Thanks Emily for my blog makeover

Thanks to Emily, my blog got a makeover. She did a great job and now it really has an African flare. She is very talented and generous to give of her time to help me. You can see her blog about her adopted sister from China in my links (Journey with AnnaClaire) and you can see her other work by clicking on her emblem at the bottom (Mei'd with Love).

The kids are ready

The kids were playing at Grandma's house last night with baby dolls that used to be my sister's and mine. They were pretending that they adopted them. Well, Grandma let them bring these 2 home. When I went to put them to bed I saw that they had tucked them into this little port-a-crib that is in the boys' room. Jordan even gave them his blanket. It was so sweet. We can't wait to tuck their real brothers into bed!

Final homestudy meeting done

Last night we had our final homestudy meeting. It went well (we think). We feel really comfortable with our social workers and apparently our children do too. After Javier and I had our individual interviews, the 3 big kids did a group interview. We were in the bedroom with the 2 little ones and we just heard a lot of laughing coming from the social workers. Those of you that know our kids, know that they love to tell some good stories to whoever will listen.

We had another great surprise when we went to bed. We looked through the mail and found a letter stating that the Superior Court of Arizona has our fingerprints and has us logged in as of July 25. Sending in the fingerprints is what officially gets the ball rolling. We are hoping to be cleared to travel in 2-3 months.

Daughter's blog

My 8 year old daughter started a blog to keep friends and family up to date. Since she is homeschooled we try to have as many assignments as possible teach real life skills. She writes emails to her relatives on a regular basis, so we thought this would be more challenging and fun. I walked her through the whole process of creating the blog and she set it all up. Now she is learning how to download pictures, edit and improve her typing skills. She loves to share cute stories about her siblings and get comments on her blog. We are so proud of her. Check it out if you haven't already - it is under my links.

The birds and the bees according to our 6 year old

I am sorry - this has nothing to do with our adoption, but it was too funny not to share. This weekend we were babysitting a tiny chihuahua, “Cowboy” - that made 3 dogs in our house. Well, the kids started comparing our male dog, Jonah, with this male dog, Cowboy. They noticed that they both had spots on their bellies and they both had a private part hanging down, but then Jordan flipped cowboy over and said, “But Cowboy has these things and Jonah doesn’t.” I said, “That is because Jonah was neutered.” Then Jordan said, “Oh – so that’s where the seeds are. I have some of those. Daddy do you have some of those? Oh no – you must have used them all up!” Javi and I walked away about to burst laughing.

Home for abandoned babies

Oh how my heart breaks, yet in the same breath rejoices! We heard from our adoption director that there is a house being started for abandoned babies. It is about 80% finished and only needs about $4500 to complete it. Our agency will partner with them and others to help provide support to help these babies/children! Praise God! What broke my heart is where they are finding these abandoned babies - at the latrine pit. Yes - where the waste is dumped. Who knows the reasons why they are dumped there, all we know is that the mothers are in desperate circumstances and our response must be that of compassion and love in action.

Oh - Lord save and set apart one or 2 of these babies for our family like you set apart Moses as a baby. May our children cry out to You one day, "For You formed my inward parts, You wove me in my mother's womb. I will praise You for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Your works, and my soul knows it very well!" (Psalm 139:13-14)

school bus?

I know what you are thinking. Pretty soon they are going to need a school bus. When we jokingly told the kids that, they all cheered. We will be needing a 15 passenger van since we will soon be a family of 9 (or maybe a shuttle bus - jk).

Starting the process

On June 29, 2007, we officially signed and sent in our contract to adopt 2 young boys from Zambia, Africa. On July 12, we will have our first home study appointment. We think we already have the names for our 2 boys - Jameson and Jeremiah. We are all so excited. Also, my sister and her husband, who are adopting Ellie from China, have been one of the main catalysts in this journey and very helpful in sharing how to get started.