Since we got our call to head over to Ethiopia a week ago I have to be honest...I have thought of little else. I have so much to do to get things in order at work for when I am away and also at home. Too much probably. I know that will all come together, but I just can't stop thinking about Nyah and Haakon. I can't stop looking at the pictures of them and showing them off to everyone! It seems almost every conversation I have I end up talking about them and our trip to get them. Usually I try really hard to have people leave a conversation feeling like they have had someone who deeply listened to them and asked them questions. That's not happening as much right now.
I know it's OK. Don't get me wrong. I love talking about them. It's good for me to tell the story. It's just different for me is all. Although, most conversations this past year have always started like this: "Hey, how are you? Great, how are you? Awesome. Hey, how is that adoption thing going?" So inevitably the conversation heads there anyhow, but now it has legs. It's real. It's happening. We are going.
AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
Can you tell I am a little excited?
Even though I have seen pictures and watched videos and heard stories and read blogs, it is a huge unknown. I imagine that it will be like. What our day in and out life will be like. What it will smell like. What sites we will see. What experiences we will have. How long it will take to pass court. When our embassy date will be. When we will come home. What people we will meet. I imagine a lot.
Right now we are working on our flights. Hoping to have all that nailed down by tonight. God has lead us through this so far and has provided all along the way. I am not stressed about that. (Thank you Jesus for taking my stress away!) We have pretty much finished the babies' room. Just a few more decorations and a rocking chair and we are done. We did some severe cleaning of the garage. Lots of house cleaning (my wife is amazing!)
BTW, if you haven't read my last post about our call go here.
I wonder...will we all fly together? Will we get to meet the birth moms? Will I get to train for hood to coast relay race with some new Ethiopian friends? Will there be anyone at the airport when we return home if we come back on a Monday afternoon? Will the kids like the food (I have already enjoyed Ethiopian food here in the States)? Will my older kids get along perfectly and start a new relationship because they have this shared experience without other kids to interfere? ;-) Will I get a tan?
I wonder...
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
WE ARE HEADED TO ETHIOPIA!!!
Wow! I can hardly believe it. It was a regular Friday. What I was doing was a little different. I was working from home. Sitting on my couch with my laptop open. Working on plans for our middle school service project camp that is happening in July. I was going to Karston's annual parent BBQ and so I decided it was best to just work from home and not waste all that time driving. But then...something that would change the way I viewed that day forever.
At 10:55 I heard that special ringtone I only have for Dove Adoptions International. I was not expecting it to be honest. When I was waiting for our referral call, I had my phone on all the time making sure I would hear the ringtone. I would even apologize to people I would have lunch with, because I don't like to have my phone interrupt my time with others. I have had my phone on silent plenty these days. I just happened to have it on this day. It rang, and Mercy Me sang, "On the other side of the world, she is just a few days old. A helpless little girl with no family of her own. She is not to blame for the journey she is on..."
Man that song gets me every time I hear it. It has such deep meaning for me now, especially as it is my special ringtone connected to my children!
Anyhow, this was THE call. Well, the other THE call. The one where they told us we had a court date! That's right. You did not read that wrong. We got our court date! June 20th!!! Can you believe it? On June 20th we will be standing before a judge in Ethiopia explaining that we want to legitimately adopt these two amazing children.
I seriously can not believe it is actually happening. 3 weeks from now we will actually be in Ethiopia! They want us there the week before so we have time to visit our kids and meet with our lawyer who will walk us through the process of our court date. It is so surreal. I am having a hard time wrapping my mind around this. I have equated parts of the adoption process to being pregnant before.
* Getting accepted into the process was like finding out we were pregnant.
* Knowing our paperwork was received in Ethiopia and we were on the list was like hearing the babies' heart beat.
* Getting our referrals was like seeing the ultrasound and finding out the gender (plus seeing their actual faces)
* Getting the call with a court date was like going into labor, albeit a very long labor.
* "Meetcha day" (the day we actually meet the kids) will be like the birth, and then they will have to put in the NICU, so they have to stay at the "hospital" for a while and we can visit them and love on them.
* When we pass court it will be like taking the babies home from the hospital.
