We Are Still Here

I know, I am a terrible blogger! Well, we are still here, I promise. We are still waiting as well.... We know that we are getting closer to receiving our referral. We did receive the update that our agency is giving referrals of infants now to families who have been waiting since June 2008, and that is us. We are mid-June. So, it is nice to know they are giving referrals for families in our month. So, we hope that we will be called soon. We will definitely post once we hear something or other updates that we receive. Thank you to those who do check up on us every once in a while. We hope to have some exciting news to share soon! Hope everyone is well and getting excited about the holiday season coming up!

21!!!

Well, 21 referrals were given last week! We were amazed that it was another significant number, and we are excited to know that children that need permanent, loving families are being matched with their families. This next week, we will be anxious to see if any families in June receive their referrals.

Well, we have been doing some extreme nesting, and we are fortunately coming to the end of that. We are finishing up our kitchen this weekend, so we are ready to be done with the extreme nesting. My friend, Elizabeth, who I visited in the Persian Gulf last fall will be here next week with her husband, Curt. We are excited to see them, but the house definitely has to be back in order before they arrive.

Well, we will keep you updated! Thank you for continuing to read our posts!

More Good News

Hello all, we received an e-mail on Wednesday of this last week letting us know that the courts in Ethiopia, which usually close for the months of August and September, are staying open for August this year. They were not really sure what that meant for September or other months the rest of this year, but everyone is very excited to hear they will be open for August. It just means that more children will be joined with their forever families!!! They also mentioned that they are seeing an increased number in referrals due to a region in the Southern part of the country gaining more access to the adoption system. So, more children are having the opportunity to find permanent, loving homes!!!! So, we are anxiously waiting to see how this will affect our current timeline. We had been told that we could expect to find out about our baby at the end of the summer or early fall, so we will see if it might be a little bit earlier. I am anxious to see the update for this last week, which will come out on Monday. We will let you know!

29!!!!!

So, we received our weekly update today from our adoption agency. Well, it actually didn't come via e-mail the way it has the last few weeks, but I called the hotline to receive the information. So, as I listend intently to the information, I heard the voice say that 29 referrals were given last week. Obviously, that couldn't have been accurate, but I have called the hotline two more times and confirmed that they really did say 29!!!!!! That is a whole lot of referrals for one week! We were so excited. So, we continue to wait with great excitement and anticipation. It was really nice to receive such good news today!

Wellington Orphanage and Updates on the Adoption

We haven't written about our sweet children at the Wellington Orphanage in some time. Everytime I open our blog a smile comes to my face as I see their sweet eyes and smiles. We do love and care for these children so much, and we are very anxious to see them again. We were just talking about if this would be a possibility before our adoption, but it doesn't appear at this time that it will be possible. As you have read on here before, they are so amazing, and you just can't help but want to be around them all the time. We are so blessed and have been forever impacted by these children and what God has done, is doing and will do with and through these children. It is really exciting because a friend of ours, Amy, who we met on our trip in November moved to Sierra Leone in June, and she plans to stay through the end of this year. She is specifically working with the children on their education. She is providing tutoring on their lessons and challenging them beyond their lessons, so they can receive the best education possible. We are so excited for her and for the kids. We have received a couple of updates from her and things are going well. The kids are already beginning to learn some really great things like reading, adding, etc. She is such a cool gal with an unbelievable testimony.

We are able to correspond with Bintu, the young girl we sponsor, as teams come back and forth. Most recently, she made me this beautiful cross necklace, which I love. She is a precious young lady that has such strong faith in the Father. As I write about these children even now, tears come to my eyes and I am extremely humbled on so many levels.

Another great thing is that 4Him continually takes trips to Sierra Leone to the orphanage. I totally challenge anyone to consider this. You can always check out their website at www.4-Him.net. Also, on the current trips, someone is blogging about the trip, and I have included that link as well. You should totally check out this blog: http://pushingbackdarkness.com

Well, things are still moving along with the adoption. We get weekly update e-mails on Mondays, which I thoroughly enjoy! The last two weeks 15 referrals have been given and several families have passed through court and have traveled to receive their children. We are doing a phone conference today with the agency to get some more updates, so that will be good. We are anxious to see what the end of the summer/beginning of the fall shall bring! Just FYI: After we receive our referral and officially accept the referral, then we will wait for them to assign our court date, which could take a couple of months, especially since we will be receiving our referral while the courts are closed. Once we have our court date and hopefully pass through court the first time, then our baby will officially be our child. They will actually send us a birth certificate even before we travel!! After we pass through court, then they will give us permission to travel and assign us a travel date. That should just be a few weeks after court. We're so excited, and we are so ready to meet this little person!

