Nazareth Water Well

Our adoption is changing us in many ways. Besides growing our hearts as we prepare to welcome our daughter into our family, our hearts have also grown to love Ethiopia and these people on the other side of the world. It used to be simple to ignore what was going on, but we just can't anymore.

While we in America have favorite brands of bottled water because we prefer the taste of one over another (and the fact that we "need" bottled water in the first place), there are people all around the world who don't have access to clean water.

Tomorrow we will be donating to the Nazareth Water Well, through Life in Abundance, as a family in honor of our baby sister, and also to honor the One who gives Living Water. John 4:1-14

Bringing one baby home to join our family is going to change and bless our family in so many ways, but we also want to help and love on those who will still be in Ethiopia. Will you consider joining us this Christmas?

Nazareth Water Well

What: Integrated Water Well Initiative

Where: Nazareth, Ethiopia

When: When our goal of $11,000 is met!

Why: Based on the 2007 Population and Housing Census, the total population of Ethiopia was estimated to be 77 million making it the second largest populous country in Sub-Saharan Africa next to Nigeria. The average household size is 4.8. The overwhelming majority (about 85%) of the total population are living in the rural areas.

According to the report obtained from water utility partnership, in Africa, it is estimated that about 300 million people are without access to safe water and another 500 million lack adequate sanitation. In one year, over 500,000 die before the age of 5. Water related diseases are the single biggest killer of infants and the principal cause of illness in adults in Ethiopia. Water related diseases are a particular threat to people living with HIV/AIDS.

Ethiopia has the lowest coverage of access to safe water and basic sanitation in the world. Where there is coverage, the level of service may be poor. The poor water and sanitation situation has contributed to high infant and maternal mortality rate and Very low economic productivity which had a direct impact on progress towards meeting the MDG targets.

Women and girls spend hours every day collecting water from distant sources, and in addition are expected to cook, collect fire wood, and care for the sick which directly has impact on girls education. In general, the water crisis has an impact on the overall development of the country
The majority of the ten top diseases within the entire country are related to water and sanitation problems.

Who: Building Arizona Families + Life in Abundance International = Partners in a Common Cause

To donate to this great cause, go to http://liaint.org/nazarethwaterwell/

Baby Sister

When we get our referral, we plan to change our baby's Ethiopian name to her middle name and then we will chose an American first name. But, that has caused us to hold off on choosing a name for our baby because we want to make sure it sounds good with her Ethiopian name. So in the meantime we've just been referring to her as our baby sister, especially with Megan and Emily. Emily, especially, refers to her as "baby sister" as if that is her name.

While I was Christmas shopping this week, I strayed into the baby section and found this shirt. I already plan to decorate her nursery in pink and brown, and sorting through clothes last week, plus submitting the dossier made things seem so close! Plus, it's Gymboree and it was a great sale price. :) And, actually, they didn't have it in the size I wanted, so I went home and couldn't stop thinking about it. When I checked the website, they had free shipping. So, the shirt is on it's way to wait to be worn by our baby sister.

Final Stretch of our Dossier

Main Entry: dos·sier
Pronunciation: \ˈdȯs-ˌyā, ˈdäs-; ˈdȯ-sē-ˌā, ˈdä-\
Function: noun
Etymology: French, bundle of documents labeled on the back, dossier, from dos back, from Latin dorsum
Date: 1880
: a file containing detailed records on a particular person or subject

Dossier was a new word for my vocabulary when we started this process, now it's an everyday word in our family, but we are finally in the home stretch before this huge packet of information about us heads around the world to match us to our baby. Pregnancy was draining physically, but adoption is draining mentally. I agree with a friend who explained the process as an excersise in paperwork.

Last night I wrote a letter to the orphanage introducing our family and explaining why we want to adopt a baby from Ethiopia. Tony also wrote a letter to the Ethiopian government stating that we will care for and raise this child to the best of our abilitly.

Tonight we headed back to Costco for another set of passport photos that will be on her documents to bring her home.

Tomorrow we will go to Phoenix to get two of our documents state authenticated (a step about a notrary), one of which is our power of attourney that will be used to grant the orphanage power of attourney during the time after we've legally adopted her and before we can bring her home.

Then we will deliver these last documents to our social worker, and they will head out on the next leg of the journey.

Tomorrow also brings a very large payment to the adoption agency, and we have been so blessed by the generousitly of our friends and family, the success of our garage sale, and above all, God's provision.

Then, we wait to be presented with a baby. It could be weeks or it could be months (and in some cases years, though we are not expecting that with Ethiopia). While we have been busy working on getting everything together, this will be a stage of waiting and trusting God while everything is out of our hands.

Preparing

After we had Emily, we "knew" we were done having babies, so we have given away almost all of our baby things. But in the past months we have started to collect again, and I started to save Emily's things once she out grew them. Well, the pile of things had just been growing in one corner of our office (which will become our baby's room) and it was too much for me. Yesterday I undertook the task of washing everything we have been given and have saved, sorted by size, and headed to Wal-Mart for storage boxes. We have a much more livable solution now.

