Today was our last homestudy visit. It was not as much of a relief as I hoped. We were told we need to get a background clearance (which is not uncomplicated) for myself from Canada before our homestudy is final.
It makes me want to be unfriendly to people. To yell. Is all this worth it I ask?
I read my post again about my trip to Ethiopia and the things I encountered there.
I hug and kiss my boys.
I look again at our family picture at the top of the page.
The reason all this is so difficult, is that we don't yet know for whom we are doing it for.
Who is the question mark?
If we knew it would be easier to plod on.
I'm reminded again of our verse Isaiah 43.
It seems we are in the desert. I need water, God will provide water.
water is tears. water is rest/oasis. water is strength to keep going.
We keep going.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Sunday, September 09, 2012
for today
"As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy." -James 5:11
Friday, September 07, 2012
Quick News, Thoughts and Updates 9/7
Just another quick update on what's happening around these parts....
-Sadly the Bring Love In event was cancelled. Bummer. We had this on our plans since early summer. We're hoping to stop in to see the Benkert's when we have to travel.
-Laura from Pitter Patter Art gave away one of our T-shirts and our blog BLEW UP! Awesome traffic. Not sure how many of those folks will be following from here on out, but if that's you....welcome.
-Because of that, we've made some more t-shirt sales as well. Now if the other people who "loved our shirts" but didn't win would order we'd be golden! HA.
-In T-shirt news...we made a second order that should be in next week. We have a couple orders waiting to be filled. If you've ordered a shirt and haven't got it yet (particularly mediums) it'll go out the day we get them...next week. If you haven't ordered a shirt....you should.
-Our shirt design is on Pinterest. I don't understand Pinterest at all, but if you're on there, "repin" us or do whatever it is that you do with that sort of thing.....That's here
-Monday is a kind-of big day for us. Our homestudy lady (Nanci) comes for (hopefully) the last time until after #3 comes home. We'd really appreciate it if you'd join us on Monday in prayer. Thanks in advance.
-If you haven't already done so, you should sign up for instant updates on the right hand column. You'll get an e-mail every time we update the blog, or if you're a blogger and have an RSS feed you can use that feature as well. Feel free to share with others the process and what we're doing.
-Sadly the Bring Love In event was cancelled. Bummer. We had this on our plans since early summer. We're hoping to stop in to see the Benkert's when we have to travel.
-Laura from Pitter Patter Art gave away one of our T-shirts and our blog BLEW UP! Awesome traffic. Not sure how many of those folks will be following from here on out, but if that's you....welcome.
-Because of that, we've made some more t-shirt sales as well. Now if the other people who "loved our shirts" but didn't win would order we'd be golden! HA.
-In T-shirt news...we made a second order that should be in next week. We have a couple orders waiting to be filled. If you've ordered a shirt and haven't got it yet (particularly mediums) it'll go out the day we get them...next week. If you haven't ordered a shirt....you should.
-Our shirt design is on Pinterest. I don't understand Pinterest at all, but if you're on there, "repin" us or do whatever it is that you do with that sort of thing.....That's here
-Monday is a kind-of big day for us. Our homestudy lady (Nanci) comes for (hopefully) the last time until after #3 comes home. We'd really appreciate it if you'd join us on Monday in prayer. Thanks in advance.
-If you haven't already done so, you should sign up for instant updates on the right hand column. You'll get an e-mail every time we update the blog, or if you're a blogger and have an RSS feed you can use that feature as well. Feel free to share with others the process and what we're doing.
Tuesday, September 04, 2012
25 years
No...not of marriage.
This past Sunday church was out at Mission Meadows where we spent a week this summer while I (Aaron) taught at their Jr. High camp. Every year on Labor Day weekend the district Covenant churches combine out at camp for Sunday worship. It was good. Real good.
Two things stuck out for me:
1. The pastor (Boaz Johnson), a professor at North Park University, sung the Benediction over us in Hebrew. It rocked my socks. For whatever reason I got instantly emotional.
2. The second forced me to think a little harder. It was the children's sermon. Pastor Adam was talking about patience and waiting. Now these are topics that I'm familiar with. I've taught them myself before. Particularly when we were waiting for Corban to come home, but again with Tobiah, God taught us a lot about patience. So it's not like I wasn't ready for what was coming.....
