Closer to Love

The big ONE!!

2011-05-18T19:14:00.000-07:00

She turned ONE!!! My sweet little baby girl is officially 1 year old! She has been a true joy in our lives these last 3 months. We are busy...oh, so busy just being a family of 5! 3 kids is a serious handful most days but we're doing great and having fun! Zadie is very quirky...she is very happy, very flexible, and very content. She sleeps great, eats EVERYTHING we feed her, and is crawling up a storm. She pulls up on anything she can get a good hold on and babbles ALL DAY like crazy! She is a true social butterfly...when we run errands she EXPECTS attention from all others. She does this little scrunchy face thing that cracks me up every time...I look at her or call her name and she looks over and gives this huge, cheesy, scrunchy nose smile until I smile back the same way and then she just laughs. TROUBLE! She's trouble! The boys adore her and she loves being entertained by them. I'm telling you...we did not expect it to be this easy or this rewarding this early! LOVE THESE KIDS and we are blessed to call them our children! Since I've taken so long to update the blog, I'll include some pictures of Zadie's past weekend birthday celebration. We had a great, relaxed time celebrating with friends. A big thank you to our friend Liz Tomany who created all the decorations!!

We're home!!!

2011-02-08T15:24:00.000-08:00

We're home and doing well! We got home Saturday afternoon after a 16 hour plane ride from Dubai. Zadie did beautifully on the plane ride and slept almost 13 hours of the flight off and on. She has a pretty severe head cold and that combined with a fever and motrin made her quite sleepy. We took her to the doctor yesterday morning to make sure there wasn't anything else going on and the doctor said she looks good...no ear infections, no tonsilitis, no pnemonia...just a cold so no antibiotics! YAY! She's been sleeping quite a bit and I'm thinking it's her coping mechanism as her entire world just got turned upside down. She is quite entertained by her brothers as well as quite overwhelmed by them. The last few days have been a little rough as we are learning what our new "normal" looks like but today was 100% better! We got out of the house together as the boys had preschool today and then Zadie and I went to my dentist appointment together while Gigi held Zadie and introduced her to Gigi's office friends. She was very content hanging out. We then ran errands while Zadie slept and then enjoyed the park this afternoon with the boys and some friends. Zadie wakes up at night and ends up eating about an ounce or two of formula before going back to bed...so she's up for 5 minutes at a time. Not bad for someone who is suffering from jet lag and has been used to a totally different time zone. We're growing in many ways and are just so grateful to be on this side of our journey and realize that a whole new journey is beginning! I'll blog later about our trip (which was incredible). We haven't had phone, internet, or TV since we've been home because of some problems with our phone lines so I'm happy to able to update the blog again! Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support...we truly felt every single one and have learned such an incredible lesson about the power of and importance of prayer and our faith in our heavenly father. I'll post some pictures soon...Josh took some great ones!

On our way to gotcha day!!!!

2011-01-30T16:37:00.000-08:00

It's 4:30 in the morning here in Dubai and I'm UP and little jittery! We slept quite a bit off and on since arriving here at noon yesterday (2:00 am our time). We took "naps" and then woke up for a room service dinner and then tried to go to bed for the night around 6:00 pm with a 5:30 wake up call. As we turned everything off in the room Josh couldn't sleep knowing we had Zadie's lap tikcet hanging over our head. Even thought she will be sitting in our laps, Emirates still requires a paper ticket. We were told to find a ticket counter and buy it and we're also encouraged to do it in Dubai since this is their main hub. Josh called Emirates (using hotel phone...we learned that lesson the hard way last time thanks for a $500 cell phone bill). Emirates told him to buy it downstairs. So Josh got dressed and walked the airport looking for a place to buy her ticket just so it would be done. He finally found one and then had himself a little ice cream and espresso before heading back upstairs! I didn't know the difference...I had taken an ambien sleeping pill and was so confused as to why he was standing up fully dressed when I thought he was sleeping next to me! HA! I was OUT OF IT!

Now to the good part! In 3 hours we board our plane to Addis Ababa! After a 4 hour flight we will be ON THE GROUND in Ethiopia. We will then very shortly after go and get our girl!!! There are not past itineraries to lean on her and as were told we could interview any day this week so I don't know at this point if we'll get FOREVER tonight or just visit her today and have her FOREVER tomorrow! But I'll keep you updated! This trip has been SO emotional for me! This is not just another step to take in this process, not another box to check off...THIS IS THE LAST STEP!! We are bringing her home FOREVER!! Now reading Mary Beth Chapman's new book on a long flight with no sleep and a small glass of white wine doesn't help settle my emotions!!!! I was so that crazy lady that had to keep taking her glassess of to wipe away tears and was just so grateful to be on that plane right then going to get our daughter! We don't have to wait on ONE MORE MOWA letter! We did it...all paperwork has been filled out and submitted! This adoption marathon is about to have the finish line in sight! And ironically Josh and I were supposed to be running the full and half (for me!) marathon this weekend in Houston. Instead we sat on our tushes for 16 hours! HA! Or more so...instead we're completing an 18 month marathon that God has orchestrated every event of! Thank you again for your prayers! GOTCHA DAY PICTURES COMING SOON!

And we're off...

2011-01-29T05:58:00.001-08:00

WOW...what a crazy 24 hours! We decided late Thursday night that we would prepare to travel on Friday morning and then RIGHT before we HAD to leave for the airport we would contact our travel coordinator with our agency to decide if we should cancel or not. We decided if we heard good news that we would go (obviously) and no news or bad news we would wait until this coming week to travel. We looked up ticket prices and they had not gone up any...even leaving the next day. Also, we were going to have sign a waiver saying that if we took custody of Zadie then we might have to stay for 12 weeks if the Embassy decided to do a full investigation. Well, we just couldn't commit to that and I hated to go and not be able to HAVE her full time! So...we were told there was no news from the Embassy and were strongly encouraged to wait to travel until we were cleared. So with very heavy hearts we canceled our flights. And to be honest I just couldn't figure out what the right thing to do was...my "direct line" was experiencing interference!! I was praying my heart out and not getting anything back...still processing that one...still learning from all of this. I feel like I got up to the diving board and wouldn't jump. But I prayed and asked for direction and was at peace with the decision to wait. We knew we would enjoy our trip better if we went without all the dread of not knowing when we would return hanging over our heads. We packed up our bags, 2 kids, 1 dog and headed back home from my parents' house. 10 minutes later we got the call. YOU'RE CLEARED BY THE EMBASSY TO TRAVEL and you can interview any day next week! TURN THE CAR AROUND! After some highway speeding and a little drama we decided we were not going to make our canceled flight. Our boys are being real troopers to endure all the drama and stress of this trip and we ask for prayer for their little hearts as we can tell they're going through a journey of their own. We rebooked tickets and are on a flight today leaving this morning getting to Ethiopia and Monday morning after stopping overnight in Dubai. We appreciate any and all of your prayers and will be updating our blog during out trip! We're almost there Zadie! And we're almost done with our 18 month adoption journey!! God is good all the time and is FAITHFUL always!

Stepping out on faith...

2011-01-21T15:32:00.000-08:00

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."

Hebrews 11:1

"Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance."

James 1:2-3

I don't know about you but I'm a planner. And not only am I a planner; I am a researcher. I want to know what to expect and when to expect it. I like to be in control and spend hours reading about or searching out a topic on the internet to help prepare or learn about something. In short...I DO NOT USUALLY ENJOY SURPRISES. At least the big, life changing kind that happen with no control and no time to plan. I certainly do not like leaving international travel to short notice nor do I enjoy not knowing when I will have a certain child in my arms for good. I'm starting to sound like a certain 4 year old I know who at least can claim being 4 as the reason behind his ranting. I however can not claim as much. In fact, as a child of God I cannot claim to not know better or even being new at this faith walk thing. I DO know better and I am not new to my life in Christ. So why does it always feel like I don't and I am?

Today we received news that the US Embassy in Addis Ababa will be changing the procedure for submitting paperwork and being cleared for visas. This would not be a concern were we not the very first set of parents to be included in these new rules. No time lines to help us in making arrangements, no families that have gone before us, no idea how long the review process might take or when they might allow us an interview. All new, all different. You see where my rantings from above come in right about now? I want to stomp my feet or call someone up and demand to be seen next week. I deserve to bring her home right? I've waited long enough right? Ahhhh...and then in steps the Holy Spirit. Funny enough the minute after I read this e-mail today leaving the doctor's office with the boys I could not get a signal to call Josh. Seriously...phone would not work even though I just had a signal to read the e-mail to begin with. Here is what the conversation sounded like (ok...imaginary conversation in my head...not audible, but you get it)

God: "Who is the first person you're going to go with this issue?"

Me: "Well...ummm (still no cell phone signal)...ok, you. But you're not really going to give me a timeline here are you?"

God: "Did I ask you to step out on faith?"

Me: "Yes"

God: "Have you done that?"

Me: "Yes" (We have plane tickets that leave next Friday)

God: "Do you have reason to believe otherwise right now?"

Me: "Ummm...no. All speculation." (And have you not seen my post on His faithfulness?)

God: "So do you want to be in control or do you want me to be in control?"

Me: I think to myself ME, ME, ME! But I know in my heart of hearts that He knows so much better and bigger than I do so I let go and take a breath and...

my cell phone comes back on and Josh is calling. We decide that we'll wait on God...we'll wait to hear what happens next week. We'll pray for Embassy clearance and we'll put our hope in God and in the best case scenario of being cleared next week to leave on Friday like we have planned all along. We will wait upon the Lord and we'll ask you to pray with us. And ultimately we will pray that He is glorified in all of this...even if we're not cleared next week, even if we don't travel until May, even if I have to go alone. To God be the glory...

Great is His faithfulness...

2011-01-19T11:31:00.000-08:00

Today we heard some potentially troubling news about the US Embassy in Ethiopia and the process moving forward. We did not hear details and continue to wait until tomorrow when our paperwork is supposed to be submitted for further information on when we might potentially be allowed an interview to get her visa to bring her home. There are 3 families there right now who traveled on faith and are praying to have an interview tomorrow to get their children's visas and right now they still do not have confirmation of an appointment. They will be showing up and hoping for the best. We found all of this out on our agency's yahoo group for families in the process of adopting. They posted and said that received bad news about their Embassy appointments today and they are asking for prayers for tomorrow. Then another family in Ethiopia for a court date posted that these 3 families have run into some Embassy problems and these problems might exist for families behind them also (that would be us). ALL OF THIS to say that of course we will be praying for them and we will ask you to pray for them...that God would smooth their way and go before them and allow Embassy officials tomorrow to clear them to travel home with their children.

And now I will say this...this information today has thrown me today...shaken me off of my "paperwork high" from yesterday. I lost my footing for a few hours this morning and allowed the enemy to steal my joy and leave me gazing at circumstances while I glanced at God. And then I realized that we still know NOTHING...we aren't even supposed to be submitted until TOMORROW. There is no amount of worrying that will make it turn out how I want it to turn out. And then I remembered how God has shown himself faithful time and time again...throughout my life much less in this adoption journey. TIME and TIME again! Praise God, yes? HE IS FAITHFUL! He holds the universe in His hands and He already knows the outcome! He doesn't need me to worry...in fact all He asks is that I come to Him and lay it down. All I have to do is lay my burden at His feet and He's got it! If someone told me today that President Obama was going to call the US Embassy in Ethiopia and talk with officials there specifically about our adoption and our friends' cases do you think I would be worried? And if that information would calm my nerves then shouldn't knowing that THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE has taken care of this and will see us through be enough for me to not worry? Oh, we're so fragile and naive and mistaken sometimes...I am weak but I am glad that my God does not leave me this way and is right there to whisper in my ear when I need to hear Him speak. I am praying that you hear God speak to you today in whatever way you need to hear Him. And I am also praying that we will continue to gaze at God and glance at circumstances.

Lamentations 3:22-24
Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him."

Thank you for your prayers...we will update you when we know more.

Oh so close...

2011-01-18T17:02:00.000-08:00

We received Zadie's post court paperwork today!! We now have her new birth certificate, the court decree stating that she is legally ours, and a copy of her Ethiopian passport! We have waited 18 LONG months for these documents as this is the final stage of our adoption. All that is left is for said paperwork to be submitted to Embassy (this will happen on Thursday the 20th) and then TRAVEL to bring her HOME! We have already purchased tickets on faith to leave on Friday, January 28th. We will not know if we are confirmed to travel on these dates until Monday. We need the Embassy to go over our paperwork and take the minimum 48 hours to confirm us for an interview on Feb. 2nd to be able to leave next Friday. We have seen over and over again how prayers work and what a mighty tool they are. I know how often we say we'll be praying over something or for something and how little that actually happens when it comes right down to it. I am so guilty of this myself. But oh how I've learned the power of prayer through this adoption journey...actually I've seen how God has used this journey to not only bless us with a daughter but to bless us spiritually as well. We have been stretched and have grown so much in our daily walk with our heavenly Father and we are oh so thankful for this journey...ALL of it...the good times and the long, drawn out times that strengthened our faith and brought us to or knees so often. We know how powerful prayer is and we ask you to pray with us now for a quick Embassy appointment confirmation, for peace for our boys during this transition, travel mercies, Zadie's health, and most importantly for God's will to be done and for Him alone to receive all the glory. You'll never know how much we appreciate your prayers...the long ones and the quick ones! Praising God that we are oh so close...

"And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive."

Matthew 21:22

Must watch...

2011-01-15T17:05:00.000-08:00

Double click on video to see it larger on youtube.com...

Prayer requests, plane tickets, and soap boxes...

2011-01-15T10:00:00.000-08:00

Ok...so here's where we stand now. We hope to have our paper work ready this coming week to be submitted for Embassy. We are waiting on Zadie's birth certificate (listing us as her parents!!!), her visa, and her passport to be issued. Based on current trends we should have that paper work in e-mail form to us by Monday or Tuesday of next week. It should then be submitted to the US Embassy in Addis Ababa on Wednesday of next week. However, this is where it gets tricky for a couple of reasons. First, next Wednesday is a holiday for the US Embassy so we're hoping that means that our paper work can be submitted on next Thursday. Second, recent travelers have found that even after their paper work was submitted they are not getting 100% official clearance that they have a confirmed Embassy interview the following 2 weeks until the week of the interview. So this means that we will probably be traveling on faith for our Embassy interview. And that is ok with us...if we've learned ANYTHING throughout this adoption journey it is that God does INDEED PROVIDE in His perfect timing. So we've bought our plane tickets to travel on January 28th for the February 2nd Embassy appointment and hope to have Zadie home on February 5th! Please join us in praying that our paper work does indeed come through next week, that it is submitted to the Embassy on Thursday, and that we are cleared to travel for the Feb. 2nd Embassy date and have her home by Feb. 5th! We appreciate your prayers and are trusting in God's sovereignty!

Lately, I've been reading a FANTASTIC book titled The Hole in our Gospel by Richard Stearns. It is a very convicting book...you know, the kind where I find myself shaking my head in agreement and saying "Amen" out loud several times throughout a chapter. The kind that makes you realize how little we are doing to honor Jesus' commandment of loving thy neighbor and spurs you on to find more that you can give and do. If I could I would copy word for word the entire book on my blog but I won't do that and instead I will just encourage you to pick up a copy for yourself and read it. I will however share with you my favorite parts so far because they are heavy on my heart today and if I don't share it somewhere I think I will burst...

"Here is the bottom line: if we are aware of the suffering of our distant neighbors-and we are-if we have access to these neighbors, either personally or through aid organizations and charities-and we do-and if we have the ability to make a difference through programs and technologies that work-which is also the case-then we should no more turn our backs on these neighbors of ours than the priest and the Levite should have walked by the bleeding man." Richard Stearns

Richard Stearns then quotes this from a modern-day prophet...

"Fifteen thousand Africans are dying each day of PREVENTABLE, treatable diseases-AIDS, malaria, TB-for lack of drugs we take for granted. This statistic alone makes a fool of the idea many of us hold on to very tightly; the idea of equality. What is happening to Africa mocks our pieties, doubts our concern and question our committment to the whole concept. Because if we're honest, there's no way we could conclude that such mass death day after day would ever be allowed to happen anywhere else. Certainly not North America or Europe, or Japan. An entire continent bursting into flames? Deep down, if we really accept that their lives-African lives-are equal to our, we would all be doing more to put the fire out. It's an uncomfortable truth."-Bono

And lastly I'll end with this...Richard Stearns own paraphrased version of 1 John.

"For I was hungry, while you had all you needed. I was thirsty, but you drank bottled water. I was a stranger, and you wanted me deported. I needed clothes, but you needed more clothes. I was sick, and you pointed out the behaviors that led to my sickness. I was in prison, and you said I was getting what I deserved."

I don't share all of this to point a finger...I share all of this because it breaks my selfish heart and I need my selfish heart broken A LOT to spur it to action. I need to hear these words daily and I need God's word to penetrate deep and sometimes that means He leads me to other resources to hear it a different way. I am a lost sheep living in a lost world but I am saved through God's grace and forgiveness and I hope that I do not wake up each day forgetting that THAT is the cause of my purpose for the day. How can I honor God today? How can we love our neighbors more today?

Thank you for walking this journey with us...

Because of Him,

Treasures...

2011-01-04T07:26:00.001-08:00

Here are a few of my treasures...we also would treasure your prayers on getting the littlest treasure home with us for good as quickly as possible! We'll update you when we hear any information!

More photos and a nursery tour to follow...but this mommy heart can only focus on one thing and the anxiety of not knowing when our travel dates will be is taking center stage...but we're fully relying on God so we'll be fine! Thanks for your prayers!

Lessons learned...

