Wages in the Making

Court Date!!!

2012-02-01T19:53:00.003-05:00

Ethiopian airlines was running a special - BOGO tickets through Jan 31st. It was a long shot that we would have a date by then, as most take around a month to get and our referral date was just January 9th.

Our friends were praying REALLY hard for us. Cause with 5 tickets to buy. BOGO would be sweeeeeetttt.

Jan 31st, at 1:00 pm, Tony gets a call - "I've got good news!!! You have a court date of March 8th!!!"

Jan 31st, at 1:02 pm, Tony calls me and I almost wet my pants. Which wouldn't have been very nice considering I was at a friend's house for the first time ever. But hey, at least they were hard wood floors. And she got to do the happy dance with me. Well, figuratively, cause this white girl can't dance.

Jan 31st, around 1:05 pm, I message the travel agent to tell her we have a concrete date, so we might wanna get in on that BOGO deal. Stat.

Jan 31st, around 2:00 pm, she messages me back to say for me to call her when I get home because we have to have it all finished by 4:30 EST. No kidding. And here is where my heart starts a beatin!!

Jan 31st, around 3:00 pm I get home and call her... and call our friend Mindy who was going to go with me on trip #2 but hey, it's buy one, get one -- so don't you want to make a 20 minute decision about a life-changing trip to Africa, move the date up by about months, extend the time gone from your family by 7 days, and by the way - did I tell you that you only have a couple minutes to decide???

Jan 31st, around 3:45 pm, I get on phone with travel agent and arrange dates. My dear friend Stephanie messages me to tell me she is 'praying all the details fall into place'. Oh girl - thank you, cause they did!! Erica said it was 'the easiest package she had done'.... 'the smoothest trip'..... 'dates worked out perfect'..... 'can NOT believe it worked out that easy for you'.... oh yeah!

Jan 31st, at 4:10 pm, forward email to our travel coordinator at the agency for preapproval... call her to tell her to approve it. like now. please. The receptionist says she is away from her desk "but did you say by 4:30? as in 20 minutes from now? yes? ok, I'll go get her out of that meeting"

Jan 31st, at 4:15 pm, get preapproval from agency

Jan 31st, at 4:20 pm, get BOGO tickets confirmed. With 10 whole minutes to spare!

So dear friends, we will be on a plane to meet/hold/smooch on that precious baby girl in about a month!! With 3 kids and a dear friend in tow at a discount. And here I thought this adoption was going to be stressful from beginning to end!

Thank you God for answered prayers!

God's in the Details

2012-01-12T23:16:00.003-05:00

The last two (or is it 3?) days have been a blur. Texting, emailing, calling, responding, and a whole lot of 'hit refresh, go check Facebook, go hit refresh, stare at photos, go check yahoo group, stare at photos, hit refresh, go check Facebook'. My days have sorta been sucked into a baby time warp which I know I am going to have to break out of pretty soon as the left overs are now vacated from the fridge and the laundry is starting to pile up.

I have been so, so blessed to have 4 (or is it 5?) great friends who all had photo consent forms (meaning they had my permission to see and take pictures of Olivia) - all in Ethiopia at one time to either pick up their children or see their children and attend court. And congrats to one on getting to come home and two on now being legal members of their new families!! (We still need prayer for the US Embassy to step it up and start getting some more of our littles home. There has been a huge lag time in the processing of cases lately.)

These friends have been so, so sweet and have loved on Olivia and been excited to send me photo after photo of her sweet little face. And when I say I am lucky - I am REALLY lucky. Some families have to wait weeks to have another family travel with a form and be able to get new photos back to them. I had them in hand two days later.

As a friend of mine said, "God loves you. And he knew how impatient you were so he planned your referral just right so your friends would be there to be able to send new photos back to you." Yep, my Daddy is into details.

I also am ecstatic that my Ethiopian sister Jerry, who lives in Addis, is so excited about her new niece. (AND she also happens to have a photo consent). Jerry was able to go yesterday to play with Olivia, hug/kiss on Olivia, and report back to me how happy she was and how beautiful a smile she has. I think it is so special that although I cannot give Olivia back her biological family, I can help to give her a loving Ethiopian family to form lifetime bonds with. Jerry also has a friend who's family member works at the center so she knew exactly where it was and was able to get clearance to go and see the baby. Just another little sweet detail.

And one of my most thrilling presents to open has been this little tidbit:

This is a watercolor print painted by another yahoo group member Katie, of Mossy Rock designs. Katie sells these gorgeous prints to raise funds for her own adoption, and does custom orders - so go check her out on etsy, hint-hint.

Last week, Katie emailed me to ask for my address as I had been so down and she wanted to send me a print to try to cheer me up. It is entitled "I will Protect You."

I received the print last Monday. Absolutely fell in love. I even wrote Katie to tell her the baby was exactly how I had pictured Olivia in my mind..

Then we received our gorgeous girl's photo on the following Monday... and pals - LET me tell you ----- I am not allowed to share Olivia's identifying information such as her real name, place of birth, or photos --- but this print painted back in October - could not look more like Olivia if Katie would have had her referral photo by her side as she painted it. It.is.an.exact.replica of the baby's referral photo. It is enough to give you chills.

So once more, God's little details... he had me staring at Olivia's face for a full week and I didn't even know it. Someone told me - "I would consider THAT the first photo you received of the baby!" Better than a 3D Ultrasound!!

And what is really amazing is how I kinda needed that little bit of assurance that yes - this was my baby. This was perfectly planned and she was THE ONE. When you give birth, there really isn't any denying that yes - that little messy, squirming thing is yours. But in adoption, love at first sight has a bit more haze in it. Because I have to admit to you, my mind held that baby, but she was a little, itty bitty, frail, in your arms kind of baby. So when we first saw this healthy, sitting up and playing with a rattle baby - I had a couple moments of 'what?'..... are we completely positive this is our Olivia?? But the moment I set her photo beside the painting, I knew. God planned this. And he even sent me a little message to say - "see.... I knew her before the foundations of the world." (Remember how I need him to thump me in the head to get things through sometimes??) And the peace that I have felt with this adoption, of this child.... and the love that continues to grow day by day with each glance at her photo.... this is my baby. And that blows.my.mind.

His plan is perfect. And all that waiting. And all those tears. And all that time... he was just putting stroke by perfect stroke on the masterpiece he is creating that we will call our family. It will be perfect. It sure feels perfect.

First Care Package to be delivered to OUR GIRL!!!!!!!

2012-01-09T18:11:00.007-05:00

I sadly sent our first care package to my friend Angi last Tuesday as she was leaving Friday.
Figured it would be coming back to me unopened after a week.
It barely got there on time Thursday.
It flew to Ethiopia and arrived Saturday.

And hopefully it will be delivered to baby girl Olivia Wages tonight as we sleep as we got our referral today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She is 8 months old. And I just keep telling people, she is just so healthy. We are so blessed as she has been very well taken care of. Her sweet little photos though, so, so sad. Can't wait to see her face light up in smiles! (however, I do NOT think she will be in any photos in that 3-6 month p.j. outfit)

So the call:
I was leaving a visit at 12:30 and as I went down their steps I heard the 'African Lullaby' song I had set. So I scramble to pull the phone out of my pocket ------- and hang up on her.

So I call Jennifer back, as I shake like a leaf, and she tries to get Tony on conference as "this is your referral call!!"

Tony doesn't answer (he was in court and couldn't)... so I go ahead and get the scoop! But don't even think to ask her name! Then drive 15 min to try to find him at the courthouse, run down a handicap ramp to jump in his arms and say "we have our girl!!!".

But then he has an appointment (arg)... so I go and pick up the kiddos..... and then we go home to wait for Daddy to get home to open up our email cause for Pete's sake, it's been going on 2 hours and I don't even know her name yet!!!

When Tony comes home we all sit on the sofa and open up our referral email and photos together... so, so, stinkin sweet.

And then we go into shock for about 10 minutes.... the mental picture I had of an itty bitty little Olivia is now a pretty big, almost toddler Olivia?!? BUT you know what, I am really happy about that!! As I said, she has been taken care of VERY well. And from her history, she was VERY loved. So we are VERY, VERY blessed to have a healthy little girl and can't wait to go and hug on her and get some more smiles!

So when do we go? Now (after we submit the acceptance paperwork), we wait for a court date. Recent families have traveled around 2 months after referral. So maybe late February??

Do we bring her home then? No. We will attend court and if we pass, she will officially be ours and we can post her photos all over the internet and Facebook (until then, as she isn't legally ours, we can't share her precious photos, sorry! But come see me and I just might have one on me, maybe, probably)

So we hopefully will be able to bring her home after passing court, then making it through embassy, and THEN we can go back and get her... maybe a Spring baby??

Whew, my head is pounding. I think it's from all the spinning it did today! And I know this post is almost as choppy and incomprehensible as my speech has been all day - my apologies!!!

The Day I Killed Santa

2011-12-22T12:14:00.004-05:00

My friend Jen Hatmaker has the BEST blog posts. (And by friend, I kinda mean, like, I know her. Like, she's an adoption mommy friend. Or really, like, she kinda posts on our yahoo group board occasionally and I follow her on facebook. So kinda like she has no clue who I may be. But hey, I'm still callin friend rights.)

SO, my friend Jen posted the following post a couple weeks back that immediately went viral and was reposted, retweeted, and read outloud on media outlets across the country.

The Christmas Conundrum

And it made me think, really think - what have we done right, or wrong in bringing our brood up to celebrate the season correctly? or incorrectly?

So the afternoon of me reading the above post about the cons of creating the god-image of Santa Claus --- who often trumps our kid's own God-image of the Christ child and his reason for coming on that night 2000 years ago --- my littlest angel says to me:

"Mommy, is there, or is there not a real Santa Claus??? Tell me the troof. Cause JoJo says there is a Santa Claus and Nicky says there is not!"

And at that moment I had a decision to make -
1) lie to my child, or bend the 'troof' again or
2) take this newfound wisdom and run with it. So I ran.

"Well honey, many, many years ago there was a man named Nickolas. And he loved Jesus SOOOO much that he would make and give presents to children on Jesus' birthday because he loved him so much."

Angel - "So the Santa at the mall is not real?"

"No, the Santa at the mall is just a man who is dressed up and is pretending to be that man who lived so long ago, because he was such a good man....... and loved Jesus so much"

Angel - "So that man lived a long, long, long time ago??"

"Yes Baby. He lived a long, long time ago."

Angel (in an octave and volume slightly higher than a 757 engine -
"SO SANTA IS DEAD!!!!!???!!!!!!!!!!!!!???!!!!!!!!!!!!"

aye-ya-ya. So that my friends, is how to gently kill Santa. Feel free to take notes if needed. The cost of later therapy is entirely your responsibility. Merry Christmas!

Demon Chickens

2011-12-08T10:44:00.009-05:00

(I bet you clicked on the link just to see where I was going with this didn't you ???)

My eldest son is extremely artistic.
Like, better-than-his-mom, artistic. Which I am completely ok with.
About a year ago, he gave his dad this egg he had made at school that
never fails to make me giggle. I leave it in our car, just so on bad
days, I can put the visor down and smile at the silly. Here ya go, I
present to you - the Demon Chicken:

So it seems we have made the chicken mad. We've kinda known the chicken was mad. Maybe it was the way we
started loosing friends in really random, weird ways. Like the WEEK we
decided to adopt. Maybe it was the way weird things started making us
have to leave churches we loved. (loose a church? loose your prayer
support, your spiritual support, your emotional support) Maybe it was
the way Tony kept loosing jobs. Maybe it was the way things started
breaking and money owed started piling up. Or health scares. Or the
lies whispered that made us doubt. But yes, I think we have definitely
made the chicken mad. And yes, I think he has bit us, kicked us, and
thrown us to the ground. More in the last two weeks than ever. And I'm
getting sick of it.

1 Peter 5:8
Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around
like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

And as I read somewhere recently - lions don't look for the big
kill. They look for the straggler, the weak, the small. They are
chickens. They don't go head to head usually with the big bull
elephant. They go after the little, the innocent, the weak, the
helpless. They usually go after the young.
It's the same with the enemy. He goes after the children. The helpless.
All over the world, there are little ones who are being picked on:
Stolen. Sold into slavery. Suffering from poverty. Dying. Prostituted.
Abandoned.

But adoption is God's plan to thwart that. Those children who otherwise
would fall prey to the enemy are led by God to a safe place. A place
where they are loved. A place where they are taught to love HIM. A
place where their story is used to show others God's miracles and God's
power.

And the chicken hates that. So he tries to stop it. Again, and again,
and again.

It would boggle your mind if I had every adoptive parent list every
weird or strange thing that has happen to them since they decided to
adopt. It's not in our heads. It is an attack. And it is on us, so that
we will back out, and leave the little ones prey to his cowardly
attacks.

But being pecked at isn't fun. It isn't pleasant or funny. It is real.

BUT - my God is bigger. And HE is stronger. And HIS angels are around
my daughter, and around us. BUT the battle, while raging above and
around us, we know who wins ultimately. And that makes me so much
stronger, and more angry, and a little more ticked off at the attacks,
and will help to sustain me until we have her home in our arms.

Silly demon chicken.

Psalm 138: 7-8
"Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you
stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes, with your right
hand you save me. The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your love, O Lord, endures forever - do not abandon the works of your hands."

Beans, beans, good for the heart....

2011-12-04T16:27:00.006-05:00

For those of you who haven't been following me for as long, I will always lovingly refer to Amy of "Building the Blocks" as my 'pickle jar lady'.

You see, Amy had just started her own adoption (her 4th!) a week or so before us and had set aside a pickle jar for her family to contribute their loose change to. Just a symbol - "God, we've got it started, we're going to work towards the goal, but we know you can fill it.." A couple days later, their pickle jar was running over as their entire adoption was generously donated by a spirit-led donor. So what did our family do? We put out a pickle jar of course!!!

Now our jar (which is actually a juice jug, but let's not split hairs) - hasn't been filled in one day, but I can say, over the last 2 years, God has put more change in that money jar than we ever could have been able to do on our own. Every penny has come from him. And so far, every penny we have needed, he has provided, on time and in the amount needed.

But back to my pickle jar lady.... Last year, I read this post. Amy and her family had sworn to eat beans and rice for dinner every day for a MONTH and then donate the money saved toward their 'pay it forward' adoption fund for another family. I was floored by not only the simplicity of their idea but the lesson that was being taught to their children. The majority of the children in this world will have one meal a day, if that, of the same ingredients. And our children throw away food on a daily basis... or snub their noses or whine and say 'I don't liiiiike this...'.

And while I LOVED the idea, I could only go for one night of a lesson, cause I'm all chicken and didn't want to deal with the recourse of a houseful of 3 men and a month of beans.. (although now that Addison has gotten older - I think I am seriously more afraid of her 'reaction' than the boys. Sister can put up a stank).

BUT, another year of live and learn and I'm all in on the wild side of educating my children now. (says the lady set on taking 3 under 12's on a total of 36 hours plane ride to a 3rd world country..)

SO, our church's children's program is trying to raise money to build a well in Africa and instantly, I fell in love with our new church. How cool is that!! So as the end of the year grows near and their goal is still $3000 away - we were challenged to think of new and creative ways to raise money. So my mind goes back to the beans and rice challenge - and I think I'm ready to put the clothespin on and take it for a spin.

So instead of going on my Sunday afternoon shopping trip for groceries, this week I'm going to just rest my amateur couponing skills and go get a couple more bags of beans and rice.. ( and possibly a cheap rice cooker since Tony claims rice is the only food I am inept at cooking correctly). Usually we spend around $120 for groceries in addition to money a couple times a week or so eating out. So we'll donate that amount of money to help bring children clean water.

I'll let you know how it goes. While I have high expectations -- my family may think the idea stinks quite a bit (and they might be right) - but in the process, I'm hoping their little hearts can be broken just a little bit more through the experience. Beans, beans, good for the heart......

Lil' Olivia's Christmas Specials

2011-11-28T08:53:00.006-05:00

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.....

2011-11-19T21:03:00.007-05:00

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..

Precious Photos

2011-10-29T21:23:00.013-04:00

May I just point out the precious children captured in this perfect photograph??

And may I also point out the status of how valuable a digital camera is with 3 children?? And the sheer beauty of capturing the perfect picture? When you have faces like these ------

With these gorgeous eyes ---------

Or these loving looks ---------

And these award-winning smiles -----------

Or with expert (but unplanned) prop placements ----------------

It's only with the most precious photos that we capture the preciousness of these children ----

6 snaps to get 1 good shot...
can you imagine how much footage I'll go through when we increase the child number to 4??? Although if you evaluate the above, I think it may be one child in particular that I am having the most difficulty with??

Mustard Seed Faith

2011-10-16T20:16:00.017-04:00

So it's taken me a good week to write this blog... cause I knew I needed to.

But I didn't want to. Cause it's embarassing. And I knew to tell you the good thing I learned, I would have to confess to you the bad things I said. And that's not easy. But God said 'write' so now I write.

"I just want to stop. I don't want to do this anymore!"

Not the words that any child, anywhere, should have their parents say about them. But words that poured out of my soul 2 weeks ago. Out of a soul that was hurting, that was grieving, that was giving up in a snotty, exhausted fit of tears. So don't judge me too fast. Don't tell me I'm not fit to be her parent. That I haven't fought hard enough - cause let me tell you friends, 2 years is a long time to have your boxing gloves on. How could I give up on my daughter when we are so close??? (All these comments by the way, went through MY mind).

But you see, our baby Olivia, at that moment - didn't exist to me any more. She was a dream. A beautiful dream that God had given me two years ago that was not destined to come to fruition. So to me, it felt like she had blown away like a vapor. An image I had created in my own mind.

I should have ran, without stopping, to my Heavenly Father. Clinging to my current life verse as if it were a small island in the midst of a storm. But I didn't. So much for this strong Christian example.

Isaiah 41:13 "For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you 'Do not fear; I will help you."

Or how 'bout my other current verse of the day - written down in my car and read almost daily?? Did I go there? Nope.

Jeremiah 17:7-8 "Blessed is the (wo)man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. (S)he will be like a tree that is planted by the water who sends out its roots into the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought; but never fails to bear fruit."

But finally, after a day of pouting, and crying, with fear AND worrying (good to know those verses sunk in my thick brain, huh?)... I prayed the next morning on the way to church for God to just talk to me that morning. Let me hear His voice. Let me know if I had heard him wrong 2 years ago. Let me know if we were making a big mistake. If it was time to turn the ship around.

First a great sermon - but nope, no 'ah-ha' moments.
And then after, during the invitation, the pastor goes off to a different tune sung just for me, something to the tune of: "The enemy does not want you to be happy. He is a liar. He wants you to be unhappy. He does not want you to fulfill the purpose God has for you..... stand strong... run from the darkness and into the light."

And then, the next song - again, just for me:

The verses saying "YOU wont relent until you have it all.... my heart is yours...... come be the fire inside of me"

So it hits me.... IF God isn't going to give up until His purpose is fulfilled.... and IF I claim to be His child, with Him taking residence in my heart..... and IF He is the fire inside of me.....

than who am I to say 'I give up'?
who am I to relent and throw my hands up because I am tired?
am I not acting in the face of all I say is true?
where is my fruit in the face of this drought?
and since when did this become all about ME?

So I come home, with the puzzled, slapped in the face kind of heart.

And then my neighbor sends over a big bag of yellow banana peppers. (I AM going somewhere with this, I promise..)

And I like to can them for a salad I make. So I get out my recipe box and start pulling out ingredients. Mainly THIS one:

And then laugh. Cause my Daddy knows I need to be thumped in the head every once in a while just to get His point across. It was just like He was saying to me, "Tracy, you see this???? This is ALL I'm asking from you. This much Faith. That's all I need from you. I've got the rest covered."
Matthew 17: 14-21 "....Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

And then tonight, as I looked for images for this post, I came across this blog and quote:

•A mustard-seed may in fact be small in size, but the miracle is in the relationship between the seed and the reality of the mustard tree. The seed produced phenomenal growth, point blank. Does your faith produce phenomenal spiritual growth in your own life? Does it produce phenomenal results for God’s Kingdom in the spread of the Gospel? That’s faith “as” a mustard seed.

