Awesome News!

We recently learned that court will NOT be closing this year for Holiday! This is great news for us. Things just keep falling into place. This means that there will be no chance of having to wait for court until October! We will more than likely get through court in August and pick her up in September! - which is when her TB test finishes culturing. Prime! We are so very grateful to our Father for guiding us through this adoption and leading us to Rahel. We can't wait to welcome her into our family.

Short update on Rahel

Great news! Rahel is currently doing her TB test and will be finished tomorrow. That means the soonest we will be able to pick her up is September 4. Time can't go by quickly enough!

Answer to our prayers

The U.S. Embassy has finally decided to allow HIV+ children to begin their TB sputum tests before they get their birth certificates and passports. This means we travel 8-9 weeks earlier!!! We've been praying for this. Rahel will be in the first group of children to do this. AHOPE will be getting theirs done on the 26th. We will travel at the same time the "healthy" children's families travel. The only problem is that the electricity problem is getting worse and is slowing down the adoption timeline for everybody. We are praying that our case makes it through court at least before mid-august.
It has finally hit me that we will have a kid in 2 months!!! When I was pregnant with Faith, it didn't hit me until 1 or 2 months before delivery that I wasn't just pregnant. There would be a baby in the house which triggered frantic nesting and preparations. This seems exactly the same. We're trying to get the house ready to function for a bigger family, looking for a bed etc... This is really happening! Finally! Hooray!!!

Good news, Bad news

Poor neglected blog...I've been on vacation.
Good news - we have been placed in our court group!!! Group N. Group M's court date is on June 30, so ours should be mid-July. Our group's travel date should be the first of August, but since Rahel is HIV positive, we have to wait an additional 2 months for her TB test. Still good news!!! We're nearing the light at the end of the tunnel. Finally!
Bad news - Ethiopia is having severe drought issues which effect everything. They depend on water for their electricity and have done without electricity about once a week in the recent past. As for now, they only get electricity a number of hours every day. Businesses are shutting down due to this, and food isn't able to be refrigerated. Gas pumps are powered by electricity.....
http://en.afrik.com/article15813.html
Here is an article on the situation in Ethiopia right now. They are in Hungry season and aide isn't as available as it should be. The UN is having to cut back rations even more now than ever. We're praying for rain for Ethiopia. Lets hope that those starving now won't suffer long. Harvest isn't for 3 more months. - sure puts things in perspective for us. We feel so picked on with the economy dive etc., but at least we have food to eat even if we don't have a job. We're not starving.

Care package for Rahel

Faith drew a picture of Rahel to put in the care package.

Pictures to let Rahel know who her new family is. A fun tradition at Rahel's orphanage allows the family to send a new shirt. When Rahel wears her new shirt, her friends will know that she has found a family!

Unfortunately, we were only allowed 2 toys and no candy. (we sort of cheated - how can you pick only 2 things to send?) This all fit into the required Ziploc bag. We are allowed to send a disposable camera with our names and addy on it so Rahel's care takers can take pictures of her opening her care package and send it back to us for developing. How fun! We can't wait!!!

Daddy Day Spa

Thomas worked so hard this week getting the cellar cleaned up and finished, Faithy and I decided that he needed a spa day. We had fun pampering him (what a trooper!) and helping him relax. - If a mud mask and pedicure are relaxing to a guy. Faith had fun anyway!

Ear infection

The past few weeks I have felt an urgency to bring Rahel home. I don't know the reason for these feelings. This morning I woke up with even more anxiety over Rahel. The impression of urgency is stronger than ever. I hate not being with her to know how she is and what's going on. All I can do is pray and guess and pray about my guesses. The spirit is still telling me that something is up and I'm still guessing. I talked to Thomas and found that he has felt the same urgency for the last day or two. Now we're both trying to figure this out.
After much prayer, I decided to check my e-mail even though it is Saturday, and to my grief, we received an updated medical report for Rahel. It looks like she had pneumonia again and now suffers chronic otitis media as a result. It's hard to know if the infection is bacterial or viral when it is at this stage and without medication and a simple surgery (that would be nothing here in the states), she is in danger of a lot of problems. Her hearing is already failing and we're worried that it may spread and cause damage/paralysis etc. if not treated. We need to get her home.
We ask for your prayers for Rahel and that our adoption will be expedited. The Lord will answer our prayers.

Foot mustaches

Faith was complaining that her feet hurt and asked Daddy for a "mustache". After massaging one foot, she kicked up her other foot and said that this one needs a mustache too! Too cute.

Back yard camping

For those of you who are wondering, the bottles are water.

Faith learned about camping in school this week and insisted that we go camping. We had a ton of yard work to get done and decided that we would camp in the back yard so we could do both! Faith had lots of fun roasting "shmushmellos" and singing by the fire, but nothing held a candle to reading stories in the tent! Boy was she excited to go camping in a tent and use a flashlight in the dark! We had lots of fun and were glad that we were able to make it work out.

