Four days!!!!!

I can count how long before we go to Ethiopia on ONE HAND!!!! Four days... OH YEAH!!!! I just think about them and my heart melts and aches at the same time. Adoption. Everything about this process has made me more thankful for the love that the Father has for us... that he adopted us as his sons and daughters when we were not worthy. His love for us FAR exceeds ours, and I am just so blessed to be known as HIS daughter! i think about our boys and I just want to sing REALLY LOUD, dance all around, and rejoice in the goodness of OUR FATHER! Then in the next moment, my heart just yearns to be with them and I get a tear in my eyes thinking about how far away they are, and how long the next few months are going to be as we wait, and wait, and wait. One of my friends said she told her kids about our boys and they run around the house excitedly chanting their names. I said Ryan and I do that too! Baby Dan, JoJo!

I am so thankful to have such loving, praying supporters and I ask that you keep on... lift Ryan and I up as we wait and continue to serve knowing that half of our family is waiting in a small room in Ethiopia! I feel like I am about to have the BEST 10 days of my life "playing house" in a hotel room with our precious littles, and then I start thinking about leaving them there and I want to just cry. I have to say, one of my friends said it best as she is also waiting for her little men,

"I wonder how much of this I'll remember. If this season will just be some miserable little blur in our history, or if I'll look back and treasure what the Lord was doing inside of me in the months that felt like years before the LIFETIME with my boys began."

She said what my heart wanted to but didn't have the words. Now we wait. and let the Lord do His work in our hearts. and we love. and we have the time of our lives in Ethiopia!!!!

Josiah, oh my little JoJo... I cannot wait to hold your little hands and kiss your little cheeks and sing you to sleep in my arms. I have been waiting for you for a long, long time, and knowing that you are waiting for me makes me happy, even though i would rather just be with you instead of waiting any more time. I can't wait to see your personality and play cars with you. I long to teach about Jesus and how good He is to us, and to show you how His love for you is far more than Momma's, and her love for you is HUGE!

Daniel, our sweet Baby Dan.... I want to pinch your cute little chin and measure how big your feet are... Daddy is going to be the first one to hold you and I am going to catch it all on video!!!!  I hope you will smile for us and give us some funny faces as well! I can't wait to cuddle and help you to learn how to sit up and crawl.I want to teach you to love Jesus and to live your life for Him. You were rescued by Him, and He wants you to walk in the light of life. Momma loves you way more than you will ever know...

We prayed for a child, and God heard our prayers and we are SO glad that he picked YOU BOTH to be our sons! We are blessed beyond measure...

9 days!!!

So the countdown has officially begun! It is only 9 days til we will be holding our little men. Oh HOW we look forward to that!!! We have been spending our free time out collecting toys, clothes, diapers, bottles... anything we might need as well as lots of donations to give to the care center. There are lots of older children that I know will actually be excited to get a new pair of shoes. Our boys are too little to care about shoes, they don't actually need them since they won't walk for quite a while... so I stopped looking in the baby shoes and moved up to older kid shoes! I cannot wait to meet some of the kids that are waiting for a family and play with them in the care center. I have seen some pictures and videos of others who have gone and the kids are so cheerful and playful and looking for attention and affection. I am so blessed that I can be there for a few days and share the love of the Father with them. Even though we will speak different languages, the love of the lord is greater than any language barrier.

We found some precious WASHABLE stuffed animals today and i cannot wait to see J hug his giraffe and D to hug his monkey! So much fun ahead!                      

We also just sent a package to America... they want it to be "parceled" and sewn around the box your stuff is in. After the sew it up, they you have to write the address with a sharpie on the material. Its so funny to me that India wants things to be all closed up to let you send, it, but I don't know if American customs likes having to go to more trouble to check the contents in customs. oh well.

We voted! We were proud citizens and turned our absentee ballots in at the US consulate and enjoyed the voting party there with mini burgers and sugar cookies with a flag painted on them! And of course they gave us a "I VOTED!" sticker. We even made the Indian news: If you would like to watch the clip click here.

Court date!!!!