So yes - my tree did kind of run away from the water... and my fruit kind of stunk... but I needed that moment of desperation to figure out where I was planted was all wrong. As another song says, you have to be at the bottom before you start looking up. So that's why I wrote it all down. So you can laugh at me or shake your head in disgust. But at the end of the day, so you can see what mustard seed you may be holding that needs to be planted and watered - cause God only needs that much from us, a tiny seed of faith - but the fruit He will bear because we allow Him to work in us... that's where the real fire and beauty comes from.

We're just a small seed that has to be plucked in the head once in a while to figure out where our roots need to be firmly planted...

Passing by

2011-09-22T08:57:00.004-04:00

"I forgot my book bag"

"How can you forget your book bag!?! This one time - this is your one time. I'll go back and get it but you need to take responsibility and remember or you'll have to face the consequences next time. Consequences are real life. What if Mommy forgot to pay my car payment...... blah. blah. blah. blah. blah. blah"

So we go home. And return towards the school in a direction opposite of usual. Just a couple minutes to spare.

And there he was. Running. Fast walking. Jogging. Fast walking. Obviously late to school. Obviously upset. Book bag and gym bag over his shoulders. Walking.

I feel that Holy Spirit nudge - 'don't pass by'.

But I keep driving, and take the littles on to school. And then come out to go back home a different way, this way he should have walked. And there he is. Maybe 9th grade. Hurriedly walking to school with only about 5 minutes left to make it and a 12 minute walk ahead. So I pull over and offer him a ride. And he was a sweet kid. Good manners. Appreciative. Ran out to his bus only to watch it pulling away.

Not saying all this to toot my own horn. I'm saying all this just because it has eaten and eaten at me since yesterday.

How many passed him by? And why? Were they late? Were they in their pajamas (which I would have been on ANY other morning except this one)? Or were they scared? Of his age, or of his color, or of both?

Others told me, 'you just have to be careful now'.... 'you just never know anymore'....'it's just too risky'.

But how many others have we passed by because we are scared? How many have I passed by????

The foster child; cause they might have too much baggage for us to handle.

The orphan with a now-treatable HIV; cause just imagine how hard that would be for our friends and family.

The sibling set, cause that's just too many kids for us to feed.

The homeless man outside Burger King, begging for money; cause what if he uses the money for booze?

The neighbor with cancer that may just need someone to talk to; cause I don't have time to invest in someone else's problems.

Sponsoring a child in another country; cause what if the organization doesn't use the money like they say they will?

How many? And why?

Although such a small, small deal - getting a kid to school on time. I don't know if he was a child of God.... but God orchestrated every minute for that moment, so I have to think He had his reasons. Those reasons I may never know. The only day I felt like pulling on my clothes early. The only day we would have been coming up the road in that direction because of a forgotten book bag. I don't know why. But I'm glad I didn't pass a good thing by even if it was risky.

Cause dying on a cross was risky. But thank God, HE didn't pass me by.

Pouty McPouty

2011-09-01T08:51:00.005-04:00

What you behold in front of you was the object I hated most in middle school. Except mine were white. And I had big feet. And yet, my dad just knew that the beloved Chucks would turn this awkward, spastic pip-squeak into a mad dribblin ball player.

uh, no. I still stunk. Even with 2 large rubber planks strapped to my feet. Airball queen, I was. I mastered keeping that bench down and firmly rooted to the floor.

(Really funny thing is that when I traded the Chucks in for high heels and a pageant walk, I was entirely more successful. Not to brag, but you are reading the blog of one of THE Lexington BBQ Festival Queens. Just sayin')

But yet, little Braeden. My sweet son whose goal in life is now to be cool (i.e. look like the drummer from Guitar Hero). He begged for new Chucks. And I found them! Uh, sorta. At Goodwill, for $3.50. But also a half size too big. And hence the drama ensues....

Him. "I want to wear my cool shoes"
Dad. "Your cool shoes are too big"
Him. "No they're not."
Dad. "Oh, yes they are. Go change."
Him. (bringing shoes and putting them in kitchen) "Take them back, I don't want them."

The shoes he had a fit over. The shoes he drooled on when he saw. He didn't want them. Because he couldn't have them right now.

So he pouted all morning. Big lip waaaay out. Cried in his bed. "stupid shoes"

On the way to school I chastised him for his pouting. I reprimanded him for his ungratefulness. And then - get this - God smacked me on the behind as well as I heard the words come out of my mouth ---

"You really are so lucky. You wanted those shoes so badly and when Mommy saw them - I knew that you would love them and got them for you, because I love you. Even though I knew you would have to wait to wear them. It doesn't make sense that you would want to give such a gift back just because you have to wait. It doesn't make sense to pout like this. You will have them, just later."

And my big mouth continued - "It's just like with Olivia. God knows I will love her and is giving her to me. He just knows for some reason that I need to wait to have her. She doesn't 'fit' us yet. But it wouldn't make sense to want to give her back because of that......... it....doesn't.....make.....sense.....to....pout.....like.....this? We will get her, just later."

And here is where I take that size 3, big, black rubber sole and chew on it awhile. I'm sorry for pouting Daddy. (but can I have my gift soon??? please???)

Oh, I have a blog????

2011-08-25T07:56:00.003-04:00

Cause I obviously forgot that....

just realized I have been awful about updating.

'Banding Together' update - our yahoo group's one day, full-court press to raise money for the famine relief organizations raised $4030!!!!!!

The breakdown goes like this:

World Food Programme - $190
Doctor's Without Borders - $425
Children's HopeChest - $1,085 (most earmarked for the TOG well)
World Vision - $2,195

Thank you so much to anyone who went and donated. And don't let it stop there, continue to spread the word about the situation in the Horn of Africa because every little bit helps. We may not have any more prizes to give out, but just the joy of knowing you helped to feed a little one in the midst of starvation will be more than worth it.
** our site is still up and running as a link to other aid agencies

In other news, or really, non-news:

We received our 'on deck' email June 22, 2011.

Yeah, I'm a little behind the 8 ball on that one. Two whole months behind. BUT, in my defense, it was met with little fanfare. The 'on deck' email that I had been wishing for for months didn't rock my world as I had hoped it would because it was also sent around the same time as another email stating the wait times for infant girls had increased from 8-11 months to 12-18 months.

On deck status is 'suppose' to mean that you can expect a referral in 1-3 months. I have always said that I thought that when someone goes 'on deck' it means they have been matched with a child, she is in the transition home, and they are working on her paperwork. How else could it explain them being able to say your referral is forthcoming soon? But as the current waiting families have been waiting on deck since September, the excitement waned as it just doesn't hold true. Things happen, countries change, government policies change... so we are still waiting.

Another miss - July 27th we had been waiting 11 months DTE. And were at number #5 on the waiting list. As this number was UP one since the month before due to a family ahead of us changing their request - I didn't make the kids suffer through doing their drawings and picture post. We switched ice cream brands as well. Eddi's girl scout cookie ice cream was MUCH better by the way.

However, the ice cream change didn't work it's magic as on Saturday, we will be :

1 Year DTE

and we are still #5.

Nuf said bout that.

Banding together

2011-08-10T22:53:00.007-04:00

Worst in 60 years. Lack of law and order. Very dire situation. Any idea what I'm referencing?? Many I have spoken to have no idea about the current status in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia. Kenya. Somalia. Uganda.

The worst famine in 60 years. Most of us are old enough to remember Live Aid and "We are the World" -- when artists and the world banded together to make a difference and do whatever they could to save the lives of children suffering. But today, in the midst of debt ceiling debates, double dip recessions, rising food costs - our minds are anywhere but on helping others. Unfortunately. We are turned inward with our eyes on our own needs. But.... 26,000 children already dead and millions more in danger.

"What this boils down to is children dying." - Anderson Cooper, in Somalia.

So tomorrow, Thursday, August 11th - our adoption agency yahoo group, a family of families who love Africa. Who either have children home from Ethiopia or like us, have children still in Ethiopia -- we are banding together, small as we may be, to do our best to raise awareness and raise money for the faces that we love so dear.

Tomorrow until midnight, if you go to our site and follow a link to a reputable donation organization to donate to alleviate hunger and famine in Africa, you can choose a token gift which has been donated by our families, as supplies allow. Just a small, ultra-cool gift as our thanks for standing with us and showing God's love to the least of these. Donate $5. $10. $25. Any little amount helps and adds up.

Adoptive Families for Famine Relief

And please share the link. That doesn't cost anything.

And we know, cause we've heard in regards to adoption - you can't save them all.

But you also can't out-give God. And His Word says that when you bless others that blessing will be returned to you, more than you can even imagine. So when we think about our low savings account, or the price of our weekly groceries, and we worry about making ends meet and feeding our own children - are we trusting God to take care of us when we hold tightly to the money that He has entrusted us? Or do we trust Him even more when we open our clinched fists to allow Him to use that money for His good?

Yes, it may mean a week of eating out less to give $25. It may mean having your kid wait another month before buying those new $30 school shoes if you donate $50. But when we stand before God - do you think he will ever look down on you and frown because you EVER gave too much? Especially when it is the faces of the children HE loves that are suffering? Just a thought.

And a couple more images to occupy your thoughts....

No, we can't save them all - but are you content to say it is o.k. to not even try???

James 4:17 "Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins."

James 1:27 "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

Luke 6:38 "Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back." (NLT)

Anderson Cooper's interview with model Iman re: famine in Somalia

Just to remind you of the images of Ethiopia's famine:

When all else fails -- comfort food

2011-07-16T12:55:00.005-04:00

The words 'comfort food' may be an understatement.

I had hoped to fill the last few blog posts of glorious details of milk chocolate pudgy fingers, dark brown eyes, and little ringlets....

but instead - you get pasta. Cause that's all I got folks. One baby boy referral in past weeks has led to.... zip. zero. zilch. Floodgates opening turned into, well, not.

And, this week we received an email stating that wait times from DTE to referral had been extended for infant girls to 11-18 months. (we will be 11 months July 27th). When we signed on, the wait times for infant girls was 7-10 months with many receiving their referrals in 5-6 months. Which is why we banked on February 2011 as seeing her face. Then, conservatively, early summer. Now.... who knows! We knew it was coming as things were moving too slowly, just kinda hoped that we would be 'luckier' - but we've been told to go ahead and broader our expectations for longer.

So anyway, since Tony is home now, my desire to cook my heart out (literally) can be appeased without knowing that it would be me eating leftovers for 5 days straight after a real meal. Real as in = not from a can.

So my comfort food of choice is spinach. Some it's mac & cheese; me, I go for the super food. I give you one of my favorites........... eat your broken heart out:

Spinach Manicotti

You'll need:

1 pkg manicotti or jumbo shells (I think shells are easier to fill) - cook as directed
1 1/2 cups part-skim ricotta (small container)
1 cup (4 oz) shredded mozzarella cheese
1/3 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp Italian seasoning (OR I add any fresh herbs I may have - basil, oregano, thyme)
1 (10 oz) chopped frozen spinach, thawed and squeeze water out
1 large egg, beaten
1 egg white, beaten
1 jar favorite pasta sauce

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees and boil pasta
2) Combine spices, eggs, cheeses, and spinach
3) Run pasta under cold water to stop cooking and then fill with cheese/spinach mixture.
4) If not using baking clay (which I do, surprised??) -- spray 9X13 with cooking spray.
5) Pour sauce over filled shells and bake for 20 minutes.

**there really is no way to mess this up and it is simple and oh, oh so good. Eat your heart out adoption process..... I'll just use spinach to bulk up my strength again if I have to.

**And yes - those are toasted hot dog garlic breadsticks. Cause we is just so-fist-if-i-cated like that. Keepin it real folks, keepin it real!!

**And P.S. - even if you aren't a spinach eater - you will love this. I MADE my 17 year old babysitter try it and she is now begging me for the recipe. My boys have also come over to the Popeye side of life and love spinach pastas and pizza. Green stuff that's good for you!

The day the excitement died

2011-07-05T19:21:00.007-04:00

So you know what?? We are still waiting on our referral! Shocking, I know.

BUT, as of last Monday, we were officially

10 Months DTE

Or dossier to Ethiopia. Or ten months from when we celebrated as we dropped that huge package that contained our entire life story, and then some, into that glorious FedEx box.

Ten months ago. Gee. And the official time from DTE to referral for a baby girl is/was 7-11 months.

Instead of being a little late, I'm, oh, 8 days late in this post as it took almost that long for my kids to finally color their monthly numbers for the photo. They were thrilled.... or not. I think they are a little over our monthly pics. As you can tell. And no - I didn't pose them this time... and the handmade hearts were also completely their idea.

And as you can see from the close-up --- I'm thinking that it is starting to sink in that this is taking longer than we had hoped. Across the bottom "We haven't changed in like 6 months"

Also indicative of their waning patience would be their total rejection of my ice cream of the month! Gasp!!

They wanted no part of it. Didn't even ask the flavor. Just went for the popsicles instead. A true tragedy.

Just in case you are again waiting on baited breath, the flavor of the month was :

Late Night Snack

Vanilla ice cream with a caramel swirl and fudge covered potato chip clusters. hmmm. Can you tell we were running low on the pickins after 10 months of variety???

Let's just say that
1) I am very surprised that potato chips CAN stay crunchy in the middle of ice cream and
2) My usual pattern of buying 2 pints for the family has indeed backfired as with the rest of the family on an ice cream hiatus --- I will from hence forth be lugging around Ben & Jerry on my thighs. And I didn't even like them this month that much anyway...

*************************

All joking aside - I know there HAS to be a reason. A reason why our expected February referral still hasn't materialized. A reason why our homestudy is expiring. A reason why we are now caught in court closures. I know God HAS a plan. And it is better than mine. But I also know that no matter how much I try to explain to my kids delays, or waiting times, or closures - they still don't get it. They just want their sister home. And month by month, I've watched their excitement about her turn to frustration. And their hope in God's miracles in bringing her home diminish, bit by bit. And I don't get that. I guess we aren't doing a very good job of 'pumping them up' or being good role models of patience. But it's hard folks. Truly. The miracles may come, and I know we will look back with complete peace about the wisdom of our wait - but it's just hard to see that now. Through the eyes of children or an adult.

I've heard countless, well-meaning friends say: "Well, you know God's timing is perfect.."

And I know that. And agree that His way is perfect, and is best. Even if I don't like it.

But again, even IF we get our referral now, we ARE officially stuck in closures so we wont be able to go to court, at the earliest, until mid/late October.

So you tell me ANY mother, who would be o.k. with loving a child she hasn't seen for 9 (or 10 months) giving birth to her baby, seeing her beautiful face and then when the hospital staff says "o.k., now we are going to keep her with us, take good care of her, and send you monthly pictures for the next 4-6 months". No mother would be able to say - "Great!!! Cause God's plan is perfect!! Sign me up for THAT!" It may the best thing in both their interests for right then - but it is not something that her, or me, would be able to smile about and say they are excited about.

Bestie, BBQ, Beans, and Brownies

2011-06-25T17:05:00.013-04:00

I can FINALLY share my pain!! I have been a single mom for about 12 weeks now as the hubs was getting bruised, bashed, and bullied at the police academy. I didn't post about it as well, there are crazy people on the net (not calling any of YOU crazy) - and didn't want said crazy person to know I was by myself for TWELVE.LONG.TEDIOUS.WEEKS.

And while the troops at home were pretty well behaved, pretty helpful, and pretty satisfied with the lame excuses that I labeled dinners for those 12 weeks.... I am so, so, SO happy to have him home. And not just cause he takes off the stinky trash (vs. Seth and I throwing it in the back of the Expedition and hence forth having the stink of rotten chicken traveling around with us from now on). And not just cause he is the only one who knows how to iron in the house, and clean the bathrooms well. And not just cause I only cook real dinners when there are two adults who aren't satisfied with frozen pizza or ravioli in residence.

But cause I missed my best friend and watching him wrestle, kiss, and play with the kids like I can't. Cause nothing replaces a Daddy.

So Daddy, we are so glad to have you home with that badge on your chest, finally!

So to celebrate, I am grilling out in true Southern girl fashion tonight. We are originally from the BBQ capital of the world - Lexington, NC. If you have never tried Lexington BBQ, DO. It is primarily a vinegar/ketchup based BBQ and is so moist and tangy that you will crave it. We have seriously had to made BBQ runs for friends in whatever city we were currently living in. And just to show how much I crave it - my oldest child went to the BBQ joint when he was 6 days old - as I couldn't stand being in the house sans pork for any longer than that.

Without any more intro, here is our menu for tonight:

Lexington BBQ Style Grilled Chicken
Lexington BBQ Baked Beans
Coconut Brownies

Lexington BBQ Style Grilled Chicken

You will need:
2 cut up whole chickens (or I just buy a 10 lb bag of quarters when they are on sale)
2 cups cider vinegar
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
3 T crushed red pepper
4 tsp salt
2 tsp pepper

1) Start in the morning (or night before) by marinating the chicken quarters. I usually pull the skin off to reduce those Southern calories. It's easiest to halve the above marinade recipe into two gallon zip lock bags and do half the chicken at a time. Turning occasionally throughout the day. Chill at least 2-8 hours. (I ran out of freezer bags so just used the rubbermaid, it infuses better with the bags, I think)

2) Remove and discard marinade.

3) Grill with lid on 35-40 minutes.

Lexington BBQ Baked Beans

You will need:
1 roll sausage
1 large onion, chopped
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup favorite BBQ sauce
1 cup brown sugar
3 cans pork-n-beans

**I notoriously forget to take photos until I'm cooking mid-stream. So pay no attention to the ground turkey in the photo - but I didn't have an extra sausage to photo! This also explains the opened cans.

1) Cook sausage, drain. Add chopped onion, saute.

2) Add ketchup, BBQ sauce, brown sugar - simmer about 5 minutes.

3) Stir in beans and simmer another 5 minutes.

4) Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Coconut Brownies

You will need:
1 pkg fudge brownies - prepare as directed
10 oz sweetened, flake coconut
1 pkg chocolate and peanut butter chips (these have gotten hard to find - I had to use half a bag of peanut butter and half a bag of milk chocolate this time)
14 oz fat free sweetened condensed milk

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2) Spray 9X13 pan with cooking spray. Prepare brownie mix and bake 16-18 minutes.

3) Layer coconut, then chips, then sweetened milk.

4) Bake until chocolate is melty and coconut is beginning to brown. About 20-30 minutes more. Allow to cool before cutting.

And now, dear friends, you know why my husband will always come home to me. Cause the above is the recipe that = true love on all counts.

A Real Champion

2011-06-12T15:04:00.005-04:00

Have fun. Honor God. Hustle. -- the team motto.

The goal being not only to win - but to train up strong boys to have respect, to love God, and to be role models for others.

He loved playing on the team.

But as time went on, struggles started to show. Self esteem. Confidence. Domino affect of missed balls and fumbled plays.

Traveling on weekends. Finding churches in random towns. Returning home Sunday nights.

Until --- he tells me:

I miss church.

I remind him, we haven't stopped going. Just busy traveling.

He tells me:

I think that's why I've not been doing good.

God is trying to tell me to quit the team.

I tell him - then you need to think it over, pray about it, and let us know what you want to do. It needs to be your decision. But why do you think that?

He tells me:

Church just feels right. Like it is where I am suppose to be.

Because I think I have been thinking too much about baseball.

And not enough about Jesus.

Three weeks later, the last tournament of the season. After a good game. With good performance. He tells his Daddy:

I think I need to tell coach this is my last game.

We have to buy uniforms soon.

And I would rather that money go toward bringing home my baby sister.

Cause that's more important to me than baseball anyway.

