Finger Print appointments

We got our fingerprint appointments for January 13th!!!! YAY!!!! I emailed our Homestudy SW to see if we can move our final interview up one day since we will already be in Charlotte and then I can cross two big things off my list!

From our house to yours....

Melkam Yelidet Beaal

(Merry Christmas in Amharic)

Home Study papers in the mail!

34 days after getting all the documents in a whopping 13 attachment email, our home study paperwork was mailed today! Whoo Hoo! We have our three interviews on Jan 7 ,8 and 14 then our social worker will draft our home study. We are still not so patiently waiting for our fingerprint appointment. Hopefully it will be soon. Thanks so much for all you guys that filled out references and other important documents for us!

My birthday present

My present from Greg yesterday was this awesome necklace from junkposse. I love it soo much.!!

one more step!

Went today and had Abby's physical, Esther is tomorrow and Nathan is Wednesday THEN I get to mail all our paperwork to our social worker for our homestudy!!!! We have three interviews with her in Jan and then our homestudy will be complete. Still waiting for our fingerprint appointment to come in the mail. I am praying it is SOOON!!

Charitable giving

Dear Friends and Family,

As many of your know we are in the process of adopting a baby boy from Ethiopia. We are excitedly working through the mounds of paperwork to bring our son home!

The cost of adoption is overwhelming, around $25,000 to bring Isaac home. We know that providing love and a family of faith for a child that would otherwise be left in an institution is worth the financial sacrifice that is involved.

Our adoption agency, America World has a program called the Eternal Family program. It allows friends and family to to participate in charitable giving towards the adoption of our child. Of course, we present this to you as an opportunity and not an obligation.

Checks are made out to America World Adoption and sent directly to the office at 6723 Whittier Ave. Suite 202, McLean, VA 22101. On the memo line, please indicate "Eternal Family". We also have another form for you to fill out and if you are interested we will mail or email this form to you. That way America World can send you a receipt for tax purposes at the end of the fiscal year.

Our adoption is one of faith. We humbly ask you to join our hearts and hands with us in that journey and pray for this little one as he joins our family.

In Christ,

Greg and Jackie Mullis

Planning a nursery again

I know this might sound odd...but, I love baby BOY stuff. I always enjoyed the pink and lace with my girls but I love looking at little boy clothes and blankets and stuff!The baby (babies) will be sharing a room with Nathan. We had thought at one point about making Abby and Esther share a room, but 1. Abby would hate it. 2. Nathan really wants to share a room with other boys. So we are moving Abby to the guest room, Esther into Abby's old room and turning Nathan's room into a boys room/nursery. The problem is I want Nathans stuff and Isaac's stuff to match as much as an infant and a 10 year olds stuff can match.

I found this at Target and I think it is perfect! My baby crib is white and Nathan's bunks are white, but I love the whole sports theme. Nathan likes it too! He just wants to add some Wake Forest and West Virginia posters to his side of the room! Soooo...whatcha think?

Here is a the link if ya wanna see it up close @ Target.com

Update

Our week in review!!

My Birth Certificate and our Marriage Certificate came back Authenticated from the Commonwealth of Virgina.

Our Criminal check from Florida stated we are not criminals :)

Employment letter was written, notarized and given to me

Last Reference was given to me

My Doctors physical was filled out and notarized

We have proof of Medical and Life Insurance

We were Fingerprinted for our NC Criminal checks

We applied for passports

All the above plus some documents were scanned to our family coordinator and approved :)

Not too bad for a weeks worth of work!

All we have left in order to begin our 3 home study visits are:

Waiting for one more form in the mail

get Greg's doctors form completed.

Hopefully get the kids doctor forms completed

our criminal NC forms back

Our Dossier is coming along nice too. Homeland/Immigration cashed our check so hopefully that means we will be getting a fingerprint appointment in Charlotte soon.

Good for you!

I want to introduce you to a powerful product that we are going to use during our adoption process. I think this will be especially beneficial for traveling over to Ethiopia and when we are back home with a baby. It is called Living Fuel. It is a powerful shake that you mix with water, fruit juice, fruit..however you like it. When we lived in Florida, we used this and I could tell such a difference in our energy level, sleep patterns and even remembering things and having a clearer head. I also found that our immune system was much stronger. I think it is worth it to have all these benefits when travelling that far under such circumstances.

Here is a quote from the website about their Super Green Mix:

"LivingFuel SuperGreens Whole Meal Superfood is the most powerful food on Earth! It contains concentrated green superfoods, plant protein, vitamins, minerals, herbs, amino acids, antioxidants, essential fats, enzymes and probiotics."

Here is their website, if you want to check them out!

www.livingfuel.com

Bloggy Giveaway

Just last week I won a tee shirt over at Kari's Blog! She had a contest and you had to come up with a catchy saying for her Christmas cards and I won! Nathan was a bit put out that I did not get my prize in a youth size for him!

Soooo.... she is having another contest with lots of fun prizes and I thought I would enter again and see if I can win my boy a tee!

Go over to her blog and check out their story and all the fun and informative things she has on there about adoption.

Go here and check it out!

December progress

Its coming together! I received two of our notarized references in the mail this week and Greg's birth certificate now authenticated also came in the mail (less than a week!). We also had our doctor's physicals done on Thursday and Friday and we pick them up on Monday. Our passport appointment was postpone because Greg wasn't able to get out of the doctors office in time Thursday. So that is Tuesday. We go for fingerprinting Tuesday as well.

Our other letters we have needed to be signed or written should be back to us by the end of next week. After I get everything that had to be notarized in, it has to all be certified by NC, so I have to send it off for that.

THEN the kids will have doctors appointments and after that I think we can have our home study visits begin. By the time that is over hopefully we will have our fingerprint appointment with the FBI. I am still praying we can get this all done and turned in and be DTE by the end of February!

quote of the day

"If you debate for even one second when God has spoken, it is all over for you. Never start to say, "Well, I wonder if He really did speak to me?" Be reckless immediately---totally unrestrained and willing to risk everything---by casting your all upon Him. You do not know when His voice will come to you, but whenever the realization of God comes, even in the faintest way imaginable, be determined to recklessly abandon yourself, surrendering everything to Him. It is only through abandonment of yourself and your circumstances that you will recognize Him."

~ Oswald Chambers