Surreal

I cannot believe that in less than one hour we begin a journey that really began in April of 2007. People ask me how long the process has taken. In my mind that it is when it started; when we decided to adopt.

Without taking into account time changes (it's only 4:50 am), in approximately 24 hours we will be in Africa. In approximately 48 hours we will meet Sabrina. Though in my heart, I know and love her so much!

There is a car seat in my husband's car for the first time in probably 9 years. I can't remember when they actually get out of them. I should have taken a picture, it is so cute. It is pink and brown with flowers, funky not cutsie. (You can find it on http://www.target.com/. The cheaper one not the one that costs $200+!) Noelle even got over the fact that it was pink. We were out in the dark last night trying to figure out how to install it. What's with the cool new latch system? Pretty sure my car doesn't have that. Oh, well. Also in our car are eight trunks full of supplies. Imagine this...we are traveling to Ethiopia with one carry on bag weighing less than fifteen pounds (each). Funny, in one way we are really travelling light but on the other hand...!

Specific prayer requests:
1. Baggage check. That they would be kind. We will be charged for our two extra bags. I don't know if there is any flexibility in that amount. We heard $180 per bag. I tried to weigh the bags, I got 45-51 pounds each. Pray that I was fairly accurate and that if the bags are slightly over 50 pounds that they would pass through any way, without extra charges.

2. Noelle's passport expires in January and has a horribly light photo. Pray that we do not get any hassles.

3. Pray for our first meeting with Sabrina. We hope to bring her back to the guest house with us but that is pretty scary, too. Check out where we are staying at http://www.ethiopiaguesthome.com/.

4. Pray for our schedule. It is very hard for me not to know ahead of time what we are doing each day. Pray that arrangements can be made for us to visit the two orphanages that we have brought all of the supplies for. Pray for us to be able to make it to a market to buy souvenirs. We are unable to take Sabrina with us to the market, due to new "rules" in country.

Well, my alarm just went off, so I suppose I better stop typing and start getting ready to leave. Thank you all for being such an important part of our journey!

Chaos, anyone?

More donations! I believe we are up to 8 checked bags full of donations. The newest donations are medical supplies for the orphanages. Thank you so much Bob Greenwood at Greenwood Drug. I was so disappointed by the response of the other pharmacies I contacted. We will be changing our pharmacy! I need to say another big thank you to "The Women at the Well", my women's Bible study. For two weeks they have been blessing me (and the orphanages) with bags and bags of wonderful supplies! Thank you so much!!
What better time to remodel a bathroom and hallway. Opposite the red brick is our front door. So the project is definitely out of the way. The hallway is our room, Noelle's room, the main bathroom, and Sabrina's room.


This is the main bathroom right now. No toilet, no sinks. Yesterday 10:00 am as I am seriously starting to pursue my list of things to do I get a phone call from my husband. There are some minor issues with the remodel. All the way home I am praying, "Lord, please let his 'minor', be minor to me as well." Not so much! The bathtub had to be raised. They thought they were going to have to put a large hole in our sons closet. Yes, that's minor. The biggie was...the piece of furniture we intended to use as a vanity would be very difficult to use. Moving water pipes, etc. So off to Home Depot to pick out new vanities, mirrors and counter tops, ASAP. The Lord has provided and we were able to make those decisions. Unfortunately the bathroom remodel is now costing a little more.

Back to packing. I got up at 4:00 yesterday AM and made a pretty detailed list. I must say that despite the distractions yesterday, fantastic headway was made. Thanks Elke, for your help! Today I need to weigh all the bags and work on figuring out how to bring our personal items. Did I mention that Noelle is now going with us? We bought her a ticket on Monday. We are all pleased that she is able to go. Please pray for Jake as we are gone. He has a killer schedule. Two a day swim team practices, work at Target and a very tough college prep schedule. I barely got him up this morning. Pray that I would be able to balance encouragement, motivation, and what amounts to pressure in his eyes.

FOUR DAYS until I am holding the little one we have been pursuing for nine months!

It's raining orphanage supplies!

Just two of the five or six trunks that we are taking to the orphanages in Ethiopia!

Saturday, my awesome friends hosted a shower for the orphanages. These are some of my small group girls from church. Say hi to Emily, Genae, Chelsea, Bree, Katie and Megan. Sunday night they came over and filled ziploc bags full of treats for the kids. They even drew on the bags and signed them. We included granola bars, cheese crackers, toothpaste, candy and a toy. We did either a ball, matchbox car, playdough or "bling".
These are the lovely ladies that threw the shower for us. Meet Billie, Angie and Elke. Sorry, about the closed eyes, Elke. I think there was more than one camera taking photos.
It was hard work checking out all the awesome things that were donated. Note the cute coral colored dress, you will probable see that on Sabrina sometime soon! Thanks, Deb!

Don't we look cute in our hats? I think the kids will probably look better. On the left side of the photo is my daughter's friend, Rachel. And then my daugher, Noelle. On the right side of the photo are my mom and one of my sisters, Karen. Thanks for making the drive, Karen. I missed you, Kat. We had an awesome time and I am so excited to take all of these things to the orphanages! Thanks again everyone!!

All I Really Want For Christmas Music Video

Snow and Sabrina for Thanksgiving!

For those of those who think that it is too early for Christmas music...this is the view outside my window this morning. Not much, but more is on the way. I usually have a strict "no Christmas music until after Thanksgiving" policy, but...it did snow...and...I am getting my Christmas present early this year! In 17 days, to be exact. WOW, I cannot believe that we are ALL going to be together for Christmas this year! Noelle realized this morning that Sabrina will be here for her school Christmas program. Please pray for the Chapman family this holiday season. Also, pray for the Alexander family. See Emily's blog for details.

Side note: I tried at least four times to get these two post together and I CANNOT do it. Every time I added my photo and text, the video disappeared. Very frustrating! Any advice from you advanced bloggers?? And how do you make it so you can have text before the photos?

WOW!

This beautiful necklace was my birthday present from Noelle. It was back in July but I couldn't share because it had Sabrina's name on it. Check out http://www.junkposse.etsy.com/. If it is hard to read, it's because I am not a very good photographer. The small circle reads, "Sabrina". The other circle says, "born in my heart".

So, the really big WOW is...we are going to Ethiopia!!! November 22nd!!! We are staying at the Ethiopia Guest Home, http://www.ethiopiaguesthome.com/. We are in the process of booking our flights. It looks like we will be using Susan Parr travel and flying out of Chicago. Monday, November 24th, Sabrina will be in our arms!!!

Good reading.

An amazing book about the struggle of families in Northern Uganda. "Some day when you stand before God and He asks, 'Did you know about what was going on in Northern Uganda?' What will you say? If He asks, 'Did you know children were being murdered, raped and abducted? What did you do?" U.S. Senator Sam Brownback (from Kansas) I haven't decided what my response will be. I want to look at sponsoring a child. I need to find out where Uganda is in this conflict today.
My mom and my sister recommended this one. Apparently there is some outcry by the Christian community about how God is portrayed. I am comforted by this portrayal of God. I love the picture of the trinity. If you need to feel God's arms wrapped around you, this is a great place to start.

I started this book quite a while ago and got distracted. It would make a great daily devotional. The subtitle is "Trusting God Takes You to Amazing Places". Who doesn't want that!

No new news on Sabrina. How I love being able to type her name!!! We are anxiously awaiting assignment of an embassy date. Then we can make our travel plans. Scott IS going with me. Yeah!! There was a little question, but that has been resolved. Thanks, Christy, for being our "back up plan".