Education

We are still working on our education and part of it is to think about what our daughter's living conditions are/will be. We have asked a friend that recently visited many orphanages in Ethiopia that have not received sponsorships and their situation is serious. They mostly have one meal a day. Then we have compared it to being in AGCI's transition home, Hannah's Hope. We are asking other families that have been there and also looking at video clips to get a better idea. This is a video clip I found and well, you can just watch it...it's so beautiful. So many children are waiting for someone to claim them.

PAUSE

I realized that I haven't typed up a blog post in about a week. I've been crazy sick and mostly I just don't know what to write. Everything seems out of sorts for our family this week. I got this terrible stomach virus...like the kind you get in elementary school and you think you're gonna die. Then it turned into gastritis where I thought it was all gonna happen again two days later! I am now feeling WAY better and hopefully the medicine will help take care of that!

Some of you know that we are right at the place where we need to send in all of our homestudy documents so that we can begin planning our visits with our social worker. We are waiting on some big news that would affect our homestudy (not in a negative way, just make it different) so we have to wait until next week. We are also working on some dossier documents and our adoption education but for the same reason we cannot continue with some of the dossier documents. We are kinda at a standstill. There are definitely some things we can work on but it's like God hit a GIGANTIC PAUSE button and we're waiting on him to click it again so we can move forward. Or like when you are flying somewhere and you can't land yet because everyone else is landing and you just have to circle in that holding pattern! I have always hated that holding pattern and now I'm stuck in one! Waiting is so incredibly hard for our family. This past year has seemed like one long giant wait for lots of reasons. Of course, adoption is part of the wait...but at least we are moving towards a goal, ya know? We have things that we need to be doing and we can work at it. But now...we have to even wait on those adoption things while we're waiting on this other news!

I realize that I'm not explaining a ton here because I don't really have enough information yet to share....and well, honestly, I'm not one to throw out information until I can explain and give details. :) I just needed to write something I think to get it out of my system. So, in short, it would be awesome if you could pray for our family while we wait. We know that the Lord is good and has amazing plans for our family. Could you pray that the Lord would give us favor in this situation? That we would know something soon about which way to move? That God would be glorified in whatever happens! And that we would "Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him."

Thanks so much...even in my vagueness. :)

Mini Totes!

Mini Totes!

What could you use one of my cute mini-totes for while you share your heart for adoption and/or Africa??

A Beach Bag! You could definitely put a good book, your cell phone, a bottle of water, some sunscreen, and some change in there!

A Kid's Bag! Isabel loves carrying her's to put little things she likes taking to restaurants or even places she needs a quiet activity to do. She fits her mini Nalgene and a notepad, crayons, and stickers. She also puts her "cell phone" in there too. :)

An On the Go Bag! Sometimes I'm just running to the store, in the mall, or to the park really quickly and I don't feel like carrying my whole purse. I put just my wallet, cell phone, keys, and a notepad and pen in there.

A Knitting Bag! Tons of kids at my school are into knitting. They are always carrying their knitting around under their arm or in a giant ziploc bag...these little canvas bags would definitely hold some knitting and knitting tools.

A Diaper Bag! A little stack of diapers and a wipes holder would fit perfectly! Along w/ your wallet and keys!

Do you guys have any more ideas?? I have had so much fun making these cute little totes. I love that you can carry around a way to talk about adoption and that it's a way to support our adoption!

Check out the ones I have just added! You can purchase them through paypal here!(http://hunts4adoption.blogspot.com/p/tote-bags.html)

Cute Pink Tote

Look at the cute new totebag I made for Isabel! She found this pink bag and said, "Mommy, can you put an Africa on it too??" So I did! Check it out! I'm gonna have some to sell soon. I'll post a picture of a canvas bag with a brown Africa printed on the front that says hope tomorrow hopefully! I'm gonna sell the little bags like this for $12.00 and the larger totes for $15.00 as fundraisers for our adoption! Let me know if you're interested in one! I also have some with just single words or phrases. I'll be adding more pics. For now you can order them from the Tote Bags Tab above!!

