Created for Care!

Well, I am SUPER excited about this event this year.  Last year, when registration opened, we had not yet started the adoption process.  However, a few months later, we were in the thick of paperwork and I remembered this retreat, only to find out that it had filled up within 48 hours, so it just wasn't going to happen, and I was kicking myself the whole time for not signing up.  This year, I am ready for it! Registration opens at 12:01 am tonight!! We are leaving out early in the morning for a trip to pray about church planting, so I can't decided if I should stay up and register at midnight or wait and do it right before we leave bright and early.  Either way, I could not be more excited!! For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, this is an event for adoption mama's(although you don't have to be, you can just be interested in adoption, or want to support a friend who is adopting).  It's a weekend long retreat at an awesome lodge in GA, spent meeting hundreds of other women who are right where we are, have already been where we are, or want to learn more.  A weekend spent learning more about the Father, from the Father, learning from each other, and just sharing our hearts with other women who have the same passion.  To see the orphan become orphan no more.  Seriously, it's going to be an amazing weekend and I can't wait!!  I'm also excited to get to meet lots of my bloggy "friends" in person!!  So, if you want more info, check out the website here, and there's a list of the awesome breakouts over on Andrea's blog.  You really don't want to miss this!! Who's in??

August Numbers!

Well, Friday afternoon we got our official August numbers!  We were excited to see more movement this month.  With the courts closed it helps to at least keep seeing a little progress during these slow months.  Withour further ado we are, for a girl:

And for a boy:

We moved 4 spots on both lists this month! Pretty exciting!  My hubby is convinced that he's going to get a son, it's pretty cute :)  We'll see if he's right or not, but it's looking pretty promising!

What are we waiting for?

Now that I am not in the habit of blogging regularly I randomly have thoughts float through my head that I think would make a good blog post, but I rarely take the time to sit down and actually write it.  I've been thinking about this post for about a week now.  I've been listening to this awesome CD:

This is the new CD of one of the awesome worship leaders at our church.  Everyone needs to get this CD!! There is so much truth and so much Gospel in this one album, it's amazing!  Definitely a nice change from some of the fluff that's on Christian radio right now.  The premise of the CD is that the Gospel changes everything and asks the questions, are we living as though Jesus is alive? and what are we waiting for?  Jesus has called us all to go, he has called us all to care for orphans in some way.  That along with this video(pause the music at the bottom of the page first):



have just really gotten me thinking lately.What are we waiting for? As Matt's song says, "a message in the sky? a sign from up above? is not His Word enough?"  God's word clearly tells us to care for the poor, the orphan, the widow, as Katie says in her video "it's not an option."  Us adopting should not be viewed as us doing something noble, or "super christian", we are just obeying God's word. Not to say that everyone should adopt, but we are all called to care for the orphan in some capacity.   
We are also all called to make disciples and take His Word to the nations. And yet so many times we don't, myself included.  My prayer lately has been,taken from  another line in the song, that I would not become to comfortable with amazing grace, and to familiar with the empty grave. We cannot wait to have this baby home so that we can share the love of our amazing Father with him/her.We have so much to celebrate, and so much to tell the world about.  So what are we waiting for? 

It's that time

Well, it's that time.  The dreaded time involved in Ethiopia adoption.  Friday, the Ethiopian courts closed for the rainy season and will not reopen until mid-October.  I have not been looking forward to this since we started the process.  Things will slow down a good deal over the next two months.  Referrals can still happen, and the Embassy will keep scheduling dates, but with the courts closed, things will be pretty slow.  On the other hand, this will be a blessing because the people are in desperate need of rain right now, so we are praying the God sends lots of it!  Focusing on that blessing will hopefully make this time a little easier. I start back to work at the preschool tomorrow so that should help move things along too!  We are praying for all of the families caught in the middle of this closure.  I can only imagine how hard it would be to have seen our baby's face and then get stuck in this closure, waiting extra months to be able to hold them. 

There have also been several orphanage closures in the southern region of Ethiopia recently.  No one is quite sure of the reason for this yet, but this is also causing several families with our agency to be in a limbo of sorts, not knowing what will happen next or when they will get their babies home even though they have already been approved by the courts.  Our hearts are hurting for them and we are constantly lifting them up before the Father.  We ask that you would pray with us, and that these little ones would get home to their families as quickly as possible!  It's still amazing to me how quickly things can change in this world of International Adoption, but I am thankful that we have a Father who holds us all in the palm of His hand, and has ordained all of this from the beginning of time, so amazing!