Getting things tied up

We should have our entire dossier to our adoption worker on Thursday. The Sec. of States office is closed until then. I didn't know they closed and I need one piece of paper state sealed!! So after that our dossier goes to Washington D.C. back to Grand Rapids and then off to Ethiopia. After it is there it should be around a month until it is through their process. Very exciting!
Isaac is so much fun. The other night he was in his room with a flashlight singing, "Here Come the Sun." He started praying and asking Jesus what plans he had for him. So wonderful to know God's spirit works in the little ones minds and lives.

I went to a women's meeting at church last night. The topic was Being not Doing. I know we can get caught up in Doing a lot and not Being with God. It was a great message by Cheryl Salem. She is a former Miss America. So challenging and deep.
Looking forward to a great day.

A Paperwork Miracle

So here is a picture of my bridesmaids. Aren't they beautiful? They look even better today than seven years ago.
On another note...We received our paperwork from immigration today approving us to adopted an orphan. This really is a miracle because Matt was just fingerprinted July 25th. Our adoption worker said it would be 8-12 weeks from then!! And here we are August 9th.
Also, My dad won the election up north and is county commissioner again. He is doing a great job!
Now we get our I-171h notarized, state sealed and give our check to Bethany for the Ethiopian country fee. Bethany already has our dossier with everything ready to go. Hopefully our dossier is in the country within a few weeks!

Wedding Memories

A couple of weeks ago we were given the option to buy our wedding negatives. This last week I had them put on a CD and downloaded them to my computer. I will be posting a few of them. It is fun to have a look back at 7 years ago. I think we look younger, although I don't feel older.
Matt recently got a job promotion at work. It is great and he is enjoying the change.
Congratulations to our Bethany friends who are traveling next week!!! I don't think I could sleep or eat because of excitement!

Lots of Vacation

It really has been a great summer. Last week we spent part of the week in Northern Michigan and attended the Venetian festival in Charlevoix. We had tons of fun at my parents house riding their gator, visiting the deer blind, going on the boat, etc...
Too many things to mention. We got to see my sister Julie, her husband Steve and my niece and nephew Luke and Eva. We always get to spend time with friends and family while we are there.
My dad is running for County Commissiner so vote August 5th if you live up there. He has been in 2 years and is doing a great job. I will be glad when the votes are in!

If you live in my area this Saturday at my church we are having a walk-a-thon to raise money for the A21 campaign. This campaign was developed to raise awareness and money to stop the selling of children, as young as four into the sex slave trade industry. Let me know if you are interested in attending. I have more information on my facebook page.
Also, some great news on Matt's job front. He got a promotion to finance director. Of course he got a raise too. This offsets my working a couple of days a week. We are so thankful for God provision for our family.
On the "new" baby front there isn't much to report. When we talk about the new baby coming from Ethiopia Isaac usually asks, "where is the old one?" The minds of little ones are so sweet. We did get to take him to the Ethiopian restaurant on Friday night. It is so good and we are always up for going if anyone is interested!

Finally Matt's been fingerprinted!

Today Matt had his appt. Now we wait. Our adoption worker said it was taking about 8 weeks for immigration paperwork to come back. That puts us at the end of September. Then we get it notarized, state sealed and send everything off to Washington D.C. Then it comes back to the Bethany headquarters in Grand Rapids before being sent to Ethiopia. Sometime in October our dossier will be there, and they tell us it could be 12-15 months for a referral. Of course we hope it is sooner.
Pray for us that things move quickly.
Here is a picture of Isaac playing piano at my parents house. He loves to sit and play. I am sure lessons are in his future!

Fun up North!

My son loves the boat so it is a treat to go out with my parents when we are up north. This is a picture of him and my mom. We had fun with our cousins, they loved to get pulled behind the boat on tubes.
This past week I decided to quit the job I started a month ago. I thought I would enjoy working in the mental health field part-time again, but I really did not!!!! This will be my last week there and I am praying I get cut from the days I am scheduled. Wouldn't that be great??!! Thank God for teaching me things and meeting kind people while I was there.
I will be back to being a full-time stay at home mom. Oh, how I missed it! My son will be happy too, although he had great family members to stay with while I was away.
Yesterday was my birthday. I am 33 years old now, so is Matt, and Isaac is 3. Weird huh? I was really blessed with some wonderful gifts. And as with most birthdays it isn't over yet!
We are so happy to our adopting friends who's court dates went through on the first try! They will be traveling soon to Ethiopia to pick up there kids, Bereket, Levi and Ruby. Praise the Lord

I had to post this picture of Matt's huge Walleye caught on Batchawana Bay, Canada!
Also, I am reading a book entitled, There is no me without you, by Melissa Fay Greene.
If you are at all interested in Ethiopia, the world AIDS epidemic, are adopting from any African country or want to be deeply touched by one women's story read this book. I think it is life changing.