Month Number 3

We are three months DTE today!! On the unofficial list we are 7th in line for a baby boy and 12th overall!! Every month on our DTE day, we have celebrated with ice cream!! Month 1 we went to Kernel Kustard, month 2 we had Zack's yogurt and to celebrate tonight, we are gonna have us some Bill and Leah's ice cream. Yum!! Here is hoping for a referral by month #4!!

Awesome quote

There is a family sitting in Ethiopia right now making some decisions on faith and trusting God will see them through. She posted this on her FB wall, and I loved it. Praying for you Smith family..I think you rock!

"One life on this earth is all that we get, whether it is enough or not enough,and the obvious conclusion would seem to be that at the very least... we are fools if we do not live it as fully and bravely and beautifully as we can."

Blessings!

This week, we found out that we were going to receive a $3,000 grant from Caroline's Promise! We are so excited and blessed by this! CP is a wonderful organization and we have been able to watch them live out what they believe in our community.

We also received our amended I171H form in the mail. We did this in case Mikias comes available through AWAA or if we happen to get a referral for an older than our original Home study stated ( 0-4 years). We know we want a baby boy and that is our original request, but we also know that we are going to want to adopt more than one child from Ethiopia, so it makes sense ( money wise) to go ahead and bring both children home at the same time.

God has placed a little boy named Mikias on our hearts and we dont really know right now if that is to adopt him or to pray feverantly for him. His pictures are in our house and our children pray for him every night. We have not heard an update on him in months now, so we really have no idea where he is our how he is, but we are still praying for him.

That being said, we wanted to be paper ready if he does become available and if he does not, we have decided that with the older child...well, we are going to leave that in the Lord's hands and have a fairly large range. If it is not Mikias then I would like for the child to be younger than Esther (8), but can be a girl or a boy..its kinda exciting to be waiting and see exactly what God is going to bless us with!!

Hopefully, the wait wont be too long either! We will be DTE 3 months this Saturday!! We could hear from our agency with a referral realistically within the next 6 weeks!!!!! It could, of course take longer, but I am not going to think about that!

a prayer tonight

Tonight our Adoption Yahoo group decided to have a prayer time. It was amazing to hear/read so many families pouring their heart out to God on behalf of these sweet babies and children.

Father, I come to you tonight on this special day set aside to honor fathers, to ask you to be with the fatherless. I pray that you would guide the steps and the decisions being made on behalf of these special children. I pray that You would be with each family going through this journey and help them to not lose hope. Abba Father, we pray that You would be with these precious children. Keep them safe and out of harm. I pray that You would be with those right now in Ethiopia, those waiting for court dates, waiting to travel, waiting for referrals and paper chasing. God, uphold each family and bless them through this journey. Lift our spirits Lord as we wait. Help us, Lord ,to not get focused waiting on the event, Lord, but help us to wait on YOU, to put our eyes on YOU and You alone... In your sweet and precious Son JESUS name we pray, Amen

Adorable Adoption video

I found this video through another blogger friend of mine and I love it! The B's are a Florida Gator family too with three adorable girls! It is such a blessing to see the Lord work in families lives and connect people through adoption.

how about a giveaway

No news on the adoption front this week (so far!) but I wanted to let you all know about a book written by Tom Davis of Children's Hope Chest. It is a book dealing with the sex trade industry and the girls that have been victims of this horrible tragedy. Kari is doing a giveaway of 10 of these books. I am hoping to win one to take with me to camp in a few weeks. Check the links out and go buy a book! She is Priceless

We are so excited to announce some important news! We were just matched with a precious sponsor child in Ethiopia! Her name is Kidist and she is 8 years old..the same as my Esther! We have partnered with Children's Hopechest to help provide this beautiful girl with food, water, access to medical care, education and discipleship.

Children's Hopechest is working with a care-point center in Ethiopia called "Trees of Glory." There are 84 children there currently hoping for a sponsor.... Wait, make that 83 now!! These children are mostly orphans who are living with a family member who can barely provide for them and many of them are severely malnourished and frequently ill.

A sponsorship will help ensure these children access to a better environment, improved health, tutoring, and Bible training. It also allows for the sponsor to communicate one-on-one with the child, offering them encouragement, guidance

, and the love of Christ.

If you have ever thought about sponsoring a child, please let NOW be the time. Your decision to sponsor a child will have a lasting impact on their lives.

You can read more about Trees of Glory and view the pictures of children who still need sponsors by visiting the blog of Karen Wistrom. Go check out her blog HERE

Trees of Glory is a location that Greg and I will be able to visit when we travel to Ethiopia. We will be providing them with donations as well meeting our sponsor child! I am so excited, especially for Abigail to be able to go and spend a day at this

location playing with and ministering to these children.

If you decide to sponsor a child at this location, please let us know as we would be so honored to meet them and take photos for you! Here is a photo of Tigist. Would you please add her to your prayers too?