He talked about Abraham. Again....a story I'm familiar with....he reminded me that God promised Abraham that he would be the father of nations....and then 25 years goes by. 25 years! It was one of those times in life where I knew something but I needed someone else to say it out loud for it to register.
So I re-read the whole chunk of Abraham today. Here's what I got. In Genesis 12, God makes a covenant with Abram and tells him that he is going to be the father of a great nation that God is going to use to impact the world. Which is pretty awesome. Except that God doesn't say that it's going to happen right away. Abraham waits. And waits. And waits.
Then he and Sarah try to take matters into their own hands. Sarah gives Abraham (still Abram for those keeping track at home) her servant Hagar because God isn't making things happen quick enough. Hagar gets pregnant and has Ishmael.....which isn't exactly what God had in mind.
It's not until Chapter 21....25 years later, that God's plan starts to take shape when Isaac is born.
As we finish up this paperwork I've been a little stressed. I just want to be done with this portion of the process. I want to move one. I'm very aware that we're a long way off. I'm that we have a lot of waiting yet to go. I don't want to take matters into my own hands. This was a great reminder of God's plan and it's perfectness.
I needed that.
This past Sunday church was out at Mission Meadows where we spent a week this summer while I (Aaron) taught at their Jr. High camp. Every year on Labor Day weekend the district Covenant churches combine out at camp for Sunday worship. It was good. Real good.
Two things stuck out for me:
1. The pastor (Boaz Johnson), a professor at North Park University, sung the Benediction over us in Hebrew. It rocked my socks. For whatever reason I got instantly emotional.
2. The second forced me to think a little harder. It was the children's sermon. Pastor Adam was talking about patience and waiting. Now these are topics that I'm familiar with. I've taught them myself before. Particularly when we were waiting for Corban to come home, but again with Tobiah, God taught us a lot about patience. So it's not like I wasn't ready for what was coming.....
He talked about Abraham. Again....a story I'm familiar with....he reminded me that God promised Abraham that he would be the father of nations....and then 25 years goes by. 25 years! It was one of those times in life where I knew something but I needed someone else to say it out loud for it to register.
So I re-read the whole chunk of Abraham today. Here's what I got. In Genesis 12, God makes a covenant with Abram and tells him that he is going to be the father of a great nation that God is going to use to impact the world. Which is pretty awesome. Except that God doesn't say that it's going to happen right away. Abraham waits. And waits. And waits.
Then he and Sarah try to take matters into their own hands. Sarah gives Abraham (still Abram for those keeping track at home) her servant Hagar because God isn't making things happen quick enough. Hagar gets pregnant and has Ishmael.....which isn't exactly what God had in mind.
It's not until Chapter 21....25 years later, that God's plan starts to take shape when Isaac is born.
As we finish up this paperwork I've been a little stressed. I just want to be done with this portion of the process. I want to move one. I'm very aware that we're a long way off. I'm that we have a lot of waiting yet to go. I don't want to take matters into my own hands. This was a great reminder of God's plan and it's perfectness.
I needed that.
Friday, August 31, 2012
Bring Love In Event Cancelled
I just got a call from Levi from Bring Love In. The Event scheduled for tomorrow night here in town is now officially cancelled.
They are all worn ragged. They're tired. The inside of the van is a mess (his words not mine). Their daughter has a fever. They need some time to regroup. So they won't be coming tomorrow.
If I'm honest, I'm a little bummed because I was so looking forward to meeting them face to face and hearing first hand what's they're doing because we're such big fans. But I know that family is first and I definitely encouraged him to take some time to take care of themselves.
I'm hoping we can meet up with them next year some time when we have a reason to be in Ethiopia!
Sorry for all of you who were looking forward to the event.
They are all worn ragged. They're tired. The inside of the van is a mess (his words not mine). Their daughter has a fever. They need some time to regroup. So they won't be coming tomorrow.
If I'm honest, I'm a little bummed because I was so looking forward to meeting them face to face and hearing first hand what's they're doing because we're such big fans. But I know that family is first and I definitely encouraged him to take some time to take care of themselves.
I'm hoping we can meet up with them next year some time when we have a reason to be in Ethiopia!
Sorry for all of you who were looking forward to the event.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Win Free Stuff!
I've talked before about Gotcha Day plates that Laura from Pitter Patter Art made for the boys a bunch of years back. We love Laura and all the awesome art she does. Marjorie actually won a key fob from her a year or so ago in one of her giveaways!