2010-12-29T05:05:00.000-08:00

WOW! What a journey this adoption has been for us so far. We have had our ups and downs and passing court was definitely a high for us! We're still just so thrilled that she is forever ours and eagerly await our return trip to pick her up and bring her home to share with you. She really is the most content baby but we would have loved her even if she cried the whole time! We fell so in love with Ethiopia on our last trip and can't wait to return to be there again. I will admit that this surprised me quite a bit. I will be the first to tell you that I like being comfortable. And I have quite a few items around the house that help make more comfortable and I so often feel like I NEED those things...my certain pillow, a fan for a sound machine, a favorite coffee cup, a comfortable mattress, a daily routine that makes me comfortable, friends that make me comfortable, etc. So I was a little anxious about leaving my comfortable life here and flying around the world to Africa. I knew the people in Ethiopia were mostly NOT comfortable...minimum wage is $20 a MONTH, many do not even have a job and resort to begging on the street, children aren't guaranteed an education, people are dying of a disease that is not considered life threatening in the States. People are not necessarily living "comfortable" lives in Ethiopia. So I was unsure how I would feel...I just assumed it was something I HAD to do to bring our daughter home so I would go and suffer through it. I could not have been more WRONG! I absolutely LOVED Ethiopia...LOVED the people who were so friendly and proud of their heritage and the little that they did have, LOVED the staff of AWAA agency that we used, LOVED the city and the place we stayed and ALL of it! Not once did we feel uncomfortable with where we were or with the beautiful people there. We LOVED the other families who were there with us and had a great time fellowshipping with them. While meeting Zadie's birth mom was heart breaking we LOVED getting to hug her tight and tell her that we would not forget her bravery and would pray over her with our daughter daily. We really did LOVE our trip! But here's what I know...looking back we did not love our trip because we are just flexible people (although being stuck 3 days in the Amsterdam airport gave us a new appreciation for flexibility). We did not love our trip because we are used to traveling to 3rd world countries or because we are used to putting up a barrier between us and uncomfortable images being from America where we tend to sweep uncomfortable stuff under the rug. Nothing about our selfish tendencies would have allowed us to enjoy that trip...I am a flawed person who SHOULD have not enjoyed any of that trip. However, by the GRACE of God I was allowed a fantastic, eye opening, perspective changing, awe inspiring trip to a world that I am not used to and I hope I will never forget. We have so been taught how important and privileged we are to be able to go to the THRONE of God to pray and petition for the needs of our brothers and sisters and WE FELT EVERY ONE OF YOUR PRAYERS! We truly feel that the most treasured things we can ask for and receive from our fellow believers are your prayers. We are humbled by and grateful for the time you took to pray over our journey because we were weak vessels made strong. We have witnessed God's love in so many new and different ways than ever before and I truly hope that if you have the opportunity to talk to us personally that we will have the words to share that with you. To God be the glory!

Now we ask for your prayers once again. We are currently waiting to hear when our tentative travel dates will be to be able to go and bring our daughter home. We were told 4-6 weeks. Our agency is able to submit our post court paperwork every other Wednesday to the US Embassy. The Embassy will review our paperwork and either confirm us to travel or begin an investigation. We are praying that our paperwork is collected quickly and efficiently and that the Embassy allows us to travel for the earliest possible date which would be January 19th. The next possible date would be February 2nd. At this point we really are thankful to just have passed court as so many of our sweet friends did not have their letter written and in their file when it should have been. And we really are just grateful to have held our daughter and met the friends we made. But of course our heart aches to hold our daughter indefinitely and forever. Will you pray with us for a quick Embassy date? Please also pray with us for the other families in process who are held up in ANY way...please pray God's favor for these families and for paperwork to be in place ASAP! Please help us pray these children home! Again...we are so grateful for your prayers!

INTRODUCING ZADIE TESFANESH CHAMBERS!!

2010-12-27T07:58:00.001-08:00

We got word this morning that we officially passed court on the 24th! This means that Zadie Tesfanesh Chambers is legally and eternally a Chambers! Praise the LORD! We now wait for them to compile our post-court paperwork and then submit it to the US Embassy to find our next travel dates to pick her up and bring her home forever. We so appreciate your prayers for a quick turnaround to get her and for our hearts and her health in the interim. Also, please pray with us for the families still waiting on MOWA letters and approvals as we hurt with them during this difficult wait. However, we hold tight to the promise of God's sovereignty.

Now...here's the best part! We can share photos of our daughter! We'll start with this video! More to follow!

Bittersweet

2010-12-23T07:39:00.000-08:00

Today was our last day here in Ethiopia. We head home tonight on a midnight
flight. It was a very emotionally draining day for us here. We woke up and had
breakfast and didn't know if our court date was in morning or afternoon. The
AWAA staff arrived and told us to load up to head to court around 9:15. We went
to the court house (totally not how I pictured it...think local DMV office) and
stood around for a bit as birth families were there giving their consent first.
We were then called by name to enter the one little room where the adoption
judge sits. We were called in with 3 other families (which we've never heard
of) and we all answered her mainly yes or no questions and were done within
about 7 minutes. She informed us the MOWA letters had not been delivered that
day and she would let us know that afternoon. We left the courthouse and came
back to the guest house and were told to wait in our rooms and we would be
called down one a time to meet with our birth moms/families. I had a hard time
anticipating this meeting. I'm still not sure I've processed much of it at all.
We met with her for about 15 minutes and then after an emotional goodbye to her
we went up to our rooms and waited for lunch. I realize I'm passing over that
part of our day without much emotion or detail but until you've been in that
situation personally there really are no words to describe it. I'm sure I'll
process through it and feel the need to write it about it soon. We enjoyed
lunch and then headed to the TH to see our daughter for the last afternoon.
After a while the AWAA liason came by and told us that three families had
confirmed letters written by MOWA that should be at court in morning which means
an approval coming in less than 24 hours. The other families' letters were not
written yet and they should find out if they will have to be given a new court
date. We were one of the 3 with confirmed letters! We're thrilled with this
news but it's been bittersweet as we've grown very close to these other families
and it was hard to see their dissapointment and share in that with them. We
then spent the rest of the afternoon with our daughter until they told us it was
time to say goodbye. We let her go knowing our God will be protecting and
surrounding her with angels. We are worn out from a fantastic albeit draining
trip and will head home tonight on a midnight flight. We ask for your prayers
for our flight home...for our connection in Amsterdam; that it would take off to
Houston on time so we would be able to avoid the chaos from last week getting
here. We also ask for your prayers for our daughter and her health right now.
And lastly we ask for your prayers for the families that are still waiting to
hear confirmation that they have passed court to be able to move forward in
brining their children home. This is a tough season of waiting and especially
going through the holidays being apart from our sweet children. We so
appreciate your prayers throughout our journey...we know God is faithful even
when we can't see it and we look forward to celerating his son's birth in a
couple of days with our family.

Autumn

Feeling very blessed and thankful ...

2010-12-22T11:56:00.000-08:00

We spent the day today passing out our donations to the 2 local orphangages. we
got to watch them eat and see where they slept and we then passed out the care
packages so many of you had in helping or buyng! They were a hit and the kids
loved us showing them how to use them. Some wanted to keep in their bags and
some wanted to take it all out and play wth it all right away! We loved just
spending time and loving on these sweet kids! After this we headed back to
transition house where we began delivering care package for aoptive friends and
taking photo's for other famlies. All the babies are just beautiful and those
nannies parade them around and strut their stuff and those kids just sit there
looking stunned most of the time!! But they don't need all the showyness...they
truly are beautiful babies and so many we saw today were beautful babies that
have nobody coming for them or sending care packages to them or praying for
them..what about those babies and what you can you do to look at them face to face
and be uncomfortable by it?

As you are sleeping tonight, there will be 7 families here that have their
challenging court day tomorrow. Not challenging like it's a test of strength
and feats but challenging as I've gotten myself worked up over now. There is
also a chance we will be able to meet the birth mom after she relinquishes her
rights at court that morning. She then will come to the guest house where we're
staying and sit down with us and chat. We want her to know how much we will
love and care for her daughter and that we will tell her about her mother and
just basically love her the only way we can...with our eyes, our body langage,
our hearts! Plese pray for us tonight (your time) for this meeting to go
smoothly and for her to feel a peace and burden to be lifted.

Also, 7 famlies will be headed to court tommorow. One family went today and
they found out at lunch that they had ineed passed!!!! We all cheered!!
Tomorrow may be a different story as there are so many of us and it's been
common lately for the judge to see 10 more families than MOWA had time to write
letters for. So the judge is seeing 30 familiies and MOWA only wrote 20 letters
that day. Sometimes you can pass on the spot if everything is there...if that
letter is missing then they can wait for it, wait until tomorrow, or reschedule
and givv you a new court date. We are asking your prayers that we would pass on
the spot tomorrow! That we would hear that T******** Chambers is officially
yours!! What a Christmas girt!!

But if that doesn't happen, if our MOWA letter is not written and if we get
stuck again coming home from Ethiopia in Amsterdam and miss our connection and
spend Christmas morning in the Amsterdam airport AGAIN then I still want to say
that after these last 4 days that we are blessed and I will be thankful...

Pray with us frinds, feel His blessing this week, tell Him you are thankful...

Because of Him

We made it!!!

2010-12-20T20:44:00.000-08:00

After 96 hours of traveling, 3 hotel airports, 3 flights, and 3 countries we are
pleased to report that we made it Addis Ababa!!! There were so many answered
prayers along the way and when time allows (and a faster internet connection is
available) I'll share more of the story about our last leg of travel. But for
now we just wanted everyone to know that we're here and we spent almost the
entire day holding our sweet, sweet Zadie! She is precious...worth every minute
of the last 96 hours and we can't wait until we pass court to show you her
pictures and look forward to bringing her home soon to join our lives. She is
THE MOST CONTENT baby!!! She only fussed when we had to wipe her nose and
please pray for her health as she is battling another upper respiratory
infection. There is a VERY large travel group with us and we've enjoyed
spending the day getting to know all the couples and meeting their babies with
them. What a fantastic trip this is turning out to be! We are headed to bed
(at 5:30 our time) because we cannot hold our eyes open another minute! After
not sleeping for over 24 hours we are exhausted and hope to catch up on sleep
and hit the day running tomorrow refreshed! On the itinerary is a day of
shopping followed by more visiting with Zadie and then an Ethiopian traditional
dinner and dancing tomorrow night! Oh, and care package and photo
friends...we'll be doing that on Wednesday for you all!

Thanks for the continued prayers!

Same song...fifth verse

2010-12-19T01:51:00.000-08:00

Ok...so it's a LONG song! Yesterday we had a flight leaving Amsterdam heading to Paris and then on to Rome getting in 2 hours before our flight to Ethiopia. We were thrilled to print boarding passes as there was no way we were going to get in to correct part of airport to print a boarding pass. We went to bed with an alarm to be up at 5:00 am to head to airport to see if we could get on another flight as they were predicting LOTS of snow in Paris and we did not want to be STUCK in Paris. For some reason (read that GOD) we woke up in the middle of the night and I got online to see what other options we had. I found a flight going to Dubai and then on to Ethiopia and we called KLM to try and book that flight. The first lady cancelled our Amsterdam/Paris/Rome tickets and tried to book this flight...she said she had it but we would need to talk with the International service desk to confirm it. We were on hold for another hour and half before we ever spoke with anybody. Finally when someone did come on the line she told us that flight was sold out...she then tried to get us on flight to Nairobi and then Ethiopia but that flight was full also. After another 45 minutes she told us she could book us on a direct flight to Rome leaving at 1:00 giving us plenty of time to make connecting Ethiopian Air flight at midnight. We took that option and tried to print our boarding passes but computer would not find reservations for us so we used old boarding passes that we printed night before to get through security. We made it to airport at 8:00 am not knowing how long security lines were (they were not long) and FINALLY made it inside airport! WOOHOO! Now we are waiting at gate to see if the flight indeed takes off but we've watched dozens of flights leave now. When we get to Rome we will have to find our bags and then go out and recheck them through Ethiopian Air for midnight flight. Please pray with us that we can locate our bags smoothly and rebook them smoothly and get on our Ethiopian flight SMOOTHLY! We are praying that we are holding our daughter in less than 24 hours!!! We have a long way to go but we are praising a sovereign God through all of this! Praying we're posting about more than sitting in an Amsterdam airport SOON!

Thanks for your continued prayers...we can feel them!

Becuase of Him,

HALLELUJAH!

2010-12-18T09:55:00.001-08:00

Okay...so after spending the day at the OUTSIDE the airport getting the lay of the land we are thrilled to announce that we have been able to PRINT our boarding passes for tomorrow's flight. This is HUGE because the entire departures terminal for KLM flights has been SHUT DOWN all day...meaning they literally have blocked ALL entrances into the entire Departures 2 building. I have never seen a longer line in my life! 8 people wide, at least a mile and half long from the other departures building with no hope of getting through. We don't have our baggage as it was checked through to Rome so we don't have bags to check...we just needed a boarding pass to get back IN to the airport tomorrow and we needed to get to a kiosk to do that and couldn't access any kiosks ALL DAY! We also could not print our boarding ALL day after several phone calls to KLM...it just wouldn't pull up the info online. So we were feeling VERY hopeless all day! Josh was even going to spend the night standing in the hopeless line just to see where he could get. A security guard told us not to try that but to go back to room and see if we could try again in the morning. So we left and came back to hotel to try and see if we could but another flight that was NOT KLM so we could get boarding pass to get INTO airport to work from there. Well, we decided to try to print boarding passes ONE more time and it WORKED!!! And we even have the EXIT ROW...now we're nowhere close to being where we need to be. These tickets are supposed to go to Paris tomorrow afternoon and then on to Rome and get us in at 10:00 where we hope to make our Ethiopian Air connecting flight at midnight and then we'll be BACK ON TRACK for the rest of trip. SO PLEASE PRAY that our flight leaves here tomorrow and then leaves Paris as it's supposed to snow in Paris tomorrow also. We've completely written off our luggage...who knows where it is, which if FINE with us. We packed one extra outfit in our carry on and then all the care packages and even bags of chocolate for nanny gifts so we'll be OK without (though it would be great if we did find it for the donations to make it to Ethiopia). So we're closer but not out of the woods...please pray for the snow to not be heave and for our flights to leave on time and for us to make it to Ethiopia by Monday morning. We know God is in control even when the ENTIRE airport is not in control of anything!! We will be praying for extra doses of patience as well...one day this will be a great story for Zadie!! We worked HARD to get to that little one! And we'd do it again if we had to...let's just pray we DON'T have to!!

No room at the inn...

2010-12-17T17:56:00.000-08:00

So...today has been the craziest travel day I've ever experienced. After flying for 8 1/2 hours from Houston to Amsterdam we were told the last 15 minutes that the Amsterdam airport was shut down and they were wanting us to circle for an hour and half before landing due to snow. Our pilot said we did not have enough fuel for that so we were rerouted to Dusseldorf, Germany (20 minutes away...strangeness) and refueled there. So we were delayed by about an hour getting into Amsterdam. We found a self serve kiosk and scanned our boarding passes for a flight we didn't connect to (no worries...that flight didn't end up taking off that morning for Rome anyway and we heard stories that people boarded that flight and sat on runway for 3 hours thinking they were going to take off and ended up back at airport anyway). So we had boarding passes for a later flight...about 4:00. We went back through security and waited at gate until about 4:30 as messages kept playing overhead that flights were beginning to be canceled throughout Europe from Amsterdam. We were told there would MAYBE be flights after 4:00 and ours was scheduled to leave at 4:30 so we waited. 4:30 came and went and then we were told there might be flights that would leave after 8:00. So we changed gates and sat there for another 3 1/2 hours hoping to get a boarding pass for a flight out (with a large group of others). The entire time there were NO gate agents...just these big T (for Transfer) desks that had lines that were HOURS long just to get to talk to an agent who ended up knowing nothing because the airport was shutting down due to weather closures. At this last gate we waited with others and about 45 minutes before flight left the waiting room filled up and the board still didn't say cancelled so we were hopeful and praying for a flight. The crews began preparing for a planes arrival and finally 2 gate agents showed up to work the desks and my heart began beating faster! They told us to wait as they called in to find the incoming plane and what the plan was. Josh was standing at the gate desk this entire time to be up there when something happened. After about another 20 minutes they finally came on and said the flight was cancelled and that we would have to leave the gate area so they could shut it down. No more than that was given. Big FAIL!! We were also told ALL public transportation was shut down going into city center. No trains, no taxis, no buses...nothing. About 5:00 in this ordeal I got ahold of my father back home who was trying to find out how he could help by calling our airlines and mentioned that the airport at the hotel was full which I assumed as the whole airport was slowly shutting down. At that point I got a little emotional about the whole ordeal as we did not sleep on the plane (after trying a sleeping pill and having a good travel pillow it just didn't happen...there were 2 little ones crying around us off and on but the flight wasn't that bad at all...the nightmare began when we landed!) so I was exhausted and hungry and I knew I was about to just cry to cry...just because I was so drained. So I went down to the restroom and of course there was a little boy about Oliver's age just sitting on the counter with his mom telling her he was sad because they had been there so long and I made it to (fantastically closed off completely) stall and just cried...oh how I missed my boys and how much I wouldn't have left them these few days early just for this!! :) That helped tremendously and I calmed down and got some cold water and went back to waiting area for more waiting! Just had to get it all out!

