Full of Praise!

As many of you know, our adoption costs have increased since we started the whole process...partly because of our own doing by deciding to adopt two instead of one and more significantly due to the extra trip half-way around the world! Let's be real, adoption is expensive and many families including us have worried about the cost. We've been praying and trusting the God would provide the last amount needed to fully fund the adoption and he answered that prayer yesterday. My boss called me about another matter, but told me on the phone that my end-of-year bonus (which is May in my contract) is going to be a certain dollar amount...after taxes and all that, we believe it will be almost exactly the amount we've been praying for! I hung up the phone, said, "Praise you, Jesus!" and sat down on the couch and cried tears of joy for about 2 hours. This crazy adventure has truly increased our faith and the Lord has been so merciful to confirm over and over again that we are on the right track even when the paperwork and wait list seem insurmountable. Thanks for your prayers!!

More Paperwork and a Child's Prayer

I feel at times like I am chasing an endless paper trail.....

The good news is that our homestudy is almost complete and the written words completely reflect who Isaac and I are and our life together almost as if I had written it myself. The not so great news is that we found out that we have to get a KY child abuse clearance in addition to our FL child abuse clearance because we have not lived in sunny FL for over 5 years. The wonderful KY people are going to expedite this for us...no wonder Gov. Fletcher called KY the "Friendliest State." This process has made me really appreciate people who are just kind because they care.

And, thank goodness for our dossier assistant because she caught some mistakes that we obviously didn't know were mistakes in our stack of papers (pictured below) and now we have to correct those and start having everything notarized again by us as the custodians of the paperwork. I think this is just the beginning of the last paper chase and I plan to chase that paperwork all the way to Ethiopia as fast as I can!!!

As I've been losing my mind over all these little details, I've been reading a book by Melissa Fay Greene called There is No Me Without You. This book is a must-read, in my opinion, for Ethiopia adoptive parents and their families. This prayer from the lips of an adopted Ethiopian little girl puts it all in perspective:

"Thank you, God, for my mom. She's a good, good mom. She knows how to be a good mom. Even when I mad, she love me. Even when I sad, she love me. Even when I do bad thing, she love me. My mom, she so cute. My mom, she not ugly. But she ugly, I still love her. Even if she ugly, I still love her. Even if she really, really ugly, I love her. And she love me, if I ugly. But she not, she cute. Thank you, thank you, God, for good and cute mom."

Progress!

Isaac went be fingerprinted at Immigration last Monday and then took me to Immigration Tuesday morning for my fingerprinting. We have been waiting for these appointments since February, so it was a huge relief to mark this step off of our list.

Can you tell that I was happy to have this step behind me? We are now waiting on our homestudy report to be finalized which we expect to happen this week. Once this happens, we should have the missing pieces turned into the adoption agency and then will be "Gladney approved." At this point, our dossier (documents sent to Ethiopia) will be complete and ready for authentication.

This picture is of all of the dossier documents I sent in on Friday for our dossier assistant to start organizing and getting ready for authentication. The lady at FedEx knows our "story" and asked me if it was a relief to be sending in all this paperwork. I told her that, yes, it was, but looking back it wasn't that bad. The mountain of paperwork was overwhelming at first, but when you break it down and work together to get it all done, it is completely manageable. I would encourage anyone and everyone who has ever considered adoption to DO IT and not let the paperwork stand in the way-it is totally worth it!

My hope is to be on the official waiting list by Mother's Day and then the countdown will really begin.

Visit with Josh and Kelly

Last Saturday afternoon, Josh and Kelly stopped by for a quick visit on their way back to KY. Josh had been at a medical conference that week in Bonita Springs and Kelly took the opportunity to get away for the week too. We were so excited to see them! Isaac and I debated about where to take Josh and Kelly for dinner that night because they haven't been as adventurous of eaters as we are in the past. We settled on The Acropolis and they loved it as much as we do.

We sat outside by the fountain and the weather could not have been more pleasant. After dinner, we took them on a mini-tour of our life including driving by my office and our church.

Josh and Kelly enjoying their last evening in FL...they were excited to go back home and see their baby girl Hallie and her new swing set that her grandpa built for her while they were gone.

The four of us...we miss you all so much! We are hoping that Josh will do a fellowship at USF in a couple of years...it would be so fun to all live close to one another again.

Amelia Island Getaway

Over Easter weekend, Isaac and I spent the holiday vacationing on Amelia Island. We met up with Isaac's brother Gabe the first night to celebrate Gabe's birthday a week early. We dined on the outside patio of a great restaurant and had a really good time. We spent the rest of the weekend days on the beach and our nights downtown eating out at the town's fabulous restaurants. It was a much needed vacation from work and the adoption paperwork! We decided that this next year we need to take advantage of all the free time that we have because our life will be very different in about 12 months!

My Bubble has been Burst!

Tonight we finished up our homestudy for our adoption. This means we are another step closer to the waiting list...what a blessing! Our social worker talked to us tonight about "bonding and attachment." She totally burst my bubble and ruined my party! I have been SO excited about bringing my babies home and throwing a huge "Welcome Home, IRT and ERT" bash. In my mind, I had the whole party planned right down to the KY tea punch and invites with pictures of their little feet announcing their arrival and had chosen the professional photographer for the event. But no, the social worker (whom I really do love, by the way) told me that my party was not a good idea. Apparently, having tons of people in my babies' faces will be too overstimulating for them. And, here's the real kicker...I'm not supposed to let anyone hold the babies except for Isaac and I, like that's really going to happen! Basically, that's like telling my parents, "Look, but don't touch." I told my friend Kelly tonight that I'm struggling with this idea of keeping my babies to myself for the first few weeks because from the beginning of this process I have wanted to treat my adopted babies as I would have had I given birth to them. And now I feel like I'm already treating them as though they are different. I'm going to have to pray alot about this...I figure, God created these boys to be Treeshes, so I know they're going to love to party!

Life Care of Brandon Ladies' Tea Fundraiser

A couple of weeks ago, I had the privilege of hosting a table for the Life Care of Brandon Ladies' Tea Fundraiser. Life Care of Brandon is an organization that aids women in crisis pregnancy situations, provides post-abortion care and Bible studies, and offers parenting classes and marital counseling. This wonderful organization operates off of donations and I was so happy to be a part of this special day.

Each hostess provided her tablescape and had freedom to use whatever design she wished. Every table was unique which made the event really fun.

My table design began with the napkins which were a Lilly P. design with pink elephants and lime palm trees. From there I carried on those colors with the table cloth, flowers, and placemats.

I wanted the ladies at my table to have a favor to take home with them to remember the day. On Heather Bailey's website I stumbled across the cutest pattern for these elephant pincushions. I used Amy Butler fabric that matched the table decor for their bodies and added the pink flowers for the final touch. They were very labor-intensive to make, but well worth it.

Me with my table...notice all the tables in the background and how each is so different. There were very traditional china-wear tables to Christmas themes to animal print.

My friends who joined me to support Life Care...Thank You!