Lil' Olivia's Christmas Specials

As most know, we are now #1 on the list to be matched with our little girl and finally, after TWO looong years, get to see her face and begin the process to actually bring her home. All proceeds from our fundraiser sales benefit the huge expenses associated with at least 3 plane tickets on international flights - Lil' Olivia's needs a little jump start so it is time for

CHRISTMAS SPECIALS!!

Choose from the following:
All sets come with a gift card stating how your gift
helped us to bring Lil' Olivia home.

Jewelry Set - $15

Beads made from recycled magazines in Kenya.. 1" Agate stone / silver earrings made in Mali.

Ornament Set - $12

Beaded Christmas ornament made from a hollowed gourd in Kenya. With elastic magazine bead bracelet made in Uganda.

SKIN CARE SET - $10

Great set for eczema or just great skin. Black soap for all over beautiful skin with 100% natural Shea Butter to treat spots or rough spots. I love to use this on my heels and elbows at night.
(A friend had a little girl with bad eczema who was given a $1900 Rx for skin cream. The above set had her cleared up in 4 days. It took 2 days for my little girl with eczema patches.)
**You can substitute any of our Lil' Olivia soaps in this set.

CROSS SET - $14

"Cross of Agadez" on black beaded necklace (tradition is that it was given to young men as they left home while telling them - 'wherever you go in this world, God and I will go with you'.) Card gives description of cross tradition on the back. Also, a bone bracelet also made in Mali.

****** For all sets, jewelry or beaded designs may vary from photo as we have a large variety of colors/designs ****

And please click on our fundraiser page to order additional Christmas gifts or beauty items. Please place orders by December 5th to assure Christmas delivery.


To Order:
1) click on the PayPal DONATION button to the right and enter the amount for your order to pay. Under the 'special instructions' section, leave me a comment about what you would like. PayPal gives me your address and we are good to go!
OR
2) Leave me a comment on the blog, anywhere on the blog regarding what you would like to order. Comments come straight to my inbox and will not be published anywhere on this site (in case you are wanting to surprise someone or don't want your email floating around). PLEASE make sure to give your email address - many have their setting to 'no reply' and so I can't, well, reply)

A donation of $2-4 for shipping is appreciated but not required. Please remember we live on the East Coast so to ship something past the Mississippi usually cost me around $4-$6 so if we could split the difference, that would be great. Otherwise my profit on a ornament, necklace, etc would be zip.

And we are.....

After almost 15 months of watching our phone with longing.... and begging it to play the stupid little song set aside only for our adoption agency....

we are now going to be obsessively watching our phone everyday..... and begging, no pleading, no - crying, praying, for it to play the stupid little song set aside for our adoption agency....

it's enough to make one go crazy...

(too late, right??) I think I gladly put on the crazy crown and became the queen of crazy when:

#1 I married Tony
#2 I gave birth to three little Tonys
#3 I said yes to our fourth little wild one, who will finally NOT look like Tony.

So what does #1 mean??

besides me taking my phone into the bathroom and having it turned on full volume for the unforeseeable future?

It means that the next little girl that our agency has, which is under 12 months of age, who is completely well, and has every last piece of her paperwork tucked snuggly in her fat file -- will then be matched with our family as we are #1 in line. But we do covet your prayers as it has just been the rainy season in Ethiopia which often brings with it illness and infections for the little ones. And Olivia has to be completely well for us to receive her referral. And with so many new paperwork requirements, it is taking so much more time to get a child's paperwork ready to go as our agency often has to drive many hours to try to track down an abscure person or office to sign off on or provide needed information.

It also means that when that baby is all ready to go, we will get a phone call from our family coordinator. It could be a Monday, but most often is towards the end of the week on Thurs or Friday... often near the end of day (so as not to cause too much stress and anticipation, right?) She will call, I will cry, we will get Tony on three-way call (hopefully) and she will then describe our new daughter. We will then rush to get the 3 littles and run home, screaming all the way, to open our email with the photos that will be enlarged and pasted all over the house. And in the car. And in our wallets. And possibly enlarged as an 8 X 10 around my neck. Possibly.

It also means that she is 'matched' with us. But NOT ours yet. So we cannot show her photo on the blog or internet as legally, she is not ours at that time. We will then wait for 1-3 months until we can get a court date and then travel to Ethiopia to meet her and appear before a judge affirming our desire to adopt her. Only 50% of families pass on their court date. So we may find out that day that she is our daughter, or we may have to come home and wait the excruciating time necessary to complete more paperwork and finally pass court. And then, and only then, will Olivia be OUR daughter and we will be able to post photos and more information.

And then we wait some more time - possibly 2-3 more months, for the US Embassy in Ethiopia to review our case and either pass us on and issue us (me) an appointment for her visa interview and passport; or then request more information, and once again - have us wait....

So the wait's not over... not by a long shot... but at least we are finally seeing the beginning of the tunnel.

It's funny - a friend just told me that we are "blazing the trail for those who would dare doubt the soverignty and might of God..." However, I told him I think we are more, "blindly and clumsily hacking our way at the bush with a machete." We'll get there one day but it ain't gonna be pretty.

Someday soon friends, someday soon. We pray. But in the meantime, we can bask in the joy of being #1. And hope it is a very, very short stay at the top..