our family photos for 2008

some day our family will look very different in such a beautiful way!

a new pair of Christmas shoes-

this is my mission. one gift that i feel no guilt in buying and giving. at the moment I am rounding up shoe sizes of precious people in my life and i will be shopping for some Christmas shoes.

Here is some photos of their South Africa shoe drop: http://media.tomsshoes.com/southafrica?b7b6d050

On a personal note, I have something I would like to share. I wondered what the reaction would be from our family about us adopting. Especially the grandparents. See we have 3 wonderful boys(not bragging, just stating the obvious:) and they are truly in love with them. And I wondered how does the extended family feel connected to these little darlings that we will bring home. Well, I am finding that answer out.
My sister talked with my mom this week and she shared with me her surprising reaction. You see my mom is truly one of the most loving people in this world. She can love anyone. She actually tends to love the unlovable first and hardest.(what does that say about her loving me!) And so my sister said, "I can' t wait to get these babies home, can you?" And mom says, "Well, I'm having a hard time, I feel like it is so far away." Casey says, "Mom you are going to love these babies as much as you love the boys right(she is infatuated with the boys..btw)?" "Mom, aren't you?" Well, I don't know, it's just different, she says.
I believe in my heart she will love these precious gems dearly. I have no doubt she will. And I am thankful for her honesty. She and my bro have a superb gift of it. So, as time progresses I pray that her love for them does as well. Help me pray that won't you.
My mil(mother-in-law) told me on the phone today that she heard God speak to her. She was praying during church service and He said they are being formed and are going to be so beautiful to her. She will love them like her own. And even when she is old they will be very special to her. This comes from a lady who prays and is faithful to God. She loves and lives for her family. That is no understatement. She has never held a quote/unquote occupation outside the home. She has waited on her family and served them with pristine detail. My husbands parents will love these babies. Help me pray that they love them as their own.
My father is a little less detailed in this process. It's not that he doesn't love us or won't love them, it's just an all around different situation. He knows we are adopting internationally and they will be girls or a girl. He has a different take on things and I pray that his eyes are unable to distinguish race. Help me pray that the only race he sees is the human race.

This love in my heart is so great right now! What a wonderful feeling.

Long Time

I just can't find the time to do things like I should. Is that just me or is it the time of year? Am I that unorganized or distracted so easily? I'm not sure, my husband may say yes to all or some of that so I guess there is my answer. Life in general is very busy and exciting so it's not that I don't have anything to share.
Well here I guess I'll share some things today and mark this blog of my checklist.
I got our family photos in and am assembling Christmas cards. Here are some of my favorites: (blogger isn't letting me upload pics right now...will get back to you!)

We got to review our homestudy last week and she sent those to AGCI for review also. That is so exciting to me. We STILL need to:

• get passport pictures
• get fingerprints at local police station
  
• print copies of our home
• get Sec of State signature (Wednesday)
• get notarized personal recommendations (pending)

We have reserved 2 ski cabins for Jan 1-4th and I have never went skiing so pray for safety. We are taking 58 others with us so I may not ski a whole lot. I don't want to risk anything..kwim?!

Other than the typical list that goes with this time of year, need to bake, shop, wrap..I don't have much else to tell.

Life is good and God is better!

sorry

to have abandoned this blog. Since my last post we have had Thanksgiving, one of our twin boys have got baptized and I made my first sale in my etsy shop..www.punkinpieproductions.etsy.com

Hope everyone is well and plans are going accordingly! Much love and much to be thankful for!!

finally fingerprints!!

I have talked about these biometric fingerprints for weeks literally and now we got them done today. HOORAY. You would not believe how hard they were to find. We went on two seperated days to an office where the fingerprints lady had left early. ugh... but today we had a very hard time finding the location(you cannot call them either) but she was there! yay. She also understood where we were coming from with all of our thoughts about it. She said she enters her fingerprints every night and has been getting back results with 2-3 days. That is good news considering our homestudy lady said 6 weeks.

So I am going to make a Dossier check list here:

1. fingerprints from local police department
2. 2 letters of recommendation from friends, must be notarized
3. finish one more adoption class online
4. review and recieve homestudy from Connie
5. get letter sent to sec. of state

begin applying for i 600 prints will be coming up

and

i get a phone call from agci this week!

i have started to sell some goodies on etsy if you are interested in getting something special for that special someone!! we are using that money for this adoption...so we gladly look for it!!

thanks and hope everyone is well..

amber

Pretend

This is my first illustration for Illustration Friday in a longggggg time. I'm glad to be back and have an itch. All made out of hand cut paper.
The topic for this week is "pretend". Sometimes our bulldog likes to pretend that she is a dainty lady.

