An Adoption Journey Begins

I'm sure everyone there is thinking what? Are they nuts? We may well possibly be, but this is something that Alan and I both feel we have been called to do. Neither of us feel that we can sit back and not do something to help. We want to make this one small difference. After looking at all the different children in this world that need loving homes we felt most drawn to Ethiopia and Haiti. We then started looking at the different programs the good and the bad, and while both countries have a strong need of adoptive parents we chose Ethiopia. One reason is they have a excellent adoption system in place that really seems to work. Haiti's current system is broken and it can often take years to get your adopted child home.

We are getting our application ready to send to the agency (Adoption Advocates Intl. http://www.adoptionadvocates.org/ ) and with it's approval we will then move forward with our homestudy. We will be drowning in paperwork for both the US and Ethiopian governments for the next few months.

We are planning to chose older siblings (9-13 yrs) that are on the Children waiting list. We will be able to move forward with choosing our children once our application has been processed.

We initially planned on adopting one 9-12 yr.old but the need is so great to adopt siblings we just knew that was what we wanted to do. It is going to cost us a bit more to do this and we really need you prayers and support as we move forward. In the coming months I hope to have a garage sale . If any of you have items to donate or want to come purchase things on the day please let me know. Early planning yet but I will post more details on it as they develop. Those of you that regularly read this post please forward it to family and friends that might not see it. We need all the prayers we can get over the next year . We know that there are obstacles ahead and again only with faith and prayer will we be able to bring our children home.

There is a link below to a video that when Alan and I saw it we knew for sure Ethiopia was where we would go. Listen closely to the lyrics - the song is just beautiful.

http://www.adoptionguides.org/Ethiopia/ethiopiaproject.mpg

This Youtube link to the video can be quicker on some computers;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh_afuKvVf4

I'll keep you posted on each new development. So please keep checking back. Add us to your favorites!

Caleb doesn't taste very good.

Alan, Caleb and I had lunch at El Tapatio with Alan's friend Steve, his wife, son and brother on Saturday. Steve is only about 6'5'' and 300+ lbs can be a bit intimidating. He is joking around with Caleb telling him he's very hungry and will just eat Caleb for lunch. Caleb very demurely answers "but I wouldn't taste very good." Surprisingly he wasn't terrified of Steve and was soon having straw fights with him. Guess he knew that the food at the restaurant was much tastier than he would be.

Posted are some new pictures taken over the weekend, a few (guess which ones) were taken by Caleb. Can't post all the ones he took as the kid just had to be bold (he thought it was funny) and swing open the bathroom door while I was in there and just started snapping away. Ha ha cute kid.

The Jack Russell stopped bouncing.

Bonnie was finally still long enough to get a few pictures of her. Have to catch her sleeping to get her still long enough to snap a shot. I know we still need pictures of Darby, he may need a haircut first as he just looks like a lump of white fur right now.

The new roof is finally on the house. I need to get out and snap a shot to post. It looks really well. The roof will get it's first test of Texas weather later today as Tropical storm Edouard heads our way. winds of over 40mph are forecast along with 2-4 inch rainfall totals. We really need the rain as we've had very little this summer. We are at least getting a break from the 100+ (40c+) temps we have been having.

Other than that it's been quiet here. Post more pic's when I get them.