I-171H.....CHECK!!

Well another step checked off our list. We just received our "NOTICE OF FAVORABLE DETERMINATION CONCERNING APPLICATION FOR ADVANCE PROCESSING OF AN ORPHAN PETITION". In English, this means we have been approved by the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) to adopt our baby.

World AIDS Day

I have to admit that today is the first time I have ever given World AIDS Day a second thought. In the US, AIDS has a stigma associated with it and I ascribed to the mindset that it won't affect me. But now it has.

A friend of mine recently loaned me the book, "There Is No Me Without You" which is a biography of one woman's efforts to help the countless children who have become orphaned because of AIDS. I am quickly learning many things I never knew. And many things that are as far removed from my little suburban stay at home mom life as can be, that is until we opened our hearts to prepare to open our home and our lives to one of these orphans.

Not every child is going to be adopted by US families, and that isn't solving the root of the problem. The Lazarus Effect that is highlighted in the videos below are about getting the needed medicines to the HIV positive people in Africa. In the US, HIV has become a chronic but manageable condition, but not an immediate death sentence as it still is in most of Africa. The turn around of the people in the video is due to access to medicine.

So, today is World AIDS Day. Today Emily and I went to Starbucks and bought our drinks and some Christmas gifts so that Starbucks will donate to Project (red) to fight AIDS in Africa. On one hand I believe that it is a marketing scheme by these corporations who have so much power and influence and could do so much more. But, they are raising awareness, and now, so am I.

Custom Necklace

Here is an example of a custom necklace that I made for a friend, listing her daughters' names. If you want a similar necklace or have another idea of something you would like for yourself or for a gift, contact me and I can create it for you! Custom necklaces are $30, including the pendant, necklace, and shipping.

Thank you so much for your support! All proceeds from the necklaces go toward paying for our adoption.

joy pendant

Here are pictures of my newest pendant that I am handmaking and selling to raise money for our adoption. The necklace is $20 and includes free shipping. Please contact me if you want one or more!

Fingerprinting

After all our waiting, today we got our fingerprinting done for our I-600A from the US Customs and Immigration. Thankfully we got through quickly, and were even able to stop at Toys R Us and pick up a Christmas gift for Megan and Emily and have lunch with my parents.
Now we wait again for another letter that our fingerprinting has been approved.

Ethiopian Families

A few months ago our social worker put us in contact with some families in our area who have adopted or are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia. We are trying to get together once a month so we can share stories and our kids can know and grow up with other families who look like we will. And, our group keeps growing as we connect with other families through friends and even Facebook.

Last night we hosted a Thanksgiving potluck for 18 people (10 adults and 8 kids). Here's a picture of all our kids together. I am looking forward to many years of great friendships with these families.

A Sweet Surprise

Today in the mail was a sweet surprise, a card and a Cold Stone gift card congratulating us on our big step of finally getting our fingerprinting appointment, and getting one more step closer to bringing our baby home. It was from our dear friends Brenna and Darrin. They live in Colorado and the card said they wished that we could go out together to celebrate, but this will have to do for now. She had even done the research to know that there is a Cold Stone close to our house. Thanks girlfriend. I love you!

Hope in Ethiopia

Lysa TerKeurst has been one of my favorite Bible Study teachers ever since Tony and I had the privilege years ago to pick her up at the airport and drive her to Central's women's retreat in Williams, Arizona. I'm glad I didn't have a grasp of her ministry at that point, otherwise I would have been too "Star Struck" to have fully enjoyed our time and conversation on the drive. We even had to stop at Wal-Mart to get new coats because it was colder than either of us expected. I love my bright orange coat because it is so her, and not me, but fun and out of my normalcy.

But, as I read Lysa's blog as we were deciding where we would adopt from this summer, I learned about her daughter Hope, and her summer spent with the orphans of Ethiopia. I still am amazed about how my heart is growing for a country that I couldn't have placed on a map six months ago, and how much a part of our daily lives that Ethiopia is becoming, even before our baby arrives.

Below is the slideshow of Hope TerKeurst's summer in Ethiopia. I can't wait until Tony and I are there to fully grasp the country, and finally grasp our baby and not let go.

I-600A Fingerprinting

After weeks of waiting and praying, we finally have our appointment to have our fingerprinting done for our I-600A from from US Department of Homeland Security/US Citizenship and Immigration Services to the be cleared by FBI. This will move the process along on our last step before sending our dossier to Ethiopia.

Certified!

Today we received our copy of our completed home study. This means that the State of Arizona had certified us to be able to adopt. YAY!! Actually, it looks like it was sent over a month ago, but got lost in the postal system, but we have it now. This is the first big piece of the adoption puzzle. The process is basically this: Home Study, Dossier, Referral, Gotcha Day. Up until recently, we have been busy with writing biographies, collecting certified copies of basically every legal document we are connected to (and getting them notarized in triplicate), doctor appointments for physicals, fingerprints, and gathering reference letters. We have been active participants in the process up until now. Now we wait.

