What I'm listening to this week

Here's what I've been listening to this week. I don't have much to post. Just thinking and praying and listening to this stuff:

The Man Jesus Christ laid death in his grave

"On Friday a thief
On Sunday a King
Laid down in grief
But awoke with keys
Of Hell on that day
The first born of the slain
The Man Jesus Christ
Laid death in his grave"

-Death In His Grave by John Mark Mcmillan

Our FDL and an Adoption Fundraiser!

Guess what?!? We got our FDL in the mail today! That's right! I know it's hard to see with the bad lighting and poor camera shot, but it's true! Our Favorable Determination Letter from USCIS. They have approved us to adopt too! We have been waiting on this thing since late November so we were sooo thankful to have it come today. I haven't really been stalking the mailbox or anything but I was wondering when it would come....or if they would approve us! :) It is good to have one more step out of the way. I love that it says, "Your approved advance processing application is being retained or has been forwarded as indicated by an "X" mark below"

X National Visa Center in Portsmouth, NH
X ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA!!! (Isn't that super cool? Yeah, I thought so!)

In other cool news, I wanted to share a fundraiser page that I have been meaning to share for a while on here. Through my friend, Patrice, I met Vanessa. Patrice has been advocating for this sweet little 1 year old boy named Anton for a while because God just laid it on her heart. He has a rare genetic skin disease called EB just like Patrice's son. The difference was that Anton lives in Russia and also that he lives in an orphanage with no parents. Long story short, Vanessa's family is doing everything they can to adopt this sweet little boy. Every day there are all kinds of cool fundraising events going on at their blog. Today is the last day that you can get 30% off of Serwa Chic sales. They have way cute diaper covers, diaper all in ones, nursing covers, and bibs! So, go check it out adoptive moms! Go ahead and follow the blog so you can keep up to date on all of their fundraisers and help bring this sweet baby home!

Our April Number!

I'm about to leave school and off to take Isabel to soccer practice but I wanted to share our new number for April! It's so exciting to see it move more than I anticipated! Wow! We are getting closer and closer baby girl! http://www.flickr.com/photos/duncan

Texas!

My husband is leaving for Texas today! I'm a little celosa! :) But I'm also super excited!! Check out my other blog: http://startingagainintexas.blogspot.com/

Soccer Time!!

Yesterday Isabel started her very first soccer team! She is doing a session called Kiddie Kickers at the Y. It's perfect because it's for kids her age that have never played. There are 4 coaches and about 20 kids. The coaches were SO SO nice and encouraging to the kids. And they weren't that obnoxious over the top encouraging either. They were great! Isabel liked them and didn't roll her eyes so that says a lot. :) Anyway, this is a huge step for her socially. Last summer we were doing gymnastics and she suddenly stopped everything. She didn't want to be away from me and certainly didn't want to join a class or a sport or anything. She has come a long way. Of course, she was still nervous and was not as wild and extroverted as a lot of the kids but I know that she was brave and that she really wants to do this. The great thing about Kiddie Kickers is also that the parents are there on the field and playing with the kids. We are involved a lot so it's a much easier transition. Anyway I wanted to be sure and put a couple pictures! She isn't wearing her uniform jersey yet because it hadn't come in yet but next week I'll be sure to get some more pictures! :)

This is on our porch after the game. All the kids get a free ball too and they have to bring it back for every practice/game. Also, check out those cleats. I found them in her size at a consignment sale!! They look practically new and they are pink and black! I seriously paid $2.50 for them.

Here she is practicing her "Stop the Ball" stance.

This is her stomping off because she was mad that she missed the ball in our backyard!

So cute!! Notice that her pink shin guards were way too cute to wear under the black socks while playing in the yard. :)

We are super excited about soccer season! What sports do your kids love? Do you have any advice for a new sports mom?

Chick-fila, Ferrets, USCIS, and Billy Graham

Hahah, what kind of title is that?! Well, it's a synopsis of my day. I have to share about today before I forget because it's just too funny. Today we had our fingerprint appointment with USCIS in Charlotte. Our appointment was at 8am so we took the day off so that we could leave super early and get through traffic. We thought we were doing so well because we left the house at 5:45am. It usually takes about an hour and a half to get there from our house. We were doing great on time so we decided to stop at Chick-fila for breakfast. Brian and I NEVER get up early enough to go out for breakfast so we decided it would be fun this morning and it was! So we had our quick breakfast and hopped back in the car. It was raining but other than that nothing crazy, even though back home it was apparently snowing! Crazy North Carolina weather! Anyway, we were driving along having fun when all of a sudden the traffic started slowing considerably. We kinda expected some traffic so we weren't too worried until we could see that there was a continuous stream of traffic way up ahead. We were stuck Later we heard on the news that no one could ever explain why the traffic where we were was like that. It was a "mysterious slowdown." There was no wreck or construction.

