no news...

No news is good news... I guess? It hasn't even been 2 weeks yet, but I am having a hard time keeping calm and not freaking out! I know God is in control of this whole thing and that is the only thing that keeps me sane! 

We are continuously praying for a court date before August 6th, please pray with us! I'm starting to get a little worried because we haven't even heard word of a MOWCYA (Ministry of Women's, Children, & Youth Affairs) date (we don't attend this one) where they will hopefully write us a positive letter that will then allow us to receive a court date (this is the one we will attend, our first trip to Ethiopia.) I'm trying to brace myself in the event we don't get a court date before August... this will mean most likely another 8-10 months before he is home. I don't even want to think about that! All I can do at this point is pray and pray some more!!


Last week we went on our last childless getaway with some precious friends of ours. Chase and I went to Garner State Park in November of 2012 and couldn't believe all this beauty was just hours away from our big city! A few months ago we planned a trip with our friends and it came at a perfect time to kind of decompress from all that has been going on. It is just so beautiful out there. If you are nearby and haven't been, do yourself a favor and go!! Even in the middle of June it didn't seem to be that hot there. We hiked one day and I wasn't really ever uncomfortable, in fact it was cool by the river! We had such a great time with Andrew and Laila, we have already decided we are definitely going back next year with all 3 of our kids! Can't wait. :)

I also coincidentally got a really good "after" picture on top of the "mountain"! I started working out with Perception Fitness on December 3, 2012. Ashly is the owner, she is just amazing. She also has an eating plan/diet she designs for her clients for free- can't beat that! I always hated working out in the past. Unless it was running a couple of miles in ideal temperatures, I didn't want any part of it. Between not exercising and eating more like my husband (sorry babe), I managed to put on a few pounds over our almost 8 years of marriage. I tried joining gyms, training for half marathons, counting calories, but I just couldn't stick to anything. That's where Ashly came in to save the day! After working out with her and following her "Basics", I have lost 46 pounds!! My goal was originally 50... now it's a little more, but I know I will get there thanks to all the hard work Ashly has put into making me successful! I am now running a 10 minute mile, enjoy working out and miss working out, feel better and have more energy than ever before! If you're in the Austin area and need someone to help challenge and motivate you, I cannot recommend her enough. I know there is no way I would be where I am without her! Stop on over to her website and learn more!

Back on the adoption note... we have a couple of fundraisers going on!

Our family and close friends are throwing a "Fajita Fundraiser for E" on July 13th at 7pm, in Round Rock. If you are interested in joining us please email me for more details: awaitingethiopia2012@gmail.com

We are also taking pre-orders for our t-shirt fundraiser until Tuesday July 2nd, get more details and place your order here!

We can't thank you enough for all your support and prayers! We are overwhelmed with how God is providing and working out all the details for us. We are just in awe of how He continues to orchestrate this whole journey. God is good!

get your t-shirts!

Update:::: we are extending pre-orders through next week! Get 'em before they're gone! :)

My awesome sister created this t-shirt to raise some funds to bring E home! Thanks Jamie!!

We are taking pre-orders for shirts now!

Youth Small - Adult XL= $25

2XL and up= $28

Please add $5 if you need yours shipped. :)

We're happy and plan to hand deliver as many as possible! You can pay via CC or PayPal at the PayPal "Donate" button just below this post near the bottom of the page...

After you enter your PayPal or CC information and continue on it will give you a place to leave a special message. Please list the number of shirts, size(s), and if needing shipped the address to send it to!

Email me at awaitingethiopia2012@gmail.com or message me on Facebook if you have any questions!

Thank you soooo much! We greatly appreciate the support!

Scentsy for a good cause!

Do you need Scentsy refills or warmers before Christmas? Now is the time to get them!! 

My amazing cousin, Joy, has graciously organized an online Scentsy party for my friends & family. All proceeds from your purchases will go directly to support our adoption. Scentsy for a good cause? What's better than that??! :) Go check out the cute Christmas things, order a gift, or just get some refills for yourself! I have a medium sized warmer & a bathroom plug in and I LOVE them. Don't know what I did before Scentsy (besides worrying about burning my house down of course)!

