Yard sale "flea market" 2013

I'm excited to report that our older daughter, Mihret, has been CLEARED for travel by the US Embassy!  We are eagerly awaiting the same clearance for our younger daughter, Birtukan.  We are praying for a "CASE CLEARED" email this week and would love for you to join us in this prayer!  We will travel to bring them home as soon we receive the second clearance from our gov't to do so.

While we wait and pray, we continue to fundraise.  As you may know, we are holding another INDOOR FLEA MARKET-style YARD SALE in less than 2 weeks.  Our church leadership has graciously allowed us to use the building again, and we have been collecting donations from friends, family, and strangers for the past couple of months.  A HUGE THANKS to those of you who have so generously given items towards our yard sale!  We are AGAIN OVERWHELMED at the sheer volume of donations we've received already!  And even more amazing is the QUALITY of the items we've received!  We have nursery furniture, children's clothing and toys, living room furniture (couches, loveseats, wing chairs, recliners AND occassional tables with plenty of lamps!), household decorations, seasonal decor (Christmas, Halloween, Easter, etc.), bedroom furniture (including mattresses, bed frames and dressers,) exercise equipment, loads of adult clothing (including name-brand women's and men's clothing), computer desks, school desks, household appliances, kitchenwares..... the list literally goes on and on and on!!

PLEASE mark your calendars for FRIDAY, MARCH 15 (5p-8p) and SATURDAY, MARCH 16 (8a-2p).  WE NEED YOUR HELP SPREADING THE WORD!!!  All this stuff is only going to sell if the Lord provides the BUYERS!!  Please, print the attachment and share with your friends, neighbors, work associates, and school mates.  Forward this email to everyone on your contact list.  Share on facebook with your contacts there.  We are praying that the Lord will provide the increase again this year, as He did last year.

We also need help setting up!  All these items are currently packed (quite literally!) into our garage and overflowing into other's garages.  We'll be taking all the items to our church building next THURSDAY, MARCH 14 at 6:30.  We will be unloading, sorting and organizing that evening at 7pm, and pick up sorting/organizing again Friday morning.  If you are available ANY TIME Thursday night, Friday or Saturday, WE'D LOVE YOUR HELP!!!  We were SO BLESSED last year with many hands, and we never would have been able to pull off such a huge event without so many hands and feet helping!  We thank God daily for the people He has put in our lives who have walked with us on our adoption journey! 

If you're able to help Thursday night, Friday or Saturday, please let me know.  I'm starting to get butterflies thinking about how it's all going to go down, but I'm trusting that God has another great event in store for our family and He'll again provide more hands and feet to help provide the harvest!

You cannot ever know this side of Heaven how truly thankful we are for each person who has shared in our story.  This adoption, adding to our family, bringing our girls home-- it NEVER could have happened without the help of so many of you!  So again, my heartfelt thanks for all your love, prayers, support and encouragement over the past year!!

Love,

Six.Long.Weeks...

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've written... the waiting is hard, so writing has been the last thing I've wanted to do.

It was 6 weeks ago today that Brian and I stood before the judge in Ethiopia and heard, "They're all yours." 

Six. 

Long. 

Weeks.

I want so much to smile and tell you great news when you ask me how things are going, or if we have any news, or how our girls are.  I want so much to have them here so you can meet them.  They are, quite simply, amazing.

Our was trip six weeks ago.... of course we were excited-- our girls were even more amazing that we'd imagined them to be!  Brian, Ella, Ava and I traveled Dec 23 to Addis Ababba, Ethiopia and first met Mihret (11) and Birtukan (8) on Dec 24, early in the morning.  It was truly love at first sight!  All of our girls immediately gelled.  We were able to spend most of our time there with them.  (The stomach bug that Ella caught on Christmas Eve turned out to be a blessing in disguise; it allowed us to forgo many of the activities they had planned for us, and enabled us to hang out at the Transition Home with our new girls most of the week.)

But close your eyes for a second and imagine if you can: You've just birthed a child (or two!) and been able to spend your entire first week just hugging, cuddling, bonding, loving your child(ren)... and then you're forced to leave them for an unspecified amount of time and not have any contact with them while you're waiting!  That's the nearest I can describe my feelings lately....quite honestly, it just plain sucks.

