Fun while we wait...

61 As a 1930s wife, I am Superior Take the test!

Scoring:

0-24 - Very Poor (Failure)
25-41 - Poor
42-58 - Average
59-75 - Superior
76+ - Very Superior

Areas where I failed:

Fails to sew on buttons or darn socks regularly.
Wears pajamas instead of nightgown.
Doesn't want to get up to prepare breakfast.
Has a pleasant disposition in the morning--not crabby.


Areas where I passed:

Faithful and true to husband.
Good sense of humor--jolly and gay.
Is of same religion as her husband.
Neat housekeeper--tidy and clean.

Areas that cracked me up:

Tells risque or vulgar stories
Puts her cold feet on husband at night to warm them.
Seams in hose often crooked.
Slow in coming to bed--delays til husband is almost asleep.
Shoulder straps hang over arms or slip is uneven and shows.
Serves dinner but fails to sit down till meal is half over--then wants husband
to wait for her.

Boy have times changed!

It's a small, small world...

I woke up to this email on Monday morning. Just a little pick-me-up to remind me that others are watching, listening and waiting along with us! We are not alone on this journey....nice to "meet" you MB! :)

Dear Family:

Hello. My name is MB and I am from Ohio, USA. I spent the past 4 months working at an orphanage in South Africa, Africa this past summer. Two days ago I was in the airport in Dakar, Africa when I met another American who was wearing your necklace. I instantly asked her where she got it and she told me your story of adoption. I immediately came home and searched the net. But all I could find was this email address. I was wondering if you could direct me to the link where I could buy this necklace.

I hope you know that you story is literally being told all over the world. ( i heard it in africa, she heard it in america...). Thank you for falling in love with these two children and good luck in your adoption. Its always a hard road to go down but one day it will be official and you will see how worth it it was.


God bless.

never too small....

"If you think you’re too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a room with a mosquito." African Proverb


Our Missions focus this year for Vacation Bible School was an organization called BITE BACK. The BITE BACK campaign is mobilizing youth around the country to purchase 300,000 mosquito nets to protect African children from malaria. We thought this was fitting, as our VBS theme was Amazon related. This cause is also near to my heart as malaria is a major public health problem in Ethiopia. Malaria contributes up to 20% of under-five deaths. That is just CRAZY to me-- malaria is PREVENTABLE! BITE BACK says that when a bed net is treated with insecticide it is effective in blocking mosquitoes from transmitting malaria. How effective? The nets can reduce the mortality rate from malaria by 20%.

So - we made it our mission to share this craziness with the kids of Harvest and our visitors. All the kids made a goal of purchasing 50 mosquito nets through BITE BACK- that's $500!! While some had doubts, I knew to not put God in a box- or these kids.
At that time Jesus declared, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children"... Matthew 11:25

I am still unsure of the final count, but after the offering on the last night we had raised $578!! We hit our goal and then some! 100% of the money will go to BITE BACK to buy 57 mosquito nets! Praise Jesus! Why do we so often doubt the provision of the Lord?



On the adoption front: we received hard copies of the girls medical forms. We weren't expecting them so it was a nice surprise in a big Fed-ex envelope! Still just waiting on that all important court date. Hopefully that news will come soon...very soon.

Venting....

It's Vacation Bible School week at our church! A friend and myself have been working hard planning and preparing for this fun and eventful week. We pray that many kids will come to a richer and deeper understanding of the gospel and the grace of Jesus.

Being around all the kids learning, singing, laughing, creating, makes me long for our girls. I want them to be at VBS! I want them to learn and laugh and sing! Here! With us!!

Is this ever going to happen? Why is this taking so long? Please-we want a court date! Argh.

Dimples, watermelon and answered prayers...

We got to talk to our new friends the Slovers, last Sunday. They got back in from Ethiopia on Saturday night and were FULL of information and had TONS of new pics of our girls! Someday (hopefully soon!) I will be able to post all of the beautiful pictures they took. Here are some of the highlights of our conversation:

On their first visit they went out to the orphanage with the nurse who is handling all of the kids paperwork. She speaks fluent English and was able to translate for them.

