Watch this video....

I just posted the "Swagger Wagon" video earlier tonight....but Heather showed me the latest AGCI video.  You must, must watch it - it's done with the Matthew West "One Less" song (then you can scroll down and watch the "Swagger Wagon" video - after getting the Kleenex that you needed for the first video).

So....get the order right....1. Get Kleenex  2.  Watch AGCI Video   3. Get more Kleenex since you didn't get enough the first time  4. Watch "Swagger Wagon" video  5. Laugh out loud.


Faces of Adoption from Videos for AGCI on Vimeo.


News regarding our Referral Paperwork!!!

We got a call today from Kiersten at AGCI and she said that she received all of our referral paperwork and that everything looked great!  Somehow we managed to not mess up a dozen or so notary signatures!

Next step is our "Next Steps" phone call with AGCI on Tuesday!  Another step closer to our little "M".

Swagger Wagon

The Kollars (short "o"!) posted a link to this video and I hadn't seen it in a while.  Yes, I laughed out loud as I watched it again.

The said part is that we've outgrown a Swagger Wagon and have almost outgrown a Suburban!

Thanks to Kollars for posting the vid.  Watch it and enjoy.....and just try to not move and grove to the beat...come on....you still think your young and hip too.

High and Lofty Dreams

The lofts are complete.  Rye Bread and T-bird's beds are done!  They are moving into their new room right now.  The loft beds were a fun addition and I'm hopeful that they won't fall to the ground tonight as they are sleeping!  I'm pretty sure I tightened everything......

Another exciting moment today.  We got to go see Nancy our Notary.  We had all of our referral paperwork that is now complete and needed to be notarized.  It's funny how well you get to know your local notary when you are going through an adoption.  Heather even brought her a little Christmas present today - since she has notarized about a gagillion documents for us and has taken an interest in our little Peaches.  It was fun to show her a pic of our African queen.  Heather heads off to FedEx tomorrow with our completed referral paperwork and it should land at AGCI on Thursday.  Very exciting!

Peaches - We pray that you are adjusting to your new home at Hannah's Hope.  We pray that you are comforted daily by the Great Comforter.  We can't wait to see you running through our house.  Jumping up and down on the new loft beds and doing other things you shouldn't be doing.  You have captured our hearts.  We're coming soon.

Referral Celebration!!

The referral celebration has continued.  We received our referral paperwork in the mail on Friday - overnighted from AGCI in Oregon.  (I had to blur her picture on the cover to protect her identity.  We can't share her picture or name here on our blog.  Probably due to the massive number of people who read this blog.)  Anyway, how exciting it was to see our daughter's picture on the front of the booklet!!  Wow.  We're really doing this thing!

To continue the celebration, on Friday night, we all went out to the nicest restaurant in town - Kahill's - the kind of restaurant that kids don't normally go to and get looked at a lot.  Usually the look is smiles of people with a thought bubble that says, "that's cool that they brought their kids." 

So all seven of us went to Kahill's and told the kids to order whatever they wanted - normally that means chicken fingers and hamburgers.  To our delight, one of our kids ordered a steak and two others ordered meat from Japan.  In actuality, the meat from Japan was just a fancy hamburger, but it was beyond what they normally eat!

We had a reservation for seven.  But to our delight, they seated us at a table for eight.  So we placed Peaches' picture at the eighth setting and she joined us for our first dinner together.  What a special night.

It's interesting to see how each of the kids have responded to the referral news and having actual pictures of her.  They have all been extremely excited to say the least.  But Eddie Joe's response has been incredible.  The morning after we received our referral, he started going through all of his things and making a pile of what he was going to give to Peaches.  He laid out books, matchbox cars, snow boots, stuffed animals, etc, etc,...everything a child would need (from his perspective).  It was priceless.  The other cool thing about Eddie Joe's response is that whenever he looks at Peaches' picture, he starts to cry - an emotional response that's a combination of sadness for her and happiness for us and just a I-don't-really-know-how-to-handle-all-of-this type of response.  It's really touching. 

We have been blessed by really great kids.  Peaches will be overwhelmed with sibling love.  We can't wait to bring her into our lives.

Referral Party!