I am so proud of my player. Cause I think that in the real game, he stepped up to the plate and he hit a grand slam. And while we will miss the experience and the friendships - the experience of having my son show a maturity and an understanding so beyond his years - that experience will be cherished in this mommy's heart far longer than any trophy gathering dust on the top of a dresser.

Who knows what the future holds, or what battles he may face. But to see the way God is starting to work on him already - I can't wait to see what position he plays on HIS team.

1 Corinthians 9:25 "Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever."

Bad things come in threes?

2011-06-09T23:41:00.003-04:00

Oh Lord, I hope not.

The runner-up for first ER visit of 2011 goes to......

Seth

Who won with the assistance of his best friend and a precisely thrown plastic cup. How very nice of them to arrange our visit the same week as Addison's ER debut to cut down on follow-up doctor's appointments for me.
At home viewing his freshly glued gash for the first time.

Little man was pretty nervous. Pretty scared. Very scared. Scared to death of having to get stitches.

Triage nurse says - they can't glue the head. He might be o.k. But might have to have staples. His eyes tear up.

ER nurse says - they can't glue the head. He might be o.k. But might have to have staples. He clams up and stares at the TV.

Physicians assistant says - they can't glue the head. He might be o.k. But might have to have staples. He completely shuts down and wont speak to anyone.

Good old boy country doctor says - We could staple it. hmmm, how you feel about me just gluing it???

Seth says - YES SIR!!!!!!! And breaks out in the biggest smile I have seen in about two years.

The Dr. also offered to glue his lips shut to reduce my grocery bill but I declined, seeing that my child is about 1/2 the size of other children his age as it is. Kid got a strawberry milkshake on the way home just to try use the occasion to fatten him up more.

And I am SO proud. No ---- not with Seth. With ME. I am a fainter. And have been since high school. I see blood and my heart races and breathing increases. But when you see your 10 year old come out the door with blood running down his face in every direction, and Daddy isn't there to save the day - something about that situation allowed me to stay upright, amazingly. I even washed his entire blood-covered face and hair off to find the gash (which was over an inch long). And it was still bleeding BAD. Chalk one more up to 'things I never want to have to do again'.

Especially this week. Or even the next. Braeden will now be wearing a football helmet and pads indefinitely to avoid any semblance of another head injury. I don't want to test the 'theory of threes' any further..

Fresh Strawberry Bread

2011-06-06T22:13:00.003-04:00

By request, my Mom's recipe. It really is almost more like a cake than a bread. So soft and yummy warm:

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

4 oz. cream cheese

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 cups fresh strawberries, chopped small

Makes 1 loaf

1) Use 9 x 5 pan, grease and flour

2) Preheat oven to 350 degrees

3) Using electric mixer cream butter with cream cheese. Add sugar and vanilla. Add eggs, one at a time.

4) Sift flour and mix with baking powder, baking soda and salt.

5) Add flour to butter mixture alternately with buttermilk. Mix until just blended.

6) Fold in chopped strawberries.

7) Bake at 350 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes. (Mine took a little over 60 minutes).

And the first ER visit of 2011 goes to......

2011-06-05T21:28:00.005-04:00

Miss Addison. Who kindly scheduled her first debut at approximately 10 pm --- after being at the ball field all day, with us all still sweaty and smelly, and tired beyond belief. Great date night for her daddy and I, to be hanging out with the county's miserable until 1 am.

(this morning after a good bit of swelling had gone down. You'll have to excuse the hair -- No - it is NOT that greasy/dirty. The photo is right after her bath during her first band-aid switch-a-roo. The three stitches will be fashionably covered by Hello Kitty bandages tomorrow)

Running Girl = 0
Chair = 1

Overdue

2011-06-02T00:42:00.005-04:00

You know how women hit that 9th month of pregnancy and not a single thing makes them happy?? Just ready for the end, friend. Well, we are officially at 9 months, and still no baby. My ankles aren't swelled and my butt hasn't expanded to the size of a city bus (like last time, ahem)..... but I am ready for this baby to get here!! So tired of being 'pregnant'!!!!!!!!

So when we hit our DTE-versary date, I told the kids what day it was and Seth remarked, "I don't feel like celebrating anything". So we didn't.

We waited a couple days til the pouting was over (for mommy, not kiddos) - and then had our signature ice cream night (or two......or three)

9 MONTHS Dossier to Ethiopia

STILL number 4. Yes, same as last month. A couple referrals have been given out but we still haven't moved any closer to number 1.

And as much as I wanted to break up with the boys - Ben & Jerry's came a'courtin again.. This month (and I mean it - this had BETTER be the last time I have to post an ice cream flavor!!! Seriously!!! This is getting ridiculous!!!!!!!)

Americone Dream

Which is kind of ironic considering this is the longest dream I have ever had.. it just keeps on going, and going, and going.

Anyway, vanilla ice cream with caramel swirls and chocolate covered waffle cone pieces. Need I say more?? I would be more excited if it weren't for the fact that Stephen Colbert seems to be mocking me from the label --- I'm breakin up with them I tell you. We are SO through. Til next month...... but I hope not.

Dirty Bottoms

2011-05-26T09:51:00.008-04:00

A good friend of ours just got back from her recent trip to Ethiopia to meet her beautiful new son. While there, they visited the orphanage that he had been living in for at least 2 of his sweet 3 years.

She told me it was the worst place she had ever been. Many of the infants had recently been dropped off and still had attached umbilical cord stumps. They all were so filthy with soaking/dirty diapers that the families visiting couldn't even pick them up they were so dirty. The bottles were propped for each baby and with no burping, the tiny infants would throw up all over themselves and would lay there, not being cleaned up. The orphanage told her that they get one new child A DAY.

I am hoping our Olivia would no longer be one of those babies - but my heart still hurts for them. Olivia should already have been moved into our transition home and is being well fed, held, hugged, and cleaned. So to those that say that 'it's all about the money' - yes - we are paying alot of money to our agency in Ethiopia - but it is for the months that my child will be taken care of..... versus the alternative - her staying in an orphanage.

When I told Tony about the orphanage he clammed up until he said, "When we go on our trip - I'm not going to any orphanages. I can't take seeing that." To which I said in a completely not-so-submissive fashion, "Oh we WILL go. We have to. We have to be Jesus to those children, to hold and love them if only for a brief time." Besides that, that is the very purpose of praying and begging God to provide for the kids to go - so that they can visit and play with the older kids in the orphanages and have a love for missions and orphans birthed in them. Or will it be further birthed in us. Time will tell.

And then I got to thinking ----- how much are we just like those precious babies? Covered in our own stench and filth?? Every little white lie, every lustful glance, every gossiped word -- just more and more throw up we are covering ourselves with.

And yet ---- Christ still came to us. When he was a Prince - he left Perfection to come to where we live. To pick us up, getting himself covered in our stinking sin. And then to clean us up, make us new - and adopt us as his own. To take us home with him so that yes, when we mess ourselves again, and we will - or throw up sin all down our shirt - Jesus will wipe us clean once more. Cause that's what loving fathers do. I thank God I am adopted, and I thank God for the picture he has made so clear for us in this process to adopt one of his little ones.

The difference is that Christ comes to us and adopts us - all we had to do was call out to him and ask to be his child. These children don't have the option of asking to have a father. That's where the church needs to step up and follow the command of Christ to look after them. And that's where the church is falling down on the job. Although it is encouraging to see some churches in America now waking up to the orphan crisis.

-------------------------------------------------------
Months back we had reports from one of our visiting families about the conditions of the babies in one of the orphanages they visited. Babies sleeping on wooden planks in cribs, wet and cold. No diapers. Extreme diaper rash.

A sweet friend of mine started collecting cloth diapers and forming crews to make waterproof diaper covers to send. She then formed teams to take them over to the orphanages in Ethiopia, and now also, Uganda. Did I happen to also mention that this young mom shares the same DTE date as us for a baby girl, has a little boy already, AND had just been diagnosed with a brain tumor??? I don't want to hear anyone else say they don't have the time or the resources, or even the emotional capacity to adopt or help orphans - and that goes for myself as well!!!

We formed our own sewing team with 3 ladies showing up at church with me one Saturday morning to cut, pin, and sew more sweet diaper covers. Thank you ladies!!! (especially kind Debra who took fragments home to finish for me!)
My sweet cousin Jaime then asked her church in Virginia to help contribute and look how many they donated - to help me, who they had never met, and the babies in the Ethiopian orphanages that pulled at their hearts. Thank you for being the hands and feet of Jesus church!!! And thank you Jaime for spear-heading and planning the event!

From reports, we heard later that through so many families from AWAA pulling together and sending donations, the babies at Kids Care Orphanage were doing much better. So all the above donations will go with me when I travel to another orphanage in need - as there are SO many in need. I'm guessing we wont have to go far to find some dirty bottoms in need of a little bit of love from Christ.

In the Kitchen - Pizza Marguerite

2011-05-17T11:22:00.012-04:00

Since my last recipe post got more hits than most in the last oh, 2 years --- I am again veering off the adoption track into recipe land --- since at the moment - eating and cooking is far more fun than sitting and waiting for the phone to ring anyway!

Today's recipe is my go-to-when-we-are-starving-and-don't-want-a-can-of-instant-soup night. My kids still wont eat it but my meat&potatoes man loves it. For the kids, the pack of pizza crust comes with two - so I just make one a tomato sauce/ cheese regular:

It's a pretty basic pizza recipe but since I have had numerous friends and family email me multiple times asking for the recipe - here goes:

I didn't take a prep photo because it's about as basic as you can get:

1 prepared thin crust pizza - I love Mama Mary's Thin and Crispy. (You can find it near the pizza sauce/spaghetti sauce in Wal-Mart.)
4 Roma tomatoes, sliced
2-3 cups shredded mozzarella
1-2 chopped garlic
Fresh basil - fresh is a MUST
olive oil
shredded Parmesan cheese
Kosher salt & pepper

1) Start by brushing (or finger tip brushing) olive oil across the pizza.
2) Top with mozzarella cheese to cover all the way to edges. Don't skimp on the cheese, you're not using any meat - so that is how I get away from feeling calorie guilty.
3) Top with sliced Roma tomatoes and garlic

In my last recipe I had someone ask for clarification on the fresh garlic chopping. And again, I say - use FRESH ingredients and you will be SO much happier.

Start with a large knife. You'll have to get over your fear someday and let me just say - once you start using a large knife, cutting prep is far more fun and you get a little bit of that Rachel Ray feeling like you actually know how to cook and make millions of dollars at the same time. And I am a clumsy, messy cook and I haven't cut a fingertip off yet. Promise.

Place the garlic clove under the side of the knife and press or hit with your palm to crush the garlic. The skin will then fall away and you will have the peeled garlic perfect and clean without getting it under your fingernails.

Use the knife to rock back and forth over the peeled garlic. This is by far the best way to chop something. Just place the tip of the knife on the cutting board and rock the knife back and forth over it until it is in tiny pieces. You may have to wipe the knife off and then cut it some more as it likes to stick to the sides, but you get the idea.

Do the same with the fresh basil. Roll about 3-4 leaves into a basil 'cigar' and then rock the knife over to cut into small ribbons.
4) Sprinkle the garlic, fresh basil, kosher salt, and pepper over the entire pizza. Top each tomato with shredded Parmesan (although you can leave off if you don't have any) While I'm at this step --- please - throw away that shaker of Parmesan you have in your fridge. Go ahead and admit it, it doesn't have any taste anyway. Buy a bag of shredded instead for your spaghetti and recipes. I always have a bag on hand in my chiller, it lasts forever.

Sometimes I drizzle a little olive oil over the top of the tomatoes as well, sometimes I don't, just to leave the extra calories off. It's all good either way.

**Take note of how dark my pizza stone is - it is slick as can be from about 1,459,352 chocolate chip cookies, 2,346 potstickers, and at least 368 pizzas baked - with no bottoms burned to date.

5) Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 8-10 minutes. Just until the cheese is meltey and gorgeous.

Ta-Da. Pizza Marguerite. That my family requests when they come and visit and my husband says even beats out the one at Carabbas. And that's high praise my friends, high praise indeed.

In the Kitchen - Baked Potstickers

2011-05-09T22:59:00.014-04:00

So in case you haven't noticed - I started a little page to the right where I can store my favorite recipes. I LOVE to cook and try new things. And then I LOVE to hold food in front of my husband or kids demanding "taste it! no really, taste it!!!!!"

Maybe that's why I specialized in feeding therapy with the babies so I can do the same to them vs. torture my husband. At least I did go through training to find out how to hold a spoon in front of a toddler's mouth for 45 minutes while they scream and refuse to eat. Fun, fun. As an added, 'about me' fact, in my hospital internship, I gagged stroke victims with 9 inch frozen Q-tips dipped in the most sour substance available (to increase swallowing muscles). How many of you still think being a speech therapist is a boring job now?!?

So on to my first official recipe post - yeaaaah!!! This one is actually a modified Pampered*Chef recipe that the fam and I have fallen in love with. It takes a little time (maybe 20 min prep) but is fun for the kids to help out with.

Baked Potstickers w/ Red Jalapeno Dipping Sauce

Potsticker Ingredients:

1 can (10 oz) chunk white chicken; drained
1/4 cup grated carrot
1 tsp peeled and finely grated ginger root
1 T soy sauce
1 egg white, lightly beaten
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 tsp onion flakes
1 garlic clove, pressed

pack of Wonton Wrappers - found in produce section

Let me add here: if you have never used fresh garlic and/or ginger - DO. It is very cheap - the above little chunk of ginger cost 12 cents. And the taste is just so much more amazing than the powdered or even canned versions.

Just in case you have never used ginger (which I hadn't until this recipe). You first peel the skin back on a bit, leaving a 'handle' for you to hold onto while you grate on a fine section of the grater. Watch out not to grate your fingertips. That hurts.... big time.As far as fresh garlic goes - either use a garlic press so you don't have to peel the outside skin off - which I did for this recipe. Or you can smash the garlic clove with the broad side of a knife, peel away the outside peel, and chop really, really fine. Which is how I use garlic in most recipes. (and for those pro chefs out there -- sorry for the elementary cooking lesson but I have some younger readers I know would be emailing me to ask how to do it!) Fresh garlic makes the biggest difference in ALL my recipes.

2. Once you get the mix together. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

3. Time for the fun - filling the Wonton Wrappers. Keep a bowl of water nearby to wet your fingertips, and dampen separated Wonton Wrappers so they will close easily. Spoon a tsp (or little less) of the mix into the center of each.

You then can choose to fold your potstickers into any design you would like. The three I like to make are a tootsie roll, an envelope, and one where I bring up each corner and pinch the diagonal sides together to form a kind of flower. The kids love making these. Just make sure your edges seal or the mix will seep out while baking. Arrange on clay baking sheet. You don't have to have room between as they wont expand.

** let me also say I am an addict for clay baking products. I have a large sheet pan, a brownie pan, a lasagna pan, a casserole dish, a mini pan, and a muffin pan. Have I said I love the clay baking products!?! The bottoms don't burn and cookies come out puuuuurfect as the clay lets heat go all the way through the food and cook evenly. That and clean-up is so easy - you just let cool, rinse with water, and scrape the food right off without having to soak and scrub. I have tried my potstickers on a regular baking sheet when I was making 2 batches at the same time and the baked-on-clay ones were much better - just watch out for bottom burning on a regular sheet.
**Notice how the pan to the right is twice as dark? It's because I have used it twice as long and it is now naturally twice as slick. It's called 'seasoning' and the older/darker a pan is - the better it is to cook on.

4. Bake until the edges start to crisp a little and potstickers are golden brown. Around 12-14 minutes.

Dipping Sauce Ingredients:

5. To make the dipping sauce, which is fantastic, you will need:

1/2 cup red jalapeno jelly
1/4 cup rice vinegar
2 T soy sauce

Microwave 30-40 seconds at a time, stirring to melt jelly. Whisk or stir until well blended.

** this makes a decent amount. The kids like to dip their potstickers into plain soy sauce so Tony and I always have left over sauce. I use to halve the recipe but then found it refrigerated well so I now make it and store it in an oil salad dressing or glass bottle. This sauce is SO good on rice - don't let the jalapeno jelly throw you off - it is really a great mix. Spicy but sweet.

Serve with white rice and sauce. And I promise you, you wont have leftovers. Which is good because the wontons don't warm well the second go round.

** for anyone on Weight Watchers - I ran the points based on my modified recipe and it was 8 pts for 5 potstickers.

If you try it - let me know what you think! I've had great reviews as I have taken these to many different functions and they have always been a hit.

Hopefully our last

2011-04-28T22:24:00.005-04:00

Hopefully our last DTE-versary ice cream party!

We are now 8 whole months into this paper pregnancy.

20 months from inception to now - the longest gestation period EVER.

And at 8 months DTE, we are now #4 for a baby girl. AND, we finally made the Top 10 list at #10 overall! (ahead of us are the 3 wanting baby girls, 3 requesting siblings, and 3 requesting boys).

So this month, sans Tony - we chowed down on

Chocolate Fudge Brownie

Not much compares to chocolate ice cream with brownie goodness mixed in. And may I say - while I have enjoyed this 8 month relationship with Ben & Jerry's - I would really, really, like to not have to pick another flavor next month. I am completely comfortable with breaking up with the guys and our monthly dates. Completely.

Although...... what better way to celebrate a referral picture than with another ice cream party!! Hoping to post THAT entry very soon!

**and is it just me or have my children aged dramatically in the last 8 months?? I put all the photos together on my new 'paper pregnancy' page and I think Addison grew from toddler to Kindergartner during that time! Must be the ice cream.....

Teddy

2011-04-17T21:51:00.011-04:00

We gave a Teddy a baby and it made us smile.
And giving that Baby Teddy a baby made Teddy's mommy smile.

(Couldn't resist - that sentence was just begging me to be written.)

For those who know me - you'll know how passionate I am for Compassion International and the unbelievable, life-changing work that they do with children all over the world.

You'd also know how much I love my own Compassion children and cherish the relationships that are developing between them and my own children.

But about 6 months ago, someone suggested for me to be friends with a lady named Christie on Facebook. Christie was dropping everything and moving to Uganda. To live in a little village plagued by witchcraft. Her story intrigued me, so I jumped on board and started following her on Facebook and through her blog: Compass in my Heart

Since then - Christie, her new husband, and her friends from all over the US, have helped to bring a school to that little village. And then, through a yearly contribution, sponsorships to bring little children into that school where they can be educated, and learn about a Jesus who loves them. Where they are receiving basic de-worming and malaria medicine, and shoes/clothing.

And then a bad drought hit, the worst in many years. Where the little water they could dip out of a shallow puddle/creek was too dirty to try to drink and was making all the children sick.

And then, through donations and some very kind souls, a borehole was drilled and the village now has unending, clean water. Doesn't it remind you of the story of Jesus at the well and His water that never runs dry??

So back to Teddy. While I love Compassion, I felt like God had called Christie to help this village. And I had watched as He had provided for their needs - so shouldn't I also dig a little deeper and embrace this chance again to love one of the least of these??

So we picked Teddy. A four year old little girl with 2 big brothers and a big sister. Each of the other kids have their own sponsored child through Compassion so I picked Teddy in honor of Olivia. We pray for them all every night and love watching them grow older and grow in their love for Christ.

We had the most fun putting a care package together to send to her with our family photos, her photo, some candy, cups, toothbrushes, coloring book, etc. And we shipped it all the way to Uganda.

Addison went and chose a small doll of hers that she wanted to give to Teddy - a little fairy cabbage patch kid.

This one:

And she wanted to give her the little bag she had just made in Bible School. So we modified it from 'Addison' to "Addison loves Teddy". Like this:

Addison filled it with about 10 drawings and coloring pages! And we included her photo, as most have never seen a photo of themselves. Her mother loved it!

