This past month has been filled to the brim!! We are incredibly thankful that our Home Study is complete, and the process actually turned out to be pretty great. I just love the relationships the Lord is allowing us to make along this adoption journey. We couldn't have asked for a sweeter social worker. :) Karen was so gentle and gracious...so easy to talk to. It's so funny how you can work yourself up thinking they are going to inspect every inch of your home...that just wasn't the reality. If anything, Karen brought joy and light into our home, and we are super grateful. Funniest Home Study moment involved Hartlee. My sweet little 3 year old (going on 16) was watching a movie in our room while I was meeting with Karen. She decided to come barging out of the room, and bounced right up into Karen's face and exclaimed, "I LOVE MY LIFE!!"...with a giant grin on her face! It was priceless and hilarious. I'm sure Karen thought that we prompted her to say those words, but I honestly have no idea where she got that idea. It was too funny.
We were involved in two really fun races this past month as well and they were on back to back weekends. My heart has been imprinted with two specific things: 1. We have an amazing community of incredible Jesus-loving friends and family who selflessly serve others. 2. I now have a running partner and his name is Cannon Coy Menn (I couldn't be more thrilled!) :) He completed both 5K races! So fun!
The first race was for a ministry that we just LOVE...the Still Water Camper Scamper was put on to raise scholarships for kids to come out to Still Water Sports Camp and be radically loved on by a super cool staff who are sold out for Jesus Christ. They were so gracious to allow us to have a fundraising booth. We sold Gatorade and granola bars for $1 and amazingly raised $130!!! Cannon and Hartlee were so pumped up! And, I love that they get to be involved with this process of bringing their brother home. I wish I had a picture of them putting the money into their piggy bank. :)
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| Our booth at Still Water Camper Scamper |
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| Mommy's new running partner :) |
The second race we were so grateful to be a part of was the OneLess race which was created by Mitch and Katie Fickey here in Boerne. The Fickey's, who are also adopting from Africa, created this race to help financially support families who are adopting. We were floored to be chosen as one of the beneficiaries of the race this year...really so humbled and honored. The race was so much fun and it was beautiful weather!! Sometimes you can feel so overwhelmed by the love the Lord is pouring out upon your life that there really are no word to express how grateful you are...all you can do is fall flat on your face in awe of the One who makes it all possible...this has been one of those moments. We are still flat on our faces. God has been so generous to us.
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The Baker Family, The Fickey Family, and us :)
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Incredible community love
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So what happens next?? We are sending off our I600A packet, which allows us to get fingerprinted and receive a very important document that we will use to bring our son back into the States. Once we receive that precious piece of paper, then we can send off our dossier documents (huge mound of paperwork) to the Ethiopian government. Then, we wait to get a referral and find out who our son is. Will you pray that we get a fingerprinting appointment as soon as possible...we are ready to bring that sweet little boy home. :)
