Waiting Stitches

This is my Parliament of Owls from this last week! Many more to go with so many orders to fill!!! Every one is unique. Each one has made me smile. I'm so blessed to be sharing these owls with friends, and knowing they will help bring my babies home... well, it makes me want to "hoot" with joy!

I have had over 50 orders for Owie Owls!!! My goal is to sell at least 100, so I am just over half of the way there - exciting! I have made them for baby showers, grandchildren, athletic kids, and Moms. The best story was the owl made for a three year old birthday party. Halfway through the party it was his Mom that decided she needed the heating pad for her neck (this was said while trying to watch and keep track of the excited, fast moving kids), and she very much enjoyed the owl!!!   Thank you to those who have bought and/or spread the word!     In Christ, Mara

Glanced at the "Stats" today about our blog, and the blog is at exactly 2500 page views! How awesome is that! My son and I went to an Intergenerational Sunday School today and my ears perked up when I heard the word "adoption." The Pastor was talking to us today about our baptisms. Walking around the room, he asked the children if they remembered their baptism. He then asked a child if she had a choice as to what family she was born to, followed by "I guess I should ask if you are adopted first or not". Pastor then followed with a side note, saying that adoption is actually spoken about quite a bit in the bible. I thought he said something about the bible talking about being adopted into the family of Christ...however, at this point my brain is fuzzy, as I was dealing with my four-year-old asking about the frosting on his cake.  :) While at our education meeting a couple days ago, we took a Jeopardy quiz about famous people that are adopted or have ado

As I hug and kiss my son goodnight (for at least the third time, 2 hours past his bedtime!) I can't help but think about my other children. How I long to hold them in my arms, kiss them goodnight, show them how much they are loved, let them know that I will always be their mother. Yesterday Jon and I attended our first education meeting. This was put on by our local agency conducting our homestudy. The focus of this meeting was to talk about what to expect once our children are home. We learned a lot about "triggers" for our children - when life could be more difficult, we also learned more about attachment issues, and we learned/discussed what it will be like for our children to live in a "white privileged" family & neighborhood. Since this education, my mind has been swarming with many different thoughts. Many I'd like to try to convey into my writing, although this may take a few blogs. Tonight, as I work on getting my son to go to bed - and Stay

The other day Jon and I had an hour meeting on the phone with our AGCI caseworker - we officially now have our own caseworker!!!  She discussed our Dossier paperwork that WHOLE time. The Dossier is what will be sent to Ethiopia. It will include our homestudy (which includes a bunch of other paperwork), our education hours, and then a bunch of forms such as birth certificates and criminal checks. We have 6 months to complete all of this work. We can get it done sooner as well, but some of it depends on how quickly we get things back in the mail, or how quickly our homestudy caseworker writes things up. For anyone interested, especially those who are thinking about adoption, here is the paperwork checklist to be sent in with all of our paperwork. There are 26 items... 1. Notarized & State Certified Power of Attorney Form   2. Notarized Power of Attorney Form   3. Statement of Reason to Adopt (Application Letter)   4. Notarized Photocopy of USCIS Favorable Determination Letter   5