So Teddy was able to 'meet' our family from afar. As were her family and friends:
So my point - the opportunities are everywhere. Little ways and places for you to send Christ's love. And while we didn't get a smile (this time) out of our shy little Teddy - I hope that she knows that someone all the way across the ocean loves her. And I hope that she learns more about Jesus in the school she can now go to. And I love that Teddy can now drink from clean water vs. the bacteria invested water she was drinking before Christie came to live with them. And I hope that my 3 children will continue to learn that the biggest smiles sometimes come from those that give, no matter how little, as just a little love can make the biggest differences.

You can make a difference by:
supporting Christie through donating or purchasing Ugandan beads, sandals, or sling purses.
or support a child through Compassion International

Leave a comment if you have a great organization that you love to make a difference with ---

Going running, or not

2011-04-12T11:14:00.008-04:00

Just looking back, realizing how sporadic my posts have become. Pretty much dwindled to every month on our DTE-varsarry. Which I'm sure is just highly entertaining and a sure way to keep others reading. (Go ahead, admit it, you're waiting each month with baited breath just to see what brand of ice cream we choose.)

Truth is - when we signed on for adoption. And said "yes Lord, we will go" - we kind of were expecting an 18 month commitment followed by an 18 year bigger commitment.

And now we are at TWENTY months, and still are only rounding the corner with a faaaaaaaar, far away view of the finish line. And let me tell ya, I am not one for distance running. Give me a sprint any day and I'll push through. But running?? I walked my way through cross country season in high school. Seriously. Embarrassing I know.

So instead of rejoicing at our #4 status, or smiling as I view her changing table, which has set waiting for her in my room for 6 months now. Or the crib which is still up in Addi's room --- I have been falling on my face and crying in my own little pity party. Again, embarrassing I know.

I want to be ecstatic when others are going on court trips to see their babies for the first time, I want to be jumping up and down when they go for embassy to pick up their children. But my sinful self is sitting in a corner pouting - saying "it's not fair." (Honestly --- I scroll over their blogs to see the date they signed their application letter to start their adoption, and pout even more when their dates are much later than mine.) I want to grieve with them when they are missing their children so badly - a hurt that I can not even image - having to leave your little, fragile new baby for months on end and not knowing when you can return, all at the mercy of a foreign court system. But I also want to yell and scream that I haven't even SEEN my baby yet. And she is no less mine and I am no less in pain of knowing we are still separated. 24 months after I became her mother in heart.

Embarrassing, I know. What a strong, stable Christian I am? I despise myself sometimes.

But ya know, I still know that none of this surprised God at all. None of this was not His plan. And for us to be still, wandering around in the Israelite desert, it must be because I still need to be taught something. Something like patience maybe?? Something which obviously I have yet to learn?? So I wander still.

God chooses the weakest to display his glory. That theme is all through the scriptures. And oh boy, can I be weak.

Am I posting this to make you feel sorry for me? NO.

I am posting it to let you see that I/we are not super Christians. We are not rocks of faith or of strength. But HE is. And every week, I have seen orphans placed in families. And that is nothing short of miraculous. And beautiful.

It doesn't take a super Christian to join the race. Or even a strong Christian. It doesn't take a wise and seasoned parent to mother a child who needs you. It just takes you. And even though the race is hard. And long. And tiring. And draining. Somehow, we haven't collapsed yet. And even though that finish line is waaaaaaay out there and I may want to stop and just run for a cheeseburger instead - my heavenly Daddy is running beside me, edging me on, letting me know that HE believes in me and knows I can do it. And we will..... and the reward will be so much more than we can imagine.

You too scared of running?

A new Sheriff (deputy) in town

2011-03-27T22:23:00.005-04:00

Guess who's really excited that someone started working a new job today?? (Braeden) Guess who's really excited that someone is finally working at a job that he has wanted to do all his life?? (Tony) Guess who thinks that a man in uniform is by far one of the biggest turn-ons there is??? (oh, that would be me) Guess who is really, really bummed that Daddy has to go to police academy for two months? (again, that would be me - 2 months of nightly races to the ball-field and having to wake up early to take the kids to school in my pajamas.... I need my man there to take care of the hard stuff!!)

CONGRATULATION OFFICER-TO-BE WAGES! WE LOVE YOU AND ARE SO PROUD OF YOU!!!

**Tony will be working as a school resource officer at 3 of our local schools. Looking back, we think that this is a job that God had prepared for him all along to do -- with his background and childhood experiences, he will be an awesome, Christian, role model for those kids that has already dealt with every issue they may be struggling with. And if you take into consideration the 10-15 kids who have loved to play ball with him in our front yard, I know that the kids will love him. (But not as much as we do...)

In the Zone

2011-03-27T22:05:00.006-04:00

Funny how when I told my mom we were having ice cream tonight she knew what day it must be -

7 Month DTE-versary!!!!!

And we are #6 in line for baby girl!! What is even more exciting is that our agency's estimation on time from DTE date to referral date is currently 7-11 months. So we are officially 'in the zone'!! Meaning that it could be anywhere from 1 week (but most likely not) to 4 months until we see her little face for the very first time. In the adoption world - rumors, speculations, etc abound and my new favorite is that a traveling family noted that there were 30 babies between the two baby rooms in our transition home. 30 babies under the ages of 12 months (we are requesting a baby 0-12 months). And of those, my friends are estimating that 20 are on our list now as in the process waiting for their mommies and daddies to come and bring them home. So 10 left, maybe. And guess what number we are overall in the line for 0-12 mos babies????? #10. Sweeet. Kinda like this:

Red Velvet Cake Ice Cream 

This month, I chose a flavor for my honey. Since, truth be told, the following months have pretty much been to my flavor favs. And he loves Red Velvet cake..... but told me that he would have rather had ice cream with chocolate. Now ya tell me! This one was Red Velvet cake batter ice cream with pieces of red cake, and a cream cheese icing swirl. Ugh. The big boy hated it. The middle boy loved it. And the girl, she ate it all. The bigger boy said it was 'pretty good' and I, well, I just wasted a many a calorie on it and am glad that it wont be teasing me from the freezer tomorrow. Next month (if there has to be one), back to something with chocolate!!

NEW - Lil' Olivia's

2011-03-23T10:21:00.030-04:00

100% of the proceeds from the sale of Lil' Olivia items will benefit our adoption and travel expenses to go and get our baby girl - hopefully by Fall. We still have a long way to go to fund those astronomical plane tickets!

The following items are available through using the side PayPal button to order. Orders can be placed through leaving me a comment (make sure to give your email address - it wont be published on this site) OR by noting what you would like in the comment section on the PayPal order form. You can also contact me via comments if you would like to send a check or money order. A donation of $2-4 for shipping is appreciated but not required.

Our Old and NEW items --- (click on any picture to see more detail)

NEW Asst of recycled magazine bead necklaces - $12
- made in Kenya -

NEW - triple string magazine bead necklaces - $12
(Uganda)

NEW - magazine bead bracelets; elastic - $5
(Uganda)

NEW - HUGE magazine bead necklaces - $20
(Uganda)

NEW - Multi-colored necklaces - $12
(Uganda)

Carved Ivory necklaces - $3
- made in Kenya -

Child Sized bracelets - $5 for 5

White Ivory bracelets - $5
- made in Kenya-

Brown Ivory Bracelets (designs vary) - $5
- Made in Kenya -
Bangle sets - $5
-made in Mali -

Beauty Products - you can't smell these on the web but these are my best sellers!! With tons of repeat customers as these soaps are made of natural products (most ALL natural) - with tons of lather and great skin healing properties.

(FOR ECZEMA: my little girl had awful eczema last winter. This winter I have been bathing her in one of our shea butter soaps. I forgot to use it for about a week and the eczema showed back up!! Switched back to the shea butter and treated her spots with my Shea/Mango butter and it was all clear in two days!)

Mango Butter - recommended by dermatologist for fine lines - $16 for 4 oz.
Coconut Oil - smells SO good - $10
Shea/Mango Butter - works great to treat eczema - $10
Shea/Aloe Butter - also great for skin problems - $10
Shea Butter - $10

All Soaps - $4.50 each OR $12 for 3

Children's Items:

Stuffed zebras and giraffes - $6 each
-handmade in Kenya -

NEW - Tic Toc drums - $6 each
- handmade in Kenya -

NEW - Taggie Blankets - $15

Sweet little comfort blankets for babies to hold and rub the silky tags.
(generously made and donated by my sweet friend Stephanie - master seamstress!)

Ethiopia Update

2011-03-21T22:08:00.003-04:00

For those of you who have been praying for our adoption and our Prayer 911 -- a little update:

We have heard from our agency and other agencies that the director of MOWA has been replaced.
That there have been many staff changes and even a new name.
That the Ethiopian govt. has been very supportive and pro-adoption.
That the new staff is being diligent about going back to write the letters needed for those cases that have been back-logged with multiple court appearances (800 in the pipeline).
That so far all changes appear to be positive and in the best interests of the children.

What we are hoping is that with things finally moving forward, and hopefully moving smoother - the process will begin to pick up and actually begin to 'work' with parents passing court vs. having to struggle through the emotional roller-coaster of multiple court dates and failures, usually due to MOWA not having written that recommendation letter on those court dates.

What we don't know is how the changes may affect cases going forward. MOWA gives no indication of reinstating the 5 per day letter policy (GREAT news!). But as new regulations are being put in place, we are not sure how much time will be added to, (or taken away) from current times from referral of our baby to the day we have to travel to court. Before this recent episode, the time from seeing her picture to going to meet her and appear in court was from 8-12 weeks.

Friends, please continue to pray for our little girl. The news so far has been positive, and we are hoping that the referral train will start moving again. But right now, things have just seemed to drag since last November - I really seriously thought we would have a referral by February. And according to last year's time-lines, I believe we would have. Now I am hoping for late April at the earliest. I know God has it all in His hands and Olivia will be ready for us when we are ready for her. But it still is enough to cast gray clouds on many days as the process is taking us so long. August will be 2 years of waiting ...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In other news - Tony has left the unreliable field of sales in a crappy economy. He has been blessed to be given a new position as a school resource officer under our new Sheriff and will be going to the academy the first of April. He is excited beyond words and we (especially the boys) are very proud of him. I think that with his background and life experiences - he will be a wonderful role model and encouragement to the elementary school kids he is in contact with every day. It will also be nice to have some stability in the insurance and job department! And also nice to know that he will be in an elementary school vs. out on patrol for the most part.

But I have told him that if our referral comes in while he is in the academy and not able to accept phone calls - he had better believe I am taking that phone call with or without him!!! I told him I might wait until he gets home to open the email and see her photos.. maybe.

To catch a leprechaun..

2011-03-17T15:51:00.007-04:00

You take one little boy with a class assignment ...

Add 30 minutes of quiet time (where did he go???) .....

And without an ounce of parental assistance or direction .....

You get the Leprechaun Holiday Inn - Braeden style!!!

Prayer 911

2011-03-05T21:59:00.003-05:00

For those prayer warriors of you, for those who like to send up mini post-it note prayers throughout your day, and even for those of you that really haven't prayed much before ---

we are asking for your help. Seriously, and urgently.

This past week the ET (Ethiopia) adoption community started flipping out as it was leaking out that MOWA (think- 'Ethiopian DSS') has decided that due to staffing problems, they were cutting down from 50 adoption permission letters a day, to FIVE a day. Add to that an extremely biased news article (with misleading facts and errors) that sent us all into a tail spin quoting wait times for adoption to increase by a year, and for ET adoptions to to the US to decrease from 2,500 to 500 a year.

An explanation: when we, and other families go to court, a letter from MOWA is required to be there waiting for you, on that day, recommending your adoption. If it isn't, your wait for that letter and court passing could be anywhere from weeks to months waiting on it to show up on the perfect day.

So now for those parents waiting to pass court and legally be declared parents to a child they have already met and fallen in love with, the wait could be much, much longer. We could possibly receive a referral for a perfect 4 month old baby girl, go to ET to meet her - and then watch her grow up in an institution with only updates and photos every month. I know the nannies who care for my child love her very much - but they still aren't her mother and every month apart is a month of a family's love that my child has been cheated.

BUT - our agency emailed the following statement on Friday which seemed to indicate that this situation still could be rectified and will be discussed in the coming days:

We are writing to ask your family to join us in prayer for the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs (MOWA) regarding the number of cases they will be able to process each day. They have made statements that they desire to decrease the number of recommendation letters they write each day. We understand that because of these statements, the Court and MOWA are in the process of meeting to discuss and work out any potential changes or new processes regarding adoptions in Ethiopia. We want to blanket these meetings with prayer and ask you to come along side us in this....

If you could (well, even if you don't want to - do it anyway!!!), could you take a moment now, or in the days to come to pray for these negotiations and the thousands of children who are patiently waiting for their parents to come and bring them home. MOWAs job is to make sure all ET adoptions are ethical - and it has been shown that still corruption exists within shady agencies. (Ours is one of the top in ethics and practice). And I am in complete agreement that safe guards and procedures should be put into place to make sure all adoptions are on the up and up and the children are true orphans. But the statistics are staggering - and 5 children a day who are given a new life is not acceptable:

Almost half of the population of Ethiopia are under the age of 14.
Of those 40 million children, 6 million are orphans.
1 out of 10 children in Ethiopia don't make it to their 1st birthday.
1 out of 6 children die before their 5th birthday.

--------feel free to stop reading - the following is just a typical Wages in the Making rant ----

So when I received all the above news late Friday evening - I went from denial, to anger, to peace.

Yes, the rug could be completely pulled out from underneath us and the entire process (going on 2 years already in the making) could be lengthened considerably. Think Guatemala or Haiti where parents being their 'babies' home at the age of 3 or 4. But I have to believe that God would not bring us this far, have shown us His power so much, to leave us in shambles now. It's too soon to give up, something will just have to be worked out and a compromise reached.

Then came the anger. "How DARE he??" How dare the enemy, because believe in it or not, we in adoptions have felt his attacks - how dare he use just one more method of stealing not only the joy from all parents in the process (we found out yesterday we are now #6 in line!), but how dare he continue to try to thwart God's promise of setting the lonely in families? Of bringing my 'daughter from the East' (Isaiah 43:5-6) as He promised me?

We have had friends taken from us, church support taken from us, jobs taken from us, paperwork delays that were so long they were laughable --- and now he is trying to keep my daughter from me even longer??? So many attempts to get us to give up. And not just us but other adopting parents have gone through the same trials, some even worse.

And I am ashamed to say that for a second, for about half a second - the doubts hit me again. What if this goes through and our wait is extended another 1, maybe 2, years? Would we give up? My youngest would be 7 when we bring a baby home! Would we stop and loose everything we have worked so hard for?

But then I remembered Ephesians and the call to 'put on the full armor of God so that you may be able to withstand the attacks of the devil' (Ephesians 6:10-20)... taking the shield of FAITH with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one."

As I have told struggling friends before, and continually tell myself - God doesn't call you to be a soldier for him without knowing you can withstand and win the battle. Because He doesn't loose. He will equip you and strengthen you if you are fighting for His cause. And the plight of the orphan is in the Bible over and over. His heart is for the care and release of the fatherless.

Satan knows that through our adoption, and countless others, we, as Christians, are given the chance to explain the gospel to others. Those who question "why are you doing this? how can you trust God so much for the money/strength/etc.? how are you not falling apart right now?"

Christ came to Earth to find me - his child. He then lay down his life for me just as I, as a mother would lay down my life for my children. He died for me AND you. And then he adopted us, and will bring us home. What a beautiful parallel to every adoption?

So if putting on the armor is required - I'm in. Will you fight with me?

Weight Watchers be gone!

2011-03-01T22:36:00.005-05:00

Another month, another ice cream...

Since it's o.k. for pregnant women to eat ice cream, and since usually pregnant women aren't doing Weight Watchers, it's o.k. for paper pregnant mommies to forget about that diet for one day too. It's only reasonable and fair.

Sunday was our DTEversary celebration and we were officially.....

6 Months DTE!!

And we have moved from #9, to #7 for approximately one day, and back to #8!! (It's complicated, don't ask..)

So on our agencies yahoo group, we are unofficially #8 in line for a baby girl! A long way from the #27 we started with 6 months ago! Our agency still estimates time from DTE to referral of a baby girl to be 7-11 months. 1 more month til crunch time! Hopefully.

And to celebrate, the flavor of the month was:

Half Baked

Oh goodness, goodness. I know I said we had our favorite a few months back but this one ROCKED! Chocolate and vanilla swirled ice cream, bits of squishy fudge brownies, AND globs of choc. chip cookie dough. Heaven I tell ya!!!

And if I hadn't just brushed my teeth, I would so be breaking into those few spoonfuls that only mommy knows still reside in the container. In the freezer. Waaaaaay in the back. Just sayin'.

It's taken a village..

2011-02-27T18:34:00.000-05:00

As many of you know - it has literally taken a village to help us raise the funds to bring sweet Lil' Olivia home. We are almost at the finish line and God has provided for every amount at every time it was needed. Our last amount, the money needed to travel to get her, is our largest with approximately $9000 needed for both trips if only Tony and I go on the first - and me going with a friend on my second trip as Tony stays home. We are still praying that God would provide for our children to be able to go on that first trip to meet their sister, play in the orphanages, and learn a lesson in compassion and missions that no picture or book could teach. Seth has expressed to me that my faith should be 'big enough' to believe God can do it!!! To take our children along would be an additional $6000. So around $15,000. That's a lot to pull together in around 4-5 months but our God is an awesome God!!!

Thankfully, our agency, America World Adoption, has just opened back up a program called the “Eternal Family Program” which enables family and friends to contribute toward the cost of our adoption. If you feel led to partner with us financially, America World will accept contributions on our behalf and will provide a letter or email to you which will substantiate that the funds have been received by AW.

You can contribute either by check or credit card. Checks can be made payable to America World Adoption Association or just AWAA. Both the check and the included “Eternal Family Program” form (download packet below) should be sent directly to America World Adoption Association, Attn: Accounting Dept. 6723 Whittier Ave., Suite 202, McLean, VA 22101. Credit card contributions can be made online at https://www.awaa.org/forms/payment.aspx and the “Notes” section should be used to identify both the Eternal Family Program and our family.

Eternal Family Program packet (includes explanation page, sponsor letter, and EFP form). http://www.awaa.org/downloads/development/eternal_family_program.docx

If you have any questions, feel free to message me directly! We thank you for your interest and look forward to introducing our new daughter to all those who have loved on her already! We are still hoping to bring her home by the end of the summer.

Doesn't make sense does it?

2011-02-23T11:20:00.015-05:00

Disclaimer: I am not in a very good mood so I probably wont be one to mince words with this post

So here is the newest blurb to be making it's way around Facebook:

"Doesn't make much sense does it? Homeless go without eating. Elderly go without medication. Mentally ill go without treatment. Troops go without proper equipment. Veterans go without benefits they were promised. Yet we donate billions to other countries before helping our own first. Charity starts at home. 1% will repost this and 99% will not. I know I'm one of those 1%."

No, it doesn't make sense.

It doesn't make sense that I can ask someone to help a little child and they tell me they can't afford to, and then go drop $40 (more than the cost of helping that child, by the way) on one dinner at Chili's.

It doesn't make sense that it takes us, as Americans, the most prosperous people in the world, years to decide if God is calling us to do anything --- adopt, missions work, sponsorship, etc. But it takes usually less than a week to decide to purchase a new car.

It doesn't make sense that children in this country feel slighted if they only have a Playstation 2 while their friends have all moved on to an XBox. While children in another country are digging through a trash dump to find a rotten banana to have as their meal for the entire day.

It doesn't make sense that my children can play in the shower until all the hot water is used up, while children in another country are bathing in sewage.

It doesn't make sense that I can pay $4 for a case of clean water out of plastic bottles anytime I want and children in another country are dipping those same, but filthy bottles, in brown, bacteria- laden water just to have something to drink.

It doesn't make sense that international adoptions are even needed, that we are spending massive amounts of money, because the mother of my daughter could no longer afford to feed her or care for her. And there are no governmental programs like foster care, Medicaid, or WIC to help her. It doesn't make sense a mother would have to tear a child away from her breast, just to give her the chance to continue to take a breath.

