Coffee + Adoption Fundraiser = perfect!

http://www.justlovecoffee.com/TheWalters


Please check out our online coffee store!! A wonderful man who has also adopted, started this great way of helping families raise money for their adoptions! $5 of every bag of coffee sold will be given directly to us each month! 100 bags = $500!! That seems so easy!!! I have tried the coffee myself and it is much better than the off brand I buy! :D It is great actually, I tried the Ethiopian brew of course :) but there is many others to choose from.
I know we may seem a little over the top with asking for money and fundraising, but I hope and pray others aren't annoyed or overwhelmed by our efforts to bring home a sweet little boy....$20,000 is alot of money most people pay that for a car over a course of 5 years...we are expected to come up with that in just months! All I know is "where God guides, He provides!" When this sweet baby boy is brought home I will know and I hope everyone who has witnessed this journey will know that it was all by the work and power of our ALMIGHTY GOD!
TO HIM BE THE GLORY!!

We just might be......

#3!!
I am blown away at the thought of being #3!....10 spots ago we started this waitlist thing the first week of August....and at this rate, we just might know who our baby will be in the first week of November! I can't say for sure we are #3 but, I knew of the family at #1 getting their referral last week...but then we got our bi-weekly update from our agency in an email and it said there had been 2 boy referrals....so that would put us at #3! I don't know any of the families ahead of us now so I am totally clueless for at least 2 weeks. We should get a phone call with our official number the first week of Novemeber, but at the least by Friday the 6th we will get another email update....or our big call could come... only God knows what will come first!

I am glad to be home tonight with our little boy who has croupe...he is coughing and acting pitiful. I thought I had to work but got called off! Yeah! Last night we didn't get much sleep so I need the rest tonight! We already had Tyler in a steamy bathroom so hopefully he will rest well.

Getting to be with my sick little boy makes me think and pray for an AGCI family who recently learned their baby boy (only a few weeks old and still in Ethiopia) is sick and in the hospital there with pneumonia...they just learned about him a few weeks ago and now just heard he is sick...I can't imagine how it must feel to not get to be with him knowing he is sick! We are praying for her and her little baby and I ask you to do the same...you can check out their story at
www.knowingnobounds.blogspot.com

well I better get some rest in case the croupe monster rears its ugly head again tonight!!

I was tagged! Cute little Whitney (mommy to baby boy in Ethiopia see Pratterbox.blogspot.com) tagged me to do this! The "tag" challenge was to respond to each of the following questions with a one-word answer, then tag 6 other bloggers to do the same. I am horrible at these things but here goes!....

1. Where is your cell phone? Table
2. Your hair? Flat
3. Your mother? Pure
4. Your father? goofy
5. Your favorite food? fries
6. Your dream last night? Didn't
7. Your favorite drink? Diet Pepsi
8. Your dream/goal? Heaven
9. What room are you in? Living
10. Your hobby? Photography
11. Your fear? Cancer
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Here
13. Where were you last night? Home
14. Something that you aren’t? patient
15. Muffins? chocolate chip
16. Wish list item? Babyboy
17. Where did you grow up? Here - Lexington
18. Last thing you did? Baked
19. What are you wearing? Scrubs ( might have to go in to work :( )
20. Your TV? Football (Go Cats!)
21. Your pets? Huskey
22. Friends? wonderful
23. Your life? Amazing
24. Your mood? curious
25. Missing someone? the little boy I am waiting for! (couldn't help it had to use more than 1 word)
26. Vehicle? tired
27. Something you’re not wearing? socks
28. Your favorite store? Walmart
29. Your favorite color? Pink
30. When was the last time you laughed? morning
31. Last time you cried? afternoon
32. Your best friend? hubby
33. One place that I go to over and over? Bed
34. One person who emails me regularly? Mom
35. Favorite place to eat? moms and mother-in-laws......good and free!!

so I didn't exactly keep it to one word! But I am just proud I got it done!

about to go to bed...but then...

I checked our adoption agency Listserv "chat/forum like thingy" and..............



the couple at #1 got thier referral!!!!!!!! So happy for them!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Which also means..........................

WE ARE NOW NUMBER 4!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NUMBER 4!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WHOA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So excited!!
I have recieved so much good news lately it is just crazy....God is so amazing, I am so glad I can rest in him and his perfectness!!!!
Can I say it again..............
NUMBER 4!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ok now I really gotta go to bed!!!!

Have to share this....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duyL9UjLrdM


This is a sweet video from one of our AGCI families. It gives lots of footage of the transition home (Hannah's Hope) where the children go before we get to them. You will see the sweet "special mommies" and how much they love and care for our children - praise God for those precious women!
ENJOY!

Oh and there was another referral today of a baby girl...we don't move up any, (since we are on the boy list) but that's ok! I am so excited there is still room for children at HH since court has been closed I have began to assume that it will be a while before more referrals will be made...so there is still hope for moving up to #1 sooner rather than later. Some may think I am crazy for being so ready to get our next child, since we have a 17 month old too and they will be so close in age...but when you feel it in your heart and know that your baby is out there....there is no other feeling than I WANT HIM NOW! Until then we are resting in God's perfect timing and praying he gets to Hannahs Hope soon!

It's Fall...for sure!

It's Fall! I have been slackin' on doing posts!

All of a sudden it was fall here in Kentucky and in between the rainy days there have been some awesome fall days....The day at the pumpkin patch was one of the rainy days, but we made the best of it! Earlier this week we had an awesome fall day and found pretty leaves so I decided to put our new wait list number on it! 5! FIVE! That seems so close....but so far away too!