All of the kids were "so well behaved" and adorable. Lisa said that M. was always laughing and smiling and she was funny. The pictures really show that too! She has dimples to die for!!

G. was a little more reserved and shy. It took her some time to warm up, but once she did she was fine. There are some pictures of her blowing up a big pink balloon and playing with it. She is smiling from ear to ear. There are also two pictures of her waving to us and blowing us kisses!

They "go to school" everyday, in another room and wear "uniforms".
The kids can speak very little English, know their ABC's, can count from 1-10, know some basic sight words, and some basic math. They have 2 teachers and Lisa said that out of the 3 orphanages they visited the kids at Bethel seemed to speak the most English.

The kids pray a few times a day and are very spiritual. The kids were so excited to see that the Slovers brought them all shoes,because they had been praying for shoes!

Their second trip back to the orphanage, Lisa and her husband brought fruit and snacks. She said our G. and her boy could not get enough of the watermelon. None of the kids had eaten it before and they were fascinated by it!

The best- best- best information she gave us was that the girls have our photo albums and sleep with them in their beds! They were able to point out all of us in the pictures, and talked about Grace and Jack! They also know they are being adopted.

Lisa also was able to measure them and get their height and shoe sizes. They are tiny little things- it's nice to have an idea of what size they will wear. I already picked up a few things!

All this information was a joy to receive, yet makes us even more eager to see their smiling faces in person. We long to hug them and meet all the children in the orphanage. That will be a wonderful day.

Like manna from Heaven...

This email arrived in my inbox this morning all the way from Ethiopia, Africa!

Hello ladies....
Today is our last day in ET- we stayed at the Hilton our last night (anniversary present-we celebrated our 12 year anniversary while in ET) so we have decent internet service-YAY!! We head back to US tonight and will get in to FL on Saturday evening. I have SOOO much info and pics for the three of you on your kids-I can't even put it all in an e-mail. It will be much easier for me to talk to you so please give me a call at xxx-xxx-xxxx sometime on Sunday and I will fill you all in! We should be home all day recouping-except for church until 11am.
Also, please send me your mailing addresses as I have something for all three of you from your kids-they are amazing!!!!

Talk to you soon....

The Slovers have been in Ethiopia for the past ten days and we are SO excited to talk to them! We have been waiting since February for more information on our girls, so this is a true blessing. These little bits of information, pictures and video keep us pushing through, praying and keeping the faith that our girls will be home in 2008. Thank you Lisa!

Thursday night I got the chance to talk to a woman with Nurses with a Purpose, who just got home from Ethiopia! She was at Bethel on Monday!! I couldn't believe it. Thank God for the internet, and the fact that our paths crossed. Here are some highlights of our conversation:

There are only 19 children at Bethel.

The doctor who runs the orphanage is a very Godly man. He is a workaholic- but very gentle and peaceful. All the kids call him "daddy" (in Amharic of course). He comes to visit the children every Sunday, and really loves all the kids.

The caretaker of the orphanage is also a wonderful man who really cares for the kids. He speaks English!

Everyone is very laid back and relaxed about everything. The nurse commented that it would be so hard to be an adoptive family, because the Ethiopians take their time on everything! (She has NO idea!)

The children go to school everyday and there is a separate building for it, but she wasn't sure how much time they spent there.

All the buildings are very simple, and not very sophisticated, like the old modular school buildings we have in the U.S.

Monday night the orphanage had a bonfire for the nurses and made them a meal. All the children were singing worship songs, in praise to God. One little boy even prayed specifically for the group of nurses. She says that the children know about Jesus!

Although the nurse couldn't remember our girls specifically, she did make a very deep connection with one little boy in particular. We realized throughout our conversation that I know who his adoptive parents are! She had so much information on this precious young boy, and I was so excited for his parents-to-be. Hopefully they will talk soon. The crazy part about all that is both the nurse and the adoptive parents live in the same area code, in the same state!! So this is the beginning of hopefully, a life long connection. How cool is God?

We cherish this information and will store it away to share with the girls someday. I am sure they will remember this devoted group of nurses who came to spend time, play, eat and worship with them!