A Special Gift

This Christmas, I received a very special gift. I'm not sure I've ever gotten such a sweet gift from my hubby. He commissioned my brother-in-law to create a piece of metal art to symbolize our son's birthplace. In a way, this symbolizes so much more than just that, though.
When I see this shape, I am reminded of how much we've been impacted this year. I feel like God has used this process to open our eyes to what really matters in life. We aren't completely sure how this will continue to play out in our family, but we are excited to see God continue to guide us.

Another gift that is connected with this is that Pat continued to make other pieces of art. My sis and her talented husband sold them in order to help us raise funds to travel to get our son. So many of you placed orders, and we are so touched. Thank you to everyone who contributed. Thank you, Pat and Melissa, for joining us in this. If anyone else wants to order any of these amazing pieces, they are still raising funds for other orphan projects. I highly suggest it. The pieces are beautiful!

I can't wait to get this piece of Africa up on my wall for good.

Christmas Highlights

Here are some Christmas highlights. . .

Christmas Eve with Chris's mom and brothers.
Our Family
Christmas morning!
Finishing "What God Wants for Christmas". This is one of our favorite Christmas traditions as we find out on the seventh day that God wants us for Christmas. (Thus, the mirror in the last box.)
One special gift: Africa t-shirts. This was exciting because we were able to support another CWA family's adoption journey with these shirts.
It was a true White Christmas! This is the first I can remember. Of course, we had to get out and play.

After celebrating Christmas at our house in the morning, with Chris's extended family at noon, we headed over to Grandma LeFevre's for supper. Here are the kids with Great Grandma. . .

. . . and Aunt Jeanne. The next day, the 26th, was my birthday AND we got to celebrate Christmas with my family.
Doing "What God Wants for Christmas" with the bigger family.

Opening gifts from Aunt Melli and Uncle Pat. . . . . .scarves. . .
. . . more scarves. . . (which the girls absolutely loved!)
. . . and Moose Poop! You can see Jackson's smile starting to form as he realizes what this is. Hee, hee!

13 Years!

Next week, Chris and I will celebrate our 13th wedding anniversary. Since it is in the middle of Christmas festivities, we usually try to celebrate before. This year, it worked out to go to Kansas City for three days! (Thank you, Mom, for watching our kiddos!) We wanted to finish up our Christmas shopping, so we did that the first day. That night, we tried to go to an Ethiopian restaurant; unfortunately, after driving around for about 30 minutes, we realized it was no longer open. So, we had to "settle" for the Cheesecake Factory. Yum!!! I can't say how much I LOVE cheesecake. It just makes me happy!Here, we are just outside of the Cheesecake factory.

The next day, we did more shopping and ate lunch at another Ethiopian restaurant. It was so fun to experience a little bit of Ethiopian culture. We have to admit that the food wasn't our favorite. After all, we are just simple folk who love simple food. But, we will work on developing those tastes. But, we loved being able to see some Ethiopian kids and think about some day bringing our son back to this restaurant.

Then, it was off to Lawrence for the KU basketball game vs. California.

It was a great game to watch, and they won 84-69. Fun!

We are thankful we were able to get away. These trips away help us rejuvenate and make us better parents to our kiddos!

Sydney's Piano Recital

Last week, Sydney had her first piano recital. She did a great job as she played her song from memory.

Six Months and Counting

This week marked six months of waiting for a referral. One thing I have found that helps me in the wait is to be intentionally thankful. This week, I journaled about six specific things for which I am thankful.

1. I am thankful for my husband and three kids. I have been blessed, and I want to enjoy celebrating with them during this Christmas season.

2. I am thankful for our jobs. I have been able to keep teaching for Tabor Wichita, both online and traditional, and Chris continues to teach 8th grade social studies. While schools are experiencing some uncertain times, so far we have not been directly affected.

3. I am thankful for our community of support that is all around us. We have been continually blessed in so many ways by so many people.

4. I am so thankful that God has called us to adopt a baby boy from Ethiopia. I never could have guessed we would be in this process, but I am grateful.

5. I am grateful for what I have learned as we have walked this adoption road. (To expand on this might have to be another post!)

6. I am grateful that Jesus loved us all so much that He came to Earth to save us. Even as we wait to hear of our new son, I am grateful to also wait to celebrate our Savior's birth. And, I am learning to be thankful in the wait. Truly, if this is where God has called us, it is where I want to be.

Alaska to Africa!

I am copying this from my sister's blog. Read on!

