Serious
We have the greatest friends...some near, some far, some old, some new. While we were in Ethiopia we made wonderful, lifelong friends. Friends that understand what we are going through and what God has called us to. On our second trip to Ethiopia, we met the Seever's and became fast friends. Jeff and Katie live in Ohio, have 4 bio kids, and are adopting 2 unrelated siblings from Ethiopia, Bedilu (4) and Meron (2). They have been submitted to Embassy for their daughter, Meron, but their son's case is more complicated and Embassy wants more information. Sound familiar? Yeah, it does to me to. Please join us in PRAYING for this awesome family that means so much to us. My heart breaks for them because I know EXACTLY how this feels. Bedilu and Meron need to come home to their family, soon! Please pray that the information is easily accessible, that all authorities will be on top of this situation, and that Jeff and Katie will have peace that passes all understanding.
We have reached a major milestone, folks! We can now ride through our town without Owen mentioning something about the tornado, tornado damage, or talking about one of the buildings affected by the tornado. Five months later, my 4-year-old is starting to heal from that awful tragedy. Praise God!
We had a great first week of school....hectic, but great. Here are a few pics taken last week.
Silly
Just in the last week, I have learned that Riley does a great Elmo impression. Funny how having a baby in the house again changes things! It is so realistic that I have caught myself wondering "Who turned on Sesame Street?". It is quite hilarious! She also has a monkey imitation that makes everyone go into hiding....except Cooper....he loves both.
If you have seen my statuses on Facebook about Walker's "Rules in Life", I have one to add....#323 Sisters always know where missing shoes are.
Yummy
So, I stumbled upon (o.k., o.k. I found it on Pinterest) this fabulous blog, Delightful Order. It is all about organization. Each room of her house is organized to the nth degree. And when I mean organized, I mean every. single. item has a place (actually more like a box, bin, tote, or basket!). It is so cool and has inspired me to get busy here. I'm starting small...the laundry room, and I'm already loving the results. (Yes, this definitely falls in the "yummy" category...just for you Amy Pierce)
Crockpot recipes are my fav! I love them. I love the fact that I don't have to slave in the kitchen for 2 hours prior to dinner time. I love the way they make my house smell all day. So, recently I found a recipe for Slow Cooker Pork Roast. I'm sharing the recipe with you, because I believe it is the bomb! And, probably the best thing about it, is the fact that you can prepare the roast, freeze it, pull it out to thaw overnight and the next morning plop it in the crockpot. Bonus! So, literally, I spent 5 minutes on dinner!
Slow Cooker Pork Roast
1 pork roast (about 2 lbs.)
1/4 cup paprika
2 T kosher salt
2 T black pepper
1 T garlic powder
1 T dry mustard
1/2 c. liquid smoke
barbeque sauce for serving
Place pork roast in a gallon-size Ziploc bag. Mix seasonings well, and sprinkle on meat. Rub in and shake the bag to coat evenly. Add liquid smoke. Freeze or cook immediately. Cook on low for 10-12 hours or on high for 5-6 hours. Meat will be pull-apart tender. Serve with warmed barbeque sauce. Great for sandwiches or my favorite, bbq nachos!
Last week we got THE CALL we have been waiting for. We will be leaving on March 18th for Ethiopia. I have had many people ask me exactly what will happen on this first trip, so this is my attempt at explaining. :)
We will leave on Friday, March 18, from Birmingham, flying to Chicago and then to Washington D.C. (United Airlines). In Washington D.C., we will spend the night and hopefully see some old friends, Josh and Brooke Ray. We have a non-stop flight to Addis Ababa that leaves D.C. around noon (Ethiopia Air). This flight will be about 13 hours long....this may be the hardest part! In Ethiopia, we will be staying at Yebsabi Guest House...think hotel, with rooms that are very nice, small kitchen and living area.
The main reason for making this first trip is to appear in court before a judge. He/she will ask us some questions that we will answer and hopefully, we will pass. If, for some reason we don't pass court, an in-country AWAA employee will appear in court for us at our next appointed time (a couple of weeks later). Hopefully, this won't happen, but we know that 30% of families do not pass court the first time. Our court appointment is on Wednesday, March 23....Please say a prayer for us Tuesday night. While you are sleeping, we will be appearing before the judge....Ethiopia is 9 hours ahead of us.
