Prayer Request - COURT DATE

On Monday, March 1st, (which on our time means Sunday night while we sleep) we have a scheduled court hearing. We'd appreciate if you would lift this up in prayer.

Some background and info related to the court hearing:

• Our agency tells us to expect at least two court dates.
• Sometimes court cases aren't heard because of no electricity (this is a 3rd world country), over scheduled docket, etc.
• Sometimes people don't pass court because of little, but important, details like birth dates, signatures, etc.
• Approximately 8 weeks after passing court, we would travel to pick up our son.

I have been specifically praying that we (and others that day) will pass court the first time. With that, I've also began praying for the financial and schedule side of things that would allow Kara Hanson to travel with us so that she can document and share about orphans via her camera lense.

Will you pray with us? Thanks.

Three Things:

1. We completed our biometrics appointment yesterday. I almost screwed it up though cause I didn't realize/remember that I had two different papers for the scheduled appointments and thought I only had one with me. Good thing my purse has LOTS of stuff in it cause the other one was hiding in there.
2. Tuesday evening we got 3 updated pics of our little guy. He looks so different in some ways. His eyes are still absolutely beautiful - it looks like he's wearing mascara. His lips look totally different and he has two little moles/spots on his head that might be moluscum.
3. Our court appointment is Monday (which actually means Sunday during the night with time changes). We're praying that the court has electricity, the the court docket isn't over booked and all cases are heard, that the documents are in order and that the families pass the first time. Would you pray with us as this appointment gets closer?

tamara b

No Biometrics Today

Today was our scheduled appt with USCIS for fingerprinting - part of our request to the US government to bring an orphan home. Two weeks back I was a little frustrated that we wouldn't be able to make our scheduled appt but totally understood.

Now that we have a court date in just two weeks, I'm wishing I had that extra 7 days to get approval from the government. I wonder how long its been taking for people to get approved??? It would stink if this approval is what holds us back from getting to travel earlier to get our little boy.

I'm still praying for passing court on March 1st. Now I'm also praying that our orphan petition approval comes back lightning fast. I know our little guy is being taken care of by Holt staff but I just wish he didn't have to be in the orphanage for so long!

Lord, would you grant us good weather, safe travels, and successful fingerprinting next Wednesday as we head to Des Moines. We're trusting in You Father and in Your perfect timing!

Impossible

A.W. Tozer said- " God is looking for people through whom he can do the impossible, what a pity we plan to do the things we can only do by ourselves."

God, would we be people who let you work and do the impossible through our faithful lives!

Big News - Court Date Scheduled

I got wonderful news from Ms. Dalton this morning. We have a court appointment scheduled for March 1st. Wowza! Our dossier arrived in Ethiopia on February 1st and 4 weeks later will be our court appointment.

Now, according to Holt, we should "expect court dates to be TENTATIVE: this means there is a high likelihood that your case will not be heard and will be re-scheduled for another day". Thank you Holt for the clarification and reminder.

Regardless of that, I'm so stinkin' excited to her news... even if it is possibly tentative.

With that thought comes the reminder that this is an international adoption and things can quickly change. In the recent months, families are not passing their first court appointment. The thing I cling to is that we're on God's schedule and He loves and cares for the orphans so I don't need to worry with all the details.

Simple to easy, difficult to believe with my heart. Lord, help me to believe in Your perfect will and timing all while You also give peace and hope to our little guy and his biological family.

So, a couple of things on my mind today. I have been praying that we will pass court the first time. Eventually I started praying that for some others I know who had scheduled court appointments. (By the way, they passed in late January, thank you Lord). But I feel like I'm in a bit of a dilemma here. With a court appointment of March 1st, if we pass like I have been praying for, that means we would likely be travelling in April. I'm okay with that except one thing. Ryan is a veterinarian and April is usually the bulk of calving season. This is a busy time at the clinic where Ryan regularly gets called out at night. Us travelling in April would put Dr. Carlson on call every night which would be stressful, tiring and suck for his family.

Now, I'm not sure if I want to pray that specific prayer. I believe in praying specifically. I also want to be in God's will for things. I don't want to change my prayer as a cop-out for not trusting God. Maybe I will continue to pray my specific prayer, asking for God's will and hope that He will work out the details as needed! Whew!

The light at the end of the tunnel just got a little brighter friends! Yipee!!!!

Giving Props where Props are Due!

In the midst of chaos, life takes over. I'm finally getting to a post that I've had on my mind for a while.

Last year sometime I ran across the Blinkin Blog. Cute and helpful blog. I appreciated the helpful information and liked reading her blog. What I like about Autumn the most is her craftiness. I want to be like her! She even teaches lessons at a local place. I could so learn from her. Only problem was that I live in Iowa and she lives in Oregon. I was immediately attracted to her dolls and headed over to her etsy shop to find out more.

Autumn has really cool stuff. It's lovely. Here's a sneak peak at a few of her items.

What I also love about Autumn is that she's willing to share. Of her proceeds, 15% go to the Orphan Relief Fund. I love that. She was even nice enough to share her patttern with me so I could make a doll for Bethany. Thank you Autumn for doing that.

Head on over to Autumn's etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/craftymommy and find out more. She has dolls, banners and more.

If I wasn't saving money for our own adoption right now, I'd be buying her stuff. If I was able to buy her stuff, I'd be buying extra so I could give one away, I like it that much!