Triad Smarty Pants

So you need to check out Triad Smarty Pants if you haven't already. I love getting e-mail updates from this blog! They always have fun and informative posts by cool moms. Sometimes it's about the local consignment sales, best preschools around, great ideas for birthday gifts for kids of all age groups, and I especially love the weekend event updates. I seriously check it just about every weekend to see what local stuff is going on! There are resources about the community, great links, and even contests!

This Thursday they are featuring mommy blogs in the triad and our adoption blog is on there!! Yay! So, go check out their site!

http://triadsmartypants.blogspot.com/

Psalm 145:15-19

The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food at the proper time.

You open your hand
and satisfy the desires of every living thing.

The LORD is righteous in all his ways
and loving toward all he has made.

The LORD is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.

He fulfills the desires of those who fear him;
he hears their cry and saves them.

Psalm 145:15-19

This verse is on my heart tonight. Sometimes I think I just can't believe how much the Lord loves me and my family. His heart is for us, it's for you.

We have been going through a season of waiting. We continue to wait and trust the Lord because He has ALWAYS been faithful. He has never left us. Tonight I am meditating on this verse because I need to remember that He satisfies our desires at the proper time. He is loving and so good. He can be trusted even in the waiting, when we can't see what's around the bend and when we can see a glimmer but can't quite get a hold of it.

Good news!

I wanted to give you all some good news! This week I tried my hardest to get some proof from Mexico about the year that I lived there since our homestudy requires documentation that I did not appear on any child abuse registries since age 18. I was able to be in touch with two different Mexican states through a great friend and then another wonderful friend that even offered to go pick up the "constancia" or verification there in Xalapa for me. He was willing to go to the office and pick it up and then go have an apostille put on it and then mail it to me! These are two wonderful friends that I met through Vida Estudiantil (Mexico's Campus Crusade for Christ). The problem happened when each govnt. person that I emailed requested some pretty risky information to send via email. Our agency was so kind and they totally agreed that it would be a huge risk to my identity to send off my passport, handprints, voter registration card, among other things over there. We have documented that we made every attempt and I have kept the emails. So, our agency said that we do not have to pursue these leads any more! yay!!

Also, this week I told you that we were asked to remove the Fundraising bins from inside Wake's residence halls this week. Brian really felt strongly that somebody there would be willing to help us and so did the bookstore that we are working with. They have been super helpful through all of this and with the bins from UNCG and the few bins that were full before we removed them from Wake, we already made around $450!! Isn't that insane?? So, Brian was able to contact the Dean of the Law School at Wake. He told her our story and she was excited to help! She is meeting Brian on Monday to place a bin in the Graduate Library. She also encouraged him to leave bins during the summer for those in summer session and even into the fall! Brian just has to go by and periodically check on them.

"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen." -Ephesians 3:20-21

FBI Fingerprints on their way!

Alright, after one trip to the police department, one trip to the local jail, and a final trip to the Sheriff's office (also called The Civil Division) we got our ink fingerprints completed for our FBI clearances. We had a great sheriff working with us. He was so funny. Today we overnighted our packet to the FBI. They are anticipating this to take quite a while but we are hoping to get our clearances before our homestudy is finished!

Brian is working on finishing his autobiography and I have to take a picture of him and the front and back of our house still. We have completed almost everything for our homestudy packet! We hope to send it in by the end of this week! Once it gets sent in they will check our references and then connect us with our Social Worker that will come to meet with us for our homestudy visits.

Meanwhile, we're doing LOTS of education that is required by our agency. We have a big workbook called "Eyes Wide Open" that we are working through and we have 6 hours of online education classes to take.

So there ya go! That's what we're up to!

Much love,

Adoption Blog Hop

So, I am participating in a Blog Hop! It's a cool way to build community with other people that have blogs that might be similar to your's. A blog hop is a linky list that is share on multiple blogs and it's a way to move from one blog to another. I thought it sounded cool so here goes!