Well guess what? Laura's doing a give-away this week. You can win an awesome piece of art.....and one of our shirts! You should head over to her blog Pitter Patter Art and follow the directions. Even if you don't want to enter the contest, this is a rad blog to follow. Plus....Amon just came home from Ethiopia and he is a CUTIE!
FYI: For those just visiting the site....kids sizes and plus sizes will available soon. If you want one of those sizes please let me know so we can account for those numbers in the next printing which should happen rather soon!!!!
Well guess what? Laura's doing a give-away this week. You can win an awesome piece of art.....and one of our shirts! You should head over to her blog Pitter Patter Art and follow the directions. Even if you don't want to enter the contest, this is a rad blog to follow. Plus....Amon just came home from Ethiopia and he is a CUTIE!
FYI: For those just visiting the site....kids sizes and plus sizes will available soon. If you want one of those sizes please let me know so we can account for those numbers in the next printing which should happen rather soon!!!!
Monday, August 27, 2012
Quick News, Thoughts, Updates 8/27
I realized that we haven't been incredibly good about updating lately. I thought it would be good to just throw a bunch of stuff out there for you.
-Lots of people have been asking things like, "how's the adoption going?" "when do you get your child?" "are you close?" fine, no and no. We'd like to believe that NEXT YEAR at this time we'll have great things to tell people. What have we been doing? Paperwork........still.
-Update of where we are with that.....NEXT week our awesome homestudy lady comes for our (hopefully) final visit. We're working furiously to finish our paperwork for the homestudy.
-Because we're trying to double up on paperwork, we want to have our dossier done a week or so after that so that we're done with our part for awhile. It's a little overwhelming, but with school starting tomorrow I (Aaron) hope to have a little more time to get to stuff.
-Bring Love In (well not the entire orginization...just the Benkert's) are coming this weekend. SUPER stoked. If you're local remember 7pm at the Crossing. BE THERE!!! Hoping the Benkert's can use our house as a retreat for a few days of relaxing.
-School starts tomorrow!!!!!! Corban has spent all summer talking about how he misses his friends...and now doesn't want to go back to school even though his friends are there. Tobiah has spent the summer not caring one bit about his friends...and now can't wait for school tomorrow so he can see his friends and his teacher. We have had an awesome summer of Daddy Day Camp, but I'm kind of looking forward to a new routine of getting some more stuff accomplished in the mornings while T's at pre-school.
-T-shirts are selling slow but sure. Adult Smalls are going faster than other sizes....if you want one before the next printing, you better get it now. This is also me saying "you should buy a shirt."
I leave you with a picture of a normal day at our house. The boys were in the other room and this happened.
EDIT: I just went and counted the T-shirts....on 2 smalls and 3 mediums left!!!! Get them now!!!!
-Lots of people have been asking things like, "how's the adoption going?" "when do you get your child?" "are you close?" fine, no and no. We'd like to believe that NEXT YEAR at this time we'll have great things to tell people. What have we been doing? Paperwork........still.
-Update of where we are with that.....NEXT week our awesome homestudy lady comes for our (hopefully) final visit. We're working furiously to finish our paperwork for the homestudy.
-Because we're trying to double up on paperwork, we want to have our dossier done a week or so after that so that we're done with our part for awhile. It's a little overwhelming, but with school starting tomorrow I (Aaron) hope to have a little more time to get to stuff.
-Bring Love In (well not the entire orginization...just the Benkert's) are coming this weekend. SUPER stoked. If you're local remember 7pm at the Crossing. BE THERE!!! Hoping the Benkert's can use our house as a retreat for a few days of relaxing.
-School starts tomorrow!!!!!! Corban has spent all summer talking about how he misses his friends...and now doesn't want to go back to school even though his friends are there. Tobiah has spent the summer not caring one bit about his friends...and now can't wait for school tomorrow so he can see his friends and his teacher. We have had an awesome summer of Daddy Day Camp, but I'm kind of looking forward to a new routine of getting some more stuff accomplished in the mornings while T's at pre-school.
-T-shirts are selling slow but sure. Adult Smalls are going faster than other sizes....if you want one before the next printing, you better get it now. This is also me saying "you should buy a shirt."
I leave you with a picture of a normal day at our house. The boys were in the other room and this happened.
EDIT: I just went and counted the T-shirts....on 2 smalls and 3 mediums left!!!! Get them now!!!!
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