Calling All Prayer Warriors....

It seems we may be having a new development in our lives (yes ANOTHER one). As some of you know, we received a referral for baby "T" about a year ago in November. Well, after 6 months of waiting for court, we were told there were lots of issues with his paperwork and he most likely would not be able to be adopted and we were told it would be best to accept another referral. This was incredibly heart breaking for us, but we felt God was leading us to accept the referral, fast forward to today - welcome David!

We have been adjusting well, although we did not know when we would be ready to adopt again...until last Thursday. Simon and I had both been thinking about baby "T", who by the way is 17 months old now, but did not say anything to each other. After a surprise email from another adoptive family asking if there was any chance we could still get him, we were feeling lead to contact our agency to get an update on him.

The email we received back this morning said they would check into it after Christmas. This is where all of you come in, we need your prayers like CRAZY right now. Please pray for God's will in this child's life, whether that is in our family or another, but that he will not have to live in the orphanage for another year!

Simon and I are following the opening that God has given us although we have no idea how we will 1. pay for it 2. take care of both David who is 19 months now and baby "T" who is 17 months.

More to come...

Update and Adoption Day #2

So, it has been awhile since I last blogged. My class for my masters program combined with work has sucked the life out of me. The good news is my class is over as of 30 minutes ago and I am taking the next semester off. I really need a break. I have a stack of about 10 books I have been accumulating along with David's life book still has all the ET pictures sitting in the box.

Last Wednesday we had David's court date to "validate" his adoption in our county. This is just a formality and gives us the documentation to seal the deal on his citizenship. Here are some pics and I promise I will be a better blogger!!

Our Adoption Video

We are finally done with our video from Ethiopia...enjoy. :)

God commands us to care for ophans and widows...

As many of you know, God has given me a crazy, uncomfortable, bigger than life, sad, wonderful heart for the orphans of the world. I am still processing all of this, our trip to Ethiopia and all that we saw while there.

One thing that is very clear is that God COMMANDS us to care for widows and ORPHANS in the bible. He doesn't say it would be nice, or we should consider it if we don't have anything else going on...we MUST do it. There are lots of way, adoption is not the only one.

Check out this video...orphan Sunday is right around the corner. Won't you consider helping one of the 147 million kids without a forever family (or clean water, or food, or clothes, or safety)?

Orphan Sunday from Christian Alliance for Orphans on Vimeo.

12 weeks!!

I can't believe we have had our sweet little boy for 12 weeks! It is so amazing how much God has changed him and us in that time. First for the changes in David...

First week we were home...

Now....

Isn't it amazing??



This was David when we brought him home, he was about 14 months:

• Wearing size 2 diapers and 9 month clothes which were still too big in the waist.
• Would not let you cradle him and cuddle.
• Had to stay in the room/bed with him until he was totally asleep or he would get very scared.
• Could only crawl, could not pull himself up.
• Terrified of baths
• Ate TONS of food, that is not an exaggeration, he ate more than Nicky.
• Had many melt downs concerning food. Would go into a total tail spin if he was the slightest bit hungry.
• Wanted to be around us always, would only play with toys if we were sitting there with him.
• Totally terrified of our dogs...would get physically scared and shake when they came near.
• Very reserved and would not let new people hold him.

David now:

• Has gained over 3 pounds and is wearing size 3 diapers and 12 month clothes
• Loves to be rocked to sleep at night, cuddles in for lots of body contact
• Lays down in bed now and goes right to sleep, no crying or fear
• Walking and running everywhere
• Loves bath time, runs to the tub as soon as he hears the water running
• Eats much less food now, appetite is like an average toddler now
• Less meltdowns about food, now it is only when we are traveling or away from our normal schedule
• Will play with the other kids for long periods of time without Simon or I sitting with them. Nicky and him wrestle together and both LOVE playing cars.
• Loves the dogs, hugs and kisses them along with telling them no!
• Staying at the church daycare during services and not crying when we leave him

Wow, it is pretty amazing when I list it all out! God has blessed us with this little boy.

