My, My, My...

This little cutie says it all!... God is faithful and God is still good!

Called to Help!

In January, Ryan and I took about 30 college students to Passion.Passion is a college aged conference that held over 40000 people! Out of those 40000 people, we break up into small groups. Those small groups consisted of about 8-10 people. In my totally random, find two strangers, make a group, small group, I met Rebekah and Will. They happened to be adopting from Ethiopia! (love it!!-Thanks God!!) They had just gotten their referral for a two month old baby boy they named Israel. Fast forward to April, and they have gotten all the clearances they need and are going to pick up baby Israel!! They leave very soon and are doing some last minute fundraising. The flights to Ethiopia are EXPENSIVE!!!

 If you want to help them chip away at the costs, head on over to Rebekah's blog and buy some of her super cute stuff!!! Here is the link : Saying Yes to Adoption

Here is a sneak preview of some of the items she is selling:
Hurry though! She is shipping on Friday!

Coasters- $10

Tukula Purses:

Navy/Maroon/Yellow Wristlets (1 available) $12

Wreaths $25

Remember, not everyone is called to ADOPT.

 BUT every believer IS called to do something. This small little act could be your something!

Training Date!

For our foster care licensing, we have to get two full days of more training. We finally got an email with our first date! On May 9th, we will get our first day of training! I am working on finding the second half either before that date, or shortly after. Whenever we have two days of training finished then we can schedule our home study!!! After the home study we will be licensed and waiting on the phone calls!!! We are praying to have all of this finished by the end of May!

Email Updates!

Good News! I finally got the blogspot "gadget" that will send email updates to my friends without blogs!! If you would like to keep up with this lovely little blog, then this for you!! I know y'all just can't wait for that! Haha. But seriously, if you want email updates just enter your email address over on the right side of the screen and click submit.

Thanks :)

That point.

Today I have reached that point. The point of control over my situation. I have exhausted very option to get a baby. There is no other "process" I can start to get closer to having a baby. I am dossier ready for an Ethiopian baby. I have done all of the stuff on our side for foster care. There is nothing left to do but wait. I have no more control.  

"There were scars before my scars
Love written on the hands that hung the stars
Hope living in the blood that was spilled for me
Ohh control. It's time. Time to let you go.
Control. It's time. Time to let you go."

Common Thread

Something freeing and exciting happened this weekend... I found my design motto. “The common thread in your décor is YOU!”. I read this on a blog and I was immediately sold. It’s perfect. Everything doesn’t have to match; in fact it doesn’t even have to make any sense. As long as all the pieces are things you love, it will work! I have been on a décor frenzy the last few days. I got some awesome chairs, a beautiful rug, a great ceramic elephant, and some pretty glass bottles! All for under $100! Here are some pics….

Love. Love. Love!

Announcing...

In November 2010 I got the baby bug. I wanted a baby, but I wanted to do foster care. Ryan wasn't super excited about it and honestly did not really care to do it. He knew it was something I truly wanted to do and he was supportive. So we started contacting agencies and found our match. We were eligible to foster through Theraputic Family Life. We started the paperwork process. Things were not going smooth. Everything we attempted to do just didnt work out. Looking back it was obvious that God was moving in us to get us to our Ethiopian adoption. I don't remember how it happend, but for some reason the foster care plan came to an end. We just didn't do it. We did start our adoption and you guys all know that story!
We found out a day before we were DTE that our agency had increased the wait time for referral to 18-24 months. This was a blow to us. However, it was also an unexpected reopened door. Ryan actually said we could start the foster care process again. He was 100% on board with it this time!

Everything about this go round has been different. Our paperwork is about finished, we have done our fingerprints (again!), we have completed our CPR/1st Aid training, and we have gotten our reference letters (again!). We are just waiting on our training (again!), and our home study (yep-again!).
We have been working on this stuff for about a month. It is flying by and our prayer is that we are licensed for emergency foster care by the end of May.

Our PLAN is (we know how well those work...) to be a family for a baby that needs a place to stay for a short time. Maybe until they get a permanent foster family, or maybe a just break from mom and dad. Really I don't know what this will actually look like. All I know is I am super excited and getting ready for a baby!!

This weekend my mom and I went out to our church's garage sale and to a few children's consignment shops. We had a great time and it was sooo unreal to be really preparing for a baby!! We didn't buy much because we have set pretty big age parameters. We are getting licensed for 0-4 years old, boy or girl! I did buy a bunch of cute girl clothes that I am currently washing right now!!

I have been hesitant to mention our new plan because I have been nervous it will fall through again. We are getting so close now that I don't mind sharing. If God has other plans for us this summer, we are open to it. But as of right now, we are planning to be welcoming children into our home!!  Please join me in praying it all works out!!