* I guess passing our Embassy appointment and arriving back in the US don't really fit into the "pregnancy" equation, but maybe that is more like the follow up doctor appointments. ;)
Soon I will be blogging from across the pond and letting you in on the life of us in another world. Our children will be going with us and we are currently planning on staying from court to embassy. We have no idea how long this will take. We have seen people do that in as short as 3 weeks, our friends Josh and Bex Mann did it in 6 weeks and my sister and bro-in-law did it in 3 months. Theirs was an extreme case and is not the norm.
So here we go. We are launching on a new chapter. It's exciting. It's thrilling. It's scary. It's unpredictable. It's breathtaking. Sitting completely in the hands of God...it's good.
Join us, won't you? Now...where is that to-do list?
At 10:55 I heard that special ringtone I only have for Dove Adoptions International. I was not expecting it to be honest. When I was waiting for our referral call, I had my phone on all the time making sure I would hear the ringtone. I would even apologize to people I would have lunch with, because I don't like to have my phone interrupt my time with others. I have had my phone on silent plenty these days. I just happened to have it on this day. It rang, and Mercy Me sang, "On the other side of the world, she is just a few days old. A helpless little girl with no family of her own. She is not to blame for the journey she is on..."
Man that song gets me every time I hear it. It has such deep meaning for me now, especially as it is my special ringtone connected to my children!
Anyhow, this was THE call. Well, the other THE call. The one where they told us we had a court date! That's right. You did not read that wrong. We got our court date! June 20th!!! Can you believe it? On June 20th we will be standing before a judge in Ethiopia explaining that we want to legitimately adopt these two amazing children.
I seriously can not believe it is actually happening. 3 weeks from now we will actually be in Ethiopia! They want us there the week before so we have time to visit our kids and meet with our lawyer who will walk us through the process of our court date. It is so surreal. I am having a hard time wrapping my mind around this. I have equated parts of the adoption process to being pregnant before.
* Getting accepted into the process was like finding out we were pregnant.
* Knowing our paperwork was received in Ethiopia and we were on the list was like hearing the babies' heart beat.
* Getting our referrals was like seeing the ultrasound and finding out the gender (plus seeing their actual faces)
* Getting the call with a court date was like going into labor, albeit a very long labor.
* "Meetcha day" (the day we actually meet the kids) will be like the birth, and then they will have to put in the NICU, so they have to stay at the "hospital" for a while and we can visit them and love on them.
* When we pass court it will be like taking the babies home from the hospital.
* I guess passing our Embassy appointment and arriving back in the US don't really fit into the "pregnancy" equation, but maybe that is more like the follow up doctor appointments. ;)
Soon I will be blogging from across the pond and letting you in on the life of us in another world. Our children will be going with us and we are currently planning on staying from court to embassy. We have no idea how long this will take. We have seen people do that in as short as 3 weeks, our friends Josh and Bex Mann did it in 6 weeks and my sister and bro-in-law did it in 3 months. Theirs was an extreme case and is not the norm.
So here we go. We are launching on a new chapter. It's exciting. It's thrilling. It's scary. It's unpredictable. It's breathtaking. Sitting completely in the hands of God...it's good.
Join us, won't you? Now...where is that to-do list?
Friday, May 20, 2011
End of the World Credit Card Debt
I just spent $37,435.29! I got an iPad2, a new MacBook pro for my wife, iPhones for the kids, a soft tail fat boy Harley Davidson, ground fx for my car, a new 6'5" Al Merrick surfboard, Parrot Drone remote control, an iPhone video projector, iPhone pinball game, night vision goggles, a carstache for my Honda, a jetpack (I am REALLY excited about this one), this crazy jacketback. Its a backpack built into the jacket. Cool, huh?
