Where We're At

DCFS Clearances IN!!!
Hague training-completed!!!
CPR training-completed!!!
Our social worker is just needing certificates to prove that we've completed the training, and then she'll be done with our home study SOON! This is all very good news.

In other news, we've decided to request either one child or a sibling group from Ethiopia. Let me stress, before I even begin, that NEVER did I see us as a family of 6! That's pure craziness! However, it has really been laid on our hearts that our child will have so many differences, too many to count really, once they get to Quincy...even so many differences within our family. We've really prayed and considered the idea of adopting a sibling group (most likely twins) with the hope that the children have a better sense of connection and belonging because they are not alone in their differences. This again, is pure CRAZINESS to adopt two at a time, much less infant twins-what does that mean for us??? A bigger car? For sure! A bigger budget? For sure! A bigger house? Probably! In reality, my biggest fear was financing all of this. Over the course of someone's life-raising a child is a lot of money! Do we have the finances to be able to do this???
I was so conflicted about this and struggling with it and I felt like God told me that he paid the ULTIMATE price so that I could be part of his family. Did He ever say "Nope, sending my son is too much for me to bear, it will cost too much-I won't do it"? No, he sent Jesus who paid for our sins with His own life so that we could be a part of His eternal family. So, what in the world am complaining about? A few thousand dollars? Get real, Erin! We talked to family and friends about it, prayed over it and finally talked to our adoption agency about it. The verdict-3 years! The people at the top of the list for siblings have been on there since August of 2009 and have NO referral yet. We're sixth on the list. Honestly, you can adopt one and go through the process again in 3 years (might not be as cheap, but certainly is a possibility). So, we're on the list for 1 or 2. We'll see-it is all in His hands. God has done more miraculous things than granting referrals to everyone in front of us quickly. In the end, we're trusting God's perfect plan for our family.

Will you pray for the rest of the home study to be finished quickly?
Will you also pray for donations to pour in? We were exceedingly blessed recently by an amazing donation & Peter is now on staff for our church part time, so that helps too-I would just like to have all of the funds there and ready to go!
T-Shirts will be printed soon-we're just waiting on the screen to be completed from a local t-shirt place and then Peter and I will be printing them ourselves :)

If you see Ellie, tell her "good job" on helping out with the adoption. She's GETTING this and I love that. She watched the video I posted earlier and it broke her heart. We taught her what an orphan is and it blew her mind that children do not have parents. She said "I want to bring home 2 babies from Ethiopia". We do too, sweetheart. She also sold 23 hy-vee coupon books in 30 minutes the other day as part of our fundraiser. She felt so proud of herself for contributing and it made my heart warm.

Also, if you're reading this and you have a blog, would you consider adding us to your blogroll? It really spreads the word so fast and we appreciate any traffic we can get.

Last thing-I promise-if you haven't watched the video I posted on Wednesday, do it NOW! What's the worst thing that could happen-you'll want to adopt? Do it :)