Thank You Again!

The goal of $12,500 has been reached! Thank you again to all of you who donated. And to all of you who keep these kids (in and out of the orphanages) in your prayers!

If there's anyone who still wants to donate, please email me. CHC is no longer taking donations, but travel groups deliver donations of many different items to the transition home, area orphanages and the poor each trip.

Happy Mother's Day!

Thank you!

When I last heard, over $7,000 had already been raised for formula! Thank you to everyone who has helped so far. A family left for DC last night with a container of 50 cans of formula for the kids at the transition home! And, luckily, the extra baggage fee was waived for the US leg of their trip. They are still waiting to hear if Ethiopian Air will waive the fee! We pray they will! It's not cheap and the family has already said they would prefer to donate the money to get even more formula!

Please Help!

Our agency (AWAA) has recently experienced an influx of severly malnourished babies. These children (sometimes only a few pounds even though they are 2-4 months old) need a special kind of formula that cannot be purchased in Ethiopia. So far the families that are adopting from our agency have been pooling together resources to send over the formula with families that are traveling to pick up their children. However, the problem is becoming quite pressing, so I would like to ask for help from our friends and family.

Our agency recenlty partnered with a group called Children's HopeChest to raise money to buy and ship the needed formula. Please see their site http://tomdavis.typepad.com./
NOTE: The picture with the post might be disturbing for some people.

Here is a link to the fellow AWAA family that made the partnership happen! http://themonbergs.com/2009/05/05/a-mommy-on-a-mission/

We are asking our friends and family to donate if they can. You can donate money directly to CHC and all of it will go to buying formula and paying the necessary shipping. Also, you can donate a can/cans of formula directly by sending them to one of our traveling families. Please let me know if you want to do this and I will get you the address of the next travelling family that has room for formula.

A can of formula costs about $27 and is enough for a one baby for 5-7 days.

It makes my soul weep to know that there are children out there in this condition. But, I must tell you, it hurts even more to know that one of these children might be my son!

Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so very much!

Zombie Chickens?! Blame Becky!!

Becky chose me, along with 4 other bloggers, to receive this wonderful award!

"The blogger who receives this award believes in the Tao of the zombie chicken - excellence, grace and persistence in all situations, even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. These amazing bloggers regularly produce content so remarkable that their readers would brave a raving pack of zombie chickens just to be able to read their inspiring words. As a recipient of this world-renowned award, you now have the task of passing it on to at least 5 other worthy bloggers. Do not risk the wrath of the zombie chickens by choosing unwisely or not choosing at all…"

Now, personally, I really want to meet these chickens and I don't think their wrath is any match for my kung-fu moves, so bring it on chickens!!! But, to at least lessen their wrath, I bestow this award on Shell (either blog, hehe) and Erin because I don't want them to feel left out of the circle!!!

As for an adoption update, we had our conference call yesterday. Not too much to share right now. I'm still betting on this Fall. According to our agency there is a possibility that the time will be less, but I'm not sure if they mean weeks or months less. So, I will plan on Sept/Oct and (hopefully) be pleasantly surprised if it's earlier!

I do think that I might get a Power of Attorney and give it to Ben when I'm out of town for 2 weeks in July, just incase he needs to sign our referral paperwork for the both of us! Guess I will wait and see if I have the "On-Deck" email by then!

FOUR MONTHS!

Tulips! How appropriate! HAPPY EASTER!!

Today marks the fourth month since we were DTE (Dossier To Ethiopia). Our agency is currently processing boy/either referrals for families who were DTE 6/13/08. We were DTE 12/12/08. We are planning on another 5-8 months, but we are hoping for less (or at least closer to the 5 than the 8)!!!

As always, I ask that you keep the many families who are waiting to pass court in your prayers. As hard as this wait seems right now, the wait to bring home your beautiful child is MUCH harder, I am sure!

Greetings from Busy Season!

Ahhhhh, it has been a while since I've REALLY had a chance to post. I don't know about you, but I don't think the 4 line monthly updates (that I actually wrote before busy season began and then filled in the dates and timeline when I got close) really counted!

