USCIS Approval

Yay we received our USCIS 171H approval which means that we are officially permitted to adopt from Ethiopia. Our dossier is in Ethiopia our kids received our welcome bags and will be receiving several letters soon. We found an Ethiopia Christian church that the kids can visit every now and again on a Saturday. They will be going to our regular church at Kings Park though. OUr new house is sched to be ready near the end of November around the same time the kids could be coming home. So we are thrilled and overwhelmed......Keep us in your prayers. I can't post any pics of the kids but can post some of our family and house soon...

Love,
D

Back from NY!

Just returned from a weekend in NYC. It was raining and really cold while it was 100 degrees in NC. No real new news. We are just still waiting for the courts to reopen to be able to bring our kids home. Our house is moving along. All of our brick is up and now we are moving into a lighting meeting. We will be going to Charlotte this Thursday night for a fingerprinting appointment on Friday. So we are very excited and happy and looking for pictures of our kids. We are spending sometime this week making letters for our kids....they will find out about us around 8/23.

Fingerprinting date! And Birthday!

Well we have a fingerprinting date and will be in Charlotte on friday 8/17 at 8am. Have to give a huge thumbs up to the NC USCIS. I sent them a note and told them about our referral and they expedited the date for us. YAY! AND we heard that we may be able to get these kids home by CHRISTMAS. Also, had a great week...closed on our office space. Had an electrical meeting at the house. The builders know our situation and will try very hard to get our house ready by christmas for the kids....AND I had a great birthday today. Of course, to your average person this may not seem exciting but I loved my birthday. I cleaned the studio today. Went grocery shopping with the kids . Came home to Christi and Amber (the sweetest and funnest -that's not a word-girls ever)...the doorbell rang and they met me with a lit margarita cake..so good. THANKS GALS... While cleaning came across an old letter from Grandma jones that started with "I am not sure if it is your birthday but I wanted to wish you a happy birthday." which of course started me crying tears of joy...feeling as if my Grandmother is wishing me a happy birthday all the way from heaven...Andrew made me a bracelet and a homemade card with all kids on it. Matea kissed me a million times...Sam folded the laundry and my childhood friend Debbie Anderson Bex called me to wish me a happy birthday as did my sisters and girlfriend PAULA....life is great....And earlier in the week my new beloved friends Wayne and Linda came with us to walk through our house and prayed over the house...AMEN!

Another Story!

This sunday we had the pleasure of sharing the story of how we met a child from our children's orphanage at our church with the whole entire congregation at our church. After church I was met by several families adopting. This is a large church and we are new . So we met a family adopting from Haiti, one from Kazakhstan, China to name a few. I counted about 10 children coming home to our church Kings Park www.kpic.org in the next year or so. So we are in the process of also starting an adoption ministry there..if approved etc. Anyhow, I came home and receive a phone call the second I get home from a woman who knows a friend of my sisters 3 hours away. She is the mother of another child who was recently adopted from Ethiopia who knows my oldest girl from the orphanage. So we are going to make arrangements to get together. This was a sweet treat because the boy from our church knows our younger two...now the oldest will have a friend to visit when we visit my sister.

We received a fingerprinting appointment today for a SATURDAY where we are traveling on business and have a contract that we can't get out of. I wrote to CIS today to ask for another date. I hated to do that but could not get out of the commitment I have. AARGH...but God will make a way...We also closed on our office space today...YAY! one less step in the exciting puzzle of our adoption.

Also, want to thank my friend Amber for coming to the John Mayer concert with me last night. We sat on the lawn surrounded by teenagers and kept an eye on my beautiful 16 year old. The music was great with the exception of one extremely xrated song by BEN FOLDS...I couldn't believe my ears...and didn't have the luxury of a mute button...so just had a talk with my daughter afterwards. Thanks for being my buddy and hanging with me AMBER...you made the night extremely great....

GOD IS AMAZING and already showing His hand in all of this. PRAISES!

Blessings..

DJ