Pillow Party

This last Monday, my younger sister threw me a "Pillow Party" to help up raise funds for our adoption. She got this idea from a website, and she did a fabulous job. She made about 15 pillows. Rachel Burch & Ashley Arnold made some wreaths, which were too cute. How it worked was you could write your name on the tag and make a donation. I loved this because no one was obligated to donate. I was just happy to see the girls there supporting Sam and I regardless if they gave a donation.

Last Sunday, our Pastor talked about generosity, and Sam & I made a video telling people about the generous gift we received for our home-study. This week I have felt that same generosity from these girls who didn't have to spend anything.

I know Christmas is a busy time and people are always crunching numbers, including myself. The fact that they were willing to help out was so generous that I was overwhelmed with emotion. We raised about $700, which blew me away. We made enough to send in our immigration application, which we mailed out Wednesday. I said on our video that I know I shouldn't be surprised when God shows up, but I"m still in awe every time he does.

We also sold our car today, which we had been listed for a couple weeks now. The great thing about this is we made just enough to pay for our dossier. I am so thrilled!! With every step closer I get so excited to see that little face appear to us. I feel so extremely blessed that God chose us to adopt. My cousin Jeff and his wife, Shannon, are also adopting from Ethopia and they are on the exact same pace as us. We are praying that we will be able to travel together. We are so excited for them & so blessed to go through this journey with them. Please continue to pray for us and the Britton's. Thank you to those who have been praying. We have definitely felt your prayers.

Dig Deep

Natalie and I were recently introduced to a couple here in Springfield that has adopted 2 boys from Ethiopia. They have been to Ethiopia twice to pick up each boy. The wife traveled a third time to Ethiopia to visit her sons' birthplace & to potentially meet some family. She was fortunate to be able to do both. While she was there she felt that God was calling her to provide clean water to this community. So, she took on this amazing water project. They need to raise about $200,000 to make this happen. Here is their video:

dig deep from A Glimmer of Hope on Vimeo.

You can also go to: www.ourglimmerofhope.org/digdeep to learn more.

Homestudy Approved!

It's been a little while since we have posted an update, so here is what has happened in the meantime.

We have attended a Adoptive Parent Training class, which was a great experience, & also gave us the opportunity to meet some other international adoptive parents in the process.

We had our social worker, Judy, pay us a visit to our home to complete our Homestudy. We were a little nervous, as we knew she would go in-depth with not only our physical home but also with interviews of us & our kids. Afterwards, we realized that it wasn't as big of a deal that we had made it out to be. Judy was great. She was so relaxed & made us feel at ease. When she left our house that day she let us know that we would be receiving our completed Homestudy paperwork in the next couple of weeks.

Just this last Friday, we received our approved Homestudy in the mail. There were 4 notarized copies of it (just like Judy had said there would be). We were so excited! This is the documentation that we need in order to apply to Immigration & also to be able to apply for some potential grants. We feel that we are making progress and moving on to the next step.

So, that next step is to schedule an appointment with Immigration, which is located in St. Louis.  This process, we have been told, takes about 45 days to get back & approved. Then, the next step is to compile our Dossier to send to Holt International Headquarters, which in turn gets sent to the Holt Office in Ethiopia.

Natalie and I get excited each time that we progress to the next step of our journey. We have been so fortunate to have met some Amazing families that have also adopted from Ethiopia. They have opened our eyes & hearts to other things & ideas that we didn't even realize. We feel led to do even more things than just our individual adoption, because we know that God has a bigger plan. We have been amazed at the impact that this has had on us & others (and we haven't even really begun yet).  Natalie & I have just been realizing that all we have to do is be open to listening to what God is telling us & just react & respond.

We are at peace as we know that God is at work in our family's life. Thank you for your support and prayers. We will keep you updated as new things happen.