I am holding tightly to the Lord's promises:

• Habakkuk 2:3-4 (msg)  "And then God answered: 'Write this.  Write what you see.  Write it out in big block letters so that it can be read on the run.  This vision-message is a witness pointing to what's coming.  It aches for the coming-- it can hardly wait!  And it doesn't lie.  If it seems slow in coming, wait.  It's on its way.  It will come right on time."
• Psalm 130:5-6 (msg) "I pray to God-- my life a prayer-- and wait for what he'll say and do.  My life's on the line before God, my Lord, waiting and watching til morning, waiting and watching til morning."
• Psalm 40:1-3 (msg) "I waited and waited and waited for God.  At last He looked; finally He listened.  He lifted me out of the ditch, pulled me from deep mud.  He stood me up on a solid rock to make sure I wouldn't slip.  He taught me how to sing the latest God-song, a praise-song to our God.  More and more people are seeing this: they enter the mystery, abandoning themselves to God."

I know the Lord is refining me in the midst of this wait... I am learning to live more in the present and to truly appreciate each moment, which is not natural for me.  I ask Jesus daily (sometimes multiple times a day!) for peace, for patience, for resolve to be calm in the midst of my frustration.  I like to plan, to know what's next, to be more in control.  But I know I am not, and so I trust in Him who has proven Himself faithful over and over again throughout our journey. 
We hope that we'll return sometime in March for our US Embassy appointment, which allows us to bring our girls home for good.  But we honestly have no idea when that will happen.  So while we wait, we continue to pray, and we continue to trust in the Lord's timing.

We are planning another large indoor yard sale for March 15-16.  Our church (Fern Creek Christian) has graciously allowed us the use of the building again.  We have plenty of storage space in our garage if you're cleaning things out and want to get rid of stuff now.  We can arrange to pick things up as well.  Remember right around this time last year, as we stood in awe when the Lord took "one man's junk" and turned it into "another man's treasure?"  We raised over $8,000 towards our adoption from the generous donations of friends, family, and even strangers!  We're asking for items large and small, and also for help organizing, setting up, and selling that Friday and Saturday.  (In a perfect world, our girls would be home by the time of the sale!)

And of course, we're always selling sheets!  If you've not gotten a set by now, you're missing out!  We have seriously considered setting up a non-profit organization selling these sheets to bless other families who are considering adopting but won't because of finances.  We'll see what the Lord says about that..... :)  God has blessed our family hundreds of times over through these sheets... who ever would've thought it?!!

We are so grateful to so many who have walked alongside us throughout this journey-- with prayer, encouragement, financial support, and love.  We thank God daily for the blessing each of you are to our family!  Thank for you for being part of our story, and for helping us bring our girls home!
Love,

The BEST Christmas present ever

The day we've been waiting for is finally here-- we are going to Ethiopia to adopt our girls!!! 

God continues to give us far more than we ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20-21)!!!  I began praying last Sunday specifically for a December 17 court date, and then we received a call Monday with a court date of Friday, Dec 14... so Brian and I are leaving Tuesday morning Dec 11 with Ella and Ava for Ethiopia to meet and adopt our 2 daughters!!  We are all SO VERY excited!!

Continued prayers for our family are greatly appreciated-- for our boys, who are staying home with my folks, for our new girls and all the transitions they are about to begin, and for our safety as we go.  Please pray specifically for our flights to be smooth and seamless with no delays, as it is a very long trip and it's the first time Ella and Ava have ever flown.  :)

We are sending in a sheet order before we leave, and it will likely be the last order that we send before Christmas.  We are still about $2K short of our goal, so we plan to continue selling after the holidays.  But if you'd like to get sheets in time for Christmas, now's the time to order.  We'll be sending an order tomorrow, so reply to this if you want yours added.

Also, we are wrapping up another fundraiser tomorrow as well.  Chalisa Skaggs with Premier Designs Jewelry has given us 25% of the profits from the jewelry show going on now.  There are some great gift ideas, and you'll also be helping us reach our goal!!  View the on-line catalog at
www.Public.fotki.com/cising/jewelry
password is: bling
You can view the regular catalog and holiday books with the link, then contact Chalisa Skaggs at Godgave2@insightbb.com with your order. Premier accepts every card, cash, and checks.
SPECIAL FOR DECEMBER: With every $75 purchase, get any 1 item up to $50 for JUST $5!!

Again, we are SO GRATEFUL for your prayers and support throughout this year.  We know the real story is about to begin as we meet our new girls for the first time, and we grow our family as God leads us.  We appreciate your continued prayers as our journey continues.

May God bless you this Christmas season, and may you know the peace that can only come from Jesus.

Much love,