Some of the time it is hard, most of the time it is rewarding, but ALL of this time we are thankful for David.

Soon I will share more about how my life has changed in the last 12 weeks...I am getting closer to being able to articulate it all...

Wonderful Sunday...

I made it through my first week back at work...amazing. We are enjoying a relaxing weekend at home and while Bella and Simon went to play tennis, I got the boys to myself. Here are some cute as ever pics....

And yes, they are wearing matching shirts!! They are going to hate me when they grow up but it is the cutest thing!!!

It is time...

It is time...tomorrow I am returning to work after 6 weeks leave. I was scheduled for 9 weeks, but things happen.

I have not blogged much about our trip...as many of you who have been on this journey know, it is just something that is hard to put out there for the world to read. God has done so many things in the last 6 weeks in my life, I will forever be thankful for this.

Simon and I feel we are at a cross roads in our family's journey and feel God is about to make some amazing changes, but need prayer for patience while this happens. Of course we want something to happen NOW, but we all know that is not His way, it is our way.

I was hoping our long trip back to Montana would provide some clarity, but we both feel it just muddied the waters more. Although, we can rest knowing that our lives are in Gods hands, not our own.

Until we have some direction, life continues for us and we are thankful for His blessings...

Week 3...how fun is this?

2 weeks home

Today marks the two week anniversary of being home with David. Bella is back as of last week and I am so enjoying her company. She is growing into a young lady and has seen the value (finally) of good behavior, for now at least. She started 5th grade on Thursday...it is amazing, every year I say, "I can't believe I am the mom of a ___ grader!". Before I know it I will be the mom of a high school graduate then a college grad and so on.

David is adjusting well, he is part of our family and it feels like he has always been with us. Gods design for adoption is amazing. It is interesting having two toddlers in the house...a little crazy to tell you the truth. We went shopping at my favorite store...Sam's Club last night with all of the kids. I decided then that I really do love having a big family. It is so fun and you never feel lonely. :)

We are waiting and praying for Simon's next move with his career. Although it has been nice being home together, he said he is ready to go back to work. Will you please consider praying for him? He is working on a pretty significant change, but has had some delays which are frustrating. We must remain strong knowing that God has a plan for our family and He will reveal it at the right time.

Until next time...here are some pictures...

Video of David walking!

Enjoy!!

Name

To change or not to change. We need your advice...David was abandoned and we believe he was given his name Abdulkadir by the police officer who found him. We wanted to use it as his middle name to preserve part of his Ethiopian heritage. We are now wondering if we should based on this: While we were in country, most every Ethiopian we told his name to said this - "His family must be Muslim." Well, obviously we have no idea and we (his forever family) are most definitely Christian.

What do you all think???

Day 3 at home

We started out the day at 5:00 am. Whew...it is going to be a long one. Nicky is a little sick and woke up early complaining he did not feel good. That was the beginning...

I was able to go for a long walk/jog with our lab this morning. My hubby is the best and I really need this time every morning to prepare for day and burn off some stress. Then it was off to the doctor for David's TB test. They inject a little bit of liquid under the skin in his arm and evaluate how he reacts to it to determine if he has TB or not. We will go back on Thursday to have them look at it. Ohhhh, how could I forget the stool sample collection. Whew...I am glad that is over, Simon of course was MIA as he won't have anything to do with his diapers until we get whatever he has cleared up. We should know in a couple of days if he has any parasites or guardia. Our doc thinks he is between 15-18 months old, not the 11 months the orphanage reported. We will know more in the next couple of months as he adjusts and stabilizes.

He is making such huge progress physically, just in the week and a half we have had him. When we picked him up at the orphanage, he could barely walk with you holding just one hand. Now he is standing by himself for a few seconds! That is huge progress and we are excited so far!

I just put David down for a nap and he did not scream his head off! (I didn't either!) We have been struggling with the nap time thing and today was a success!