Well, I think that is all for now. Thank you so much for continuing to read.

Just Reporting In

Well, nothing too new to report. We're just hanging out and continuing to wait. I did just make my first book purchase for our baby, which was pretty fun! I love the website Amharic Kids, but it does get me into a lot of trouble! So, our child now has their first coloring book and children's book about Ethiopia. I'm pretty excited about them, and I promised Kevin that I would space out my book purchases to maybe just one a month, we'll see. They do have a really cute one on sale right now that is called "I Love my Hair", so I may have to go ahead and break that promise.

I don't know if I mentioned that we have already bought our child's first stuffed animal as well. Once we find out who our baby is, then we will be able to send them a care package with pictures, a stuffed animal, clothes, blanket, etc. We get to fill a one-gallon freezer bag to be sent to Ethiopia, so we will fill it as full as we can! So, we have purchased the cutest little stuffed monkey. I'll put the pic below. We actually went ahead and bought two, so we can send one and take one with us to Ethiopia. We're pretty fond of the monkeys.



I got to see my brothers, sister-in-law and newphews a couple of weeks ago, and it was fabulous! We had great time, and we were able to celebrate Nyle's first birthday! The boy loved his cake, well, the icing!



So, we are just working on house projects, planning some quick, fun trips and just trying to use our time waiting as wisely as possible.

Hope everyone is doing well and having a good summer thus far.

We are Still Here!

Wow, I am behind on blogging, aren't I!! Thank you for checking out our blog and being interested in what is going on; we appreciate the time that you take to do that. I am sorry that I have not done a very good job the last couple of months updating things.

So, in April, I had my birthday, which was really fun because I received some really cool gifts that had a wonderful theme: Adopting from Ethiopia!!!! Kevin gave me a charm called "Chosen Hand: The Gift of Adoption." It is the sweetest charm that I can wear as a necklace. My friend, Melodie, had received one for her birthday, so I found out about it from her. You can check out www.sterlinggrace.net for your very own charm. It comes with the sweetest poem, which is written below.

For a child you prayed
He heard the request
And that of the birth Mother
who wanted the best
The prayers of each other
He merged together
Directing our paths
He broughts us together
From His own hand into yours
God created me
Then you chose to take me
A parents love birth deep
in your heart
Our lives are now blessed
thanks be to God
for knowing what's best.

My sweet friend, Melodie, also bought me a beautiful charm that means "mother" in Amharic, which is the official language in Ethiopia. She found it at www.dosbesitos.etsy.com. I LOVE IT!!! Then, my precious mother-in-law, Karen, got me a t-shirt online that has Ethiopia spelled out in the colors of the nation's flag. I love getting to wear all of this because they are a constant reminder of the precious child that God has chosen for us. It was a great birthday!

As far as timing on our referral, there have been some changes. In March, things were looking really good for us to receive our referral in June; however, since that time there has been a continual slowing for several reasons that I have listed below.

- it is taking longer for all the appropriate paperwork regarding the child's orphan status to be processed prior to them being eligible for adoption
- an increasing number of agencies are beginning to work in Ethioipia, so that, combined with several other country's adoption programs closing and having significantly increased wait times means a larger number of families adopting from Ethiopia
- Our agency just started adopting with their second orphanage, but there is an authority change occuring for this orphanage within Ethiopia, so that has held up referrals from that orphanage. They hope that this will be resolved soon and more referrals will begin to be processed from that orphanage.
- Now, this final reason is a wonderful reason that we are very pleased with and excited about. More family and child welfare aid is becoming available, so more families have the option of choosing to parent in Ethiopia!!!! That is awesome and an answer to prayer!

So, with all of this going on, then they are anticipating that we will receive our referral towards the end of the summer or later. Yes, on the one hand we are definitely disappointed. It feels as though the closer we get, then the further our referral gets. On the other hand, we can't be disappointed if more children have the ability to stay with their birth families in their birth countries! Now, we definitely know that there are MILLIONS (144 million to be exact) of children who need homes, so we know that God has a child ordained for our family, so we are doing the best that we can to wait patiently on Him. I guess what I am trying to say is that is difficult to be completely disappointed and impatient if we know that some things are actually being done to help children be able to stay with their birth parents. Now, the important thing and the challenge is ensuring that these families have what they need to appropriately and successfully raise their children throughout their lives. Most importantly, we are prayerful that believers will be supporters of such endeavors and active in going and sending others so that the world may know HIM.

