Happy Easter

Today is Good Friday, and we praise Jesus for what He did for us this day!  We quietly celebrate, and mourn what Jesus had to endure so we are able to ask forgiveness for our sins and still get into Heaven! 

This morning I sat around the kitchen table and told our three ladies the Easter Resurrection story.  Amazingly, two of our beauties knew the story, were able to tell me what a sin is, how to ask for forgiveness, & that Jesus died on a cross for us.  Our oldest (age 7) even knew that today, Good Friday, is the day that Jesus died on the cross, and that Easter is the day he rose from the dead!  They have been paying attention in Sunday School!!  After our lesson, we placed our resurrection plant in water, and are watching it come back to life.  They are intrigued that something so brown & brittle is transforming and coming back to life!  This is what our family does for Good Friday!  We have never talked of the Easter Bunny, we don't want to take the glory away from the true meaning of this holiday.  The world does a great job by itself of selling this idea to our children.  What do you do on this truly important day?

                                       (the plant is closed tightly, and looks like straw)

Wishing you and your loved ones a Happy Easter!  May everyone grasp the true meaning, and accept God into their lives!

            (It's hard to see with the little heads in the way, but the plant is green & getting bigger!)

And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. ~1 Peter 2:24

Authentication

Our updated documents are signed, notarized, and approved from our agency!  Now we are on to authentication.  They were authenticated my the county today, and will be sent to Columbus via UPS to become authenticated at the state level.  At least we are moving forward again!  Were getting excited about getting our documents authenticated, getting our old documents from our dossier and getting the new ones in, so we can get our paperwork in-country! 

The wait almost seems unbearable lately.  I'm not sure if it's all the extra work to get our paperwork cleared, or that the snow in Ohio is never ending this spring!  We are trying to stay positive,  and relying on God.

During this Easter Season. please pry for the millions of children and babies in the world who are waiting for a family.  Every child deserves a save, loving home.  

The sun-catcher hearts we made on this snowy spring day.  I'll admit the snow is beautiful, but I'm ready for green grass, sidewalk chalk, and bubbles!

Paperwork, Paperwork, Paperwork....

This past week has been a flurry of emails, scanning documents, home study addendum, and finally figuring out the dossier paperwork that needs to be updated!  Wow, it was a busy week, and we survived!  It's all done, we just need to get our documents notarized and then sent off for authentication. 

I have been feeling like I can't rest until it's done.  Restlessness is an awful, stressful  feeling.  We have been up until way past our bed time getting things done for our agency, so this weekend we are stopping all adoption talk & activity to focus all of out time and energy on our three beautiful ladies!  We have a birthday to celebrate, a special girl turning 7!  We are so blessed to have 3 sweet girls who understand that adopting is a ton of work.  We WILL bring their baby sister home, someday.  We can pick back up with adoption business on Monday.

Our snowman from the last winter storm.  He has grapes for eyes and an orange pepper for the nose.  Eventually he had a celery mouth and a cute hat.  We weren't prepared for snowman making, no carrots in the house.  Poor guy didn't last long until our old pup jumped up to eat the yummy fruit and veggies!!

 Three things will last forever--faith, hope, and love--and the greatest of these is love. 
   ~1 Corinthians 13:13

Goodbye CWA's Dossier....

Here we go....our agency is working rather quickly getting our case up to Florida standards while reviewing our current Home Study and CWA's dossier.  Right now there are only 4 documents we will need to update before moving on to getting our dossier authenticated again!  We are loving this agency!!

      Goodbye old dossier....lets get you updated and traveling to Ethiopia!

We Are Approved!!

We are SO excited!  We were approved with our new agency this afternoon! Right now were busy scanning our Home Study, Proof of Education/Training, and CWA's Dossier and emailing it to our agency!  Were hoping to get the contract completed, notarized, and in Florida by early next week!

We wanted to say thank you to our references, who completed an extra reference sheet within 24 hours of receiving it (for Florida law)!  We wouldn't t have been approved so quickly without your commitment to our adoption.  Thank you!  

Keep praying,as God is good!  Our two oldest girls are so excited that were sticking with Ethiopia (they were never excited about the Congo)!  Our almost 7 year old kept saying, "even if it takes a year for the paperwork were gonna bring her home, and I'll help you with the paperwork!"  what great love they have for this little girl they have never seen! 

For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations~ Psalm 100:5 

We've Applied...Let's Get The Dossier Updated!

That's right, we have found a great Christian Agency!  I just got back from the UPS store shipping our initial application, family picture, copies of our passports, and first payment to our new awesome agency!  The documents will be there tomorrow (Tuesday 03/05) by 10am and we couldn't be happier that we have FINALLY made this decision!!  

The director told us Friday that we will be approved (especially since our Dossier  is completed), it is just a formality.  She also told us that we only  have 4 dossier documents that need to be changed!  She is predicting that it  will take about a month to update documents, get them notarized, and authenticated before shipping them to Ethiopia for translation!  Were so close to being done with paperwork!!

Please keep praying for a smooth process, help with finances (since we need to basically start over in the financial department, not getting any money back that we paid to CWA), and for the birth mama & our future babe!!

                    “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.  John 14:18

Thank You Everyone!

What's Happening with our Adoption?

So, many people are asking us what is going on?  We are currently trying to  be patient, listen to God, and talk to different agencies about their programs and referral times.  Right now we are still in the unknown, which stinks.  So far we have talked to 5 separate agencies (1 that adopts from Congo and 4 that are approved to adopt from Ethiopia).  We want to obtain as much information as we can before completing more paperwork and making the initial payment.  Our goal is to hopefully make a decision this weekend, and start tackling the paperwork next week!  I'll feel much better when the decision is made so we can move forward in bringing our babe home.

               The Acacia tree in Africa~ leaves that giraffes love to eat!