He is adjusting incredibly well, God continues to bless us and this little guy. :)

Bath Time

David is adjusting well. We had his first doctor visit today and so far everything looks fine. Obviously we have some catching up to do on the nutrition side, but nothing our doctor thought wouldn't be taken care of soon. He had a blood draw for routine tests...it was horrible to see him cry so hard! He HATES baths. Bring back memories of a certain 2 year old still taking baths in a baby tub? :) (Nicky) Tonight I tried the bathroom sink. That seemed a little less tramatic, but don't know how long he will be able to fit in there!

Who could resist that face?

We're Back!!

We made it back last night. Baby David is doing fantastic, slept thruogh the night last night! We have so much to tell, need some time for it all to sink in. I am going to post a few pics today...

Baby shower for David's Orphanage

We were very blessed last weekend by all of our friends and family. My awesome friends, Andrea and Loni held a shower for the orphange! We will be able to take over 120 pounds of donations to the them when we travel to get baby David. This will be an incredible blessing for those kiddos. Thank you to everyone!!

Camping in Beuna Vista

We were able to sneak away for a couple of days to go camping. What a great state we live in!! Much to our suprise while we were gone, we got a call from out adoption coordinator, there is a chance we may be able to leave next weekend for ET as originally planned!

Adoption Decree and Delirium??

So we received the adoption decree today:

"Examining the application and detail evidences presented to it in verifying the
law; as the adopting have enough and sufficient capacity to take and grow up the
adopted child and there is no other condition to take and grow up the child, the
court has certified that approving the contract agreement of adoption is the
necessary and the best condition for the better growing up of child _________."

This is all such a God thing. We are so thankful for His guidance and mercy during this process. When I opened the blog today, I noticed our counter says "1 year and 1 week since we started this process". Although it seems like every day of 1 year and 1 week, God worked His patience into our lives through this process.

So...wonder why I titled this post Adoption Decree and Delirium? I am pretty sure Adoption Delirium is setting in. After over a year of this process, I am looking at my life through a totally different frame. Maybe it is through the eyes of Jesus? We bought our plane tickets (see last post) to leave in a couple of weeks, well since everything was postponed, we are probably not going to get an embassy date until two weeks after the date we were going to leave. I keep thinking that since we already have our tickets, why don't I go have two more weeks with baby David? Simon can still join me, but we could get a jump start on our life with our baby. One problem, we still don't have a confirmed embassy date. I could be there for anywhere from two weeks without Simon to four weeks. Crazy you may think, but maybe God is whispering in my ear. None the less, a decision does not need to be made for a week or more so we will be praying about it. I am curious as to what my fellow adoption mommas would do?

Travel Update

I haven't blogged in awhile, mostly because I have been so busy. Anyway, we found out last Tuesday that the Ethiopian government agency that issues the letter we need to confirm our embassy date has closed for 2 weeks. So frustrating!! We were finally so close we could taste it, then this.

We are trying to be patient, please pray for this for us. Also pray that whatever the reason the agency closed down, everything will be back on track when they resume work.

The shock has warn off...

now the panic is setting in...I have so much to do!! I am praying that after this week my job slows down and no more 50-55 hour weeks for awhile. My class is a lot of work but will be done right before we leave so that is good. Anyway, we have a lot of awesome people in our lives who have offered to help us which is a true blessing!! We have friends who are going to take Nicky and some other friends who are taking the dogs...what a relief to have that figured out! Simon's last day at the bank is next Tuesday so he will be home with Nicky and has a lot of projects around the house to knock out.

Praying for peace as we wait for travel dates!!

We PASSED!!

We are parents again...baby David is ours. We are praising God right now...thank you for all of the prayers!!

My new strategy...

I have it figured out, I am going to proceed with our life as if we are leaving to go get baby David on July 25th. Our coordinator did say that if we passed last week that would be the most likely travel date. I am packing and buying the last things we need for him: car seat, double stroller, diapers, and crib sheets. I think this will work to get things moving and hear next week that the adoption is final. I am actually really busy with work (Lord help me we go live with our new finance software July 6th) and my class for grad school. We are reading over 250 pages a week! Somehow with all of that, I still find time to obsess over the boys. I am also focusing my time on Nicky. He is missing Bella terribly and this will be his last summer as an "only child".

