Buy 3 get 1 free coffee!

We are selling Just Love Coffee to help raise money for our adoption.  This week they are having a buy 3 get 1 free sale on all coffee!  $5 of every bag you guy goes directly to us!  Get you coffee now!

Visit our website...click on the SHOP page to buy.
http://www.wix.com/heartforadoption/pehladoption

I have never been more exited to pay someone!

We have finally filled out our adoption agreement with America World Adoption.  We sent in our first installment fee of $1500 and I have never been more exited to pay someone! We spent our night last night signing paperwork reading all the information they sent us.  In about a week, we should be getting a call from our family coordinator.  This will be the person that will help us through the rest of our adoption process!  I am very exited to meet him or her!  

Or family coordinator will start by helping us put together our Dossier. He or she will also assign us a social worker to get our home study going.  The home study should be complete in about one month.  We are also starting on  our online classes which we have to complete with the home study.  So many exiting things going on!  

We found out last night that the home study will be more expensive than we thought.  It costs $1800 plus and additional $800 to turn in our I-600 form to USCIS.  We are going to keep praying for our yard sale to be successful.  We are also starting to send out letters about our bake sale in which we will be filling orders to raise money.  We also ordered T-shirts to sell.  Let me know if you want to buy anything to support the adoption!  You can visit my website to see what we are selling and get my e-mail address so that you can give me your order.

My website link can be found on the right side of this blog.

On to the home study!

We have finally moved on to the home study!  I have been patiently awaiting an e-mail from America World Adoption to tell me that our application was approved.  Today we got that e-mail!  We will be getting a call tomorrow from our social worker to discuss the next step and everything we need for the home study. 

For any of you that are not sure what a home study is, let me educate you.  A home study is a study done by an Arizona social worker to make sure our home and our family is ready for an adoptive child.  They need all kinds of paperwork from us as well as information about our marriage and our parenting style.  They want to get to know us so they do come to our house and conduct interviews as well as check out the entire house.  Yes, I will be cleaning everything from top to bottom!  

I am not so much nervous about this process as I am exited.  All of the families we know who have adopted keep reminding us that the social workers are here to help us.  They want us to to adopt.  If all goes well and we  have all of the money necessary, we should have the home study complete in about two months.  We are only about $700 short of what we need to get through this stage.  

After the home study is finished, we will need to put together our Dossier.  This is sort of like a resume for Ethiopia to have while we are waiting to get matched to our children.  This sounds simple but getting everything together takes about four months!  To submit the Dossier, it costs $10,000.  We would love for you to keep praying with us for this money.  We know that God will supply it in his perfect timing. 

Why Women Wear Lip Plates

We are waiting for some information to check out with our adoption agency.  So the process really has not moved forward in a couple weeks.  We are still preparing for the yard sale but have been sick for a few days so we really have not got much of anything done.  I put a picture of a woman with a lip plate on my last blog and it got me curious why women wear these plates.  I thought I would share the answer!

Lip plates can be found in multiple African countries.  In Ethiopia, it is the Mursi that wear them.  The way it works is that when a girl reaches the age at which she is considered a woman, about 15 or 16, the mother will cut a slit in her bottom lip.  Inside that slit she will place a small plug.  When the slit heels, the girl can place a lip plate in the hole.  She can then increase the size of the lip plate to however large she wants.

There have been many different studies trying to figure out why these women do this.  One study concluded that the larger the lip plate is, the more it is worth.  Another one stated that when the people were enslaved, they started this practice to make themselves less attracted to slave traders.

Then someone finally went to the women who actually wear these plates and asked why.  They were told that it signifies a woman's commitment to her culture and her husband.  If her husband dies, she can no longer wear one.  Women who do not wear lip plates are considered shameful.  They do not have pride or feel like they are worthy of having nice things.  

There has been rumor that some women are refusing to wear lip plates.  They say it is an old tradition that should no longer continue.  Some same this tradition will completely disappear with time.  It is so interesting to me what other cultures consider "normal."  This seems so strange and unnecessary to me but to these people it is an important right of passage for a young women.  Anyways I just thought I would share a little piece of Ethiopian culture with you!

Patience is a virtue

We are waiting for a call from our social worker so that we can move on to the next step.  They told us to wait about ten business days for the call.  It has been eight...not that I am counting or anything.  Patience is not my best virtue and I am having a difficult time waiting to move on.  It seems like such a long road ahead of us to finally get our children.  I have not even seen their faces yet and already my heart aches for them to be in my arms.  I am have been very busy with paperwork and have to admit I am enjoying having a little break from paper while we wait.

I am so exited for what God has planned for us in the next couple years.  The more I read about Ethiopia and its culture, the more exited I get to see this beautiful country.  The people are known for their hospitality and friendliness, the food looks so interesting and unique, and the landscape is breathtaking.  How blessed I am to feel such a connection already to the country our children will come from.  I can not wait to  teach ALL our children about Ethiopia.

