Long time, no see

Yes, I do know that it has been nearly a month since I have posted a blog. I have absolutely NO excuse and I never lack for something to say, so I'll work on stepping it up a bit. As for an update on the adoption front, our court date in Ethiopia was November 20th, but unfortunately, we did not pass on the first round. Apparently, there was a missing document, a recommendation letter from the Ministry of Women's Affairs in Ethiopia (MOWA). Our court date has now been rescheduled for December 18th. We are praying that we pass the next time. If we do, travel will likely be at the end of January, beginning of February timeframe. Please pray that MOWA gets our recommendation letter to the Powers That Be and that the judge doesn't find anything else that would stop our case from passing. We really want to get the kids home!

Since I posted last time, we had a book sale fundraiser. A wonderful family donated 10,000 books to us! That is still such an incredible number to me! Unfortunately, I missed the whole thing because I was in Texas for a conference. Thankfully, we made a little over $1400. We split the proceeds with some very good friends of ours who are also adopting two children from Ethiopia. God's blessings are so good!

We are now about to embark on our 3rd fundraiser - t-shirts!! My nephew is a very talented and well-respected graphic designer in Baltimore. He created a very cool design for us. I ordered a bunch of shirts and now we're just waiting for them to printed. We will be "hocking our wares" anywhere we can over the next few weeks, trying to raise some travel money. I will upload images of the t-shirts, and possibly add a utility allowing readers to order one if they would like - as soon as I figure out how to do that. :)

I would just like to leave you with a scripture (on Korbet's suggestion): So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. Romans 8:15-16

Hope everyone has a wonderful, joyful Thanksgiving.