Little Ethiopia & Good Friends!

Saturday we had the amazing honor of spending the afternoon with about 20 other families who had adopted from Ethiopia. It was such an amazing experience and I am sure will be the gateway to many more lunch dates with a group of people who have/are traveling down the same road of International Adoption. Sara... I stole your picture =)
Speaking of Sara, I know I mentioned before how excited we were to have made new amazing friends who are also adopting from Ethiopia, but I just needed to say it again... WE ARE SO EXCITED! We had a wonderful time with them over our first Authentic Ethiopian lunch and we are so excited to have our little people be friends with their little people!!
After lunch we went to an authentic Ethiopian market and bought Teff to make Injera (the yummy Ethiopian flat bread that is used as a utensil)

See the flat bread below all the yummy goodness?? That is Injera and we are going to try to make it ourselves. Authentic ET food is mostly meatless... which is a little hard for me since all our meals have meat in them but I did enjoy the lentil hot pocket thingy...well actually it called Sambussa but I think Lentil Hot Pocket thingy describes it better...

All in all it was an amazing day!

On a side note, we also got some news on why the slow down in Ethiopia and are feeling at ease with how long this process is taking. Praise God for information... really I can handle it well as long as we are informed. The lack of knowledge is what makes me "crazy lady".
Today makes for 103 days waiting for the referral and I am confident that it will happen when she is ready for us! Cause Lord knows, WE ARE READY FOR HER!!!

OOOHHH!!!

I also wanted to throw something out there! We have been in touch with the Orphanage where our little sweetness will be before we come for her. We have asked them to pick two things off their "wish list" and we are going to do everything we can to collect as much as we can of those two items before we leave for Ethiopia!

We would love for each of you to be involved as we do whatever we can to bless the people that have cared for our sweetness before we did and to help care for other kiddos who are waiting for their families to come bring them home!!!

I would love to have a list of people to send out the email to... sooo if you are interested in helping us collect two simple items.. please comment below!

Little Ethiopia

I have been waiting all month... patiently waiting waiting waiting for the last Saturday of the month. We had plans to go to Little Ethiopia and meet up with our friends who are also adopting from ET as well as be apart of a play group of ET Adoptive Families. I am excited for my friend Josh and his wife Sara, we are close in length waiting for a referral and it would be amazing to travel at the same time as them. 

I am hopeful that we will still be able to go, but little Noah has been so sick! We have spent the last three days back and forth to the hospital. He is now on IV antibiotics at home and getting fluids. He is actually sleeping right now, which has not happened for very long lately, and does not have a fever so I am hopeful that we might have turned a corner. I hate seeing his little body so sick and me not being able to do anything.


While he isn't normally a snuggle kinda guy (way to busy to slow down for snuggles) while he has been sick he wants to be held non stop. His little sweet voice is almost gone and when he talks it melts me. If that wasn't enough, for some reason when he is really not feeling well he says two things with the repeat button stuck.
1. I love you Momma
2. Your my bestest friend ever Momma
Oh my it makes me turn into Jello all over!!! I hate that he is sick but I have loved all this special time we got to spend together loving and snuggling. Here are a few pictures from the last couple of days... he is such a trooper, always smiling!

 Day 1- All flushed from his fever....

 A little wrap to keep his IV from getting pulled

 Getting a snuggle and visit from Daddy and the big boys at the hospital..

Momma... I don't feel good...

Love/Hate Relationship

So over the past few months we have been waiting... waiting... waiting... the any moment feeling is now gone and we are just waiting. But I have come to have this love/hate relationship with my phone.
I am obsessed with screening every call.. I can not miss if its ringing. Text messages sometimes get ignored, but if its ringing... man I can not handle not to look! What if its the Social Worker calling... what if its Corporate Head Quarters calling because our Social Worker is out... What if? What if?
So now, I can not relax. I am watching you constantly and your not ringing from the right number... which makes me hate you. But I am sure when the right number is calling... I will love you!

A little SD

We decided to stay the weekend in San Diego since all of us had 4 days off from school and work! We ended up renting a house in Pacific Beach with Rick and Jean. We were also blessed to spend a good amount of time with some very special people to our family. Maryjo and Rob as well as Jason. With our special guests coming on Sunday night, Auntie Melissa and Uncle Macha and baby Melacha! Always love spending time with our beautiful growing families.

Here is a quick picture I took of Carter messing around at the park... we spent Fri inside, Sat was outside with hit and miss rain. Sun & Mon were beautiful.

