Grants and waiting

Hello everyone. You may have noticed that it's been pretty quiet on the blog and that's because our paperwork did safely make it to Ethiopia and now our major prep-work is done!!

Apparently I can't get enough of paperwork because now I've been applying for adoption grants. I must say though, that it feels quite unofficial and wrong to send in just plain old copies of tax statements, reference letters, and the like, with not one special seal on them. I keep asking myself, "is this allowed?" There are a number of places that offer adoption grants. Nearly all are based on financial need and the majority are only for professing Christians, which means we are eligible! We plan on applying for the following and maybe a couple of others.

Shaohannah's Hope (Stephen Curtis Chapman's program)
LYDIA Fund (John Piper's Church)
Sea of Faces Foundation
National Adoption Foundation

We'd appreciate your prayers that we make it up to our fundraising goal.

And the winner is . . .

Karen Wiersma is the lucky winner of our quilt raffle. Lizzie Wegener came over to our apartment after soccer on Sunday and drew the name from the pile of cards on the floor. Thanks to all who participated. The raffle brought in over $500 and thanks to my mother for making and donating this gorgeous quilt!

Karen and her husband Bob were my Sunday school teachers in the good ol' town of Pardeeville, Wisconsin. They started teaching my class when we I was in Kindergarden and couldn't get enough of us, teaching our class nearly every year through high school. Joseph and I were even in the same class for a couple of years. The Wiersmas filled my head with more scripture than basically anyone, having us memorize verses, then the books of the Bible, then the ten commandment chapter and rewarding us with yearly pizza trips. I remember loading up their minivan with our class of 10 and singing 'great green gobs of greasy, grimy gopher guts . . .' I also remember having contests with Christian Neef to see who could eat the most pizza . . . and always trying to dump the entire container of hot pepper flakes on someone's slice while they stepped away from the table.

We never got sick of each other and always counted it a blessing that they were our teachers, which is saying something! It wasn't until I moved away from Pardeeville that I realized how unique it was to have great Sunday school teachers, not to mention the same teachers for nearly 13 years! So, thank you Bob and Karen! We don't take you for granted. We love you lots and thank you for the HUGE role you played in training us in the Bible and teaching us how to be godly.

Officially Waiting

Our paperwork made it to Ethiopia and will be picked up on Friday by our representative there. So, now we are officially to the next step of waiting. I'm quite happy this has come at the beginning of summer, because, well, waiting is rather boring. There isn't a whole lot to do as far as moving forward with adoption, so summer will be a welcome distraction. My goal is to not become obsessive over when we'll get our referral. We're trying to gear up for the long haul and if it comes earlier, we'll be pleasantly surprised. I know most adoptive moms become rather obsessed and desperate at the end, after months and months (or years) of waiting. Any tips on not doing that?

This summer I'm hoping to get some good reading done on adoption, Ethiopia, and tons of other things. I should make a list. Lists are always quite exciting to me.

We're also still plugging along with fundraising, and sending in a couple of grant applications. God has continued to shower us with blessings of gifts toward our adoption expenses. Our friends and family are so very generous and encouraging. Thank you all!!