Home.... and still in Ethiopia

So we are home from our Court Trip to Ethiopia! It was a trip that has forever changed our lives and we are excited to share with you all. I have a bunch of photo's that we took, most of them are of the kids, which we can not share right now, but the others are of Ethiopia and the people there.

Being in Ethiopia was amazing, it was a roller coaster of emotions. In one day, we went from the highest of high (being with the kids at the orphanage) to the lowest low (leaving them until we can return to Ethiopia). And there were lots of in-between!

We were blessed to travel with an amazing group of people, who have forever changed our lives. We love each of them and are blessed to have shared this experience with them.

I wanted to journal while we were there, but honestly it was so packed with stuff to do and by the time we got back to the guest house, we were exhausted! I am hopeful that through a bit of blogging I can recap our experiences there.

Here are just a few of the amazing moments we shared together in Ethiopia!

Ethiopian Sunrise is AMAZING! 

The Ethiopian culture is rich and proud

We were honored to have spent the afternoon with our Sponsor child from AHOPE! We were forever changed by her love and spirit! Can't wait to come back to see you "D" in a few weeks and we are praying for you as your family changes and is reunified! 

More pictures and stories to come! 

Are you getting ready??

That is the question of the month! But who has time to pack??!! Kiddos, Work, School for Mommy, School for Big Boys, House Hunting, Wedding Planning (Yippie for my sister!!), Baby Waiting (Yippie for my other sister and her twin baby girls!!), and living out of boxes for two months  makes it really really hard to think about even packing for Ethiopia! 

I don't know what to bring.. I don't know what to wear.. excuse for new clothes?? hmmm..... I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE MY SUITCASES ARE!!!!

We have been looking for a house for months now... well since March to be exact. We have put in multiple offers, all which have been accepted and then we waited for nothing! All short-sales and all taking WAY to long... so randomly we looked at a house that was farther out of town than we thought we wanted... about a half mile on a dirt road. 15 min from TARGET!!! I know... don't worry after the shock was gone I think I will be ok... Anyway, we looked it this past Sunday and fell in love! It is everything we wanted and MORE and all the things we didn't think we wanted but God said "Oh ya, you do!" and we do!

Here is one of the amazing views from the house... 

So on Monday (yes today is Thursday) we put the offer in on the house... after multiple back and forth with the agent, myself, the other agent, the seller... we agreed on a price and on Tuesday we signed the Sale Contact!!!

Sooooooo.... I am going country people! I have no idea how this will play out with my three inch heels... guessing I might need a pair of tennis shoes? We will be the proud owners of a beautiful house on 1 1/2 acres in hopefully less than 30 days!

Did I mention we leave for Ethiopia in 31 days... lol! 

We are oh so excited and Ricky has been looking at all kinda of weird stuff on Craigslist... like fainting goats and chickens... hmmmm.... I think no on the goat but I am willing to talk about chickens...

Here is the garden... and I think I could do chickens and fresh veggies! We are planning lots of fruit trees and some grapes for a little home made wine making! 

So anyway, lots going on over here and not a lot of time to pack for Ethiopia! 

An Update and Wonderful News!!!

Ya… probably been to long since I blogged. Life can get that way sometimes. We are still in-between houses so without the normalcy of our own house I think it feels different to sit in front of my laptop and write. Anyway, enough excuses…. Here is the latest on the adoption!

We received a Court Date!! We are scheduled to leave Los Angeles on Nov 20^th at 4:00 and arrive in Ethiopia on November 22^nd at 11:45am. We are getting to have an overnight in Dubai!!!  I am really excited about that since I have never been anywhere in the Middle East!! We will be gone a whole week this trip. We bought our tickets and have confirmed our reservation for the Morning Coffee House near the orphanage. We have Court on the 25^th, the day after Thanksgiving… and boy will we be THANKFUL!!

Our big man “G” has been sick the past two weeks but we finally got a report this morning that he was completely well and they were happy with his response to the antibiotics. He lost about 2.2 lbs while he was sick and is still lacking an appetite but it sounded like they were doing a good job at enticing him  to eat good food to gain that weight back.

We have close to 200 pairs of Croc’s to take to Ethiopia!!! What a huge blessing! We really need you all to be praying over getting them into the Country. It seems in most recent trips families who have brought a lot of one item have been held at customs for some time. We have been in contact with our Agency and they are speaking with the In-Country coordinators to see if there is anything they can do for us. A letter? Someone from the Orphanage to come receive the items? I guess customs thinks we will sell them there? It makes me sad to see goods being held up in customs when they are needed so much in Ethiopia.  So please please be praying with us that all will go smoothly through customs for the Croc’s!!

I am so thankful for all who participated and made collecting these Croc’s possible! We are so blessed by each of you and especially my sweet friend Terri, who took it upon herself as mission to collect from all over the world!

I am sure we will update again soon!!

And then there was relief...

It has been an interesting journey this past few months and to be honest I have struggled with finding joy in our circumstances... but then they are just that right? Just circumstances...  They do not define who we are, unless we let them. They do not define the status of our heart... unless we let them. So how is that we can get to caught up in our circumstances that they become who we are? I feel like I have been letting my (our) circumstances make me who I am... 