From this point, I'm not quite sure of all the things that will be on our itinerary...Yes, we have an itinerary...Our agency is that good! We do know that we will spend every afternoon at the Transition Home. This is our agency's orphanage, in a sense. Except, the care given is better than in most orphanages in Ethiopia. There is a pediatrician and counselor on staff, a 1:3 ratio of nannies to babies, and clean facilities. But, they still have needs, so a lot of the donations we have collected will go here. We will also deliver 5 care packages that other AWAA families have sent with us. I just love this about our agency! What an awesome opportunity to serve other families....to love on their children when their arms won't reach that far, take pictures that will be precious keepsakes, reassure these parents that their children are in good hands. I know from experience that it is an amazing gift and I am thrilled to be a part of it.
We also will be experiencing some of the Ethiopian culture...traditional Ethiopian meals, coffee ceremonies and shopping in the market. We will do some sightseeing and tours, and get to know this wonderful country that has so much history.
I know we will visit Kid's Care Orphanage and Kingdom Vision International. We hope to try to visit AHOPE and Kebebe Tsehaye Orphanage (this is the orphanage that Cooper came from). We will be taking donations to these four orphanages, also.
We will not be taking Riley with us, this time. Getting her passport has taken longer than we anticipated, so she will go with us on the second trip.
We will leave Ethiopia on Friday, March 25, and arrive home on Saturday, the 26th....tired, emotional, exhausted, sad and excited.....and, hopefully, just in time to make Walker's baseball game. Let the craziness begin!
While we wait for our court date and travel dates, we are collecting items to take to the orphanages in Ethiopia....donated by all of our sweet family and friends...(hint, hint). The orphanages rely heavily on families traveling over for all the supplies they need on a day to day basis. Shipping items is not very reliable, so really this is how they get items that are just too expensive or they can't get AT ALL. We plan on visiting three different orphanages in addition to the America World Transition Home (this is where Cooper is right now)....Kids Care, Kingdom Vision International (KVI), and AHOPE. Listed below are the items that they have requested and what we hope will be donated. Please help us make a difference in the lives of all these precious children!
children's clothing (new or slightly used); boys and girls; all sizes but could really use clothes for older kids (sizes 4T-13); play clothes, pajamas, underwear (especially for older kids), and shoes
cloth diapers (all sizes up to 30 1bs.)
diaper covers
toys to stimulate babies such as colorful objects, rattles, etc. that are appropriate for babies up to 2 years.
unscented baby wipes
powder formula with DHA/RHA; Enfamil, Similac, Parent's Choice (generic from Walmart), Up and Up (generic from Target), Kirkland (from Costco)
lactose free formula (same brands as above)
soy formula (same brands as above)
A+D original ointment, diaper rash and all-purpose skincare formula
hand sanitizer
children's CDs and DVDs (educational, spiritual, songs)
crib sheets
plastic crib covers
blankets for cribs and toddlers
twin bed sheets
bath towels
hand towels
Crocs or flip flops
toothbrushes
toothpaste
floss
Tylenol...infant's and children's
antibiotic cream (Neosporin)
teething medicine
small toys (bubbles, matchbox cars, yo-yo's, bouncy balls, small dolls, stickers, toy animals, puppets, etc.)
granola bars, trail mix packages, beef jerky....to hand out to street kids
"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look afterorphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."
Thursday, January 13, 2010 has to be one of the craziest days in our family’s history.At 3:30 PM, we opened the e-mail, which showed us pictures, and information about the boy we plan to adopt, I know many of you are thinking… “Wait!I thought you were adopting a girl!”Yes, up until about 3 hours earlier, we thought that too.There’s no short way to tell the story about how we ended up there, so we’ll just take you back to the spring of this year.
Mother’s Day 2010
Without mentioning it to each other, Anna and I both felt God stirring in our hearts regarding this adoption.The process was moving slow, and one of my friends even said, “I guess they are starting to meet the needs in Ethiopia, huh?”
At that same time, our friends the Thrashers, were on their aoption journey as well.I’m not kidding when I say their options changed about 5 times.That Sunday, they told us about how they had been contacted regarding a set of twins that were being born, that were up for adoption.They had prayed about it and were seriously considering it.The thing that struck us most was they were completely open to whatever God wanted regarding their adoption.
Over lunch that day, we asked ourselves this question.Are we as open to God’s will during this process as the Thrasher’s are?So we discussed it, and discussed all the options.Older child?Special needs?