Thankfully we made it to the office, which oddly enough was located in an old shopping/business center, by 8:04am! We went right in and the lady at the desk was very helpful. She told us what form to fill out, what line to stand in, and then where to sit to wait for our number to be called. So, this USCIS office was really like a sitcom. We totally felt like we were in AP Environmental Science again because Brian would always say something that would make me laugh and then our table would get in trouble. I was afraid we were gonna get in trouble for laughing. Let me explain what was so funny but I'll warn you that it could very well be one of those situations that you had to be there to truly experience the hilarity of it.

So the office had a tv set up in the corner on one of those rolling carts. It was just turned on to some random channel. Well, while we were in line we noticed that they were interviewing people about their pet ferrets. People that have tens of ferrets in cages. People that enter their ferrets in contests and win lots of ribbons. We were snickering at the idea of a ferret show being shown here because it probably was deemed by the govnt as the least offensive thing they could find. I mean who would find ferrets offensive? So we went through the line and then they showed us where to sit and wait for our number. At this point a lady was singing a lullaby to her ferret and holding it like a baby. I'm not lying, a long lullaby. Now other people are starting to notice the oddity of it too because the couple in front of us laughed too. We were doing everything we could to hold it in. Then we see the official receptionist that was close to the door look up to see the lady rocking her baby ferret. She gives the TV one of THE funniest looks I have seen in a long time. You know she is thinking, "What the crap is this?" So, she quietly goes over to a desk and fishes out the remote and changes the channel to the news. Hah, we were all relieved.

After that we noticed that after everyone had their fingerprint scan they were given a little piece of yellow paper. Each person carefully folded the paper and then stuck it in a little box that looks like one of those raffle boxes where you enter to win an ipad or a trip to Jamaica. So I jokingly said, "Maybe we'll win an ipad!" To which Brian retorts, "Listen, I worked for the government, they are not giving away ipads. If that's a raffle, then they are giving away something like The Complete Eddie Money Collection on cassette tape." Hah, so of course, I was holding in more laughter. Then, the receptionist lady went to get two brand new boxes of pencils and commenced to sharpening ALL of them. This probably wouldn't be a problem to the normal person but I share a trailer with 3 other teachers and almost at any time of the day one of them will be sharpening pencils. It's maddening really. Sometimes with the electric sharpener, sometimes with the old manual one. So, Brian thought it was great that this lady was sharpening every last pencil for me to hear on my day away from school. Oh, the other thing that happened was that a teenager came in and proceeded to pull out his cell phone while he was in line. I'm guessing that he missed all of the pictures and signs that say, "NO CELL PHONES." Well, about that time, the receptionist lady looked up from her pencils and saw him out of the corner of her eye. She stood up and in a loud voice said, "Oh we got one on a cell phone." So she she headed over to him and pointed at the sign. He remained on his phone and looked at her confused and said, "What?" She then pointed at his phone and at the sign again. He got it that time and put it up pretty quickly.

All in all a very uneventful time at the Appointment Office. Shortly after that we were called up for our scans and then it was time to go after we entered the raffle....that turned out to be just 3 questions about their customer service.

Since we had the day free and it was still early we decided to by Trader Joe's and then to the Billy Graham Library because it was on the same exit and we had heard that it was definitely worth the trip. We had such a good time there. The property is beautiful and peaceful. The actual museum and library is incredible and it's free. It's definitely about Billy Graham but really it's about the many ways that God used him to share the hope and grace of the Gospel with the world. Everything points to God and gives glory to Him. It was so powerful and encouraging. I highly recommend a visit. At the end, we were greeted by some people that work there. They asked if we enjoyed our visit and what brought us there. We told them how we are adopting and that we were just up the street completing some paperwork. They were so thrilled for us and said, "oh can we just pray for your family and your daughter in Ethiopia?" We said, "of course" and they even have a prayer room there to the side. It was the most sweet and loving prayer for our family and our daughter. They said, "Please bring her back her so we can meet her one day!" We all hugged and were so so blessed by our trip there. After that we looked through the library and then had lunch at "The Dairy Bar." The main building looks like a farm because Billy Graham actually grew up on a dairy farm. After you leave the main building, you can tour his family's original house and then walk through the prayer garden and see where Ruth Bell Graham is laid to rest.

It was such a nice day for us to spend together talking and laughing and thinking about our future.

Our March Number

I forgot to update you all with our official number for the month of March. It's so amazing to me to see that there has continued to be soo much movement and families coming together despite all of the craziness and the unknowns surrounding Ethiopian adoptions this month. No matter the situation, God is always trustworthy.

Great news! And a Glossary of Acronyms :)

I wanted to share this great news with you all today because I know so many of you have been praying and asking for updates about what's going on in Ethiopia. Our agency is so great at communicating with us. Seriously, they are wonderful! Anyway, here is the update we received today! Also before you read it let me give you a little glossary of Adoptionese acronyms. After all, I am an ESL teacher and some people have asked for clarification. :)
AGCI: All God's Children International. This is our adoption agency! :)
ASP: Adoption Service Provider. These would be other licensed adoption agencies.
JCICS: Joint Council on International Children's Services. They are a non-profit that "helps orphaned and vulnerable children live in a permanent and safe family by advocating on their behalf, marshaling the resources they need, educating those who serve them and mobilizing those who care."
MOWA: Ministry of Women's Affairs. They are the primary adoption authority in Ethiopia.
MOWCYA: Ministry of Women's, Children's, and Youth Affairs (The new name for MOWA)
NGO: Non-governmental Organization. The World Bank defines them as "private organizations that pursue activities to relieve suffering, promote the interests of the poor, protect the environment, provide basic social services, or undertake community development."