It was a Party!!!  Since we had never thrown a referral party, we weren't sure what to do.  So in our excitement, we just called/texted as many people as we could think of and told them to "Come on over tonight, God rescued a little girl today, we're going to celebrate!" 

In all, we counted about 59 people who were there.  Not bad for a few hours notice.  We knew there were others who certainly would have loved to be there but couldn't due to either schedules or distance.  But, as I looked at all of the faces that night, they all had a story to tell of how they have helped us, encouraged us, supported us, loved us through our adoption so far.  They are all special to us and we realized how blessed we are by God for the referral of our Peaches, but also how blessed we are by God for so many dear, dear friends.  Our church is the best.  They love each other - and not just a Sunday morning love each other, but a every day of the week, whether you're have a great day or one of those worst ever days, they are there to be close, to listen, to love, and in this case.....to CELEBRATE!!

The night included gathering everyone in our new addition - it was great to break it in as we celebrated "Room for More" in more ways than one!  I put some powerpoint slides together of all 9 of the referral pics of Peaches.  I also included a map of eastern Africa and a map of Ethiopia showing the Gambella region where she is from.  I shared from Psalm 68:1-6.  And then also shared some thoughts on God bringing Peaches to our family - and when I say family, I mean to our extended family, those who have been with us along the way - who were in the room and those who couldn't be there due to schedules or distance.

We then sang a couple of songs of worship.  We sang "Holy is The Lord."  I wanted to capture the line that says "Holy is the Lord, God Almighty, the earth is filled with His glory."  Our house was filled with God's glory, the house where Peaches is staying in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia is filled with His glory.  He has no boundaries or limits.  We also sang "Blessed Be The Name."  I wanted to capture the thought of the song based on Job 1 that says "You give and take away, my heart will chose to say, Blessed be Your Name."  Bringing an orphan home brings much joy to our lives - God has given greatly to us.  But there has been and will be a lot of "taking away" in Peaches' life.  She has lost her parents, she will lose her country, culture, language, friends, family, food, familiarity, sights, sounds, smells, heritage, etc.  So there is great loss for her.  And yet, we know that God is going to use our family as a means to heal the great loss in her life.  A life without a mom or a dad is unimaginable.  We get to be that mom and that dad for her.

Of course, after the singing, it was time to eat.  We mentioned to a few families - I don't think we were very clear or consistent with our invitation - to bring some goodies if they had some laying around.  Well, leave it to the Beavers to bring an untold number of Blue Bunny ice cream items.  We had carton after carton of ice cream along with other Blue Bunny novelties.  We also had lots of other food brought by the families there.  I fired up some "Just Love" Ethiopian coffee and the party was in full swing.  It was great to pause and reflect with many of the people there how God had truly been faithful during these many, many months of waiting.  Times when I thought God surely must be slumbering, it was clear that He had been working untold miracles to bring this night to pass.

The last family - of course it was the O's - didn't leave until after midnight.  That is pretty late for this old body.  But wow!  What a fun night!  A night we will never forget.

Here are some pics of the night.

 The Beavers brought some Double Peaches ice cream and some Peach pie filling.  What a great celebration gift!

You probably can't see them in the picture, but Eddie Joe made smiley faces on a bunch of Post-It notes and put them up on the wall because he wanted to show how happy he was!

 The head Beaver here with Giggles.  Also in the pic are the contagiously happy Jaynie and Anna.

 Lots of food.  It was attacked by all of the little ones!

 Sunshine with her "Sistas."  She loves girl time!

 Oksana with Eddie Joe.  He and his favorite new Russian friend were together all night!  Lots of hand holding!

 As you can see, Giggles is a big hit - she's with the Henn clan.  (Click here for their blog.)  Angela has that "I'm holding a baby" smile!  Lissie is also enjoying the cuteness of Giggles.

 Mr. Beaver strategizing with Dave - explaining how we need to get more ice cream in the church.

 Three very happy women - celebrating the referral of Peaches.  Each are very dear to us.  Wendy, Ta, and Mrs. Beaver.

Ed and Carol always have LOTS of warmth for us.  Oh how we are thankful for them.  Buzzard is in the back, probably up to no-good!

 Here we are gathered around, looking at the pics of Peaches. 