We came to no resolution over lunch and after that had some errands to run, so we went our separate ways.While away from each other, I remembered some blogs I had read when we first started the process, but it had to wait until I saw Anna face to face to discuss it.
So when I got home, I told Anna, “I think I have it.I remember reading some blogs about adopting an HIV positive child, maybe that’s it.”Anna immediately thought of every reason why we wouldn’t want to do it.
“I can’t do that!What will people think about us?”
“I don’t want my other children to get HIV!”
“I don’t want to adopt a child that is going to die!”
And so on and so on.It was a moment that Anna would describe later as her moment “wrestling with God”.I sat quietly and at the end said, “I agree with everything you have said.But every reason was selfish.Maybe we should investigate it further.”We agreed to investigate it further, with this caveat from Anna, “I’m still not on board with this thing.”
"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Deuteronomy 31:6
Within 24 hours of investigating it, we found out that most of our views of HIV were founded in 1980’s thinking.Bringing an HIV positive child into our family poses no risk to our other children.We were shocked to learn that there are ZERO known cases worldwide of someone contracting HIV through daily household activity.The more we learned, the more we discovered that this wasn’t as crazy as we thought.We even found out that there is a world-class HIV clinic in Birmingham and the doctor answered any and all questions we had.She even gave us her e-mail address to follow up with her at any time.
So at that point, we made the decision.We wanted to change our request to an HIV+ child.We told our family and a few select friends, but we kept this information quiet.There are several reasons for that, but the main reason was fear of how others would view and/or treat our daughter.
One other note, little did we know that about the same time we made the HIV+ decision, our son was being born somewhere in Ethiopia.(This still gives me chills thinking about it.)
(At this point, we know you have a ton of questions about HIV.We’ll put a few links at the bottom of this post, plus we’ll post again later this week with more detail from our perspective.Now… back to the story)
December 2010
Uh, oh… we both were feeling that restless feeling again.The first time resulted in our decision to adopt.The second time our decision to adopt a HIV + child.We again asked the question, “Are we completely open to God’s will in this process?”Things were moving slow and were wondering if we were being selfish for asking for a baby.So we talked to our adoption agency coordinator (Caitlyn – remember that name it will be important later), and asked her if it would speed things up if we changed our age range to 0-24 months.After some discussion with her, she said it really wouldn’t change things.So we decided to leave our request as is.And that was that…or so we thought…
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Separately, we began to feel that maybe we shouldn’t be so private about our decision to adopt an HIV+ child.That day, while driving home from work, I was listening to a podcast in which the preacher essentially asked “How would you advance the gospel if you were essentially in the condition you are in now, without the baggage of the past?”After thinking about it, I thought, “What if we went public with our HIV adoption?Knowing what we know now, and without the baggage of the past 20 years, everyone would be receptive to it.Plus, we have witnessed our friends the Davis’, be advocates for Down’s syndrome adoptions and we could do the same for HIV+ adoptions.”So we discussed it together that night and Anna had similar feelings.We decided that in the coming days we would disclose our HIV adoption on this blog.
At the end of the conversation, Anna said, “Wouldn’t it be crazy if Caitlyn called us tomorrow, after we made this decision?”My response was something to the effect of “Yeah right!!!”
Thursday Jan 13, 2011 – 12:30 PM
My cell rings.The first words I hear is “Hi Tim.This is Caitlyn from America World!”I tried to utter a response, but I was really freaking out thinking about Anna’s words the night before.Caitlyn had a question for us. “Would we be willing to consider opening up our request to a boy?”She remembered our call from December and thought we might be open to it.Caitlyn made it clear that she didn’t have a boy waiting for us; she just wanted to know if we were open to it.
I wasn’t sure Anna would go for that.We already had a name picked out.(Olivia).We had the room painted…not pink, but still pretty girly.We have two boys and one girl.A girl just made sense.Plus, Anna had always wanted to have another girl....and was dreaming of hairbows!
So we talked about it, and finally Anna made this statement, “I guess if we’re going to ask people to be open to a child with HIV, we need to be open ourselves to adopting a boy OR girl.”
So I called Caitlyn back and said, “Yes, we’ll change our request.”There were still details to iron out, like our homestudy and approvals which were all for a female, but we had time to sort that out.I knew that the dinner conversation that night would be interesting for sure.