Right now we are waiting for the Department of Homeland Security to schedule us to get our biometric fingerprints. Once that is done, our dossier (the actual adoption application and background info) will be sent to Ethiopia and we wait.

We are excited to have this step done, but also know that we are still a long way from bringing our baby girl home. We do have one big job to work on; getting the money together. We have been researching organizations the present grants to families like ours to help with the cost of adoption. Most of them require the home study to be completed and certified, before you can apply. This is our current task.


Please continue to keep our family and our baby girl in your prayers. I cannot say enough how grateful we are to our friends and family that are supporting us financially and prayerfully through this process.

Orphan Sunday

Orphan Sunday from Christian Alliance for Orphans on Vimeo.

Tony's cousin, Kelley, shared this with us on Facebook. I didn't even know it was "Orphan Sunday" today, but please take a minute to watch this and pray for our baby wherever she is, and for the millions of other orphans in the world.

Garage Sale Fundraiser

We had a fantastic weekend doing our fundraiser! It was a lot of work (and we are exhausted) but we were able to raise $1371.14 ($8.33 was from Megan and Emily's lemonade stand on Saturday) toward our adoption expenses. We are so thankful! Thank you to everyone who donated, to everyone who shopped, and to everyone who helped spread the word. We had so many shoppers come and tell us that they came because of a mutual friend who told them about it or shared our post on Facebook. I also want to give a special thanks to my parents, Tony's mom Star, and my friend Katie for volunteering. We could not have done it without you!

We loved sharing our story with everyone and anyone who would listen. We are thankful for our friends (and even strangers) who stopped by and bought a few dollars worth of trinkets and wouldn't accept change from us. We were amazed that strangers would drive by, read our sign, and just hand us a dollar for a good cause. We are overwhelmed with the generosity of strangers who went home and brought us more things that we could sell!

Remember the story of the loaves and fish from the Bible (Matthew 14:13-21)? And when Jesus had multiplied the little that was given, there were 12 basketfuls left over? That's what we had last night, except that we had 3 pick up trucks full plus a trailer that we were able to give to a church that has just purchased their first building, but that building needs repairs and they are having garage sales to raise the money for those repairs. (The last picture is of the leftovers. It filled our side yard!)

It's Almost Time

Our Garage Full of Love

Tomorrow is our big garage sale. We have been so blessed by the amount of donations from our friends. Tonight at dinner, Megan's prayer brought me to tears as she thanked God for our "Garage full of love and that we would get enough money on Friday and Saturday to get our baby sister from Ethiopia".

thankful

I have gotten such a great response from the necklaces that I'm making as thank you gifts to our financial sponsors, that I am branching out and starting a line of pendants to sell to raise money for our adoption. This first pendant of the series celebrates Thanksgiving and thankfulness (but it is truly appropriate year round). The pendant is glass and the background is a cream with thin blue and brown stripes and it comes with an 18" black necklace made up of an organza ribbon and 4 thinner cords.

We truly have so much to be thankful for and this pendant is a great reminder for you or a friend or family member. It will come mailed to you in a silver gift bag. Let me know if it is a gift, and I can enclose a gift card as well and send it directly to the recipient. When you contact me to order, I will send you an invoice through PayPal, and then quickly ship the necklace.

Contact me to order at SaraWeber@cox.net

All proceeds go toward adopting our daughter from Ethiopia! Thank you!

$20, includes free shipping

Colossians 3:15-17 (New International Version)
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Generosity

We are completely overwhelmed by the generosity of our family and friends. Our garage sale is still a week away, and our garage is filled with donations! Thank you so much! And, we are still collecting if you have things you are ready to get rid of. Then, remember to stop by next weekend and shop!

Longing

I'm especially longing for our baby today. One of my very best friends is about to have her baby in the next few weeks, and I just wonder about who our baby is and when we will hold her. On hand, I have the mothering and nesting desires that I had with each pregnancy, but without a due date or even knowing how old she will be, I can't shop yet or plan her room. With Megan and Emily we chose their names early in pregnancy and it helped to connect with them, but we will be incorporating her Ethiopian name, so we can't even do that yet until we are matched.
I'm trying to remind myself to embrace the journey. And we are excited to grow our family in a way that most families will never experience. But, today is just one of those harder days.

The God of Paperwork

In follow up to my earlier post about resending our I-600A form, we got it all taken care of and turned back in with our certified check. Now we wait, and wait, and while I'm waiting I asked for prayer this morning at our Bible study leaders' meeting for God to be in control of the I-600A since it is completely out of my hands. And, when I got the mail on my way home from that meeting, I had a letter from USCIS with confirmation that they had received and processed our paperwork and we should be receiving another letter with an appointment set for our fingerprinting soon. Yea!

Garage Sale Fundraiser

We still have quite a bit of money to raise for the next big steps in our adoption. So, we are having a fundraiser garage sale.

You can help us by donating things to the sale. We are already starting to collect, but will make a big push for collection for November 1st-5th.

Also, you can come shop at the sale. We have already collected a ton of donations, so there will be a lot of good things and great deals to choose from! And, you can tell your friends!