We found a house we really loved... we put an offer in. It was accepted, we were ready to open escrow. We found renters and moved out of our house.... then escrow never opened. The seller would not sign the documents needed to open escrow and so we have now been out of our house a month. Shortly after that we saw a house of the same floor plan in the same neighborhood go on the market, so we offered without seeing it! Our offer has been accepted by the person living in the home, but because it is a shortsale we have to wait on the bank.... a circumstance which I have let make me crazy!

I feel like we are mid-way to no where right now.. everything we own is in boxes except our clothes... funny how little you need when you don't have it all... Ricky is funny, he gets irritated that the bank or listing agent don't communicate with transparency and he wants to set up a call with all of them to get somewhere, I am guessing it doesn't work like that right now. If every person buying a shortsale house was conference calling with the bank nothing would get done! But when it is your circumstances it should be different right?

Anyway, the insight I am hoping to glean from this moment of moving on and seeking sweet relief from my Jesus is that my circumstances don't change the fact that I am still me. I still love Jesus. I still love and am devoted to my husband. I am still the mother of 5... with two of them halfway across the globe. I am still me. AND I WILL LIVE THE JOY GIVEN TO ME.    

Submitted to Court!!!

So this is a week late... yea... kinda a lot going on right now at the Huff House!! We got submitted to Court in Ethiopia and are praying for a Court date sometime in November! Please pray with us as we are so so hoping to bring out little people home before the end of the year!

We also got an update on "Little Miss" and she is doing amazing! She has gained 2lbs since her referral and she got all 4 top teeth!! So we are at 6 teeth total for her!

We have been so blessed to have amazing people in Ethiopia picking up their kiddos and taking pictures of ours! We now have some amazing pictures and have been overjoyed to share them when anyone asks!!

Excited to have a good friend with her referral for sweet baby girl who is in the same room as "Little Miss" and we are both so excited how close in age and how close they will live forever! Best friends already!!

So much going on!!

Ok where to start.... So my amazing Momma has been the first to contribute to our Croc's Project!

She bought several pairs for the kiddos in Ethiopia and we are beyond blessed by her generosity and passion for our project! In fact, she put up a poster at work and today called to tell me she got an additional $40.00 towards the Croc's Fund! Excited!!!!

Ricky is working hard on a few things... 1. Getting in touch with Croc's to see about a matching commitment...  If we can can get all the orders together, will they match our order?!! So excited to have received a special contact at Croc's from a family at AVC!! Thank you so much Deanna L!!!
2. Currently he is sitting at the table "crunching numbers"... we have been praying over buying a bigger house... well since before we planned to adopt... so what? like almost three years? With the addition of not just one little person, but TWO! We are needing additional space!! So he is crunching and we have been walking through and talking on the phone... and waiting on the bank. Please just be praying for us, tonight we have to decide one way or another on a specific house and I know we are both feeling the pressure... This will be our forever house.. at least until our kids are grown and I decide that Ricky and I are going to live in Ethiopia as missionaries... I haven't revealed my grand plan to him yet... but since he is amazing, I know he will go!

Ok... what else is happening?! 

Um... I am making my own Injera... this is Ethiopian Flat bread used in all their food... it is kind of like a mix between a large pancake and crepe'.. Anyway, it takes like 7 days to make the starter and I am on day 5!

Ok last but not least... 


    When we started the process to adopt, we thought three things... we would adopt 1 child, we would travel 1 time and we knew God would provide the funds... As we now so close to the finish line... we KNOW THREE things.. we will be adopting TWO amazing little people and we will BOTH need to travel TWICE to Ethiopia and WE KNOW OUR BIG GOD WILL PROVIDE THE FUNDS! 
          We have been accepted to receive a matching grant from a foundation that assists adoptive parents with the costs involved with the process of adopting internationally. Not only are the fees higher for adopting a second child, but the travel increases as well with an extra plane ticket back to the US when all is said and done. Most grants you can not apply for until your family has been matched with little people... now that we have been matched I thought I would throw it out there and see what happened in applying for grants... and we have been accepted!!

I am still waiting on details, but here is how it will all work... every dollar donated to Brittany's Hope Foundation towards our adoption costs will be matched by them and sent to our adoption agency for our expenses! So basically, should some random person decide they want to help with $5, Brittany's Hope will turn it into $10.... Great right?! We are praying about this grant and the process involved... since I am not good at asking people for money AT ALL! I am a little nervous about getting this project moving.. it would be a huge blessing to our family, but again, not something I am good at. Sooo... please be praying for us while we make the decision to move forward with the grant process or move on without!

The love and support we have received from so many over the past few weeks and out pouring of excitement for our little people in Ethiopia has blessed my heart beyond words and I can't wait to show you all pictures!

Changing Family....

About 4 days before we got our referral we had out amazing friend Desiree Shuey do some family photos of us! Here is my favorite and the final family photo before we change again =) I love these pictures... we have one before each of the little boys were born!

I am so excited to add those two little sweet babies to our family I can hardly stand it!!