A URGENT CALL TO ACTION... my family and friends... !!

I have delayed in blogging the last few days as things have been changing so quickly and we have been uncertain of the future of our adoption. As you all know, this has been a long road for our family and we have continued to pray that this road that God lead our family down with end with Grace being home with us. That might not happen...

Here is the short version:
*****The Ethiopian agency that handles the processes of review and approval of adoptions for the Ethiopian children has decided to only process 5 cases per day. This is a 90% cut in cases reviewed.
*****What this means is two things, one significantly more important than the other.*****
MOST IMPORTANT---- With fewer children allowed to the leave the country to waiting families, the orphanages in Ethiopia will have to turn away children. There is no way to handle all the children coming into the system without some children getting families. This will leave them to fend for themselves on the streets of Ethiopia. Devastating result.


The wait time to adopt a child from Ethiopia will be closer to over 2 years... for most of the children in Ethiopia, this could mean that they would be matched with a family and then because of health and the conditions of the medical system would not live to be brought to their families wait for them.

What can you do?? I am pleading with you, each of you. Please sign the petition which has been put together by the Joint Counsel of International Children's Services.


Because Blogger publishes stats for my blog, I know I get over 1000 hits per day. Even if just half of you signed the petition and then asked a few of your friends to sign the petition you could change the actions taking place in a country that means the world to our hearts!! Please join me!

PLEASE REPOST THIS ON YOUR FACEBOOK, TWITTER & BLOG!!!

Walking down the path... no matter where it leads

While my heart has been in absolute turmoil since this weekend regarding the status of Adoptions going out of Ethiopia, I have to admit, they are selfish worries. I am a selfish being and I am repenting of that. The very Word of God that I have entrusted my entire being to clearly says DO NOT WORRY. (Mathew 6:24) What then am I saying to and about my amazing God if I continue down a path of worry? If I am honest, I am saying "I don't trust you". I hate that of myself and I am going to change it.

I am so blessed by my new friend Rachel... she is an waiting adopting Momma like me and we are about the same length into the process as her and her husband. This morning when I texted her in a panic the words of encouragement she sent back were more than I could have asked for. From her text to me this morning:
"I think our fight is "not of against flesh and blood" we have felt God's call and been obedient! We are walking His will and regardless of where the road leads there is no better place...."

A random "road" in Ethiopia

So here is me, confident in our obedience to follow God's calling on our lives to adopt and walking down the road no matter where it leads.

I was also blessed by this blog post that I read today from an adoptive Dad. His words of calm and priorities have been a blessing to me today. If you are here on my blog because you are adopting from Ethiopia and are trying to fuel your anxiety about the situation, then I pray that the words of my friend Rachel and of the blog above touch your heart and grant peace.

I would love to hear back from you all.... adopting or not... on times of fear and frustration and how God met you there and walked with you down the path He so clearly set you on.

Delays and More Delays

I am blogging to keep my mind and eyes away from the Forum of other adoptive parents. The frustration and fear can be overwhelming for me and I know other waiting Momma's are feeling the same thing. Best not to put all these frantic, frustrated FREAKING OUT Momma's in one place ya know??

There has been so many rumors in the past two weeks about some significant slow downs in the Ethiopian program. It seems that there might be truth to those rumors. Our initial thoughts that we would be allowed to travel twice and come home with our daughter in the next six months seems like a life time ago. For now, until we hear directly from our Agency, we are just praying.

All time lines are out the window, we don't know when we will know anything at all. We don't know when we will travel and we don't know when this will be all over and we will be home with our daughter. Until then, we are praying for her safety and that she, who ever she is, is being cared for and loved.

Please be praying for our family during this time of waiting to know what the plans for Ethiopia are. Please pray for all the other families waiting for a match. Please pray for the families who have been matched and are waiting to travel. Please pray with us.

A project while I am waiting....

So I know that I blogged last week about my mission to provide needed items to the orphanage where our sweet little princess will be staying while we wait to bring her home, the response was overwhelming! Thank you to all who responded with words of encouragement and commitment.

We have received a list from Ethiopia and have narrowed it down to some urgent needs. Please see the list below... If you live in another state or another part of California and would like to be apart of collecting these items on behalf of our sweet little girl, please let me know! I would be happy to send out a family photo and list to you as well as custom t-shirt to say "Thank you for reaching beyond what we could have". Loving each of you and your willingness to pray over our little girl and family while we have been on this crazy journey.

This came directly off the list that was emailed to me today.

1.      Hygiene and skin care Supplies/Urgent/

• Toothpaste
• Baby body wash
• Diaper (Large Size 4,5,6)
• Wipes
• Diaper underwear (I think this might mean Pull-Ups??)
• Aveno lotion
• Shampoo & Conditioner (these little chocolate babies need special shampoo)
• Liquid Soap
• Hair bands
• Bath Towels  (medium size)

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...