Now, I am not going to kid you or myself and pretend that the waiting is not excrutiating at times. It definitely has it moments and its days, and I definitely struggle with will this ever happen or is this just a distant dream. The study of Esther by Beth Moore is being offered at my place of employment during lunch on a weekly basis. So, this week she talked about waiting on the Lord and not on the event. She talked about how waiting on the actual event will drain you and exhaust you, but that waiting upon the Lord will renew our strength. I thought it was an amazing distinction to make. All this time, I kept telling myself to wait upon the Lord, but I have been waiting on our referral. Now, I don't know what it completely looks like to wait upon the Lord in this particular situation, but I am asking the Lord to help me. He and I have had several conversations that He will have to teach me how to trust Him through this. Wow, what a journey!

Well, thank you for enduring all of this information; it is probably more than you bargained for, but that is the update at this point. I will do better at blogging more often, so the entries aren't so long! Oh yes, on a fun note, my brother and his family returned from Eastern Europe last week from their service. So, it is so nice to have them back home, and I will get to see them soon. I can't wait to squeeze my little newphews!!!!

Good News!

The last few weeks have brought good reports from the land of Ethiopia, which we are very thankful for! After we received the update that the courts were still running a little behind in February, our adoption specialist from our agency notified us that things were running well, and they were seeing referrals coming in at 12 months for families, which is what they have been expecting and telling us for several months now. We have been officially waiting for 9 months, and hopefully we only have 3 more months to wait, if that long. It also did report that families are traveling to pick up their child closer to 4 months rather than 2 or 3 months. Prior to this report, we had already been preparing ourselves that we may not be able to bring our baby home until the fall. We are just prayerful that we will have our baby home by the holidays.

Then, last Friday, 3/13, we received an update that showed statistics of referrals over the last several months, and it reported that no family had waited more than 12 months for their referral that were within the same age range as we are requesting. So, we were really excited about that. They also reported that our agency is starting to adopt with another orphanage in Ethiopia. So, they will be adopting with two different orphanages, which will provide homes for so many more children in need. We felt really good about the report we received, and we were very encouraged. So, we are very excited to see what the next couple of months bring.

Well, we are working to get the nursery ready and get projects at the house completed while trying to keep up on our reading and research. Thank you for your continued prayers and being on this journey with us!

Our niece, our anniversary and update on our adoption

On February 5, Kevin and I became an aunt and uncle again to our sweet little niece, Claire! She was born a little after 8:00 am that morning, and she weighed 7 lbs. and 4 oz. She was 20 and 1/2 inches long. She has a sweet little head of hair, and it is light brown right now. She is so sweet. She is our first niece, and we are really excited to be a part of her life.



Also this month, we celebrated our 7th anniversary! Wow, we can't believe that we have been married for 7 years. It has gone by so fast, and we have had so much fun together. We have had the opportunity to experience so many amazing things, and we are so thankful for that. I am so blessed to have Kevin as my husband. I could have never asked for a more perfect husband. It is amazing to see how God put us together for very specific reasons and how He knew exactly what I needed, even when I didn't have a clue. He is so selfless and giving. He sacrifices for me everyday, and he is going to make an amazing father. He found roses for me that had purple baby's breath, which was perfect because our wedding colors were red and purple. He did very well!


Finally, we have received a couple of tidbits of information from our adoption agency. 1) The courts in Ethiopia are still running behind due to an increased number of cases to work through and the need for increased legislative staff. So, from what we understand, the country is working to hire more federal judges, so they will have the staff they need to effectively manage all of the adoption cases. So, we are praying that they will be able to hire the judges they need quickly, and they will be able to assume their positions quickly. 2) As June gets closer, the agency will set a cut off date for referrals due to the yearly court closure in August. So, as the spring gets closer, then we will know what date we would need to receive our referral by to be able to travel before August and bring our baby home. If we do not make that cut off date, then we will travel to Ethiopia in the fall. So, we are praying that we make the earlier date. We know that God has the perfect timing, and we are trusting Him for that. We do covet and appreciate your prayers.

