Hope Ethiopia from Lifesong for Orphans

Hope Ethiopia from Lifesong for Orphans on Vimeo.

Children at the Lifesong Ethiopia school  are fed 2 nutritious meals per day, provided with a quality education, and taught the message of Jesus Christ. This gives kids like Beza the hope they need in order to break free from gripping poverty.

We currently have a need to build a 12-room expansion to our existing school, in order to reach more children like Beza. We have been blessed, by the generosity of a donor, to be able to MATCH all donations to the Ziway and Adami Tulu Schools between now and December 31st... up to $130,000!!!

This week, the 5^th through the 9^th, we invite you to join Hope Ethiopia:100. We are looking for 100 people to give a one-time $100 donation! 

Joining this team will not only give hope to kids like Beza, but your dollars will be matched AND you'll be entered into a drawing for a FABULOUS gift basket (details below).

Help us achieve the next $10,000 by being a part of our Hope Ethiopia: 100 Team!

Together we can make a difference in the lives of these kids!  Together we can do more to bring joy and purpose to orphans!

And don't forget to keep checking the Lifesong blog for updates all week!

*Gift basket includes: $100 itunes or amazon gift card, Lifesong t-shirt, Lifesong cookbook,Journey On CD, handmade necklaces & note cards by orphans in Zambia, handmade ornament from a child in Ukraine, 5 bags of Gobena coffee, Gobena coffee mug, Gobena t-shirt, andGobena tote bag. This basket is worth over $250!


*To commit via check, please send an email to info@lifesongfororphans.org. Make check payable to Lifesong for Orphans, indicate 'preference Hope Ethiopia: 100' in the memo.

The First Grant

I heard an answered prayer today. Our church's adoption ministry, A Child's Soul, gave its first grant. I've been praying specifically for A Child's Soul to give it's first grant in 2011, so I am thrilled to see God working in this area. And only two months into 2011 too! This inaugural grant will be used bringing little boy in Ethiopia home to his forever family in Memphis.
I would love to see A Child's Soul grow and be a blessing to many other families seeking to honor God in adoption. Nick and Jennifer Moore, the couple that started A Child's Soul, have taught us so much about the needs of orphans, the picture of the gospel in adoption, and the beauty of a family made by adoption. After adopting two precious little boys, God laid it on their heart to help other families adopt. They started A Child's Soul, and began fundraising in the worst economic times our generation's ever seen. They sold purses, tshirts, beaded necklaces, baked goods, and gave every family in the congregation a baby bottle to fill with spare change. When the bottles are full, members bring them to church and empty them in a box designated for A Child's Soul Ministry. Jennifer said the bottles had been their biggest source of funds. This was a shock to me, because we're a tiny church, and don't have that much spare change! But God delights to use the humble things of the world to exhalt Jesus.
Nick and Jennifer work hard to advocate for the cause of orphans and adoption. God bless their diligence!

"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this:
 to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, 
and to keep oneself unstained from the world."
James 1:27

Getting Closer!!!

We finshed our statements of faith today. Mine was one and a half pages. Nate's was nine. You know his was a systematic theology, not a statement! :o)
I was skipping around with joy and emailed them to our socical worker. I asked her if she had any idea when we might be able to schedule a home visit. That will be the last thing needed before we can have an approved homestudy. She said all paperwork was in order, except she needed proof of Nate's employment and wages at Precision Assembly. Ahem, NICKY.
Anyway, there was some really good news! She has a family north-east of Jackson that she's going to do a home visit for soon, and it would be better for her to do ours the same day, since it's such a long drive for her! YAY! I thought we'd have to wait a long time, but it turns out living so far from Memphis is working in our favor.
Debbie (the social worker) said if we were flexible with that, she'd get back to us on the day and time. I'm SO EXCITED!

Another Step

I can't wait till Friday!
I can't wait till Friday!
(I'm doing a little uncoordinated shuffle dance will singing)
Friday we go to Memphis to have our individual interviews with our case worker. We'll also turn in a bunch of paperwork. I hope we can schedule the home inspection then as well. And, if I'm really good, Nate may take me to an Ethiopian restaurant for lunch and Muddy's Bakeshop for a cupcake. :o)

Physicals, Check

We got our physicals yesterday. That's another thing off the checklist!
I had to get a tetanus shot and some blood drawn . Now, I hate needles. I hate them so much that I gave birth to a nearly nine pound baby without drugs mainly because I had seen an epidural needle in the past. Look:

I did not want that shoved up my spine, thank you.*
And I get so squeamish when I get blood drawn, it's worse than a shot! So here I was getting shots and blood drawn, with Suzy in the room! Suzy, who has developed a paranoia that doctors and dentists will sneak up on her and poke her with needles. I wonder who she got that from? I knew for her sake I could not be the baby I usually am in such circumstances. As the nurse took my blood, I sang (in my head) "Thy word had promised good to me, Thy word my hope secures. You will my shield and portion be, as long as life endures." That didn't last quite long enough, so I had to repeat it a few times!
Suzy was watching intently. I got really queasy when I saw the vials of blood. But I didn't freak out (at least outwardly) because I could feel those little blue eyes on me. Though I nearly lost my breakfast when the nurse removed the cotton too soon and the blood oozed out a little. I am obviously not cut out for anything in the medical field. Then followed the tetanus shot and TB test. There were no tears or sobs. I imagined I had a poker face, though that was probably wishful thinking.
Soon it was over and the doctor, who is a very nice doctor, came in to fill out our chart. He asked why we were getting physicals, and we explained that we were adopting. He went on and on about how great that was, how completely selfless and what-not. I told Nate later he must have thought we said we were giving our kidneys to strangers. :o)


*Other reasons I had a drug-free birth with a midwife: I didn't want an IV or, dare I say it, an episiotomy. (Don't worry, no pictures of that!) My needle/cut aversion is such that I can only explain it this way: I felt the same way about the prospect of an IV, epidural, and episiotomy as you might feel being told that when you go into labor, they will shove bamboo under your nails and pour boiling water on your feet. I was going to do whatever I had to in order to avoid it! :o)

A Little Progress...

We've finished our self-studies last week. Yay! Mine was twelve pages long, Nate's came in at 21 pages. He was very thorough and explained in detail. I gave basic answers with occasional jokes. In the end, I think they both reflect our personalities!
We got them in before the holiday, and got our joint interviews scheduled. We even got our sitter lined up. I was so excited, especially about the sitter part! (Thanks, Jennifer!) That has been the hardest part of the process so far, finding a sitter. Nothing makes you miss living near your mamma like trying to find a sitter and everyone's busy!
After the interviews, we'll schedule a home visit. Debbie, or social worker, doesn't know when that will be because her caseload is doubled. She said she needs to schedule it at a time when she can be reasonably sure she can write the report within thirty days of the visit.
My goal is to make use of the delay to get all the other stuff done. This week I'm calling to schedule physicals for Nate and I, drop off the physical form for Suzy's pediatrician to fill out, try to get fingerprinted, and take the background check papers to the sheriff. Let's see how that goes!

Newest Project

I've had a big project brewing for a while now, but I've had to keep relatively quiet about it, despite my excitement!
So here's what I've been working on - an adoption!
Nate and I have wanted to adopt since the early days of our marriage, but the time (and finances) were never right. God has blessed us this year by finally making us debt-free, and opening the doors of adoption.
It's been a rocky process with a few false starts, but now we are in the middle of our home study and well underway. Initially, we only wanted international adoption, and domestic adoption appealed to us zero. God used an information meeting at Bethany Christian Services to open our eyes to the realities of domestic infant adoption, and then an instance of a near-adoption to open our hearts to it. So we are now in the process of domestic infant adoption through Bethany.
The home study process is one interview as a couple, then individual interviews, then a home inspection. We had our first interview with the adoption social worker, Debbie, on Oct. 29th. It was supposed to be and hour and a half, but it took three hours. We had a hard time staying on track. We got along really well and would end up just chatting and forgetting the matter at hand! During that interview, we got our paperwork packet.
It is a lot of paperwork. Though from what I understand, not nearly as much as an international adoption. We are plugging along through. I got all the easy "fill this out and sign here" stuff done the first night we got our paperwork packet! Before we can schedule our individual interviews, Debbie needs to have two papers. One is called Family History, which was a pretty easy to fill out document with basic information about parents and siblings, and medical history. That was among the papers done the first night. The second is called a Self-Study. This is basically 50+ essay questions. Like "Describe your parents' relationship while you were growing up, and now." Ha ha, Mom, I told them all I knew! Just kidding! Anyway, this takes a long time. It took me about a week, stealing time where I could. At this time Nate had finished none of the questions.
So, on a trip to Memphis, I brought my laptop, and he dictated his answers to me. In an hour and a half, we had finished the first five questions. Yeah. Out of more than fifty. But it was a huge step in the right direction. Several times that week I'd type Nate's answers for him. Sometimes we'd only have fifteen minutes or so, and get maybe one, or at least one half, a question done. We're down to the last sixteen questions.
I was really pushing yesterday, because I wanted to get the self-studies in so we could schedule our second interviews by Monday. The sooner we had those, the sooner we'd get the home inspection, and the sooner we'd (hopefully) get approved. Which meant the sooner we could get our baby! But I got an email from Debbie saying she was going on vacation next week, so this bought him a reprieve.
After we finish this, we'll move on to what I call the Errand Papers. That's the things we have to go and do, getting criminal background checks, fingerprints, physicals, making copies of personal documents like marriage license and birth certificate. Then making of our profile photo book. Which is a job too.
My hope, and time will show how realistic this is, is to have the home study done by the end of January, and (hope, hope, hope) a baby by May.