2 Months DTE!

Today we celebrated our two-month DTE anniversary! We have officially been on the waiting list for a baby boy for two months now. We started at #18 on the "unofficial" wait list (kept by our agency's Yahoo support group) and at our one-month DTE anniversary, we were #16. As of today, we are now #9... plus five of the families ahead of us recently received their "On Deck" e-mails letting them know that they could expect a referral soon! We have been so excited to see such wonderful movement in the adoption world over the last few weeks. Its such a blessing to see God's hand at work uniting these forever families, and we truly can't wait until its our turn! We know God has a very special boy waiting for us, and we are so anxious to see who he is!

Are you able to help?

The Bible tells us in Psalm 82:3 to "Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed." This Father's Day weekend, we are hoping that you can help us do just that!

While we are in Ethiopia, we are planning to visit not only the Transition Home run by our adoption agency, but also several orphanages and care centers (for older, school-aged children). We are hoping to be able to bless each of these facilities with some much-needed donations. Will you help us show Christ's love to these precious children halfway around the world who need so much and yet have so very little?

We will be having a HUGE yard sale on June 18 and 19 to raise money to purchase donations and to pay the airline fees for taking the donations over with us.

Here are 3 ways you can join with us to help "defend the cause of the weak and fatherless."

1. Donate items for us to sell at the yard sale. We would be happy to come and pick them up from you.

2. Come and SHOP!! Friday, June 18 and Saturday, June 19 from 8:00 - 3:00.

3. Purchase donations for the transition homes, orphanages, and care centers. Please see the list below:

• Small toys, bubbles, balloons (no stuffed animals)
• Playdough, puppets
• Twin bed sheets
• Baby Formula (powder with DHA/RHA)
• Diapers (all sizes)
• Baby Wipes
• Clothes for older children (age 7 and up) including day clothes, pajamas, and underwear
• Shoes (Crocs, sandals)
• Vitamins (Poly-vi-sol, Tri-vi-sol, chewable multi-vitamins)
• Iron supplements
• Tylenol (infants and children's)
• Hand sanitizer
• Toothbrushes, toothpaste, and floss
• Diaper rash cream, Neosporin, cough syrup, saline spray
• Granola bars, suckers, etc for handing out to the children
• School supplies (notebooks, pencils, etc)

God is really stirring in our hearts to not just help the child we are adopting, but also the millions of orphans in Ethiopia who will be left behind. Thank you for joining with us!

A Beautiful Story

This family's story is so similar to our own (although they used a different adoption agency). Their journey helps put so many of our own thoughts and feelings into words, and helps to answer the questions, "Why adoption? Why Ethiopia?". Its a beautiful story, and I hope you'll take a few minutes to watch it. You may need the tissues handy!

Evyn's Gotcha Day + Adoption story from emily Vogeltanz on Vimeo.

Does it make you think?

I recently came across this thought-provoking quote...

"If only 7 percent of the 2 billion Christians in the world would care for a single orphan in distress, there would effectively be no more orphans."

Cool Find...

My parents rarely drink any pop that isn't diet; which may explain why I found this old can of Coke in their refrigerator this afternoon. It was from a series Coke did celebrating the 2008 Olympics. Can you see what it says? How cool is that?!? (And no, we didn't drink it... just in case you were wondering!) :)

One Month DTE!

This week we celebrated our one-month DTE anniversary! How exciting to know that we are one month closer to knowing the son that God has chosen for our family. The current wait time to be matched with a baby boy is 4-6 months, so hopefully we'll only have a few more of these anniversaries to celebrate! When we first became DTE, we were number 18 on the waiting list for an infant boy. We're now number 16. There hasn't been much movement lately in Ethiopian adoptions because of all the recent changes requiring adoptive parents to travel twice. Hopefully now that those changes are in place, the bottleneck will open up and we'll see a flood of referrals!

One Trip or Two??

We have been told many times to "expect the unexpected" in dealing with international adoption, and have recently discovered how true that is! We found out in March that the Ethiopian courts wanted to require adoptive families to travel twice to Ethiopia. The first trip was for the adoptive families to meet their child and to appear in person in court stating their desire to adopt that child. The second trip would be 8-12 weeks later to bring their child home. Apparently the Ethiopian government was unable to enforce the law at that time, so the decision was put on hold, and we went back to planning for just one trip.

Last week, however, we were informed that the Ethiopian government was now ready to enforce the two-trip policy beginning with all cases going to court after May 9. (That's us!) So, we're preparing now to travel twice to Ethiopia to bring home our son.

Although financially and logistically this will be more difficult for our family, it ultimately means that we will get to meet our son sooner and spend more time getting to know the beautiful culture of Ethiopia, both of which I couldn't be more excited about! On the other hand, we'll be leaving the girls twice now with family and friends, which isn't easy. We'll also be paying double the travel expenses we had planned for. And the toughest part of it all will be leaving my son behind after that first trip. I imagine my heart will be crushed after spending a week falling in love with him, bonding with him, and then leaving him at the Transition Home for another 2-3 months while the Embassy completes the paperwork necessary to issue his Visa and Passport. I can't begin to imagine how difficult that will be and the strength I'll need to get through it. I suppose I could go on and on about the pros and cons of two trips, but the bottom line is: I would make the trip 10 times if I had to. There is nothing I wouldn't do or any place I wouldn't go to bring him home.