Another decision made, Moving forward.

Steve and I finally decided that we are going to adopt from.......UGANDA! We are really excited and ready to start the process. We are still trying to find an agency to work with. I will keep looking into our options over the next couple weeks and we hope to make a decision by Christmas. As a dear friend said to me, this is as important as selecting your doctor. It is someone who will walk with you through a lot of ups and downs and it is best to have someone we feel 100% comfortable with. Right now there are not a lot of agencies working in Uganda so it should not take us to long to decide.

Steve and I decided that we wanted to start saving our change for our adoption...Change to make a change! We were laughing that we are now $21.36 (just a guess!) closer to our goal. I honestly don't know right now how much it is going to cost but I can tell you I could not put a price tag on these two precious lives I know God has waiting for us! If anyone else would like to help us by saving their change, let me know! We are trying to find something to use to give to people to gather their change in for our adoption. I know that a little bit of change can sure add up to a lot fast!

Back again

I have been wanting to start blogging again about our adoption and where it stands, however there has been nothing to post about. As most you know, we put our adoption on hold while Steve was on deployment and now that we are looking into adoption again, we are trying to figure out what country we want to adopt from and what agency we want to help us through the process. Right now it seems to be the hardest decision we have to make. It is not about the money, it is about making the right choice for our family.

I am so excited to be starting the process, again. I will try and post more often as decisions are made and the process gets going...it is still a ways away but I honestly feel "the call" getting stronger and closer!

Blessings to All!

Patiences and Faith

Well we sent out our letters and now we are waiting to see if anyone feels the calling to send us $10. I understand though how hard the times are and I truly have faith in God that He has not lead us here to let us fall. He is teaching me patience and faith, I just need to remember that. Some days are easier then others to be strong.

We did receive two donations to date. One came right after the letter was sent, another just a couple days ago, both had perfect timing! We are going to start some of our fundraising now. We are doing a couple garage sales; one with the group and one with our neighborhood. We are also looking at items to sell and other things we can do to raise the money.

I can't wait until we are at the point of getting our referrals. I think of our babies in Ethiopia all the time and I hope they know how much they are loved and how much we want them, and yet, we haven't even met them yet. So until then, stay safe babies and know that we are coming and you will be forever home soon!

The Paperwork begins!

Today we received the packet of paperwork from Catholic Social Services who will be doing our homestudy. Yesterday we received the link to the paperwork from Christian World Adoption. Honestly the paperwork is not that bad, there is a lot but it is totally dueable. It is just that we are trying to get it all done before Steve leaves in mid July for a deployment. That is where the stress point comes in. But we can only do one thing at a time and do the best we can at each step. I am sure it will all come together, I just need to remember who is in charge because it is not me!

Just getting started...

Steve and I decided to start a blog to keep our friends and family up to date on this new adventure we have decided to take. Although we feel so very blessed to have Steve Allen, Elliot and Aleah, we have definatly felt a calling to add to our family through adoption. We (well mostly I have but...) talked a lot about adopting and if we thought we could or should add to our family.

Well about six months ago, I started really researching more seriously about all the different ways we could add to our family through adoption. Although I always thought we would adopt from China, I kept feeling a pull to Africa. After a lot of research, I started narrowing in on Ethiopia. Why, you ask, well because not only do they have over 4 million orphans but the required stay in the country when going to get your children is less than 1 week. Since we have children waiting at home, we did not want to be gone for a long time.

Steve and I had been church hopping again and Steve and my mom (separately) suggested that we go up to Harvest church which is close to our home and see how we felt. We had been to Harvest before but just felt it was so large that we wanted to go to a smaller church. However as the children are getting older, a larger church seems to offer more options for the kids, so that started the church hopping. On Saturday, April 4th we headed up to Harvest. Guess what the service was about...Ethiopia. We could not believe it. I was overwhelmed with emotion and found myself crying and shaking. Not just because of what we were hearing, but because to us, it was a sign that God was truly sending us in this directions. Seeing the conditions the people of Ethiopia live in day to day, the way they struggle to survive, how many sweet children are left orphans and how many parents choice to bring their children to an orphanage in the hopes of a better life, or even more devastating, the people who just leave the children in the trash or under a bridge to die because they could not care for them was so overwhelming. I know we hear about it but to actually see it, was to much. To see children hauling their families supply of water in whatever they can find, is more then any mother can bare. So needless to say, this for me was a seal the deal moment for me. The next day, Steve had a meeting with his business class team and went to meet them at their usual spot. He showed up a little early and since he was waiting for the rest of them to show up, he decided to start watching a little TV at the coffee shop. Would you believe that the show was about Ethiopia! Steve said that he knew that Ethiopia was were we were suppose to be headed. THEN he realized he was at the WRONG coffee shop! I just could not believe it! God had defiantly hit us over the head wit this one!

Sunday night Harvest was having a meeting to talk about what they wanted to do to help people through the adoption process and to meet with Christian World Adoption Representatives. The meeting was wonderful and just confirmed for us that we were on the right path to adding to our family.

So here we are, starting the paperwork for Christian World Adoption and all the paperwork needed for our home study. We are praying hard every day that God guides us, guides us to a way to finance this all and to keep the children that God already knows is ours safe and feeling loved until they are in our arms.

Please keep our family in your prayers as we start this long process. I will do my best to update you on everything, step by step because someday I will love to read it all and see all the steps we had to take to get through this. If I start thinking of all the things that need to be done, I am sure I would be overwhelmed. So I am taking one thing at a time, one step at a time, and one dollar at a time.