Make sure you follow the link below to get to our party, you want to be sure you see this at the top of the page: 

You are currently shopping at the following party:

Kerlin's HOPE for Ethiopia

https://joyouscents.scentsy.us/Scentsy/Buy?partyId=123478326

P.S. I promise to update you on everything soon!  There haven't been any recent developments, other than waiting, which I better start getting good at! :)  We hope to make some progress on becoming DTE (dossier to Ethiopia) soon, I will be sure to let you all know!

thankful

Celebrating one of our first milestones-- submitting the home study application.

We were advised by several people to celebrate the little things through the adoption process, so I plan on trying to do so and document them with at least one picture. :)  It's nice to be able to check something off the list!  I never thought I was much of a list person, but I am loving checking things off of these lists.  The piles of paperwork haven't been consuming us ever since the home study application was turned in.  But that does not mean our work is done... We have quite a bit more to do before submitting our dossier.  I cannot wait until I can say we are DTE (Dossier To Ethiopia), this is when we get put on the official waiting list and get an estimated waiting time!!!  

Since I last checked in...  we've been cleaning and organizing around the house, getting ready for the home study.  My mom and I have been making towels & potholders (and a few burp cloths by request!) like crazy.  Thank you SOOOO much, Mom, for sewing everything!  You're amazing!  I've sold a few orders on Etsy but have sold the most just through friends and family.  Thank you ALL for your support and prayers, it is all appreciated so so much.  You can check out the Etsy shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/awaitingethiopia.

I have been somewhat overwhelmed with lots of emotions lately, mostly gratitude.  I could never have dreamed how kind, thoughtful, and generous people would be.  Not only from our friends, but from people we barely know.  We have been trusting that God will take care of us through this, in all aspects, and He has been faithful.  And we are so thankful.  Thank you to all of you, I don't think I can say it enough.

Next week is the home study!!  Can anyone give us any pointers?  I haven't baby proofed the house or done anything at all in the means of creating a nursery.  At this point that is all 18-24 months away, surely she is not expecting to see any of that?!?

Thanks for checking in, I'll be back to let you know how the home study went!! 

home study & etsy link!

On the way to the post office with complete Home Study Application!

All 89 pages of our Home Study Application were mailed off this afternoon!  Our home visit is scheduled for September 24th.  Now the rush is on to do several things around the house.  These things are on the top of the to-do list:

1.  Finish tile downstairs.  If you've been to our house in the last year I'm sure you've heard me whine about the almost finished tile floors. :)  My wonderful husband (only 3 months after breaking his knee) decided to rip up the carpet downstairs and put down travertine tile.  I shouldn't complain, because it looks great... but... he didn't know how to pull up the toilet and sink in the bathroom so the tile stops at the door to the bathroom. :)  It also needs to be finished up around the baseboard.

2.  Clean out the black hole known as the "office" upstairs.  It's the one room that is not used for anything really, so I just stuff everything in there that doesn't really have a place.

3.  Clean out closets in all the upstairs bedrooms.  Again, these closets haven't been really needed in the past so I just shove stuff in there haphazardly... but I want the social worker to feel comfortable that we are ready to put lots of baby clothes in at least one of those closets!! :)

4.  Do some emergency training with Major.  If you've been to our house you know how um, protective, Major can be.  (It actually seems like he's gotten a lot better over the last few months!)  But he tends to bark his head off and growl for a long time when people come in, especially if it's someone he doesn't know.  Hey, he's a great guard dog, that's a plus right??  I promise he's a sweet dog once you get to know him. :)  Moral of the story is I want to try to stop the guard dog stuff so the social worker isn't scared she, or a future baby, will get bitten by the big, bad Major.

I set up an Etsy shop today and got some potholders and towels listed!  Check out our available items here- http://www.etsy.com/shop/AwaitingEthiopia.  Each item is listed for $15.00 each.  For Austin friends, let me know which items you're interested in so I can get them to you without you having to pay shipping.  Instead of placing the order through Etsy just email me what item you are interested in: awaitingethiopia2012@gmail.com.  My mom and sister are also my unpaid salespeople, so if you see them at church they can get your order to you as well. :)  By the way-- big shout out to my mom for sewing all these and Jamie for helping me pin them together!!!  Thank y'all for all your help!