And yet we have the right to complain, while we live in the most blessed country to have ever graced this planet? God has blessed America with more provisions than we could ever possibly use. And is there waste? Yes. And is there government mismanagement of money? Yes. Should the elderly, homeless, and veterans be taken care of? Of course. But out of that 1% that are posting the above on Facebook - how many of those are actually getting their hands dirty in a soup kitchen? feeding programs for the elderly? Surely they are all giving sacrificially to charity close to home???? Most aren't helping much in their own backyard, "yet we donate billions to other countries before helping our own first."

My problem is with the last line - as if being a citizen of this country should make us any better than those living in a third world country, many whose countries have no infrastructure or economic means to even help themselves. Corruption is everywhere, but there ARE good organizations which are doing great things that you could stand beside.

Where you live should not determine IF you live. 22,000 children will die, just today. And those on Facebook think it doesn't make sense we may be helping the other ones struggling to survive?

Out of what we, as Christians, are given - BY GOD - as everything we have is given to us BY HIM - Christians tithe an average of 1% of our income. Lower than even during the Depression.

And of that 1% we generously give - churches then distribute 1% of that to missions. The rest is used for church up-keep, paving parking lots, programs for our children. So 99% comes back to us generous Christians in the form of feeding our souls.

So 1% of 1% goes to the very commandment that Jesus gave in Matthew 10:42 to take care of his little ones. It doesn't make sense does it??

5 Months DTE!

2011-01-29T11:07:00.011-05:00

One more month down! And finally, thank the Lord finally, there has been more movement in regards to referrals with our agency. So now we are officially in the top 10 for a baby girl!! BUT, we have 20 above us waiting so that means that with every 3-4 referrals, we may only move 1 or 2 up our list, but hey, I'll take that! We celebrate each DTE-versary as our agencies official estimate is the receival of a referral at 7-11 months post DTE for an infant girl. So we're getting closer!!

At this pace, we are still hoping (fingers crossed) that we might be able to see her sweet face in March, travel for court maybe in late April, and go get her early June?? Maybe. We get so many ask - "so do you know who she is yet?" Nope. Not until we get that call that tells us all about our referral angel child.

So without further ado, the pic you have been waiting on.....

5 MONTHS SINCE DOSSIER TO ETHIOPIA (DTE)!!!!!

And I also know you have been waiting all month just to find out the flavor of the month. This month we celebrated with the fan favorite :

Cherry GarciaChosen for its accompanying option of "FroYo" for mommy and daddy who are Weight Watching. Except for that night. Cause geez, it was our DTE-versary!!!! And for inquiring minds, yes the frozen yogurt version was still pretty good. Although not much lower in points. So we might as well have just gone full octane.

And just for fun, some pics of the kiddos, fast forward about 15 years to their future careers:

Doctor of Veterinary Medicine

And Professional Baseball Player extraordinaire

And...... spunky Brewster. Or Miley Cyrus. Or Madonna. Heaven help us.

26,000 Today

2011-01-17T13:34:00.006-05:00

There is a new hit in the bloggy world named Dan. He quit his job to start a blog called "Single Dad Laughing". And while some of his posts are pretty hysterical - Dan also can get into some deep posts that make you really think. Like yesterday's post regarding the Holocaust murders. Startling. Humbling. And def. worth the read.

But as I was scrolling through the images, I couldn't help but think about the other images that we never see.

In Richard Stearns' book "The Hole in Our Gospel" (if you are a Christian, or an atheist, you pick; you really need to read this book) - he speaks of the pandemonium that would ensue if we were to wake up to the headlines "One Hundred Jetliners Crash, Killing 26,500". Think about the implications -- airports shut down, non-stop media coverage, world-wide task forces to investigate the causes. We would hear about who had died, and the memorials to the victims, young and old. And that's just in one day. What if we woke up the next morning to the same news? We would think the world must surely be coming to an end.

ONE DAY = 26,000 DEAD.
TIME WOULD STAND STILL.

To compare visually, I found a photo of the recent Arizona memorial service at the University of Arizona in which the President spoke. You can't even see the entire arena but it is a huge crowd of 26,000 come to mourn the shooting victims.
Now image that that arena were full of children. With toothless grins, skinned knees, wide eyes. Imagine your little boy or girl in the front seat - smiling and waving. Surrounded by your nieces and nephews. Their whole elementary school.

That image is how many children die every day from preventable causes. The number of deaths per day. And not number of people who die from AIDS.... number of people killed by cigarette smoking... but the number of children, just children, who die from preventable causes - every day.

Because of malnutrition. Diarrhea. Poor water. Basic childhood illnesses.

Today.
Tomorrow.
And again the next day.
And the next.

And yet, what have you read in the news about it? Where are the memorial services? Where are the documentaries? Where is the outrage?

People love to point out the bad in the world. How 'bout the good? Be the change. Pick one child to start with. One child that you will take out of that arena. One child that you will provide vaccines, healthy food, preventative medicines, and clean water. An education. The saving grace of Jesus Christ. Just one.

But it's a start. One may just be a number, but to that child, it's a pretty important one.

Beauty Bravery

2011-01-14T10:34:00.006-05:00

For those of you who have met my youngest -- you would agree, she is strong-willed, assertive, prissy, and very much in charge of our household (or so she thinks). She is mommy's sidekick and loves to shop, even if it is just for groceries. And she has Daddy wrapped around her bejeweled little finger, turning on the big fat tears if he should so much as raise a voice to her..

So when she gave me the "why don't I have my ears pierced Mommy??" "Lauren has her ears pierced... Christina has her ears pierced... why don't I have my ears pierced????" It starts this young?????

So we took a trip to Claires. And she watched another 4 year old get their ears punched. And shook her head no as we made our way to the clip-on section.

Fast forward a couple more months and out of no-where - while putting the boys to bed I hear a little voice from her room -- "pssst Mommy. Mommy! I was scared before, but now I'm not. I weally, weally want to have my ears pierced"

So we had planned to go on Monday, but it snowed. Then Tuesday after a drs appt, but they canceled, the wednesday, but it was still icy. Sooooo, on Thursday after four days of "when can we goooooooo?" we escaped this trap of a house and headed to Claires again... I'm expecting a dramatic performance.

Before -- all smiles. She picked out Hello Kitty earrings but low and behold, Hello Kitty is the newest "in" fashion and Claires had none to be found.

So we go for pink rhinestone flowers.

Still smiling...

Pop!........ Pop!...... No tears!!!! I am in complete shock.

Sometimes a girl just has to put her foot down and suck it up to show themselves worthy of being a big girl. I am one proud mommy. Now if only we could do the 4 Africa immunizations just as easily..

Why are we adopting from Ethiopia??

2011-01-13T20:13:00.005-05:00

A new AWAA friend posted the following video that she and her husband made regarding Ethiopian adoption. You can read her blog here. It is beautiful and does an excellent job of explaining why those of us who love Ethiopia are drawn there vs. other countries. Enjoy!!

Brownie Points

2011-01-01T23:48:00.010-05:00

For Christmas we always go 'home' to my parent's house in N.C. They live on a beautiful little country farm with relatives dotting the gravel road to their house.

This year, we were excited at the chance a White Christmas. As most of you know, South Carolina is not snow central. We did get a couple inches last February but by noon the next day, it was mostly gone and the boys were in short sleeves. We let them play outside at 11 pm the night of the snow as we knew it had precious few hours of life left..

So when it started with flurries on Christmas around lunchtime, the kids were pumped. By sunset is was so deep, and so cold, that driving home from great grandmas was becoming scary. The kids were still begging to go outside and crying "but it will be gone in the morning!!!" The next day however was a winter wonderland. Mommy was pumped. It didn't snow often when we were little but my favorite memories are of suiting up in 4 layers thick, putting sandwich bags on under mittens, and pulling on the rubber boots. And sledding. I love sledding. Which our 1 inch last February really didn't afford. And since the roads are usually bad when NC gets snow - I can't drive the kids to play in it. So for us to be there, with them out of school.... yeah!!! Don't worry, he has sandwich bags under those high tech gloves.. "you know you're from South Carolina when....."
So after approximately 2 hours of outside play, the men folk decided that with the 17 degrees it would getting to that evening, and the drive home we were 'suppose' to do the next day - it might be better if we left early so that we drove on the cleared roads vs. the iced over roads. What??? And leave now??? But Tony needed to be at work on Tuesday. I wanted to cry, seriously..

So we left. And came home. The kids pouting. Mommy pouting. Addison told me the next morning that "she was weally mad at me". Not MY fault!!! We came home to large patches of yard already showing in our front lawn... Not funny at all. All I could think of was how we had cheated my kids out of a humongous childhood memory. It was Christmas. It snowed. We played once. Mom and Dad made us go home.

So I wake up the next morning and check the roads for both states - clear and moving well. I pack about a zillion more layers of clothes in a laundry basket and back out on the road we go. 3 1/2 more hours, $75 more in gas, and we are back in wonderland!!!!

So we sled, and sled some more, and then make tracks with Papaw's 4 wheeler to sled some more the next day. So the NEXT day - we sled on the iced paths (the boys thinking it was funny to make paths to run me into trees at the bottom of the hill), and then sled some more, and then realize we are pooped from trudging up those heels so go on a four wheeler ride back into the fields where we go over and around hills and trees and come upon deer tracks. Which the boys and I then track about 14 miles into the woods (maybe an exaggeration... maybe). But none the less, a really fun hike. (If I could have gotten images of hungry coyote or a misplaced bear jumping out onto the path in front of us to go away, it would have been much more fun for mom.)

So now I earned my 'good mommy of the year' badge. And had a wonderful winterland time doing it. But I also was extremely irresponsible and skipped out on 3 appointments I had scheduled the last day we were there .... oh well, brownie points are more valuable than Medicaid payments any old day. But especially on snow days.

#11 for 2011

2011-01-01T16:36:00.003-05:00

Finally, we are movin' on up again. Albeit verrrrry slowly. The last few weeks had a couple referrals and a couple is sure better than none. So now we have 10 people waiting ahead of us for baby girls. Overall, we have 25 people ahead of us total. The good news is that people have started passing court and going to embassy appointments to bring their children home. The bad news is that the agency that 'recommends' parents to the court feels like they are bogged down and have caused the court to not schedule any dates in February. So courts closed all of Aug/Sept which caused a back-up. And courts closed again in February to alleviate a back-up. Oh well.... I'm just excited knowing that with the calendar moving to 2011, that this WILL be the year we bring home our 4th child. Better be anyway!!!

On to sweeter things, this month I took the mommy liberty of choosing our flavor of the month:

Cinnamon Buns

And I must say, I think this is our favorite. Yummm. Caramel ice cream with cinnamon bun dough & cinnamon streusel swirl. Yum X 5 with everyone liking it. Which is a very hard thing to accomplish! Addison exclaimed it was the best ever.

A child-like faith

2010-12-16T22:03:00.005-05:00

So the other day I got schooled by my son. And it really makes me proud that he called me out.

But first things first - I need to announce that if you haven't noticed the side thermometer - we MET our goal of $5630 for our referral fee!! In little increments of $10-$30 from Olivia's store!! And a few sweet donations to boot.

A referral fee is the last amount of money you pay to 'seal the deal' when you get your baby's photo and history - THE CALL. The money helps pay court costs, medical costs, and everyday orphanage care for our child.

Anyway, you get THE CALL and then have to return your acceptance papers and $5630 in just a few days. So to have this money in the bank thrills me.

So when the boys found out that a holiday market at their school had pushed us to $5628 they were so excited and wanted to know - "NOW can we go get her!". Well no, not now. We still have to wait til we're number one and then we'll be able to give them the money to accept her. (which by the way, we are now #12, I think)

To which Seth asked, "so then how much more money do we need?"

Me: "Well, we need a minimum of about $10,000. And that's just for me and your daddy to go on the first trip and me on the second."

Him: (in a huff) "so you're just hoping that you'll get enough money for you and dad to go!!"

Me: "It's not really hoping Seth. I have faith that God will provide enough for us to go."

Him: (now mad) "so you don't have enough faith that God will give us enough money for us all to go see her! You should have enough faith that he can give enough for us all to go!!!"

To which I had to give it to him - yes - I would love for my kids to be able to go with us to meet their sister, play with the children at the orphanages, see poverty first-hand, and hopefully birth in them a desire and love for God's children who are so often forgotten. I would love for them to go on this trip so that they will never forget.

But no - I guess I don't have the faith that God would provide for those tickets too. Cause that's a lot of money. And He's already done so much for us. How much more can I ask Him for??

However, as I told Tony - what lesson will I be teaching Seth if I push him to dream small? Isn't this entire adoption a huge dream to begin with? And what if he really does have God telling his little heart that he will go on this trip? And I tell him he needs to just ignore that?

So the question is now - do we take that big leap of faith and tell him "come on buddy, let's go get that passport..." or do we sit back and wait to see if God moves on that front too?

Being an adult stinks. I wish I had the child-like version of this faith journey all the time..

Christmas Card

2010-12-16T10:26:00.004-05:00

I'm refusing to send out a family Christmas card without knowing any information on our newest family member, so instead, I found this charming Christmas video that fits my family to a T. Our quiet, reserved, gentle family.... Enjoy. And Merry Christmas!!!!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Bloggy Christmas Cookie Exchange

2010-12-15T16:13:00.004-05:00

Oh, I am such a sucker for anything sweet...

My adoption buddy at "My Crazy Adoption" just started her 1st annual Bloggy Christmas Cookie Exchange and hey, anything that does not involve me putting any brain cells into a real post, but keeps my peeps coming back to visit every once in a while - I can go for.

So here is the simple, but glorious, chocolatey cookie dessert that I promise you will thank me for. Cause every time I make it, everyone loves it and I get the credit, although my friend Amy actually shared the recipe with me. So go ahead, make it simple and then rake in the compliments for the easiest taste of Heaven ever:

Cookie Dough Heaven:
1 large refrigerated choc. chip cookie dough roll (or two regular size)
1 cream cheese (or low-fat version)
1 egg
3/4 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Press 1/2 of the dough down in a 9X13 pan until covers most of bottom. Mix cheese, egg, and sugar and spread over the top of the dough. Drop crumbles of the remaining dough all over top. (it wont cover it all, that's fine). Bake around 30 min or until cookies on top are beginning to brown. Best when served room temp.

And.... as an added bonus - my famous homemade chocolate chip cookie recipe -
A few years back, I had a cute little questionnaire where I asked the boys questions about their mom. What do you love most about your mom? She makes us cookies. What does your mom do best? make cookies. What is your favorite thing that your mom cooks? Her cookies.

Mind you, they were interviewed separately. So I'm thinking that a little extra effort for the homemade variety has scored me a few brownie points. However, after typing the above, I'm preeetty sure that the first lady now has me on her hit list and will be contacting DSS to report my poor parenting - as everyone knows, we should not show our love through our food.

Home-Made Choc. Chip Cookies:
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 egg
2 1/4 cups a.p. flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1-2 cups semi-sweet choc chips (1 if you want to taste the cookie, 2 if you are a chocolate addict like me)

Preheat to 375. Mix sugars, butter, and egg. Stir in flour, baking soda, and salt. Batter will be stiff. Stir in chips.

Drop by rounded tablespoons onto baking clay, 2 inches apart. Bake 8-10 minutes.

**to me, the secret to a perfect cookie is the baking clay. It allows the heat to go through the cookie instead of charring the bottom or having hard bottom, soft top cookies. It's just perfect - thank you Pampered Chef...

Our Father Came

2010-12-07T08:03:00.012-05:00

In February, 2010 I became engrossed in the story of a father's love. The Haiti earthquake had just hit and news bombarded us from every side. But in the midst of the chaos, one story made it's way to the forefront of my mind.

The story of a father, who went to Haiti, to rescue his son. A son that they had been planning for, preparing for, and dreaming of for years. He saw his son in trouble, and he went to bring him home.

Ernest and Ronel Parker then slept 9 days on a hard Embassy floor - waiting to come home to their family. With disaster and death all around them - the son clung to his father, his hero father, asking "we go now?"

On his mother Debra's blog, she wrote of the day Ernest left for Haiti:
"He did not have an ounce of fear in his body. He was more determined than I may have ever seen him before. The look in his eye was intense and his heart was beating just a bit faster. He was going to fight for his son. He did not care where he would sleep. He did not care what he would eat. He was not scared of what danger there could be. Nothing would stop him. A father's love was the drive behind the strength."

A Father's Love...... this time of year, as we celebrate the season - we see twinkling lights, wrapped gifts, and we picture the sweet, sweet picture of an infant in a manger.

And while that story should be celebrated, I think just as much, we need to focus on the impact of that sweet child. That it was not the birth of the babe that impacts us, but the arms of the Father coming to bring us home to our family.
He did not care what he would eat. He did not care where he would sleep. He was not afraid of the dangers that he might face. He was coming to bring his children home.

But still, do we realize? Our world is no less broken than Haiti still is today. Broken by the sins of greed and hatred. Littered with the trash of immorality and perversion. Full of plague and pestilance, growing day by day. Spiritual death is all around us and increases every day.

And yet our father came to suffer through those days to bring us home.

And how often do we, instead, of being comforted in his arms, tell him, "just a moment, I need to stay outside and play in this rubble."

How often do we, instead of running and yelling from the roof-tops - "Our father is here to take us home, he will take all who come to him!!" Do we instead keep his gift to ourselves as we are ashamed of our status as his children.

How often do we, instead of talking to him and loving him, do we instead, stay pent up in our own rooms until Sunday, when we might emerge to tell him hello and then go back to our own cares?

Christ did not come to be a babe in the manger. Christ came to bring us home. To rescue us.

And he did not come to have us sing quick 'hello', but to worship him for the gift of our adoption. And to tell the world of his love. And to bring others into his arms and out of the destruction. To show love to those that have no one else to help them.

Spiritual death is all around. And you never know when the walls of judgement will fall down on top of you. When the plague of sin will destroy your joy, your health, and your life. Only through Christ can you have the peace that no matter how hard this world is, no matter how bad you may have once been, you are still loved, and it will be alright. And that he is still here, ever present, always watching - and doing miracles in the lives of his children. He is alive and active.

Do you know who your Father is? Because over 2000 years ago, he came so that he could take you home. All you have to do is run to his arms.

Back-ordered are back

2010-12-01T16:23:00.004-05:00

Well --- it took forever to get these little darlings back in. But I guess if you figure in that they were coming from Africa, I guess I'll give it a little lead-way. Christmas orders need to be ordered soon to allow for shipping time.

Bangle Set - $10
This is the way I have been wearing my bracelets -

They are made in Mali, Africa by weaving nylon cords around water reeds.

This time, they also sent many small bracelets (too small for me). The boys are loving them as they are finally small enough to fit them. And pretty cool for little girls. Would make great stocking stuffers.

Small bracelets - $5 for 5 (specify kid size, adult, or larger adult)
** shown on my 7 and 10 year old's arms for size comparison.

White Kenyan Bracelets - $5

Check out our other page of Lil' Olivia store items. Time's running out so Santa needs to get a move on!!!

3 'Mounth' DTE

2010-11-30T22:20:00.006-05:00

3 Month DTE, and no exclamation marks this month. It has been pretty uneventful with our agency pretty much at a stand-still for the last month. Unfortunately, one of the main feeder orphanages is going through a re-licensing process which has cause many families to be stuck in limbo until the certification is complete. Which causes us little people underneath them to also be stuck in limbo. As no new babies can be brought in while there are still babies who haven't been able to pass court and go home yet...

However, one month more of waiting means one more month closer to seeing Olivia, so we still celebrated, albeit a few days late.

The flavor of the month, chosen by Addison was:

New York Super Fudge Chunk

Yummmmmy. As you can clearly see..
This, my friends, has got to be THE messiest priss pot there is. Every meal ends up on her clothing, hands, arms, toes, you name it. But as I said in the last post - chocolate makes us happy!!!