Meanwhile, I am waiting and trying to keep myself busy.  As soon as I stopped working like a crazy person and started relaxing a bit, I got sick.  Nothing too bad but it is slowing me down a bit...probably a good thing.  Poor little Irelyn is also sick.  She is sleeping a lot which is nice because it gives me more time to sleep!  We are slowly but surely pricing everything out for the yard sale!  We keep gathering more and more things and are praying that it is a huge success as we are still short on the cash we need for the home study.  We are still selling coffee and t-shirts on our website, as well as cookies.  Take a look at all the ways you can help us adopt!  

http://www.wix.com/heartforadoption/pehladoption

March 3rd and 4th fundraiser! OO La La donations!

Our yard sale is coming together!  People are being so generous, donating their stuff that they no longer need.  We have tons of baby items, hardware, clothing donated from ooo la la, and lots of misc stuff.

We will also have a booth set up to educate people about Ethiopia and their orphan problem.  We will be selling t-shirts, cookies, coffee, and hot dogs all to raise money to bring home our kids home!

Micah and Sarah adoption story.

It is making me crazy watching these!  I just can not wait for this to us!

My little brother made me cry today!

My husband Gavin worked on a job for my parents a few weeks back.  When he needed a little bit of help he offered to hire my brothers to work for him.  My youngest brother Zach took the job.  Well Gavin has been so busy that he totally forgot to pay him.  It has been about a month since Zach did the job and I recently reminded Gavin that he still needed to pay him.  When Gavin counted how much he owed him, it equaled $75. Gavin handed him the money, and Zach handed it back and said,"I want you to bring home a kid from Ethiopia."

Talk about making your sister cry!  Zach is 15.  That is a lot of money to a 15 year old boy.  I feel so blessed to witness God work in his generous heart.  He is so young yet he understands what is important and what is not.  We can not take anything with us when we die.  Zach is storing up treasures in heaven.  God saw what he did today and will bless him.  What a neat young man he is growing into!

Were selling coffee!

I made a new website last night!  It has everything in one spot which is really nice.  We are selling Ethiopian coffee and t-shirts on our website.  Ethiopia is where coffee originated and their coffee is supposed to be amazing!  You can also donate on this website.  Gavin and I are $1000 dollars short of what we need to complete the home study.  As always, God will provide!  Check it out!

http://www.wix.com/heartforadoption/pehladoption

The lucky ones go to the orphanage....

I started watching this video because I was interested in finding a place to stay when we go to Ethiopia to get our children.  About half way through the video there is footage of the people who live at garbage dumps to survive.  They eat the garbage and sleep on the garbage.  There are over 65 Orphans living at this one garbage dump alone.  The more I research about this unique country the more I see the most beautiful place in the world smothered in the most heartbreaking place in the world.

Application...check!

So we had a little change of plans.  We ended up applying for adoption with America World Adoption!  We are officially starting our home study and I am so exited!  We switched adoption agencies at the last minute because we just felt more comfortable with AWA.  There application process was so easy compared to Dillon Southwest.  I had been working on our application paperwork for weeks before we decided to switch agencies.  We applied with AWA in one hour!

I can't explain my excitement in words to be moving on to the next step.  This new agency does come with a different list of payments however.  We have the 1500 dollar installment fee that goes to the agency for their time.  We do not have the next 1500 to pay for the home study.  It will be neat to see how God works to bring us what we need!  I am thinking of more fundraising ideas.  We will be selling t-shirts, baked good, and possibly cd's and retro headbands.  I will eventually have another website where people can buy these items.  For now I just have wepay with so far has been a great tool!

Walk by FAITH, not by SIGHT

"Walk by faith, not by sight."  This is a phrase from the bible I have heard over and over again.  Of course I understand what it means and I do have faith in God even though I can not physically see him.  I have never felt this phrase quite so real until today.

I have no idea how this adoption is going to work out.  The financial obsticle is on my mind more than it should be.  It is very expensive to adopt, then God puts it on our hearts to adopt more than one child which raises the price.  What a blessing that God constantly challenges us to trust him more and more each day. 

It is difficult for me to not know what the future holds.  I know that God has called us to adopt, and he will supply everything we need to carry out his calling.  I just want to know where the money is coming from:)  It is so hard not knowing and just moving forward!  It is so rediculous too because God has provided the money we need for every step of the adoption so far and I know he will supply it for the rest of this journey. 

When I heard the pastor talk about walking by faith and not by sight today it reminded me to just trust.  I need to just not think about where the money is going to come from and how we will get it by the time we need it.  It will be there and I can just lay it as HIS feet and find peace in that.  It amazes me how God's gentle lessons are constant.

3+2=5

I was watching a movie about Ethiopian adoption last night.  I was watching a beautiful scene of two parents seeing their child for the first time.  I could not seem to concentrate on this beautiful scene...all I could see was the kids in the background watching this new family with longing for their own family.  As I cried my eyes out at the computer I decided that we can not just adopt one child.

