A few of my favorite things

All these things are reminders to me that we are getting ever closer to Levi! I picked up a baby blanket for him about a month ago thinking that I would be able to send it over with another family. Some agencies allow this, but I found out that Holt does not. I was disappointed, but understand that their first interest is in caring for the kids. I suppose it would be a bit unfair for some children to recieve extra gifts than others. I will gladly give it to Levi when we are able to bring him with us out of the care center :)

The ready-to-use formula came this week. It will be very handy to have on our trip home.

I ordered the baby book "My Family, My Journey" after hearing rave reviews and I LOVE it. It is specific for an adopted child and is made in a way so that when filled out it can serve as a "life book" with which you can tell your little one their story. It has some very sweet entries such as "people who helped bring you home" and "the story of our family" where you write about our family came to be. I look forward to working on this on the plane...or maybe here at home if we end up waiting for another court date.

The audio CD and book "Simple Language Amharic for Adoptive Families" just came in the mail today and I also LOVE it. The purpose of the book is to help you learn enough Amharic to help you communicate with a child you have adopted. This will not really be an issue with Levi as he is only 5 months old, however, I do hope our family will eventually learn it all so that we can speak it to each other in the years to come. It is filled with phrases that you would use during normal activities throughout the day. It is VERY user friendly and was created by an adoptive mom. I would heartily recommend this for an adoptive family!

**Oh, and I left my purse at the post office today - Ha Ha!! I totally walked out with my kiddos and my wallet in my hand. I just don't know if I'll ever grow up!

Reminded afresh

This weekend I am reminded afresh at what grace really is. On Friday night I heard that some friends of ours were having a yard sale the next morning, so I went over early Saturday morning to help set stuff out. In the course of conversation I realized what actually was going on. They were having a moving sale, but they were giving us ALL the profits for the adoption. And this was no small yard sale, mind you.

I hesitate to say this because I, in no way, want to endorse a prosperity gospel (the prosperity gospel says that the Lord wants to "bless" Christians with nice homes, cars, health, and wealth) but I desperately do not want to forget this road to Levi and I will do my best to explain my thoughts so it is clear what I AM trying to say. I am truly blown away by the generosity that we are being shown from the body of Christ as of late and it has been so incredibly encouraging as we prepare to meet our new son. After this last week I have been in a sweet place of just feeling the Lord's pleasure in this adoption. A sweet place of rest. It has been 16 months (so far) of working and waiting that, most days, is heavy on our hearts. It is everything out of our comfort zone of "normal daily life" - a roller coaster of emotions. It means going without many things that the world esteems. It means doing lots of work that no one else has to do because they are not on the same road as you. It means often having to explain yourself and sometimes defend the road you have chosen knowing that others most likely don't understand your passion because they do not feel the same call in their lives. Please understand, I am not grumbling, but feel incredibly blessed to be in the front row...no, up on stage as the Lord unfolds this story. I am watching the Lord be a father to Levi by providing financially for this adoption. Amazing.

On the menu

Vivotif Typhoid oral vaccine. Yum.

Much grace from dear friends = many tears from me this weekend. This is a teaser. Details to come.

Sliding fun

Look at that beautiful blue sky! They could totally be miles up in the air!

Just yesterday morning while we were walking, Juliana hollered out "Good night, Levi". She's going to be a great big sis for him :)

One of those rare "not cheesy or princess-ey" smiles. I LOVE those!

Every time Evan got up to the top of the slide he would wait for Juliana. Evan has graduated to the "stand" part of our "sit and stand" stroller. What a big kid!

So does it mean I am grown up if . . .

I finally bought a purse? Yes, I found a cute purse at a garage sale this morning for a whole dollar! I really have tried before to carry a purse, but have inevitably lost it...lots of times. No really, lots. After a few good tries, I gave up and am totally happy to carry a little wallet that either stays in my hand at all times or slips into the diaper bag. So why bite the bullet and carry a purse, you say? Well, I wanted one for the trip so that I can take it on the plane with my carry-on and carry more stuff with me. More stuff with me = more stuff that doesn't potentially travel to Bali.

My ticker on the blog says only 2 weeks until court. It seems like the days are flying by!

I have never flown internationally so, like I said before, MUCH to learn. The Lord is so faithfully bringing things to our attention so that we are learning much and, I think, will be very prepared for our trip :) If you know me, I am rarely prepared so when it happens for this trip, it only be one of those boasting in the Lord moments!

I had been bummed that I wouldn't be able to buy much in the way of gifts and donations for the care center, but I should have remembered to stop being disappointed and just pray about it. In the past week I got a call from a friend who wanted to buy little stuff to hand out to kiddos - Yay! I thought of a gift for the nannies that I am excited to give and that is homemade so it won't cost a bundle...I'm working out the details and will let you know about it when I get it put together. More and more stuff is coming in for our garage sale, so much of my spare time is spent sorting and pricing.

Hmm...I wonder what I am going to do with myself when all is said and done with this trip. Oh yeah, I'm gonna snuggle up with my new little Levi and learn what it is like to have 3 little ones to chase after - WoooooHooooo!

This post is the most jumbled one yet. Will it get worse? Most likely. This IS what it is like to be in my brain right now :)

I have a dream...

that the two weeks before travel will be worry-free and that all I will have to do is to clean the house and pack the kids. Is it possible? I think so! I worked on another suitcase tonight and started gathering necessary paperwork into a file folder that will travel with us. I was checking out our passports and noticed that we still needed to sign on page #3 - so if you are traveling also, don't forget to sign it! Craig copied off the tax documents tonight that we will need to take with us and placed them snug in the folder as well. Last night I ordered formula in ready-to-feed bottles online. There was only one choice here in town and I was able to get free shipping so it was actually much cheaper to order it online - Yay! These will come in very handy on the 12 hour flight, or so I hear :)

We have also been looking into Medical Release forms that we will fill out for the kids so that they will be able to get medical care if needed while we are away. Thanks to those of you who brought this to our attention - we hadn't even thought about this!

There are a few Holt families who have their court dates in Ethiopia on the 24th, so that means tonight the judge will be reviewing their files! Oooh, I hope they hear good news tomorrow morning!!!

Anonymous

"throughout the Scriptures the great theme of God's unrelenting kindness throbs like a powerful heartbeat. 'His merciful kindness is great towards us...' (Ps 117:2) is a refrain that never dies. It is repeated scores of times as a reminder that the mercy, compassion, and kindness of God flow to us freely, abundantly in refreshing rivers every day." W. Phillip Keller

Just today we have been the recipients of merciful kindness. The kind of kindness we could never deserve...and we can never repay it because we don't know who you are! In the mail this afternoon we recieved a large donation towards the adoption. Thank you (with tears)! I wish that I knew who you were so that when we come home with Levi I could make sure that you got a big baby boy smile and a hug from little Ethiopian arms for helping to make us a family. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

About 1/3 of the funds needed for this adoption have been given to us by family and friends. I don't want to forget all of you who have been so generous to us along the way. It seems very inadequate to say thank you, but that is all I can do. It is not an easy road to adopt...even those who have simply been excited with us have done much to encourage our hearts.

It may seem like no big thing to offer words of encouragement or offer money, but do you get it? This is not just something that we thought was the "cool" and "in" thing to do. This is a little boy who doesn't have a momma or daddy right now. Truly, it is hard to understand the implications, even for us, as we haven't even met Levi yet. But oh, how he is going to be loved on MUCH by Craig and me and his new brother and sister. We will surely treasure this little Ethiopian boy as a gift from the Lord. You are helping to change a life - THANK YOU!!!!