Weber Home (message me for our address and directions if you need them)
November 6th and 7th
7:00 am - noon each day

I-600A - Speed Bump

Part of our dossier (the massive stack of paperwork that goes to the Ethiopian government, the US government, and the orphanage) is approval for our "application to process an orphan". It is government forms, then biometric fingerprinting, leading up to our approval.
We sent the forms about two weeks ago and I was very excited to find an envelope from the Department of Homeland Security! Unfortunately, it wasn't our appointment for our fingerprinting like I had hoped, but it was our entire application sent back because they don't accept person checks (which Tony and I have looked through all our information and can't find that anywhere). So, Tony is headed to the bank to get a certified check, and we'll send it all out again.

Home Study Approved

I just got news that our home study was approved. We are now certified to adopt in the state of Arizona. Now we just need to tie up a few ends to send out our dossier.

One part we are missing is our "special" fingerprinting that we sent in our application for (and almost $900) and we need to get an appointment to have it done, and then wait some more for our approval. Please pray that it all goes quickly.

Adoptive Family Gathering

Tonight we had the opportunity to get together with four other families that either have recently adopted, or are on their journey to adopt from Ethiopia. We had a great time and are looking forward to getting together on a regular basis. It was great to be able to hear the stories of those who already have their kids home, and to be able to openly talk about the struggles and joys that are involved in the process of adoption. It was also great to see the kids playing all playing together like they knew each other. Megan, of course, was a little mommy and basically babysat the rest of the kids while the adults talked. It is great to have these new friends and a community to walk through this process alongside us.

Update

Thank you for still reading our blog. I haven't written lately because we are at a waiting stage. Our social worker is wrapping up our home study, then will submit it to a judge so that we are certified to adopt in the state of Arizona. Pray that our home study is accepted and approved quickly and smoothly.

Meanwhile, Tony and I are completing an on-line class that is required by our international agency. It is very interesting to read and watch about all the steps that are in our future.

We are also continuing to receive support letters, both financial and prayer support, and for that we are so thankful!

Thank You

I am excited to announce that Tony and I finished making the first batch of our sponsor Thank You gifts (plus we made extras since we are living in faith). We will be sending out one necklace per family that financially supports our adoption with $50 or more. We are so thankful for the support we have already gotten, yet we still have a long way to go.

Megan, Emily, and I have already been sporting our Ethiopia necklaces for a few weeks and I love that it is a constant reminder to be praying for our baby and a great conversation starter to tell others about our journey.

So thank you to those of you who have already donated. We'll be getting your necklace to you in the next few days.

The Growth of Ethiopian Adoption

While looking for some other Ethiopian information, I ran across these statistics to share. I can also attest to the growth of Ethiopian adoption as we are quickly meeting other families who have or are in the process of their adoption.

Why has Ethiopian adoption grown so fast?

Ethiopian adoption is relatively new and has seen a tremendous surge since 2003. The surge is due to a number of factors. In 2003, the government of Ethiopia restructured and streamlined the adoption process making it reasonably predictable and smooth. Also in recent years, China has added restrictions on eligibility and in other countries such as Guatemala and Vietnam the adoption process has become very uncertain. Ethiopian Adoption Data From 2001-2007, 3,115 children were adopted to families in the United States, with 1,255 having come in 2007 alone.

Year - # of adoptions to the US
2000 - 95
2001 - 158
2002 - 105
2003 - 135
2004 - 289
2005 - 441
2006 - 732
2007 - 1,255

Source www.adoptivefamilies.com

Support Letters

Yesterday we got our first two support checks and prayer cards. It has been a long week of anticipating the mail each day and then trying not to be disappointed when the mailbox is filled with only bills and junk mail.

Our first support came in person and is a promise (and very generous promise) for monthly support. We are so thankful to have these people in our lives who are showing by their words and actions that they support what we are doing.

Our second support came in the mail and lifted my heart to see that little white envelope with the little map of Africa on it. The check wasn't as large as the first, but it came from a great family who we love and they too gave sacrificially from what they have. To me, their love and support meant more than the money they sent (though we are thankful for the money at the same time).

I also enjoyed the cards sent in by these families sharing their thoughts, hopes, and prayers for our baby. I already have them posted on the cork board in the room that will someday be her room (and the room where I'm sitting right now to write).

I am being reminded that God will supply all of our needs (Philippians 4:19). God cares for us (1 Peter 5:7). God gives us rest for our souls (Matthew 11:28-30).

Sometimes I wish I could get a glimpse of our future family to know that it all works out in the end, but we aren't granted that, and that's why it's called faith (Hebrews 11:6).

• Matthew 11:28-30 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."


• 1 Peter 5:7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.


• Philippians 4:19 And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.


• Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Pictures for Our Dossier

These are the pictures that I chose that will be going to Ethiopia to portray our family to the Ethiopian government and the orphanage to match us to our baby.

