Our Case Has Been Submitted To Court!

Our adoption paperwork has been submitted to the court! We are just waiting for a court date. I am starting to lose hope though that we will get in before the court closures (the courts close for two months during the extreme rain season). The weather has already turned cold and rainy. Even if we do get a court date, many cases do not make it through court on the first try. It is the most variable time to have your case get submitted. We may be traveling as soon as 8 weeks or as long as 6 months! I honestly do not know what to pray for because the people REALLY need the rain but my son REALLY needs to be home with his family getting medical attention. All I can pray for is God's will to be done or maybe for the courts to stay open later in the day so more cases can be processed in a shorter time :).

Kelly

Health and Food Crisis in Ethiopia

Things seem to be getting worse. WHO is reporting that there is a major health and food crisis going on right now in Ethiopia. Many countries have been hard hit by increasing food prices. Add the AIDS epidemic is killing off all the adults, and Ethiopia does not stand a chance. We complain so much in this country about our food prices or our fuel prices, but compared to the majority of the world, we live like royalty. We are so spoiled.

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2008/pr22/en/index.html

I am amazed at the number of people who ask us how we can afford to raise so many kids. My kids do not need new clothes, they do not need expensive toys, they do not need trips to Disney. They need a family, they need love, education, medical attention. All of which would not have been available to them without adoption. 3 of my children would have died had they not been adopted, so we are really talking a matter of life or death. All of my kids have medical needs that would not have been treated in their native countries. But more importantly, all children deserve to be loved and wanted. My kids may not have everything a family of our same income with 1 or 2 children would have. But I believe that they have everything that is important.

Please pray for the people of Ethiopia, Cambodia and Haiti (the countries my children are from). They are starving.

Kelly

Dossier in Africa!!!!!!

Our dossier (adoption paperwork) is scheduled to be in Africa today!!!!!! Our African process has officially started. And even better, the agency is confident that our case will be submitted to court before the court closure for August and Sept! I thought for sure we would not make it. God is good!

Kelly

My new "neice"

I have a very close friend in Seattle. Until our recent move, she and I coraised our children. Her family is what we miss most about Seattle. I was lucky enough though to go up and take care of her kids while she gave birth to her newest daughter, Jasmin. Here is a picture of her cuteness. Jasmin could really use prayers as she has had a difficult time with her health. So far they cannot find the cause of her illness. Please join us in prayer for Jasmin.

LAGOON!!

My wonderful mother gave our family season passes to Lagoon! Everyone in the family loves it! Here are some cute pictures of one of our latest trips there.

Grim Statistics for Children

This information comes from Unicef:

Ethiopia counts one of the largest populations of orphans in the world: 13 per cent of children throughout the country are missing parents. This represents an estimated 4.6 million children – 800,000 of whom were orphaned by HIV/AIDS. The country has seen a steady increase in the number of children becoming orphaned because of AIDS. In the past, famine, conflict and other diseases were the main factors that claimed the lives of parents

This is from The Body (awsome website with lots of information on HIV/AIDS):

By 2010, the percentage of AIDS orphans in Ethiopia will reach 43 percent -- or 2.2 million -- of all orphans in the country. "By 2010, 20 percent to 30 percent of all children under the age of 15 in 11 sub-Saharan African countries will have been orphaned even if new infections were to be prevented and some form of treatment could slow down the onset of AIDS in those living with HIV/AIDS," the study said. Ethiopia, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo are other countries where AIDS orphans are expected to increase significantly. During a three-day national conference, it was indicated that most governmental agencies in Ethiopia have not been able to develop a strategy to implement the existing HIV/AIDS policy. A major reason given for this failure, according to the study, is that the policy does not give due attention to the problem of AIDS orphans.

Pictures are gone :(

I just found out that Teddy's native country does not allow us adoptive parents to show pictures of the kids on the internet until they are legally ours. So Teddy's pictures have to come down :(.

