Cleaning

In another world this would be me right now...

But instead this is how I feel...

I do not use the word hate often, but dislike is not strong enough of a word to describe how I feel about cleaning. I literally hate, abhor, detest, loathe, and can’t stand cleaning! In my dream world I would hire someone to do it for me. It is the one responsibility that falls on me by staying home with my children that I would trade off to someone else in a heartbeat!

Our impending home visit this Saturday, was enough motivation to get Spring Cleaning done and even finished in record time.

Kilt or Skirt?

The little man loves his sister's dress-up. His dad gets a little miffed that there aren't more dress-up options in the house, so for Christmas the little man got a cowboy outfit. Does he ever wear it? No. Instead he loves this skirt. I told J that if it bothers him that much that his son loves a skirt, we will call it a kilt instead. Heck, it is plaid and Mel Gibson wore one in Braveheart so it must be ok. (For those of you wondering-he does not go au natural, but wears a diaper underneath!)

For the sake of fairness, here's a picture of the Bean with the cheesiest grin ever. She loves to wear my Africa necklace. She and the little man give it kisses all day long. I can't wait until their sister is here and they actually get to give her kisses!!

3 down, 1 to go

We headed up to Bellingham the past two days for 2 more meetings with our social worker. (We had an "unofficial" one last month at the AGCI gathering.) Anyway, I had this image of those police questioning scenes in movies when they are sitting in the chair with the spotlight on them being hit with a barage of questions. Luckily for us, it was nothing like that at all! It was much more like sitting on the couch with an old friend talking about your life experiences. Our final meeting is scheduled for the March 1st. She will come down for the home visit and meet the kiddos. It sounds like we should have our home study complete by the middle to end of March which would be fabulous, since we can't move forward until it is done.

The first Friday after it is complete, we will head to Yakima to be fingerprinted again. This time for the Department of Homeland Security. Once we get our FDL (Favorable Determination Letter) from them, we can offcially be a number on the waiting list. Our time spent waiting for a referral can be anywhere from 2-6 months, although it is averaging about 3 1/2 right now. After we receive and accept the referral, we can wait from 3-5 months for the adoption to go through the courts and for us to travel to pick up our daughter. Our Daughter! Oh, that sounds so amazing. AGCI lays it out much more clearly in their Ethiopian Program Overview if anyone is interested.

Releasing Americans from wealth in Jesus’ name

Check out this post by Shaun Groves, recording artist and Compassion International team member. The post brought tears to my eyes.

Bagels & Interviews

I heard from our social worker and we have our first home study interviews scheduled for February 17th & 18th. She is up in Bellingham, so I get to go back to my old stomping grounds. I probably haven't been to Bellingham since I graduated from college. I have great memories of that area and I can't wait to show Jason a little bit of its charm. I may be looking forward to a bagel at The Bagelry more than anything else though. I think Jason will enjoy Boundary Bay Brewery more!

The wait begins already

DEFINTITON: Waiting upon God is exercising confidence in God's timing and help during difficult times.

Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired,They will walk and not become weary. Isaiah 40:31

I am not good at waiting. I don't want to wait on God. I want things to happen when I want them to happen!

Today I ask God that this time of waiting is used to bring me closer to him. That through this waiting I become more dependent upon God.

I know waiting is not easy. My heart will cry out in pain, but I know that God uses this time to remind me that I must depend upon Him so that I know it is only He who does wonderful things in my life. Ultimately then, God protects me by waiting, because when I wait I must deepen my trust in Him, seek His way and bring Him the glory through it all.

I can't get the spell check to work, so please forgive me for any mistakes!

Let's Wrap Up Some Babies!!

Just wanted to let everyone know about Mary Owlhaven's blog today. For those of you who don't know, she is mother to 10 and four are from Ethiopia. Go check it out-there is great stuff happening.