Doctor Visit - Check

Yesterday was a long day in our adoption world. Tony and I both need a signed form from a doctor stating that we are healthy enough to adopt and raise a child. I was very excited to get in to see my good friend and OB/GYN Shelly Messer. She saw me through the births of both girls and I was sentimental and wanted her to have a part in bringing this baby into our family. Well, my blood pressure wasn't cooperating, and I got a higher reading than anyone wanted. I was even told to rest and relax, that only caused my pressure to go up. I left the office to have lunch (I had only had coffee, and lots of it, for breakfast), and come back for a recheck and it still wasn't great. I've never had a blood pressure issue before and was frustrated about why now when we are sending this off. It also didn't help that I was watching the clock and worrying that I wasn't going to make it in time to pick Megan up from school. Eventually we got through the appointment, the forms, the notary, and I arrived just in time to pick up Megan.

A Walk of Faith

Adoption is a walk of faith in many ways. It is such an amazing feeling that God is allowing you to raise a child who has lost everything, including her family, and welcome her into your family. But, with all the paperwork, fees, support for the orphanage, and expenses for us to travel to pick her up, we are looking at $20,000. We don't have $20,000 that we can just write a check and be done with it, so we have gone to our friends and family to ask for help. If you can help us, thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

We sent letters out to some of our friends and family with details about how you can help. If you don't have a letter and would still like to help, please contact us and I will get you everything that you need to know. And, all gifts are tax deductible! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

First Payment

First payment made to BAF to pay for our homestudy.

Pictures

You all know I have a thing for pictures. Tonight my task is to summarize our family with at least 5 pictures that will be sent to Ethiopia to match us with our daughter. Five! Are you kidding me? ;) I am pretty pleased that I got it down to 20, but Tony said I need to purge a bit more. I'm taking a break, then I'll try to get it down to 10. These may be the 10 most important pictures of our lives. And as a photographer, they aren't my 10-20 best portraits, but to portray to the orphanage who we are in only 10 pictures and a one page letter.

Letters, Letters, Letters

Well....So far today I have checked off 3 letters from our bank, and 3 letters from my work. We are hoping to check off our Criminal Clearance letter after work. So far it has been a productive day.

And We Keep On Keepin' On

Last night was our second homestudy with Lisa from BAF. We are so blessed to have her on our journey with us. God really has guided us through each step and we are plowing through our paperwork and all we have left for our part of the homestudy is our medical clearance and for our references to get their letters in. It's been a whirlwind of the past two weeks, but it is all for the sake of bringing our baby home as soon as we can. (On a side note, I apologize if I have seemed flaky over the past two weeks. My brain has been on overload.)
The homestudy will certify us to adopt in the state of Arizona, now we start the process of our dossier. The dossier is a collection of paperwork that we will then send to Ethiopia to be matched with our daughter!

Praises

• Praise that God guided us though our homestudy paperwork. Specifically, the autobiography was a huge challenge for me, but once I gave it up to God, I easily finished up the rest.
• Praise that documents have been returned quickly to us.
• Praise that Ethiopia had already become a part of our family. We checked out a book at the library and the girls are totally soaking up all the information.

Requests

• Pray for our daughter's birth mom. Though we don't even know at what stage our baby is at, we know that her birth mom must be experiencing something horrible that will cause her baby to become an orphan.
• Pray that God protects our baby in body, mind, and soul, regardless of what stage of development her body, mind, and soul are at right now.
• Pray that our dossier comes together as quickly and smoothly as our homestudy has.
• Pray that we have endurance for the paper chase.
• Pray that God provides the money to pay for our adoption.

Home Study Tomorrow

Our paperwork is put away and we are ready for our second home study visit tomorrow. Goodnight friends.

Tony's Stats

After all that work, I figured I should throw the stats for my autobiography up here too. It was an interesting process going through the very detailed outline for this report.

Saturday Morning Without the Girls

This is what we did this morning while the girls were at Grandma and Grandpa's after spending the night -- working on our autobiographies.

My Autobiography

One of the most daunting tasks so far has been writing my autobiography. The guide consisted of four pages of 15 topics, with up to 10 subtopics under each topic. I had to write about my parents, my brother, my marriage, my schooling (elementary, high school, and college), my career, my parenting, why we're adopting, and so much more. But last night the girls spent the night at my parents' and this morning we both spent the morning working on writing and I finally finished it! Tony is still plowing through his, but when he finishes, we'll read each other's and go back for any editing. I found the stats window and thought it was interesting to save and share.

Birth Certificates and Marriage Licenses

Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork!

Today we are sending out the forms to request 3 certified copies of our birth certificates for each of us! That's 12 birth certificates!

Tony also has to go and get 3 copies of our marriage license. But we are pressing on and checking off our list!

Last night Tony and I also had a good time together talking about a name for our baby. We won't officially choose a name until we get our referral. Our plan is to make her Ethiopian name her middle name, so we don't want to get set on a name until we know how they will sound together.

I am also working on a large and detailed autobiography for the agency. Please pray that the words come smoothly for me, quickly, and it says just want I want it to say and truly shows my heart for my family and our daughter.