Kelly

We're Officially Waiting!

We officially got the referral for Teddy today! For those who are not in the adoption world, it basically just means that he has been assigned to our family and we can start the adoption process for him. We also got his medical information, how he came to be an orphan, his measurements etc. Despite looking HUGE on the videos and pictures, our guy is little. He is <5% for weight. I guess he will fit right in with most of my kiddos. We'll just have to try and fatten him up when he gets home.

Another One?? How Teddy joined our hearts.

But I thought you were done? So did I!

For some time, whenever I had a quiet moment, I felt the whisperings of the spirit telling me I had another son. I actively ignored it as best as I could. Afterall, I was done. I had 6 amazing children, why rock the boat? After awhile I started feeling guilty. (Especially since all the children in our family started saying that Jesus was telling them we needed a little brother). I knew that I was purposefully trying to disobey God. So, in my silly mind I decided that I would make some small, token, ineffective effort to find this boy, and then I could say to the Lord, "Well I tried." Then I could happily move on with my life. I am here to tell you, never tempt the Lord!

I have always been drawn to Adoption Advocates program. And then one of my online friends, Erin, was hired on by them. I decided that IF I was to adopt again, that would be a great program. So I emailed Erin asking her to send me all of her boys ages 3 and under. I figured I would look them all over, not be drawn to any of them, and then I would happily go on as mother to 6. Erin emailed me back that she felt strongly that one particular little boy was supposed to be in our family and sent me his pictures. Darn it! Now I actually have to pray about this! I was afraid I knew the answer. I opened the link and there was adorable Teddy. But no lightening bolts.

That evening, Kevin and I were out for our weekly date. I brought the picture of Teddy to talk to him about it. Kevin insisted he could "not deal with this right now." Clarissa was going into a risky surgery in just a few days and it was all that he could handle. I thought, "Great! Let's not deal with this! Stalling works for me." At the completion of our dinner, the waiter brought us our fortune cookies. I, kidding, said "Ok, my fortune cookie will tell us whether or not to adopt Teddy." I opened the cookie and read, "You will have a surprise someone join your life." We burst out laughing. I am here to tell you, never tempt the Lord!

Over the next couple of days, I prayed often about Teddy. Each time I got the same soft peaceful feeling of yes. I did not have a vision (like Naomi and Emmanuel), a huge spiritual experience (like Clarissa), or an overpowering feeling of love and ownership (like Maya and Zachary). It was a quiet soft feeling. I went to Kevin to tell him that I had been praying about Teddy and what I had felt. He again responded, "I cannot deal with this right now." Which again, I was totally ok with.

Clarissa's surgery was difficult and did not go well. She ended up in the hospital for several days with pnumonia. I told the Lord, "I cannot deal with this right now" and put all thoughts of Teddy out of my mind.

After Clarissa recovered, we needed to make a decision about the next surgery. We were scared as to what we should do. Kevin and I decided to go to the temple about it. When we met up in the Celetial room Kevin declared that Teddy was our son. He went on to talk about what an amazing missionary he was going to be and that he would be the tool to bringing thousands to the gospel. Kevin practically glowed talking about him.

I truthfully, was still not too excited. Then Adoption Advocates sent us the videos of our son. Oh my goodness!!!!!!!!! I fell in love hard and fast. He is sooooooo much our son. What an amazing little boy. We started the process.

We are now very excited about adopting Teddy. We know that like all of our other children that it will be hard but that we will never regret it. I would not have designed my family the way it is had I been in control (thank goodness I am not in control) but I can't imagine my life without each one of my little angels! I am the luckiest mom on the earth!

Many teased me that if I bought a bigger van, God would fill it. I am here to tell you, never tempt the Lord!

Another Addition!

Yes it is true, despite my rantings that we were DONE adding children, the Lord has touched our hearts and we are bringing home another child. He simply does not care what my laundry room looks like ;). We would love to introduce to you Teddy from Africa.