March news....

Wow, I haven't had the time to blog in a while!  Things always seem so busy in my life!  I say this now, but things will just be even more busy once we get our little cutie!  Yesterday, I painted my fiftieth painting!  God has been so good to me.  The orders keep coming, and I'm not even doing anything to promote myself!  I am so thankful for each and every order, and also thankful for the people who have donated money for no painting at all!  There have been some very generous people, and I am thankful, thankful, thankful if I haven't said it enough already :o)  It's VERY hard to fund-raise, in many ways.  The most difficult part of it for me is taking money from family & friends.  Especially if they could use it themselves.  But I know I would do the same for them.

So, Chris and I have been waiting about 18 months now.  The wait is not easy, and truly, only another waiting mom (or dad) can really understand the wait.  The emotional ups and downs.  The comments from people who mean well.  About a month ago, we read an article that made us believe that things were possibly slowing down even more than they already have.  This was very frustrating and upsetting.  Chris said to me, "That's it! We are taking a vacation!"  That's exactly what we need...something to look forward to.  Something that we knew would happen soon, and something we had control over!  So, I was thinking something on the cheaper side as we are saving & raising money for the adoption (and also the fact that Chris has turned me into somewhat of a skinflint when it comes to spending money on things that are not necessary!)....maybe a stay-cation.  Nope....we are going to JAMAICA!  I am feeling really guilty and irresponsible here!  AND, I want all the people who bought paintings/donated to know that not a penny of that money is being used for our vacation!  That money is in a separate account, and I actually took money out of an old IRA I had just sitting there in order to do this.  After being together for 12 years, we have never been on a vacation.  Not even a honeymoon!  It's always work, cleaning & errands over and over again. So, this might be our only opportunity to do this!!!!!  Shortly after we planned our vacation, we received our update numbers...we have made more movement than expected, so I am hoping that things will actually speed up, and that we hear something within the next 6 months.  But, I hang onto the fact that each month, we will always be One.  Step.  Closer. 

New Year Numbers!

New month, new numbers!  I was hoping to be lower (as always), but we only went down one spot on the boy list, and surprisingly we went down three spots for a girl!  So that was exciting and unexpected!  The girls list is catching up with the boys, so you never know!  We will be ecstatic no matter what!  I talked with my caseworker the other week, and she informed me that they are only accepting children into Hannah's Hope (our orphanage) who are paperwork ready only, so that is one reason why we are seeing the slow down.  Unfortunately, it's hard to know if this pace will continue, or not.  All we can do is sit back and hope and pray, and try to be patient while the control freak in me goes crazy ;o)


We had the opportunity to have some new friends over to our home who are also waiting for children in Ethiopia.  They are with different agencies, but they have been waiting very close to the same amount of time that we have, AND both will be first time parents just like Chris and I!  We feel very blessed to have met them and to be able to share this journey together.  We had an Ethiopian feast, but it was a lot more time consuming than Chris and I thought!  I don't think any of us love Ethiopian food, so everything we had was pretty good, and I think we all did well with our attempts!  And also, if anyone plans on making Ethiopian food in their home, beware!  Our house reeks!  My clothes and my jackets are infused with the aromas from that day! ha! Live and learn!  I think from now on, we will take the trek up to Portland if we want to eat Ethiopian!  There are actually more families in our area that have brought their little ones home this year, too!  I was able to meet some of them earlier in January, and they have been so helpful and sweet!  It feels so good to know that there are families around us that either have adopted from Ethiopia, or who are still waiting!  Not too long ago, I actually thought that we would be one of the few multiracial familes around Salem, but there will actually be more than I thought!  I'm looking forward to getting to know all of these families better, and excited that our little guy or girl will have playmates who are also from Ethiopia!  How cool!

Oh, also, I am still doing my paintings for donations!  So far, I have raised about $1,800 with them (some were very generous with their donations), and have completed about 30 paintings...phew!  Just a little bit towards the big chunk we will have to come up with, but I really appreciate what people have given us :o)  I have been busy the past couple of weeks, and haven't been able to paint, but I can hopefully start up again real soon.  I think I have 6 painting requests right now...and remember, I can do whatever you want!  I have a cool custom set that I am excited to do for my cousin!


One Step Closer!