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.