It all comes back to chocolate or Charlie Brown

2010-11-29T23:00:00.004-05:00

Just for fun since I still haven't found my writing ability. Although I did shorten the quiz a bit as I was getting long-winded:

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? I can't say I've ever had Egg Nog but just the thought of drinking eggs kinda makes me throw up a little in my mouth. You can also hold the hot chocolate. In the way of coffee, I'm in chocolatey heaven with just enough Mint Chocolate Truffle to turn the color from black to a beautiful caramel. A little coffee with my cream please. (with a Lactate on the side) And I have to say I am committing adultery on my old love affair with Peppermint Mocha. But Mr. Truffle now has my heart.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Santa declines to wrap the Wages gifts. Primarily because Santa is a cheap scape who buys most of her gifts from consignment sales. So if they are never wrapped but always open, one can always pass good-as-new as brand-spankin-new. It's just easier on the elves all the way around. Cuts down on production costs.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? white. white. white. On the tree, cause I love to lay on the couch, take a lactate, drink a mug full of mint flavored cream, and watch the stars twinkle. Stars just don't twinkle in red and green, it just ain't right. And that goes for outside icicles as well. If I saw ice hanging from my roof in shades of red, I would be wondering what nice Southerner shot Rudolf on my rooftop. It just ain't right..

4. Do you hang mistletoe? There is no need. We needed medical intervention to stop this baby producing mill.

5. When do you put your decorations up? The weekend after Thanksgiving. Although at the moment half opened boxes are littered all around my house as my children have decided that their mother is either too lazy or too slow to actually get the house decorated. So the children's rooms are decked the halled. The rest of my house, not so much. Unless you count two empty Christmas tree boxes in front of my fireplace and bubble wrap sprinkled all around.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? turkey stuffing. Yummmmm. Why we only make it 2 times a year is beyond me?

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? making the rounds at all the grandparent's houses and being given MnMs and chocolate covered cherries. Due to divorce and healthy grandparents, we were able to know 3 sets of grandparents and 3 sets of great-grandparents. That's a lot of MnMs to be had.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I thought I had things figured out in 4th grade until we were in the middle of building a house, living off of hot dogs and bologna sandwiches. When I got a new bike from Santa - I KNEW he had to be real cause that bike must have costed at least $500!! (says the 4th grader with no concept of money)

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Not normally. Although I've picked up the tradition of giving the kids p.j.'s on Christmas Eve. Just cause I like cute Christmas morning pictures vs. pics of my scrawny boys hanging out of hand-me-down boxers.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? I've given each kid's room it's own tree to reduce all child interaction with my piece of art. Hey, don't judge me. I can smile at their Charlie Brown trees and smile at my carefully spaced holiday masterpiece.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Loved it as it makes it's way to the Carolinas so infrequently that it is awesome to see how much joy my kids get out of a few stray flakes. Even better, last year's South Carolina blizzard came in one night, was enough to make snow men out of - and was gone by the next afternoon when the kids were playing in short sleeves. It's like a drive thru version of Frosty the snowman.

12. Can you ice skate? Coordination is not my strong suit. If you count standing up and then skidding on your rear, yes - I can skate. Just not on my feet.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? a couple years back Tony gave me a charcoal portrait of Seth drawn by our artist friend Noah. He was about 3 and it made me cry. First present to ever make me cry but I loved it.

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? the babe in a manger that grew up to be my Daddy. The answer is always Jesus.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? do I have to choose just one? Although you can't go wrong with anything chocolate - I love the icebox fruit cake rolls my mom and I make. It's fruit cake with no cake involved, but lots of powdered sugar, graham crackers, and cherries.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? giving my kids ornaments every year that reflect their interests. They could care less, but I love doing it. And they love their personalized, self-decorated Charlie Brown trees.

17. What is your favorite Christmas Song? Mercy Me's version of Angels we have Heard on High. It's a song headache all season long.

18. Candy Canes: Yuck or Yum? could really care less. Unless they are ground and mixed with chocolate. Chocolate makes everything happy.

19. Favorite Christmas Show? Charlie Brown's Christmas. His tree makes me smile. Can ya tell??

Your turn!!!

Hurry -- Thanksgiving Sale Ends soon!

2010-11-25T15:48:00.008-05:00

BACK IN STOCK!! Our favorite little bangles to wear as a set with a large bangle -
$10 set or $5 for 5.
Great for teacher or co-worker gifts!!

Embroidered Tuareg Bracelets - made in Mali --
Sale - 2 for $6 (regularly $5 each)

OR

One bangle and 3 smaller ones (pictured above) for $10

Check out our other items on sale in Lil' Olivia's Store.

Internet Sale Ends November 30th at midnight!!!
(additional shipping donation of $2 on small orders and $4 on large packages is much appreciated but not required)

God Bless!!

An infestation!!!!!

2010-11-18T21:44:00.009-05:00

The other morning I woke up to a rodent infestation.

They were everywhere.

In my jean drawers...

In my p.j. drawer....

Even on my bathroom ceiling....

And a week later, they haven't moved at all....

And why do I allow these miniature critters to continue to greet me every morning??

Because it cracks me up that such a plot could have been orchastrated by such a sweet little thing as this.... it just isn't possible.....

Or such an angelic face as this.... no way would HE have planned such an attack...

Angels. My little angels. That crack me up.

Although I may need to take down the bathroom mice as visitors may not find it as funny as I do that rodents are stuck to my ceiling. Real or not.

(And Braeden's black and blue forehead and cheek - Seth hit him with the dog lead. By accident. Because he was laying on the ground. And when I called Tony to tell him that we had just narrowly avoided another ER visit -- he immediately asked "what did Braeden do???" How did he know??)

Lil Olivia's - Christmas is coming!!!

2010-11-17T22:55:00.022-05:00

BACK IN STOCK!! Great for teacher or co-worker gifts!! Now with small sizes for little ones.

Small bracelets $5 for 5.
Bangle set (1 large, 3 small) - $5 set

Thank you so much to all who have been making Christmas purchases! So far we have profited close to $800 through Lil' Olivia's store!! You can see the thermometer on the right slowly, slowly inching it's way up towards our referral fee of $5600 for our baby girl!! Go God!!

We have been helped out immensely by great friends in the adoption world and their wonderful Christmas blog hop lists. So do all your Christmas shopping this year by pointing and clicking - and helping to bring those babies home in the process!!! Lots of items to choose from, many handmade!
Christmas Shop Hop
Christmas Frenzy
Shopping with a Purpose
Home for Christmas
One Stop Adoption Shop

Kenyan bracelets - $5 each (specify white or brown)

Bead Necklaces - $10 each.

Soaps - $4.50 each

**Dudu-Osun is the company's best seller - healing soap made in Nigeria. Made with shea butter, tropical herbs, and native honey for any skin problems.

(Stock up on Peppermint & Aloe soap for gift baskets or bags)

** I also have a Lemon and Tea tree soap that is my absolute favorite. Great smell and fights blemishes. I didn't have a sample on hand (as it has been selling out!) but can order more if you would like to try it!

Embroidered Tuareg Bracelets - made in Mali -- $5 each

Zebras & giraffes - handmade in Kenya
$6 Each

Banana Leaf Santa Ornaments - handmade in Kenya
$4 each

My boy's new favorite (they have been selling to all their school friends)
Kenyan Ivory Necklaces - $3 Each
And don't forget, I can also order
Virgin Coconut Oil 4 oz - $10
Shea Butter 4 oz - $10
Shea Aloe Butter 4 oz - $10 (great reviews as helping with severe eczema)
Mango Butter 4 oz - $16 (recommended by dermatologist as anti-aging)

**all are 100% natural and pure

(additional shipping donation of $2 on small orders and $4 on large packages is much appreciated but not required)

God Bless!!

The terrible 2's strikes again

2010-11-13T19:12:00.004-05:00

Yes, I do realize my youngest is almost 5.

I'm talkin about ME.

You know, the one who has faith God will provide for this adoption..
until the due dates for payments loom near.

You know, the one who has faith that God has the perfect daughter destined for our family..
until I get down that it is taking so long.

You know, the one who has faith that God loves me..
until bad things happen.

Bad things like lay-offs. Again. The third time in the last year. Unless I've lost count, which is possible.

Last time was the week before Christmas. At least this time we had a month to go...
Last time I had a mini temper tantrum. O.k., a big, full-out, screaming-stamping-my-feet temper tantrum.

This time I had a mini melt down. O.k., a stay-in-my-pajamas-and-avoid-all-conversation-as-I-sit-in-a-corner-and-pout temper tantrum.

Last time, God provided another job in two days. And I chastised myself for my lack of faith. I even wrote a blog about how stupid I had been.

This time, God provided another job in three days. And so I am now chastising myself for my lack of faith. And writing a blog about it. So I can once again look back later at how immature my Christian walk can be.

We had been praying for him to get a better job where he could move up and be successful enough for me to scale back my hours more when the baby gets here. His last job was quickly showing itself to be a dead end. A big, fat dead end where a boss gives you no work to do, you beg for work to do, and he assures you it will come, not to worry about loosing your job. And then he lays you off the next morning.

This job has an exciting boss who is pumped about his partnership and is planning on growing and succeeding together. Kind of like we had been praying for. And silly me for worrying about God taking away his crappy job. And having a temper tantrum. And acting like a two-year old. You would think I would learn.

Another job in three days in a bad economy. It's kind of like He has a big plan which is better than mine isn't it?? You would think I would learn....

What would you do?

2010-11-10T16:05:00.006-05:00

Sunday was National Orphan Sunday. I never would have known that until this year. Orphan awareness was preached in pulpits across the country. And yet, before this past year, I was so unaware. If it isn't on the news, it didn't affect me. If it isn't on the radio, it didn't affect me. If it isn't front and forefront in your daily life - I'm guessing it doesn't affect you either.

It's so easy to get wrapped up in the need for new cleats, the need for a winter jacket, the need for another box of cereal, another gallon of milk. We have so much that we focus on that our focus becomes completely inward - with the outside world as only a shadow of reality.

Until that reality drops on your doorstep, and then it affects you.

Lately we have had parents who are visiting their children in Ethiopia reporting back about the conditions of the orphanages there. We all knew they weren't the most clean places. Happy places. Places where children are well fed and loved. We knew that. But to hear first-hand descriptions of where my daughter, may, at this moment be sleeping --- it brought me to tears several weeks ago - and it brings me to tears again today.

From another AWAA parent's blog:
"Tuesday was another one of those highly emotional days. Wow. We started off early in the morning to visit two orphanages. The first one was right down the street from our guest house, and when we got there, we realized that these were the kids we hear singing every morning!! Boy did this place grab a hold of us. We walked in to dozens of older children all sitting in a line outside. Then we went to the toddler room. As soon as I picked up the first child, I discovered that they weren’t wearing diapers and just about every one of them was wet. Their beds were soaked. Some didn’t even have mattresses because they were laying out in the sun to dry. One little boy was so scared when we came that he ran to a corner and faced the wall to be avoided. Then we visited the infant room where we saw a similar situation. No diapers, wet mattresses, 3 to 4 babies to a crib. It was heart breaking. One of the families brought diapers to donate, so the ladies immediately started putting diapers on the kids, covering mattresses with plastic and sheets, and holding each of those babies. I don’t tell you about these conditions to speak badly of the orphanage. The truth is, it’s all they have. I picked up the first baby I saw in the room, and she clung to me for dear life, crying if I tried to put her down. When I could calm her down to put on a diaper, her entire bottom was blistered. We stood crowded in that tiny room as long as our guide would allow us to stay. There were moments when I thought about all the germs, infections, and rashes I was touching, but we all decided it was more important for these children to be visited and loved than for us to get dirty. B and I also spent some time outside with the older kids and they would beg us to sit next to them in their line. When we did, they’d weave their arms through ours and hang on tight to ensure we wouldn’t get up. Some would cry if you didn’t sit by them, some would search our pockets, and one even snatched our camera. An older girl walked down the line with an old rag wiping the tears and snot from their faces all on the same spot. Needless to say, our group gave bins and bins of donations to this particular orphanage. To those who donated from home, THANK YOU! Pictures weren’t allowed, but I just wish you could see with your own eyes how needed this stuff was. You cared for the least of these on Tuesday through your generosity."

And this orphanage is, thankfully, being helped by those visiting parents. Who bought those mattresses. Who bought the plastic sheeting to wrap them. Who bought the diapers to put on those babies. And yet - the need is still so great.

And yet - this is only one orphanage in Ethiopia. In the world. That is 'lucky' enough to have a relationship with an agency which can help to support them and improve their conditions. What about the other hundreds of orphanages in Ethiopia? In the world? What about those orphans?

Often times when asked why we are adopting from Ethiopia - Tony has told them - 'if your child was sick, and hungry, and a million miles away. Wouldn't you do everything within your power to bring her home to you?'

So before this post leaves your mind and doesn't affect you at all anymore - could you take a moment, in this, National Adoption Awareness Month, to wonder what you, as one person, could do? You may not think you have room for another child. Or maybe you are too old. Or maybe you aren't called to adopt, or foster.

But you could sponsor an orphan, with Compassion International.
But you could research the possibility of adoption - our agency - America World Adoption.
But you could donate to families who are trying to do everything within their power to bring their children home. With it made easier by lists of families with items for sale for Christmas -
Shopping with a Purpose
One Stop Adoption Shop
Home for Christmas

You could do anything. As long as you do something.

"Once our eyes are opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows what we know, and holds us responsible to act."
Proverbs 24:12

Shopping with a Purpose

2010-10-30T23:10:00.004-04:00

How many people have we all heard say, "I would adopt if it wasn't so expensive."

Yes, adoption is very expensive. But so is childbirth, and daycare, and drs. bills. And just like with my biological children, it is worth every penny. We would do anything for our kids. It's just that with an adoptive mommy and daddy, we would do anything for our kids before we ever see their face.

God may call some to labor to bring these children home, but He calls us all to care for them and support the orphan. With that said, there is a blog I have just found out about that IS the exemplification of giving it all and walking in faith. This family's story is amazing. If you have time, spend about 30 minutes and read about their "Wild Adventure" in adoption. It was a blessing just to read.

This mom has opened her blog as a jumping platform to many other adoption 'stores'. To encourage us all to "shop with a purpose" for all those in our life this Christmas that we want to remember, but also would like to make a small difference in the process.

Go HERE to "A Place Called Simplicity" to view not only my store but many other family's blogs where Christmas items can be purchased. Most unique and handmade. Each one making another step closer to bringing home their children, all around the world. Adoption is an expensive process - but you can help ease some of the burden this Christmas season. And spread a little joy a little early. And I'm pretty sure that is what Christmas is all about. Adoption. Sacrifice. Faith. Joy.

Give me a Two!!!

2010-10-27T22:11:00.007-04:00

Two Months DTE!!!!!!!

ha! I bet my mom just freaked out - two months mom, not two babies...

However, in prayer time tonight at church, someone mentioned that God always gives more abundantly than what we ask for. I quickly reminded them that, no - we really only want one baby, thank-you-very-much..

So without further ado--- we are now ----- number-----seventeen!!!

Courts finally reopened and we sat, and sat, and sat - with no movement. Then last Friday the floodgates opened and referrals started rolling out! So here we are! In addition, 11 of those 16 families ahead of us have now gotten their 'on deck' email which means they should keep their phones close as their call could come anytime from now to 3 months from now! Wow.

So in honor of our 2 month DTE-versary -- the three little monkeys actually agreed on our flavor of the month --

Phish Food.

Reviews: Braeden and Addi had chocolate ice cream all over their entire mouth/lip area. Picture a circle from your chin up to your nose. That's them. So I think they liked it. But... they are notoriously messy eaters with food in a circle from their chin up to their nose quite regularly - so you can't use that as a ruler.

Seth - "it's nasty". He, obviously, is not my child. Chocolate + caramel can NEVER = nasty.

Mommy = one very happy phisherman. Chocolate and caramel make the world go round.

SO -- here's our latest question we are getting quite frequently - "so how old is she and when do you get her?"

We don't know --- she may not even be born yet. My understanding is that there are many babies in the out-laying orphanages, left by surviving parents or family members who could not care for them. Our agency runs a 'transition home' which can only house and care for 100 children. As children/babies are taken home, new children/babies are brought in from the outlaying orphanages to the empty beds. How they choose those children is beyond me. I just cannot imagine. They are then tested medically and a file or dossier is designed for each child. Once our name is #1 for a baby girl, we would then get a referral call for the next baby who's dossier is ready that fits our requested criteria - under the age of 12 months and with only minor, correctable health problems. So she could be anywhere from several weeks old to 11 months old. We just don't know.

As to when we would get her - right now our agency is still officially saying 7-11 months from DTE date to referral date. Although the last several referrals have been around 5-6 months from DTE. So we could be getting close to half-way there, or we could have 5-9 months more of ice cream trials ahead of us until we see her. Which is NOT a good thing...

Lil' Olivia's - Round Two

2010-10-21T19:21:00.013-04:00

Lil' Olivia's Store is back on!! (after a re-stocking):

As we are still raising money for our baby girl in Ethiopia - we are opening Lil' Olivia's store once more! We are now #15 in line for an infant girl and are still needing to move that thermometer on the side on up to have her referral fee ready when our name hits #1 and we first see her precious face. For those of you new to our blog - we are now over 1 year in the process and can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel. Ethiopia also requires 2 trips so additional funds are needed for travel. BUT - God has provided thus far and He is faithful!!

To order: Leave me a comment under this post with your requests (I get all comments as emails before posting). Then use the PayPal button to the right to pay OR you can send a check made out to "Wages Adoption" to avoid the small fee that PayPal takes - I can send you my address at time of order. ALL proceeds go straight into our adoption account and will be used to move that thermometer on the side on up! 2 months down and hopefully only 4-5 left to go before we will be needing our referral fee to accept her picture and bio as our daughter!

Banana Leaf Santa Ornament - $4
"Hand-crafted in Kenya, this unique banana leaf ornament takes hours to create by cutting banana leaves and pasting them together to form this intricate shape. Some of the leaves are painted or dyed to give santa his red coat and hat. 5" tall." Let me tell you, this little joker is a cutie-pie!

Hand-made magazine bead necklaces, made in Kenya. - $10 each.
These come in varying lengths, short, medium, and long. Some having clasps so that they can be looped or doubled. I have two of my own and I love, love, love mine. I wear them with everything. Even sometimes looped around my wrist as a bracelet. Each one is different. Great for Christmas presents!! Click picture for closer view of uniqueness.

Assortment of All-Natural made soaps - $4.50 each

I branched out with the soaps as they are harder to find and I was hoping would be a specialty item. These are the companies top sellers. They are made with natural ingredients and most boast healing qualities such as :

For Christmas Gift!!!

Peppermint & Aloe - With Shea butter, Baking Soda, & crushed almonds.

Dudu-Osun Black Soap - age long made the traditional way with all natural ingredients
Lemongrass & Tea Tree - Uplifting, brightening, and anti-inflammatory. Smells great!
Mango Butter Soap - Rejuvenating, Firming, and Moisturizing
Honey & Black Seed Soap w. Apricot Oil - Anti-Blemish, soothing, and healing
Shea Butter w/ Lavendar & Wildflowers - Hydrating, Healing, & Calming

Coconut Oil - 4 oz. $10
1 lb jar - $ 24.00
Pure 100% Virgin coconut oil. Helps regulate metabolism to encourage weight loss when used as a healthy alternative to cooking oils. Used to age-proof your skin. For flawless skin and health.