Thursday Jan 13, 2011 – 2:30 PM
My phone rings again.Same number as before.(I know, right!This is too much.Imagine what we were thinking). With not enough time to even process the fact that we had said yes to the possibility of a boy, Caitlyn was on the phone.“I have a potential referral for you.He’s a beautiful 7 month old boy.”(Side note: We cannot post pictures of him online until he’s officially ours.But trust us on this one…he’s beautiful!)
We had Caitlyn send the e-mail to Anna at the house, and I rushed home to view the pictures and info with her.Throughout the process, you dream of this day.Finally seeing pictures of your child, rejoicing in the fact that it’s that much closer to the day you bring him home.But for us, it was a little bit different.
First, we had a stranger in our house.We were upgrading our satellite receiver and the repairman was at our house when we were looking at the e-mail.Second, for almost two years, we were expecting to see a girl, and just a couple of hours earlier, we gave the approval for a boy.So we were still in the midst of comprehending everything that had happened.However, don’t get us wrong, we were still excited, just more shocked than anything.
"God is not going to pour out his power on you until he sees in you a spirit of submission."
-Adrian Rogers
The next 24 hours confirmed our decision.Yes, the homestudy would have to be updated, but it doesn’t have to be completed until our second visit to Ethiopia, so we have some time.The doctor in Birmingham reviewed his records and reassured us he’s in relatively good health.
We went public with this information, especially with our church today, and the feedback we received was overwhelmingly positive.We know now, that we’re open to God’s will in this adoption; we just never knew we would end up here.
"Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails."
Proverbs 19:21
So to summarize, yes, we are now planning to adopt a 7-month old HIV+ boy. Two years ago when we began this process, we never knew we would end up here. And guess what, it's not over yet. Secretly, I hope I don't get that restless feeling anymore. If I do, there's no telling what will happen.
Here are a few Frequently Asked Questions that we have tried to answer:
When will you get to go over to Ethiopia?
We have to wait until our court visit is scheduled, but our agency is telling us that the courts are behind right now and we are looking at an 8-16 week wait.
When will you bring him home?
We have to make two trips over to Ethiopia.The first one will be in about 8-16 weeks (March-May).Then we will come home, wait a couple of months, then make a second trip to Ethiopia. During this second trip we will be going to get him….so, probably this summer
What will you name him?
We obviously can’t call him Olivia.We’ve decided on the name Cooper.We’re going to use his given name for his middle name.We can’t post that here until he is legally ours.
About the whole HIV+ thing……
We know you have a ton of questions. Some of which you might not want to ask us in person for fear of hurting our feelings.Believe me, anything you can think of, we have already thought it.We plan on posting later this week a detailed post about HIV adoptions. But for now, check out these links below.This will get you the basic information
So, here are a few more ornaments that I have been working on. Ornaments with 1 letter are $6, two letters are $8, three letters are $10, four + letters are $15. Glass ornaments are also $6. To place an order, comment here, find me on Facebook (Anna Howard Dreyfus), or email me at anna_dreyfus@bellsouth.net
Once again, all proceeds go to our Ethiopian adoption fund.
Our new adoption fundraiser and just in time for the holidays.....
Wooden letters that I am painting and transforming into Christmas ornaments. Each ornament is $6. The letters are 5 inches tall and 1/4 inch thick. They are painted with acrylic paint, sprayed with a matte varnish, and come with a ribbon hanger. I have two different styles to choose from - Block and Curlz. Pick from any of the designs I have, or if you have an idea you want me to try, just let me know. These ornaments make perfect gifts for teachers, neighbors, co-workers, anyone on your Christmas list. Even your kids would love an ornament with their first initial. You can even put letters together to make words like JOY and HO HO HO. So many possibilities! I will be taking orders until December 1 and all proceeds go to our adoption fund to bring Olivia home. You can email me at anna_dreyfus@bellsouth.net to place an order.
Our mac-daddy adoption paperwork is DONE and in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Woo-hoo! We are beyond thrilled and somewhat relieved that it is out of our hands! Now it is just up to God to decide when we travel to meet sweet Olivia and then when we will travel to bring her home. Thank you, everyone, who has been praying for us.
the dossier documents
Tim signing THE check
All packed up and ready to go!
We were even able to track the package through FedEx....pretty cool!