A Spirit of Adoption

This weekend I went on the Women's Retreat with The Grove. It was a huge step out of my comfort zone since I know so few women there. What a change after being at Central for over 15 years, and I was so nervous to go without having my core group of friends that I have known for so long! But God is so good and used this weekend to again confirm that we are right where we need to be. The weekend was about prayer. Using the guideline of the Lord's Prayer, we had four sessions: adoration (praise), confession, thanksgiving, and supplication (asking God for what we need). Saturday night after learning about supplication, we were able to our learning into action. We broke into small prayer groups for any topic that God was putting on your heart to talk to Him about. Some of the groups were for marriage, parenting, finances, salvation, healing, but there was even a prayer group specifically for adoption. Our of 66 women on the retreat our prayer group had 9 women who had adopted or were in the process of adopting. I believe that God is moving in our church to bring families together with children who need families. We also read verses from the Bible where God talks about adoption. God calls us to look after the orphans, but He also says that He has adopted us as His children!

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

Ephesians 1:5 -- God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. (NLT)

Psalm 139:16 -- your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be. (NIV)

John 14:18 -- I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. -Jesus (NIV)

Romans 8:15-17 -- For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship (adoption). And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. (NIV)

At the time, we didn't understand why we felt the need to leave our other church. We still have many friends who we love there. But now I see that God needed us to be at The Grove. As one friend said, we needed our kids to grow up in a church that looked like we do. And you can't help but see so many interracial families at The Grove. When our baby comes home we will look different from many other families on our street, at the store, or at school, but when we go to church it will feel like home. And, as our pastor pointed out two weeks ago, we will also look like Heaven. When John was getting a "sneak peak" of Heaven so he could tell us about it, he wrote, "After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb (Jesus). They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands." -Revelation 7:9

Referrals -- Check

Yesterday and today we've been lining up our friends and family who we are asking to be our referrals for us. We've called them to let them know that Building Arizona Families will be calling them to make sure we will be suitable adoptive parents, and for those who we need to write letters for us, those forms are going in the mail today. If you are one of those friends or family members, thanks again for helping us on our journey!

The Motions: Matthew West

Can I be transparent, again, for a moment? I heard this song on the radio this morning, and I can't get it out of my head. What we are doing is exciting, but it's also scary. I look at my girls and see how independent they are getting, and I wonder, what am I thinking with starting over with another little one? One who will probably reject me at first because she has been torn from everything she knows. Adoption is expensive, and we have no idea (but for God) where the money is going to come from. Lord, I cut coupons so that I can be a stay at home mom! But yet, there is a tugging on my heart that says our family is not complete. That God has an amazing adventure planned for us if we follow Him. That we have seen confirmation after confirmation that this is what we are to do. Am I really so dense that I need my own burning bush? I hope not, but maybe I am.

For me, going through the motions means living our life as a family of four, attending church and Bible study, leading my MIT group, and ignoring that there is an orphan on the other side of the world who needs a family. For me, giving God everything means stepping out in faith that He is going to lead us through this crazy adventure. Honestly I still think, Ethiopia? Really? Africa? Are you sure? I didn't know where Ethiopia was two months ago! But what if we don't follow and years from now I have to ask, "What if I had given everything?"

One more thought, if you've stuck with me this far. Maybe for you giving God your everything isn't taking in an orphan as your own. Maybe it's taking a plate of brownies to the neighbor who you know is at her wits end with the stress of life. Maybe it's helping out in the nursery on Sundays. Maybe it's making extra room in your budget to sponsor a child in another country through an organization like Compassion International. Those are all good things, but what if maybe, just maybe, it's something bigger.

This is a video we found that shows another family's journey to the orphanage where our daughter will come from.

Fingerprints

Fingerprints...CHECK!

Well, we called the Chandler Police Department to see when we could get our prints done. We found out that they do them once a week on Tuesday nights, so we decided to go ahead and get them done today.
There were 2 volunteers doing the prints and a short line, so we sat down and waited our turn. When my number was called, I handed the man my card, he looked it over, and said "where are you adopting from?". I told him Ethiopia, and he got a big grin on his face. He pulled out his wallet and showed me a picture of his grandchildren. One of them was his grandson, from Ethiopia, that he was able to go with his daughter to Ethiopia to bring him home. He was very excited for our family and was a very proud grandfather.

Starting Our Paperwork

Last night we had Lisa over from Building Arizona Families. She was recommended by our friends who recently adopted from Ethiopia, and we had our answer to prayer as we loved her and felt completely comfortable with her. Thank you Lisa for taking the time with us to answer all of our questions, and I know there are going to be a lot more over the next year.
So here is the official start of our paperwork! I even filled out two of the forms this morning and hope that Tony and I can get fingerprinted tonight. I know it's going to be a long process, so we want to do whatever we can to hurry it along.

- Sara (I know I was logged in as Tony, I need to remember to check that now that he is blogging along with me. Oops!)

Meeting With Our Agency

Tonight we met with Lisa, from Building Arizona Families. We were fairly certain that this would be the agency we would be using, but wanted to actually meet with somebody first. We loved Lisa and BAF! We are very excited to move forward with Lisa, BAF, and Dove (Dove Adoptions International is the organization that BAF works with to adopt in Ethiopia) as our partners in growing our family. We know that we have a long road (and a big stack of papers) ahead of us, but we are excited for the journey and anxious to start checking things off our list. Thank you again for following along with us and keeping our growing family in your prayers.