A little sad

I'm a little sad today. This is my 2nd day at home from being sick. I apparently have a weird virus that gave me a fever, tiredness, and phrayngitis (you know when you lose your voice and have a crazy sore throat). I was gonna go back today but I just felt so yucky that I decided to stay home. That's not what's making me sad though.

Today I got an email from the Director of Residence Life at Wake Forest saying that we need to remove our bins by today. :( Thankfully, they are not removing the donations that people have already given. He said we could keep whatever is in the bins. Apparently, they have a textbook collection thing too and they don't want our's to compete with their's. We never anticipated placing bins all over Wake's campus but several Wake students said they thought students would love to know that their used books are going to a good cause, our adoption, instead of just into a random bin. So, we agreed and they helped us place the bins in the residence halls. We also had plans to pick up the bins on Thursday evening. We had lined up transportation and someone to help on campus but now Brian is there today trying to do it by himself. :( He has tried to contact the Director of Residence Life to see if he could wait until Thursday but he has not returned his calls. We are afraid that if we don't pick up the bins by today (like the email said) then they will get rid of our bins and the donations as well.

I'm still hopeful because I know that lots of people have been exposed to our bins and our blog. I'm thankful that people have contributed to help bring our little girl home and that people have been exposed to the Gospel.

P.S. On a positive note, we got our fingerprints and everything done and have sent our FBI stuff off so that we can get those clearances back soon!!

UPDATE: There are still some cool things to share that God has done even through the disappointment of the bins, I'll share them when I can! :)

Mexico....you are annoying me today

Mexico....today you are annoying me. Listen, don't get me wrong...I love Mexico. I lived there for my junior year of college. I stayed from August of 2001 to August of 2002 and loved it all!! I have been to more Mexican states than I have US states. The majority of my students are from Mexico. I love talking to them and they think it's hysterical that I understand their Mexican slang. So, I had to say all of that before you got upset with me for being annoyed with the country.

For our adoption, we are required to provide child abuse clearances for every place that we have lived in since age 18. Now, for Brian that is easy. He has lived in NC the whole time. Even if you have lived in other states, it's super easy because the United States has a central child abuse registry. They check to make sure your name isn't there and ta-da you're ready to move on to the next steps of the adoption process.

However, if you have lived in another country you are required to get clearances from that country to prove it. Well, Mexico doesn't have a national based system like we do. They do it by state. Oh, and guess what? I lived in 2 different Mexican states (Veracruz and Quintana Roo). Now, God has been amazing to provide already! My great friend Carla that I met through Vida Estudiantil (Mexico's version of Campus Crusade) had a connection with someone that could help me. That guy sent me the info to another department that said they can give me a verification for what I need. This is all for the state of Veracruz. Anyway, so I was all excited and ready to fill out some form when I received an insane email. I had to read the thing like 4 times to understand it because of all the legal jargon. I thought my Spanish was getting rusty but my friend Carla said she read it out loud a couple times too to actually understand everything!! Anyway they want me to scan some rather important documents and send them to them via email. They want my scanned passport, scanned birth certificate, scanned handprints, a front and profile head shot, and a simple power of attorney (which I will explain in a minute). Yes, ALL of those things in an EMAIL to some person I have NEVER met in some office in downtown Xalapa! So, as you can imagine I'm a little concerned about sending my Identify Theft Kit (as my friend Ben called it) to just anybody. That's not all mind you!

The next thing is that I have to have someone that I know and trust that still lives in Xalapa to go pick up this verfication and then have an apostille placed on it. He then has to mail it back to me here in the US! This is what the Power of Attorney is for. It gives him permission to pick it up for me. Now I do have a friend that said they will do this for me. However, remember this is just one state!! I still am working on the 2nd one.

And to top it all off, my printer stopped scanning today. :( So, if you are thinking about adopting, DONT GO LIVE OUT OF THE COUNTRY or if you do make sure they have an easy to use/track child abuse clearance system.

México...te quiero...pero me caen mal tus trámites