Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. ~ James 1:27
Hard to believe, but two months from now Justin and I will be exploring Paris. In two months and two days, we finally meet Little E!! We are gathering donations for the care center and trying to figure out how to pack for two climates - winter in France and spring in Ethiopia. To complicate everything, we hope to fit all of our clothing and such into carry on luggage so that everything we check will be donations. I'm planning to take my whole cloth diaper stash over there. I'm a bit sad to part with them. I heart cloth diapering. However, they're just sitting in my attic and they need them in Ethiopia. How can I not haul them halfway around the world?
We had a huge blessing last week. I've been still feeling torn about our little vacay in the midst of all of our saving and fundraising. We have enough saved from Justin's second job [I know. He's crazy driven. Full time job. Part time law school. Part time job. One wife. Four kids. One adoption.] ...anyway, enough saved to visit a couple of sites and to pay for food and souvenirs. We were unsure about $$ for lodging, but went ahead and reserved a cute little apartment that's not overly expensive. Welllllllll, last week my mother-in-law contacted us with a huge surprise. She and Justin's step-father are providing our accommodations while we're in Paris!!! Seriously, how awesome is that??? Justin and I are so blown away by their generosity and love. I also love how God works in everything. He even cares about our little side trip enough to make sure that all of our needs are met and we won't have any worries. Amazing. I've been singing the Chris Tomlin song below all week.
Who can proclaim the mighty acts of the LORD or fully declare his praise? Psalm 106:2
I know it's been quiet on the blog lately. Seems like time is standing still.... tick, tock, tick, tock..... and I have only boring stuff to say...... except 66 days until we get on a plane!!! That's exciting! In the meantime, I'm on overload with new projects and hobbies and possibly switching some of KJ's curriculum, even though we're over a month into school already. Here's what I'm up to right now:
Homeschooling.
Missing my work as a birth doula.
Starting a business on Etsy --- sewing purses like crazy.
Researching curriculum. Ugh.
Playing with my new camera lens and dreaming about going into business.
Even better, becoming a birth photographer. Is there such a thing? If there is, that's what I want to be when I grow up. If not, maybe I'll make it a thing.
Trying to keep up with 2 community groups, 3 separate sports/lessons, CBC co-op, Awana, Reality, and church.
Oh yeah, cooking and cleaning. Blech. And shopping. Double blech.
Teaching Tatum to sew.
Imagining a similarly sized Ethiopian tagging along with Maci everywhere she goes.
Dropping everything to spend every second with Justin when he can be home.
Running. Can't do the 5K I was planning on this weekend, due to some sort of hip injury. Figures.
Cuddling, laughing, and playing with my wonderful kiddos.
As always, willing time to stand still so I can take in every second of this wonderful life I have been blessed with, even as I desperately wish for a fast forward button so that we can have Little E home with us.
Thinking about a girls night out. I think the last one I had was, well, never actually.
Sadly noticing a chill in the air and a few yellow leaves on the trees.
Trying to remember something from my two years of French class and anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Amharic language book I ordered.
It's official! Our first trip is booked! *insert girly squeal here* Goodness, what an exhausting and overwhelming decision that was.
We will spend three days in Paris before we go to Ethiopia to meet Little E. We figured, when are we ever just going to be in the neighborhood again? Might as well spend a few hundred dollars to make a dream come true instead of thousands at a later date. We got a great deal on airfare and are paying less than some of the quotes we got to go directly to Addis and back with no long layover anywhere. Next on the agenda is to find a super cheap hotel in Paris. We're open to suggestions! We leave in 81 days!!! *girly squeal #2*
We got a health report on Little E yesterday. He sounds like a typical three year old. He wants attention and gets upset when he doesn't get it. I can guarantee he'll get plenty of attention here! The kids can't wait for him to be home. The report also said that his speech continues to improve since the surgery, although he's often hard to understand. Probably why he gets so frustrated! I wish someone there could do sign language with him. We did it our last two babies and still use it some. It's such a great way to help little ones learn to express themselves. We'll be starting on that as soon as he gets home.
Our flower bulb fundraiser is about over. I have another one in mind for the fall that I'm excited about. I need to work out some things and then will share all the exciting details!
In non-adoption news, Justin has decided to drop back down to part time with law school. Instead of being done next August, he won't finish until December. Still way ahead of where we thought we'd be at this point and less stressful. Full time work and school are just too much. Either way, he can't take the bar until February 2010, so why kill ourselves to get through and then have to wait six months anyway? This makes much more sense!