Those are just a few things on the list I got. I figured being that it I may no longer be here on earth after Saturday, I would have some fun. ;)
I don't know if you have heard, but there are people who are saying that Jesus is returning on Saturday, May 21. This guy, Henry Camping, who is an engineer, has said he figured out the math from the Bible and knows that tomorrow is that day. Many people are freaking out thinking this is true. Many people say this guy is a nut case. Here is the deal. I have read the Bible and I know the answer. You see, in the Bible, Matthew 24 to be specific, we are told a few things about the end times. 1) it tells us that the gospel, the good news about Jesus Christ, will be preached in all the world. See here:
The other major thing, and for this conversation perhaps the most obvious thing, is that in verse 36 it says this:
Here is what I like about the fact that this guy has caused some crazy amount of stir in our world. I love that we are thinking about the end of our lives. Not that it's the end, but what we would do if we only had a short time left.
What would you do if you knew you only had a couple more days left on earth? Would you go out and buy a bunch of things? Would you go sky diving? Rocky mountain climbing? Go 2.7 seconds on a bu...wait a minute. Maybe Tim McGraw had it right.
A little highlight from a whole bunch of apocalyptic movies.
Eclectic Method - The Apocamix from Eclectic Method on Vimeo.
PS. No, I did not actually buy those things, but it sure would be fun!
I don't know if you have heard, but there are people who are saying that Jesus is returning on Saturday, May 21. This guy, Henry Camping, who is an engineer, has said he figured out the math from the Bible and knows that tomorrow is that day. Many people are freaking out thinking this is true. Many people say this guy is a nut case. Here is the deal. I have read the Bible and I know the answer. You see, in the Bible, Matthew 24 to be specific, we are told a few things about the end times. 1) it tells us that the gospel, the good news about Jesus Christ, will be preached in all the world. See here:
And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.That's verse 14 in chapter 24. There are way too many people groups in the world who have not heard the gospel yet.
The other major thing, and for this conversation perhaps the most obvious thing, is that in verse 36 it says this:
“No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,[f] but only the Father.No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.You see, this guy is using the Bible for his math to get to the 21st, but the Bible is VERY CLEAR in saying that NO ONE knows the day or the hour.
Here is what I like about the fact that this guy has caused some crazy amount of stir in our world. I love that we are thinking about the end of our lives. Not that it's the end, but what we would do if we only had a short time left.
What would you do if you knew you only had a couple more days left on earth? Would you go out and buy a bunch of things? Would you go sky diving? Rocky mountain climbing? Go 2.7 seconds on a bu...wait a minute. Maybe Tim McGraw had it right.
A little highlight from a whole bunch of apocalyptic movies.
Eclectic Method - The Apocamix from Eclectic Method on Vimeo.
PS. No, I did not actually buy those things, but it sure would be fun!
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
An Update
A lot of you have been saying, "Hey, we haven't heard an update in a while. Did I miss something?" No, you have not missed anything. I haven't made any updates because there really haven't been any updates.
Basically our agency told us that when we accepted our referrals that we would get notified about a court date in 4-7 weeks. We are in our 5th week! Ugh! The upside is that we are closer than we ever have been before. (duh). Our summer plans are on hold. We don't know when we are going, but every single day we are praying for Haakon and Nyah. We are praying for health (we think Haakon has the chicken pox and Nyah already had them last month). We are praying they know they are loved. We are praying every day that they are held and cared for well at the orphanage.
We invite you to pray with us on those things too. Would you also pray for a court date soon?! :) We have been praying for some friends too. One family has been waiting for 10 1/2 months for their referrals! We waited 7 months, 3 weeks and 2 days. Another family is adopting from Rawanda and have been waiting super long for their referral as well!
So here is to waiting. Kids: we are coming soon! Love you!
Basically our agency told us that when we accepted our referrals that we would get notified about a court date in 4-7 weeks. We are in our 5th week! Ugh! The upside is that we are closer than we ever have been before. (duh). Our summer plans are on hold. We don't know when we are going, but every single day we are praying for Haakon and Nyah. We are praying for health (we think Haakon has the chicken pox and Nyah already had them last month). We are praying they know they are loved. We are praying every day that they are held and cared for well at the orphanage.
We invite you to pray with us on those things too. Would you also pray for a court date soon?! :) We have been praying for some friends too. One family has been waiting for 10 1/2 months for their referrals! We waited 7 months, 3 weeks and 2 days. Another family is adopting from Rawanda and have been waiting super long for their referral as well!
So here is to waiting. Kids: we are coming soon! Love you!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