After the last flight of the day was canceled we figured it was time to try to head down to baggage (no bags as they are checked through to Rome but we did pack well in our carry ons for this trip) and out to see if indeed everything was shut down. Oh what chaos! There were people EVERYWHERE...we found the taxi lines and were told there were some taxis running but that half the city was closed down due to snow so we probably couldn't get in to city center (where the hotels were). Trains were half running but we weren't sure where to go and afraid we couldn't back to airport. There were people finding spots on tile floor and sitting and playing cards and just trying to find somewhere to rest and I was beginning to feel hopeless and STUCK! We spent about 45 minutes just trying to find out what our options were (not very many) and even the hotel shuttles line was fantastically long and standing outside in the blowing snow was miserable. So we decided to head to the Sheraton hotel which is connected via a walkway just to at least sit on carpet for the night. There was a sign out front saying the hotel was fully booked but Josh went in anyway just to check. I stood out in hallway watching as people walked away feeling so hopeless and tired and rundown. After about 15 minutes he was at front of line to talk to someone and I saw him take off his backpack after what I thought was the lady shaking her head. My heart leaped but I assumed he was just tired of wearing it. Then he got his wallet OUT and my heart started beating faster! Some rooms had just opened up and we GOT A ROOM at the Sheraton with a personal bathroom (woot woot) and a BED!!! We ordered room service, brushed our teeth, and went to bed! What a relief! We woke up (I think the stress of not knowing what time we had to be up did it) and saw a message from Dad that said we had a flight out on SUNDAY to connect in Rome a few hours before our scheduled flight to Ethiopia that night at midnight. So we ask for your continued prayers that we do indeed get to leave Amsterdam on Sunday and that we do INDEED connect in time to make our next flight (which is the important part!!!) to Addis Ababa. Who knows where our bags are or what we're going to do tomorrow but we're just so thankful to HAVE A ROOM!

Which leads me to the title...never before have I spent so much time thinking about what Mary and Joseph must have felt like as they traveled from inn to inn and were told there were no rooms. How hopeless they must have felt and how desperate they must have been to find ANYWHERE they could lay down and how worried to be having a baby and not knowing where they would be able to do that. I can't imagine giving birth in a stable...on hay...with animals around me. I know from reading children's books on the subject that we idealize it and make it sound so charming and peaceful but can you imagine? I know the thought of laying on a tile floor tonight was unbearable to me and how my heart leapt when we were told we could have a room. I'm thankful to God for taking care of us in the midst of the chaos and I suspect Mary and Joseph felt the same way on that incredible night so many years ago. I suspect in their hearts they were just thankful to find a place to lay down and I suspect they knew in their hearts that God was taking care of them. Thank you God for the small gifts you give us daily and for the gift of your Son.

Now back to bed...thank you for the prayers...we know God answered them today.

1 last minute prayer request

2010-12-16T05:49:00.000-08:00

We leave TODAY! We will spend the weekend in Rome and be in Ethiopia on Monday morning by 8:00 am (midnight here)! We hope to update the blog while we're away if you're interested. One last minute prayer request we have is for our donated supplies to make it in to country to be used where needed. We have heard from several families who have traveled recently that a few of their bags were searched and medical supplies were confiscated (even generic supplies like children's Tylenol, Motrin, etc). The guards said they needed a letter from the orphanage stating they needed those medical supplies in order to get supplies in country. This is a new to everyone and is not happening to everyone and even to those families it happened to they confiscated items from one bag they randomly searched and not the other bags. So we were advised to spread our donations out throughout our bags (which we have done) but we're asking for prayer that ALL of our donations get through customs and make it to the places we intend for them to be. We have FULL faith that God has gone before us and we appreciate your prayers for us while we're away!

Because of Him,

LAST DAY OF PRAYER REQUESTS!!

2010-12-15T11:00:00.000-08:00

Today is our last day of our 5 days of prayer requests which means we get on plane tomorrow! WOOHOO! After waiting 19 1/2 weeks we will finally be able to MEET and HOLD our daughter!! We definitely feel covered by all of your prayers this week and we thank you for praying with us. We said good bye to the boys today for the next 9 days and did so with Wyatt running a 102 degree fever. He was still in good spirits though after lots of extra cuddling last night. Oliver was ready to go from the moment he woke up! They are both in very capable hands and when I told Wyatt that Nana said she would hold him as much as he wants he said "good, that will make me feel better!" Melt my heart! Answered prayers!

Today's focus will be in on what happens AFTER our court trip. We will leave without our Zadie while our court decree is translated and a visa and passport is applied for for Zadie. After the Embassy receives our paperwork they will look through it and either clear us for an Embassy appointment or if there are questions they will begin an investigation. Here is how you can be praying...

-that we would pass court and get this process started!

-that the Embassy would receive our paperwork and look through it quickly

-that the Embassy would clear us right away and no investigation is necessary

-that we would be back for our Embassy appointment in the shortest amount of time (4-5 weeks)

-our visa interview for the 2nd trip

Also, we ask for prayer as it's very possible that we will meet Zadie's birth mom on this trip if she is willing. We would love to meet her and somehow convey to her how much this child will be loved. We ask that you'll pray over this meeting as it makes me nervous and we pray that she'll feel God's love through us, our body language, and what the translator hears us say.

YAY! We're getting so close now and we so appreciate you praying for us and with us! Our court date is on December 23rd so it will take place while you are sleeping on the night of the 22nd. We're hoping God wakes some of you to be our prayer warriors while we go to court for our daughter! But no matter the outcome we give God all the glory!

Psalm 33:4,5 For the word of the Lord is right and true; he is faithful in all
he does. The Lord loves righteousness and justice, the earth is full of
his unfailing love.

Prayer request day 4 of 5

2010-12-14T12:08:00.000-08:00

Today's prayer requests will focus on our boys, Oliver and Wyatt. They will be staying with Josh's parents and are thrilled to get to go the "forest" (as they call it) or country as Josh's parents live in small town near Texarkana, TX. They were told they get to have 2 Christmas' with the first being in Atlanta, TX with Nana and Pawpaw. Oliver has been packed for days (only toys) so we'll need to remedy that situation tonight. We're asking for prayers over their little hearts as we will be gone for 9 days (longest stretch we've ever left them) and for this mommy heart as the thought of being apart from those boys just breaks it! We are together 24/7 and I will miss them terribly but understand that this will be not just necessary but healthy for us to be apart for a bit! We know they are in capable hands and ask for prayer for Nana and Pawpaw as they take on a 2 and 4 year old FULL time for the next 9 days RIGHT UP UNTIL CHRISTMAS! Here are more specifics...

-for the boys hearts to be secure in our love for them as we're gone for 9 days

-for the health of the boys as they're both coming down with colds

-for a peace for them during the wait

-for the upcoming transition as we add a third child through adoption

-for good behavior while we're gone (not perfect, just good through the transition of being away from home!!)

-for Nana and Pawpaw to be healthy and have an extra dose of energy to adjust to their new visitors

I know the enemy is trying his best as today the craziness has begun. From a last minute trip to Target where I thought my purse had been taken (literally in my zoned out state of trying to remember things I began putting my things in the wrong, empty cart near my correct cart with purse in it and I walked the ENTIRE store and filled up other basket before realizing purse was not there. Employee found empty basket with my purse after I talked to manager. Loopy Lou!!!) to Wyatt coming down with a fever and getting a phone call to come pick him up early from preschool! I know the enemy would love nothing more than to wreck my attitude and steal God's glory but we're praying that does not happen! Please pray with us that God would be glorified through this entire journey!

Psalm 100:4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give
thanks to him and praise his name.

Because of Him,

Day 3 prayer requests

2010-12-13T11:42:00.000-08:00

The focus on today's prayer requests will be Zadie. We're so excited to finally get to meet her and hold her. We're praising God that there will be one less orphan soon. We know God specifically called our family to this and He knew from the beginning of time that she would be a part of our family! Here are the requests...

-that Zadie would heal from her recent skin rash and would continue to stay healthy and that God would protect and surround her with His healing hands

-for the initial bonding and attachment to begin between us and Zadie

-for the waiting period in between trips...that God would give Zadie and us a peace as we're apart and watch over her

-for the HUGE transition Zadie is about to make in flying home and joining our family (leaving her home country, new family, new country, new sights and sounds and smells)

-for the flight home with her on our 2nd trip (smooth layovers, smooth flights, sleeping baby!!)

-for her heart as she processes adoption as she grows up

We thank you all for taking a minute to lift up these requests in prayer.

Psalm 68:5-6

A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,

is God in his holy dwelling.

God sets the lonely in families,

Day 2 prayer requests

2010-12-12T12:36:00.000-08:00

Today our prayer request focus will be on our court appearance. This is the reason for our whole trip to Ethiopia. From the information I have been gleaning from other travelers we will probably be in the room for roughly 10-15 minutes. Basically the judge will ask us a few questions such as our reason for adopting from Ethiopia, our commitment to adopting our daughter, etc. and then our part is done. If the other parts are completed such as the birth mother being present to give her consent and the Ministry of Women's and Children's Affairs (MOWA) having written the approval letter then we can possibly pass court on the spot and be told that T******** is legally ours!!!! That of course is our prayer...that we would PASS ON THE SPOT! If we do not pass we will NOT be required to make a return trip for court. Either way we will come home and wait for the US Embassy to give us clearance to issue her visa so we can bring her home. So passing court this trip means a faster turnaround to bring her home. So our prayer focus for today will be the following...

-court will be in session as planned for our time slot (there have been times when courts have closed unexpectedly for various reasons)

-necessary people to be present

-our letter from MOWA to be written and on judge's desk

-all other paperwork in place and to be correct (all names, dates, etc. correct)

-our testimony to be clear and glorifying to God(answering the questions makes me anxious)

-that we pass right there and then!!!!!

Thank you all for praying with us!!

Lamentations 3:22-23 Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for
his compassions never fail. They are new every morning: great is your
faithfulness.

5 days of prayer

2010-12-11T07:26:00.000-08:00

About a month ago a fellow adoptive mom sent out a facebook invite to be a part of a prayer rally for 5 days before they headed over to Ethiopia to go to court for their son Micah. I loved the idea and knew that when it was time for us to begin preparing to leave that I was so going to copy it!! (Thanks Janet!) So we'll be sending out a specific request for the next 5 days to help cover this adoption in prayers. We would love it if you would take a moment when you read them to pray for them with us.

Day 1-TRAVEL

-We pray for safety as we travel and for the pilots and ground crew and all those that have a hand in getting the plane to our destinations safely.

-We pray over for gate connections and that our baggage would arrive with us!

-We pray for rest on the flights so we can concentrate on what we need to concentrate while in Ethiopia and so that we have the energy and emotional stability to handle all that will come with meeting, bonding with, and then leaving our daughter.

-We pray that God would be glorified through these requests, our trip, our time, our connections we make with those around us.

Ephesians 3:20 "Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us,"

Thank you all for praying for us and with us!

Risk or Unbelief

2010-12-10T12:11:00.000-08:00

I cannot believe that in just 10 days I will have our daughter in my arms for the first time. (I assume Josh knows she will be in my arms first...at least now he does...we'll see if he counters). This daughter who I do not know but love so much...a daughter I have stared it for 19 1/2 LONG weeks waiting on a court date to hold her, a daughter I didn't even know I wanted 3 years ago and now I can't imagine not having her here one day. A daughter that will make things decidedly more difficult...from the literal aspect of having 3 kids 4 and under to watch all day to the outward appearance of how our family will look to others (to those who approve and to those who don't) to the spiritual questions of how we can love outside boundaries the way we do (1 John 4:19). I will be honest and tell you that this journey has been hard, bumpy, and tiring. I will also tell you that there were days that I wanted to give up, to just do the "normal" thing and have another bio child. Why did we have to be so different? Why were we called to do something "risky"? OH how I long to tell you that those few days are nothing in comparison to loving my Savior and the desire to be obedient to Him and the joy that comes with that...but still my flesh is weak and those thoughts take hold now and again. I recently read a quote that the desire for our lives to be risk free is a form of unbelief. Let me write it again...the desire (and a strong one at that) for our lives to be RISK free is a form of UNBELIEF. WOW...did that sting! How unbelieving I can be! I will be bold and claim it here that Josh and I feel that we are not done growing our family through adoption. Our hearts know that if God wills it there will be more kids joining our family by adoption. And we also feel that God is calling for us to be even "riskier" with our next adoption and bring home and love an HIV + child. We are passionate about loving those affected with this disease on a continent that does have the wealth to gain the 2 pills needed to give life to those infected. You and I can easily walk down to our local Walgreens or CVS and pick up a prescription for 2 pills that mean the difference of life and death to a person infected...2 pills that make the virus virtually undetectable in an infected person's blood stream...2 pills that very easily allow an infected person to live a very "normal" disease free existence. This, folks, scares me quite a bit. I KNOW we will lose much in this decision...literally, we'll lose income (and maybe 250 cable channels) in paying monthly for the needed meds; we know we'll probably lose friendships; we'll probably have a harder time in nursery settings and preschool and schooling situations. Basically, we'll be UNCOMFORTABLE...much more so than we are now. But it's NOT ABOUT ME! We do it all for the sake of ONE...that ONE child that has NO HOPE of being adopted because of a nasty disease that the child had nothing to do with to cause it. A child that will face death if we don't face losing friends and 250 cable channels.

You know...I've been thinking this year about what the first Christmas must have been like. There was no Santa Clause, no toys, no stockings, no trees, no lights on houses, no wish lists. God must have been in agony as He knew what He was doing to His only SON...sending Him to live in a fallen world to be tortured for 33 years and then to die a horrible death all for the sake of you and me. God became UNCOMFORTABLE and RISKED IT ALL...GAVE IT ALL just to save us and to show us He loves us. Oh, I hope you have time to pause this Christmas to remember why we celebrate Christmas...to reflect on that first Christmas before it became what it is today. We will be celebrating this year as a family living together as 4...thankful for this time as we know that God will make known the time our family will be united and become a family of 5 soon...and then we'll wait on His guidance to continue to be "risky" with our lives. So our wish for you this Christmas season is to have a new year full of risk, adventure, and BELIEF!

God loves us enough to do it the hard way...

2010-12-02T09:54:00.000-08:00

Wanted to write today to give a big PRAISE THE LORD as our daughter's orphanage license has been renewed and we've been waiting on this process (for many weeks now) to happen as we would not have passed court without it. Many families who have recently traveled for their court appearance have been held up and have been waiting to pass court and move forward with bringing their children home because of this ONE piece of paper. Today we got word that the license has been written and these families can move forward and this will now not affect us passing court in 3 weeks!

Recently a fellow adoptive mom shared this..."the journey is not towards children, it's towards obedience. The children are the added blessing...". I have to say that through this entire journey I have learned so much about being obedient and God's faithfulness. So many times we (as fellow Christians) choose to be obedient and then immediately want control of the reigns again. "Ok Lord...I'll adopt, but move over...I need to pick the child that fits best, the agency that I like best, and I want to be in control of the timing of it all". Sound familiar? "Yes Lord...I'll add to my family, but I still want to be comfortable enough to go on nice vacations, live in the house I like, and send my kids to good schools" or "Yes Lord...I'll donate money to charity this Christmas but I don't have enough to sponsor a child monthly with all my car loans, mortgage, cable bills, cell phone bills, preschool tuition, etc.". Oh, how it hurts my heart to see how wildly I'll give myself over to the "American Dream" but how stingy I can be with the Savior! How I can sit and watch TV or peruse Facebook for so long and how little time I have to sit with the Father and just listen and learn. What am I willing to give up? Truly, what are we willing to let go of? Because He wants us to let it ALL go...ALL except for our relationship with Him. Now that is a lesson I'm still learning...but what I have learned is that God is willing to do it the hard way for our blessing and benefit! Think about that...how many times do I as a parent just give in to my kids to take the easy way out? They cry out or whine for a toy and while I know the loving thing to do would be to hold firm to my rule of no new toys to teach patience and self control but I choose to give in for my convenience! Or Oliver is struggling to write his name on his homework (yes, our preschool gives homework) and I give in and write it for him just to save time; fully taking away the chance for him to practice and feel ownership over learning a new concept. Now, these are not things that happen every day but so often I choose the easy way out..the easy way to ME and I'm learning that God NEVER takes the easy way out because he LOVES us so much. Wouldn't it just be easier to for Him to have done it all himself? He didn't NEED to sacrifice His SON, He doesn't NEED me to pray over things, He doesn't have to wait on me to learn the lesson before moving forward...but He LOVES us and takes the time to do it the hard way. He is patient with us and waits for us and teaches us. One of the things I've struggled with is voicing my prayer requests in group situations. This semester I joined a women's bible study at our church that takes place during the time Oliver is in choir on Wednesday nights. Most of the women I've met are new to me. I've felt God several times lead me to share the requests we've had over this adoption...out loud! You laugh at the thought of sharing something so small but my face turns red BEFORE I even talk out loud...in fact just at the THOUGHT of speaking up my face TURNS RED! So feeling him lead me out of my comfort zone was a big lesson for me. I figured I could just jump on my blog and have the request covered in prayer or call family members but I knew (from learning many a time the hard way) that if God is leading me there that I should obey. The first time I shared was when court dates were very SLOW in coming and as I shared my request for God to move mountains to assign court dates my eyes welled up with tears as I was up against a wall with that waiting...and just sharing made all the difference for me. But it also spoke to so many others' hearts that night and that Friday dates began getting assigned. The second time I felt God leading me to share was last night about the court license being issued and then TODAY the license was issued. I can't tell you the chills I felt when I saw that e-mail today!!! I will say I've never been obedient to God and not seen the blessing follow after...maybe it takes some time, maybe it's instant, and maybe we'll never see it physically at all, but it's there. What is God asking of you today?

As always we appreciate your prayers and we know that God is using each and every one to accomplish all that He has in store for us. We will be updating soon on ways you can pray for us as we prepare for and travel in 2 weeks to meet our daughter in Africa. Less than 3 weeks now and we'll have her in our arms!!

Spread truth...World AIDS days is Dec. 1st.