Statement from our agency:
At this time, all Foreign Staff on the ground in Ethiopia are reporting that MOWA has completed their staffing changes and are now currently working at full capacity to complete those adoption cases currently re-scheduled or assigned a court appointment through the courts of Addis Ababa. Our staff believe this to be around 800 cases they are working at full force to complete with no restrictions on the number of cases processed each day. This is great news! We are thrilled to hear these drastic changes do not seem to be going into full effect.

We are also pleased to report that for new cases moving forward; it appears the original changes proposed by MOWA will not be implemented to the degree of 5 cases a day. At this time it is unknown whether or not MOWA will issue a formal statement regarding how they will process cases in the future, but from all discussions it will not be a drastic decrease from before. Through the continued work, meetings, and advocacy of many Foreign Staff members in Ethiopia, it appears any future changes within the case processing for MOWA will avoid sweeping and disproportionate alterations to the number of cases processed each day. Rather, the hope is that MOWA, Joint Council, Adoption Service Providers, the US Department of State and other NGO organizations can come together to support the government of Ethiopia in strengthening the process for ethical adoptions to continue while also improving the general social structures to assist with family preservation in Ethiopia. This plan was acknowledged in the recent posting by the US State Department this morning at http://adoption.state.gov/news/ethiopia.html. We understand the US Department of State cannot issue a formal statement without MOWA issuing a retraction. Based on the information we are receiving, MOWA is concentrating on processing the current adoptions and the new staff is not focused on numbers, but doing their jobs.

AGCI and our trusted colleagues look forward to collaborating to ensure adoptions move forward with the highest level of transparency possible. It is our commitment to carefully, ethically, and mindfully complete the adoption process on every level for orphaned children. Our hope is that as we do this in collaboration with other licensed agencies, we can also help to eliminate future concerns by MOWA and continue to build trust between their office and the adoption community at large.

See, I told you it was great news! So, thank you so much for praying and signing the petition. We know that God's heart is for orphans and He loves them and always has the best plans.




Much love,

Updates! Look what came in the mail today!

I feel like I have a lot to post so bear with me! :)

Guess what?! Today we finally received our notice from USCIS about our Biometric Fingerprint appointments! We have 8am appointments on March 28th!! Check out the fancy heading on the letter. Isn't it funny that it looks like money? We are super thankful that we finally received something from them because we had mailed our application in at the beginning of January. I'm still not real sure what was happening with it during that time because on the forms, it says that they received it on February 28th. Weird huh? At any rate, ta dah! Here is mine!


Despite the confusion over what exactly will come to pass with the new changes from MOWA, we have seen many referrals and court dates coming through with our agency! Isn't that incredible? God is still working even when we can't see what is up around the bend. He knows and has everything in His hands. I am SO thankful for that. We have not received our official number for March but I will just share that our "unofficial" number is 56! Isn't that nuts? We've come a long way since we started at 93 back at the end of October!
Some of you have asked what we have heard about Ethiopia lately and we still don't really have anything concrete. Here are the points that our agency informed us of that was discussed during the caucus call with the Department of State on Friday.
■Although this change has been supposedly confirmed to have gone into effect on March 10, 2011, there is no information available on what the process could look like moving forward, what cases it impacts, and if and for how long it will remain in effect.
■It was mentioned that cases already registered with the Ethiopian court could possibly experience up to an estimated 12 month delay. It was made very clear by the US Department of State that this was dependent on a number of factors, all of which are yet to be determined, i.e. how many cases are registered, what cases this change will impact, if this change continues to be in effect, etc.
■There is a vast amount of rumors going around related to this change, and none of them are able to be confirmed at this point.
■The head of MOWA has been terminated, effective next week, for unknown reasons.
■We are hearing that there will be meetings between the US Department of State, US Embassy, MOWA, network of ASP Foreign Service Providers, and Ethiopian government offices during the next week. We believe these meetings will begin on Monday, March 14th; however, there is no way to know if there will be concrete solutions that develop.
So, what can we do?
1. We can be in prayer for the meeting that will take place on Monday!
2. You can still sign the petition! They have suggested that we need 250,000 signatures. I just checked and there are like right at 35,000!! So here is a super quick link. You can copy and paste it and send to everyone you know! It takes less than one minute to sign the petition that the Joint Council on International Children's Services has put online. They will deliver this
petition to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, so you need to act TODAY. Through
this simple act, your signatures will provide hope for the voiceless children of Ethiopia.

http://www.orphanpetition.org/

3. We can also just be praying for the country of Ethiopia as a whole. "At least one Christian was killed and others injured when thousands of Islamic extremists set fire to 59 churches and at least 28 homes in western Ethiopia in the past five days, Christian leaders said." This is very tragic. Here is the link to the article.