We are blessed!

We have been blown away at how many blessing have come our way in the past month. Of course, the first being our referral phone call and seeing the faces of those two children that God is allowing us to raise. Then the blessings just poured in after that. I just feel like sharing them and giving God all the glory. And I want us all to be reminded how BIG our God is! So, thank you everyone for being such a big blessing to our family and two kids in Ethiopia who have no idea yet what is in store for them.



Now that we know the ages of our children we can start planning better and getting ready for them to come home. I got rid of all Sophia's baby things and kept some of Silas's things. But, we didn't have any "baby" things left. The day after our referral my girlfriend says we can have her really nice crib that turns into a toddler bed and some other baby things and clothes. Then, my other friend is letting us use her high chair. We have been getting lots of yard sale donations for our fundraiser in June. My garage is packed full already. My preschoolers at work are handing me Penny Jars and their parents are handing me $20 bills to put in the jars. Those kids are so excited to put pennies in the jars. We had a friend at church say we can use some of their frequent flier miles for our trip to Ethiopia. Another friend at church gave us their washer and dryer because our washer was so loud and moved so much that it sounded like a helicopter was landing on our roof. We are going to sell our old dryer in our yard sale. We had another friend at church hand us $1000 check and tell us to go buy a new bed for us because we were hurting so bad from our other bed we had. We got a great bed for half off and feel better already. And this may sound small but, we were planning on putting a privacy fence up soon in our yard for the kids to play. One day I came home from work and our neighbors put up a privacy fence in their yard that backs up to ours. Then my other neighbor next to us came over to ask if we wanted to split the cost of the last part we would have to put up. That cut our cost by one third. Then I got the call that we got a matching grant for $4000 and a $5000 interest free loan from LifeSong for Orphans. And as of today we have already reached that goal and so now it's over $8000.00 So, that is just the big blessings that we have had in the past month or so. We are so humbled and amazed once again at God's faithfulness. We have raised over $15, 000 and have another $5000 in interest free loans from Life Song. We are really close to reaching our goal of $25,000. After looking at flights, etc, our goal my have to go up a little. But, if so, we will reach it!!! Don't forget about our BIG yard sale/bake sale on June 12th!!!



It's so fun and exciting for me to sit back and watch God's hand at work all around. He is always at work, we just have to look and see where and go and be a part of that work. And, He is at work in Ethiopia and here in Tulsa and with so many families that are a part of adoption in some small way. All of you who have donated time and/or "pennies" and prayed for us have been a part of God's work in our adoption. Thank you so much! We love you all very much!

We got THE CALL!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, we got our referral yesterday!!!!!! We got to see pictures of our kids for the first time. We have a new handsome 3 1/2 year old boy and a sweet beautiful little 5 month old baby girl! Yes, one of each! Perfect! This is exactly what Sophia and Silas have been praying for. He wanted another playmate and Sophia wanted a baby sister. God is so GOOD and FAITHFUL! It's so great when God shows our kids how faithful He is in answering their prayers.

Here is the story of how it happened yesterday... First let me start by saying that our whole family and church did a 10 day Daniel fast last week and it ended on Friday. A year and a half ago we did that same fast and that is when God confirmed in us to start the adoption process and so we did. So, this time doing the fast I was praying that we would get our phone call while we were fasting and praying. So when Friday came around I was a little sad, but still knew God had the perfect time. And He sure did. It's just like God to wait until Monday to bless us with the call. He is so faithful.

So, I was at work and was finishing up for the day. It was 2pm. I saw Scott walk in the door to my classroom and I asked him what he was doing there. He never comes to my work at that time of day. He paused and then said, "Are you ready to meet our kids?" I just fell apart and cried! I was shaking so bad and crying so hard that everyone at work was wondering what was going on. Most of them knew right away. I think everyone in the gym heard me! Mrs. P (my boss) was there and in the the middle of my excitement and tears I asked her if I could go. So, Scott and I went to the church right away to call Natalie back. She said she was going to send the email with the pictures. Lots of our friends were in there with us during this time taking pictures and video. Natalie asked if we wanted to know the ages or just see the pictures. And about that time the email came through and we saw their beautiful faces for the first time! I fell apart again and couldn't believe we had one of each and that I had a baby! We accepted the referral right away! These were our kids!

Then we went right home because Sophia and Silas were just getting home from school. We couldn't wait to tell them. This is exactly what they have prayed for. So we sat them on the couch and pulled the pictures up on the computer. We said that we got the call and Silas jumped up and down and Sophia sat in shock and couldn't believe it. They saw the pictures of their new brother and sister and just fell in love. They are so proud to have them and can't wait to go to Ethiopia!

What an amazing experience that was. I am still on cloud nine today and can't stop looking at their pictures. They are perfect. Now we wait for the court date.