Please pray that God will move mountains (again!) and get the last paperwork early this week so we can get our embassy date scheduled.

Happy father's day to all of the daddy's out there. I am blessed with a great dad and miss him a lot.

Here are some photos of the dad's in my life:

My Dad, Bella & Nicky

No news....

No news on baby David's case but we did receive this cute picture of Bella today. We miss her so much...

Yes, that is a real Tiger cub!!

Court update

Well, we did not technically pass court today. The letter of recommendation from the government agency that approves the adoptions was missing. The good news is that they did not schedule another court date because they will be able to finish the adoption once they receive the letter. Our agency coordinator thought it may be in a couple of days. Still waiting, but we are closer than we were yesterday! God is so good to us!

We have a court date!

We just found out that our court date for baby David is Wednesday!!! Yes, this Wednesday and since ET is 9 hours ahead of us we should know Wednsday morning if we passed or not. Please pray for our court date over the next couple of days.

Discouraged: how much longer must we wait??

Simon and I were talking last night and decided that Friday is the hardest day of the week for us...you are asking, "Why, you guys are crazy, who doesn't LOVE Friday?"

To us, it means another week has gone by with no court date; our baby boys are another week old; we have missed out on another week of our babies lives; our babies have had to go to sleep another 7 more times without hearing their mommy and daddy tell them they love them. That's why we hate Fridays.

Pretty depressing isn't it? Well, as only God can do, He brought me out of the dumps through the message of our wonderful Pastor Alan tonight.

Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand
When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for those people to eat?" He asked this only
to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. Philip answered
him, "Eight months' wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have
a bite!" Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up. Here
is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they
go among so many?" John 6:5-9

We all know the rest of the story...Jesus takes the five loaves of bread and two small fish and feeds the entire group of 5,000. What about that little boy who gave
his food to Jesus, he may have given his entire families food for the day to
Jesus.

Do we give Jesus all of our resources so that He can multiply in ministering to
others?

This message reminded me of how Simon and I gave our resources (our money, our hearts, the hearts of our kids) to Jesus in order to step out in faith to adopt a baby from Africa. We have seen how our choice has allowed us to minister to others about adoption. I feel more a peace now after the gentle reminder from our loving Father that He will deliver our baby boy to us. We gave Jesus our resources and we will see Him use them to multiply!!!

Is this MY kid or what?

We asked Nicky to pick up his toys in the kitchen and this is what we got...

He lined them all up perfectly!! I never remember Bella being that organized. I think we have an engineer or an accountant on our hands!!

Flowers and Adoption Update

I received some Iris bulbs from a friend a few years ago. She gave me two bags, one labeled white and the other purple. Well, we planted them with the thought that they would be the front row in our flower bed in front of our house. The third summer is here and this is what they look like:

They are GIANT and not purple or white, but yellow! I love them but they have taken over the entire flower bed!!

Many of you have been asking and praying (thank you so much) for our adoption and the boys. I talked to our coordinator yesterday and although she did not have a court date for baby David, she did say they were confident they would get all kids referred so far this year through court before the closure in August & September. What wonderful news!!! We have been discouraged the last week or so because it has been 4 weeks now since we officially accepted the referral and no court date. We were told they anticipated the date would come faster for us this time because we had already been through the process with baby "T". "Faster" to us meant 2 weeks, tops!! Anyway we are praising God as it seems that we will still be able to go get baby David yet this summer. No news on baby "T".