Thank you everyone for sharing our excitement and words of love and encouragement. I have to admit that we were glued to Facebook, e-mail, and the texts that came in last night and are so thankful for all of you!

Today is a big day as we have a woman coming to our house tonight from the adoption agency. We had a great recommendation for this agency, and think we are ready to sign up with them, but wanted to have a face to face meeting before officially starting the process. For those of you who are familiar with the adoption process, this will count for one of our two home visits for the home study, assuming that we are moving forward with this agency.

And, just a bit of transparency (you're going to get a lot of this on our blog), today is going to be an afternoon of cleaning like a crazy woman. She said that everyone does that before she comes, and it's not necessary, but I can't help it! So, if anyone is free this afternoon.... :)

How can you pray?

• Thank God for His continued confirmation to us that we are on the right path.
• Thank God for our wonderful family and friends.
• Pray that we (ok, I) will be relaxed and be myself at the meeting tonight, and not a nervous wreck trying to say all the right things.
• Pray that we come away from tonight's meeting with a sense of excitement and peace that this is the right agency. (I feel like it's choosing the right OB/GYN that you fully trust for your baby.)

Welcome to the official announcement of our adoption process. We hope you come often to join us on our exciting journey.
We have spent most of the weekend telling our family, and have been so encouraged by their excitement for us, and it feels so good that we can now talk openly with all our family and friends. It has been so hard to keep a secret that is so life changing!

Keeping a Secret

If I thought the last few months had been hard on me and Tony as we tried to keep our plans secret, I underestimated what it was going to do to the girls.

They are so excited about their baby sister, that they really can't keep it in. With the start of school, Megan made a family tree as a class project where they were to put a leaf on for each member of their family. She came home with two extra leaves. First she cut out a fifth leaf and was going to glue it on blank, but then she realized that her teacher might ask about it, so she already had glue on it, and glued it to the scrap paper that the other leaves had been on. That paper has one more leaf on it, and she is saving it so that she can add her sister when she gets here.

And then there's Emily. We met my mom for shopping and lunch on Thursday. We got to Joann's before my mom, and Emily started noticing all the baby fabrics and other things and talking about everything that we need for our baby. We stopped and talked about how this is a secret for our 4 family right now. She said she understood, but I was still nervous about her slipping the entire time we shopped. We made it though shopping, and even through lunch until we were walking to the car. Emily comes right out to my mom and announces, "We're going to have a baby. We're going to adopt a baby." I try to play it off as a crazy 4 year old idea, and I hold Emily's hand a little tighter until we are around the driver's side of the truck. As I lift her into her seat, I remind her that this is a secret. So then she says, "Just kidding, we're not going to have a baby." After I drop my mom off, I have a talk with Emily in the car and find out that she was very confused because my mom was buying fabric to make a blanket for my cousin's new baby, and she thought the blanket was for our baby.

Thankfully we are starting the process of letting everyone know, and we can live with no more secrets!

Bringing the Girls in on Our Plan

Sara and I decided that we are moving forward with this adoption and decided that the first people we need to bring in were the future big sisters. We decided that we would take them to lunch at an authentic Ethiopian restaurant. We had heard there was one in Tempe, so we took them to Cafe Lalibela. As we looked over the menu, we decided it would be best to get a suggestion from our server. We took his advice. The meal is served family style, and utensils are not used. I really enjoyed the meal, but I was alone in that feeling. Sara and the girls did not exactly over-indulge, like me.

While we were waiting for our food, we explained to the girls why we were eating at this restaurant. They were very excited (and still are) about having a baby sister. They asked us a bunch of questions about Ethiopia and about when the baby would be home. Most of these we did not know the answer to, but we were very pleased how excited they were. We did explain to them that they were the first people we told and that it was still a secret for our family for a little while longer.


All in all, it was a great experience. Again, I actually loved the food, but Sara noticed a lack of salt, which she craves and I usually shy away from. We can't wait to be done with the secrecy, especially now that the girls are in on it. We are not too worried about Meg, but Emily just might spill the beans.

- Tony

Ask and you shall receive

So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. -Luke 7:9-10

Last Sunday, after I was thoroughly confused as to what to do and which way we were headed. The girls had spent the night at my parents, so I was taking a slow Sunday morning to sort through our overload of information and thoughts. I spend some time in prayer over what path was going to be right for us. I wasn't exactly sure what I was looking for, but I knew when I had found it.

After pouring my heart out to God, I decided to check in with a "friend's" blog (ok, not really a close friend, but Tony and I had the privilege to drive her up to Williams and take her to lunch once when she was speaking at Central's women's conference). I hadn't read Lysa's blog in a while and stumbled across an entry that made me stop in my tracks, and then it linked to a second, more powerful blog.