Ethiopian connections

The funniest thing happened this week. After celebrating my birthday in town, we met with the girl we met from Ethiopia a couple of weeks ago. She translated a letter we wrote to Rahel and put some notes on our pictures in Amharic to introduce our family to Rahel.
We met her at a home in Smithfield which ended up being the home of adoptive parents who happen to have adopted several kids from Ethiopia! This is random because the girl gave us this address as her home address. After a lot of confusion when the owners of the home arrived, we learned that this girl was in fact not adopted by these people, but that she lived on the other end of town with her biological family who were sponsored to come overseas. She was actually friends with the homeowners' kids but considers herself family.
Once we were all straightened out, we had a long and informative conversation on adoption and Ethiopia. Through this visit, we learned that all the "group" things that happen for Ethiopians are here in Cache Valley! I guess people travel from Salt Lake to come here to get together and celebrate Ethiopian holidays. What a small world!
We feel so blessed to have met our new friend while shopping one day. The adoptive parents we met were very kind and extremely helpful as well as informative. We have names and numbers for many of the people who live here in the valley that have either adopted from Ethiopia or who have been sponsored after winning the lottery to come here. Our new friends supplied us with numbers for friends and family that can be trusted who live in Et that can help us find our way around when we get there.
We also learned that the court system in Ethiopia shuts down mid August through September. I'm glad someone let us know that small bit of info - we didn't quite time things correctly considering this. We're praying that things will work out for an earlier pick-up date. Our dossier went to Ethiopia yesterday and is waiting for translation. Things are still running smoothly (which is a testament of the Lord's hand in this adoption) and on schedule. Thank you for your prayers and support. They are needed and very much appreciated (:

Some of the pretty flowers and weeds growing in my yard

Just Journaling

3 good things: Melissa, my sister-in-law posts "3 good things" on her blog. I've decided that this is the perfect thing for me to steal! Sorry Melissa. You've been robbed. The Tao teaches putting a positive spin on everything in life. Even the things you hate. My mom is the perfect example of this. She can find something she loves in EVERYTHING and makes it sound WONDERFUL! I think this 3 good things will help me on my way to growing into the things I love about my mom.
3 good things:

• Naps. Faith and I took a nap together....naps are beautiful. (:
• Movie nights.
• Amazing husbands. My husband mopped the floor today...after making dinner. Need I say more?

Just Journaling

I find myself logging on to Christi Anne's blog every day to see if I'm lucky enough to get a small glimpse into her life and draw inspiration and spiritual edification. Today, as I was following routine, I realized that I was waiting for inspiration to come to me, rather than create it myself. It's time I started living my own inspirational life, enriching Faith's, and making family life more meaningful. There was a time when my life was an inspiring one and it has become forgotten. I think my wake up call was sufficient. I am determined to get with the game. I have found that through writing, I teach myself and find better success in progression.
I will title these posts as "Just Journaling" so you know that it's just me rambling and you can pass right over it. Nothing is more irritating than a blog that rambles. Who has time for that? Anyway, I need to journal, and this is the only place I have actually kept going with. To quote a favorite aunt, "This is a rambling blast of gak...forgive me in advance." (:
I love you Andee! -Melanie

Ethiopia in the Valley

Thomas and I were shopping for a music box at D.I. (I've been taking them apart and making cute boxes for them), and our checker just happened to be from ET! How crazy is that? We got her name and number, and we're going to get together soon. She was most excited to meet us and be involved in ANY way! She is so homesick for Ethiopia. We are going to see if we can hire her to give us lessons in Amharic and how to cook Ethiopian. She is such a sweet girl. She was excited to learn that our daughter's name is Rahel - she has a cousin named Rahel. We're so grateful for the chance to have met someone who lives here in Cache Valley that will be a wonderful friend - this will be so good for Rahel (: I guess there are a number of people and families from Ethiopia here in the valley. - Small world

More music

The Christmas CD is finally moving forward again. I think this last stint of writers block has finally passed! Scooby snacks for me (: I finished an arrangement yesterday, and am very close to finishing two more - hopefully by next week. I can't wait for you all to hear them and give me input. I can't seem to figure out how to get my files to work on blogger so I'll have to give an informal concert to let you all come and give your ideas. I have arranged a lullaby for Faith and Rahel and decided it would work perfect for the CD! How many tracks does a CD usually have? Is 9 too many? Some are short though - is 9 enough?

RECORDING:

• Cammie - I need your voice (:
• Michael - I need your voice too (:
• Jen - Would you accompany a flute piece for me?
• Cierra - What do you think about helping plan the concert?
• Krecia - I need your ooher and aahhher (:
• Ryan - Percussion....again? (:
• Melissa - What do you think about giving a short story or a clip from our Christmas musical on the CD?
• Shalon - Voice........please?
• Dad - Guitar. Twice.
• Keston - Guitar?
• Lori, Jo, Shanon - you guessed it! - dance of the reed pipes?
• Sheila - Your voice rocks! Would you record?
• Does anyone play the tin whistle well?

Thanks for all of your help this far. This should be fun - we'll see! Leave your answers in a comment or give me a call. Thanks! - Melanie