Hwy 150) South then you'll get there. Or, you can go from Clemmons down Frye Bridge Road and get there) Check it out on google maps: http://tinyurl.com/yjpgz8m.

Here's the church's website: http://www.riverchurchlive.com/

WHAT: Sofas, loveseats, chairs, coffee tables, exercise equipment, bikes, TOYS, baby stuff, all sizes of clothing and shoes, artwork, BOOKS, homewares, kitchen appliances and cookware items, electronics, and I'm sure I'm missing something else!

We will also have an order form for our t-shirts! They are $20 each. Look at my grandma modeling her shirt!

We hope to see you there!! :) If you wanna help out on Friday night by setting up with us, give us a call or an email: angelahunt1023@yahoo.com.

Most Common Adoption Questions

I decided to do a series of posts about the most common questions that people have for us about our adoption. So, if you have a question or a comment (you know you are allowed to leave comments) let us know in the comment section! :)

Here are the most common questions that we get a lot:

• How much will it cost? Why??
• How long will it take? Why??
• Do you know the child that you will adopt yet?
• Will you go to Ethiopia and if so, then for how long?
• Why did you choose Ethiopia?
• Why didn't you choose to do a domestic adoption?

So, today's question that I will tackle is:

How much will the adoption cost?

This is not really a cut and dry answer but I will try my best. The estimate for an adoption with our agency for Ethiopia is roughly $26, 000. That looks like a pretty huge amount. I will give you an estimated breakdown of that total.

$2,000-$2,500 Homestudy Fees/Social Worker Expense

$6,300 US Fees and Expenses (This is the agency fee and application fee. This goes to our agency since they are directly working with our country, with our social worker here, with timely documents, with coordinating everything, etc.)

$1,000 Orphan Care Fee (this part goes directly to orphans in Ethiopia)

$6,000-$6200 Dossier Paperwork (This is all the government fees and paperwork that includes fbi fingerprinting, birth certificates, stuff like that. This also includes Authentification and Translation of the documents and International Service Fees)

$5,000 Referral Packet (This amount consists of fees that would need to be taken care of after we have been referred a child. This includes medical check-ups/testing, translation of final documents, post adoption documents and reports, and care for our child until we get a court date and can go pick them up!)

$5,500 In Country Travel/Accomodations (This is when we finally get to go pick up our child! This fee includes our flights, visas, transportation, lodging, food, etc.)

There are also other things like doctor visits for Brian and I, re-adoption for our child once they come to the United States, and any kind of extra things that just pop up during the process. I hope that gives you all a better understanding of the cost of adoption and why it costs that much. There are many factors that go into making an adoption legal and involves the governments of two countries.

Okay, one more thing. I also hope that this makes it very clear that when people adopt they are not "buying" a child. That comment is pretty offensive to the parents, birth family, and mostly the child. There are many fees involved in adoption. They are mostly to protect the child and family. They are to help you legally adopt that child as your own and bring them into your family. The fees associated are necessary to adopt, not directly "buying" a child. Okay, I will now step off the soap box. :)

Stay tuned for our next question!

My Restaurant Review & Date Pics

Go read my review of Dan Thai Jazz Bistro and see our fun pictures from our anniversary date tonight!:)

http://addtothebeautyangela.blogspot.com/2010/03/dan-thai-jazz-bistro.html

Check out my other blog today

It's about our anniversary today!

http://addtothebeautyangela.blogspot.com/2010/03/our-6th-anniversary.html

It's a week away!!

The 2nd Rummage Sale is a week away everybody! Even if you don't live close to the Davidson Cty/Forsyth Cty. border in Arcadia you can post about our sale to people that do! Please tell them we are having a huge sale with lots of furniture, toys, baby items, etc. from 8-2pm @ The River Church on March 13th! Grab the button to the right if you have a blog or a website! It links you to the info page!

http://ping.fm/tjchC

Friday update!

So, I feel like I have a lot to write but I can't quite put it all together. All good things but I don't know if I have much consistency to it....if that makes sense. I'm writing this from my couch with my lovely electric heating blanket. :) I decided to disconnect from the internet to write this. I have also taken a leave from facebook for a while. I am still checking my messages. I don't plan on deleting my whole account or anything. I just felt like I was checking and updating tons of stuff (2 blogs, personal email, 2 schools worth of professional email, facebook which has so many layers of updates too!) and I had this need to update and keep up. I started having some serious pain in my right hand and arm. I went to get a massage and my therapist said my arm was a wreck! We realized that a lot of pain was coming from the way my hand was propped on my laptop and at my computers at school. Also, the amount of time I was using the computer. So, after scveral days of no facebook I already feel a little better. Tonight, I'm sitting in a totally different position with my hand supported and I'm hoping it will help.

Okay, on to more interesting things!

Tonight we went to Blaise Baptist in Mocksville for an Adoption & Orphan Care dinner. The speaker was Peter Abera and he is from Ethiopia. This was his very first trip to the United States. We got to hear his testimony and how God has just planned out his life so beautifully and how He has used him to bring about change and to love orphans in Ethiopia. After the event, we wanted to say hi and introduce ourselves to him. We told him that we are adopting from Ethiopia and he was very excited to hear that. He also really liked my Simply Love Africa Valentine's Day tshirt from Children's Hopechest. He said, "oh, where did you get that?" He works with Tom Davis and Children's Hopechest and when I showed him the website (http://www.hopechest.org/) on the back of the shirt he was so excited and surprised! He really wanted one. So, I hope he can get one of his very own soon when he goes to visit the main office in Colorado. Okay, here comes the even cooler thing! We told him that we are adopting through AGCI and I mentioned Hannah's Hope (the home AGCI started in Ethiopia) and he said, "Really?? Hannah's Hope is right down the road from my house! When are you coming? How can we get in touch there?" Haha, how amazing right?? We also got to meet other families that are adopting or have already adopted. It was really encouraging!


We're headed back tomorrow for the Hands of Hope Adoption & Orphan Care Expo! It's from 8-12pm at Blaise Baptist in Mocksville. There are all kinds of booths and breakout sessions. The sessions go from 10:00-12:00pm. You can learn about domestic and international adoptions, foster care, financial strategies, orphan care mission trips, starting an orphan care ministry in your church, and lots more! You don't have to sign up or be there at a certain time, or pay, just show up! http://www.blaisebaptist.com/templates/System/details.asp?id=36001&PID=629815

I think that's about it for today! Oh, tomorrow is our anniversary!! Brian and I got married on March 6th 6 years ago! He got us reservations to a Thai Restaurant in High Point that also has live jazz! Isn't that random? Apparently, the people that started it are actually from Thailand and love cooking and jazz music so they combined their two loves! Haha, I'll be sure to post an update afterwards! http://www.danthaijazzbistro.com/


Much love,

Great news!

Thanks to all of you who were praying for the family I mentioned from Chile! I just found out this:
"GREAT NEWS, PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!!!!!KEEFE CALLED AND HE AND THE KIDS ARE WELL. THE HOUSE IS FINE. NIGHBORHOOD IS INTACT. A NEIGHBOR HAS A POOL AND THEY HAVE WATER TO WASH UP AND FLUSH TOILETS. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS. PASS THE NEWS PLEASE. GRAN NOTICIA, KEEFE Y LOS NINOS ESTAN BIEN, TODO BIEN.:"

Yay! Praise the Lord!

Call for Fathers!

So, this video is circulating the adoption blogs today and I had to share it! It's a husband/father's perspective on adoption. Also, make sure you watch until the very end! :)