Happy Fathers Day

Now that we know we will have a daughter.......

I couldn't resist. This card was screaming at me from the shelf at the store. When I picked it up I welled up with tears. I think the teenagers standing next to me in the isle thought I was nuts but who cares! The inside was so simple, so true and so fitting......

When Andy opened it he got all teary eyed and said, "I didn't expect this..." and smiled. She has a very special place in our hearts already and I know God is preparing her for us as well. Can't wait till her daddy is actually holding her on Fathers Day!

Thank yous and updates

It has been WAY too long! I am so sorry! We have been so busy. I haven't had time to blog but there is so much to update on so this is gonna be a long one!
First of all the garage sale:
I want to say a HUGE thank you to Amanda Wilson! Amanda and I have been friends for about 12 years now. We don't often get to see each other, but we are the kind of friends you know you can count on and even if you haven't seen each other for a year it's like you haven't skipped a beat! Love her! Amanda called me out of the blue one day and said she wanted to do a garage sale fundraiser for us. She did everything! I hauled one load to her house and that's about it! Not only did she plan it, organize it and run it....She did all of that while MOVING! She literally moved her whole house, 2 dogs a husband and 3 kids the weekend before the sale! What a blessing she is! THANK YOU AMANDA!
I also want to thank David Arment of David Arment Photography. He donated 100 pictures for us to sell! They are super cool outdoor pictures with scripture on them. We still have some left if anyone is interested! We are selling them for donations. You pick the price! Contact me if you are interested!
Another thank you to Heathyr Harkless of House of Harkless Photography. I had never met Heathyr. I am a cloth diapering consultant and Heathyr is a customer I was going to do a consult for. I had never met her but we had been communicating via facebook. When she found out we were adopting she instantly offered a photo shoot for us to raffle off. (We raffled it off at the garage sale and my friend Alice won it!) She has a heart for adoption and plans to begin her own adoption process next year. What a blessing! How often does someone you don't know just offer you something like that?! Thank you Heathyr!!
Thank you again to Joanna Beasley. She is a recording artist who gave us a ton of her albums to sell. We had them out at the garage sale as well and we still have some left if any of you are interested! We again are selling those for whatever donation you would like to make! She is really awesome! I highly suggest you check her out!...p.s. she is in the midst of making 2 more albums at the moment! CAN'T WAIT!
And lastly, thank you to every one of you who donated! I don't even know all of the people who donated items but to all of you THANK YOU! Thank you to everyone who shopped and donated money. Amanda was telling me about people who hardly had enough money of their own giving extra just because they believed in the cause. Thank you God!
The garage sale brought in over $560.00 and we still have a whole slew of California Raisins collectibles to sell on ebay! Believe it or not what we have could bring in an additional $500.00 once we get it up for sale! You wouldn't believe the people buying this stuff!! Kinda crazy but kinda cool all at the same time! :) So all in all, once we get those sold we will have made somewhere in the ball park of $1000.00! Praise God!

On to the next topic! We have the money to pay for the home study taken care of and now we are in need of $2,490 for the next phase of the adoption. We have again been trusting God for each cent knowing that he will pull through! We have gotten checks in the mail here and there from friends we haven't seen in a really long time and have been totally blessed by each one! A week or two ago we were blessed above and beyond! Some good friends of ours gave us a check that blew us away! I continue to be amazed by peoples generosity! People giving us tax returns or their tithe money for the week. Whatever the situation is we are so grateful for each and every one of you who have given to us. You have no idea how much each dollar means to us....We are humbled and thankful!

Next up on the list today is Home studies. Since we last blogged we have had our final 2 home studies. Our social worker has come to the house, looked around, talked to the boys, talked to us and read through the conglomeration of papers we have had to fill out and notarize. (I have never had to notarize so much crap in my life!!) She asked us a million and one questions, watched us with our boys and talked through just about every aspect of our lives from birth up until now. Pretty sure there is no stone left unturned! she was really kind easy going but we are so thankful to be done! It has been a long time coming! We had to delay things for weeks and months due to Nahum being sick or Nahum having surgery or her schedule being busy. Whatever the reasons were, it just plain took too long! But hallelujah it is done! We meet up with her on Thursday evening to verify and basically sign off on the papers that will be sent in to our adoption agency. FINALLY! Now on the the craziness that is the dossier.....I am certain there will be some crazy blogging during that 6 months! The dossier is a 4-6 month process of paper work and at the end of that we submit it to Ethiopia for approval and then we wait!

What will we be waiting for you ask?  Well....Andy and I have said from the get go that you can't pick a gender when you have a biological child so we would leave this one up to God as well. However, God has really impressed on our hearts that he has a specific child for us and the way we answer the questions (ie: would you take a cleft lip, cleft pallet, deaf, boy, girl, siblings etc etc.....) is the way a child (or children) would be chosen for us. So we prayed. We answered questions. We prayed. We changed answers. We talked and prayed some more and changed some more. All of that to say...dun dun dun....we will be getting a GIRL! I almost lost it in the store tonight when we walked past the girls clothes. :) I know in my heart that God has a little girl in mind for our family! I know it! Now why did I say "or children" a few sentences back? Well, we said that we would take a sibling group if there was a little girl who had a brother or sister. I don't want to break up siblings!!! So, if God wants that or has that in mind for us it is a possibility for Ethiopia to refer siblings to us.....oh my.......Are we crazy? :)

Lastly I want to thank my friend Darcy of Darcy Holsopple Photography. She took the amazing picture you see above. When she posted it on fb she had some really sweet things to say and it got me all weepy. Thank you Darce for being willing to do this for our family! Get your trigger finger ready to take pictures of a beautiful little girl in 18 months to 2 years from now. And....get those braiding fingers ready cause I. CAN. NOT. FRENCH BRAID!

Thank you all for checking in and supporting us! Also, check out the thermometer to the side....it keeps going up thanks to God and all of you!!