Excited for My Youngest Brother

Last Thursday my youngest brother, Aaron, appeared on Grey's Anatomy as an extra! It was really cool, and we are all very exicted for him. He moved to LA in August to explore the acting industry, and he has been able to work as an extra on several sets. It was really great to anticipate and then actually see him on the show. He appears at the very end of last week's show. He is sitting on the front row on the far left observing the execution that takes place on the show. He did a fabulous job. Way to go, Aaron!

Saying Goodbye

Well, January has been full of goodbyes. Andrea's younger brother and family moved to Eastern Europe and Kevin's younger brother moved to Southeast Asia and both will be in their respective places for a few years doing different types of work. We are very excited for them, but it was really difficult to see them go. They are doing well, and we have been able to communicate fairly frequently, so that has been really good. Thank goodness for Skype. If you have family that lives out of town or overseas, you should totally check out Skype. You can just download it online, and it is free if your family or friend has Skype as well. It really is awesome! So, I get to see my nephews on a weekly basis. It's not the same as hugging their little necks, but it is a great option! We are so thankful for our families and the ways they are serving. Please remember them in your prayers as you think of them.

Christmas and Nephews!

You can sum up Christmas with one word: Nephews! We were able to see all three of our nephews this Christmas, and it was great! We had a great Christmas and especially a lot of fun with the boys!

Caleb played Santa this year and passed out everyone's gifts. He did a great job and got them all in the right place. He just turned two, and he is going to be a big brother to his sister, Claire, on February 5! We are very anxious for her arrival.

Nic and Nyle are 3 and 6 months. We had a great time at Christmas with them, and we were able to watch Wall-E with Nic a couple of times. They are moving to Hungary this week, so we are obviously extremely sad to see them go. We are very thankful we were able to spend a few days with them over the holidays.


No new updates on our adoption at this time. We are just still anxiously and patiently waiting! Our current timeframe is finding out who our baby is around June. We are very prayerful and hopeful that next Christmas we will get to add pictures of our baby with his/her cousins. :)

Back from Africa

We got back from Sierra Leone on November 21st, but our flights were delayed from London and we missed our flight from Chicago to OKC so we had to spend the night in Chicago, fly in to Tulsa the next day and rent a car to OKC (but it was definitely worth it). This was my (Kevin) 2nd time to visit and it was Andrea's 3rd time. The first trip I took to the Wellington Orphanage was unforgetable, but it seemed very short and as soon as I started getting to know some of the kids it was already time to leave. This trip was much different. From the night we pulled into the orphanage, more of the kids knew my name than I knew theirs and I had been studying their names for weeks because I didn't learn very many on the 1st trip. We drove up to the orphanage late the 1st night we arrived and were told that all of the children were in bed so we were sad we wouldn't see them that night. However, as we got closer to the orphanage we noticed the children had lined both sides of the path and were jumping and cheering and high-fiving us through the car windows just as if their favorite team had won the national championship. When we got out of the car, they just swarmed around us and hugged us and grabbed all of our luggage.
Our team included a Physician Assistant who did an amazing job and many others with medical experience. We were able to do 5 separate medical clinics in different areas of the country while we were there and treated over 800 people. Most of the clinics were done in very rural villages, amputee villages, and polio camps. These people have no band-aids, tylenol, vitamins or anything to treat their medical problems. People were treated for everything from head aches to severe wounds, and 10-15 people were sent to the hospital for surgery. I got a little sick the week I came back and had more appreciation for doctors' visits, insurance, and medication than I ever have before. Sometimes I catch myself complaining about the system in the U.S. but at least we have access to treatment unlike most of the world's population.
Aside from the medical clinics we were able to spend a lot of time with the kids, which is my favorite part of the trip. I think on my first trip I was so impressed by how happy, joyful, disciplined, etc. the kids were that at times I would actually forget the war they suffered through which took their parents lives and put them in the situation they are in today. The orphanage they live in is great and and they are very blessed to have the staff who lives there and the 4-Him organization supporting them, but I still have to remember many of these kids watched there parents die which would have a tremendous effect on any child. The kids are obviously still dealing with the past and what they experienced, but the joy that I see in each of them when they smile or close their eyes and just sing to God is proof that God still performs miracles and changes hearts and lives. These children are living proof of that.
Andrea and I were also able to spend a lot of time with the girl (Bintu) that was living in very poor conditions when we met her in March 2008, but was moved to the orphanage a couple weeks after our trip. I wasn't even sure if she would remember us because of the situation she was in when we met her the first time, but she knew both of our names and somehow knows that we were able to be a part of her being moved to the orphanage. She has a completely different attitude and outlook on life than when we met her in March. She sat down with me one night and went through her Bible showing me all of her favorite verses. She was reading Matthew 4 where Jesus was being tempted by Satan to turn the stone into bread and I asked her how Jesus responded. She looked at me and quoted word for word, "man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God". I was shocked that she would already know this much about the Bible in such a short time. It was also very exciting just to watch her interact with her 84 brothers and sisters at the orphanage.
Lastly for now, my birthday actually occured while we were in Africa. The kids gradually started hearing this, so for 2 days they would remind me my birthday was coming. On my birthday, Andrea and 2 of the girls brought me a card, a painting, and some birthday balloons. Later that night, a couple people on our team bought cheese balls for all the kids to celebrate my birthday. One of the older boys has learned to play the guitar so he led the kids in singing Happy Birthday to me. Then one of the girls had written a short speach from the children to me and she presented that. I also received birthday cards and pictures from many of the kids.
I think I came home from my first trip very excited, but also missing the kids and wondering if I would ever get to return and see them again. This time I feel like it is not as much missing all of the kids (which I do), but it is realizing more about their needs and what resources would be most beneficial to them and trying to determine what I can do to help support them.

