Waiting Stitches

Woofta!  A lot has been going on the last couple of weeks! Between figuring out adoption decisions, finalizing paperwork, having two weekends of family travel, and then of course the normal busy life routine - my mind is almost fried. I've found myself feeling a little out of place lately and not on top of things. I keep making random mistakes - misplacing papers, looking at things wrong and giving out the wrong info, forgetting to set my alarm, walking into a room and not remembering why I went there - these are just some of the weird things I've been doing lately. I'm looking forward to this Spring and the freshness of what is to come. Hopefully I can feel a little more on top of things soon and everything can be a little more calm, at least for a short time... I'd even take a day or two!!! Since we were home this last weekend, I got in two long runs. It felt so good to be running in "warm" weather... let me clarify that the weather only felt warm because ...

As many of you know, in the last few weeks we had been discussing leaving the Ethiopia adoption program. There has been a lot of change in the program that could ultimately turn into the program completely shutting down. Due to this concern, our agency has offered for their Ethiopia clients to change programs. This is not something our agency has done before, so one can only imagine there would be some area of this process that could be miscommunicated  - as happened with us. We were under the impression that we could transfer our Ethiopia Agency Fees into our Philippines Adoption. It took us a long time to come to the conclusion that we wanted to completely end our journey in Ethiopia and currently only be involved in our Philippines adoption. We made the decision though and all felt right, UNTIL we got an email the next day saying that our plan would not work. So on to plan B... but what was plan B!?!? It took us almost two weeks of talking to at least three different people in...

So much has been on my mind since I "talked" to you last. Maybe it will help to just go through the last few days one event at a time... Thursday ~ We packed our van and headed towards South Dakota for Grandpa's funeral. The day started out crazy, as not only were we trying to pack and get to work, but the daycare provider called and said she had the flu, so we were frantically trying to figure out what to do with Caleb that afternoon. The stars just didn't seem to be aligning that day. One weird thing after another happened, and then the work day was over, we loaded the van, and miracles of miracles, we got out of the house BEFORE our goal time! During the trip we called our case manager at AGCI to make sure she had all of our dossier paperwork (as she had been gone a few days on a mission trip) and we learned that just that afternoon she had sent all of our Dossier paperwork to the Phlippines!!!!!  Woot! Woot!!!  Now we wait for them to look over it all.... Fri...

Up in Heaven is a most amazing God. Up in Heaven is a place of no pain, no sorrow, no war. Up in Heaven are people, dancing & singing. Up in Heaven are the people we have loved so dearly. They are there. We are here. But someday... we will be in Heaven, with our most amazing God. Someday... we will be in a place of no pain, no sorrow, no war. Someday... we will join our family and friends in dancing and singing. We will once again shower each other in hugs and smiles. We will be truly alive in the Spirit. Sending our love to a most amazing Grandpa who has blessed our family with his love, his humbleness, and his faith in God. We will miss you greatly Grandpa Eben. I'm sure your smiles are just as big in heaven as they were here on earth.  Couple questions for you Grandpa: Are the streets really paved in gold? What is the light like up there? Can you see us smiling as we think of all the memories you have helped us make? Can you see us crying, as we realiz...

Love this video! May not make a lot of sense to those who aren't in the middle of an adoption, or who have done an adoption, but to me it was an amazing 3 minutes! So great! It is nice to know there are people out there that understand me!  :)

Perhaps the last post was made in haste, but we had no clue that our decision was not one to be made... Let me back up a bit.  Two days ago we wrote that we had decided to leave the Ethiopia program and, due to changes at our agency, part of our fees would be transferred into our Philippines adoption which would help cover our current costs. We emailed our agency with the plan we decided on, just to get an email saying that the money may not be transferable. Say what!?! Our stomach's dropped. Flabbergasted. Speechless. And then ticked. Very, very, ticked.  Jon did the honors of writing an email asking for more details, especially since previous emails from our agency explicitly stated we could transfer the money. Now, a couple days later... I received a call tonight with more explanation. They had told us that the "agency fees" would be transferred to a new program; however, since we have already Started in the Philippines program and paid the...

With a heavy heart, here is, more or less, what we wrote to our people at AGCI tonight... "Jon and I have been doing a lot of talking, praying, thinking, and talking some more and have decided that we no longer want to do a concurrent adoption with the Ethiopia program. We withdrew our placement in the Ethiopia program and transferred some of the money to help with our dossier payment for the Philippines.  I feel there is no real win-win at this point, but overall that this is probably the best "solution" for us. We are so very excited to bring Little C home from the Philippines, but there is a sense of loss for all of the months we had been praying and thinking about our Ethiopian children. We do plan to adopt again, but feel led to seek either a second child from the Philippines, or look into domestic adoption a while after Little C is home." In a way, I feel a weight lifted off of our shoulders, as it is one less thing to worry about and wait  for. O...