Coconut & Papaya w/ Vanilla - Anti-aging, Brightening, and Firming
Black Soap w/ Shea Butter & Aloe
Raw Shea Butter - Nourishing, Soothing, and Moisturizing
Goat's Milk & Chai - w/ Rose Extracts. Softening & Hydrating.
Raw Shea Butter w/ Soy milk, frankincense & Myrrh - Protects from severe dryness, psoriasis, aging, and harsh environmental conditions.
Black Soap w/ Oats, Aloe, & Vitamin E - acne fighting, detoxifying, & healing

Large Woven bangles - $5
Made in Mali. Unfortunately, the smaller bracelets I was selling as a set with these are still on back-order. I will post more as soon as I can get them. These are made with a water reed and wrapped in nylon threads. So they are very waterproof and very sturdy.

Stuffed zebras & giraffes - $6 each
Made in Kenya. Really guys, these are so cute when you see them in person. All hand-made.

I can also order African butters and oils such as shea butter, mango butter, Jojoba oil, cocoa butters, aloe butter.
Message me with a comment and I can give you more information if you have a special request.

Numbers speak for themselves

2010-10-18T10:21:00.004-04:00

Sometimes numbers are just too huge to comprehend. And so easy to read quickly and not really digest. But here's a few that speak for themselves --- digest away (statistics from Richard Stearnes - "The Hole in Our Gospel"):

Average giving of American church goers (the Christians.... you know.... the ones given the mandate to "go unto all nations" and "feed my sheep" and "take care of the widows and orphans":

In 2005, only 5% of American Christians tithed - an average of 2.58% of their income.

In 1933 at the height of the Great Depression, Christians gave an average of 3.3%

Of that tithe going into the American church - 98% goes back into those churches and communities, with only 2% going out into the world to fulfill Christ's commandments.

So 2% of 2% of American Christian's income
goes to the world's poor, widows, and orphans.

That's about 6 cents per day from you and I.

BUT - we NEED that money right?? It's a recession and we all are on hard times ---

IF your family makes more than $25,000 a year. You are wealthier than 90% of the world's population.

For the next big numbers, just a reminder - a billion is this big: 1,000,000,000.

Amount Americans spend on entertainment and recreation -
$705,000,000,000

Amount American teenagers spend, ages 12-17 -
$179,000,000,000

Amount Americans spend on their pets -
$31,000,000,000

TOTAL US-government foreign assistance budget -
$39.5 billion

TOTAL amount spent on all overseas ministries - $5 billion.

More numbers -
Cost to eliminate the most extreme poverty - $168 billion
Cost to bring universal primary education for children - $6 billion
Cost to bring clean water to most of the world's poor - $9 billion
Cost to bring basic health and nutrition for everyone in the world - $13 billion

Number of orphans worldwide today - 165 million.
Number of children (2006) waiting in US foster care to be adopted - 126,967
Number of children (2006) adopted domestically - 50,379
Number of children (2009) adopted internationally - 12,782

"To better understand the spiritual priorities of our churches
- and ourselves -

we have to do what any detective would do: "follow the money"
- Richard Stearnes "Hole in our Gospel"

Paper Pregnancy month #2

2010-10-07T22:15:00.008-04:00

Well obviously we have just jumped from newly pregnant to the craving/nesting phase. Or maybe I just like to say that so it will seem as if my life has been any different for the last month. It hasn't. I'm bored. Yes - it took one long year. One....long....very....long......year to get our paperwork done. And now we wait. And wait.

And make cookies. With my new Africa cookie cutter. Cause that is what my little girl wanted to take for her preschool snack day and well.... if I can't go to Africa right now - I may as well chow it down with a glass of milk.

Which actually is a lie because milk now makes me feel like puking. What kind of person becomes allergic to milk at the old age of 35?? Ridiculous. Cookies just aren't the same with a big cold glass of Diet Dr. Pepper.. But these, my OCD self must say, turned out pretty darn cute.

What I have also been doing, (since we aren't moving our name up the waiting list), and are just sitting here twiddling our thumbs at #23.... is shop. My excuse is, to spread the expenditures out. Since I was done having babies. And sold everything. People -- I mean EVERYTHING except for the cutesy dresses with "A" embroidered on them. So while I'm not trying to get completely stocked up - I will feel better with at least some basics covered.

My other excuse is that MAN I have been finding some deals!! This diaper changer (that is in our room as that is where we will have to have little Miss live for the first several months of her life here). I got for $25. No kidding.

The shoes under it were my absolute favorite for Addi - "Angel" shoes. The best baby shoe ever. Which are outrageously high but I will buy anytime I see them under $10. They are just that soft and cute. Cause I have flashbacks of uncomfortable, hard Mary Janes and the indention they would leave across the top of your foot. Uh-uh. These shoes rock.

And this cute purple sling?? With the adorable matching leg warmers (doesn't that just make you smile when you imagine them on her??) I got for FREEEEEEEE. Well, I paid shipping and a little extra for the warmers. But I had to. HAD to. Cause what good would a fashionable sling be without baby leg warmers?
And all the cute sleepers, bibs, and burp clothes inside?? (Please don't think I am that prepared. It's just that I am that lazy and don't want to trek up to the attic to put them away in bins.) All in bags of 3 for under $3 at the same consignment sale. And my husband wonders why it takes me 4 hours to do one. I look through every......single......pile. True thriftiness takes patience.

Somewhat like waiting for our number to climb up that waiting list. Which it isn't doing... Have I mentioned that yet?? Pray for me friends. It's going to be a long winter.

One month (paper) pregnant!!!

2010-09-29T21:20:00.006-04:00

So I'm a few days late, but since that also has been a trend 3 times in the past ..... why change a trend on month #1 of child #4??

We have been DTE ONE MONTH!!!

explanation: all paperwork has been in the waiting line for our little girl, or 'Dossier To Ethiopia' for one month. One month down and hopefully only 5-8 more to go before we see her sweet face on our computer screen!

At 1 month DTE (as of August 27th), we were #23 in line for a baby girl. We fell down a spot since someone announced their date as prior to ours that we didn't know about. There really hasn't been much movement this past month. BUT, the courts in Ethiopia have been closed for 2 months due to the inability for witnesses/families to travel due to the rainy season and flooded roads. BUT, courts have officially re-opened as of yesterday! So hoping the ball gets rolling on those new referrals soon and we start movin' on up that list of waiting parents!

To celebrate this momentous occasion, we did as all pregnant families do -- we stocked up on ice cream (hold the pickles). I had read this suggestion on another blog as a way to celebrate DTE Birthdays and might I say, it felt like a stroke of genius to me. Every month they shared a container of a different flavor of Ben & Jerry's. Who am I to turn down an opportunity to eat outrageously over-priced ice cream? And let me tell ya, 5 people in one family = one itty bitty cup of Ben & Jerry's when shared..

So the flavor of 1 month DTE, chosen by the chilluns, was officially

Milk and Cookies

Which was o.k., but I'm hoping future month selections will trump. A little caramel just makes everything a little more happy. Also hoping that the months of ice cream sharing are few, cause I really would like to still fit in my pre-paper-pregnancy jeans when this is all over and done..

But I prayed to Jesus..

2010-09-16T08:19:00.004-04:00

Oh mama has it started. The drama. The whining. The princess performance.

My angelic 4 year old has now turned into a 30 something pound 16 year old. Whippee.

So now cue the pickiness that seems to go along with royalty; add one mama who's job it is to 'fix' said finickiness at the dinner table; and you get something very akin to World War II.

So while I love to cook meals that are at least somewhat healthy, my daughter has now decided that she would much rather just go to McDonald's thank-you-very-much. And here comes the part where my long time rule of "you eat what I cook or you just choose not to eat" vs. "I am the tiny princess of this home and you will cater to me" come into conflict.

Now mind you, I am a professional. Trained to deal with food issues, sensory issues, behavioral feeding problems. But trained to stand-off with a 4 year old who has decided she doesn't like anything with hints of tomatoes, speckles of green herbs, or slivers of onions - this has been testing my skills.

After a few meals of her picking around her food and just complaining, she has now moved on up to the heavy-weight round with the induced gagging. Usually with a bite of food in her mouth (that Tony has made her try). And she sits beside me. Cue mother induced gagging.

And I am now at the point of my story - our prayers. Heaven help us.

The other night I had made a homemade lasagna. And not the mommy-love kind with spinach but the daddy-love kind with sausage sauce and meat. Not my favorite but sometimes a girl just feels like being generous. Anyway, first, princess laments the minuscule onion she finds, then the specks of green basil, and then pretty much just rejects the whole lot and can't even find redemption in a plain ole noodle.

The king of the house orders said princess to make a choice, "eat your dinner or go to bed". And then goes to the ballpark. Thanks. Hand down a sentence then leave it up to me to do your dirty work. So after 30 minutes of sitting at the cleared table with only her plate of untried lasagna in front of her, I am working at the computer with my back to her refusing to listen to the whining about how awful it is. "Not listening to you... nah, nah, nah, nah."

Until - she starts gagging. To which I tell her I KNOW it isn't that bad. Nothing is in it to make her sick and she needs to quit. She then tells me, in the midst of tears running down her face, with complete sincerity...

"but I pwayed to Jesus like Bwaeden did that I wouldn't get sick.... but it didnnnnnn't woooook"

Explanation - Braeden had prayed to Jesus that his upset tummy would feel better in the morning. However, Jesus doesn't seem to respond as well to little girls gagging on lasagna. Lesson learned. Maybe he likes Italian??

And the moral of this story is, if you sit in front of a plate of uneaten lasagna for one hour, you are then sent to your room to p.j.'s and a warm cozy bed. And a big breakfast.The princess. It is her world, we are just allowed to live in it.

Destined for Greatness

2010-09-10T15:36:00.006-04:00

My middle son must be destined for greatness. He will be a missionary. A pastor. The chairman of a major children's charity. Something.

Why??
Because he has had a fish hook in his eye, which #1 didn't hit his eyeball, and #2 fell out miraculously after a prayer for Jesus to help.

and

Because he fell from the monkey bars, passed out, went blue, was unresponsive. We were sure he had broken his neck. 30 minutes later he was running around the emergency room unscathed.

and

Has had his pointer finger swell up to about three times it's size. It was MRSA infected. And it didn't fall off, as it looked like it would.

and now

Because he fell in a yellow jackets nest this past weekend. Stepped right in this hole. And didn't get stung a single time.

God has His eye on him. Destined for greatness I tell you. And as long as that doesn't involve community organizing or elections - I will be very thrilled about that....

(this picture cracks me up every time I look at it. This is a photo this poor Asian couple took during their visit at Biltmore. Little man thought that he should be remembered for posterity's sake obviously. I just happen to quickly get a shot of his posing for them too. Little cheeser.)

My other son's mother

2010-09-07T00:08:00.005-04:00

I attempted to write a well written, insightful post - but instead deleted it as I want to get right to the point and have you go back and read this post .

We arrived home from a great Labor Day weekend to the following letter from my little boy Amanuel in Ethiopia. "My mother is sick so she can not fulfill any job. My sister and I go to our grandparent. Please pray for my mother to be healthy and then she can grow me and my sister."

This news would not be so upsetting except that Amanuel's father passed away 5 years ago. Widows in Ethiopia often struggle to provide for their children, but through our sponsorship and the help of Compassion, his mother had been able to start a business to provide for her children. So for her not to be able to take care of her children, much less work, worries me greatly. I do not know what his father died of. I just know that I love this child, I loved his mother, and as of two years ago when we met, she was not a Christian.

I pray things have changed. I pray that my little boy will not be one of the millions of orphans in Ethiopia every year due to AIDS. I pray that his mother will recover from whatever illness she has so that the Compassion church project will have more time to minister to her both emotionally and spiritually.

Again, these children are not just faces on a packet. They have names, they have needs, and they have the love of God above - who has asked us to love them too. Sometimes it is easy to live our happy and privileged life in America and chalk the pain, hunger, and sickness of the third world up to just a sad story we occasionally hear about on the news. And sometimes that pain smacks us in the face and wakes us up to the real world. Would you please pray for Amanuel's mother with me?

And more importantly, is God calling you to reach out to a real child, in a real relationship, and be the hands of Christ to them? There are so many children like Amanuel who are more than just statistics. To be a missionary does not require you moving to another continent. Will you?

Blog Rewind: A little over a year ago....

2010-08-27T08:41:00.002-04:00

Originally written July, 2009. Why I am who I am:
NEON SIGNS AND EXPECTATIONS:

At one point in my life, I would hear others talk about how God had worked in their life and if I honestly and truthfully stood back and thought - I wouldn't be able to think about an example to give. Yes, I was blessed. Yes, I was a Christian. But did I have any instances where I personally felt HIM, up close and real?

Then a few years back, after the birth of my second son. After I had just quit my full-time job. After I had just told him one night how "comfortable" I was. Tony was laid off. He was then offered a sweet deal in Florida. I didn't want to move, I cried every night. But we got down on our knees together and prayed, "Lord, if you want us to move - you're going to have to sell the house. We can't afford two payments." The house sold. In two days. No sign up. No real estate agent. Neon sign in the front yard from God "Your tail is moving to Florida."

Fast forward more years, I start volunteering for Compassion. Start feeling God telling me to go to Africa. Just that little voice you hear that you can't really make out - "was that my conscious or God's voice in my head??" We make a commitment and give it all to Him praying, "Lord if you want me to go, you're going to have to help us get the money." I had the money. In about a month. With $10 to spare. Neon sign from God "Your tail is going to Ethiopia."

And now less than 6 months later, I have that little voice again. Can't really make it out, is it my conscious or God's voice in my head?? Saying: you need to adopt. You need to follow my commandment to look after the orphans (James 1:27). Um, hey God, I have three kids already. That's a-lot. I'm helping with Compassion. Helping lots of kids. Isn't that enough? And yet I hear the voice still. I kind of ignore it as just me. Keep it to myself.

I'm driving down the road to Columbia, by myself. Thinking of my trip. Remembering how excited I was and talking to my new friend Mike for the 16 hours over. I think to myself, "how cool would it be to be able to experience that with Tony? To be able to go back with him?" And then that little voice out of nowhere, in my head: "you will when you go to get your little girl." And right then, with a cloudless sky. Perfect Carolina blue sky - it starts drizzling just a little. And I break into tears. I can only describe it as the feeling of when you think you have lost your two year old in the mall and you see him, the feeling of that weight being lifted. Neon sign from God - "I want you to mother another of my children."

So I tell Tony and we agree this is huge. (understatement) We really need to pray about this. So for about 2 weeks I have prayed faithfully every morning. "God let me know if you really want me to do this. God please make it without a doubt clear if you really want me to do this. Please God, don't let me make the wrong decision for my family. By the way God, could you really let me know if you want me to do this?????" And then this week - I am looking at a normal blog. See an icon for "Ethiopian Coffee for Orphans" to the side. Click on it and read about the charity. See a mention of the couples dear friend's blog "Blessings from Ethiopia." I click and go on to read the post I mentioned to you earlier this week. But I didn't then give you the last line of that post as I was still too scared to acknowledge that Neon sign. It said, "Go. leave behind the life you planned. SEEK OUT the orphan. Don't ask God one more time if He wants you to adopt. Because... HE's been asking YOU, who WILL?"

Do I feel God? Absolutely. Am I scared out of my wits? Absolutely. And by the way, I had Tony read that post and he had the exact same reaction that he had last September when I said God really wanted me to go to Ethiopia, "Well, if God wants you to go - I guess you'd better go." "I love that man" would also be an understatement.

So now - we are scheduled to attend a workshop with an agency on August 1st just to learn the basics. And we really thought about not writing or telling anyone until after we had all the facts and could make an informed decision. But then - when you have a Neon Sign from God, is a workshop going to make a difference? As I have told others now, I am much safer living in God's will than out of it. So I think I should be more scared to disobey Him than to dive right in head first. One glance at the Old Testament will tell you that disobedience comes with a hefty price.

So I guess in a way we are expecting baby #4. But I am still paralyzed. I have the feeling of a woman pregnant with baby #3 who just found out she is pregnant with twins. Oh.....my.....goodness..... what did I just get myself into. We don't have the money. We don't have the time to figure out how to get it. We aren't the most patient people. And a year or two of worry is a long time.

I am expecting much pain.... I am expecting much fear......I am expecting much impatience...... I am expecting much cost........ But I also know that in Jeremiah, God says, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

So to all my friends, I am expecting a little girl.... So please pray for Tony and I. I would really love to have some more Neon signs up to tell us which way to go from here...

First ever giveaway - no purchase necessary!!!

2010-08-25T15:59:00.015-04:00

So after a quick start out of the gate on our newest fundraiser - traffic has slowed considerably. SOOOO.... how bout if I bribe you to come and look and tell others to come and shop??

HOW BOUT --- My first GIVEAWAY!!!!!

Since this is my first giveaway and I have no idea what might motivate others to visit my blog, I'm going to go cheap (for me) and offer up a piece of Lil' Olivia art!

Winners can choose one 5X7 personalized piece painted by yours truly.

Art can be chosen & personalized from art currently for sale
(also have: butterfly and frog pieces drawn but not painted)

Or I can custom design a simple 5 X 7 piece based on previous
artwork painted, or the design element of your choice.
(please allow 2-3 weeks for custom designed paintings)
**Visit Lil' Olivia's Store for additional past work

I know you are excited, so here's how to play:

~Post about this giveaway on your blog (with link back) - 1 entry!

~Share my fundraiser website on Facebook (or mass email) - 1 entry!

~Every person you refer here that purchases from any fundraiser - 2 entries!

~You place an order from any fundraiser (art, coffee, African) - 5 entries!

Remember to leave comments telling me what you've been up to so I'll know how many entries to credit you.

There's only 1 rule: We need a minimum of 20 people to enter. So start working those referrals! Giveaway ends midnight (my time) Thursday, Sept 2nd !

Remember the purpose of the giveaway is to let more people know about our fundraiser items for sell (bracelets, stuffed animals, coffee, art).

So here's the link for our African items store.
Artwork can also still be designed and painted for anyone from Lil' Olivia's store.
Awesome coffee can still be purchased from Just Love Coffee.
Happy shopping!

For: YOU From: Africa

2010-08-24T11:26:00.016-04:00

PLEASE SEE OUR NEWEST LIL' OLIVIA FUNDRAISING SITE FOR CURRENT ITEMS AND PRICES

SO - our newest fundraiser!!!! These items were shipped from a company which buys from Africa and then donates a portion of their proceeds to feeding hungry children. Please, please, please forward this link to everyone you know, share on Facebook, (take out a road sign) etc. We can always order more items and would love to see that thermometer on the right moving again!

Adorable, stuffed giraffes and zebras; made in Kenya. $10 each They would make great keepsakes for adopted little ones or just as a unique gift for someone you love.

Massai beaded wrap around bracelets ; also from Kenya - $7 each.

Large colorful Tuareg bangles; Made in Mali. - $5 Each.
Small, woven Tuareg bracelets; Made in Mali. - $2 Each

Bangel Set: 1 large bangle and 4 smaller bracelets - $10 Set.

** Orders may be made on our PayPal donation site on the right. Please specify in the comment section which items you would like for your donation to our adoption fund. We would also appreciate you adding $2 for each order (no matter how many items are ordered) to help defray shipping costs. (unless you are having me hand-deliver of course - for my Lexington or SC friends)

Why still fundraising?????

Now that we have submitted our dossier and finished that stage of our adoption (think first semester of pregnancy - the throw up, nauseous, tired part) - we are on to the 'Honeymoon' portion where we wait months and months until our name is farther up the list - and then the third trimester, the heartburn and stay-up-all-night portion, of this paper pregnancy commences!

In the meantime, our goal is to raise the money needed to accept the referral of our little girl. When we get her picture, information, name - we will have 2 days to send in our acceptance paperwork and $5500. This money pays for her care in the orphanage and the remainder of our agency fees.

A month to two months later, we hope to have a court date assigned and will have to travel to Ethiopia to the tune of about $5-6,000. And that's just for Tony and I. We would love to take the kids on that trip but are leaving it up to God as far as funding goes.

Thank you so much!!

Dumpster Diven'

2010-08-22T18:02:00.005-04:00

I'm almost embarrassed to write this post, almost... but as not so much embarrasses me anymore (too many years married to Tony??) - here goes...