OCTOBER TO NOVEMBER

Wow, it has been a while since we have written, so I am warning you this is going to be a long one. I can't believe October is already over and November has quickly begun! Kevin took October out with a bang with his Halloween costume he made, yes made, for work on Friday. So, obviously, I had to post the picture. He worked so hard on this, and he was really proud! He did a good job. I really like how much fun Kevin enjoys having; he makes me laugh a lot. one of my coworkers commented that our children are going to have a wonderful playmate in their father, and that is very true! He is going to be such a great dad!
Well, October began with my trip to see my friend, E, in the Persian Gulf. I wrote briefly about it in earlier posts, but I just wanted to add that I am constantly amazed at how our Father moves and works all over the world in so many unique ways. Be assured that His work is being done in amazing ways in a very difficult part of the world through people that have said yes and said yes to His unique plan. I love traveling and serving overseas for the opportunity that it provides to stretch and grow you in ways you couldn't have imagined before. Qatar is a great place, and it was interesting to observe how the Western world and the Middle East are colliding. E, thanks for an amazing time!

While I was gone, we did receive confirmation from the National Visa Center that our CIS approval has been sent to the embassy in Ethiopia, so we were excited to hear that had been taken care of. Also, sweet Kevin, began to paint our nursery furniture! What a nice surprise to come home to. We are continuing to wait as patiently as possible. Probably the most difficult thing with the referral timeframe being extended is the question of "will we ever have our baby, and will the timeframe be extended again." So, the Lord has really been working with me on trust the last couple of months. Wow! When a friend who has adopted told me that this would be the biggest faith walk of my life, I definitely listened to her, but now I am beginning to understand. Jackie, thank you for speaking that truth! Other friends, John and Sheila, gave the encouragement that once it happens, then we will forget all the dark days. That was good to hear! My heart is being knit to a little person somewhere in Ethiopia that I do not know, and I do not know when exactly I will have the opportunity to meet him/her. We may not be pregnant, but we are expecting, and we think and dream about this sweet baby everyday, many times every moment of everyday. Our hearts long for him/her in a way that I never could have imagined or dreamed of. We are so excited to be parents of the child that God has chosen for us.