 It was great to celebrate our "Room for More" in more ways than one.

 Sharing our moment with our extended family was a great way to celebrate.

To God be the Glory!

REFERRAL!!!!!

We got our referral call for our Peaches today!!!!  She is a beautiful little 4 year old girl from the far western region of Ethiopia called Gambella.  Our agency sent us an email that included all of our medical and legal information as well as eight pictures.  We are captivated.  And we are overwhelmed by God's glorious work in bringing her to us.  His name be praised. 

There have been times during this process when we have fallen silent on our knees before His throne - those Selah moments of pause and reflection, waiting on Him.  But tonight, we are standing before Him, loudly shouting His praise to all who will hear.  We are having lots of people over tonight on very short notice, with the intention of having a time of worship, reflection, praise, and prayer.  We wish any and all who read this could be here too!

I will write more in the coming days as we process this amazing day.  Thanks to all who have been there with us.  There is still much work to do, but it is a day to pause and echo His praises to the Nations!

Latest Read - "It's Not Okay With Me"

So what's my latest read?  On Monday, I started and finished Janine Maxwell's book, "It's Not Okay With Me."    I've been traveling more frequently with work and I've found the time passes very quickly with a good book in hand.  I've never been a huge reader in the past, just muddled through books here and there.  But recently I've found a number of very good books telling the life stories of people directly involved in adoption, orphan-care, HIV/AIDs, hunger, poverty, etc.  It's been good for the soul to broaden my vision and understanding of issues in the world that affect millions of people everyday.  Issues that I am far removed from in my daily life.

So on Monday, I flew from Sioux City to Rochester, NY (via Minneapolis, as all travelers from Sioux City are routed there, probably including Santa).  I had a three hour layover in Minneapolis which turned into a five hour layover due to problems uncommunicated to us who were seated in the ever-comfortable faux leather chairs at the gate. During the two flights and the extra long layover I was able to mow through the book, "It's Not Okay With Me."

This book is another fascinating book that I would highly recommend.  Janine Maxwell owned a very successful marketing agency in Canada which she built from the ground up.  She was CEO of the company and had been at it for about 16 years.  On 9/11 she was in downtown Manhattan for some business - not in the twin towers, but nearby.  When the events of 9/11 took place, she and her business partners ran for their lives as they had to escape on foot through the chaotic streets, fearing for their lives, not knowing where they were going or when the next plane-strike would take place.  The traumatic events of the next several days resulted in her dropping into a deep depression in the coming months from which she could not escape.

She decided that a trip to Africa was what she needed.  Through this trip, and subsequent other trips, God healed her soul and moved her to close her very successful marketing agency and begin regular trips to Africa.  At this point, she did not know what exactly God had for her, only that He was calling her and she was joyfully obligated to follow His leading.  During her trips, she was involved with Charles Mulli (previous amazing book I read) of MCF ministries where they went through the streets of Kenya and had some miraculous rescues of street children - you have to read them to believe them.  She recounts God's direct pouring out of His grace into the lives of the children living hopelessly alone in trash heaps (the picture on the book cover above is a few of the children and the trash hut they live in, alone, with no parents).  She tells stories of how God not only brings the children in from the street to relieve their physical needs, but also heals their soul through His gospel.

Later, Janine and her husband ultimately founded a ministry called Heart for Africa where they are involved in HOPE - HIV/AIDs, Orphan care, Poverty relief, and Education.  They are actively working in the poverty-stricken country of Swaziland (highest HIV/AIDs rate in the world) in providing HOPE and the gospel.  They also lead large groups (100+ people) of Westerners - primarily from churches - on tours of Africa.  People who have never had any missionary/foreign travel experience, but want to get a taste of 3rd world existence.  The tours are aimed at educating Westerners on the plight of Africa so that God will move in their hearts so that they will get directly involved.

Her main question to the reader is......Is it okay with you that there are 30,000 children dying everyday of starvation in Africa?  Is it okay with you that there are 15 million orphans in Africa?  Is it okay with you that the Western world has turned its back on the crisis of Africa?  She recounts over and over that it is not okay with her and by God's grace she is going to do all she can to be involved.

So, is it okay with you?  It's not okay with me.