Finally...I'm blogging again :)

Hi everyone! I know this is nothing compared to when I first started this blog over a year ago, but I feel like I haven't blogged in forever! And here's my confession: it was because I didn't know how to move the pictures of our t-shirts to somewhere else and I wanted them to be on top until our first order came due! Thanks to Josh Ostrum, though, they are successfully moved, so I can carry on as before :) We have been the recipients of so much help in these three months (today!) of adoption journeying, and I just feel so blessed! To Aunt Cathy and Uncle Ron, my parents, Drew, Grant, Seth, Candy, Josh, and so many others....thank you.


Our first order was a huge success in my eyes. We ordered 50 shirts, just over 40 from paying customers :) That means we made about $400 towards adoption expenses. While this is a "drop in the bucket" big picture-wise, it is so encouraging to me to know that we are doing something to help bring our little one home, especially as we're close to moving into this crazy "waiting" period.



On our end, we are one reference letter, house and family pictures, and one notary signature away from having everything ready to send to the state department to get authenticated, then the Ethiopian embassy here, and then to Ethiopia. Now, all we have to do is wait for Homeland Security (the coveted I-171H form). It could be anytime, or it could be 2 1/2 more months (or longer!), but God is faithful, and I know He works everything together for His perfect timing and will.



Changing topics: I LOVE the Christmas season--even despite all it's craziness--and I'm most excited this year that my bro and sis-in-law from California and my sis from Paraguay will all be home. WHAT A BLESSING! I will leave you with a hysterical group of pictures showing the ever hilarious, ever changing personality of our fiesty two-year old:

T-shirts...here are the three choices!

I'm so pumped because it's the same cool font and idea that most people seemed to like, but it also has the visual symbolism I wanted to create with both Africa and North America. THANKS, SETH AND GRANT...and Candy for getting paypal up and running!!!! :) Oh, if you want to see the adult options, just click on the rectangle since the pull-down is a little off the screen! You can call or e-mail me, or use paypal if you already have an account. The colors on the brown/pink/blue might be slightly varied, but you can get the basic idea. My Aunt Cathy and Uncle Ron have a screen-printing/embroidery business, so she said that once we get 25 orders, we can print them up in less than a week :) They're even doing the printing for free! We need to order them by Dec. 12, so no matter what, we'll do that in order to have this first batch by Christmas. Thanks to EVERYONE for their input. P.S. We get fingerprinted for Homeland Security on Wednesday morning!!!