Friday!

Wow, I didn't realize a whole week flew by since I posted last! We did get a call from the social worker this week :) She does this on the side of her regular full-time job so we didn't actually pin down a date yet...she knows that there will be two days somewhere in her travels coming up where she will be in Kearney (her home), she just doesn't know yet when that will be. Craig told her to let us know when that happens and we will make it work. She seems to be a woman after my own heart (ha ha!) Sometimes, after being around so many crazy (in a good way) organized people (yeah, i'm talking about you Craig and Michelle) I start thinking I am the only one whose brain works in a different, more unorganized, more random way.

The barbecue at Schmicks is coming up tomorrow. The weather is supposed to be perfect - 80 degrees! My parents are coming into town for the morning so that they can help out. Juliana is very excited to see them, as always. I recorded the radio spot and will try to get it uploaded sometime soon. Jason has been so gracious to us in this whole thing and truly I am overwhelmed with how generous they are being to us. I hope to have a bunch of pictures to show off on the blog tomorrow night.

I am so crazy thankful for all the stuff we have recieved and am praying for more, but i am starting to understand why everyone was telling us we were crazy to do a garage sale. I am fighting feeling overwhelmed b/c the truth is we still have two weeks to prepare and if I just do a little chunk every day I will easily get things done. This is a great challenge to my organizationally-challenged brain and I easily get discouraged when I look at the entire task vs. small pieces. Even in things that seem as silly as a garage sale, the Lord's grace is sufficient for me. He does care that my attitude in preparing for this is thankful and at peace. He will help me to glorify Him in this and I pray that we will testify to His goodness and grace to those who we come into contact with through this garage sale.

One more check

The mail was good to us today :) One more thing to check off the list. Our passports arrived earlier than expected!

General update

There is always something to do these days on the adoption homefront. Thought I would update you on all the happenings.

home study: still waiting for a call from Deb, the social worker, to schedule this.

dossier: we have a few things left that we must complete for the dossier paperwork. Essentially this paperwork represents our family to the Ethiopian gov't. we have to go to walmart to get some passport pics taken (in addition to the passports we already applied for) of each of us. there is one form that requires some financial data from the last four years or so and that one i have assigned craig to complete :) there are two families working on letters of recommendation for us (thanks guys!) and that is all we have left if i am remembering correctly!

applying for grants: this is the next big packet of paperwork. we will be applying with Shaohannah's Hope and also Lifesong for Orphans. craig was using one of these forms to figure all adoption costs. we had been going off an estimate given by Holt of $16-18,000 for adoption costs, but when you really start crunching numbers there are quite a few costs that are not included in the number given by Holt, such as travel ($5-6,000 alone) and medical exams, passports, etc. Holt wasn't misleading, it is just the nature of things that we are now able to see exactly what those extra costs are and are finding that the cost of adoption will be more around the $24-$25,000 range. We already started filling it out in january, but haven't looked at it since. We'll probably tackle this paperwork once the dossier is completed.

garage sale: we have had about 9 families contribute stuff so far with several more saying they have stuff for us. A friend is coming over tomorrow night to help me start pricing. We need to begin working on signs to put up on a few busy corners and also to figure out how to hang up the clothes that we have to sell. We will be sending the kids to g-ma and g-pa's house for the few days of the sale :) 19 days to get ready!

Barbecue at Schmick's Market: This is scheduled for this coming Saturday the 17th. I am praying for good weather :) My talented friend, Sharon, is working on the sign that we will be putting up to let people know where the proceeds are going and we will be set to listen in to "Open Line" on Wednesday and Friday morning at 9 am. "Open Line" is one of those quirky treasures of small town life. It is a radio program where anyone can call in and talk about what they have to sell, what they want to buy, or any kind of announcement they might want to share. Jason, a good friend and manager of Schmick's will be sharing our story both of those mornings and inviting people to help us out and come buy lunch on saturday. craig and i will be there helping out wherever we can.

