What Faith Can Do

                                                                                        
I love this song!  The lyrics spoke to me so many times during the deep sorrow of our recent miscarriage.  Now we are seeing the other side of it - we are finding the silver lining and our dreams are moving mountains.  Our broken hearts are becoming brand new as we look forward to welcoming Little E into our family.

I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth.  These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.  Isaiah 42:16

So Sweet

Little E's picture on the waiting child website now says "I have a family"!!!  All of the kids got excited when I pointed it out to them.  Happy day!

There's much to be done, now!  We're starting to plan a fundraiser in conjunction with another family, who is adopting from China.  It will take place in about a month.  I'm hoping to have a silent auction in addition to other fun stuff.  If anyone out there would like to donate an item for the auction or has any fun ideas for it, let me know!

IT'S A BOY!!!!!!!!

Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. - Isaiah 43:5

We went to committee this morning on a 2 1/2 old waiting child and I just got the big call.  He's ours!!!!  We knew that he was from the moment we saw him.  He was an answer to some very specific prayers.  Oh my goodness, this is surreal!!!  We can't post his name or picture, in accordance with the wishes of the Ethiopian government.  But, let me tell you, he's a CUTIE!!

Now we continue the process as we've been except that I feel frantic because Little E is just waiting for his Mommy and Daddy to finish this paperwork so that we can bring him home.  The big things left for our dossier are the medical appointments and the homestudy.  We've got our final HS meeting a week from tomorrow, but our social worker needs medical notes from the doctor for all six of us and the appointments stretch through the end of May.  The dr.'s office has our file flagged in case of cancellations.

So, specific prayer requests for our family: 

• Health, happiness, and safety for E as he waits for us
• Doctors appointments to be moved up
• CYFD fingerprints to be quick and readable the first time
• Financial blessings to overflow to cover the rest of our expenses

Me talking to Jessica!!!

KJ, Cade, and me talking to Justin on speakerphone to tell him that we got THE call!!!

Homestudy Visit #1

Our first homestudy meeting was today and it went well.  KJ had to point out, right off the bat, the corner we use for time outs.  Then all of the kids were so talkative for an hour that our social worker could hardly get a word in edgewise.  She took it in stride, though.  I guess she can definitely see that we have highly social, outspoken, intelligent kiddos.

We feel so blessed - she is a Christian and a big supporter of homeschooling and attachment parenting.  We meet again in two weeks and then she'll write her report, once all of the CYFD stuff and medical exams are done.

We got all of the birth certificate stuff straightened out.  Turns out that Justin's not my brother, after all.  Shocker!  I did discover, though, after all the work it took to get Maci's homebirth registered - I never ordered her birth certificate!  So now we're waiting on that to arrive.  Hopefully the state won't think she's my mother or my aunt or something!  :)

We are Called to DO Something

We went to church last night to meet some missionaries from Kenya.  It was a fantastic experience, so convicting and motivating!  They run an orphanage in Nairobi, with about 60 orphans.  This verse came to mind as we sat listening to Tom and Anna talk about their lives and their ministry: If you say, "But we knew nothing about this," does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay each person according to what he has done? Proverbs 24:12 Our eyes have been opened and we are accountable to DO something.  If you also want to act, but don't know where to start, here are some ideas:

• Pray for the widows and orphans
• Sponsor a child
• Organize a mission trip
• Raise money and/or items to send to an orphanage
• Talk to others about the needs of those worldwide living in poverty
• Financially support a family who is adopting a child

On the adoption front, we are moving right along with paperwork and looking forward to our first homestudy meeting with our social worker on Sunday.  Our agency has given out a crazy number of referrals lately and we're anxious to get on the waiting list.