My husband and I are having a fundraiser to help with my sister's adoption fund! My marvelous man is a whiz at welding and a master at metal, and created these crosses to sell for my sister! (amazing alliteration, eh?) We are calling this: Alaska to Africa! If you are interested, there are several of the above smaller crosses that measure 7 3/4" x 5" and are $10.00 (plus shipping). The layered cross below is measured at 18" x 11 1/2" and is $40.00 (plus shipping). He is, at this very moment, crafting a smaller version of the layered cross and is open to custom orders. So, why are we doing this? My husband had the idea and since he is not working much, he does have time to invest in this project. Why not keep the money ourselves, especially if we have a limited income right now? Because, this little boy needs to meet his parents as stress free as possible, and if you haven't noticed, when you help others, it keeps your needs in perspective! We have so much, and though we are in a slow time, we still have more than many. We are also hoping that this will take off and we can begin to use the profits to help other orphans in Africa. If you would like to participate in this fundraising and perhaps finish any Christmas shopping at the same time, please let us know! You can link over to my sis's blog and leave a comment if you are interested.

Pieces of Thanksgiving

The following are pictures of our Thanksgiving weekend. We had a great time meeting with both sides of our families. First, Mom joined us Wednesday night for the traditional turkey dinner. Thursday was spent at my brother's house with the rest of my family (minus Melissa and Pat in Alaska).

The "kid table".

Thursday was a beautiful day, so we were able to enjoy the outdoors. Here, Sydney is playing frisbee with Uncle Marc.Jackson and Toby were in heaven with their rope and a log. I think they worked out a pretty complex pulley system by the end of the afternoon!On Friday, we spent the day with Chris's side of the family. Here is a blurry picture trying to get Kathy's son, Jacob, to wear a good Kansas cowboy hat. (I wish it wasn't blurry!)

Here, we are just hanging out. Notice my new 147,000,000 Orphans t-shirt. We fed an orphan for a month--I think--with the purchase. (Early birthday present!)

My studly husband!

Looking up to cousin Brandon.

We are continually thankful for our families.

Sugarplum Boutique

When we began our adoption journey, we secretly wondered how God was going to fulfill His promise to provide all the necessary funds. Well, one of the first ways was through Sugarplum Boutique. Our friend, Kendra, is the founder of this great organization (can I call it an organization?). She has an incredible heart for orphans and has dedicated her time to doing all she can to advocate and fundraise for orphans. We were the blessed recipients of her efforts. Kendra makes bows. Adorable bows! All proceeds go directly to orphans whether she is helping someone fundraise for an adoption or directly supporting orphans all around the world. If you need little gifts for any girls in your life, please consider ordering from Sugarplum Boutique. The bows are adorable, and I love that all profits go to orphans.

Fun to Imagine!

One of the things that helps us envision what is coming is watching adoption You Tube videos. We found this one and loved it because it showed so much of Ethiopia. Enjoy!

Waiting is Sometimes Hard

I have to admit that I woke up sad this morning. Originally, we were told to expect a 3-4 month wait for a referral. I have had friends who have and are adopting internationally, so I knew to be "on guard" about waiting expectations; however, I still hoped we would have a referral in 3-4 months (September/October). Over the summer, they extended the estimate to 3-5 months. We have been waiting for almost 5 1/2 months now. We are now beyond the "worst case" scenario. Really, I had been in a pretty good place until last week when we got the "Within Striking Distance" e-mail. That somewhat stirred up hope for a referral before Thanksgiving. Now, I realize that isn't going to happen, so I'm just feeling a little sad today.

Luckily, God is so sweet to me. This morning, I turned to Psalm 27. These verses reminded me and encouraged me of truth:

(8) You have said, "Seek my face." My heart says to you, "Your face, LORD, do I seek. Hide not your face from me."

(13) I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living!

(14) Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD.

So, we will continue to seek Jesus' face as we celebrate His goodness. And we will wait.

Within Striking Distance

That is what our case worker told us today. We are within striking distance of a referral! If you know exactly what that means, please let us know. In the meantime, we will be cautiously optimistic that the call is coming soon.
This is great news since we have officially hit the 5-month mark of waiting. We were originally told we would have a 3-4 month wait, but we also knew that international adoptions have many unknowns, including changing wait times. We are just excited to think that maybe the wait is coming to an end!

Trick or Treat!

I am late getting these all posted. . . but better late than never! :)
The kids had a great time trick-or-treating. We started off going around the neighborhood with our new friends/neighbors.
Then, we headed into town to visit the grandmas, grandpas and aunts. We came home with full buckets!

Thanks, Jeanne, for adding to our stash. We hope you had a great time in TX.

Pumpkin Patch Fun

Last Friday, everyone had a vacation from school, so we thought it would be a great day to go to the Pumpkin Patch! Well, it was a great day for no lines because I think it was the coldest and windiest day so far. Luckily, kids don't really feel cold or care about their red noses, so they thoroughly enjoyed it! Here are a few pics.The underground slide was a hit! We all loved it.

The giant pillow! This warmed us up for a bit.

Do any of you "farm kids" out there remember playing in the grain bin? I loved this!

Did I mention how cold it was? The wind was ferocious! Luckily, they had this fire and hot chocolate/apple cider.