A new addition to the family

We are officially a mini-van family. I swore it would never happen. A few weeks ago we bought a 2001 Pontiac Montana and just as everyone told me would happen - i love it! It is so stinkin practical to haul the kids around. We knew that we wouldn't be able to fit three kids into our sporty little grand am so we have been looking for a few months. A friend gave us a heads up on this one (thanks jason!). It was very gently used by its previous owner and only has 82,000 miles on it. Our meager budget wouldn't have bought much we figured, and this one was in the best condition that you could expect to find in a used minivan. Praise the Lord we were able to buy it without going into debt! We have had this adoption in the forefront of our minds for the past few years and have made some pretty drastic changes to be able to financially make it possible. We moved to a different house to cut our mortgage by 75%. We also keep a pretty tight budget so that (Lord willing) we do not have to go into debt for these rare, but big ticket items. We have been able to save a good chunk of the adoption cost, but not nearly all that we need yet. All this to say, that we are not willy-nilly spending with one hand and then asking support with the other. The kids love the new ride b/c they can now both see out the window. I love the comfy leather seats. I would guess that Craig loves that it is a manly color.

Victory!

I spent about 20 minutes on the phone yesterday with both Omaha and Oregon Holt offices verifying the whole police clearance letter issue. They were very helpful in assuring me that it was completely legal for the station to issue me such a letter and also providing me a sample letter that I could take right into the police station. I said a prayer that my words would be firm, but grace-filled as we sat in the parking lot this morning. After checking with the chief, the lady in the front office said that they would be able to write us a statement and mail it to us!!! Yay!!! I was surprised at my level of frustration and anger at the whole situation. It seems that this little baby is so much becoming a part of the family even now that I already have a pretty fierce "momma bear" instinct for him or her. You know, that instinct that is ready to fight if anyone stands in the way of us getting to our new little merrihew. Not that it is good to be fighting the police right in the middle of the police station, mind you. But what a good reminder this morning that the love we have for our children (or soon-to-be children) is merely a shadow of the love Christ has for us. Our sin stood between us and a Holy God and He came for us doing for us what we could not do. He fought for us to the point of being willing to bear our shame and sin and being obedient to the point of death on a cross...all that we might be adopted into His family, sons and daughters of a Holy God!

small speedbump

This week I really did try to get some things accomplished. I guess it is only Tuesday so I shouldn't jump to the conclusion that I won't make progress on paperwork yet. I wouldn't call this a roadblock, maybe a small speedbump. One document needed for our dossier is a clearance letter from our local law enforcement that states there are no pending warrants on us. Seems simple enough. Yesterday I tried to get our police clearance letter done at our local police station (like the instructions told me to) and they kindly informed me that they can't issue me a statement like that unless they are given a subpeona. So I emailed Holt asking what I should do and the best answer they could give me was to go to a larger police station. Hmmm...doesn't seem to make sense to me that the law would be different for a larger station. I am still confused on this one and will probably call Holt tomorrow to clarify.

We got some good family pics taken at the park today - thanks Sharon! I updated our family pic there on the left side of the blog. i'm not sure why it doesn't center the picture and i don't have time to mess with it so please know i did not purposefully cut evan off in the picture :)

Where do I begin?

The garage sale has been taking up whatever free time i seem to have lately and i've not found time to blog though a lot has happened this week. Several friends brought big loads of stuff over for the sale and a few more told me that they intend to bring stuff over - Yay! Things are spilling out into our main basement family room now.

I ran into my friend Sharon this week and asked her if her daughter, a high schooler, would be interested in coming with us to the park to try to take a decent family picture. I had totally forgotten that Sharon, before staying home with her girls, was a fabulous graphic designer! She offered her talents to us and said that she would love to take our picture and put together a sign for us to have up at the barbecue and the garage sale. I had yet to figure out how I was going to make a sign and i am very thankful for this great surprise! We will be meeting her on Tuesday evening to hopefully get a picture taken.

We sent in our first payment to Holt - $2,500 - and should be getting a call from the social worker soon to schedule our homestudy.

In more serious developments Craig and I made the decision that we will no longer be buying Mountain Dew or Wild Cherry Pepsi. No, this is not a joke :) We are trying to cut back wherever we can and this just seemed like an obvious thing to do. It is a sad day today, b/c we are on our last cans. Most of you know about Craig's Mt. Dew habit so if you see him, give him some encouragement that he will live. It is much easier to give up/get rid of something when i ask myself the question "Would i rather have this or a precious ethiopian baby?"