He Paid the Price

Thank you Jesus for the price you paid.  God help me to live daily in light of your mercy and grace.

Thanks Emily for posting this.

Adoption Update:  Our Visa 37 was sent yesterday.  Great News!

Check out this Fundraiser/Raffle

A local family who has 3 bio kids & 3 adopted children from China is in process to bring home another Special Needs girl from China.  They are having a fun raffle for an I-Pad 2 to help them with their dossier costs.  Check out their story here: www.mattmandi.blogspot.com


Our homefront news:  Looks like we will be leaving next weekend, not this weekend to unite and bring home Abel and Feven Faith.  So I will be praising God for my redemption here in FW, not Rome or Addis, then busily getting ready to leave and hopefully come home Mother's Day with our precious additions.
 Check out this update from a family who is there now and yesterday delivered a care package for us:  Rachel wrote:

"Packages have been delivered, cards translated, video and pictures taken, and your photos LOVED ON! They are just thrilled! Internet is slow and poor but will talk and send them when we return."

So excited to get our arms around them!! 

Another neat post from a family who recently traveled to meet their girl for the first time.  I love how she shares the why for adoption for many people.  : www.sandersonadoption.blogspot.com/

We Have Our Updated I-171!!!!

We were delighted to find in our mailbox today our updated I-171 immigration form!  We can now  make an embassy date and get tickets to FINALLY bring our treasures home.  WOOHOO!!!

Other fun news:  Doria participated in her first track meet this week.  Good job D!!

Delighting in Embassy Clearance

This morning we were surprised and delighted to find an e-mail from the US Embassy notifying of us our clearance to travel for our visa appointment.  This means we can go get Abel and Feven Faith and finally bring them home.  Our last hold up is waiting for our immigration update, and we pray to have that soon.  This segment of our journey has been the toughest by far, and we are so glad to have resolution.  Thank you for your prayers and please don't stop.

Other delights:
Dave and Drake completed the "Becoming a Man Series" at church and it was a wonderful experience for both of them.  They concluded with a night of paintball:

We just returned from a week in FL for spring break.  Great family time and so fun connecting with old friends!!  We love you all!  Thank you God for these blessings.

Just a little sea fog the whole day on our last day, but we still had fun.

Another Week....of No Good News

No good news that is regarding adoption.  Plenty of good blessings in my "other" life, but man when you are in this process, it takes on a life of its own.  And when you have been is this process for as long as I have you start to feel crazy having these two lives.  Who knew adopting "Waiting" Children could result in such an extra long wait????  Really?  Like aren't they waiting and ready???  Apparently not!!!  Well, they're ready, that's for sure, but their paperwork is not.  So they wait, we wait, and wait.  It's been 8 weeks since we passed court.  All 9 other travel couples are home and some have been home for over a month.  Who's counting though right??  Frustrated is an understatement.
State basketball tournament for the boys this weekend.  Maybe all this waiting is to spare our new darlings from endless basketball weekends???  Dori sure finds a way to avoid them.
 Praying my redeemer is holding A and F tight, protecting them, filling them with hope and wiping away any despair.

My Baby is 11

Our youngest by birth is 11 today.  Thank you God for this gift you gave us!!  We love him so much!!!

He and his big brother had another busy weekend of basketball.  Both of their respective teams made it to the championship round and played at the same time and both teams won.  Made for some oh so decorative bookends:

Happy Birthday Devin!!!!  You are loved to infinity and beyond.

Dear Abel and Feven Faith

It will be 7 weeks this Saturday from the time we first met you in person and hugged and kissed you and you melted our hearts.  What you don't know though is that you have been in our hearts for almost a year since we first saw your picture.
To say that this mama and dad and brothers and sister are anxious for your arrival would be an understatement.  We thought for sure you would be here with us in our home already.  I'm so sorry you have to wait.  There are so many details in the whole process and we seem to have gotten more than our share.  Know that we have not forgotten you, that we think about you all the time, and pray that we can come get you quickly.  We question, and pester to the point of annoyance on your behalf and we won't stop until we have you.  You are precious, our darlings, and we can't wait to love you in person!!
~Mama and Dad

A Day of Fasting and Prayer for Adoptions and Orphans in Ethiopia

Wednesday, March 9th, my mind, heart and prayers will be focused on the situation in Ethiopia regarding adoptions.  I will also be praying for our case  and Abel and Feven specifically:  That God's will be done, that answers would come swiftly, and that the peace of Christ would fill my soul.  I will also be praying for all families and children involved.
More info here: teamalexander.
and here: aplacecalledsimplicity
For His Children,
~Angie
LOVE Third Day!!!!