Paperbead Necklaces from Uganda

My wonderful Blogging friend and fellow Africa adoptive momma brought back some fabulous paperbead necklaces from Uganda. She is selling them and all of the profit is going to back to Africa. Please check them out...

http://www.brandisthoughts.com/2009/05/ugandan-paper-bead-necklaces.html

Africa Bags needs your VOTE

Africa Bags needs your help! They have been competing in a grant competition through Turbo Tax / Intuit. Out of thousands of applications Africa Bags has been selected as one of the top 50 finalists! As finalists they are competing for the grand prize grant of $25,000! They have submitted a video about the Africa Bags project on the Intuit website. They are asking everyone to go to the Intuit website and veiw the Africa Bags video and then vote for their project as both "inspiring" and "useful." 40% of the judges decision is based on how many votes we get! So by voting you truly will make a difference for them!

http://community.intuit.com/contests/aFVdokwWWqllvkab8P4pmk

It would be awesome if you were so inspired to go to the web site and purchase a couple, we use them and love them!!

http://www.africabags.org

Lifestyle Change for our Family

We have made a huge change in our family's diet. I don't know if huge is even a big enough word for it!!!

I have been following Jill's blog for a few months now and love reading her posts filled with her love of the Lord and love for her children. Anyway, she had a post a couple of weeks ago which peaked my interest, you can read it here. It peaked my interest enough to watch the video. Simon and I watched it together and were blown away! We were totally overwhelmed at the evidence presented about how toxic animal proteins (meat & dairy) are on our bodies! Please, take the time to watch this incredibly powerful video. Now, I have to qualify this post with the fact that I was NOT open to the possibility of cutting all animal protein out of our diet when I watched this video. We ate meat nearly every night at our house and Nicky and Bella would frequently carry around a cup of chocolate milk. I have been struggling with the things we eat and wanted to provide a healthier lifestyle for our family...I really feel the Lord put this video in our lives at the perfect time to inspire Simon and I to make this significant change. If you are curious at all, check out the video A Delicate balance - the Truth.

Jill quoted this scripture:

I AM the vine, and My Father is the gardener: He cuts off every branch that doesn't produce fruit, and He prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. John 15:12

I have to say this change has not been very hard for us...it has to be from the Lord. I am not craving chocolate (which I was addicted to) or having a desire to eat meat. Simon is fully committted to this and loves trying new recipes and experimenting with cooking with Tofu. I do have to say Nicky is not too thrilled with the tofu, but I am sure he will get used to it.

Blessings,

Family

We put Bella on the plane to her dad's in Illinois yesterday. She is such a great traveler. Simon decided she has probably flown more than he has now and he was in the Army and flew a lot. We are praying she has an AWESOME summer with her daddy as last year was a little bumpy. Nicky is going to miss her a lot but we are also praying we will be bringing home a little brother for him still this summer!!



We had the opportunity to have dinner with my sis and her fiance in Colorado Springs last night. They were recently engaged and we are so happy for them. We had a wonderful vegan meal, thank you so much Nicole!! The fellowship was wonderful and we love the Springs and will be looking for more opportunities to visit.



Blessings,

Saturday - Fire Trucks

As some of you know, I work for the City in which we live. I absolutely love it and try to participate in most of the community activities. Living far from our families, we have found many good friends in our community and strive to instill the sense of responsibility for our world in our kiddos. Saturday was our annual Fire Department pancake breakfast. Nicky is absolutely in love with trucks, any size or kind. He carries one with him most of the time and has the ALL over the house. Here are some pictures, we were testing out the still camera on our new camcorder (which we aren't too impress with).

Mothers Day = Stomach Flu

ImageChef.com Flower Text

Happy Mothers Day to all of you mom's and grandma's!!

God had an interesting way this year of reminding me of how blessed I am to have my mom. Nicky got the stomach flu today...full on with dry heaves. It reminded me of all of the times I was sick growing up and how my mom was at my side holding my hair for every violent heave. I was a particularly needy stomach flu sufferer needing my mom there every time, I remember screaming like crazy for her. I knew she would be and I could count on her. She was a fantastic mom and taught me how to be a great mom to my kids.

My heart is breaking thinking of all of the kids in the world without mom's there for them when they are sick. Also for the mom's who can't be there for their kids, knowing they will be sick and need their comforting.

A great friend (who happens to be my personal trainer) reminded me this week that kids without parents are never alone, Jesus is there for them, they never feel lonely. We wondered at what age kids stopped hearing Jesus and feel comforted by him?

