Adoption update #2

Yesterday I mailed off our homestudy to CIS (Citizen Immigration Services or something like that!). We had already filed our I-600a which is a petition to bring a foreign orphan into the country. Now that they have our homestudy too they will contact us for a fingerprinting appointment. Just an approval we need to receive before we get cleared to travel. I hope to have an update on our waiting list status next week. - Karin

Winter Wonderland

Christmas vacation turns magical with all the snow and a visit from cousin Keegan! Nothing like cross country skiing in your own neighborhood! - Karin

Christmas Joy

Another Christmas come and gone, whew! Christmas Eve was made complete with Maria's first bloody nose (brought on by bonking heads with Kate) followed by Kate vomitting! Christmas with kids, there is just nothing like it!! Both girls recovered nicely, Maria was mostly concerned with all the blood that got all over her new outfit that she had just unwrapped from Gram. But Gram came to the rescue and the outfit is as good as new! We have counted our blessings of wonderful family to share the holiday with and most importantly, a Saviour who came as a baby to live life fully human yet fully God. Amazing. I feel a bit humbled by the extravagance of our gifts in these days of financial uncertainty and feel the Lord's promptings of ways to reach out in our community and into the world to share our resources of time and money and love to those in need. May God give me (and all of us!) the grace to hear and obey His promptings.
Silas received a flip digital recorder (or something to that effect!) and by the time we left Mike's parents house last night he had put together a little video from our time there!! I am hoping he will get motivitated to add some video to our blog. Makes me realize I better stay on my best behavior because he likes to record in stealth!

The Waiting List!!! ~ Adoption Update #1

December 8th we received a call from Christy at AGCI that all our paperwork is officially complete and we have been placed on the waiting list(s)!! Whew! It took about 2 months longer than expected, due to a very slow homestudy process but here we are! So (drum roll please!) - here are our numbers!
Waiting for siblings: we are #15 on list
Waiting for a girl: we are #28 on list
Waiting for a boy: we are #13 on list
We are on all the lists because we will take any of the above! Many families do it that way but as you can see many families simply want a girl! So, our next update should come in early January. They update the wait lists the first week of every month. Families are removed from the top of the list once they accept a referral. The curve ball in our situation is that we are open to children under the age of 5 and many families on the list only want infants. So, that could mean we would get a referral before many families ahead of us on the list. That pretty much means that we could get a referral in 1 to.........8 months!! We are just trusting God in his timing and that he knows the child or children he has for us!

Our Guatemalan Princess Maria

Thursdays are a gift. I have hours with all 3 kids at school so I get to go to the gym, meet friends, and get things done around the house ALONE. Amazing!! I love being a mom more than anything, yet I thirst for quiet time to catch up, dream and reflect. Today I went to the gym, bought a pair of shoes, and dusted my house. I get to have a shower Saturday for a dear friend who is becoming a mom by adopting a 2 year old boy. What a blessing!
Silas and I are thinking of sending out our blog site with our Christmas cards so this is just me figuring out how to blog! I think I will just keep a loose journal style and see if anything takes shape! So, we are hoping everyone can keep up to speed on our journey to adopt through Ethiopia here too. The day after Thanksgiving I mailed our whole dossier (all the paperwork required to adopt that we spent the last 4 months gathering) to All God's Children International. (AGCI - our agency). I know they received it and we are waiting for them to let us know if it all looks ok or what. If approved we will then begin the wait for a referral. We went down a similar road in 2004-05 that lead to the adoption of Maria from Guatemala. Definitely an adventure!

- Karin

A Disneyland Adventure

Our first Disneyland trip was really fun! We started out by Checking out Downtown Disney (the place where you buy all the stuff). We found a Lego™ Shop and we were so surprised when we looked up! We ended up going into the Build-A-Bear Workshop and created Rosa the pink bear, Troy the brown bear, and Skippy the koala.

We all got up early, ready to go to the Disneyland Park™ on Tuesday morning and that's just what we did. The first ride we did was the Tea Cups, the only one we were really excited about on the way there. We had so much fun going all over the place. We went to Fantasyland, Frontierland and Adventureland that first day. The only thing that I didn't like That day was watching the Princesses act out their story. A boy just can't enjoy Princesses that much!

On Wednesday we went to the California Adventure Parks™ And went to the Soarin' Over California where it seems like your on a hang glider soaring over sight's and landmarks in California, including Disneyland! I think that was our favorite part! We went on the Buzz Light Year ride where you shoot the targets. Kate got level two and I got level three.

That was pretty much all we did - Play around. The only thing that you have to know is that on our third day, The "it's a small world" ride opened and we ended up getting the second boat! here are some pictures:

~Silas