There has already been one family who has passed court in Ethiopia now that they are re-opened! PRAISE GOD! So hopefully more will pass soon...travel and bring their babies home...and make room for more babies...hopefully ours!!! :)

Over the past week or so I have been overwhelmed with how much God provides for us!

I read in 1 Peter how God's grace is made evident through us....us! We may be the grace of God to someone today....and oh how people have been the grace of God to me lately. He really is capable of more than anything we think or imagine!!!!!

Also please be praying for 2 children we learned of from Hannah's Hope (the transition home ran by our agency) that are hospitilized for pneumonia. There mommies can't be with them now and I can't imagine how heart breaking that is! Plus you don't even get regular updates on them! Naomi and Baby Z are their names, thankfully these 2 litte girls are under the care of the Great Physician!

Spirit of Adoption: Dr Moore's msg from Together for Adoption

Spirit of Adoption: Dr Moore's msg from Together for Adoption

This was one the messages we heard this weekend at the Together for Adoption conference...I really suggest listening to this one!

WHY?......

I have needed to get this in writing for a while now, but have not really had the words....so many people want to know WHY. "Why do you want to adopt?" "You already have a child of your own." "Why do you have to go to Ethiopia?...there are so many children available here"

These questions stir somthing in me...I just wish I could spit out all the feelings I have and all the scriptures and background of our life that lead us to this point, but it is hard for me when I am in that moment. This weekend we went to a 'together for adoption' conference and we were flooded not with information on physical adoption of orphans but spiritual adoption, our adoption by God through Christ. This is an exerpt from a book Adopted For Life written by one of the speakers there this weekend Russell D. Moore ( I really recommend the book!)

"Not everyone is called to adopt. No one wants parents who adopt children out of the same sense of duty with which they may give to the building fund for the new church gymnasium. But all of us have a stake in the adoption issue, because Jesus does. He is the one who tells us his Father is also "Father of the fatherless" (Psalms 68:5). He is the who insists on calling "the least of these" his "brothers" (Matthew 25:40) and who tells us that the first time we hear his voice, he will be askin us if we did the same."

To me is it simple...I heard God telling me that we were to adopt more clearly than I have heard anything in my life before. I knew the desire was from God and when I told Matthew about it and watched his heart also grow in the desire I knew it was from God and that was that...we were adopting! But it isn't easy to make that very clear to everyone and especially to those who don't seek God daily. So I hope this makes it more clear....
Scriptures tell us that God has adopted us, He didn't just reconcile us to Him, he took it further and called us his children....
Romans 8:15-16
"For you did not recieve a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you recieved the Spirit of adoption. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father". The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children."
Galations 4:4-7
"But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under the law, that we might recieve the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir."
Ephesians 1:5-6
"In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will - to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves"
This weekend's conference helped me realize even clearer that the reason we have the desire to adopt is because God has adopted us! Adoption is at the very heart of God and the more you know God, the more you too will know and desire the spirit of adoption.

Now...WHY ETHIOPIA?
Again, it is simple to me, once we started really researching adoption, Ethiopia is where I was always drawn to - We looked into adopting here in the US, but Ethiopia was always on my heart. When I compare the orphan here in the US to the orphan in Ethiopia...there is no doubt that the conditions in which a child must live in here in the US is still far better than the conditions a child lives in Ethiopia. That is not to make light of the the need of orphans here! Also there are far more couples willing to adopt a child here domestically then there are couples who are willing to cross oceans and even racial lines in order to adopt.
Some statistics:
U.N. estimate of the number of orphans in the world today: 145 million
Number of children in the foster care system in the United States: Approximately 500,000
Number of children in the foster care system waiting to be adopted: Approximately 130,000
Of those 145 million worldwide, 5 million of them are in Ethiopia! Ethiopia has one of the largest numbers of orphans in the world. It just makes sense to us, God is leading us there, we are willing to face the diseases and uncertainties and racial differences... Of the millions of orphans worldwide I don't think the argument or comment should be..."Well why there and why not here?" but rather to see that it is a child who once had no parents, had no love, had no one to rock them to sleep at night that will now have all of that....who cares where they come from...what matters is that there is ONE LESS ORPHAN!!
I hope I have not rambled too much...trying to really put into words and facts what seems so simple and true to me is hard but I think it needed to be done!

Anxiety....

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will gaurd your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus". Philippians 4:6&7

Oh how grateful I am for sweet scriptures such as this one...peace that transcends all understanding... this what I need.
We are headed to the 'Together 4 Adoption' conference in Nashville TN this weekend and I am so very excited. It will be a time for my husband and I to be alone together, just us, which I think all couples, especially those with children, need from time to time and it will be an amazing worshipful experience as we hear from others who have adopted and learn all that God wants us to learn about this amazing plan he has for us! However I am anxious at the same time because we are leaving our little boy here for the weekend. He will be with my mom who he loves and she treats him like a little 22 lb king! But it is still the longest I have ever been without him...from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon...I know he will be fine but satan has a way of creeping fear and anxiety in, yet this morning with this scripture I am battleing that and praying against it with faith that God's peace that transcends all understanding will be gaurding my heart and my mind in Christ Jesus! How amazing!
So I am off to finish packing and headed to TN...while Tyler is off to Memaw's and may even go to the Lousieville Zoo tomorrow! I know God will make this weekend an amazing one!