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Saturday, June 30, 2007

African Children's Choir Fun Day!!!



Today we had such an amazing day with the African Children's Choir. They are on break from touring and about ready to launch ONE VOTE in NYC on Good Morning America on July 11th. But we volunteered to provide music, food and fun today. It was incredible ...the children are so sweet. We sang, had lunch, arts and crafts, balloon fights, worship music, dessert, ice cream truck and more crafts and gift bags. In a nutshell, I wanted it to be like a giant birthday party for them. It was so much fun...we feel so blessed. Another piece of good news on the adoption front. We received the dossier packet from AAI ...and to me this looks like a piece of cake compared to Guatemala. So next week as we get ready to move from our office and move stuff out of our home to put up for sale...we also will be getting our dossier in order. Here are some sweet pictures of all of the angels from today......

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

HOMESTUDY UPDATE Tonight!


Hi everyone,

We just completed our meeting with our social worker tonight. YAY! One more step in getting closer on this journey. I am really tired because I spent the past 3 days in NYC with my teenage daughter and her best friend. Plus I had to work and do a really fun photo shoot....issue will be in MORE magazine in Sept but in their OCTOBER issue....Here are a couple of pics from our last trip there....we finished the time with a very delicious chocolate sundae at Serendipity in NY.....The girl in the shot with me is one of my closest friends MONICA...she is beautiful and fun and promises to help me with the hair of my new Ethiopian daughter....Oh and a really cool thing happened at the shoot, one of the assistants of the stylist is from Africa right next door to Ethiopia...her name was Elsa.

Thursday, June 7, 2007

How Great is Our God!

Today we read some posts on a forum that were rather negative about older child adoption. We were discouraged for a minute. Then realizing that "through God all things are possible". We remembered that adoption is a battle. There will be doubts etc but sometimes when you are doing what God wants there are all kinds of obstacles to climb...in general we have been so fortunate to feel a great positive peace about things....

I have a wonderful online friend that I haven't met. Her name is Teresa. I met her through the Guatemala adoption forums. We became friends through prayer and the adoption of our girls in 2005 from Guatemala.

So today, Teresa gives us the news that her husband has surprised her and her dream is coming true of adopting from VIETNAM..This is what she wrote:

"When I got home today Daniel & Chloe had me a birthday present. I didn't think much about it because he is going to be out of town all next week.
I open it and it is the most beautiful vietnamese baby boy outfit I have ever seen and the receipt where he paid the initial fee for our agency.
I couldn't believe it! I have been praying about adopting for months but knew that we didn't have the money.
Daniel has been saying we should wait till Chloe is older and then maybe we are financially better off. (we are still paying for Chloe's adoption)
I haven't wanted to wait because she is going to be 3 in February and I don't want them to be to far apart.
I also believe that if it is truly the Lord's will then it will happen, that He will fund it. Well, I have just been praying for the Lord to show us what to do, praying that my sweet friend DJ who is now adopting from Ethiopia was given a sign too. (like Chloe's flashing neon sign) or that he would give my friend Wendy that certain scripture telling us exactly what to do.
Daniel told me today with tears in his eyes after I opened my gift that he has known for weeks but has been trying to hold off till my birthday. He said one night late while praying he told the Lord that he just didn't know. That he didn't know if another child would be like Chloe, that he knew we couldn't afford it and he just didn't know. He said the Lord spoke to him that night so clearly it was like He was right there beside him and He said "I did it one time, don't you think I can do it again?"
Praise The Lord we are adopting from Vietnam!!!!!!!!!!!!!""""

CoNGRATS to Teresa and Daniel...and all of their kids....we are meeting in person this summer...can't wait...and thank you God for the encouragement.

Monday, June 4, 2007

Onward and upward!

Today we received all of our materials to move forward with the Agency we have chosen ..Adoption Advocates International. I am very excited and will be sending in the materials ASAP. We just have to wait to hear if they prefer to have the homestudy attached in which case we will have to wait because we don't have a meeting set up yet with our social worker. But it is an update so are hoping it is not drawn out. YAY! Also, we have framing up to the main floor in our house...another milestone. The yard looks bigger too.

Sunday, June 3, 2007

Oranges!

Many of you know that I tend to dream or get images/visions every now and again. Anyhow, today I was praying for our kids and I see the hands of my future children's birth mom giving me ORANGES....It was clear this was some kind of offering..but now i am curious how the Ethiopian culture views oranges. I am not sure if oranges are a big deal in Ethiopia or if there is significance, but I have sent off a note to some of my Ethiopian forums to ask .....If any of you have any idea I would be thrilled to hear...

Love,
D