A Good Picnic

We had a great time at our picnic today! There were at least 8 families there and probably over 40 people. This is so exciting since we just started the group a couple of months ago. I have to admit that seeing the little kiddos who have made it home to their forever families made me a little more eager to have our little guy home. This group is going to be such a good resource for us. I already learned a lot from experiences the other families have had. Many of them had great tips and advice to give us. One family who used the same agency as we did just moved into town and live one subdivision over from us. They were very friendly and said they would be more than willing to help us out with whatever we need. I can not tell you what a blessing this whole thing is! God has really provided. Many of the families were very excited about having the group too and said that they have been wanting to have something like this for a long time but have not had the time to set it up. We enjoyed everyone who came and we very much look forward to meeting the other families who were not able to make it today. The day itself was wonderful too. It was hot enough for all the kids to play in the water but not too hot to enjoy sitting around and visiting. I look forward to seeing the group grow and meeting the children who come home to those who are still waiting. What a wonderful day!

First MFEC picnic

So I think I've mentioned the group I put together for Montana families with Ethiopian adopted children (MFEC), well tomorrow we have our first get-together. I'm very excited to meet some of the other families here in Montana. It sounds like we are going to have a pretty good turn out too. I'll post later and let you know how it goes.

Our case worker emailed today and said they would be making monthly calls to update us with info and new wait list numbers starting Monday. This is always an exciting week, and this one will be good because I know there have been several referrals. I just hope I don't get skipped over this time and have to wait an extra week ;)

Two Months

Today we have been waiting for two months. I think we are unofficially #16. This means we moved 7 spots in 8 weeks. If the wait continues to go at this pace that will put us getting our referral on October 23. This would be a fun day to get a referral because it is my brother's birthday. While I am anxious to have a referral, I'm still at peace with the wait. We'll keep you posted.

Great Finds

Here are a few things that we got for our little guy's room while in Seattle. We stumbled across this really neat African shop and had to look around. All of the items were made in Kenya. I can't wait to start putting all the pieces of his room together.

Yum

J and I went to Seattle this weekend to celebrate our anniversary. We took some friends of ours to an Ethiopian restaurant to give them a taste of our son's culture. I think over all they liked it, but most dishes were too spicy for one of them. It was good, but the combo was missing one stew that we had in Denver...that was our favorite:( On the good side though, they did have Tej the honey wine that I didn't get to try last time. Wow, what I have read about it is right, it is SWEET. Here is a picture of our time there.

Sweet Comment

So one of my blogger friends left a sweet comment on our post about being #17 and I thought I would share it:

In Tim Mcgraw's words: "17 only comes once in a life time, doesn't it just fly by wild and free"...(I am praying that it will fly!!!)

Thanks "C & R"

NEW NUMBER!

Okay so I was starting to get impatient and I emailed AGCI to see why I had not gotten our monthly call yet. Julie said that somehow our name got overlooked because it was close to the name of a family that has another case worker. So anyway we finally have our new boy list number! We are number 17. I'm so happy to have a new offical number :)

Two Great New Links

I posted two new websites under links-check them out.

Mothers Without Borders

Red Letters Campaign

Garage Sale

We had a garage sale this weekend and it went well. We are slowly, very slowly chipping away at our fundraising. It was cool to see God answer a very specific prayer of mine though. We had some friends donate a whole eagle collection and I prayed that God would send eagle lovers/collectors. All of the eagle items sold before noon (like 18 of them) while the rest of our decorations sat untouched. God is good. Everyone who came to our garage sale was very encouraging and excited about our adoption. I expected some people to look at us weird or judgingly when we said he would be from Africa, but everyone was genuenly supportive. This made me really happy, because it gives me a little confidence that the biracial family we are creating will be more accepted then I thought. Over all it has been a good weekend, even if it has been 44 degrees all day:)

It's Here

We got our FDL (favorable determination letter) from USCIS yesterday. It feels good to have this all wrapped up. Monthly calls from AGCI are starting today, so once we get our call we will let you know our new numbers.