Just lovin Chistmas time and an update!

Don’t you love Christmas? We sure do! We love decorating cookies, wrapping presents, and snuggling as a family as we watch our favorite Christmas movies over and over again. This years rituals have been the same, but our conversations have been different. It’s no surprise, we’re talking about Africa, orphans, and adoption …and it’s made this year even more special. Our church is also focusing on "Christmas Outside of the Box"...what better way to celebrate Christmas, than to focus on others. It’s our prayer that as you enter into the craziness of last-minute shopping, busy streets, and festive parties, that you take some time as a family and reflect on what this season is all about...God loving the world so much that He gave it hope!

This year, we want to encourage you to pray for hope for those who often find themselves hopeless...orphans. Let’s begin to think about ways that we can “Be Hope” for others in 2010. If you haven’t visited the site already, here’s a great place to start! Hannah’s Hope Orphan Care

Last week, we received our USCIS approval letter! We want to personally thank those of you whom are praying for us and our lil one! We have been greatly encouraged by your love and encouragement! Thanks for purchasing our "Christmas Bundles"...we sold out of our Ethiopian Coffee---yippie! More to come in 2010! We pray that those whom receive the bundles are blessed. We hope they raise an awareness for the orphan and we thank God for his provision at the same time.

Have a wonderful Christmas!

www.longingforafrica.com

CIS Fingerprints Trip

This morning we drove downtown to get our CIS fingerprints done! So we're driving there and Joe asks, "Hey, do you have some change for the parking meter?" Of course, I have change...then I remembered being the mom I am I let the kids gather up all the change in house for our extra change bottle for the baby. So that of course included my purse. I started laughing because I thought we would have to use our change stash for if we see someone in need. But we didn't...I still had a few coins left in my purse. Made me laugh!

So we went to this building and had our fingerprints done and as we were leaving, we asked the security guard to take our picture. He was a little suspicious, but he surrendered and took it for us. Thank you, Mr. Security Guard! Our little girl will appreciate it someday. It's all part of her story.

God has blessed us with wonderful neighbors! Thanks Justin and Bethany for helping us thru this whole process and for watching our kiddos this morning. We appreciate ya!

We Got Our New Number...

We got our new number on Friday! Counting down!

Joe and I celebrated our Anniversary this weekend! My parents take the kids every year for us so that we can spend the weekend together. They take them Christmas shopping at the Dollar Store, help them wrap their gifts, and spend one evening at their cute small-town festive Christmas event. They're fabulous grandparents and our kiddos had a ton of fun...thanks mom and dad!

When we met half way at the candle shop to swap the kids, Santa just happened to be there and we got our picture taken for free! Our little guy was so impressed and he actually made off with 2 candy canes from Santa!

And our new number is....

We went down 4! We're excited to see that number keep dropping!

Hope Lives

I just finished the devotional book "Hope Lives...a journey of restoration" by Amber Van Schooneven, a staff member of Compassion Intl. The description from the back of the book is so well put, "Amber Van Schooneveld invites you on a journey-one that replaces guilt with grace. A journey that nudges those of us with enough to eat to look beyond the horizons of our 401ks and expanding waistlines. Not just to save the world, bit also to restore our souls." It's a simple, but great study that moved information from my head to my heart. Click on the book to order thru Compassion Intl.

"Hope Lives" because Christ lives in us. We choose our adoption agency, All God's Children Intl because we saw "Hope" living through their staff, their mission, and their transition homes. They are the type of agency/people that I want to be taking care of our lil one until we get her. I want her surrounded by hope and love. Last night, our case manager sent us a link to their child sponsorship in Ethiopia. This video is worth watching. I love that God uses his people to restore hope to those who are hopeless because hope truly lives! For more information about sponsoring a child thru AGCI click here.

Failing Forward

A couple of months ago, we went to the zoo for the afternoon as a family. On our way home, we were stopped at a light downtown when we looked out to see a worn looking man in tattered clothes walking up and down the sidewalk shaking a cup. I looked at my husband. We both kind of froze then started searching the car for change. The light turned green and we look up to see our daughter standing behind us with all of her allowance in her open hands. Her eyes were full of compassion wanting to give the man all that she had. My heart broke as we were now moving forward with the rest of the traffic. She sat back down disappointed that the gentleman we passed had nothing and we have so much, but didn't give him anything. Joe and I failed. It was a terrible feeling as a parent. "He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God." Proverbs 14:31 I want to honor God and bring a smile to his face. Lesson learned.

I want to have a heart that says, "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me." My daughter stood and said, "Here I am..." It's childlike faith. It's stunning. It's beautiful.

What is God asking you to do? What is he pressing on your heart to change? Will you do it? Will you go? Will you give?

On Monday, I received an email about 2 waiting children in need of a family: 2 precious little boys...2 and 4. I spent the day praying for them. Yesterday, I got to see them become part of a forever family.

And the Winner Is...

For National Adoption Awareness Month, we challenged everyone here to do something to advocate or to help orphans worldwide. We had 21 entries into our drawing for a free L4A t-shirt! Awesome! Some commented on the blog, non-bloggers emailed us, and some purchased something from us to help defray the cost of our adoption. Thank you all for stepping up and being a voice for one! And the winner is:

Over-Caffeinated X4!!! She hosted an open house with several vendors and a portion of the proceeds went to an orphan related ministry: Amazima. She also blogged this month highlighting other's adoption blogs in order to help them raise needed funds. She actually highlighted our blog, too! Thank you, thank you! This is just one person who is choosing daily to make a difference in the life of one! Thanks to all for stepping up to doing something and for sharing what you did! This was fun!

Traditional Ethiopian Dinner

The Ethiopian Church in our area hosted a wonderful Traditional Ethiopian Dinner for adoptee families in our area. We had the best time and met some other sweet families in our area who have or are adopting from Ethiopia as well. Our girls loved the cross cultural experience!

Decorations: Ethiopian Flag and a coffee ceremony. Ethiopia is believed to be the birthplace of coffee (Kaffee, Ethiopia) It is the main crop and income.
Pastor Yosef and an adorable Ethiopian baby.
Ethiopian women serving the dinner. There are approx 4,000-7,000 Ethiopians in our area.
Girls getting their plates. This women was so sweet and had a heart of hospitality!
The food. The women spent all week preparing this. The flat bread is Injera. You tear it off and eat the soup like courses, which are usually spicy. The green was something like Kale, then the other 2 brown dishes were similar to chicken curry, and then a cabbage like veg mixture with potatoes and carrots. The girls did a fabulous job and tried everything. Joe and I loved the food.
Coffee ceremony, which is very common in Ethiopia.

Serving the coffee.

The group picture. We couldn't even get everyone in and some had already left!

They did free give aways and we won this little outfit.

The pants...now these def won't fit her and I think the whole outfit is for boys, but it sure is fun!

Be Sure to Check out our Christmas Bundle Deals!