Let's Dress These Boys for a Wedding!

Ok, had to give a plug, just in case you have some wonderful hand me downs or want to go shopping, for these precious street boys.
Read here for the details:aplacecalledsimplicity.blogspot.com/2011/02/wanna-kind-of-go-to-africa-with-us.html
They need them soon.  Can't wait to see the pictures!!

One Hurdle at a Time

First of all, if you are reading this today, then you will see to the left that the verse of the day, not picked by me, is the same verse I was holding on to in my last post.  Kinda funny.  Maybe God's saying, "Yeah do just that!"
So, the hurdle we cleared Friday was finding out that Abel does not have TB..Yeah!! BUT still a couple more hurdles to clear and SO hoping that Monday clears the toughest one!
Pray with us please.
Thank you DEAR friends for your love, support and prayers!!!  I treasure you!!

Waiting...and Waiting

This is really more of a cry out for prayer for our case and timing and my sanity, verses a fun post.
I feel like our journey has been extraordinarily long and that if there is a problem or delay, we seem to get it.  We are there again now, and without sharing details here, I ask you to keep us in your prayers...if there is even anyone reading this to be able to respond.
We traveled with 10 families on trip #1 to meet our darlings and appear in court, and 3 or 4 of those families are already home from trip #2 with their babes.  2 are there now, the two we had stayed with on trip#1 and booked a guesthouse with and hoped to stay with again on trip#2 (yes, I'm pouting), 1 is traveling this weekend, and very likely the other 2 will be also(all of which we would be thrilled to be with again), but not us...we are left to wait again...unless the sun breaks through the clouds and we are given clearance to travel.   I KNOW God's timing is perfect and He has a plan, but it is still hard waiting it out.
I'm trying to hold on to:
 Psalm 27:14 "Wait for the Lord; Be strong, and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the Lord."

Adopting the Waiting Child

A fellow adoptive mom has been doing a "series" of guest posts on Adopting the Older Child. We were one of her guests.  Hop (click) over here: teamchase4andcounting to check them out.
Please pray for us that the Embassy gives us clearance to travel.  Our travel buddies from trip #1 are traveling this weekend and we were hoping to share trip #2 with them.  Unfortunately we won't be able to, but are really praying to be able to leave next Saturday.  Pray for our babes also as they wait.   Thank You.

Ethiopian Art

I love blogs!  Yes, they can steal my time, but I do learn so much from them.  One tip I found was to visit this place if you are interested in cultural art.  So, it was towards the top of my to do list while in ET our first trip.  I found a piece I LOVE, and I just picked it up from being framed and had to share this great find and give an unpaid advertisement for this place:
Makush Gallery and Italian restaurant.  If you will be traveling and are interested in oil on canvas Ethiopian art, I highly recommend visiting this place.  Here's what I found:

Three Ethiopian women sharing a Coffee ceremony; a very cultural event in Ethiopia.  The coffee bean was discovered in Ethiopia and we have a great story book depicting how that happened.  At the gallery it was stretched on a frame, but due to its size I had them take it off the frame and rolled the canvas up and they put it in a tube for me.  Make sure to stop by on your next trip to Addis Ababa.

Speaking of next trips to Addis:  I think we will be getting our call next week to "invite" us for our Embassy appt. and bring our babes home!!!  Please continue to pray that Dave can get the time off.

Getting Ready

Thanks to Deena and Kristi for their recent blog entries about hair care, I now have a good starter pack:

Also wanted to show this great dresser I found for the kid's room at our second hand store:

It's "Thomasville", in wonderful shape and oh such a great deal!!!
And the kid's piles are ready to be thrown into the suitcase because I'm feeling like my "water" is about to rupture and that travel phone call could come any day:

PRAYING everything works out for my hubby to be able to get off work when it's time to go.

Adoption Decree

Yesterday we received our Adoption Decree i.e. the official/translated paper stating that Abel and Feven are our children.  We knew we had passed court, but this is the official paperwork.  This means we are that much closer to trip#2 to bring them home.  In fact, 4 of the 10 families in our group are either home already with their new joy or are in the process!  Better get packing!!!