We have been busy here, to say the least! During the week I am mostly at work and Ben and Maddie hold down the fort. On Sundays we have kept ourselves busy with gardening and visits from my wonderful Mommy, who is a great help to Mr. Dad (he doesn't like it when I refer to him as Mr. Mom...)!

Let's see, we have a little landscaping done in the front yard. And, if you can believe it, I have Daffodils AND Tulips this year! The Tulips I added after they had already sprouted, though! The daffodils can handle the insane weather in Charlotte okay (70 one week, 30 the next...No, I'm NOT kidding, that is how our winters are). The tulips on the other hand become very confused and come up in January and die when it snows! C'est la vie! We also have our garden started in the back. We'll see if we can get any yummy (organic, wahoo) vegetables out of it!!!!!

There really isn't too much going on here. We are working with Maddie on the idea of a little brother, though she is still set on a little sister! She has been praying to God asking Him for a little sister instead of a brother. We have made some progress, but she now calls her brother "Sissy." It's an improvement, though I'm not sure our son will agree!

The adoption is still moving along. There have been a lot of referrals over the last 3 months, but we are trying to not get our hopes up...TRYING being the opperative word! With the current rate of referrals there is a possibility that we will have our referral this summer! But I am still planning on Fall because things may slow down.

I have been thinking a lot about the nursery (Emma, if you're out there, we'll have to get together and talk about my crazy ideas SOON, WE MISS YOU!). I've also been thinking a lot about names. Boy names, of course. We have a few that we agree on, but they aren't necessarily my FAVORITE names! And we won't actually decide on anything until we know our son's birth name/name given to him by his caretakers.

All in all, things are good! I only have 2.5 weeks left in busy season. I'm not counting the days yet, but I will start on Wednesday, I ASSURE you!

If you're out there, thank you for reading! We ask that you pray for our son (he is likely kicking his mommy quite a bit at this point, the little soccer player) and his birth family. Please pray for the health of them all and for a great peace to be placed on their hearts. His birth parents/family will have to make a decision that no one should ever have to make, and for this I grieve. But, Our Lord is mighty and I pray they know that and feel it!

I hope to post more soon! I will have another Auto-post for our FOUR MONTH (wa-hooo) post, and I apologize! But after April 15th (or at least after April, I hope), I will have more time!!!

Three Months!!!

Today we have been waiting 3 months for our referral! Currently AW is processing boy/either gender referrals for families who were DTE 5/2/08. That would leave the wait at about 6-9 months for us from today.

Please continue to pray for the Ethiopian courts and the families who are waiting to pass!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Savings and Conference Call

Wahoo! We have already saved one-third of the (estimated) remaining adoption expenses! What's even better is this excludes the generous gifts we received for Christmas! We feel very blessed and proud that we have been able to save so much on our own and we hope the next 2 months (through April 15th, you know) will continue to show good favor!

Our February conference call was Wednesday, February 25th. There wasn't a lot of new information shared. Referrals are slower this month in comparison to the January BOOM! Per our agency, the current wait from DTE to referral is 9-11 months. This time line would mean that our referral would be September - December of 2009. Please keep all of the families that have referrals but are waiting to pass court in your prayers!

Also, a family that was requesting an infant of either gender received a referral for a baby girl. If the trend continues Ben and I may have to adjust our mind-set so we aren't automatically expecting a boy. Only time will tell!

Two Months!!

Today we have been waiting 2 months for our referral! Currently AW is processing boy referrals for families who were DTE 4/25/08. That would leave the wait at about 7-9 months for us from today.

I hope all of you enjoy a HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

THE BEAST!

The Beast known as Busy Season is upon us! It really didn't waste any time this year! I have been doing my best to stay ahead so that I wouldn't be too stressed out for the deadlines, but things are MUCH busier than usual, it seems! A lot of people want to get their refunds or know what they owe! I guess I can't blame them since our return will be in the mail tomorrow, hehe! But it sure does make my life a lot more stressful than I expected this early!

Posts may be limited for the next 2.5 months, but I'll do my best to keep this blog updated. Things aren't moving too quick on the adoption front, so that shouldn't be a problem!