Soooo, we have some prayer requests: 1. For Little E's health and happiness 2. For travel dates to not change unexpectedly 3. For financial blessings
The excitement of having a court date has given way to the stress of trying to figure out travel plans. Ever since we found out that there would be two trips, we've planned to add a couple of days in Europe onto the first one. Our discussions about it were in vague terms of what if this or what if that. Then we'd get distracted by life and off we'd go.
Now, we have to actually make decisions and it's beyond stressful. Anyone who knows me, knows that I don't spend a penny without agonizing over it. I bought a dress on clearance for $1 two weeks ago and I'm still questioning whether I should have spent that buck on something I don't really need. It took us a year and a half to plan our Jamaica vacay a few years ago. We're trying to do this in a matter of days.
It's throwing me for a loop. The options are enticing - Paris, Rome, London, Amsterdam, and Dubai. We had about decided on Amsterdam because it's the cheapest option. But nothing we see to do there overly interests us. London and Rome are really just too expensive. Dubai is, well, so new and glitzy. And then there's Paris. Ahhhhh... my dream since 10th grade French class. The Louve, Versailles, the Eiffel Tower!!
We can make it happen - actually for several hundred dollars less than one of our quotes to go directly to Ethiopia and back with no stopover. The problem now is scheduling. We can be there for 24 hours or for about three days. We'd prefer two, but no cost effective way to do that has been revealed yet.
Then there's all the fretting this mama does. What about the kids at home? Will their world end if we add another day onto our trip? Is our happiness and couple time worth my perceived long term damage to their psyches because I'm away from them 24 hours longer than necessary? Will they even notice we're gone? Oh gosh! What if they don't brush their teeth the entire time and who will rub Maci's eyes so she can get to sleep?
So, yah, I'm flipping out a bit. We need to make a decision ASAP. Flights in the states will start filling up soon, since part of our travel is on Thanksgiving weekend. That should be fun.
Stay tuned for a decision. Justin wants to have the tickets booked by the end of the week...
Big, huge, super exciting news today! We are to appear at Ethiopian High Court on November 26, 2010!!! We are beyond thrilled. We didn't expect to hear anything until the end of September. Now, we can book our tickets three months in advance and relax knowing that we've done everything we can do. It's an amazing feeling to finally know the date that we will meet our Little E. A mom who recently brought her child home met him while she was at the care center. She said he seemed sweet with a bit of a mischievous smile. I can't wait to see for myself!!
The court date is great for us for a couple of different reasons. Most important to us, our first miscarriage was the day before Thanksgiving 2001. Since then, it's been a bittersweet holiday for us. There's always serving of sadness to go along with the ham and pumpkin pie. This won't erase the loss of that child, but it does, as a fellow adoption mom put it, bring beauty from the ashes. I loved that she said that, since that's how I've described our adoption journey - rising from the ashes of our most recent miscarriage on Christmas Day 2009. Again, I reference our adoption theme song --- What Faith Can Do by Kutlass. Makes me cry every time with its relevance. Our dreams are moving mountains, I've seen miracles just happen, and our broken hearts ARE becoming brand new. That's what faith can do.
Secondly, Justin's in his third year of law school. He kinda has to be there. He kinda has to be in Ethiopia, too. [I keep insisting that he should get some sort of credit for appearing in court halfway around the world.] For our court date to fall on a week when he's already off of school and work for the most part is an amazing answer to prayer. He's talked to most of his professors already and they're cool with it. Still, the sheer volume of material he would miss by being gone for a whole week of class would be overwhelming for him. Now, we don't have to worry about that. Awesome!
Finally, childcare should be much easier to line up that week [right, Clovis peeps??]. My mom will be off of school for at least the end of the week and hopefully other people will step up to volunteer for a day or half day. We'll get back to the states over the weekend and be ready on Monday to get back to life, even if we're beyond exhausted.
Our next thing is to figure out how to pay for all of this traveling. It seems that it will be a little cheaper than we were anticipating. Our flower bulb fundraiser is still going for a few more days. If you're interested, let me know and I'll get the info to you!
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
HIM: IT manager/law student
HER: Homeschooling mama/birth doula
US: Doing everything we can to simplify life and raise our four children to glorify God in everything they do. We are currently in the process of adopting a child from Ethiopia.