2010-11-29T18:35:00.000-08:00

Please click on the picture above and take the time to watch the video. This is a very real passion of ours and we hope and pray the Lord will use us in this arena for His glory! More on that later...

COURT DATE!!!

2010-10-25T09:43:00.000-07:00

PRAISE THE LORD we have a court date! Our court date is for December 23rd!!! NOW...I'm not gonna lie...my first response was not PRAISE THE LORD! My first response was ??????????? I NEVER thought she was going to tell me a date in December much less the END of December much less 2 days before CHRISTMAS after we decided to leave the boys home for our court date trip!! BREAK MY HEART!!! However, I knew God was whispering to me...remember I'm in control...remember MY timing is perfect...remember how much I love you...remember I work ALL things for your good...remember I hold the universe in my hands...this was not a surprise to God! HE PICKED this date for us! And we give thanks! We probably were not going to have her home by Christmas with a November court date and this way we get to see her as a Christmas present! And just think...we have the privelege of taking care packages to waiting children for other adopting families and now those families have time to KNIT new Christmas sweaters and snail mail them to us (which saves money) for us to take! (OK...that was a little sarcasm thrown in) But we know this is a good thing...even when the circumstances are not what we would have chosen. We will make the best of this situation because we serve the Lord with gladness. We ask for your prayers for our travel arrangements and wisdom for when to go and how to work it all out. We ask for prayers as we wait longer to bring our daughter home and we ask for prayers for all the other families waiting with us. Thank you for walking along beside us in this journey!

Location:FM 529 Rd,Houston,United States

Power of prayer...

2010-10-25T05:43:00.000-07:00

¹⁴This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. ¹⁵And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.

1 John 5:14-15

Oh, the power of prayer! I'm still astounded and astonished and in awe that the creator of the universe allows us to bring our requests to Him personally at the foot of His throne. That the relationship we have with our Savior is encouraged and purposefully planned and cultivated to be an intimately personal one. What a Savior we serve!!

After a frustrating few weeks of waiting on a court date call I was beginning to spend more and more time praying, praying, praying. I didn't know what else to do...I needed to be in His presence to find rest for my soul and find an attitude adjustment. And I was weary...weary of waiting, weary of not hearing any news, weary of feeling so helpless to move forward, weary of being completely not in control of the situation. So I prayed and listened and prayed some more. What I thought I was doing out of frustration turned out to be some extremely sweet times with my Savior. Looking back I can see how God used those times to just meet me in my need and continue to teach me about His character and the power of prayer. And on Friday, God moved through our adoption agency. 4 people received their court dates and there were numerous referrals and people cleared with the US embassy to go bring their children home forever! It was a fantastic Friday! Which now means that we're #1 for a court date!!! Yes, the list is unofficial. But we're so close!! I don't know if we'll get the call today or this week or not for 3 more weeks but knowing there has been movement has been enough to give this parched soul a long, cold drink! I can't wait to share when our court date is because I know prayer works and I know you'll be praying along with us for a successful court date!! Praising the Lord today because this is the day that He has made!! Woohoo #1!!

Serve the Lord with gladness...

2010-10-22T09:18:00.001-07:00

Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all the lands! Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing.

Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

Psalm 100:1-2, 4

We're praying for victory today...victory in hearing news of a court date. Victory in moving forward in bringing our daughter home. Victory in knowing that God has defeated the enemy who would love to thwart plans to bring her home. We know that God is faithful to His people and we know that we've been told to be thankful in ALL things. So we strive today to serve Him with gladness...we strive today to be thankful in ALL things. Gladness when the phone may not ring, thankful when the courts may not give out any dates. We are thankful that we are able to come into His presence...that the God of the universe allows US to come into HIS PRESENCE!! We come before Him with singing today. We lay our weary hearts at His throne and serve Him gladly. We know victory is ours!!! His timing is perfect!!

We boldly ask for your prayers for court dates today. We boldly ask for your prayers for our daughter. We ask for your prayers for all the families in this process with us. This process is long and hard and not for the faint of heart but we love because He first loved us. His grace is sufficient and we pray...join us won't you?

Growing uncomfortable...

2010-10-04T05:19:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking a lot about being comfortable lately. About how for many of us one of our main goals is to be comfortable. We buy so many things for comfort...our cars have comfortable seats, we spend lots of time buying comfortable furniture by sitting on it to test it out, we look for comfortable clothing, and have many accessories to help make us comfortable. We like to stay in our "comfort" zone and even have ways to make our temperature comfortable in our homes, cars, offices, etc. We are a society that loves comfort! We seek comfort physically, emotionally, and many times spiritually. We grow up envisioning what will make us most comfortable...a spouse, 2 kids, maybe pets, a certain job, a house in a certain neighborhood...and then we spend time looking for ways to attain these things and then maintain our comfort. Me included...I love a cozy couch, a plush mattress, and some AC!! I like to be comfortable!

What made me begin to notice these things was a cuing in of things spiritually for me. I've been noticing and making the connection that most times that I hear the Holy Spirit whispering to me about something, its usually something that is OUT of my comfort zone. Something that just goes a step beyond what I'm "comfortable" with, something that makes my heart beat a little faster and scares me a little. So then often my response is to push it aside or to think about it so long that the moment passes away leaving me no choice but to pass it up. I think many times we'll take christianity and going to church as long as we're comfortable. We pick churches that have programs, classes, people, pastors that look and think like us. We're willing to pray for things we need like healing, comfort, grace, peace, and prosperity. We want those things...but the minute the Holy Spirit whispers something to us that is convicting and takes us outside those things we tune it out. I say all of this because I DO all of this. I want to be comfortable!

We spent last Friday and Saturday at the Together for Adoption conference in Austin, TX. And I will say that my heart is bursting after hearing the messages and worshiping with 900 other believers who have a heart and passion for the fatherless. I would love to write PAGES about what was shared but I won't do that here...if you ARE interested however in hearing some of the INCREDIBLE messages from the conference then you can go here and download the messages and get some more information. What I will share is that going in to the conference I felt a little self righteous. I was a doer!! I was adopting...I was doing my part in what God has commanded us to do many times over in the bible. Right? Wasn't that "enough" to feel a little self righteous? I mean, come on, I only have a 4 bedroom house. I stay at home and Josh's salary isn't gonna support 13 kids, right? We have 2 cars but they won't seat more than 5 people and I'm not sure our couch can hold more than 4 people either. Adding one more child is good and we're adopting so that is good right? I can just enjoy the conference and be one of the doers! I've always noticed that God has a way of whispering when He wants me to hear something...a quiet whisper that doesn't go away. A whisper that I desperately want to hear but then don't always want to obey. A whisper that says I need to call off an engagement; a whisper that asks if we will fully trust Him in our adoption journey and let Him decide the gender; a whisper that asks if I fully trust Him to decide what my family will look like and the number of children He will place in my home. This question scared me for a minute...you mean you may want me to have more kids? But we can't afford more kids God. Then Dave Gibbons says "What we're saying when we say we can't afford more kids is that God is a dead beat dad. If He calls us to the fatherless and we obey then HE WILL PROVIDE the check!!" And then we hear it explained that if Jesus is the father to the fatherless then He's a FATHER. And if He's a father then he must have a wife and the church is the bride of Jesus. And if the church is the bride of Jesus and Jesus is the father to the fatherless then the church is the MOTHER to the fatherless. Then we hear that the church needs to be louder in speaking out for orphans than Hollywood is and slowly by slowly our arguments and reasons and objections begin to fade away. And slowly by slowly we begin to move towards listening to the whispers and letting our ideas of what WE wanted for our family fade away. What we're left with is a broader picture. One that is far more beautiful and perfect than the one I went in with. A picture of a family made up of many colors from many places sharing many things in a 4 bedroom house with a family that loves them (and maybe a few more used, comfortable couches one day) We look forward to the day when our house is filled with all that God has promised us and will bless us with. We may be uncomfortable in this journey, we may not have as much room as we want, or as much money as we want, or enough time to myself as I want! But I'm ready to be uncomfortable, ready to be stretched for the sake of these children. Because another question was posed...what if we don't? What if we don't step outside our comfort zone and take in these children or visit these children or give to support these children?

Let the gathering begin...

2010-09-19T18:39:00.000-07:00

So here we are...roughly a week out from when courts are "scheduled" to open back up. I will say that I remember last year that courts did not open the week they planned to open so I'm not holding my breath and am trying to prepare and guard my heart in case that is the case this year. However, courts should be opening soon!! So in preparation of our first trip over to see our girl we have begun preparing to travel. I have gone to get 3 out of our 5 recommended travel vaccinations. I was only going to get 3 thinking that we were going to be staying in Addis. However we are now hoping we have the chance to travel 2 hours outside of the capital city to see our sponsor child through Children's Hopechest at Trees of Glory care point. We would love to get outside the city and see the country side and be able to hug our little boy that we sponsor in person and pray with him. So that means a few more vaccinations just to be on the safe side. If you are thinking about or could be persuaded to let go of $34 a month to help feed, clothe, and provide school for a precious child of God in Ethiopia then I would encourage you to go here or visit this blog here! We can't wait to hug on and play with some very lovely little kiddos.

One other part of preparing to travel will hopefully involve your help! We are hoping to fill as many suitcases as we can manage with donations for the various places we will be visiting in Ethiopia. This will largely include our agency's transition homes where they care for the children they have brought in from surrounding orphanages to match with their forever families. We also hope to travel to the Trees of Glory care point to meet our little boy and the other 85 children that meet here for food, clothing, basic needs, and schooling. We would love to gather little trinkets (matchbox cars, pencils, stickers, chap stick, neosporin, bars of soap, etc.) to fill bags to take when we go visit. There is a long list of donations needed so in hopes of making a bigger impact we were thinking we would highlight 5-8 things off of the list and concentrate on those needs when we travel. Those would be...

1. boys/girls underwear sizes 2T-8 years.

2. neosporin

3. A+D diaper rash ointment

4. Children's Benadryl and Infant/Children's Tylenol

5. Children's vitamins (Tri-vi-sol, Poly-vi-sol, chewable multi-vitamins ages 2-9)

6. non scented wipes

7. scrubs (women's sizes 6-10)

8. Baby bouncer seats, 2 bumbo seats, baby activity seats (we're hoping to take one or two of each hoping to find the slimmest ones in boxes packed up)

We'll also be throwing in baby toys (not cotton as it is hard to keep clean) that will fill in "blank" spots in our bags for the baby room.

We'd love your help in gathering these items. Also, if you'd like to help but live out of town you can make a monetary donation through our "donation" paypal link or mail us a check with "supply donation" and we'll use it to help buy needed supplies!

I have to say this is my favorite part...that we get to show up with all of these supplies!! What a blessing we get to be! Thank you abundantly in advance for helping fill our suitcases!!

Talk about a giveaway!

2010-09-16T20:01:00.000-07:00

This family is holding the "mother" of all fundraising giveaways! Check it out...and if you win I'd love to steal the Ethiopian flag blanket from you for steering you their way! And maybe a t-shirt or 2...or maybe the snack bags! I love me some good snack bags!! So let's just say I want to win it all...feel free to enter your name as "Autumn Chambers" or something like that...

http://thisshubinclan.blogspot.com/

Your joy is mine...

2010-09-13T20:09:00.000-07:00

Yearn

by shane barnard

holy design

this place in time

that i might seek and find my God

my God

Lord i want to yearn for You

i want to burn with passion

over You and only You

Lord i want to yearn

Your joy is mine

yet why am i fine

with all my singing and bringing grain

in light of Him

oh You give life and breath

through Him You give all things

in Him we live and move

that's why i sing

acts 17:25-28, hebrews 12:28-29

Shane and Shane have been playing on repeat around here lately and one of their songs that I adore getting lost in and worshiping with is Yearn (lyrics above). One of the lines from the song that just captures my heart is "Your joy is mine..." OH how I love that line...hear it and just sit in it. I know so often my joy is dependent on so many OTHER things or rather my lack of joy. But if we truly believe that HE gives life and breath and that through HIM He gives ALL things then what can possibly steal our joy?

I know courts are about to open again and with that comes anxiousness across the board for those waiting on a court date to be scheduled. I have sat here and gone through past trends and recent information and worried and played with dates in my head over and over and then I hear God tell me to rest...just rest. Let it go and give it to Him. He knows the exact dates we will get to see our child and the exact day that we will get to bring her home and if it's not how we planned, if it's sooner or later or MUCH later than we planned, then it is still His PERFECT timing. She is loved...by us, her nannies, our extended family, but more importantly by God and that is enough. So, I will rest and choose peace and will find my joy in Him...even in the waiting. We love...because He first loved us.

Love to you all...

REFERRAL!!!!!! It's a....

2010-08-10T14:33:00.000-07:00

We received our referral call THIS afternoon!!! I still can't believe we got the call!! We chose to accept the referral of a BEAUTIFUL 2 1/2 month old BABY GIRL!!!!! Yes, a girl!!!!! Still can't believe that part either!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We were also told that she has a slight heart murmur...she will have an echocardiogram in the next few months. Apparently they are harder in Ethiopia to have done (as you can imagine) and we had the choice to accept the referral, wait on more information, or decline the referral and wait for another one. We've known all along that God was in total TOTAL control of this adoption and we surrender COMPLETELY to his will and sovereignty!! We didn't hesitate at all to accept this referral. We have an international adoption clinic here at Texas Children's Hospital and we know we will be well prepared for anything or any circumstance that comes our way. Courts are closed now and will not reopen until October so we have time to visit with specialists and are confident we will have a "plan of attack" ready to go when she gets home! So we are confident in God's divine wisdom in placing this beauty in our care! WE LOVE HER already and the boys are thrilled with the news of a new sister!! I however am still in total shock and awe!!! GOD IS GOOD...ALL THE TIME!!!

We cannot share pictures of her until she is legally ours after we pass court in Ethiopia but I will tell you that she has the most beautiful light brown skin, chubby little cheeks, beautiful almond brown eyes, and the cutest pink little tongue sticking out in her pictures we received!!

We share this news because we know prayer works and we are asking that you would help us cover her in prayer. We are praying for God's protection over her; for God's ultimate healing of her precious, redeemed heart; for wisdom for the doctors she will visit while in Ethiopia; for peace for her as she waits on her forever parents to get there; for wisdom, peace, and patience, and blessing for her fantastic caregivers in the transition home in Ethiopia. We pray for patience for us as we wait for courts to open and we ask for prayers over our boys as their little hearts prepare to be stretched to make room for their sister and become a family of 5. We will continue to update you on our prayer requests and ask that you remember to pray for other families in the process with us. I will update as I hear news and I will be posting more about donations we would love to be able to take with us when we travel this fall!

Love to you all,

On deck!!!

2010-08-04T12:19:00.000-07:00

We finally got the "on deck" e-mail from our agency today!!! This e-mail basically sums up how the referral process goes and says that you should be expecting your referral in the next 1-3 months. Yes, that is what it said...1-3 months. But from other adoptive families experience I knew it was going to say that as everyones' "on deck" e-mail says that, that I know of. I have seen several families get this e-mail and then wait more than 4 or 5 months to receive their referral. And we have also seen families receive this e-mail and get a referral within the same week! We of course hope we are in the latter group but we know God already knows the day we will find out who He has chosen for us and we rest in that today. Not to say that I still don't jump every time the phone rings! We're so excited that our year long journey has finally gotten us to this point! Hard to believe! Hope to have more news soon!

Getting oh so close!!

2010-08-03T11:51:00.000-07:00

Yay for another referral today!! And this time it was for a boy (a tiny 5 week old boy!!) so that makes us unofficially now #1 for both a boy and a girl!! We're so ANXIOUS to know what this child will be!!! We're glued to the phone and the internet to stay updated!! Can't believe all the movement! Please, please join us in praying for our child and our referral call as well as others who are in Ethiopia going to court dates and those that are waiting on Embassy clearance to bring their children home. We so appreciate it!

Just a quick update!

2010-07-31T12:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we learned that there were two more referrals for people on the list in front of us which made THREE referrals this week alone! We are now NUMBER 1 for a girl and #2 for a boy!!! Again, this list is unofficial so their might be some families in front of us that didn't ever join the Yahoo Group and introduce themselves or become a part of our fantastic online community. Also, it could possibly still be months before we hear anything. BUT WE'RE AT THE TOP OF THE LIST!!! It could be next week!!!!!! We're absolutely giddy with excitement about getting our phone call and finding out if our next child will be a boy or a girl. We really will be thrilled either way! We just can't believe it's possibly so close for us! Court closures are right around the corner (August 6th-Sept. 27th) so getting a referral now would mean lots of waiting as we would have to wait for court to reopen before we could even be submitted for a court date but that is okay! We're learning a great deal about enduring patiently! We would love your prayers over this next phase! I'll keep you updated!!!

4 months and giving up apples and bananas!

2010-07-22T19:32:00.000-07:00

So the big 4 months of waiting milestone has come and gone (for those keeping track it was on the 18th). We haven't had phone or internet this week so this post is late, late, late! However, I have been writing it in my head over and over! I like to do that throughout the day...write posts in my head. Of course they always come out better in my head and when they're flowing out inevitably I am never by a computer to get them down as hardcopy but that is ok. Does anyone live their life that way? Always composing in your brain? Surely. No matter. Moving on. So FOUR whole months of waiting. Doesn't sound all that very long does it? Guess that is a matter of perspective...for us 4 months of waiting on a child who we have never seen a picture of or don't know anything about is not that long of a wait. The hardest part is knowing what that child might possibly be going through as I go to sleep in my large, comfortable bed tonight. When we think about what that small child will endure in these next few months before we know them and cannot physically do anything about then the 4 months seems like an eternity. However, what we rest in is knowing that our God is in control and is surrounding our child with angels as He prepares us for that child and brings our child home to us. We serve a BIG God who does not lose control in the circumstances or is unprepared for this fight this child will endure. We find peace in our God and in knowing that we can pray for this child and that prayer is indeed ENOUGH at this time. I will say that in 4 months of time we have gone from #17 in line for a boy and #10 in line for a girl on the unofficial list that a group from our agency keeps to NUMBER 3 for both a boy and a girl! I LOVE THAT! God is so in control of our journey and I just laugh at His sense of humor. So many people would assume (as we did) that requesting either gender would guarantee us a boy (which is wonderfully perfect for us mind you) as the wait time for a boy is half the wait time for a girl. I have loved watching as we move up on both lists at just the right times to keep us guessing! Guess it's the closest we will come to being "surprised" by the gender of a baby of ours! And I love the freedom we have found in giving God total control!

