We're On The Waiting List!!!

We got a call from Brandy today at AGCI.  She received our updated dossier documents and said everything looked great.  She informed us that we are officially ON THE WAITING LIST!  Now that we are done with our dossier/homestudy documents, we won't be working with Brandy anymore - we will be back with Kiersten.  Brandy told us that Kiersten would be calling us either later today or tomorrow to tell us our number!   We'll update this post as soon as we find something out.  BTW - if we had Brandy's pic to post, we would.  She's been great to work with.

UPDATE:  We got the call from Kiersten with our number.  Don't have time to get into the details now since we have to run out the door for a choir concert (Rye Bread and T-bird's choir).  We will update later.

I do have a moment to say that Kiersten and the folks at AGCI have to be the nicest people in the world!  Always helpful, always knowledgeable - they speak to you as though you are the only person they are talking to all day long.  Thanks Kiersten!  Here's a pic of her again.....

UPDATE:  Let me say first of all, the concert was fantastic.  It was the homeschool choir and they have improved substantially over the last several years.  It was fun to watch the all of the kids sing.

Back to the phone conversation with Kiersten.  She was calling specifically to give us our number (and to answer any and all questions - all questions are definitely good questions).  I was wondering how we would be grouped since we are looking to adopt a toddler and most people are looking to adopt an infant.  So, I was hoping for a low number.  When she started to tell me the number, I heard her start to say, "fif-" and I was hoping for fifteen - but instead it was "fifty-two."  I was initially a little surprised.  She said we are in line with everyone waiting for a girl (of any age). 

Kiersten said the time for a referral for people waiting for an infant girl is about 8-10 months.  She told me that we could possibly wait 4-5 months....or it could happen much more quickly.  I also found out that even though we are #52 on the list, there are "certainly less than ten and maybe even less than five" families ahead of us with our age parameters.  So it is a possibility it could be a wait until the fall, but it could also come sooner.  We are praying for the "sooner" option.  Kiersten also provided answers to questions regarding the timing of things once the referral happens and other travel information.  As always, it was an informative phone call.

Please pray that the timing of the trips would not coincide with our August plant shut down.  I cannot travel during that month and would need to defer travel until after the shut down. 

Praise God that we are done with the major paperwork portion of our adoption.

Dinner and Concerts

        Tonight my mom and dad are going to a dinner with friends and the missionary family from a previous post. We kids are staying home and eating by ourselves. Scary, right? Haha. We are all hoping that there will be no Nordstrom incident at the dinner tonight! And also, if you`re wondering, this is Rye Bread. On Thursday last week, T-Bird and I had a band/jazz band concert. It was a lot of fun playing and watching the audience`s faces. Also, tonight, Sunshine has a choir concert that we will all be going to so it should be fun. Well, as you know, we are having supper alone tonight so I had better go help with that. Thanks for reading!!! I hope I didn`t bore you.





                                                                -Rye Bread

Amazing Adoption Research Paper!!

I am very happy to say that my research paper is almost complete!! It's about adoption and the rough draft is complete. (finally!) After three weeks, five and a half hand-written pages are ready to type tomorrow and hand in on Thursday. My English teacher warned me to choose a topic that I would enjoy writing about because I would be working on it for an excruciatingly long time!! She was excruciatingly right :( Although I love the topic of adoption it has been a long journey. Someday maybe you all will read it for I plan to be a world famous author (SARCASM!!!!!) I absolutely despise writing papers!! Thank you very much for reading my post. I'm hoping it's the first of many. Please let me know if I bore you and, of course, I won't post anymore :) Good-bye!!

-Sunshine

No, She Just Fell on Her Crockpot

We had an international dinner at church last night in honor of a missionary family that was back visiting.  This missionary family has spent most of the last 10 years in countries in Central Asia that end in "stan."  There was a tragic event involving them last November and they have been back in the US since.  They have a contagious love for Jesus and a passion to spread the gospel.  We love having them visit.

 Pic of the kids eating mangos, injera bread, and wat (Ethiopian staples!)

After the dinner and a brief update from the missionary family, we were getting ready to leave.  Suddenly, one of the kids came in the church and said that Heather had fallen outside and was bleeding.  Not sure of the seriousness of the situation, I headed outside.  I immediately saw Heather laying on the ground in the parking lot with Scott, our missionary friend, leaning over her.  As I ran up to her, I saw that Scott was holding her wrists tightly and could see there was blood.  She had been carrying the crock pot back out to the car, slipped and fell right on top of the crock pot.  It had shattered and she had landed on the broken glass.  She was in pain and very scared.

As a side note:  Scott and his family had stayed with us a year and a half ago and one of our kids threw up all over the kitchen floor.  Before we knew it Scott was cleaning it up.  He always seems to be near when a biohazard event surfaces in our family.  I'm sure he was thinking, "what's wrong with these people?"

There was a sudden hurried rush as people began to come outside to see what was happening.  Sunshine ran to get towels just as Layner was coming out with some.  We carefully looked at the wounds to determine the severity and realized we needed to get her to the hospital - not a 911, call the ambulance type of emergency, but we still needed to get moving.  We applied pressure again to the cuts and headed for the suburban.

