WOW

I can't believe we are leaving in three days!!! Trying to remember to breathe....seriously!

I am so excited today because I got to see a see video of my sweet girl, Misrak.....on the video she said" Mommy, I love you." Oh boy, I'm a puddle!............... dissolved.

This week some incredible friends gave us a shower in the girls honor. Having a shower at 40 is kinda weird and yet so sweet. I guess you're never too old :) We were also able to collect some donations to take to the orphanage where our girls have been living. I'm so psyched to go! I want to go NOW!

God, you are so good and love us so much. We feel SO not worthy of your blessings but are thankful for them! We know you have us, God! We know we are in the palm of your hand....we will not be afraid! We will risk often and love loud.

My friend, Traci, will update our blog while we are gone. We'll hopefully be able to get email updates out while we are gone.

Here we go!

Sweet Words.......

I got a sweet email from a dear fellow adoption pal. She just returned from Ethiopia and spent some time with my youngest sweetheart! Here is what she said....my heart is breaking to go get them!

First & foremost. Mistire is doing great! She seems much more settled & is somewhat more happy & playful than when I first met her in March. She's still quite a delight to be around.

One thing & I'm not sure how much room you have in your luggage, if at all possible a doll with long hair for Mistire would be great. Right now, she has an old beaten up barbie dollthat she's really attached to. Every chance that she had, she had the barbie & it was clear that she's a "doll girl". The barbie had some old clothes that she loved having dressed & she also had a comb that she'd use to comb the barbie's hair.

Nesting and Backpacking!!

The girls room is pretty close to being done. We've been working hard on it and there are just a final couple of touches needed. We might not have those inplace until we get back but that is okay. Still need to finish the mountain of paperwork necessary for the final embassy appointment on the 26th. ugh.

T minus ONE WEEK until we LEAVE!!!!!

Riley and Todd had a great last backpacking trip for the summer a couple of weeks ago and I am just getting around to write about it. These pics tell it all. They went with our great friends, the Boggs. We've know them as long as we've lived here and Riley and Josie have been best of friends for just as long! They jumped off a BIG rock into the river, went down sliding rock, and hiked! They had a blast. Meanwhile, back home.....Traci and I took care of girly things and then went to dinner and had a sleepover.... watched movies and stayed up late talking and laughing. We had fun too!

We're leaving..... on a jet plane....

Our tickets are booked on Ethiopian Air......we leave TWO weeks from today! So crazy. We are putting together our lists and lists of things to do, things to buy and things to pack. I cannot believe the day is coming so quickly.

If you think of us, please pray for the hearts of our girls that they will be prepared to leave the only home they've known for the previous year and that the transition will be fairly smooth for them.

Thanks be to God for all He has given us and all He has prepared us for and prepared for us!

On a side note...long ago, we prayed we would be able to travel around the same time as a team from our church would be traveling. They leave four days before us!! We HOPE we will be able to connect with them in Ethiopia and go to Camp Langano. (This is the same camp I was able to go to in July 2007...the same camp where I fell in LOVE with the people, the culture and the children of Ethiopia.) God is so good.

Showers of LOVE!!

I have the bestest, sweetest, greatest friends in the world!! They gave me a surprise shower today.....my FIRST (baby) shower ever! When I was pregnant with Riley, about four months along, we moved from South Florida to Charlotte, NC. I didn't know a soul in our new town except the new people I worked with and they didn't know me well enough to give me a shower. Thank you SO much ladies.....it was a day I will not soon forget!

STILL waiting to hear when we will travel. It's hard to believe we passed court nearly a month ago and still have no word. These tests of patience are very tough but I know we are going to look back someday and think about what a sweet time of prayer and dreaming we had!

Uh....update....as I was finishing up this post....BIG NEWS!!! We're going to Ethiopia!! August 26th is our Embassy date. Don't know our travel dates as of yet. Oh girls......HERE WE COME!!!!

Good news......Bad news....

Good news: We got new pics of Misrak and Mistire today!!! I cannot WAIT to hold them!

Bad News: We are STILL waiting to hear when our embassy date will be. The Ethiopian government branch known as MOWA (Ministry of Women's Affairs)has decided to close for two weeks for personnel training. They are the folks that create birth certificates, visas and passports and of course we cannot take them home without these documents. We can get these documents at our embassy appointment. We will most like not hear until after July 28th as to when we can go get them. Might get to travel in August...but might have to wait until September :(

So for now.....we have these sweet faces to gaze at.

.....Your Kingdom Come....

Scriptures tell us that

Where there is fatherlessness and death,

where there is fear and violence,

where there is oppression and exploitation,

where there is racism and greed,

where there is human trafficking and child prostitution,

where there is a bloated belly and an AIDS infected mother,

where there is a contaminated wellspring and a empty library

where there is a soccer ball made only of rags and

dolls made only of straw

that is the place where we have been called.

So therefore when we

care for the orphan and grieve the loss of a loved one

when we turn the other cheek and walk the extra mile

when we stand up to the bullies and reach out to the victims

when we provide a warm towel and a fresh bowl of rice

when we pay for a $99 cent immunization and a $5 dollar mosquito net

when we invest in water filters and new wells

when we put a ball in a boys hands and a

doll in a girl’s arms

when we do all of this and a thousand other things

we are meditating God’s shalom.

This is our mission.

This is our task.

This is the story that God calls us into.

It's his story.

His dream.

His mission.

His task.

So let us be about shaping our lives around Jesus' prayer:

your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Gloria Deus.