On it's way to Ethiopia

Our Dossier was mailed to Ethiopia on September 2nd. It takes about 5 days to get there. I am so excited to be in this phase. It seemed like a long time getting here and yet not that long ago that we started this whole process! God has been so amazingly faithful! And I have been so overwhelmed by the amount of love and support we have received from our family, friends, and sometimes perfect strangers. Now that our paperwork is out I'm going to get started on my thank you notes to all of you guys!
I have also started to prepare the babies room! I am so excited about this! I bought a baby bedding set and went and picked up my sisters crib. I now have a crib in my house that my baby will someday sleep in!!! Isn't that awesome! Getting the room ready will keep me busy and excited for a while, then the holiday season will come, then Melanie's wedding...before i know it these six months will pass! I can't even explain how excited I am.

DOSSIER DAY!

Today I was talking on the phone when I pulled into my drive way. I looked at the house and yelled "There's an envelope on my porch!" I ran up and it was indeed the last two forms I needed in order to mail in my official dossier. So I went to the bank and got the money orders I needed. Figured out how to go about mailing all the stuff and got everything ready. Then Sam and I went to the FedEx place and officially mailed our dossier! It wont go out until tomorrow morning but it's out of our hands. Which means its in the hands of some minimum wage fedex/kinko's employee at the moment...that's a little scary! Here's the picture I made the fedex guy take of us holding our dossier getting ready to mail it. (yes he did look at us like we were crazy, as did Sam when I told him what the camera was for)

Garage Sale

Our garage sale this weekend was very successful. We made more than twice what I expected! Praise the LORD! I know it was God pouring His blessing on us that made it so successful. A lot of people were praying about it and he answered our prayers, and blessed us beyond our expectations. I want to thank everyone who helped or donated or prayed for us. I can't tell you how much it means to us to have people come alongside of us and support us.
Well we are getting closer and closer. We heard from CWA and they said our dossier is complete and accurate. So as soon as we get the 2 papers from them we can send it to Washington DC. I'm not sure how long the turn around time is in Washington but we'll keep you posted each step of the way!
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves."
Ephesians 1:3-6

God is so good!

I decided to come back and edit this post and organize my thoughts a little more. Can I just tell you all that I serve and amazing God! I feel like He has just unleashed His blessing on me. Today I just feel so in awe of God and so tremendously loved by Him! I keep thinking of several passages of scripture that demonstrate God's glory. Like in Malachi when he says that He is a mighty king and his name will be praised among the nations. My God IS a sovereign and mighty God...and He loves me. Why does He love me? I don't deserve it but He loves me anyways! He is so gracious and merciful. I'm also thinking about the book of Joshua when my God made the sun stand still in the sky in response to Joshua's prayers. My God is powerful and just and yet still He knows my name! In Isaiah he prolonged the life of King Hezekiah because he cried out to Him. He hears my prayers. He is faithful, He is just and He is true. My God is awesome and He loves me.

One Step Closer to My Baby

Today we took the first step in sending our dossier! YAY!!!!!! We mailed in our check and photocopies of our dossier. CWA will look over the paper work to be sure everything is accurate. If it is then they'll send us two forms to add to the paperwork. We then mail the originals to Washington DC to be authenticated. From there it's sent to the Ethiopian Embassy. So we're still a couple weeks or so away from our paperwork being in Ethiopia. But we've taken the first step!!!

Praise the Lord. HE is so good to us. It is absolutely amazing to me that we are able to get this far so easily. He has been so faithful to provide for us. It is so affirming to me that we are walking in His will. When things get tough I will be able to stand with confidence that this is what God has called me to and He will be faithful to me. God is good. All the time.

"Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21

Dossier Time!

We're sending our dossier next week!!!! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it! God has been providing left and right and I am just so amazed by Him. What a good God we serve. I got out our dossier last week to finish it since we were getting close and now we're going to be waiting on me getting the paperwork done! Hopefully we'll get it all done on monday. I just can't believe we are sending our paperwork. After that the next step will be waiting until CWA calls and says 'we have a baby girl for you!!!!!'
This is really happening. I'm really going to have a baby girl and name her Violet Grace. I'm going to hold her and tell her I love her forever. I'm going to sing to her. Make up silly songs with her. And take her camping. We're going to start family traditions together. I'll make her a stocking at Christmas. And watch her blow out all her candles on her birthday. We'll watch the parade together on 4th of July. And someday I'll take her on her first trip to Disneyland. I'll tuck her in bed at night and pray and thank our Lord for the good things he's done for us.

Getting Close!

This will be a short quick blog. Just wanted to update you all on our recent progress. We only need a little more!!! WOOOO HOOOOO!!! I got out our dossier and made a to do list because I want that sucker ready to go when the time comes! God is so good. He never ceases to amaze me.
We are also having a garage sale on Friday and Saturday August 22-23rd at the Tanaka's house. So if you want to help, have donations or want to come shop and need directions! Give me a call!