Thanks for looking. Hope to see you next week.

Etsy, Ebay and Everything Else!

Today is Monday. Today I put somethings in my Etsy store that I have had for 3 years now. I will be using that money for this adoption. I also checked in my ebay account and will put some items there too.
If you like handmade goodness go here: www.punkinpieproductions.etsy.com or click that little sidebar to the left with pictures of some handmadeness.

Our ebay store is going to be getting lots of toys for boys including Imaginext and gameboy advance sp's. We are sifting through the mound of toys to downgrade on what already looks like an obsession for plastic.

Sunday was good. God spoke to me in the morning. While we ask ourselves the tough questions like "why does injustice happen", "you are God, come down here and stop this". He says, I never have and I never will. I have left it up to you. Just like in Luke when He knows what is His future, and Pilot asks Him to answer, "Are you who you say you are?". He never defends Himself. He answers, "Thou sayest it". On the cross he dies. It is our job to decide to
leave our God there, dead on a cross, or bring Him back to life through our lives. Defending. Being ambassadors. Dying so that He might live. And then I think of Mary breaking her precious perfume. A years wages over Jesus's feet. She had it all right. She threw herself at him while He was right in front of her.

I don't want to miss Him. I don't want to miss one opportunity!

A post with bullets. I just feel like simplifying today

• Monday I took the boys to a live Veggie Tales show. It was pretty cute but they are passed that, that thought it was for babies. What are you gonna do? Some friends invited us so..
• Thursday we took our bulldog to vet, she isn't pregnant. That's disappointing because we are using that money for adoption money.
  
• Christy, our AGCI lady called to check in on our Dossier work. She was excited to hear that we finished our homestudy and hope to have all of our paperwork done this month. She thought we were moving fast!
• Today we go to get fingerprinted.
• Tomorrow, our house shows at 10 o'clock. It hasn't showed in a long time.
  

Today I learned.

My grandma taught me to never stop learning. She may have had a slightly dishoveled home. It was picked up enough to maneuver about but not exactly organized to the extreme. As a matter of fact, my sister and I slept in the spare bedroom and had to move piles of things off the bed just to lay in it at bedtime. But it's funny, it never bothered me. Actually I don't think I noticed just how bad it was until she passed and I sat around the family listening to a story about her being a bit of a pack rat. Did it bother me then? no Does it bother me now? nope. What I got from her was more meaningful than any spotless habitat could have been. She cooked with me and for us(yumm). She let me craft with her, letting me paint the dolls faces or sew with her or watch her knit and want to do that so bad. And it never failed, if a new trend came about, she had the original, vintage item on hand. I remember when I was in high school and cut off jean shorts were popular. She pulled out some of my dad's cut off Levi's. Original from the 70's! I wore them with pride and a belt of course.
The point of this story is one of many simple ones. Learn something new everyday. Keep the every day chores fun and enjoy being with each other. My grandma Hazel taught me more than she knows. I wish I had the mind to tell her then what I think now. Maybe that's another thing her life taught me. To tell those you love, you love them. Tell them now why they can still hug you back for saying it.

I also signed up for our online adoption courses, learning more about that everyday. I can tell we will get that done quickly. I'm mailing off our notebook today. We will get fingerprints on Friday. My goal is to get this Dossier completed in the month of November.

And since last night our nation elected a new president I might as well talk a bit about it. I know from experience that blogging about very opinionated topics is risky. But why do I have this thing anyway if I can't speak my mind. My vote was not the winner. But I don't put my hope in men anyway. I know God is fully in control. And in a strange way, I'm glad Obama won. It pushes me to be more active in pursuit of God and His will. Where I could have been more laxed if McCain pulled it off. Thankful I am. I just don't want to see some changes that may come our way. As long as this comment remains in America we will be alright:
George Washington said, "It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible."

Some claim that is already the case, but it lives in my heart and my family as well. That can't be taken away.

LOVE

I joined www.thehomeschoollounge.com this week and it's a great place to be. Right away I made a friend who gave me a gift. Here it is:

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, 'What does 'love' mean?'
The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think:

'When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore.

