FINGERPRINTS DONE!

Our fingerprinting appointment wasn't till October 18. Someone suggested that we should try to go early. So this morning we headed off to our local CIS office. I had knots in my stomach.

This could save us 3 whole weeks.

We walked in, handed the guy our paperwork, I told him our appointment wasn't today, he said "no problem." That was it! We were in and out in less than 15 minutes. It seems as long as you have your paperwork they will take you. I guess it doesn't work in every location, but you might as well give it a shot.

SOOOO EXCITED!

Fingerprinting Appointment

We got our date for our fingerprinting appointment!

October 18th!

YIPPEE!

APPROVED!

Today we were officially APPROVED by our adoption agency, Gladney!

Now we move onto our "dossier, and waiting period."

What that means is we have 1 more set of fingerprints to do for U.S. Immigration, and then all of our paperwork is off to Ethiopia! :)

We are planning a family movie night fundraiser for Nov. 6th so save the date!

More info. to come soon!

Cannot wait to be in Ethiopia again!

Our Calling

This morning I have been reading Romans 4. It rocked me to my core!

18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed... 19 Without weakening in his faith,... 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22 This is why "it was credited to him as righteousness." 23 The words "it was credited to him" were written not for him alone, 24 but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness--for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

It is not our actions that make us righteous, it is our faith. It is our belief in God and His promises that make us righteous! When God has so changed your life, when He has rescued you from the pit and made you a new creation, when He has done what He has promised how can we not give Him our entire life? How can we give Him small bits and pieces and think that this is enough?!

When us Christians ask God why He is allowing people to starve to death, isn't He asking us the same thing? When we ask Him why there are 147 million orphans in the world isn't He saying "I was just about to ask you the very same question."

When we ask God why marriages are falling apart He can ask us the same question!

God can save children and marriages and families and churches! I have seen Him do it! I belong to a church full of beautiful people who did just that for me!

He also asks us to participate with Him. God asks us to get on our knees and intercede for our friends and our neighbors, for the poor and those without a voice, for the prisoners.

Isaiah 61 says 1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, 2 to proclaim the year of the LORD's favorand the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, 3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion-- to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.

This is for you and I. This is our honor and privilege. God has asked us to partner with Him, and after all He has done for us why do we not make the time to come to Him on behalf of a broken and hurting world. And as we pray for them God will show us what He wants us to do. He will give you a role to play. He will use you to bring about wholeness and healing for someone, or maybe many people.

He has not brought about this devastation, we have. So what am I going to do about it, and what are you going to do about it?

Yippee!

I just got a letter from Immigration, they have our paperwork and will be sending us our fingerprinting appointment soon! :) Yippee!

My Ride

Seriously, this is what I drive as of yesterday afternoon!

We have outgrown a "normal" vehicle. We could have gone with an 8 seat Suburban,

but they are expensive, and we are trying to be wise stewards of our finances. Plus we always have friends in the car with us, and now we never have to say "sorry, we don't have room!"

So we had mixed reactions from the kiddos.

My 11 yr. old daughter hurried in and ducked down so no one could see her in this "embarrassing" car.

My 9 and 7 year old boys thought it was totally awesome!

My 7 year old asked if we could all sleep in it last night. :) hee hee

Our 17 year old just shook his head.

This is what you drive when you no longer care what other people think of you.

We are embracing our craziness. I told my husband we just need to focus on how blessed we are to be able to fill such a large vehicle with people we love!

Plus he said I look hot driving it! :) (flattery will get you everywhere)

It is a 12 passenger van! There is nothing mini about my van.

I guess we'll just have to fill it up now! :)

Dinner Conversation

Tonight at dinner we were all sharing about our day. My 9 year old said he had a good day, but something at the end of his day made him sad. He told us about a boy that ran and tackled one of his friends when they were playing soccer. A teacher saw and approached the bully and the bully said he tripped. My 9 year old said "Mom he was lying and even the teacher knew it. He was being mean and lying and nothing even happened to him."

We all discussed how things like that happen a lot, even adults lie and bully and nothing seems to happen to them.

So we talked about grace tonight. We talked about how we all do bad things and make bad choices, but because God loves us so much He chooses to forgive us instead of punish us. We talked about how we still have natural consequences for our actions, but if we are repentant God will forgive us, and He will love us, and He will teach us to be more like Him if we let Him. When we are not repentant, even though it may look like there are no consequences for some peoples sin their hearts are moving farther away from God, and that is the worst consequence of all! To turn away from your Creator, to move so far away from Him, you no longer hear His Voice.

I want my children to know that we are so blessed to have a God who is more interested in loving us, than punishing us. I want them to know that our God is Righteous and Just and He will judge, but He cannot do any of that apart from love.

I pray that when I am being bullied my heart will break not for myself, not for my pride, or ego, or reputation, but that I will fall to my knees weeping for the one who is far from God. That I will see them through God's Eyes not my own, that I will pray, not for revenge, but for God to reveal Himself.

Stress!

I have been feeling like this ^ lately,

and it is so not my personality!

I am usually very laid back, fly by the seat of my pants, spontaneous person.

Back to school is always hard. I hate sending them off to school for the day, I miss our fun summer days, and then all that homework to keep track of, yuck!

I have also been working like a crazy woman finishing the adoption paperwork as fast as possible. And it just seems like everything is going on at once. 3 soccer teams, 1 volleyball team, 1 basketball team (my husbands) starting Life Group at our house, youth group for my 2 oldest.

Today I began to realize in all my busyness the first thing I let go of was my quiet time with God.

That is why I feel so out of control, I lost my focus.

I filled my bathtub after I sent the kiddos off to school, put on some worship music and just poured my heart out to God! As soon as I began to focus on His beauty, and strength, and wisdom, and His Word, all of the stress began to melt away!

When I put my life in perspective and meditated on all of the blessings He has bestowed on me I became grateful instead of frantic!

God is so good! I just need to remember to focus on Him and spend time reading His Word everyday. How quickly we forget, and how graciously He reminds us.

One Step Closer

This morning I sent our paperwork to Immigration!

When we get their approval our paperwork goes to Ethiopia.

Now comes the waiting. We have done what we can do, as fast as I possibly could :)

Now we wait! Immigration can take 2-3 months, we are praying it is MUCH faster than that.

We are 1 step closer to bringing home our baby girl!

Time Flies!

Austin Boulton, I Love You!

Happy Birthday!

This young man turned 17 on Monday!

He is a dream!

I am so enjoying watching him turn into a man right in front of my eyes!

He is on the right path, focusing on God. He loves his youth group, the leaders ROCK!

He has a lot of amazing adults who have poured into his life and continue to encourage him.

It really does take a village to raise children, and we are so thankful for our "village people".

Here the "village" is giving him his birthday love!

Oh Boys! They never grow up. :)