So Gavin and I talked to decided to be open to adopting a sibling pair and possibly a sibling group.  Sibling groups are actually considered special needs in Ethiopia because they are hard to find families for.  I always thought it would be neat to get more than one child at the same time but such a challenge.  It seems so much easier to get one that is younger than Irelyn so it would be a more normal family dynamic.  Then God reminded me that this is not about what I want.  It is not about what is easiest.  It is about giving the fatherless a home. Yes it will be a challenge and It will be VERY expensive but God will provide every step of the way.  He will provide the funds.  He will provide all of the skills we need to parents children that are older than Irelyn.  He has given us peace that this is his plan for us.

Labor Pains and Paper Pains

  \
I thought it would be fun to put this picture up since it is super bowl weekend.  Gavin and I are actually going for a hike this Sunday.  We seriously need a day to just get away from all the adoption stuff and clear our heads.  We have a lot done but still have a lot more to do.  We only have a few things left to accomplish for our application.  I am hoping to have it complete in about two weeks.  We are still waiting on our tax forms to come back to us.  We are also waiting for our blood work to get to our doctor.  Neither of us have started on our ten page autobiographies. All in due time I suppose.

We spent some time watching movies on youtube of families who have adopted from Ethiopia.  We got to see some really neat footage of Ethiopia as well as the orphans in Ethiopia.  What an amazing blessing these parents have in these children.  They are so full of joy despite their circumstances.  God says to have "faith like a child."  I can see why when I watch these little kids go to their new families.  Watching the videos has really got us exited to move on to the next step.  If we can just get through all this paperwork!

My mother-in-law said something that really encouraged me yesterday.  She reminded me of when I was in labor with my daughter Irelyn.  I had a natural birth at home and loved it!  She reminded me of how every contraction brought me closer to meeting my little girl and how I found strength and endurance in that.  She told me that every form I fill out and every phone call I make is like a contraction, bringing me one step closer to my son.  I love thinking of it like that!  This part may be painful and I am sure playing the waiting game for a child referral will be painful as well.  But pretty soon God will bring me a little boy to call my own and it will all be worth it.  Praise God for these special people he puts in my life who do not even know how much of an encouragement they really are.

Kids in Africa Starving?

When we first decided we wanted to adopt,  we knew it would be from Africa.  When we looked at different places around the world we saw a huge need for good adoptive parents everywhere.  The statistics in Africa were just so heartbreaking that we chose to pursue Ethiopian adoption.

On the top left is a picture of children in Ethiopia.  I almost didn't want to put this picture on my blog because of how much it upset me when I first saw it.  It did not make me sad, it made me sick. This is not just a picture that is put on the internet to make people feel bad and donate money.  This is something that is really happening in Africa everyday.  It is not just the older kids that are starving to death.  Brand new babies that do not even understand what hunger pains are are starving to death as well.

 1 in 10 infants in Ethiopia die of starvation before they reach 12 months old.
 1 in 5 children under five suffer from chronic malnutrition
 1 in 4 women die during pregnancy due to malnutrition


This is real and it is happening today.  Every child deserves to be loved, fed, and taken care of.  It frustrates me daily that the U.S. and Ethiopian government make it so expensive and so difficult to adopt a starving child.  I really believe that everyone should prayerfully consider adoption.  If adoption is not the right thing for your family, prayerfully consider helping someone out financially who has the heart, but not the funds.

"The only thing necessary for evil to conquer, it for good men to do nothing"

https://www.wepay.com/donations/167161

Irelyn is exited about the Adoption Orientation

My head is spinning from all of the information I learned last night.  If you thought I was overwhelmed before you should just see me now!  The social workers say to take it one step at a time.  The problem with that is there are a lot of steps that need to be done at the same time!  So here is some of the information I found out.

The waiting time for a young child in Ethiopia is about two years right now. This can of course change at any time but it does not look like it will be getting shorter anytime soon.  This is longer than we expected.  Ethiopia's program is very stable but they are making some changes due to some sketchy adoptions that have gone on in the past.  Learning this just makes us more anxious to get on the list to adopt as soon as possible.  This is the only part we can really control.  After that it is a waiting game.  Getting on the list includes applying, completing a home study, and submitting our Dossier(resume) to Ethiopia.

We have most of the money to to apply and go through the home study.  There are some surprise expenses like doctor visits and finger printing fees which are $69 a person.  We have to each get it done three times!  We will then have to come up with the money to pay the agency for their services.  There fee is $3950. At this time we will have to also pay $840 to the federal government to request that a foreign child come into the U.S. We will then submit our Dossier to the adoption agency in Ethiopia which is $7000.

After we pay these charges we will have a little over a year to come up with the rest.  We are working hard to raise the initial $11,790 so that we can start the long wait of a referral of a child.  We would really appreciate your prayers for Gods provision and timing.  If God puts it on your heart we would be very blessed by financial support.  Malachi's donation website is posted on my blog if God leads you in that direction.

https://www.wepay.com/donations/167161