So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love.'
Rebecca- age 8


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'When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different.
You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.'
Billy - age 4


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'Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.'
Karl - age 5


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'Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.'
Chrissie - age 6


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'Love is what makes you smile when you're tired.'
Terri - age 4


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'Love is when my mummy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.'
Danny - age 7


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'Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more.
My Mummy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss'
Emily - age 8


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'Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.'
Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)


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'If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,'

Nikka - age 6
(we need a few million more Nikka's on this planet)


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'Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.'
Noelle - age 7


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'Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.'
Tommy - age 6


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'During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling.

He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared any more.'
Cindy - age 8


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'My mummy loves me more than anybody

You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.'
Clare - age 6


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'Love is when Mummy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.'
Elaine-age 5


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'Love is when Mummy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.'
Chris - age 7


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'Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day'
Mary Ann - age 4


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'I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.'
Lauren - age 4


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'When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.' (what an image)
Karen - age 7


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'Love is when Mummy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross.'
Mark - age 6


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'You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.'
Jessica - age 8


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And the final one -- Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge.

The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child.

The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbour was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.

Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbour, the little boy said,
'Nothing, I just helped him cry'

just got this email/don't know what to think or how to feel??

Dear Families,

We wanted to give you an update on what we are seeing as far as a timeline for the processing of adoptions in Ethiopia. We have already been in touch with most of the families that are currently placed with children but of course you all have a possibility of being impacted by this as well and therefore wanted to keep you in the loop on this.

Over the last month we have heard rumors that Ethiopian government was working on changes in the processing of adoptions—this is always a possibility so of course needed to wait for confirmation before fully understanding what this could look like. In the last few days we have received information on additional procedures that the Ethiopian government has decided to implement. This involves centralization of the adoption process. Unfortunately, the goal of the new implementation is aimed at minimizing the number of children adopted internationally. Due to these changes, please note that the timeframe of your adoption will be impacted and the waiting time for travel following referral will be lengthened. Even with this new step we will continue to advocate for these adoptions to be completed in the quickest and smoothest manner.

Changes in Processing:

The Ethiopian government has implemented some changes in how the adoptions are being approved. Although these changes are currently in place, there is a movement of many people who are involved in the adoption process that are advocating that this may not be in the best interest of the children. However, the government has stated that these changes are being put into place in order to reduce the number of children with living parents adopted internationally. In addition to this, the government seems to believe that this added step in the processing will ensure that relinquishments are done in an ethical and legal manner. Recently the Ethiopian Government started requiring all of the relinquishments to go through Central Authority for an additional approval before continuing onto the Courts. Even if AGCI has already previously been scheduled a court date for a family, the file will be required to go back through this new channel before the court date can be approved and a decree given.

Currently we are seeing that the courts are scheduling court dates for more than a month out. We are also seeing that the new Central Authority, which is called the Civil and Social Affairs office, are not sending their approvals before the previously scheduled court dates. For this reason we need to prepare you all, that unfortunately the timeframe of your adoption and travel dates will most likely be lengthened more than the timeframe we have previously been providing to families over the last a few months. We certainly will inform you of any additional changes or updated news.

Below is a note from Almaz, our Director of Hannah’s Hope. She sent this along with the information that we have included in this update:

“We pray that you will trust us through this process and more importantly keep your eyes on our heavenly father during this time. He is the One who loves these children so much, even with the families who live so far away. Our agency in Ethiopia has a great presence and we truly are not concerned about major issues or the overall completion of these adoptions. We just know that these will start to take longer in processing. Myself , AGCI Executive Director, Doug Frazier, Julie as well as a couple of our board members will be traveling to Ethiopia this coming week to work on a major public daycare construction and also will be able to meet with government officials. We will be able to hear their concerns and to share our hearts for Ethiopian children in-person. We will continue to build our relationships with the people who are important in the governmental bodies. We also will also be kissing and holding and praying for your children and telling them how loved they are. Please pray for us during this time—we want to always be working in a manner that is worthy of our calling and we appreciate all the prayers of families.”

We know that this is news is discouraging and we would like all of you to know that we are here to support you and walk with you during these hard times. The good thing to know is that there are so many that are actively engaged in conversation with the Ethiopian government about these changes. The Joint Council on International Children’s Services, US Embassy and all the Ethiopia Adoption Coordinators (what Almaz is called) are all very united in advocacy for the children and families. WE of course are completely for any changes in process to continue to protect and support the birth family but we want to be sure that this is effective and not just a slowdown for current children’s processes.

Family and Referral Update:

Traveling Families:

We have 3 families that are on their way to Ethiopia this weekend—so exciting!!

