Family update

Hey Friends and family...we are one step closer to bringing our baby girl home from Ethiopia. The adoption is going quick...it is our prayer to have her with us late fall 2009. We are a little nervous about the process, however we have completely turned it over to God. We just keep praying for this little girl. We dont know who she is, but we know she is our daughter. Adam and I were comparing this to a pregnancy. In pregnancy a baby is conceived in the womb, this baby has been conceived on our hearts. Our kids are excited to have a new sister...Kaydence keeps asking for the baby. It is going to be a long wait. I guess just like the anticipation of a pregnancy (without the morning sickness)...though I have felt sick to my stomach at times...the thought of this baby being malnourished, the mother being homeless, scavenging for food with pigs in a garbage dump...doesnt sit well in my stomach. This will be a bitter sweet adoption...we will be receiving a precious miracle, but her mother will still be left there to fend for herself. Kind of makes me feel hopeless. I guess thats were we can learn from our God and his word. Just some of my current thoughts...I guess right now we would just ask for prayer for the orphans all over the world, and for God to continue to provide financially as we have some cost coming up...so far so good. God Bless

Adoption update

Ok friends Adam and I are about to embark on a journey, we are about to be taken to the land of unknown, However we are excited for the road ahead. We have been formally accepted to adopt an infant girl from Ethiopia. I am sitting in front of a mountain of paper work. Our next step is to have a conference call tomorrow with All Gods Children (our adoption agency). The phone call will help us to understand all of the paper work in front of us. After that we will need to have it all notarized (Brenda I will call you), and send in our first major payment. I am super excited because we could potentially be traveling this summer to Ethiopia to pick up our daughter. I have decided that life is crazy, you might think you know how life is going to go, and then God takes you in another direction. All I know is we want our daughter, and I can't wait to see her precious face. I have been dreaming of what it will be like to see her for the first time. Will it be like when you give birth and you see your child for the first time, or will it be a feeling I did not know I had. I ask myself what would it have been like if Pharaoh's daughter did not lift Moses out of the water? Exodus 2

Kaydence is going to be a big sister!!

About a year and a half ago adoption was put on our heart. So finally after a lot of prayer, we have decided to move forward. We have applied, and been accepted to adopt an infant girl from Ethiopia. We have chosen All Gods Children as our adoption agency. We have chosen this organization for many reasons. They have an incredible story, and have been around for almost 20 years. We chose Ethiopia for many reasons as well. The main reason is we are almost guaranteed an infant, and we want a girl as young as possible. This will be a huge cost, but we are certain that God will provide. We have made our first payment towards the agency, with the second one being due by the end of December. Our next step is the home study. The entire process can take anywhere from 6-18 months. Our case worker told us everything should go smooth, and it did not look like we had anything that would slow us down. Adam and I are very nervous, but we are very excited. We are going in to this with very little expectation, and will allow God to guide us every step of the way. Obviously our future has some uncertainty, but we are willing and ready. Adam and I are going on a mission trip to Haiti in March, and had initially thought God had a baby for us there. However after we each individually prayed, God put Ethiopia on both our hearts. So it was at that moment I knew God had an angel for us in Africa. Please pray for our family, but pray harder for the orphans in Ethiopia. We will continue to update through out the adoption process. God Bless

Act like you love each other!!

So here goes me first blog. Ok so we started out the morning at 6:30am getting ready for family pictures. I knew this would be a challenging morning, however I knew it would be worth it....So I said a prayer, and then proceeded to get myself and three children ready. We headed out at 8am. We went to Kingswood Park area. Our photographer was amazing!! She is a super good friend, and was really patient with our family (thx Karrie)!!! I am so excited to see the pictures. I know there will be some good ones. The kids were a little grumpy and cold, but they eventually started to warm up. There was this stupid stray cat that would not leave us alone. It was such a distraction, so Adam gently tossed it over a fence. We were able to get the kids to focus a little more after the cat left us alone. Adam hates family picture day...he did better than I thought he would...he is such a big baby sometimes...and then he thought he deserved an award for surviving family picture day, so he is golfing. Well I guess that is enough for now...we do have some exciting news so stay posted:)