I am not alone, because the Father is with me. John 16:32

My goal as a mother: To follow the Lord's direction and provide as many children as He sees fit a safe, loving, and God-fearing home.

Referral Update

We have offically accepted the referral of another baby boy!! We are not sure on his name yet, but will call him David for now.

He is about 8 months old (two less than baby "T") and was found abandoned so we don't know his exact birth date. He is adorable and we are so looking forward to having him home with us. We are now waiting for a court date of which our agency coordinator said should be faster since we have already been approved as parents.

So...the current status is that we are now matched with two (yes 2) baby boys which are two (yes 2) months apart!! God really has a plan for us, which amazingly is different than our own plan! ;) We don't have any update on baby "T" but would ask for continued prayer in his case and that God would put everything in place for him to get through court soon. We hope to be able to get baby David home yet this summer and baby "T" as soon as possible.

We are so grateful for all of the prayer that has been coming our way, God has shown us the direction He wants us to take and feel at ease with our decision. THANK YOU!!!

Future

"I say this because I know what I am planning for you," says the Lord. "I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you. I will give you hope and a good future." Jeremiah 29:11

We are waiting for God to show us the way on a couple huge things in our life:

The first being Simon's job. Yes, he is still working for the "new" bank but we do not know how long that will last. It could be a week or six months until they get all of the loans sold off. He is considering a career change but will need to return to school for about 4 months. We were hoping he would be on unemployment while he was doing the school, but the school starts in July and he in now thinking he will still be at the bank. The school only starts two times a year.

The second, of which is the reason for this blog, our adoption. Our baby "T" did not go to court as planned a few weeks ago and we were told the wait could be VERY long. We have been presented with another referral but it has come in pieces (first a picture, then on Friday the medical) and we still don't have it all to make the decision to accept. After much prayer, we feel God it leading us to stay with baby "T" while considering the new referral. If things move forward with both little boys, we will have two babies who are about two months apart! We were pretty sure we would adopt another after baby "T" but it would have been a couple of years. It looks like God has a different timeline for us bringing two little boys home from Ethiopia.

We know God has a plan for our family...but boy is it hard waiting for him to reveal it!!

Happy Anniversary

Today is our 4th wedding anniversary. Time has gone so fast it is amazing and God has blessed our marriage and family!



I really felt I need to post this again...


All things are possible for the one who believes.Mark 9:23

We knew the adoption would be difficult and that God was calling us to do this, but I don't think we knew the depth of the potential heartbreak. We are putting our faith in God that His will be done, not ours. We are believing that all things are possible in Jesus.

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us, we could not get through this without you!

Court Outcome

Well, unfortunately we have bad news, our case was not able to go to court yesterday. Our agency is having issues getting the director of the orphanage to complete her portion of the paperwork. There is some question when/if she will do it and we are not sure if we will be able to proceed with the adoption of baby "T". This was devastating news for us. We are praying for God to clearly show us the next step.

Thank you so much for all of the prayers and good thoughts you all have been sending our way, we are very grateful!! Please keep us in your prayers over the next couple of weeks as we work with our agency to come up with a plan.

Today is the Day

Since Ethiopia is 9 hours ahead of us, we are praying we will know the outcome of the hearing this morning. We will post as soon as we hear anything!

Count Down: 1 Day

“I say this because I know what I am planning for you,” says the Lord. “I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you. I will give you hope and a good future.”
Jeremiah 20:11

Prayer for Today:
Lord, give us the strength to trust in You and Your plans for us. Give the judge wisdom in the court proceeding tomorrow to allow the adoption and for baby "T" to join his forever family. Amen

Count Down: 2 Days

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:22-23

Prayer for Today:
Lord, consume us in YOUR love as we are 2 days from the court date and anxious for the outcome. Remind us of YOUR faithfulness as you have called us to adopt. Amen

Count Down: 3 Days

All things are possible for the one who believes.
Mark 9:23

Prayer for Today:
Lord, continue to give the IAN staff in Ethiopia the guidance to prepare for all court dates on Thursday and we thank you for your blessings and faithful love through this process. Amen