Waiting for Travel:

We have 42 families waiting for their files to be processed and their upcoming travel dates.

Reminder: There has been some confusion regarding a travel waiting list. There is no travel waiting list. We receive travel dates from Ethiopia once the MOWA and Court processes are complete – many times the travel dates are not given in any specific order, rather when the process is completed.

Referrals:

REMEMBER: Official referral wait time continues to be within the estimated 6-8 months. This means that you could wait for a referral up to 8 months. The reason for this big change is because we now have many families that are on the waitlist with no CIS approval. This means that the wait time for the FDL is no longer there but it is now on the waitlist side of things.

We had 1 infant girl and 1 infant boy referrals these last two weeks.

Waiting for a GIRL Referral: (please keep in mind some of these families can be on both lists and will be placed with whichever gender is available first) There are 24 families who have completed their dossier and are waiting for a girl referral.

Waiting for a BOY Referral:

There are 13 families who have completed their dossier and are waiting for a boy referral.

Waiting for a SIBLING Referral:

There are 11 families who have completed their dossier and are waiting for a sibling referral.

Families Working on their Dossiers:

There are 49 families working on their dossiers.

Placed Families Working on the Dossier:

There are 8 families who are working on completing their dossiers.

New Families:

Since our last bi-weekly update (10-17-08) we have had 4 new families! Welcome to the Ethiopia Program – we are excited and blessed to be a part of your adoption journey.

Welcome Home:

There are now 87 families and 110 children home!

Well, it's the last day in October and we are looking forward to November. My dear, sweet sister's birthday is this month along with my niece who will be turning double digits. I love Thanksgiving and it's in this month too. It is by far my favorite holiday. How can you not like eating and giving thanks with those you love and hold dear? I wish it were promoted more in our minds and on our agenda. Seems to me like it is a holiday that just happen up on as a day off of work. Never really thinking about the super meaning behind it. I hope that it takes hold in my kids as a great tradition.
On the home school side of things, my oldest didn't do well at all on his spelling test. He has struggled with it from the beginning of the year and I'm not quite sure how to help. My format for it goes like this. On Friday we take a test over the list, they grade them as I say them orally(giving them more time to review). Then we go over their new list for next week, they read them and spell them aloud as I write them on the board. My oldest is heart broke over doing so poorly. He felt sick afterwards. I reassured him that everyone is good at somethings and not so good at others. He said he wants to be a straight A student. I know he does and to me that is a big part of what matter anyway. He tried his hardest and even though he did miss them it was my forgetting one letter, not totally botching it. So, I don't know. I feel bad that he feels terrible(that was one of his words).
On the adoption forefront, yesterday the hubby and I went to the Dr. to get our TB tests done. We are clear and we got our paperwork signed by the Dr.'s and notarized. That is one of the Dossier things that look like such a pain. We also had our last homestudy visit on Tuesday! Things are moving right along.
Youth ministry is becoming organized and we are seeing some great potential in some of our crew. It's such a roller coaster that you never know how to take the good times, thinking they might not last and a big drop is right on the other side of that hill. I hope to prepare some descriptions of things we need done and see who could fill the spot. I'm proud of my man for being so excellent(another spelling word) at ALL he does. He outshines me everyday.

sometimes you feel like a ...

BIG WEENIE? You thought I was going to say nut didn't you? Or maybe not depending on your age.
Today was one of those days. I woke up this a.m . from a dream where I was less than courageous. I guess it was from listening to the news way to much and worrying even more about the future of this world that gave me the pleasant dream of being in the middle east "escorted" by middle eastern men with guns telling me where to go and what to eat and so on. As I'm schmoozing them over with kind words like, "Wow, you guys have beautiful things here. You are so blessed to have such financial abundance from all of this oil. You are dripping in gold and riches." They just smirked at me, like you poor, American idiot. I was a weenie. I didn't dare stand up and speak the truth.
Sorry to vent about such strangely deep topics but when you dream about something and then wake up to that thought it can really get to your whole day.
The blessing side of it all, it fueled a meaningful fire within me. You see, I believe we may only be put on this earth for a little while and in that vapor every second counts for something. Being a weenie doesn't count for anything. That is what makes this adoption so awesome for us. We are acting on something we once talked about doing. And every second of it counts. Every action is a step forward. No more lying around like a big hot dog on a cushy bun waiting for whatever comes next. Maybe you get slathered with junk, maybe you get a big bite taken out of you by something else. Maybe you sit there and rot. No, none of that.
This afternoon, we went to the Dr. for Justin's physical. He is as healthy as a horse. We also got TB tests done. I also gathered much paperwork for our homestudy visit tomorrow. The only thing I can't find is our marriage certificate(eep, pray).
I also called the vet today and Daisy has her c-section scheduled for next Thursday. Lord, send us many bulldog puppies to help financially facilitate this adoption. She is probably more ready than I am to have those lil guys. She is nesting right now plus it's cold out side and she is getting pampered like a princess.
It's been an inspiring day and I'm thankful for it.