Which brings me to the title...giving up apples and bananas! I have been thoroughly enjoying Beth Moore's bible study When Godly People Do Ungodly Things. But my absolute FAVORITE nugget of truth that I have heard and have held on to recently is a message on understanding that God wants to be the THRILL of our lives!! I have grown up in the church as my parents did and their parents did and so on. I have sat through many messages, attended youth camps, read my bible, etc. But for 32 years I have missed this truth somehow! I have focused so much on the sacrifices of living for God and the things that I CANNOT do as a follower of Christ that I have MISSED what I CAN do!! Beth Moore points out that God wants to THRILL us and be the adventure of our lives!! She makes the illustration that all our lives we have been given apples and bananas spiritually and that God says that He didn't only feed us apples and bananas...He wants to give us kiwis and mangoes and papayas and pineapples!! There is PASSION where God is and the work He is doing! There are RIVERS of delight! Our God is limitless...get that?? LIMITLESS!!! I so know I don't live like I know that truth...I LIMIT God to what I know as my reality but scripture says otherwise! OH MY how I loved hearing that and feeling that. I get to find JOY in my faith and in my wait and in my struggles but not only in the those hard things! There is JOY now in the sunrise and the cool breeze and the laughter of my boys and the embrace of my husband. JOY from the Lord and I am thankful!! Thankful for this adventure that we've been called to and THANKFUL that the adventure does NOT END here! I love walking this road to grow our family through adoption but I have faith that God is not done with us after this adventure ends...this is just the beginning if we'll be listen and obey. And I don't know about you but I want kiwis and mangoes and papayas and I will be making sure my kids know this truth also!

As always we so appreciate your prayers as we move along this road to our child. We pray for patience and contentment with God's perfect timing. We pray over the child He has chosen for our family and for the transition to a family of 5. We pray for peace for the transition for our young boys as we prepare to make two long trips to Africa and bring our child home. And we thank you for praying along with us.

Because of HIM...

3 months down and a lifetime to go...

2010-06-19T06:04:00.000-07:00

We have officially been DTE for 3 months now. We can't believe how fast time can pass most days. The boys and I spent the last week working at our church's vacation bible school. Josh and I are volunteering in the nursery twice a month and I volunteered to help with VBS if needed in the nursery and I was quickly taken up on my offer! I have to say it was a long week working with 8 14-16 month olds! However, the boys (who are not quite old enough to be in the "real" VBS program) had a great week doing crafts, singing songs, and learning about Jesus. I am impressed with the volunteers that worked with their age groups and the material (and craft projects!!) that they completed in a week!

Summer is moving right along and we're hoping to be getting closer and closer to getting a referral of the child God has planned for us in the next couple of months. However, there is a new rule involving having a birth certificate from the child's region before getting a court date scheduled. Through our paper chase stage I found it difficult at times to get all of our birth certificates here in the United States and we have a dedicated office for that! I can't imagine trying to get this official piece of paper from a "region" in a third world country and all the logistics that need to fall into place to make this new rule happen. So, as you can imagine with me, there has been quite a slow down in the process in the last month. The new rule for making an appearance in court just went into effect so we figured things would slow a bit to allow some time for the learning curve that would accompany this new process. So it's back to "hurry up and wait!" Again, we know that God is the author of this journey and our child will not spend ONE MORE DAY in Ethiopia than God has allowed. However, we are getting REALLY excited that we're getting closer to actually seeing a picture of our child!!

On another note, I can't begin to tell you or share with you all that God is teaching us through this process. But I can share bits and pieces which is why I love this blog! I am always amazed at how "blind" we can be to things that are written plain as day in our Bibles and I know there are scriptures alluding to this. How I love when we begin to "see clearly" as God allows our hearts to truly grasp what He is passionate about and the Holy Spirit begins revealing the truth to us. I was talking with someone the other day about passions and what we would say if someone asked us what we were passionate about. What would you tell someone you are passionate about? I wonder if it would line up with something the Bible says God is passionate about. Would it be your job? Your hobbies? Traveling? 147 Million orphans? The poor? The neglected? Children being sex trafficked? Would others know your passion? Would how you spend your time, your resources, your talents, your money point to your passion? These questions have been on my heart and I'm hoping to spend more time on my knees learning how Christ wants me to answer these questions. I'll also be praying that you'll know how He wants you to answer these questions. I'll also challenge you to read the book Radical by David Platt. The whole message is about taking back your faith from the American dream. I'm hoping it will change your life in a big way as it has changed mine. I'd love for you to take 2 minutes to watch the video below. As always we truly appreciate your prayers over our adoption and those walking this adoption journey along with us.

Dos!

2010-05-18T19:12:00.000-07:00

So, 2 months in! And what a great month it has been on the adoption front! There has been tremendous movement this month. Lots of families bringing children home, lots of court dates being assigned to families with referrals, and LOTS of referrals recently! So, so exciting! We have moved from about #16 in line for an infant to #7 in these 2 months. Now, this list is completely unofficial in that it is comprised of AWAA families that choose to be a part of the Yahoo Group where this list is compiled. There are always "mystery" families that may be in line ahead of us that are not a part of this fabulous wealth of resources group! And that is ok! We're still doing really okay with the waiting and I'm sure that is because we're so new to it. I know the wait only gets harder...the wait to hold them after we see their face, the wait to bring them home after we meet them and leave them Ethiopia, the waiting as our family is apart during these trips. We knew this adoption process would involve waiting...hard waiting. But we're in love with a BIG GOD who supplies peace beyond understanding and we are beyond grateful that we are privileged enough to draw from that peace. And through this journey that is what we've learned most...how amazing our God is and how amazing it is that He allows us to be a part of His plan and all the while He LOVES us...REALLY LOVES US! How amazing it is that our adoption gives us a glimpse of our vertical adoption through Christ. And how do you begin to explain all that to those that are casual or cavalier about our intent to adopt? I guess the same way God does day in and day out with me...with grace and mercy and kindness and gentleness. He knows I don't "get it" like I should but He still shows patience and mercy and grace daily...even when I don't want or deserve it! We will be praying fervently for the families on this adoption journey with us and we'd love and fully appreciate you joining us in praying as well. Here's to month 3!!

One month DTE!

2010-04-18T18:20:00.000-07:00

We have officially been on the waiting list now for one whole month! I have to say it will probably be the easiest month we spend waiting. We know we have at least 3 months before they say we might have a referral but with the slow down that occurred when the Ethiopian government and courts changed their court requirements to parents being required to make a court appearance we have a feeling that it will be at least 5-7 months but we don't really know. So what have we done while we've been waiting? We had a 2 year old birthday party for our little Wyatt, a visit from the Austin Cragers (my brother and his family), let Pop host Oliver in his backyard for O's first camping experience, and helped with a garage sale this weekend (thanks Garretts and Jones for letting us join in). We've definitely stayed busy...guess that isn't too hard with two boys under 4 years old. I have a feeling this next month will go by just as fast which is a great thing in the adoption world. Hopefully I'll post more this next month. Also, a HUGE thank you to those of you that have supported our adoption costs by purchasing a t-shirt. Your support means more to us than you know...more than a thank you can convey. You are a huge part of our child's story. Thank you again. And we still have more t-shirts to sell for those of you still wanting to help! Here's to month 2!

Love it...

2010-03-21T06:37:00.000-07:00

Found this on a fellow adoptive family blog. What a blessing it is to learn from other adoptive families sharing their hearts. Great quote.

My friends, adoption is redemption. It's costly, exhausting, expensive, and outrageous. Buying back lives costs so much. When God set out to redeem us, it killed Him." --Derek Loux

Happy to be...DTE!!!!

2010-03-18T18:07:00.000-07:00

We're so HAPPY TO BE...DTE!!! DTE stands for Dossier to Ethiopia. Our dossier is the term used for all the paperwork we were in charge of obtaining and getting filled out and getting notarized and put together in the correct order and...well, you get the idea! So we are officially on the waiting list! 3/18/2010 will be the date that starts our referral wait and puts us in line to be matched with our child! I've been waiting for this day for 8 long months now and it's finally arrived. Now the day we receive our referral will be much better and the day we meet our child even better than that and the day we BRING OUR CHILD HOME FOREVER the best yet! But this is a grand day in the journey of international adoption! I've included a picture below of our dossier before we mailed it off. It now has to get to Ethiopia and be translated and then I guess it sits in line with all the others but it's out of our hands now and that feels great! YAHOOOO!!

Also, our t-shirts came in the mail last night! So to celebrate we'll be selling the t-shirts starting on our blog. Currently we have adult small, medium, and large. We also have youth XS (2-4) and youth S (6-7) sizes. You can buy the shirts using the secure paypal button on the top right of our blog. Or you can mail us a check. Either way please e-mail us at autcr@yahoo.com to let us know your mailing address and size(s). My cousin, Hannah Svebakken, created the design for us as a contribution to our adoption journey and we love it! Thank you Hannah! We have a very limited number of shirts to begin with so if you're interested in making a donation to our adoption this will be our only fundraiser. We appreciate any and every donation that people feel led to give. I will admit that the funding has been the difficult part of this. I knew when we began that God was telling us to trust in Him and He would take care of ALL the rest. Well, I've learned that I am awful at leaning on other people around me. The thought of asking for money is a hard pill to swallow for most of us. However, I believe in God's word and in it Jesus tells us many times over to care for the poor and the orphan and widow. As God has blessed us with the resources to donate towards other couples' adoption costs I know He will lead those that will help us with the costs involved in bringing our child home. I will also be updating the blog often with specific prayer requests and hope that you will come alongside us in covering those requests in prayer.

I will end with some pictures of our t-shirts and some recent pictures of Go Texan Day here in Houston and our recent Rodeo outing! Happy Spring everybody!

OUR COMPLETED DOSSIER!!!

Youth shirt on Oliver

Adult shirts...light grey map of Africa on side

Back of shirt...John 14:18 "For I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you"

Front of shirt...text says Closer to love

Detail of back of shirt with verse John 14:18

Chambers' Cowboys

Wyatt

Cowboy O

Wyatt loves to pet animals

Their ONE carnival ride!

Heart happy and heart breaking news...

2010-03-10T19:53:00.001-08:00

I debated whether or not I would post today...it's been a roller coaster emotional day. But I knew this day was important in our journey so figured I'd jump on here and make an update. Let's start with the heart happy news first. We FINALLY received our I-171h in the mail today! Yes, the piece of paper from the government that says we have been approved to adopt finally showed up. We had received an e-mail from the Houston office a couple of weeks ago that said we had been approved and our letter was forthcoming. So after a week I e-mailed them back to see what exactly "forthcoming" meant. They responded yesterday that it had not been mailed and we should receive it in two weeks. So you can imagine my surprise when, as we were pulling the car out to head to Monkey Joes with some family in town, I see the mailman and figure I'll just jump out of the car and meet him at the box. I could see the large envelope before he handed it to me just sitting there and I told myself not to get excited because it was probably for someone else. HE GRABBED it for us though and handed it to me! I ran back to the car and told Josh that it came! He took the morning off because his parents, his brother, and his brother's 3 boys were coming over to play so he was home when we got it. I never imagined it happening like that! So I'm rushing around running back in to the house to get what I need to get everything mailed off...very exciting! I get back in the car and get my phone out and happen to see I have an e-mail from our AWAA family coordinator...I open it.

And here is the heart breaking news...not 3 minutes after receiving our I-171h we read that there are some new Ethiopia program changes. Now the Ethiopian government is requiring both parents to travel to Ethiopia 4-8 weeks after receiving our referral (picture and info of our child) and stand in court to state our commitment to the child. We then leave and wait 10-12 weeks to travel again to pick our child up. This is huge news to us (not to God mind you) but to us. This means twice as many trips and adding possibly $10,000 to our monetary needs. But what hit me the hardest is that this means that I leave my boys behind twice and my new child behind for possibly 10-12 weeks after meeting them, holding them, seeing where they are. This was heavy, heavy news to us today. It seemed to steal the joy right out from under us as we received our last piece of our dossier. Not to mention that it was just one of those days where EVERYTHING seems to go wrong from over tired children throwing MASSIVE public fits because the bandanas your buying for Rodeo day tomorrow don't already come with the trail mix in them to digging your Fed Ex tracking receipt out of the bottom of the trash for the important dossier we express mailed today. Josh looked at me when he was helping dig it out like "how did this happen?" and I looked at him and said "it's been that kind of day". I'll spare you all the in betweens of today but I will leave you with this. I will admit that I have been shaken deeply over today's events. I will admit that I have had thoughts ranging from "Oh, forget it...I give up" to "Of course we can do this with 6 trips if we need to". What I do know is this...as other friends have mentioned, adoption is spiritual warfare. What the enemy wants most from me is to give up and let this go and when I gave in today for moments I'm sure the enemy thought "well that was easy...I just had to throw in an extra trip to Africa and she's out!". And if the enemy can't get that then maybe me having a grumpy, defeated attitude is second best. So I'm letting this new news go. God will provide for us. God is not surprised by this. God has written our journey to this child from the beginning and we will be press on and be obedient. I saw a post on the AWAA yahoo group by a fellow adoptive parent that said it best when she quoted her devotional from today.

Most people glance at God and gaze at circumstances. We need to gaze at God and glance at circumstances.

Back to being joyful in mailing off our dossier! I'll let you know when it's officially on it's way to Ethiopia! We would appreciate your prayers over all of these changes and all of the families that this news affects.

First thoughts on still waiting...

2010-03-05T12:19:00.000-08:00

So, we're still waiting on our I-171. We got an e-mail last Thursday from our Houston CIS office saying that we have been approved by the government to adopt a child. It also said our I-171 was "forthcoming". This is THE LAST PIECE OF PAPER we need to be able to send in our dossier (our completed set of documents we've obtained) and get on the waiting list for our referral. While this is not the end of the waiting, it is the end of our part of the obtaining of documents. It gets us in line to be matched with our child and we're so ready to be done with this part and to BE IN LINE! So I get so frustrated when I check the mail daily to find that our letter is not here yet. We have been waiting on this last step since October. I totally thought we'd have our dossier submitted before the end of the year when we started this process in July. I did everything so quickly and worked so hard to get it all done. WHY ARE WE STILL WAITING ON THE US GOVERNMENT for a piece of paper they said was forthcoming and have told us we're already approved???!!!

AND THEN IT HIT ME...we wont wait A DAY LONGER than God has ordained for us to wait. God is not surprised by this delay in the least. It is not keeping us from any child much less the child that God has already appointed for our family. He knows exactly where our form is and knows exactly when we'll get it and exactly when we'll turn it all in and exactly when it will get to Ethiopia and exactly when we'll get our referral and so on. AND NOT ONLY DOES HE KNOW THIS BUT HIS WAYS ARE PERFECT! I'm so tempted to be frustrated at our Houston immigration office for being so unbearably slow but then I remember that I am NOT in control of this and the minute that I think that I am, then we're in trouble. I don't know the half of it and when I remember that God is in control then I loosen up. If we wait 6 more weeks to get that piece of paper then that will be "perfect" timing. I want to let go of my plans for this adoption and this child and lay it down at God's feet. I know that He has it worked out so wonderfully and for HIS GLORY that of course I want to surrender my self indulgences and I KNOW what HE has planned is infinitely more purposeful and better for our family. He will provide what we need when we need it and if I really believe He is who the Bible says He is then I need to remember that each and every time I visit the mailbox.

On that same note, we have also decided to request either gender for our child. Our home study social worker approved us for an infant 0-12 months old and we originally were going to request a female. I never felt "right" about requesting a girl. I kept feeling that God was speaking to me about trusting Him. Do I trust Him enough to know what is best for me and my family? It was one of those quiet convictions that I tried so hard to talk myself out of. I would totally convince myself that asking for a girl was the right thing to do. I would think "Okay God, I will adopt as you've asked BUT I get to choose the gender". Finally I spoke to Josh about it and he agreed. This is not about us and I just personally felt that choosing the gender was a little self indulgent. The minute we re-wrote our application letter I just felt this huge weight being lifted. I've always thought that lingering convictions will totally weigh you down and steal your joy. The last couple of weeks have been so joyful for me. So we're on God's time table and it will be God's decision which child will belong in our family. I always say the first time I got pregnant I would have totally chosen a girl but thank goodness God was in total control and gave us Oliver. He's so much more than just a boy...he's a soul and a personality and he's blessed us greatly. When we talk about the baby now we tell him that we've decided to let God choose which baby to give us and we tell him how wonderful God has already been to us in giving us Oliver and Wyatt that we know God is better able to make that decision. So one day when Oliver was looking at a clothing magazine he was telling me that he wanted a little dress for his baby sister. I told him that God would make that decision and then told him that he could pray and ask God for a baby sister if that is what he wanted (it changes daily). He got quiet and kept looking through the magazine and then his eyes caught a Lightning McQueen shirt and he announced that he would be praying and asking God for the Lightning McQueen shirt also. HA...we will still be teaching about prayer here in the Chambers' household!

Gardening goodness...