We only took one trip to Urgent Care in SD and then one when we got back... ear infections were on the menu for the Huff boys this weekend but they were troopers and we had a blast!

Hope each of you had a wonderful weekend and spent it with the people you love the most.

When there are no words... sing!

Sometimes, when words will not come a song tears them out of my heart for me!

African Art

Blessed to have been given this beautiful woven basket made in Africa by Grandma Debbie for Christmas...it has moved all over the house not sure where to hang it. For now its on the walls with all the shelves... what do you think?

Seems like there is progress among the waiting parents....

Sooo.... I blog stalk pretty much every family I can find that is adopting from ET. Yes, I know, lame. But when you feel like "no one gets how it feels" and then there is all these other people only a click away that do understand what it feels like to love a child you don't know.... how can I not read?!

Anyway, there seems to be great movement among these blogs...things have been quite for a good amount of time. Because, like I mentioned before, there has been some delays with families getting called for Embassy dates to bring their children home. When I thought about it though it made sense. When children are matched with a family, they are brought to Addis Ababa to a transition house to await the arrival of their parents. Not only has this stay become longer with the required two trips, but with the slow in families being able to take their children home there has not been room for other children to come to Addis Ababa. Which in short means: NO REFERRALS! They can't tell a family you have a child matched, but we don't have a spot or know when a spot will be open to move them to the transition home in the capital.

I am so hopeful that with this progress, with the Embassy having completed their due diligence in each child's case and them being released to go home, that there is now room for more children to be matched with their forever families.

So please be praying with us!! We really want to hear something about our baby girl Grace!  

Mr. Cool

Thought I would quick share this picture of Carter while we were on a walk today.... this kid is so mine! Lol

January Stats from our Agency

Hi everyone - 

Please find the monthly stats below for January 2011. 
Total number of placements: 0 
Number of Dossiers sent: 11 
Number of Referrals: 9 
Number of placements of sib groups: 0 


I gotta say, this number is very low considering the amount of children in need of homes. We are trusting God that His timing more than sufficient and that we will know our baby soon enough

Her Safe Haven

So all this time of having only boys I thought I would struggle with a design to fit my sweet girls room... well I have come so close but hit a brick wall... I can't find this fabric to complete my online fabric ordering spree...

Any thoughts blogging world?

Joel Dewberry, Sparrows (pink) Aviary Collection

Other ET Families

We are blessed to not only know 1 family but 2 other families who are going through the process of adopting from Ethiopia (ET). These two families are on my heart tonight. Praying for referrals for each of them.
Here is the link to their blogs if you wanted to follow and pray for them as well!

http://paddackadoptionblog.blogspot.com/

http://thelyonsden-saralyons.blogspot.com/

Program...

Praying specifically for the Adoption Program in Ethiopia.

Because it is a "newer" program and has grown so much in the last two years there are many things that are unknown. In Ethiopia they don't have the infrastructure to accommodate the influx of adoptions. I am praying specifically for each step of the process when matching a family with a potential child. Praying the paper trail is accurate and thorough. Praying that each staff member involved will see with clear insight any opportunity for a child to be united with their extended birth families or to be matched with the family that has been waiting.

Praying for the staff at the US Embassy. Each member of the team has a specific part in the process to bring a child from Ethiopia to the United States with their new family. Praying for clarity, health, insight, sound judgement, and swift decisions.

Pray with me friends

  

They don't even know...

These little hunger pang that I am feeling make me feel selfish. When I skip a meal normally I do it by choice and for my own benefit (normally when my jeans are too tight). But there are millions of kids in Ethiopia and all over the world that don't have a choice. Who don't know they are hungry because that is all they know. They don't know what FULL feels like.

I am praying for the starving kids across the globe right now. The ones who don't even know what a hunger pang is and who are in desperate need of basic nutrition. Pray with me

Fasting and Praying

Quick update since I am at work! Today is the date that we designated to fast and pray for our sweet Grace and the adoption. Here are the list of things that are on my heart right now and that I am praying for:

1. Her safety and health
2. Her Bio family during what must be a difficult time
3. For the Orphanage where she is currently, specifically for proper health care and nutrition for each child placed in that home.

I am sure that there will be more later and I plan to post several times today when things come to my mind. If you are praying with us today, please feel free to join me with my topics or post what is on your heart. We love you all and are so thankful for the prayers today dedicated to our sweetness!