Family Book

I still have not made a family book for our little guy. I'm a perfectionist. Big time. I'm struggling with wanting to have recent enough pictures, pictures where the rooms are unusually clean, pictures that perfectly portray our imperfect family. Why am I such a perfectionist?

I also want to share our family with him and am struggling with wanting lots of pictures in there. Do I put in the picture of his cousins he will rarely see because they live in California? Will it offend my family if I don't? Do I add the pictures of some close friends who he'll know and see regularly? Would he appreciate a picture of a sunrise/sunset? He's two, who am I kidding. Does he even know what a sunset is?

Does it have to be a shutterfly book? Can it be simpler? Will I look back and wish I had something fancier? Can't we just bring him home and not worry about it???

Hurry up and wait

I copied the following from the guidebook today. A fresh reminder that although some are getting court dates fairly quickly, I should not expect. I keep saying that the target dates are such-n-such but in my heart I'm hoping they're quicker. Maybe this will help me be patient in waiting.

Once a family has accepted the referral of a child and your dossier is received in Ethiopia, Holt's overseas staff will prepare the child and family information for submission to the Ethiopian Ministry of Women's Affairs (MOWA) who will schedule a court date with the High Court. Court dates are not scheduled based on the date in which a family accepts a child referral. Family court dates are scheduled at the discretion of the MOWA. While it is common for the first court date to be issued within 3 months of the time your dossier was received in Ethiopia, it is

very

common for adoption cases in Ethiopia to be re-scheduled one or more times. The court process can take up to 6 months in some cases to be completed. Families who are in contact with other families should not expect to have a court date scheduled in the order in which child referrals were accepted.

Happy Birthday Little Guy

Today is our little guy's 2nd birthday. Oh how I wish we could be celebrating with him. Son, we may not get to celebrate this birthday with you but we hope and pray that we will celebrate many, many birthdays with you in the future. And we hope that you might be here in time to celebrate Scott and Bethany's birthdays this summer. Happy Birthday little guy!

His birthday falls on a very important day in my life. A day that really played a pivotal role in my walk with Christ. A day that my sweet friend, Scott Redfern, endured a yucky incident in the woodshop and was ushered into heaven at the young age of 16.

non-adoption question

I have this post on my personal blog about iTouch's. I need some help figuring out if its a good idea for me. Will you click on over to my post and share your thoughts. Thanks.

USCIS Update

Have a I mentioned that I love Amy at our local USCIS office. I emailed her after this post and here's what I learned.

You can indeed change your appointment. From what I understand, the earliest an appointment can be scheduled after they receive my request to change is 2 weeks out. Two weeks out wouldn't be bad IF their schedule is completely open then. Doubt it.

Option #2 was to come any Wednesday after our scheduled appointment and be a walk-in. No horrendous waiting. Just the normal 10-15 minute wait, at the most.

Since option #2 works for us, we will be heading down on the 24th for our appointment. Ryan has it in the books at work that he's taking off. I have told my boss here. Without an official appointment for that day, we do have our official invite.

Now if only I can remember to take that "invite" document with us like she said to do.

Thanks Amy. You are a gem to work with!

Confessions

Because I was just over at Jamey's blog and about fell out of my chair laughing at her confessions. I thought I'd do a confession post myself. If you've read Jamey's post about confessions, for the number of countries she had readers from, she did a confession for each one. Well, I don't keep track of that stuff and I'm pretty sure that if I did, it would only be one country. So here's my one confession:

My list of blog links on the side isn't a true indication of what blogs I read on a regular basis. Over the last year, I've stopped reading some blogs and started reading others. I like to read the Holt blogs for the families that are close to me in the adoption process. Of course, I read a few others of friends of mine but I really should update my list. My blog list isn't really mine at all. Jen at Our Way to You has a wonderfully organized blog list and I use that most of the time. Thanks Jen, I hope you don't mind that sometimes I stop by your blog to read and sometimes I stop by to link to other blogs. If you're following blog stats, just know that I'm not stalking you, I'm using your blog roll :)

Dossier in Ethiopia

As of yesterday, this

[our dossier]



is now here:

[no, not in Kenya sillies]

While Waiting

While waiting through the rest of this process, I thought I'd start collecting some donations on the Holt list for donations for the care centers.

• Baby packs/slings (for the nannies to carry babies)
• Clothes and shoes for children aged 5-10
• Sippy cups with lids
• Toys for toddlers/pre-schoolers:
  • Blocks for stacking
  • Stacking cups
  • Wooden puzzles
  • Baby dolls
  • Activity quilts (with buttons/zippers)
• Plastic feeding spoons for toddlers
• Fly paper
• Baby powder
• Cloth diapers
• Plastic pants or cloth diaper covers 
• Clotrimazole ointment
• Disposable masks
• Flashlights with batteries
• Bottle/nipple brushes
• Thermometers
• Mosquito nets
• Travel pacets of baby wipes (for the nannies to take with them when they travel with babies)
• Anti fungal creams
• vitamins for infants/toddlers/older children
• Educational and instructional items – the staff is setting up a classroom to teach children in at each care center. Education instructional items, such as the Alphabet to hang on the walls, numbers, etc…would be greatly appreciated
• Used lap tops (with all cords)
• used digital camers (with all cords/software/cards)
• Digital card reader

 
If you would like to donate supplies or cash for supplies to take with us when we travel, please let us know.

---

Hotmail: Free, trusted and rich email service. Get it now.