2010-02-28T16:49:00.000-08:00

The weather is heading towards downright delightful lately with a few days of cold or rainy thrown in during the week. Last spring we started our first two organic container gardens. Josh gets the wood and builds the containers and fills them with the right mix of compost, peat moss, and vermeculite and then we planted different edible seeds and let the magic unfold. We had some great carrots, parsley, dill, basil, and squash. The rest died out when we got some snow and then the three days of hard freeze. So to prepare for the upcoming growing season we decided to build three more garden containers and plant quite a bit more. We have started with lettuce mix, kale, carrots, cucumbers, pepper, tomatoes, strawberries, mint, thyme, basil, dill, watercress, cantaloupe, watermelon, onions, rosemary, chocolate mint, cilantro, parsley, and squash. We spent the weekend getting the other three built and ready. We also added a compost bin (the lovely black box in the background) and have planted a meyer lemon tree and lime tree. We're waiting on the shipment of Valencia orange trees to come in. I've posted some pics of my boys and their day of gardening!

A girl scout cookie break...

What mess?

New rain boots became gardening boots...

Lime tree

Established container garden bed

A container from last fall going strong...

Growing like a weed...

Where it all began...

We're loving being able to go out and get what we want for dinner and it's fantastically more affordable! We're also hoping to be able to use a lot of it in our juicer. I have big plans to drink my greens daily to get them down...I'll let you know how that turns out!

It's coming...yippeee!

2010-02-26T20:27:00.001-08:00

I have so much to share on the adoption front but for now all I will report is that we got an e-mail response from our Houston CIS office that we have officially been approved by the government to adopt a child! YOOOHOOOO! Our I-171 will hopefully be arriving next week! That is the last piece of paper we need. Such a nice e-mail response if I do say so myself! CIS office...thank you for e-mailing me back. You're the best!

Oh...and I have changed the comments section on the blog so it's easier to leave comments now! I love comments! Comment away!!

Oh I-171h, where art thou?

2010-02-25T09:46:00.001-08:00

Dear I-171,

I have been patient for many months now but I am ready to have you in my hand so I can send off this stack of paper and begin the wait for our baby! Where are you? Are you in the mail? (Oh how I hope so) or are you sitting on someone's desk? Have you even been typed yet? I think about you daily. I imagine seeing you in my mailbox but you are not there. Please come soon. My boys think their mommy is a little bit crazy about the mailbox. We are beginning to think this paper chase is never ending. Will we continually be chasing you? I hope not. I am ready to retire my running shoes. COME SOON!

T-shirts coming soon!

2010-02-21T17:21:00.001-08:00

We're so excited to announce that we've nailed down a t-shirt design (THANK YOU HANNAH!!!!...more details on her design and her business coming also!) and have found a fellow AWAA adoptive family that has agreed to print them for us!! We'll put pictures up soon! We love the shirt (I know we're biased) and hope you will too! We're still waiting on our I-171 from the government which is our last piece of the paper chase process and then we'll be on the waiting list. With that piece of paper comes a large payment however and we're excited to see how God will use the t-shirt fundraiser to help us gather some necessary funds for our baby girl. Stay tuned!!

Ran Austin

2010-02-15T09:57:00.000-08:00

Well, it feels good to officially be a half marathon finisher! Never thought that would be something I wanted to accomplish but am glad to know I can do it! Training for 15 weeks give or take helped immensely. And when people mention the hills in Austin, they are NOT kidding. Those things were ginormous at times! I saw a few of them when we were driving around town the two nights before the half marathon but not knowing how many and what was around the corner helped a lot. I'm not sure if I could do it again now that I know how big those hills are and the fact that one of the biggest hills comes up in mile 12 doesn't help either! However, the weather was beautiful (sunny and a nice 45 degrees) and the scenery was enjoyable. Josh was the perfect running partner. He's having some IT band issues and got a cortisone shot on Thursday before the race just so he could run with me. Apparently it didn't help any but he didn't complain unless I asked him about it. He's quite the pleasing husband! And on mile 5 when my head phones broke he took his off and gave them to me. Fantastic Valentine's day gift if I do say so myself! We loved seeing my parents, our boys, my brother and sister-in-law and their two girls at mile 8 at the top of a friendly hill! That was a nice treat! And we finished in 2 hours 10 minutes which made me happy. Don't know if I could ever run 13.1 more miles to complete a marathon but I never thought I would run this many either. The idea of turning around at the finish line and re-tracing our steps is a little daunting! So glad I was only doing the half when we split off from the marathoners! Who knows...maybe next year!

If I was a song writer...

2010-02-10T16:54:00.000-08:00

10,000 children and all I can do is just talk.

While my house is full of possessions that negligence bought.

Everyone tells me that I'm not to blame,

Why do I still feel the same?

CHORUS

Only love can save us all.

Only love can save us all, save us all.

10,000 children are my invitation to change.

To continue in excess now suddenly feels oh so strange.

Prayers and money should not be confused,

But I pray that both still are used.

CHORUS

Only love can save us all.

Only love can save us all

What will become of me?

Inside of history

10,000 children and all I can do is just talk.

ABSOLUTELY love this song. If I could write a song I hope that I would be able to write a song like this. And if I could fit ALL these lyrics on a t-shirt or a car magnet I would wear it everyday! It's by Dave Barnes and it's on i-tunes. Go download it...listen to it. Hear it...really heart it. "While my house is full of possessions that negligence bought" perfectly sums up my existence most times. Are you like me? Can you relate? Will I continue in excess or can I spare another $30 to sponsor another child that so desperately needs it? What I can do without so another can do with bare basics? How can I make a difference? What is God asking of you...I know He's asking something. Will you listen? Will I listen? Will I act? Will you act?

I bought one...will you?

2010-01-26T18:19:00.000-08:00

I know there are thankfully many ways to donate money right now to continue to help those suffering in Haiti. I wanted to make you aware of another one. Click here to buy a t-shirt. Go here and find out more about H.E.L.P...Help End Local Poverty.

We're almost there!

2010-01-24T09:33:00.000-08:00

On Friday Josh and I went down to an application service center to have our fingerprints taken for our I-600A application. They will be sent off to be checked by the federal government and then they will send us our form (I-171) that says we have been approved to bring on orphan into the US. This all has to be sent to the embassy in Ethiopia where we will have an appointment eventually with our child where we will get our visa to bring our child home. This assumes all goes smoothly and this is all still a ways off.

Back to where we are now...we are waiting on our last piece of paper (the I-171) and then we'll have our dossier complete. We will overnight our dossier to our agency who will review it and then send it off to be authenticated (translated I believe) and then the whole thing will go to Ethiopia! We will THEN be in line for our child. Right now our application letter states that we would like a girl (which we have written before) and the wait time for a girl is 9-11 months. That seems like a long time to wait but that is how long a pregnancy takes I have to keep reminding myself. I'm definitely learning patience here. I know that time needs to be treasured. It's time spent preparing, praying, getting our finances in order, and enjoying being a family of 4 for this season. I know that soon enough we'll have a little one who will have great needs so I'm hoping to focus on the two little ones who are growing up so fast now. I'm also trying to remember that I cannot go faster or slower than God will allow this process to go. While we are anxious to bring our daughter home we are praying for peace during the waiting. So here's to the last little bit of waiting on our final paper chase stage and to the next phase of waiting for a referral for our daughter!

Well Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah!

2010-01-15T16:18:00.000-08:00

Thrilled to report that we just received an e-mail from our local Houston USCIS office saying that they have indeed received our home study and have reviewed it and our finger print letter will be in the mail next week!!! SUCH A RELIEF!!! SO EXCITING!!! Now if we get this excited over this news just imagine our jubilation when we actually receive a real life referral!!! To be honest that seems so far away I don't know that I can even imagine it actually happening! Oh the joy when we get that letter in the mail with an actual finger print date AND then the joy when we actually receive our I-171 form AND then the joy when we send off ALL the papers we've collected and worked on and have a DTE (dossier to Ethiopia) date! Joy, joy, joy! These are much better things to post about! Now I know they'll be more waiting and probably more frustrations but we're spending the weekend joyful and relieved.

On a different note...Josh is running the Houston marathon this Sunday. So proud of him and we'll be cheering him on that morning! He'll also be running the Austin half marathon with me on Valentine's Day...speaking of which I will be running 11 miles on Saturday in preparation. Who would've thought I'd be running 11 miles EVER in my life?? Ahhhh...with all of this good news my run should be quite JOYFUL! Enjoy your weekends! I know we will!

Nothing new

2010-01-13T19:50:00.000-08:00

That title is a bit misleading...in a house with a 3 year old and a 22 month old there is ALWAYS something new! However, on the adoption front we have heard NOTHING new. I've e-mailed again and haven't heard anything and I keep thinking that our fingerprint appointment letter will be in the mail any day but each day I check and each day there is nothing there. I think of topics daily to blog about but am never sitting at the computer at the time they occur to me so no blogging has taken place. So I thought I'd post something...anything to keep the blog up to date. I know God knows where our paperwork is and who has it and every day is a day He has ordained for us to wait to lead us perfectly to the exact child He has planned to be part of our family. I'm just finding it a little humorous (in an irritatingly frustrating way) that we know other people are getting through this hurdle without delay and this is not the step we thought we'd be stuck on but such is the nature of international adoption. I'm learning to just live in the moment and to fully appreciate where we are right now.

SO...right now we are on the brink of Wyatt turning 2 and becoming quite independent. He's always heard telling me "WALK" when we go anywhere or "I do it". He's very laid back (as long as he gets some "I do it" time) and a ton of fun to hang out with. He'll ask for candy or donuts or whatever I shouldn't allow the kids to eat and I'll tell him no and he'll say "okay"...like "whatever...no big deal either way...I'm just goin' with the flow"...what child gives up that easily? He's always happy (unless Oliver has decided to hide his paci or steal his blankie or forcefully ask him to play in his room with him). The two of them together are a hoot...Oliver does NOT understand that Wyatt can't fully understand every request he makes so Oliver will ask Wyatt to do something like play with him in his room and then he'll tell Wyatt what the answer should be. Like this...Oliver: "Wyatt, do you want to play in my room with me?" Wyatt: stares Oliver: "Say yes" Wyatt: "yes" And off they go. They usually play pretty well together (unless above mentioned antics are taking place) and I'm thinking they'll be good friends. Oliver is also great at asking me everyday after I check the mail if the "letter about the baby" came today. I'm sure he's thinking...why are we always talking about this baby? What letter? Oh Oliver...hopefully one day soon you'll have another sibling to boss around and put words in their mouth for them and hide their pacis. In the meantime...we'll enjoy being right where we are...nothing new!

Looking forward

2009-12-29T19:04:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our family to yours!

Hope everyone enjoyed the first part of their holiday. We're looking forward to another short week of Dad working and being at home with us for a long weekend again! I have to say that I'm hoping that 2010 is the year we bring home our third child from Ethiopia (or at least have a face and tentative travel dates to pray over!). I am frustrated lately that it seems as if our adoption paperwork is stuck somewhere in never never land. I'm still waiting on that letter assigning us a time for our finger print appointments and I'm giving it time with the holidays happening right now. And it's not that we're not busy or even content with our lives as they are right now, but I'm frustrated that we started this and we've prayed for this and we've talked about this and we're ready to move along with this and it seems as if we're totally stalled out. So will you pray with us and for us? We need a jump start and we're hoping that letter is in the mail and will be here any day so at least we know we're moving forward with this. We appreciate your prayer and are looking forward to a fantastic 2010!

No words...

2009-12-09T20:25:00.000-08:00

Watch this...

And then read this...

http://www.russellmoore.com/2009/12/01/jesus-has-aids/

Let's try this again...

2009-12-09T16:33:00.000-08:00

So remember the post about how I like to get things taken care of with this adoption ASAP and get all stressed about it? And the post about how I overnighted our home study paperwork twice because the first one didn't get there fast enough and our case worker received it all twice? Well, I thought I would try on patience for a change so when I mailed our home study in to the USCIS office I kept letting it go when I didn't receive a confirmation letter. I kept looking for it (as mentioned in a previous post) but I just figured it was there and being processed very S L O W L Y. Well, last night I figured it was slow enough. I really have no clue how to go about finding out where our home study is or if it arrived or not. This office not only handles all orphan petitions but all immigration cases which means there are not phone numbers posted on their website. It's a big office with lots of local offices and I didn't have a clue how to go about checking on our application. So I got on our AWAA Yahoo group created just for those adopting from Ethiopia through AWAA (our agency) and asked those who were also paper chasing if they had heard anything since sending in paper work to the new address. Turns out yes they have and not only that but a woman who has adopted from Ethiopia who lives out in Katy (that we met a while back at a Tom Davis Chick-fil-a event) responded that there is a Houston CIS e-mail address. WHAT?? An e-mail address? How have I missed this in my EXTENSIVE, EXHAUSTIVE search of this website? SURE ENOUGH I get on to find it and there it is plain as day! Can we all see God's hand here? Love things like that...I digress. So I e-mail the Houston office last night and ask if they have received our home study not really expecting a response for a couple of days. By 7:30 this morning they have e-mailed back that they have not gotten our home study and until they are in receipt of this they cannot schedule our finger prints which is the last thing standing in our way before we mail off ALL of our paperwork and officially get on the waiting list for our child. SOO...I run around like a chicken with my head cut off and scramble all the paperwork together and make copies (one at a time on our home printer with Wyatt trying to pull them off to hand them to mommy!) and put the boys in the car and head to the nearest Parcel Plus and over night it all again! Deja Vu! Now it should be there again by 10:30 tomorrow morning. Never mind where the other one is or why it was signed for but nobody has it. I don't care (shouldn't I? quite a bit of PERSONAL information there!) where it is just as long as someone who SHOULD have it gets it somehow! Ugghhhh...craziness. And the poor boys! The craziness that ensued this morning...ahhh...I'll spare you the details but I am not proud of how I handle those little souls when I'm in a hurry and stressed like I was. Definitely something to work on!

So tips to those who are behind us on this journey. First off...check on things quickly if you don't get confirmation. Give it time (10 days to 2 weeks) but then e-mail away. Secondly, when it comes to mailing in your I-600A application and the decision to file your application before your home study is complete my only advice to you is that if you decide to file the application maybe hold the check to mail in with the home study so you have another way of knowing if they got it. But scratch that if you live in Texas like us because it just donned on me that we had to mail in a money order! Okay...so I guess my only advice is to have a great sense of humor and expect delays. Oh, and to remember when your youngest finds a lone crayon and is coloring on the white couch with it while you're frantically trying to make copies of important paper work scaring the you know what out of him when you yell like a banshee will only prolong getting back to making copies! Color away little Wyatt! We'll just throw it in the wash...

All I really want for Christmas is...

2009-12-01T16:32:00.000-08:00

WATER! Yes...that is right. Water. CLEAN water. And I don't mean for myself here...I mean for those around the world that do not have the option of clean water. Clean water to wash their clothes, clean water to cook with, and most importantly clean water to drink. I can't imagine being a mom and not being able to provide the basic need of clean water. I also don't know if I can even imagine...I mean really IMAGINE what that would even be like? And while I'm so thankful that God has blessed me with this location that I live in that provides the basic necessity of water so easily to all of us I have been reminded how so many people in OUR world do not have this basic convenience. Look at the image above and really look at it. Now imagine if that were you and your child was thirsty. Your only option is to dip your child's cup down in that water to quench their thirst. No apple juice, no lemonade, no milk, no CLEAN WATER.

So before you buy another THING for Christmas...buy water. $10 will provide someone in Africa clean water for 10 years. My family wants for nothing and we do not need another thing so we will be asking for water. I will also be giving water this holiday season. And BOY DO I FEEL GOOD ABOUT THAT...now, my relatives may not be so keen to recieve water for Christmas but as I've been reminded lately from some encouraging fellow bloggers isn't it supposed to be CHRISTmas anyhow? Aren't we supposed to get caught up in how to glorify Him more and praise Him on this holiday built around His birthday? I will be the first to say that I don't do that...it has taken me 32 years and countless large and small gifts to really "get" CHRISTmas. And while I will give in to the consumerism of the holiday more times than I care to admit this season and will take gifts and give gifts I will also be asking for and giving water. How does one give water you ask? Perfect...let me tell you my friends!

Go here to charity:water and either donate in someone's name as a gift or buy a gift from their e-store. Or go here to Water 4 Christmas and give or see their Etsy store to buy gifts that will donate profits to clean water. Or go here where your $10 will make a world of difference to someone. Either way...please GIVE...let clean water be a gift you give this Christmas. Give HOPE. Give JOY. GIVE because Christ first GAVE to us. Give because we are called to give. Won't it feel good to say "I got clean water for children" rather than "I got more stuff that I didn't need nor have space for?"

Now...I will end with my FAVORITE new video...it changed my holiday traditions. My prayer is that it will change yours too!

First gift

2009-11-17T19:42:00.000-08:00

This is copied from Brandi M.'s blog "Living Freely" that I follow. These stories always make me thankful that there are ways that God is using us to help those that otherwise wouldn't receive help. And I was left with the question on my heart tonight about what it is that I really want for Christmas. I'm praying that I will be challenged this year to move away from materialism and more towards eternal gifts this season. I am praying that my and your first gift this Christmas will be towards something lasting and here is a great place to start.

This entire blog is at the request of Joseph, our country director for Uganda. He came across this boy and his family and really wants to see them receive help. He asked Vince and I last week if there were any way we could spread the word. Please read and be a part of HOPE.