Oh. My. Goodness. We have our tickets to Ethiopia IN HAND! well, technically they are still on the computer, but I know my husband... He will print them out soon and put them in his travel folder with all the passports and documents needed for travel! We are still in a bit of shock at how FAST things have gone. We keep expecting something to be as long as what is projected... but so far things have just gone bam bam bam. WOOHOO! Our court date is Oct 31, and we head there on the 27th to start loving on them. We are so ready.... bring it on! I actually already have my baby backpack all packed with diapers, wipes, baby lotion and soap, clothes, medicines, and everything else I think we might need for a week with babies. I am excited to go out to the store today and get the stuff that we can bring to donate to the care center where our boys are! I love shopping and buying baby stuff has got to be some of my favorite things to buy! We also get to help some of the other older kids who are waiting on families and bring them so shoes and clothes. Thankfully we have a great market here where I can get them (fake) crocs for just under a dollar!
It is crazy to think in about two weeks, we will be loving on our little men! All I can do is just GIVE ALL THE PRAISE TO GOD! seriously! He has guided us step by step and have felt his leading us all the way. We are so looking forward to seeing the country where our boys were born (as well as seeing them). We love traveling to new places, and learning about their culture and trying new foods. We are so lucky that we have a quick flight from here to there... 5 hours no layovers! Thank you Ethiopian Air!

reflections on one year...

So this last week marked our first year as a couple in South Asia! It has been a year of amazing cool opportunities and one marked with difficulties and struggles. We are so thankful to be settled in our place with friends and opportunities for service popping up all around us. Here are a few of my little favorite things about South Asia:

You can buy the "trial" size of ANYTHING! A ketchup packet size of shampoo for $0.05...  $0.10 worth of cookies or chips...one battery at a time. You name it, you can find is smaller.

Bottled water has become common, and a liter bottle is $0.30

I have a sewing machine and I bought extra bobbins for $0.10 and a pack of ten machine needles for $0.30! I was so impressed!

Many things can be delivered to your door Cash on Delivery. Never would have thought it was that cool until you realize you don't want to put your credit card number to a not so secure website... or all the American cards don't work right...  I can get meat, diapers, toys, books, eggs and bread!

We have learned that our car can fit in much tighter spaces than we ever imagined in America!

Conversations and Chai with friends are highly valued!

More than anyTHING that I like about South Asia, it is the people that I love the most! I see their faces and I feel such love and admiration for them... knowing how hard life can be for many people here, and yet they smile easily and laugh alot. They are also so giving and hospitable...

I love lots of things here, and although there are lots of things I miss about home, I find such peace in knowing that I am supposed to be here.  I miss running to Walmart or Target and being able to get 7 different items. Here, I might have to go to three different markets, and 10 stores to find the same 7 things I could find in Target! haha! Time is stretchable here and things go at a different pace than home, but I am learning to appreciate that! I rarely wear a watch, and no one seems to care if I am 15 minutes "late".

One of my highlights of this last year has been of course our PRECIOUS LITTLE MEN... and even though they are still waiting for us in ET, we show their pictures off proudly! I carry my ipad to church just to show off all the little pictures and we have been overwhelmed by the love that our friends have poured out over our babies~ Adoption is not a common practice here... and skin color is a big prejudice here and we were interested to see how our friends would respond to our little African boys. So far, everyone has just said such positive things about them and they ask about them all the time. I can only imagine how life is going to change with those little guys. They have already changed our world! When we go out shopping, I don't look at stuff for me anymore... I hang out in the baby section and imagine how cute they will look in green or brown or orange. And I am stocking up on diapers and bottles!

I am so grateful to have spent this past year here... and I look forward to what G has in store for us over the next however many years He has us live here!

Court Submission!

Wow... Our boys file was submitted to court this week. It is amazing and hard to believe that it has happened so fast. The ethiopian courts close for their rainy season and even though I don't think that  the judge is working and taking cases yet, at least we were able to get our foot in the door and hopefully in the next few weeks we will know when our court date is and we will book our tickets to Ethiopia! I can hardly wait. Imagining the joy my heart will feel when i first get to see our babies is amazing... I am just so grateful to know that our agency is doing all the paperwork and trying to get it done quickly...
I have a few new songs that have been on "repeat" in my head. One is "i get to be the one" by jj heller. "Don't feel alone now, little baby. Do you hear me singing you a song? I can't wait to show you, little baby, how to crawl, how to walk, how to run. I get to be the one to hold your hand. I get to be the one, through birthdays and broken bones i'll be there to watch you grow. I get to be the one. How does sommeone so small, hold my heart so tightly? I don't even know you, i love you completely. I get to be the one."
I just walk around thinking how amazing it is that Ryan and I get to be the ones who raise Josiah and Daniel. Oh the joy. Can't wait to post here when we get our TRAVEL DATES!

creative threapy....