I am reading "There is No Me Without You" a very powerful book about a woman in Ethiopia who took orphaned children into her home, and it is written by a woman who has adopted 4 children from Ethiopia. I would say it is a must read, even if you are not thinking about adoption. It will hopefully provide a better understanding of some issues surrounding orphaned children, so you will know how to pray. As we have been working through this adoption process, my heart has been grieved for the reality that is present prior to the adoption. Unfortunately, we live in a world where many things are so wrong for so many different reasons. It really makes me sad to think about all of the loss that our child will have experienced prior to their first birthday, the loss of biological parents and siblings, extended family, familiar language, their country.... mainly due to poverty, lack of resources, country's infrastructure....Now, not to be all doom and gloom, but for some reason this reality has been pretty heavy on my heart since this summer. I am concerned for my child's biological mother because I do not know if she has a roof over her head, any type of family or financial support, enough food, or if she will survive childbirth or other preventable diseases. This is a reality that the Lord and I talk about quite often. We know that He has made adoption one beautiful solution for such a grave reality, and we are so thankful that an adoption process has been made available, so many, many children will have a different opportunity. Orphaned children and adoption are God's heart. We are thankful that our adoption agency (link below) makes humanitarian aid and service such a priority for the countries that they adopt with, so they are using adoption and country fees to help provide much needed medical, educational, and vocational services available for many countries. I am also so thankful that this is not our home, and we have a promise of an eternal home because of God's amazing love and grace where there will be no more sickness or tears. What a beautiful place. However, in the meantime, we as believers cannot sit back in our comfortable worlds and pretend as if everything is okay. We have a much higher calling than that. God has called all of us to love and serve with the least of these, and we all need to seek Him to know what that calling is for our lives, and His will and glory will be spread. We can all have an impact in the way we serve, give our money, challenge our mindsets, the way we vote, the way we shop, the way we work to simplify our lifestyles, and the list goes on and on. We have to respond to His call. Thank you for letting me share my heart and for reading.

Well, the rest of October was filled with a visit from my friend, Kristen, who lives in California. We had a great time and it was great to see her. My parents and my sister were here this weekend, so it was really great to see them and get to spend time with them. My brother and his family headed to VA for their overseas training, and Kevin's brother headed to BC for his overseas training, so it has been quite a month.

We have a very exciting month ahead with Kevin's 35th birthday, and we are headed back to SIERRA LEONE, West Africa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are so excited! We can hardly believe it, but we are so thankful that we have the opportunity to go. We can't wait to see all of the smiling faces above and hug their sweet little necks! We definitely covet your prayers. Hassan, the orphanage director, is actually in town this week, and he will be sharing on Saturday night at 7:00 pm at Crossings. Well, I am sure that you are tired of reading now, so that is all for now!

A few pics from Andrea's Doha, Qatar Trip

I returned from visiting my good friend, E, in Doha, Qatar last week. It was a great trip and full of very interesting experiences. Curt and E were very good to me and made sure I had a great experience in the Persian Gulf. I was able to meet a lot of their friends, which provided me the blessing of meeting some really great people who have some amazing life experiences that they were so gracious to share with me. I could go on and on, but I will later. For now, here are a few pics from the trip below. Thanks, Melodie, for telling us about slide.com!

Andrea left to visit our friends Curt and Elizabeth in the Persian Gulf country of Qatar (ku-tar). She called me and we were able to talk and see each other on Skype before she went to bed the night she arrived. That was great to see her and talk to her after she had spent 30hrs traveling to the other side of the earth. All of her flights went well and she arrived with all of her luggage, which isn't always the case. She emailed me this morning and told me that she was having a great time so far. Her first day was scheduled for a lot of fun activities including sand duning and riding a camel. She was also able to visit the school Curt teaches at, which helps train children to become Olympic athletes (the facilities Curt showed us previously were incredible. I can't wait to hear from her again to see what else she has been able to experience. I also can't wait for her to come home and to see all of her pictures.

Malaria Outbreak

We just received an e-mail from 4Him last night stating that there has been a malaria outbreak at the orphanage. One of the male staff members, Bob, and several of the children are very sick right now. 4Him will be helping them obtain the treatment that they need, but please pray for the children and staff at Wellington Orphanage that God will provide the treatment that they need and ultimately, quick healing. Please pray that God will protect their lives and provide the needed rest for everyone who is helping to take care of those who are sick. Malaria is contracted from mosquitos, and the symptoms are like a really bad case of the flu, but it can be fatal. So, please remember Wellington Orphanage in your prayers. Thank you!

A Niece!

Gary and Kathy, Kevin's older brother and wife, told us all last night that they are having a baby girl! We are all so excited to have a little girl in the family. They have our sweet little nephew, Caleb, who will be 2 in November, and so now he is going to be a wonderful big brother to a sweet little sister who will be here in February. The pink is already coming out!