"Bosco is a born of 1996, from Obule Ajet, Ngariam Sub County, Usuk County, Katakwi District in Eastern Uganda. Bosco is an Orphan with 05 siblings and a mother (Alinga Christine-29 years). He is in Primary/Grade Three in Obule Ajet Primary School . His performance at school is quite satisfactory. Bosco has horrific story, he was picked by his uncle who is a casual worker in one of the sugar estates in Eastern Uganda called Kakira. While with his uncle, Bosco developed wounds on his left leg which the uncle did not give much attention to treat. The condition grew worse and the wounds became septic. Bosco’s uncle decides to bring him back to the village, however, he did not hand him back to his other. Bosco was left with his relatives who later notified the Bosco’s mother to come and pick her son who was ailing. On responding to the call, the mother found Bosco with a very sick left leg with septic wounds. Bosco was overwhelmed with pain and the mother henceforth decided to seek medical attention from the nearby Health Centres. The condition was advanced so they referred them to Soroti Referral Hospital . On thorough examination, the doctors diagnosed that the condition could not be treated and therefore recommended Bosco’s leg be amputated. Having come up with the cost for the operation, Bosco needs 2,000,000/= Uganda Shillings (excluding upkeep in the hospital and transportation) to have a successful operation/ amputation on his left leg. However, this colossal sum of money is a real nightmare to Bosco’s family. The mother is requesting people of good will and charities to come to her rescue as she cannot meet this cost."

The total comes to $1200 with another $300 needed for his hospital stay and transportation. Joseph asked us to just raise the $1200 and he would cover the rest. Can you believe that? Joseph, my precious African Papa, offering to pay 20% of this need out of his own pocket. Pockets that aren't as deep as many of ours. Pockets that are already covering school fees and needs for more orphans than any of us can get an accurate count on :-) It challenged me and I hope it challenges you to really ask the question: how might God want to use ME in bringing HOPE to Bosco. We'd like to raise the full $1500, allowing Joseph to bless this family or the others he comes across instead. Since we don't get to see all the needs...let US respond to the ones we DO see, am I right?

Go to www.HopeChest.org to give!!!!

In the notes section write: Uganda / Bosco so that it's designated correctly!

I'll update you as funds come in... pray with me for $1500 to meet this precious boy's need.

What waiting does...

2009-11-10T16:10:00.000-08:00

What does waiting for something do to you? Are you anxious, nervous, worried, unaffected? For us waiting has acted as huge sifter sifting out our thoughts about this adoption. It seems we've come so far in 4 short months and yet we know we have so far to go. Every day we get deeper and deeper into this thing called adoption...deeper and deeper into this love for a country that we didn't give much thought to a year ago. So where has that love led us? What have we to show for God's calling on us to make a child our own from a country so far away? Yes, we've filled out paper work and sat through interviews and accumulated LOTS of information about our family. But we've also spent countless hours in prayer for a nation we feel deeply for. We've prayed over families who are in different stages of this journey and are finding it difficult to get court dates or embassy approval or are waiting on referrals. We have opened our hearts to love more and our perspective has shifted. And we've been inspired to dig deeper. We've had to look long and hard at our budget and we've had the pleasure of deciding what we could "live without" to help make this adoption a reality. It's unreal to think a continent away there are mothers living in such extreme poverty that they cannot care for their children and must abandon them much less make a decision on what cable package they can live with. Or there are children orphaned from a disease that we can easily manage here with affordable medications. Or worse yet, orphaned children DYING from a disease that currently others in other parts of the world live with just fine because of two little pills. Oh, but for the grace of God that is not my reality and my family. But even with these sobering thoughts we are thankful that we are in a position to add to our family this way. We are blessed to get to walk these paths with our Savior. Even on the days when the letter doesn't come in the mail, or the fees are overwhelming us, or we can't get anyone to answer the phone at an office we need a piece of paper from...we count ourselves blessed. We are also learning that faith without works is dead. And I don't know about you, but I don't want dead faith. We've been wrestling with where God will lead us and we feel like He's been asking us if we'll follow Him or if we're going to lead and keep looking back to see if He's following. We've have felt led to special needs children or to multiple children but the door has not opened for us in these areas yet. I am however confident that God is preparing us for something big, something that was not in our heads at the beginning of this journey and if this has unfolded for us in just 4 short months then I can't wait to see how He leads us there. We do know that we love our Savior and we are striving every day to let Him lead as we wait...and we're sifting out our previous ideas about what we thought this would all look like and the new realities are so much clearer and bolder and scarier...not at all what we thought our suburban little family in Houston would like 5 years ago. But I am so happy and free and excited to say that I love what the waiting does for us...

Gonna Run 2.14.10

2009-10-27T19:50:00.000-07:00

I've been avoiding this post until I knew for sure that I would actually plan on going through with it but here it is. I know if I put it out there then I have to follow through with it (however, who's going to remember this post 3 1/2 months from now!!!???) Josh has been training for the January Houston marathon for some time now (and studying for his CPA exams...there honey...I put that out there as well...same rules apply about putting it out there and having to finish!!! HA!) and this past weekend he ran his first half marathon. The boys and I and my mom went downtown to see him finish...apparently I got bitten by the running bug and my mom began talking about how much fun it would be to take a weekend trip to Austin and watch Josh run that half marathon. Somehow this transformed into me thinking that I could train and ALSO run that half marathon! Josh did awesome in his first half marathon and had a goal to finish in under two hours. His official race time was 1:53...NICE! Good job Joshy! So I had to ask him to sign up for the half with me and run my much, much slower race pace as my Valentines gift! So I will be training the next 10 weeks to get ready. I equate it to him studying for his test (which he hates!) because even though I LOVE my daily workouts at the gym I pretty much do anything to avoid running as exercise! Super step...no problem, hour long muscle blast classes...sign me up. But run miles as in with an S on the end as in multiple miles and I'd rather sit at home on a rainy day with no TV and two crazy boys! Ok...it's not that bad and I will admit I enjoyed my first run a little so we'll see where this goes! If I can think of a good way I will definitely try to find a way to turn this into some kind of small fundraising opportunity for our adoption or another fantastic cause so stay tuned! Now before this turns into a running blog I'll turn in for the night. Here's to 4 more miles tomorrow!

Waiting on a letter...

2009-10-24T16:07:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to give a little update on our journey. We are currently waiting on a piece of mail from USCIS to tell us when our finger print appointments will be. This will basically conclude the last step of our paper chasing process. However this step could possibly take a while. They recently changed the procedure for mailing in this application and supporting documents (home study, birth certificates, marriage license, copies of drivers license, big check) and now require the entire US to mail this to an office in Lewisville, TX instead of your local USCIS office so I'm not sure how that will affect us right now. I will tell you that the boys now know our routine of checking the mail REGULARLY for this letter! We check the mail ALL THE TIME now! Josh used to have to do it before coming in the house in the afternoons but he knows that more than likely I've already done it. Before all of this adoption excitement I wasn't really all that concerned with what came in that mailbox. Now it is quite the adventure!

I will tell you that we've been using this time to really get on our knees about what age and gender we request when we send off our dossier to Ethiopia. I think we've finally learned after 32 years that many times all God wants us to do is surrender our plans to Him and let Him lead us instead of choosing our own path and that is a lesson that I'm sure we'll continue to learn over and over. By requesting "either" gender we're pretty confident that would mean boy since the wait time for a boy is considerably less right now. I WOULD LOVE A BOY and would also LOVE A SHORTER WAIT TIME!! However, I also know that Josh would love to have a daughter (as would I of course...I guess spending all day every day with two boys leaves me leaning towards boys) and recently after both of us discussing this issue and finally coming to the conclusion that we just needed to put it in God's hands I've just kinda been having visions of a little sister joining our family next. I don't know where we're headed after this adoption as far as more kiddos (we'll be running out of car space and bedrooms!) so I think we'll be requesting a female infant 0-12 months. Our home study requires us to adopt a child at least 12 months younger than Wyatt right now so adopting an older child is not doable at the moment. I will say that I don't believe that chance is involved when it comes to the child that is born to you...down to the gender. I believe that God knowingly gave us two boys with two very different personalities as He gives to everyone. So being able to "choose" the gender has always bothered me a bit. However, I feel that we finally have a peace about requesting a gender and I couldn't be more thrilled to delve into the world of all things a little girl will bring! Oliver often refers to the child we'll be adopting as "she" or "sister" so maybe I should've known all along it would be a girl...

All that to say that this journey is a blind one and you never know...we might end up with a sibling group of 4 between the ages of 2 and 14! HA! Guess there is always our second adoption to accomplish that...anyone know of a good used mini-van we can buy???

F.F.A.

2009-10-18T19:58:00.000-07:00

Here are the pics of our trip to Dewberry Farms last weekend. Weather was overcast, windy, and very chilly! THIS WEEKEND would have been absolutely perfect...sunny, cool, calm! Oh well...enjoy the pics of our future farmers of America!

A lover of swings...Two little pumpkins!

Our weekend: One finalized home study, two birthday celebrations, and one day at the farm!

2009-10-11T15:14:00.000-07:00

Yippeee! We got an e-mail on Friday afternoon saying our home study was finalized and notarized and in the mail! We were told that we may be waiting a "few more weeks" and were very pleasantly surprised when the e-mail came at 4:58 on Friday afternoon! We should have it in our hands on Monday and then can send it in to USCIS and wait for them to give us an appointment for our fingerprints. Then we wait for our official document saying we can bring over an "immigrant" from Ethiopia and then we are closer to having all of our documents sent to Ethiopia and we'll officially be on the waiting list. One step closer!

We had a fantastic weekend celebrating birthdays! Josh's birthday was last Wednesday...and I spent the ENTIRE day making Boeuf Bourguignon ala Julia Child! It was pretty good if I do say so myself. My birthday is Monday so we had a babysitter both Friday and Saturday night and went and enjoyed some incredible dinners without rushing through and feeling bad about leaving an entire meal under a certain someone's highchair! It was divine! We also took the boys and went out Dewberry Farms on Saturday where they got to go on a hay ride to pick a pumpkin in the pumpkin patch, ride a barrel train, tour the petting zoo, play on multiple playgrounds, sit on a tractor, and eat homemade fudge! Not bad for a Saturday! I'll post pictures soon...it was very chilly for south Texas and being from Houston I just knew it would warm up and didn't dress the boys accordingly! They at least wore long sleeves but would've done better with sweatshirts or windbreakers! Who would've thought?? Houston in October?? HA! Happy Fall Ya'll!

Still waiting...

2009-10-05T19:54:00.000-07:00

So we're still waiting to get an official copy of our recent home study. We've approved it and I believe our case workers supervisor has approved it and now we're waiting on AWAA (our agency) to approve it which should hopefully be this week?? Ordinarily waiting this long for something would drive me batty but with the start of preschool, trying to coax an 18 month old to give up his paci, and potty training a stubborn 3 year old (who is GREAT at telling us he has to go potty at bedtime to get out of bed but NOT SO GREAT the rest of the day) the last two or so weeks have flown by. However, we are ready to move on to the next step which is...you guessed it...more waiting! We'll mail our home study to USCIS (Department of Homeland Security basically) and then wait for our fingerprint appointment to be cleared by the FBI and then when that is done we will wait for the government to send us an approval form to bring home an immigrant or OUR CHILD (as we like to say)! So right now we wait...

Which is ok...Josh's birthday is on Wednesday of this week and mine is next Monday so we'll be celebrating this weekend. We have a babysitter both Friday and Saturday and by that I mean the kind we pay for. And the real treat in that is that we can just head home after our "date" and the kids are already fast asleep in bed! We do love free family babysitters but we figure you only turn 32 once so might as well go all out! HA! This should help pass the time a little easier...yippee for birthday celebrations! We'll share more soon hopefully...God has been working heavily in our lives lately. More on that later..

Home Study complete!

2009-09-20T16:55:00.000-07:00

Woo Hoo! We did it! We completed our home study and now we wait! I have to say it was not the easiest two hours...she finished our couple interviews or tried to finish them as the boys were running around like crazies during the whole interview. It's hard to discuss your philosophy of parenting when you want to stop and YELL at your kids to sit down and zip it! About an hour in we gave up on our perfect parents facade and let Oliver turn a Thomas video on that he found in the entertainment center and asked to watch. We put it on in the kitchen and gave them about a dozen peanut butter cookies each and our case worker goes "Ohhh...it DOES get quiet!!" HA! Favorite moment! She was great...didn't pass any judgement on any of it so it was fun to sit and chat and joke around. Oliver gets so shy when spoken to directly so he didn't have much to share verbally until she asked to see his room and he then went on and on about his books, his CD player, his bed, the stair banister the "worker men" came to put in, etc. Oh kiddos...can't live without them! Now we wait to receive the written home study that we mail in to the US Dept. of Homeland Security and then they fingerprint us for FBI and then send us our I-700 and that is the last piece of paper we're waiting on! Almost there folks...almost there. And by that I mean paper work done...not waiting part done but little steps.

Ahhhh...now the house is clean (well everything is hidden anyway...Josh calls cleaning around here "hiding" since we hide things better than we clean them!!) and the boys are down (long weekend with birthday parties, sip and sees, home study interviews) and we're waiting on our chicken and pineapple pizza and FREE cinnapie to get here while we relax before our crazy week starts up!

The "lady" and the "baby"...

2009-09-18T18:47:00.001-07:00

We have our final home study visit tomorrow and this is the one where our case worker will come to the house and inspect it and will finish our interviews. She will also try to "interview" Oliver (anyone living in the house with us over 3 years old has to be interviewed). He cracks me up...he knows we're adopting and we talk about our new baby and we usually call her "sister" as in we're thinking we'll request a girl most days (but God is the author of this journey so we realize that might change as we journey down this road). So when I was cleaning up this afternoon (the kind of cleaning where I "arrange" the toys and threaten him to not touch a single one) he knew something was up. I told him the "lady" was coming...he said "The lady to talk about the baby with no mommy or daddy?" Aha...yes that lady! So we've been getting everything picked up and cleaned up and I started to wonder how clean is clean if you know someone is coming over to inspect your home to see if you're fit to raise another child? I know it will be no big deal and I doubt she'll check for dust or look to see that our bathroom hamper is sweater storage at the moment or that the high chair probably has enough food in the cracks and crannies to feed Wyatt at his next 3 meals alone! But it is a little stressful if I stop to think about it! Guess I won't let myself think about it past this blog post. Oliver told Josh during bath time tonight that the lady is coming tomorrow to talk about the baby. Then he thought to ask where the baby will sit because he thought she was bringing the baby with her and if there was going to be a new baby then they would need a spot for her in the bathtub. Josh tried to explain that she would not be bringing the baby but would only be talking to us to make sure we have enough room for a baby. Oliver will probably think we're playing this long, drawn out imagination game about a baby as the year passes by and he still doesn't have a baby sibling! Oh the day we return with our child and he can't believe his eyes...that in fact we WERE telling the truth this entire time! Sweet boy...at least he's willing to help us clean for the lady who's coming over to talk about the baby! We'll let you know how it goes...

The pressure of being 3...

2009-09-13T17:34:00.000-07:00

The boys started pre-school last week. I thought that sentence would make me sigh with relief and walk around with a big smile but that is not how it happened. I will say before any pre-school drama started I was having a hard time with the smiling part when thinking about school starting up for the boys. We've had a great summer playing and being lazy and growing and hanging out and this would be Wyatt's first time away from mom for that long of a stretch. We do go to the gym every day during the week but the most the boys are in the nursery is for two hours (the limit!!) and they are together playing and it took a while to get Wyatt used to that and happy at drop off. So I was mourning our summer schedule a little bit...knowing that we're one year closer to the year I have to let Oliver go completely, 5 days a week, 7 hours a day and that already makes me sad! (And I never thought I'd be THAT mom...guess I'm realizing that luckily for my boys that I am THAT mom!) Oliver was ready, ready, ready...this is his third year at his school and he loves school! I also knew Wyatt would love school as soon as he got warmed up. Tuesday came and went and I realized that maybe I bit off more than I could chew with Oliver's class. I'll spare you the entire dramatic run down of my week but let's just say that it ended on Thursday with me completely SOBBING in a teacher conference in Oliver's class. L.O.V.E.L.Y...never been much of a CRAZY before but now I am THAT mom too! Anyhow...that kid is extremely intelligent at times, loves books and reading and can now make up his own stories to go with the books, jams out with the best of them to his Jack Johnson Curious George CD and Bible songs CD (nothing like "I'm in the Lord's Army" blaring to get you going in the morning!!), and has the best little conversations with me, Wyatt, and anything else that will listen! However, that child also refuses to put any stock in to potty training! He knows the routine, he knows how to go, he knows why to go, he knows where to go and what to do, but BULL if he cares if he actually DOES any of it!! His school requires the kids in the 3 year old class to be potty trained...and just knowing HOW to use the potty is not enough, you have to actually DO IT! So this week turned in to our first heart tugging parent decision and we decided to remove all pressure and put Oliver in the older 2 year old class. If he was born on his actual due date that would have been the only option anyway and it would have been decided for us so I feel good about our decision...we did the whole follower thing last year with him being the absolute youngest and now he gets to do the leader thing and be the oldest by a month or so. We've talked to him and he doesn't care so why should we? And I have a feeling this won't be the last time we have to make a heart tugging decision about our child. I know we won't always be able to take the pressure off to make life easier but when your 3 shouldn't your life be as pressure free as possible? Won't there be time for academic challenges later in life...like when you're 5?? HA! By the way...Wyatt is loving school and will probably choose to stay in the toddler class forever...messy projects, a play ground just his size (OUTSIDE is what he yells all day long!), two FANTASTIC teachers who have proved to be worthy of the tuition we pay in more ways than just one, and 5 other boys to play trucks with (none of whom take his toy to show him the "correct" way to play with it) I love those boys...and hopefully they'll love school! I can finally say that with a sigh of relief and a smile on my face!

3 down, 1 to go...