Adoption is just such a precious, SPECIAL JOY and Ryan and I are still overjoyed that God wants us to help guide and grow two of His precious babies... but this waiting part... its no fun. Yeah, I know... we don't have to worry about getting woken up in the night, or spend hours making two babies bottles, or cleaning up after them, or make a weekly doctor visit for the never ending earaches.... but that does not make it easier. One hard thing to think is that right now, our boys don't know us. They will not see us and come crawling over to us yet. But we know them. We SO LOVE them! And we know the ONE who knows them intimately better than anyone else ever will! We look at our pictures of them and study every little detail. We look at their little fingernails, remark how big their feet are, and we even talk to their little faces saying, "Don't cry little guys... Momma and Daddy are coming... we just have to wait a little while longer." We pray for them everyday, ALL throughout the day. And we dream of them at night, longing for the moment that we are united. But what is a mom to do while she sits back and waits as another kisses our babies goodnight; as others give them their bottles, and makes them learn to laugh and explore the world? How do you learn to wait until the awesome day when we are together as a "forever family"? Well, I find that if I use my time wisely, I am able to not just make it through the days, but I am fulfilled and energized to do even more things for the kingdom even while I am waiting. And I spend alot of time just sitting at my Jesus' feet giving him ALL my worries and trusting him to put the right people in J and D's lives until the day that he puts us together.

Sewing is something I always did with my mom growing up and I am so thankful that God put some special ladies in my life to teach me how to quilt right before we came to India. I had picked out some way cute fabric while we were in Thailand back in March, and I found some Indian coordinating prints. I told myself that I could not start them until we got a referral so the fabric was stuck away in a cabinet until the BEST day... August 29th, when we were given our two precious little men. I made Baby Dan's quilt Blue, and Josiah's Green. I used totally different patterns for each of them, but i have been really enjoying getting on Pinterest to see what cool new ideas I can find to sew the perfect quilt! Sewing for them gives me time to pray for them, makes me feel like I am doing something for them! and it serves as a great creative therapy to help me give all my worries and concerns to the Lord as I sew away on their little quilts. I have hit a few bumps along the way with getting the quilts lined up and I was so sad when my quilting buddies were not around to help me figure out how to fix my mistakes. But that's the way life is sometimes... and we learn how to make do with what we have. They are not finished yet... just to the part where I actually quilt and then the binding, but here is the progress!

I also have been making these cute little fuzzy blankets for all the other littles' in my life. Ryan and I get to nephews over the next months, and we are so thankful that the Lord has given our little men some boy cousins! I know they will LOVE them and be excited to play all kinds of games with them! These blankets are way fun to make and you get to not only sew, but cut and "rough up" the fluffy side to make them soft.

ultimate provider...

So, can I just say how GREAT IS OUR GOD!?!! I am still in awe that He has given us two precious boys. Thinking though what He has given us just makes me want to fall on my knees in worship of the MOST HIGH! I feel like I have been given way more grace than I deserve to persevere through this process of adoption. The less I worry, the more God amazes me with His provision for us.

Gen. 50:21

So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.

And I feel like I have found a place to just rest in this assurance. That's so amazing. The "Sarah" part of me wants to freak out and beg for help or complain about how hard and crazy this thing called adoption is... and the $20,000 dollars that is due when you accept a referral of two kids, not to mention that the total cost is estimated to be about $38,000 should have thrown me into a crazy cycle! But it didn't. I know that was God giving me peace that only can be described as from Him. And in just the right times he has provided for us. A few weeks ago, we were BLESSED with a huge grant from JSC Foundation... $16,000! That morning, I texted a friend that we got a grant, and as I typed it, the gravity of that many zero's overwhelmed me. WOW!

We had an interview with another grant agency called Katelyn's Fund, and it was so encouraging. They just wanted to hear about us and our lives and how they could help and pray for us. It was a group of the board members and they all went around and prayed for us. I have no idea what any of these people look like, but I saw the face of Christ through their words and I was moved to tears hearing others who have a heart for orphans and are willing to give of their free time to pray for families and to help provide them financial assistance. We got off the phone and I was just so blessed for the rest of the day! Then, on Wednesday we received our referrals... and that $20,000 was needed... The $16,000 was there along with $1250 from friends and family, and it was down to where we needed $2,750 more. Ryan and I were getting ready for bed, and didn't want to spend the night worrying about money, so we just prayed and went to sleep, resting in the Lord's provision. (it's really hard to have a bad day right now. We just look at pictures of our little men, and we can't help but SMILE!) We woke up to that grant company sending an email, sooner than we expected to hear from them, saying that they want to give us $3,000! I just laughed and rejoiced in the provision of our King. He even gave us $250 extra!