DOSSIER DONE

This is our wonderful friend and notary extraordinaire, Katie. Here she is notarizing our letter to Ethiopia requesting a child for adoption.

On Thursday two copies of our dossier (the collection of papers, forms, etc.) were sent to our agency. They will take about one week to process it and then send it back to us. From there it will go to Washington D.C. to the Sec. of States office and then to the Ethiopian embassy. Next it will go back to our agency in N.C. and then it's on it's way to the precious land of ETHIOPIA, AFRICA!! I had no idea how good it would feel to get it out the door!! If you are reading this because you too are adopting, have adopted or are considering it then you understand the excitement of this day.

Let me also share another amazing God story that happened this week. We needed to send a rather large amount of $ this week with our dossier and we were getting pretty close to what we needed. We were given a finacial gift this week that got us to the goal we needed almost to the exact dollar!! And the giver had no idea that amount we needed. What keeps ringing in my heart is "Give us this day, our daily bread". It has been an honor to be inolved in what God is doing all around us!!

Garage Sale

This past Friday and Saturday we had our big garage sale and it was, in a word, amazing! It was hard work, we are just now feeling like we are rested from the 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. two days with moving furniture, arranging clothes and unloading and reloading the garage. We still have about half a garage full of items and offers for more donations for us to sell so we will probably have another one later this summer.

Now, what was so amazing? The people, support and love that we experienced through simple gestures of kindness. We had numerous friends and acquaintances donate items to sell and time and effort working, organizing, and just being around us over the two days. TO YOU ALL WE SAY THANK YOU!

To those of you who donated money to bring this little girl home THANK YOU! We are amazed by those that gave that barely have anything to give and those that gave that don't know us, but know our heart and those that gave because they understand the feeling of being blessed just by the act of giving.

We have to tell you about the woman that walked up to Casey and introduced her son. The son then said that he was from Russia and the mom explained that she and her husband had adopted him a few years earlier and she just wanted to stop by and tell us that she supports what we are doing. She then handed Casey a tightly rolled white piece of paper (in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the busy time of the sale) and then quickly walked off. Casey said thank you and proceeded to help some other people with their purchases and when she had a quick break in the action she went inside. She opened the rolled up paper and read the simple, perfect note, "May God bless your adoption". No name, no number....$200 cash.

THANK YOU, WE WOULD LOVE TO TELL YOU AGAIN IN PERSON, THANK YOU.

The money is much appreciated as is the donated items, but the relational support and time spent talking about the world's problems and nothing at all was the best part.

Please enjoy a few photos from the sale!

Friends helping (I think Arica is trying to shoplift something)
Ty hanging out with the kids
"No, maam, she is not for sale but you can have a doll for only $.25"
Ty and Arica ready to start the morning off

Our friend Renee modeling the merchandise
Our table with coffee for sale and pictures of African children

Ty and Steve moving stuff to the yard

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

Happy Mother's Day!

We have had a wonderful weekend of preparation/hard work/fun while getting ready for our Ethiopian Adoption Garage Sale Fundraiser. Thank you to everyone that has donated items for us to sell next weekend! We did a lot of organizing, pricing, and logistics so that our 5 a.m. start to next Friday and Saturday will go as smoothly as possible. Our garage is full of items which has been tough on me (being the handy man, workshop type of guy I am.......mmmghmm) to get the lawnmower in and out once a week! HA!

Today for Mother's Day we went to church and then came home and had a picnic, complete with basket and french onion dip in our living room as we are having Kansas winds here in Tennessee and we didn't want to blow away. It was a great lunch. Casey got two bouquets of flowers, one from each of her daughters as well as an afternoon watching the movie "Bella" with her adoring husband while Ella Bean took a nap. By the way, go rent "Bella" it is a great movie and fitting for mother's day etc. Check out the pic of Ella with her mom's flowers.

We ask for continued prayer as we are wrapping up paper work and raising funds to get our baby home soon!

BIOMETRICS

Wanted to let everyone know we had our 3rd and final homestudy interview last week and it went great!  Our social worker came to our house and took a tour, asked some questions and visited with Ella.  Ella was quite the charmer coloring pictures and hugging her!  Today we went and got our biometrics (finger prints etc.) done in Nashville.  Both of these are major milestones as they are key pieces of the adoption dossier.  While getting our fingerprints done today Casey got teary eyed. (there wasn't any ink, just a digital finger printing machine so it wasn't like she got it in her eye)  It really set in that this process is moving right along and we are continually pushing so that we can get our little girl home asap.  We are doing our part to give us the best chance of getting her home by the holidays (originally we thought the earliest would be February of next year), that's what we are praying for, feel free to join in!