2009-09-07T15:58:00.000-07:00

Josh and I drove to Huntsville, TX this weekend to get some home study interviews taken care of. On Sunday afternoon we drove up towards Huntsville stopping in The Woodlands on the way to have a nice dinner at Hubble and Hudson Bistro. We enjoyed having dinner without the boys who were staying at my parents house. We then headed on to Huntsville where we met with our social worker at Starbucks. I went first for my interview while Josh went to check us in to the lovely Comfort Suites. After an hour and a half of talking about myself and my childhood/family it was Josh's turn! He did the same and then we thought about trying to catch a late movie but as Josh had gone running Sunday morning at 4:45 he was pretty tired so we went on back to the hotel. The next morning we met our social worker again for our couple interview at 8:00. No big deal...lots of discussing strengths/weaknesses and goals! We headed back to Houston and spent the day at my parents house swimming and enjoying the day off! The boys both start preschool tomorrow...I'm having a hard time with that this year (which is a whole other bag of worms and a post for another day) and am somewhat dreading it tomorrow. Wyatt has never been to school and while I know he will LOVE playing with other boys (there are only 6 boys in his class) and he will LOVE his teachers he will still have a hard time letting go of momma and I dread having to drop him off even when I know it's in his best interest. Oliver has gone to this preschool the last two years and he loves school but this is the start of a new class with higher expectations. He's the youngest with just turning 3 and I'm worried for him but will give him a month and see what happens...I'll be praying them both through the day tomorrow! Oliver is also supposed to be potty trained and while he spent the entire weekend in big boy underwear he hates to stop what he is doing and say he has to go. He'll go if you make him and has no problem doing it on the potty but he is not going to tell you to take him unless he has started to have an accident and then realized he needs to go. Hence the apprehension! But God is big and He is their God too so we'll be laying it down tonight instead of worrying about it and losing sleep! I just love those little boys and it will be hard to let them go...now probably not too hard when I'm having lunch with girl friends or my mom or getting things done without two monkeys in tow but you get the gist! Happy Labor Day!

Today is the day...

2009-09-06T05:46:00.000-07:00

Oh, I love Sundays! It is so quiet out there and on the roads to church (which is a little sad if you think about it) and I love that Josh and I are getting up and getting dressed and going to the same place. Can you tell I'm a stay at home mom?? HA! Josh has been training for the January marathon here in Houston and he's been getting up extra early (4:00 a.m.) on Sundays to meet up with some coworkers and run long distances. I love that he goes that early so he can be home in time to get the boys up and dressed so we can get to church on time! He also has been bringing home warm Shipley donuts (donut holes for the boys) after his runs. I told myself that today would be the day that I did not eat one of those donuts after imagining the effect of these weekly donut breakfasts on my waistline but then he comes in with WARM donuts!!! WARM, delicious, glazed donuts...willpower gone (so is waistline soon too!!). Oliver loves Sundays too...donuts and church! Of course church to him means a classroom with other 3 year olds and cardboard blocks, a HUGE book shelf filled with wooden blocks, toy trucks, puzzles, stickers, etc. so who wouldn't love church?? And start off that adventure with a bag of donut holes and it's a magical day! Wyatt can now also say donuts and yells this word regularly...he tried this trick last week after open house at preschool and Oliver chimed in so we had donuts for lunch!! (It was an emotional open house for me so I gave in!!!!) Anyhoo...all this to say I love church (and donuts!)

Now today is not just church and donut day...Josh and I are headed to Huntsville tonight (another story...our home study case worker lives in Huntsville which somehow means we drive to her...not sure I fully understand that...) and start our individual interviews with said lady. We're staying the night (thanks Gigi and Pop for keeping the boys as they're not invited!!) and then finishing our couple interviews in the morning. I will definitely post again when we get home to let you know how it went! We're excited to get it going as this is one of the last steps in our dossier compilation and we can get our papers in to officially be on the waiting list!! So any prayers that today would go smoothly would be greatly appreciated...that and that our answers aren't completely off the wall! :) Gotta love separate interviews! Have a great Sunday!

Love this...

2009-09-01T19:36:00.000-07:00

I believe LIVING FAITH can end poverty!!!! Do you?

redletterscampaign.com

I dare you to read it...

2009-08-31T05:43:00.000-07:00

So I've thoroughly researched all things blog related to Africa and adoption and have seen this blog's ministry button on others blogs. Last night I sat down to read this young girls lastest entry and was moved to share it with all of you. Katie is 20 years old and felt God leading her to Uganda after high school...she was obedient, she stayed, she has 13 foster children, she is LIVING out her FAITH!! Unbelievable story...PLEAE take 5-10 minutes to read the first two blog entries. The August 26th blog entry so sums up what Josh and I have been dealing with as far as wrestling with our meager faith on issues of starvation and extreme poverty and a big GOD who can change it all. We really feel that we've learned that HE has provided for all of these needs through his BODY of believers and that so little are ACTING on what HE has called us to do! Katie states that there is a LARGE number of children with dire needs BUT that there is an even LARGER number of CHRISTIANS and that if only 8% gave time or money then all the needs would be met of these children!!! WHAT??????? How are we MISSING this???? How are so many of us getting it so wrong?? And don't think we feel like we're "doing something" just because we're adopting...we too are struggling to find ways to be used by God to truly make a difference. But I do know this...starting at just FIVE dollars you can donate to this girl's ministry (see AMAZIMA button on this blog's column to the right over there) and only 300 dollars A YEAR will send one child to school, clothe them, provide school supplies, feed them two meals a day, and provide basic medical care!!!!! You can also do something by donating to the five for fifty campaign (another button over there) and make a difference in the lives of those affected by HIV/AIDS. And we're right there along with all of you...we're learning this as we go and we're opening up our hearts to be obedient to what God will lead us to!

Is this a joke?...

2009-08-28T11:16:00.001-07:00

I woke up early this morning and couldn't go back to sleep so I decided to get up and go down and make coffee. Last night I had asked Josh to take our home study paper work to his office to make copies and would get them from him midday and re-mail the packet that never showed up. I realized I wouldn't have a chance if I didn't go right after we left the gym this morning so I decided to make copies one at a time on our home printer since I was up anyway and got it done before the boys woke up. We ran by a local parcel plus and I paid a lot more to ship the packet with Fed-ex but felt better about it! Well, wouldn't you know that as I sat down to check on the first packet that it is now showing up in Huntsville!!?? You gotta love it...maybe I need to learn a patience lesson. You agree? It's that obvious is it? NICE! Well at lest they'll know we're serious (seriously ANXIOUS) about our home study! :) Oh...isn't this a fantastic journey? On a side note, the boys and I had a lovely play date at Noah's Ark pool and are looking forward to capping it off hearing Tom Davis speak tonight at a local Chick-fil-a event while meeting some local Houstonians how have recently brought home their Ethiopian little girls! Fabulous...can't wait to meet some friends who have walked this journey already! Now for a nap...

Wouldn't you know...

2009-08-27T14:18:00.000-07:00

So I have to share...we've already established that it is my personality to get things done and out the door when I'm anxious about something. So on Monday I ran by the doctor's office to pick up our physical exam letters which was the last piece of our home study packet. I go home and immediately put the boys down for naps and begin assembling our packet and get them ready for mailing. (I also sent one to our case worker to save a step and luckily she e-mailed to tell me this the night before!) We head to the post office and I stand in a very SLOW line with two boys to make sure the letters get mailed correctly and on the last truck out. I accidentally chose to send them certified mail instead of delivery confirmation but as I left I though to myself that that extra step of caution is probably good being that one of the packets had a very large check in it. So I go home relieved to have that part over with. As I get online to check the packages status the following days I realize that neither have been delivered! ????????? I e-mail both women and sure enough one was delivered to AWAA-Texas in Dallas but nobody was there to sign for it because she was on vacation for the week! :) And the other one still hasn't been delivered to Huntsville! Nice huh?? Just when I think I'm in control I'm reminded that I am not the author of this journey and every day is a day that the Lord is using in HIS timeline! Makes me kinda smile though...ironic. And I can smile because I sat there and used our home printer to make copies of everything I sent so I can just resend it all but there goes this week! :) So if anybody out there finds a Home Study application and all kinds of personal information about the Chambers then send it my way!

A little closer...

2009-08-21T13:43:00.000-07:00

Well, we are a very near to sending in our huge application packet to begin our face to face portion of our home study!! Wooo Hooo! We have Sable's vet appointment tomorrow to get her up to date on all of her shots and get a piece of paper saying that she's up to date and we'll be ready to go! This is a big accomplishment for us considering that we ALL had to have doctors appointments and then follow up appointments to get our TB test results read and managed to get it all done in one week!! We did also manage to find some incredible new doctors and we didn't know what to expect with new doctors but all of them were incredibly patient and helpful in filling out all of the necessary paper work we needed them to fill out. So all in all it's been a VERY busy week but a productive week! The fire inspector also came out yesterday and we realized (after paying the $160 fee) that it was going to be another $300 or so to be up to code to get the permit they said we need. We obviously didn't pass that inspection and I e-mailed our agency case worker and asked again about needing the inspection and she responded that that permit was definitely not what needed and that our case worker could do it for us! NICE! Of course, we've had some hiccups this week as well. Wouldn't you know it that as we rushed home from the gym this morning and I had 15 minutes to shower and dress before rushing out again to make it to our follow up doctor appointments that Wyatt would find my Iphone and think it funny to go dump it in the toilet?? AND THAT WAS MY REPLACEMENT IPHONE!!! There goes that...guess I'm destined to have a $20 phone now! OH...and Josh did get his autobiography written and it was a great one!

Stuck no longer...

2009-08-17T16:09:00.000-07:00

So we've been stuck for a week or so on finding out to how to get a fire safety inspection and an environmental health inspection. I have always maintained that I could find anything on the internet and thought this would be no big deal. I figured dozens of people need these inspections every day for adoptions of some sort or other and that if Texas requires it for a home study then somebody, somewhere has to have a contact number for it. BOY WAS I WRONG! I searched many local Houston websites trying to find the info and gave Josh lists of numbers to call from work to try and get somebody on the phone all with no success. Well, on Friday we FINALLY got someone to call us back about the fire safety inspection that knew who we needed to contact (more phone numbers) and after a $160 fee and more phone calls today we might be making progress on that task. Our agency case worker also e-mailed on Friday that our case worker would be able to take care of the environmental health checklist during a visit for the home study so that will be taken care of. Of course after faxing in the credit card payment form and application for the fire inspection we've learned the contact lady did not recieve it (so our credit card info is just floating around a random Houston government office???) and we tried again. We also never heard back from the man that is actually supposed to come out to the house to do the inspection but we've left messages! So hopefully we're getting closer...maybe? I have my doctor's appointment tomorrow and the boys go together on Wednesday (what was I thinking??!!) and Josh goes on Friday and it is my goal to have our paperwork ready to send out next Monday to begin the face to face part of our home study! Then we'll finish up our dossier paper work and...oh we'll get to that part later. One step at a time! Oh, and if I could just get Josh to write his 5 page autobiography! Surely he can find time between work, putting the boys to bed, training for a marathon, and studying for his CPA exam! Easy peasy!

Change of pace...

2009-08-11T15:27:00.000-07:00

Ok...so remember that post down there that talks about how I rushed the papers out the door so nobody was waiting on us? HA HA HA! Now we have a HUGE pile of paperwork that sits here waiting on US! Boy was I naive! Of course the small things are taken care of...but we now have the check list for our dossier and also the check list for our home study. LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of stuff to gather! Let's see where we are with all of it...one of these days when we catch up a little I'll put the checklist up for those that would like to know what is included. We've gotten Josh's proof of employment, I've written my proof of non-employment, we've gotten proof of health insurance, life insurance, marriage certificates, certificates stating we completed our Hague training, and signed all paperwork that just needs signatures. We've all made doctor's appointments that happen next week (I go one day, I take both boys together on one day, and Josh goes a separate day which is no small feat being that we all have new doctors for various reasons), we've ordered our birth certificates, found out where to get our police clearance letters, have written more than half of my autobiography (Josh is still dragging on this part of his assignment), and will be distributing our letters of reference this week. We still need to get Sable (the dog) to her vet appointment for shot updates, copy a whole bunch of stuff, and finally find out how to get a fire safety and environmental health inspection in Houston. Wheeeew! So we're a tad bit busy right now...but we'll be taking a break this weekend to celebrate Oliver's 3rd birthday by inviting friends and family over to dig in the sand (in 102 degree heat...should be a Saharan desert theme instead of construction) and eat LOTS of cake and have a great time! So at least there's that! We'd love your prayers in getting all this paper work done and maybe one or two that I'd relax and let it happen when it happens...let's forget that post down there hinting my personality lends itself otherwise! I will say I've used the office more than I ever thought I would when we moved here not to long ago! Back to typing...

Video Inspiration

2009-08-02T17:36:00.000-07:00

I have been obsessed lately with all things related to adoption and specifically Ethiopian adoption. I thought I would use this blog to share some videos that have moved me with those of you that have not explored international adoption. The adoption video is a little long but it gives a pretty thorough glimpse into what adoption from Ethiopia will be like. The Sara Groves video is just beautiful and inspiring. Oh, and don't forget to scroll down before playing these videos to the red and pink playlist and hit pause to hear the sound from the videos only.

Back in their court...

2009-07-31T12:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we got the news that we were accepted into AWAA's Ethiopian adoption program. With that news came e-mails about starting our online training, contracts that needed to be signed and mailed back, and details about paying our initial program fee. Being that it is my personality to get things done and not let them sit (when I'm anxious about something that is) I immediately printed out the papers, signed them, wrote the check, stuffed it in the envelope, loaded the boys into the car, and drove to the post office to put it all in the mail. While doing all of this in a rush, Wyatt pulled the bucket of water catching drips from our shower repair (that's another story) off of the chair to make a huge mess and Oliver was getting frustrated that I wasn't providing his snack fast enough! But heaven forbid I wait a day and slow down! I HAD to get it in the mail before last pick up so it would be there on Monday instead of Tuesday! Now the ball is back in their court and we're waiting on them to process it and assign us a family coordinator which will contact the case worker to start our home study, etc. See the rush?? This will be my life from now until we send the entire dossier to Ethiopia and then we just sit back and wait. Sounds easy huh?? It's like a game of hot potato...I don't want to be the reason we're waiting...if it's something we can take care of then I'll do it immediately and then wait on whoever we have to wait on to do their part. Hopefully we'll get everything we need quickly but I'll tell you that it won't be me we're waiting on!! Am I my father's daughter or what?? Ohhhhh...we have a LONG journey ahead don't we my dear husband? HA!

Ahhhh...freedom!

2009-07-30T10:31:00.000-07:00

So...for some time now Josh and I have been praying about adoption. We've both known for a while that God has been calling us to adopt. And some of you will remember our first Christmas letter saying that we had decided to start our family through adoption. You will also remember that right after that letter we announced our "SURPRISE" pregnancy and our sweet Oliver's birth. Then came Wyatt before we knew it and all the while we wondered when adoption would fit in. We continued to pray and felt God leading us to pursue adoption for our third child. We began looking at programs that fit our needs (ages of children in home currently, years married, etc.) and were drawn to Africa due to the overwhelming need and the large numbers of orphans. We thought we were ready in January but we soon realized that the timing was not quite right and we waited. We also researched and to be honest became overwhelmed. There was many a day during that time that I thought having another biological child would just be so much easier!! But I knew in my heart of hearts that God was calling us to adopt and many a day I did not know if we would be obedient or not. We are not in a financial standing to commit the money it will take to adopt and we kept praying over that issue and God kept responding that all He wanted from us was faith. Faith to step out in spite of everything we were feeling overwhelmed by and trust Him. Finally in July we felt the calling even stronger and knew the timing was right to add another child to our family. We've also seen God soften hearts of family around us who have volunteered to help finance parts of the adoption which we knew was a huge answer to prayer. We applied to America World Adoption Agency and today received the amazing phone call letting us know that we have officially been approved to adopt a child from Ethiopia through their agency! We know there is a LONG road ahead of us but we feel such freedom to be able to tell people that we are officially "paper chasing" now to bring home what will be our third child through adoption from Ethiopia! We are thrilled to be starting this journey and will admit that we are currently overwhelmed with all that lies ahead but know that God has already laid out the path he would have us take. We ask our friends and family to begin praying for us as we start this amazing journey. We will definitely keep you updated through this blog and look forward to sharing this journey with you!

Still playing...

2009-07-27T20:05:00.000-07:00

Still up playing with changing up the settings...but I have to say I'm quite proud of all I've learned in the blogging world in such a short time. But that's me...I get on something and then I run with it. Voila!

Signatures, playlists, links, oh my...

2009-07-27T17:02:00.000-07:00

Yay! Okay, so the blog wasn't necessarily on our "to do" list for the adoption but I knew I wanted to create one so we could keep friends and family up to date on this journey. I knew this would be easier than constantly e-mailing or calling everyone and this way people can drop by and read updates when and IF they want to. However, finding a design and getting this blog up and running has been an adventure in itself. I know a little more about HTML than I ever wanted to know and tonight I have figured out how to insert a signature. Yipppeeee! SO personal, yes?? Doesn't it just add so much?? I'm kidding but I'm proud of myself nonetheless! Oh, and we're still waiting to hear if we've been "officially" accepted into America World's Ethiopia program. We don't expect to hear until later in the week being that needed staff to approve us is out of office until Wednesday! So we begin the "waiting" with waiting. Most of you won't have found this until we're well on our way but I thought I'd use this to journal about the process and figured I'd start at the beginning!

Figuring it out...

2009-07-26T21:03:00.001-07:00

Figuring this all out in more ways than one...on the list tonight is all things related to this blog. A bit frustrating but we're getting there! Who knew this would consume so much of our time?