Blog #1 (specifically the last paragraph--Hope is Lysa's 15 year old daughter who spent the summer in Ethiopia)

then

Blog #2

I was in tears and resolved that this is what we need to do. That I can't stand another day without moving toward receiving our new daughter. I went up to tell Tony and we talked and prayed (even until it was too late to make it to the service at church we were planning to attend). We now know that we are headed to Ethiopia to add to our family. There is a baby there who needs us, and we need her. At that point Tony also told me that he had come to that conclusion already, and was just waiting for me.

We also decided that it was finally time to let the girls in our plan, and found the perfect little restaurant to take them for after church lunch.

Waiting for Direction

We really thought we would be farther along on our journey by now. We've spent a lot of time talking with different people and agencies and expected one path to jump out and shout, "This is the way that you need to go!", but it hasn't happened that way. Which means that we continue to keep this secret from our families and friends, and it isn't easy. Tony and I both seem to have been asked quite often in the past weeks if we were done having kids yet. We probably have been asked about that for years, yet now it's a bit more complicated, and very hard to answer right now.
So we wait. We were warned that we would wait through the adoption process, but I wasn't prepared to wait for the process to even start. Tony feels that God is leading us to adopt, but that it really doesn't matter to Him where we adopt from. Bringing a child into our family is His will for us regardless if that child is from Ethiopia or Chandler. We just need to choose a path, and follow Him down it.

When Love Takes You In

I've been listening to Steven Curtis Chapman for as long as I can remember. Listening to him talk about and write songs for his adopted daughters has made a huge impact on my life and considering adoption for our family. This is a beautiful song that already makes me dream about the day I will hold my next child in my arms.

When Love Takes You In: Video

I know you’ve heard the stories
But they all sound too good to be true
You’ve heard about a place called home
But there doesn’t seem to be one for you
So one more night you cry yourself to sleep
And drift off to a distant dream

Where love takes you in and everything changes
A miracle starts with the beat of a heart
When love takes you home and says you belong here
The loneliness ends and a new life begins
When love takes you in

And somewhere while you’re sleeping
Someone else is dreaming too
Counting down the days until
They hold you close and say I love you
And like the rain that falls into the sea
In a moment what has been is lost in what will be

When love takes you in everything changes
A miracle starts with the beat of a heart
And this love will never let you go
There is nothing that could evercause this love to lose its hold

When love takes you in everything changes
A miracle starts with the beat of a heart
When love takes you home and says you belong here
The loneliness ends and a new life begins

When love takes you in it takes you in for good
When love takes you in

Our Journey Begins: Sara's Story

Ever since I was little, I had the idea that adoption would be part of my family plan. When Megan and Emily were born less than two years apart, and pregnancy had taken it's toll on me, we made the decision that our two precious girls would be our only children by birth, but in the back of our minds the door of expanding our family has never been closed.

Within the last few months, both Tony and I seperatly had been thinking this is our time to take the next step, and through our talks and prayers, we are feeling led to expand our family, in a new way.

We have already started by asking the advice of friends who have already been on this journey. We are researching both domestic and international and it has been interesting to see how many families are in our life who have already adopted and have so much to share with us. This coming week our girls will be in VBS in the evenings, and we are looking forward to more opportunities to talk and ask some of the many questions that are flying through our minds. We are just praying that God's plan becomes clear to us as to which path to follow.

It's such a different feeling than making the decision to have Megan and Emily. There are so many unknowns facing us at this early point, but I can't help but think that there may be some woman somewhere who is already carrying the baby that will become our child. I'm glad to know that I have a God who is big enough to take care of all the details.

Thank you for joining us and following us on this journey into uncharted waters for our family. And to our child, know that mommy and daddy already love you and you are a part of us before we even know you.

Our Journey Begins: Tony's Story

In 2005 Emily Grace joined our family and we made the decision that she would be the last child we would have naturally. We decided to close that door, but to leave ourselves open for the possibility of adoption if we decided our family was incomplete one day in the future. Well, that day has come and we have been talking for a couple of months about embarking on that journey.

Until this week this has been a 2 person (and one God) conversation. We decided to make the first step in binging a few more people into the conversation. We looked around and realized that we were surrounded by wonderful families that have already gone down this road and we also found that these families had gone a variety of routes. We have contacted some of these families and confided in them our interest in pursuing adoption. We asked to meet individually with each couple to discuss their journey and asked for the opportunity to ask them some of the questions we had about domestic vs. international and even foster care.

We have already met with one family and are grateful for their openness and willingness to share the joys and trials they have had along the way. We are anxiously looking forward to the upcoming week when we will meet with some more families.

The last couple of months have been so hard keeping this conversation between just the two of us. We decided we wanted to make the decision to adopt with as little outside pressure as possible. We have enjoyed the recent ability to open up with the small circle of families who have been here before us, and are looking forward to the day when we bring our families and friends into the loop, as soon as we decided to move forward. Just about everything is unclear right now, but we are anxious and excited to see where this road leads and feel as though we are being led down this path. We are looking forward to use this blog to keep a record of our journey; for a personal memento and possibly a valuable resource for other families who come down this path after us.