Trying to figure out how I was going to keep pressure on the cuts and also drive, I started to look for someone who could help.  My mind was racing.  I looked at Tanya three times and thought she could come, but realized three separate times, "oh yeah, she's pregnant."  Sherri came running out - I thought she'd be good because she's basically like a large-animal  veterinarian.  If any foaming of the mouth occurred, she'd know what to do - she can handle anything.  Besides, if I started to buckle under the pressure, she we just tell me to get a hold of myself and deal with it.  Sherri took one wrist and before I knew it Pat had grabbed the other wrist and off we went.

We headed for Mercy Hospital and went straight to the ER.  It was quite a sight as we walked into the ER.  I went in first and right behind me was Heather walking in with two bloody wrists and two people holding the wrists tightly.  The eyes of the ER folks opened widely to what appeared to them to be a botched suicide attempt.  We explained that, no, she didn't try and cut her wrists, she just tripped and fell on top of her crock pot in our church parking lot.  We could see a combined sense of relief and disbelief at our story.  The thought of how things must look and how our story must sound lightened the mood of everyone.

The ER crew at Mercy was wonderful.  We were in and out in no time.  The ER doctor and ER nurse that worked with us were very kind.  Heather ended up getting 13 (she thinks it's 14) stitches in three different locations - two on her left wrist and one on her right wrist.  We were exhausted as we headed back to church to get the kids and head home.

As we got home, we were thankful on many levels.  We were thankful that the cuts were not deeper and that the bleeding was not more severe.  We were thankful that there were people there immediately to help her after she fell.  We were thankful that there were people willing to come with us to the ER.  We were thankful that there were people willing to stay at the church with our kids (Thanks Sandy!) while we headed off to the ER.  We were thankful the ER was not busy.  We were thankful the doctor and nurse were so kind.  We were thankful that God holds us in His hand - that nothing escapes His notice - that everything is in His control.  He mercifully and lovingly watched over us last night just as He does every moment of every day.  His our Healer and our Protector.

Heather's doing well today.  She was able to sing in our worship group this morning.  She's very tired and resting now.  I'm thankful that my girl is OK.

So Why?

As the major portion of our paperwork phase for the adoption is winding down, my mind begins to sift through the many reasons of why we are doing this.  It is not uncommon to get a puzzled look from others as we tell them what we're doing - as they pause with a struggled look and say, "well that's nice."  Inwardly we can see the inward mental struggle as they try to categorize what we're doing - it's understandable, sometimes we have that same mental struggle.

It began for us last November when our church joined the nationwide observance of Orphan Sunday.  There was an intentioned theme throughout that Sunday morning to focus on the need of the fatherless and God's love for them.  The morning included some moving videos (some of which weren't streaming very well so they stopped every 10 or 20 seconds!).  But through all of what was presented, God stirred up within both of us a desire to adopt.  If Heather could have flown somewhere in the world that day and picked up a child, she would have.  We both realized, we needed to do something - we wanted to do something.  There was an excitement that we had been given.  But what was it that we should do?

The thing that kept going through our minds was the thought that we have so much.  We have so much love in our house, so much joy in our hearts, so much togetherness in our family, so much in the sense of material possessions, so much in the sense of spiritual possessions - we knew we had "room for more."  We wanted to share what we have, to share what God has given us with someone who has nothing.  We wanted to share the love of Christ in a tangible way, to share the Gospel - His good news - with someone who has nothing.  In the same sense that we were orphaned by sin and adopted by Grace, we wanted to adopt a little one into our lives so that that child could be one of us - and could taste the love of God through a family.

God has continued to fan that flame and breathe into us a joy and excitement for chasing after this.  He has stirred us so that we continue on.  He has kept us moving, helped us gather paperwork, given us wisdom when phone calls were necessary, given us strength when we're tired.  It's been an exciting time....and we're really only just beginning.  I'm thankful for the joy that God has given us.  I'm thankful that He has revealed more of Himself to us.

So why then?  It is because we have so much, it is because we have God, it is because we have room for more.

Two Revisions

Brandi at AGCI worked through our dossier and home study today and found two minor items that need correction.  In one of our application letters we stated a 2-4 year old girl, but in our home study we stated a 2-5 year old girl.  And in one of the reference letters, written by one of our friends (nicknamed Rusty because he looks like Brad Pitt), it didn't specifically state that we were adopting from Ethiopia.  So his letter has to be revised.  Of course, both revised documents need to be notarized so we will head off to see Nancy at Siouxland Federal Credit Union....again!  Here's a picture of Nancy - Thanks for all your help!

We will then mail the two revised documents on Monday and we will then be on the waiting list!!

New Blog!

Friends of ours started a blog today.  They should have started it about 20 years ago since they have so much wisdom and life experiences to share.  (I guess they couldn't have started a blog 20 years ago since that was before Al Gore invented the internet.)

You can check out their blog at:  http://www.untohimwelive.blogspot.com/

Please go check out their blog and pray for them.  They are in the midst of the all of the events currently surrounding adoptions in Russia.  They are being pulled back and forth each day with ever changing news regarding their pending Russian adoptions.  They are currently in the process of adopting three non-siblings from Russia - adding to a family of nine kids.  This is a feat beyond the capacity of normal human beings.  But God continues to show His strength and limitlessness through their lives as He displays His compassion and mercy for orphans.  They are indeed a beautiful family.