Anniversary & another task

Today is our 8th wedding anniversary! It's hard to believe it's been 8 years of marriage bliss already and 13 years together. It hasn't always been easy, but I'm so thankful for the blessing of my amazing husband. He was absolutely well-worth the wait!

In addition to cleaning up and cleaning out the house, we're also working on another fairly major project this week .... restaining the fence. This is the fourth summer we've been talking about getting this done, but finally it's getting done! It's looking pretty good. Nothing like getting all the projects done around the house in the same week.

Nesting?

Is it possible for someone who is adopting to be NESTING? You know, like when you're actually physically preparing to give birth.... It's not likely, but this week I have been busy cleaning up and moving stuff out of our home. The cleaning part is because it just needs it periodically -the kind where you wipe down the cupboards and drawers, dust the walls and clean behind and under all the furniture. But the cleaning OUT part consists of ridding our home of all the stuff we seem to store but never use. My immediate goal is to make me feel more organized and like there's a bit less chaos in our lives, but also to make room for our new little one. Nope, still no announcement, but we're preparing. I'm trying to get rid of things in our home which we don't need in anticipation of even MORE things being brought into our home for our wee one. We're on our second pick-up load to the Good Will, we have enough garbage to fill up an extra can and the recycle can is full too. It's looking GOOD around here. Open up a closet and see for yourself. I dare you!

Still no news

We still don't have any news to share in the adoption process. We actually haven't heard of any families being matched with any kids since before we were even added to the list. I assume this has to do with several things....

1) the huge number of matches which were made in May and June and all those families getting through the process and bringing their children home -thus in essence making room for more children to enter the transition home which is typically where the kids live once they are matched with a family and waiting for the court process.

2) it's the rainy season in Ethiopia which means electricity is even more scarce than the rest of the year. The courts in Ethiopia usually close for approximately a couple months during this time, which means that adoptions can't be processed.

3) our director in Ethiopia who processes ALL the adoptions is currently in the United States working with the staff here. This makes it difficult for him to match any children with families.

So I anticipate the matches will begin being made again within the next couple months.
We'll be sure to keep you posted as we hear anything.

One for the shots - Zero for ME

Last week I had round two of our immunizations -three shots. My appointment was Wednesday morning and the shots themselves weren't bad at all.... well considering they were shots. But you get the idea. But Thursday morning I woke up sore and feeling just plain yucky. After getting all ready for work, I crawled back into bed and contemplated what to do. I was feeling nauseous, but knew I had to go to work anyway. Maybe I was just being a big baby. So off to work I went. I struggled carrying my bag into the office cuz I was feeling weak. I had a fever with the sweats and goose bumps. I got started with my work, but very quickly realized I wasn't going to be able to make it. I could hardly think when someone was talking to me and couldn't focus. I had pain in both arms from the shots, but in my left arm it hurt up into my shoulder, my neck and the base of my skull. I was so stiff I could hardly move my neck. I ended up heading home before lunch and went right to bed. When I woke up I took some ibuprofen to help with the ache, but it didn't seem to help my throbbing headache. My evening I finally started feeling like I could function again. I still felt pretty yucky for the next few days, but am on the mend now and have nothing but a bruised feeling in my arm remaining.

Sean had his appointment today. I'm sure he was completely dreading it considering how the shots affected me, but hopefully he'll be in better shape.

Can you help?

We have some dear friends, the Gurskes, who have adopted two children from Ethiopia in the past year and a half. In fact they just returned home from Ethiopia with their daughter Adey this month. We had the blessing of meeting them at the airport when they returned to the States and got to meet Adey right away. She is such a doll and her big brother was so excited to meet her too.

They spent two weeks in Ethiopia on this past trip and are working so hard to help other orphaned children in Ethiopia -the ones they can't bring home with them. They made contact with a orphanage who is caring for 40 children, but doesn't have any income to provide them with food, clothing, a place to sleep or medications, and they are desperately asking for our help.

I encourage you to take a look at their blog. If you feel led to support those children through prayer or financially, please do so. Even $5 makes a huge difference to these kids.

http://bethany-withthesehands.blogspot.com/

Update... sort of

We haven't had much news related to the adoption lately, which is expected at this point in the process. But I thought I would note what has happened.

On July 23 our dossier was sent to Washington DC for its final verification. It was received back by our adoption agency last week and now it is ready to be sent to Addis Ababa. However it will actually be hand delivered, as Ato Teklu, (our director in Ethiopia) along with Ato Menywab (the director of the Bete Hitsanet Association Orphange), will be coming to the Seattle area to visit for a couple weeks. When they return to Addis Ababa, they'll just take our dossier with them.

In the meantime we wait.... which seems like it would be difficult, but it hasn't been as difficult as I thought -likely because we have been SOOO busy this summer and have hardly had time to be anxious about waiting. I'm sure once summer comes to an end we will begin to get a bit more anxious.