In an attempt to journal the crazy things my kids do, I couldn't leave this nugget of information out as I'm sure my son will greatly appreciate my sharing when he is trying to get a date or get into a good college.

He's an addict. And I'm o.k. with that (most of the time). My son is a dumpster diver. There. I said it. He loves to go with his Daddy to the county dump on Saturday to "hunt for treasure". And he's proud of it.

Since I'm not a dumpster diver myself, as I understand it, there is a special "Treasure Dumpster" where he finds his stash. He's come home with an ambulance, goggles you "can see race cars in!!!", barely used bikes, which his Daddy then changes out a seat on or replaces a tire tube in - and they're good as new. They have then given these bikes to neighborhood kids that don't have bikes, or taken them to Goodwill. Tony's highlights of the year were a real barber's chair to cut the kid's hair, and a good as new pitching machine for the ball team. Like son, like Daddy.

Now that I have completely grossed you out that we allow our son to bring home treasures from the county dump, (and most likely secured it that you wont let your kids play with my kid's toys anymore..) let me get to the point...

We Americans throw away half a pizza un-eaten, left-overs that we 'just don't feel like eating again tomorrow', shoes that were 'so old I had them in high school'. And yet still, we often are able to say, without a hint of sarcasm, that we can't afford to help out children in poverty. It amazes me. Even in a recession/depression, as we tighten our belts and watch our money more carefully, we still have more than we need. But maybe not all that we want.

In a personal reference letter a great friend wrote for me for my adoption packet, he wrote that I was "passionate for social justice." And that made me cringe. Social justice today has come to mean Michelle Obama's pie explanation - we need to take some of your slice of pie to give to someone else who doesn't have as much pie. And while that imagery fits - it is still wrong.

Today's social justice in America is - the government taking what they think is your excess, and (wastefully spending) on those that don't have an excess. And that, to me - is not justice, that's stealing.

But how much good could we do if instead of being forced to give, our wages stolen out of our hand and given to another - that we would be known as a Christian society that instead just gives. To hang on to our excess, to turn our eyes from those in need because we never know when we may need that extra money, is not Christlike. That's more like greed.

Because even if my husband is laid off again, even if my car is repo-ed, even if we have our house fore-closed on and have to rent a smaller place - we still have more than we need. And that's painful to realize.

So my little son - we are so, so blessed that you can find your treasures at the dump. That you can smile over a new toy. We are so, so blessed that our children have more than they need. That they have more than one meal a day and it does not come from a garbage pile. Just something to think about in these tough economic times.

As we are able to bring gently used items home to our clean home, soak them down with Lysol and anti-bacterial wipes --- there are thousands of children around the world who don't have that luxury. Their treasures are not used bikes, or push toys - but scraps of food. Food that is needed just to make it to the next day. To another day of scavenging on the streets, or the city dump. This is the images that have been on my mind lately - a place in the very city I visited in Africa. I place that I didn't know about until recently. A place that many of the orphans that come into agency placement may come from.

"Once our eyes are opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows what we know, and holds us responsible to act."
Proverbs 24:12

What is it that God would have you to do with that which he has given you?
Help others to have clean water Sponsor a child in another country give to a poor village help mother's and babies in need provide help for street orphans give a barefoot child a pair of shoes

Calling all family!!!!

2010-08-19T13:28:00.002-04:00

Copied from an adoption friend, but made me wonder too:

This is a quick little SHOUT OUT to our families.

DO YOU READ OUR BLOG??

Seriously, we’re curious. My sweet sis definitely pops in. Have you??

Most of the extended families haven't made a peep. That makes us sad....Let us know you’re here! Show us some love! You guys are one of the reasons we’re keeping this blog, so it’d be great to know if you stop by. At the very least, to know who knows what so we'll have our communication bases covered!

Don’t be shy…. Leave a comment.

DTE!!!

2010-08-18T13:21:00.003-04:00

Our file has been approved by our case worker and will be on it's way on a jet plane to Ethiopia on August 27th, 2010!!

Current official wait time for a baby girl is DTE + 7-11 months. So early next year we may be seeing Olivia and finding out more about her. (although recent families have been receiving their referrals in approx 6 mos.) But no getting my hopes up!

We are so excited! So excited that I bit down on a granola bar, chipped half a molar off, and now have to drop everything for a dentist appt. ( I have a dental phobia... truly) Away from me Satan!! Your not stealing my joy today, I am stoked!

Two words

2010-08-17T16:34:00.006-04:00

PRAISE GOD!!!!!!!

TWO MORE WORDS:

ETHIOPIA BOUND!!!!!!! (by way of Virginia & DC)

that my friends, would be one piece of paper that was prayed and waited for (and not patiently I may add) for 117 days. And is now with the other 14,568 pages of our dossier, in triplicate, on it's way to be proofed in Virginia at AWAA - then to the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington for authentication - and then to Ethiopia! Hallelujah!!!

I want different kids

2010-08-08T18:06:00.005-04:00

When discussing the logistics of adopting, Tony originally had said he wanted to take the kids with us to Ethiopia. I disagreed. The logistics of a trip to Ethiopia, with 3 kids in tow, to pick up a new baby, who may or may not have problems attaching to us - was a little too much for me to stomach. Picture 3 kids on a plane for 18 hours, 4 kids on the way back. 3 who may experience stomach problems, and a baby in diapers who most likely will have her own intestinal problems. Nope. Not happening. As much as I would like it to. I didn't like knowing that I would be needing to devote everything to this new little daughter, but knowing that my other kids needed me too. Safety was not my concern. Many parents have taken children and felt very safe. Addis Ababa is an extremely safe city..... Nope - it all boiled down to stomach issues, sadly.

Then the two trip rule was put into place. So now we must travel to Ethiopia, spend time with Olivia, before appearing before court to attest that we do want to be her parents. So time spent in the orphanage, most likely time spent seeing Ethiopia, visiting the out-laying orphanages, hopefully seeing more of Compassion's work (or my kids!) while we are there. Being able to play with kids of a different color, language, and economic status and see they are just the same as we are. See the joy the kids at Compassion have at having faith in God vs. faith in Daddy's paycheck and American comforts. Now this was something I could wrap my mind around. We would not be able to take physical custody of Olivia yet as she will need to remain at the transitional home until we get her US Visa. But the kids would be able to love on her, see Ethiopia, and see the sights that changed my life.

And could it change theirs?

So for about a month, I have been praying for God to throw open His floodgates of blessings on our first trip - to be able to take my own munchkins on a 36 hour plane trip to learn a lesson that no video, no book, no sermon would ever be able to teach them. OR, that God would fling those doors shut and I would be at peace knowing that it was not what was best for my kids at this time in their lives.

As our pastor preached today, Satan wants to rob and steal these little ones from us. To tear their hearts away from God, whether now, or in their rebellious teenage years, or in college. But I hope, and pray, that our kids would have their faith foundation so firm, so strong - at such an early age - that they would be true soldiers for Christ the rest of their lives, Ethiopia trip or not. A witness to the need for missions, the need for loving the least of these, the power of God's hand when Christians stand up and say "use me".

I want my kids to be different. And being different, and not of this world, is a good thing.

Addisyn, the 15 year old daughter to Amy at "Building the Blocks", recently wrote the following. Addisyn has 3 biological brothers and FIVE adopted siblings. She just returned home from traveling to Ethiopia with her mom to bring home her newest baby sister:

Re: adoption

"What I didn't know then was how God would use this experience to mold me into becoming who I am today. What I didn't know was that God would use our experience to create a passion for the least of these. What I didn't know then was how glad I would be that He did."

Re: Visiting Ethiopia

"Being at the preschool that day also made me realize how much I had been taking for granted. I no longer wanted to just claim to be a Christian - I wanted to LIVE as a Christian. Instead of just memorizing the verses in the Bible - I wanted to put them into action. I knew that I couldn't return home and go on with my life the way it had been. I couldn't open my closet door and see 12 pairs of shoes in there without thinking about those left behind with none. I couldn't go into the mall with friends and spend $15 on yet another t-shirt knowing that $15 would have fed 5 children at the preschool for a month. I couldn't just be a regular American teenage girl anymore - I was different. And different, I am realizing, is a good thing."

Blog Rewind : CSP Projects

2010-08-04T13:25:00.003-04:00

Originally posted February 2009. To show you what $20 can do:

Day 10 of our trip was to be our last. I would love to say I cherished every moment of it - but getting out of bed that last day was tough. I was sick and I was tired. I wasn't able to eat much. And I really missed MY babies. BUT... God in his wisdom, took me back to a place of joy and of rest, knowing that we had come for a reason. On that last morning we visited one last Child Survival Program (CSP) in Addis Abada. At this program were the most beautiful children, the most loving mothers, and a wonderful morning to book-end our time in this beautiful country. Who wouldn't smile when greeted by these little munchkins?? It was here that I met the woman I had spoken of in a previous blog that volunteers with mothers in the community. To hear her talk about "so many disabled babies", and once again, see these beautiful and healthy children - I knew Compassion had made a difference in the lives of these mothers. Just the weight that must be lifted when you know that your child will not starve to death, or die of a preventable disease like diarrhea or malaria, must free these mothers to instead hug their babies every day, without the fear of loosing them. And to know that your baby will have the opportunity to go to school, to learn, to just be a child - is priceless.

It is a gift that we take for granted everyday. Yes, I worry about my children. But my worries are more the "what ifs". Sex. Drugs. Pregnancy. Homosexuality. Atheism. Selfcenteredness. Naivete. Most of those worries are for another day and not the survival in the here and now. (Although Braeden likes to test that theory...)

In that church, we had a wonderful morning playing with those babies and it really put my heart at peace. If it had not been for our ride to the center through the poverty and the dirt, if we had just been placed in the little church compound, you would never know that we were in a place of immense poverty. Now I don't want to brag about the wonderful thing that the great America was able to bring to those mothers and children. It wasn't like us high and mighty Americans were happy to see what great things our money could do in that barren land. Now follow me here: instead - it was mothers meeting mothers. God's children playing with God's children. We were not giving to them, not blessing them with our presence. God had found a way to level the field and bring His blessings to His people in that land. And we were there to be able to witness that and to see the smiles His gifts had born. To remember with humility that those children are healthy, and smiling, and playing - because God gave to us, so we could give to them. And that was my peace. It's not about us. It's all about His children.

Luke 18:16 "But Jesus called the children to him and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these."

Compassion now offers sponsors the ability to partner with a specific CSP project in the country of their choice. You receive quarterly newsletters, information about the women in your project, and letters from the mothers. Your money - $20 a month; can help the above mothers remain mothers to their babies through health and AIDS education, prenatal/infant care education, and economic training or assistance. God-willing, these babies will not be orphans.

Partner with a CSP project today.
Click on "make a contribution"
Then choose "Child Survival Project" from the left side column.
**90% of Child Survival Project babies meet their developmental milestones on time.
**At the first CSP project we toured, over 1000 mothers stood in line for the available 50 slots. **Why not help more? Because we need you to help first.

Matthew 25: 34-36,40 "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'... "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'"

Counting the cost

2010-08-03T16:08:00.005-04:00

I realized in trying to explain yesterday why we are adopting, I did a pretty poor job. I'll just blame my negativity on PMS.

I told them adoption was hard, WAY hard.
I told them adoption was stressful, WAY stressful.
And I told them adoption was expensive, VERY expensive.

I also told them that were it not for God's leading, I probably would have given up a long time ago.

(Well aren't I just the warrior for Christ that I thought I was 12 months ago??)

Truth is - while it is hard, stressful, expensive, and about 26 other negatives I could think of to describe my feelings and experiences - it isn't all about me anyway....

While the reality of the fact that having 4 kids will probably nix any plans for neat vacations like New York City, cruise ships, trips to Jamaica, etc. --- will sacrificing those be worth the cost of feeding / clothing / loving another?

While the reality of the fact that having kids share rooms, closets, and clothes will make things a little more cramped and uncomfortable - will my children sacrificing that privacy be worth them being able to see what the love of Christ is capable of? To grow up with a heart of compassion?

While the reality of the fact that saving for adoption means less money for eating out at nice restaurants, less money to buy new tennis shoes we may want, less money to have to put my little girl in a dance class or little boy in gymnastics - at the end of the day, will those things be missed or even remembered? Will my lack of a gym membership ruin my life completely? Will we miss not being able to go out to the theaters and settling for $1 RedBox movies instead? Will my lack of an iPhone damage my ability to parent a child who has come from nothing?

No -- our sacrifices aren't really even sacrifices when you sit down and list them out. Minor inconveniences maybe. Small disappointments that last a day or week, perhaps. But will my children, ANY of them, truly miss any aspect of their childhood because of the cost of answering God's call to help the 'least of these'?

No -- I think it is when we, as the world's elite, choose those little pleasures that add up, and leave no scraps to throw to the poor or needy; innocently ignoring these little ones because we are too engrossed in our own lives to see, that there is a cost...

Not everyone is meant to adopt. Not everyone is meant to travel to a third world country. I'm just as guilty as the next at not doing enough. But if you are a Christian, if you claim Christ as your own - has it cost you anything? Or is it costing them?

Job 31:15-17; 28.
"Did not he who made me in the womb make them?
Did not the same one form us both within our mothers?
If I have denied the desires of the poor
or let the eyes of the widow grow weary,
if I have kept me bread to myself,
not sharing it with the fatherless .....

Then these also would be sins to be judged,
for I would have been unfaithful to God on high."

**Take time to read this eye-opening post that will be bothering me the rest of this evening. Amy has a much better way with words than I do.

Government Efficiency

2010-07-22T14:11:00.004-04:00

On April 15th, I sent our homestudy to Citizenship and Immigration. It was suppose to take around 30 days, max of 90 days to get me the form I needed to adopt an international orphan.

On May 6th, DSS sent their approval. So let's be gracious and just have that as the entry date.

On July 4th, we find out our file is being sent to Missouri. 60 days, and they couldn't read a report (which would take less than 20 min. to read) and issue me the form I needed.

On July 7th, CIS in Missouri told Tony that it hadn't been mailed til July 6th. 60 days after they received it. The worker said she would work to 'expedite' our approval. "Call back next week"

On July 14th, CIS in Missouri told Tony that they had located our file but it hadn't been assigned to a caseworker yet. But Charleston had done some work on it and it was farther along than some files in process. "Call back next week" - 68 days.

Today, July 21st, CIS in Missouri told Tony that our file is in the building. You think? It is being worked on. But hasn't been logged in the system yet. "Call back next week". Thanks for expediting it.... It's been 75 days.

Charleston had it 8 weeks.
Missouri had it 3 weeks. That makes 11 weeks. Of me going crazy.
Maximum time to take was 12 weeks? I'm seriously going crazy.

And I have the complete dossier in my nightstand (now hiding from me as I got tired of it teasing me). All without this one piece of paper.

I needed to vent. Thank you for letting me do so. Cause if I go to Missouri and go postal on them, I'm guessing that wont look very good for my chances to be approved to adopt.

**I KNOW this is all in God's timing. I KNOW Olivia will be ready, just when we are ready for her. But it still stinks. The parents that started their adoptions the SAME month I did are starting to get the pictures of their children. And I have 8-10 MONTHS to go AFTER I get that package over to Ethiopia. This just really stinks. If it takes this long to get one piece of paper issued, on the basis of TWO reports already written about us, and in the file - just think how long it will take someone to get a new kidney under new government healthcare.

Rant off. You may go back to your regularly scheduled program now. Please pray for me and my sanity.

What's her story?

2010-07-17T22:35:00.004-04:00

Funny how when I'm feeling something - and start surfing adoption blogs - it seems other moms are struggling with those exact same feelings too.

Like the fact of how you can become so engrossed with an adoption in the same way you become obsessed with a pregnancy. Remember?? Searching babycenter.com? Searching baby name sites? Actually reading books about 'What to Expect'? (And then, with Baby #3, just trying to remember when your next o.b. appt. was??? Much less read a book?)

But baby #4 - has me hooked. Reading been-there-done-that blogs. Reading articles. Reading moms-in-waiting blogs. Everything comes back to adoption.

So when I saw a young girl on Compassion's website, a beautiful, 15 year old girl - instead of the usual desire I have to love Compassion kids - this one was different. What if? What if that 15 year old girl was my baby's mother? She was 15. An only child in the home. With a mentally ill mother. And she was above average in high school. Above average.

What about here in the US? What chance would a 15 year old in the same situation have? Yes - she may be an over-achiever but as the only child in a single parent household, much less a mentally ill parent - what are the chances she would graduate? Much less get a college education? Much less live her life to the fullest? She would most likely fall into society's trap - going to work early. Trying to make ends meet. Trying to take care of her mother. But with our nation's package of benefits, food stamps, housing help, disability payments?

Now imagine that same, beautiful, over-achieving child in Africa. Without Compassion - where would she be? What would that child, CHILD, have to do - to make ends meet? Education would be out of the question. A real job would be out of the question. A real life --- or a life filled with heart-ache, most likely abuse, most likely letting her body be used, just to scrape together the money needed to take care of herself and her mother. And then what if that abuse led to an unplanned pregnancy, and possibly a death sentence in an unwanted disease. At 15?

That could be the story of my baby's mother. And as much as I desire to hold my child - never, never would I wish that story on any young woman. Much less a child.

But unfortunately, that is the story of millions of women, no girls, worldwide. Adoption doesn't take away those stories, it just tries to help pick up some of the pieces from those broken dreams. And to make a new dream for that little one who would not have stood a chance after being left on the steps of an orphanage. After her young mother can't afford to take care of her and can't bare to watch her child die of starvation or illness. Adoption isn't a fairy tale. It is a small band-aid to try to fix a huge, gaping wound. A wound of 147 million children as we speak.

But back to that 15 year old Gebreloa. SHE is in Compassion's program. Her schooling provided for. Her health monitored. Her mental wellness and social needs met. The love of Christ introduced to her. So in hope - I pray - that that 15 year old will be a success. Because, with Compassion, I have seen many success stories first hand.

But I also know - what could that above-average 15 year old accomplish with someone beside her? Cheering her on? Encouraging her to stay in school? To better herself for the sake of herself and her mother? Praying for her? Helping to lead her to the strong arms of Christ?

Her story could be so much different. And only someone like you could help write that story. Would you? Gebreola Shiferaw - I'm pleading for someone to sponsor her. She is only one child. But one child that deserves to be a child - and not a mother to my baby or someone else's.

James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

To search for a different child by birthday, gender, sex, or country - Click here. There are thousands of other Gebreola's with stories to be written.

Middle Child whoops

2010-07-12T18:08:00.010-04:00

While perusing through all the old birthday posts, I realized that my middle child must not have turned 7 this year. Either that or his mother completely forgot to blog about it. Which, there's no way THAT could have happened.

What is even more startling is the fact that his birthday was accompanied by a true miracle in the state of South Carolina. It snowed..... A Lot...

So my middle son, who not only received the miracle of Jesus helping a fish hook fall out of his eye unscathed - he also thinks he received the miracle of God making it snow JUST FOR HIS BIRTHDAY. And 'aint nobody telling him any different!

We had planned his first sleep-over. Which turned out to be a bust as no one would send their children to our house to sleep over if there was the chance of more than 1/4 of an inch of snow falling! I mean - we can't go out to get milk during a blizzard like that - why would we be able to go retrieve our child?? A snow that deep and the poor child may be stuck at my house for at least a week!!

But, the Lord has blessed us with A LOT of neighbors. With A LOT of boys. So we were able to go celebrate in Braeden's birthday snow, that God sent just for him. Staying up late throwing snowballs and tackling each other. Until about noon when it had all melted away anyway....

Happy Late, Very Late, Birthday Little Man!!!

(he's rejoicing that at least his mentally impaired mother remembered to get a present or two. And the fact that he no longer has to wear hand-me-down skates but has his own pair. It's tough being a middle child.)