I'll leave you with a link to another AWAA family's blog, www.pureandlasting.com.  They just returned from Ethiopia for their court date for their daughter, Maya.  I can't get enough of her pictures or posts.  She does a great job of documenting their journey with words and pictures.  Check out their story about Alain too... wow!!!

one step at a time

Thanks, Jamie, for the great pics!!!

We only have a few more things on our list before we can send off our home study application!  So excited that one step is almost complete.  At the beginning of it all it felt like we might just be doing paperwork forever, but the end is almost in sight, at least for this part of it.  I'm not even looking too seriously at the dossier checklist right now, it's considerably more overwhelming than the home study paperwork.  Thankfully, we have already completed some of what is needed for the dossier.  I know there is quite a bit more that needs to be done, but I don't want to think about it too much yet. :)

At the time we submit our dossier we have to turn in a big payment.  We're going to try to do a few fundraisers between now and then to go towards the costs.  When we started this process we honestly had no idea where the money was going to come from.  We've been amazed at how God has been working in this so far and are trusting Him that He will continue to provide and guide us.  I'm so thankful that, at least so far, the financial aspect of this all is one thing that I have not been stressing much over.  Trying to remember to just leave it all in His hands as we are not in control!  

(Here is a link to an awesome blog about another family's adoption.  They are using the same agency that we are using, AWAA.  She explains the costs here: http://www.pureandlasting.com/why-does-adoption-cost-so-much/)

We are going to be taking pre-orders for our fundraiser t-shirts and hope to have them printed in the next week or two.  They are American Apparel 50/50 blend unisex t-shirts, adult size S-XXL.  We hope to have the shirt design up later this week along with a "Donate" button on the blog where you can pay via Paypal.  We also hope to have the towels and potholders up for sale online later this week or next, so be watching for those too! :) 

Thank you for all your prayers & support!  We greatly appreciate it!!

paper pregnant

Our thick file of paperwork for the Home Study, almost complete!!

We are "paper chasing" or "paper pregnant" as some call it!!!  What does that mean?  Lots of paperwork.  There are 2 parts to the paperwork process.  One part we are working on is our paperwork for the home study.  We are nearly done with gathering everything needed to submit to have our home study done!!  I finally feel like I have time to sit down and do something other than fill out paperwork or get things in order.  

We've ordered certified copies of birth certificates, marriage certificate, gone to get new social security cards (because we somehow lost ours?! :-/), filled out what feels like a tree's worth of papers, bought 9 books on adoption from the required reading list, gotten physicals (Umm, getting the form needed for Chase's physical from his doctor is a whole blog post in itself.  If you ever considered Northwest Diagnostic Clinic in Cedar Park please reconsider.  These people can't fill out a form, I don't know how they could diagnose or write a prescription??!), had friends and family write referral letters (THANK YOU!!!), and the list goes on and on...

The second part of the process is our dossier.  This is our compilation of our home study report along with more paperwork that gets sent to Ethiopia.  Once that is completed and sent we are considered "DTE" (Dossier To Ethiopia) and put on the waiting list!!  We hope to be DTE by November and the approximate wait time right now is 18-24 months.  So in about 2 years (hopefully less!) we will be bringing home our baby boy or girl!  We are requesting 0-18 months, either boy or girl.  

I've been stressing myself out thinking about all we have to have done, not to mention the money we will have to come up within a few short months.  I have to keep reminding myself that I'm not doing this on my own and that I need to rely on Him to get us through.  God has provided and guided us this far, we know He will continue!  

I'll leave you with a couple pics of our first fundraiser! :)  My mom, sister, and I made these kitchen towels and pot holders this week to sell as a fundraiser.  Thanks Mom, for sewing them all up!  I hope to get a link up on the blog to sell these if anyone is interested, for now you can email me!!