Nashville

We were able to go visit my sister, Adrian, and her husband, Brian, and their sweet child/dog, Benny, a couple of weeks ago and had a great time! We were able to go with my brother, Adam, his wife, Jennah, and my two sweet nephews, Nic and Nyle. My youngest brother was not able to go; he just moved to Los Angeles. So, we missed him. This was our first trip to Nashville, so we had a lot of fun running around and enjoyed getting to see Adrian and Brian's world. Nashville is a great city! Adrian's blog is listed at the side. She is an amazing photographer, so you'll have to check out some of her pics on her blog. She is getting to accomplish one of her dreams this week. She is in Mexico photographing mission work being done by the International Mission Board. So, I am excited for her. Well, just thought I would share a few pics from the trip. Kevin was enjoying his time at the Wildhorse Saloon as you can see. Jennah, Adrian, and I had just finished taking our line dancing lessons in this picture. Adrian and Brian took us to some housing additions where some TV and music stars live, and Nic really liked looking at the big houses because "they matched him." We're not really sure what that meant, but he had fun. Sweet little Nyle did really well on the trip; he is such a good baby. We were glad that we got to spend this time together because Adam and Jennah are getting ready to move to Eastern Europe with the International Mission Board in January. We had a great trip!

Sierra Leone

Well, I told you in an earlier post that I would tell you more about Sierra Leone. So, I wanted to start doing that now; it will definitely be an ongoing process. We started this blog, so we could keep our family and friends informed of the status of our adoption, especially while we are in Ethiopia. As we talked more about it we knew that the blog had to also keep you updated on the sweet children in Sierra Leone that have become such a significant part of our lives. We truly have a family in Africa, and we are anxiously awaiting the time that we get to bring our sweet child home from Africa, so we felt the appropriate title for the blog would be "Our African Family." We just love those sweet faces and smiles that you see above in the picture.

Sierra Leone is listed as the second poorest country in the world and noted by the UN as one of the most difficult places to live due to human suffering. When you think about those two things alone, then this is definitely not a place that you would probably jump at the chance to go and visit. However, we will never be the same after visiting Sierra Leone. Words could never express what it is like to be around these children. The Lord is using them in amazing ways to impact their country and the mission teams that go to Sierra Leone from the US. We just have to tell others about their amazing testimonies. My friend, Jen C., put it best when she titled the CD with the children singing, "The World Should Know." You should definitely check out their website at the bottom of the blog page. As I mentioned in my first post, I was able to go to the Wellington Orphanage in Sierra Leone in the fall of 2006 with 4Him to do some trauma counseling with the children. I met the president of 4Him, Steve, at a friend's going away party, and our friends got Steve's wife and I together because we had missions in common. Well, here we are heading back to Sierra Leone in November. We are very excited about this opportunity. After our trip in March, we knew that we needed to go back when we could, and with our adoption coming up later next year this seemed to be the right time. We are ready to go back and spend time with the kids.

So, I wanted to tell you more about the orphanage. Seventy-eight children live there at this time due to a twelve-year civil war that began in the early 90s. The war was started by the President of Liberia over the diamonds in Sierra Leone. Many innocent people were killed as control over the diamonds was sought. Families and countrymen were forced to turn against each other, and the country's economy and infrastructure was completely destroyed. The children at the Wellington Orphanage lost their parents during this war and many of them witnessed their parents' brutal murders. So, Hassan Manssary felt God calling him to take in the orphaned children throughout the war, and he, his family and fellow believers continue to love and care for them today. The children are housed in a building that was built by a bank in Sierra Leone a few years ago. It provided them much needed shelter because they had a very difficult time finding a place to live. These are the most amazing group of children I have ever met. God has used 4Him mission teams to bring them to know Him. When you see them smile, hear them laugh and sing, watch them play and dance, you know that they have truly experienced complete healing from the Lord. When we are around them, we see the joy of the Lord. When you hear them speak of forgiveness, you hear and understand like never before the true meaning of the gospel. When you worship with them, then you truly get to experience worshipping in spirit and in truth. We love these children, and we are so thankful that the Lord has allowed us to have the opportunity to know them and learn from them. Please visit the websites below to read more about the children and 4Him ministries. 4Him stands for His Healing Helping Hands International Ministry. We strongly believe in this mission organization and what they are doing around the world. 4Him currently has a lot of amazing projects going on in Sierra Leone from building churches and schools, to assisting with individual businesses starting up and continual support of the children at the orphanage, just to name a few. 4Him operates completely on donations, and it is a great way to make an impact around the world! Their link is at the bottom of the blog page.