*this is one our bulldog pups. isn't he a cutie!*

Last night we finished our "Eyes Wide Open" notebook so I am going to mail that in. I also found this website while looking up some Ethiopian traditions: http://www.everyculture.com/Cr-Ga/Ethiopia.html It helped a ton.

We also talked finances. We have a game plan and God has blessed us tremendously this far. However the amount we have saved isn't going to be enough. We have breed our bulldog once and she is pregnant again for the second time. Her pups will be here in 2 weeks so that will help us gage what money we have coming to us from that. It's a lost cause to try and guess, trust me, we only got our hopes up last time. We hoped for 6 or more and she had 3. Then 1 died 2 days later. That was rough on all of us. Praying for healthy pups, bullies for babies is the term we use around here!

We also didn't go out to eat last night. Instead of going to eat mexican, we made mexican but then Jackson wanted a hamburger so we saved some of the meat aside and made him a "maid rite" sandwich with cheesesticks. It was a fun night cooking all of us together, scrounging through the cupboards to find some special ingredients to make it different and extra yummy.

Then by ten o'clock we were all in our bedroom laying around watching Indiana Jones, Temple of Doom. I fell asleep like always.

So, some pretty exciting things have happened since my last entry(ages ago). Last week we became official clients of AGCI by mailing in our stack of application paperwork and our first major payment. We are in and committed. This feels like a huge step and we are so excited.

This week we received our dossier packet! Wow, this is really happening. We have been working on the "Eyes Wide Open" notebook and have almost finished it. It's amazing insight into what we may experience, what you hope you don't have to experience, and all the rest.

Next week we meet with our homestudy lady for a few hours for an indepth time of questions and exchange of paper work.

To Do List:
1. make husband physical appointment
2. get fingerprints for homestudy
3. sign up for online education
4. send in finished notebook

Who?

Thus the Woodsy picture fits this "who" theme so nicely.

Who could sleep last night? Not I said the fly. I had visited all of these wonderful blogs last night and it got my mind racing about all of this baby girl business. The thought that stuck with me through today is: When she is ready to graduate I will be over 50! But then an even better thought came to mind. Some folks may adopt at that age. I don't know any at the moment, but I would like to.

Who would have thought we would adopt. I love to read the stories of families who always knew that someday they would adopt. It is so romantic to me. We are not one of those stories. As a child I use to make myself sad thinking that I was adopted and asking my mom if I was (I wasn't). We got pregnant months after our wedding, unplanned by the way. Then we got pregnant a few years later without a hitch. We never even talked about adopting. I know, doesn't this make for a great scrapbook page for our girlie someday. And then my cousin became pregnant with Niv. Our world turned around and upside down. My husband fell in love with another female. I couldn't deny the thought of denying us of this experience to call a baby girl ours. You see, I was very sick in pregnancy. The non-functional kind of sick. So after the twins we agreed that we were finished producing and were content with our family. And then came Niv. At church, my husband would race to grab Niv, hold her and pray with her. We would beg to borrow her for one afternoon and make her grandparents jealous. The first time we had her I had to plead with the boys not to kiss her cheeks anymore while she is napping for fear they will wake her. While she is an immense part of this choice, God is the biggest. While attending a Fusion Conference in Washington D.C. last summer we decided we are going to adopt from Africa. We came home and told our parents and then the decision sat in an incubator in our spirit until now.
Who are we to accept this wonder?
Who am I that you are mindful of me?
Thank you Lord for spending time on us, to direct us to this calling.

hello.

This is our first post in hopes to share our journey, meet those on the same path and maybe encourage others to walk down that path sometime in there life.
We are a family of 5. Justin, the man, Amber, myself/momma, Jackson the oldest and Jhet and Jhager twin boys, soon to be middle men.
We are in the beginning stages of adopting from Ethiopia and would love insight and comments!