Blog Buzz Question of the Week

This weeks question is when do you commit your heart to your child? Upon sight of the referral picture, court date or homecoming??

For me personally I think your heart commitment grows little by little....day by day. From the first stack of papers, to announcing the adoption to family to the day of referral. Now that we have our referral it makes it so easy to LOVE these children. Yes, we know that things happen and we could lose these children. However the same is true in pregnancy let we allow ourselves to love our unborn child.
It was so untangible prior to our referral pic. We did not know ages or genders...now we can speak about these specific children and buy things for them.
I suspect that the love will be cemented upon court date. While NOTHING is like seeing and holding your children for the first time!

Fun , fun, fun

Okay so now that I have my referral(s)...I need to SHOP!!!! I have been eyeing several super cool items but wanted to know how big they were before I bought. These are first on my list....
A fellow Ethiopian adoptive family makes these super cool leather cuffs. I want one for all of the kiddos.

It is always fun to purchase cutesy baby items but I think I can get into buying cute funky stuff too!

It's A Boy!!! And Another BOY!!!!!

So I can finally say that we have our referral...and it is almost official (just a few papers to sign)!
We were told about 2 little boys on Thursday. They are 1 1/2 and 3 1/2 years old. Not quite the ages we had requested however the children God had been preparing for us!! (imagine that!)
I cannot give you any other information other than that they are pretty darn sweet and pretty cute too!
We hope to get a court date this fall and can travel in December. Please pray for all of these steps to go quickly!
Oh! I cannot give out real names so lets call them Jon and Issac!

Why Adopt?

I stole the post from a friends blog (her blog is private) and to be honest I could not have said it better so I I decided not to even try!

She has 4 beautiful children that are as young as ours so I am assuming everyone thinks she is crazy too!LOL They too are adopting form Ethiopia and are requesting older siblings.

I have wanted to write more on our decision to adopt, but sometimes it is hard to know where to start to capture all my thoughts about adoption in general and our adoption in particular. I guess a good place to start is with -- "why adopt".
After all, there are plenty of reasons not to adopt. There are millions of orphans in the world, so taking in two is only a drop in the bucket. With four children in a "perfect" two girl-two boy combo, we don't need more children. Adopted children may come with all kinds of "baggage", like undiagnosed physical problems or emotional problems of attachment, trauma, or grief.
Adoption alone will not solve the world's orphan crisis. We are not deceived into thinking that we can save the world. However, the Lord commands followers to care for orphans, widows, the poor and oppressed; and there are many ways Christians can fulfill this command. For us, seeking the good portion is leading us to an earthly adoption that reflects our own spiritual adoption.
... but you have recieved the Spirit of adoption as sons,
by whom we cry, "Abba, Father" -- Romans 8:15

Before Dustin and I even got married we talked about having a large family (by today's standards). Though neither of us is from a large family, we are starting to see God's hand in planting this desire in each of us. So, we don't need more children, but we love children and family. We want more children.
With every pregnancy, we have taken a risk -- there is no guarantee of good health or compatible personality. With adoption, we are taking a risk. Our adopted children will not be perfect. Our biological children are not perfect. We are not perfect.

My [Christ's] grace is sufficient for you,
my power is made perfect in weakness.
-- 2 Corinthians 12:9

Madelyn at BBB

Madelyn chose the Punk Princess hair-do! She got fake nails!
The finished punk princess!

Annie visits the BBB!

Mommy and the girls had a girlie day at Magic Kingdom then we went to the Bippity Boppity Boutique. Each girl had a Fairy Godmother and an assistant. Annie was able to choose her own hairstyle, tiara, nail polish and make-up! Annie was too cute about it! She grinned and was so bashful about it!

Her sweet bashful grin!
Choosing her tiara!
She could not just close her eyes....she kept squeezing them together so tightly!


Here she is getting her magic fairy dust!

This is the only picture I have of our two families together!

My little Hawaiian princess.....btw we LOVED the Lilo & Stitch breakfast at O'hana!

My little girl fighting the big bad Darth Vader! (They had a stage show where they chose children from the audience to participate. The children were shown how to use their "force"and use a light saber.)
Carson living out his dream!!!
We had a great time at the Hollywood N Vine Play N Dine with JoJo & Goliath and the Little Einsteins!
Teaque and her hubby and little Cory on the Buzz ride!
OMG funny stuff! In Epcot at the Coke exhibit you can taste different coke products from every country...needless to say not all of them are yummy!!

Some Disney pics...

My cuties at the pool!! The official character hog of Disney...she LOVES them all. For some reason the noses and hands are her favorite!
The girls had their hair done at the Bippity Boppity Boutique, Annie had the princess "do" and Maddi chose the punk princess "do"! This is the dessert bar at Chef Mickeys.
Our first evening we dined at Mickey's Backyard BBQ. This is one of our favorite things at DIsney. You get all you can eat buffet, dance with the characters, watch a lasso show etc.
Love this pic...and no Carson was not posing!!
More pics to come....we had 10 fun days in Orlando!

Referral Update

We received our referral while on vacation. We were very excited and immediately began to think of names and bedroom arrangements. I however had a feeling that these were not my children. My dear hubby felt it was right and my close friends that I spoke with were giving me all of the positive sides of the children.

We have prayed and prayed and discussed every scenario possible. We have decided with a heavy heart that these children are not meant to be ours. They are precious and we have truly fallen in love with these boys.

I cannot give much information. The children were simply not within the ages that we had requested. Please feel free to pray for A & D, they are very precious boys and I am told there is already a family that will take them.

We my friends are back on the waitlist! We are praying for a child under 3 years and a 4-6 year old! Prayers are very appreciated!

10 Weeks and 3 days...

From the time we were dossier ready.......................
News to follow................................Soon very,very soon!!!