Changed our Preference form

We officially changed our preference form today.

Let me explain...

About a month ago, we received news from our agency that we would have to redo our entire dossier after the oldest thing in it was two years old. This is apparently a mandate from MOWA in Ethiopia and is not a new phenomenon. Adoptions from Ethiopia have typically not taken 2+ years to complete, so it's just "new" now because adoptions these days apparently are taking that long to complete. We were originally given a 12+ month wait for siblings age 4 and younger. A week after we were told that we would likely be re-doing our dossier, we were told our wait time for siblings had increased to 18-24+ months for a referral.

I know what you're thinking if you have not adopted. Many of you have expressed this same frustration to me. It goes something like this: "How can it possibly take that long? Aren't there 5 million orphans in Ethiopia? Don't they care that these children are all alone without moms and dads?"

My answer, "YES! THEY CARE!!! A LOT!!! But, they want to make sure that their process is ethical and there is absolutely no child trafficking involved what-so-ever, and I WANT THAT, TOO!"

We have spent weeks in prayer over this, and have decided to change our preference form (which is the form our agency uses when they decide which child to refer to which family~ultimately knowing GOD SETS THE LONELY IN FAMILIES) We are now requesting EITHER a single child age 0-3, OR siblings ages 0-4 years.

Because of the wait time for siblings among other things, we are expecting to adopt one boy, likely a toddler. We estimate that we could very well have a referral by early summer, and could possibly bring our child home by the end of this year. We know full-well that God is the giver of life, and that HE ALONE will decide the path our family will take. We trust Him.

Please pray with us for our child/children, and for our peace of heart as we wait.

Grove City or Bust!

Last weekend, Tate, Naomi and I were blessed to travel to Grove City to visit and serve our friends, Hannah, Jonah and Micah, while their Daddy and two other brothers were out of town. Their mom, Melissa, is expecting #6 in August, so we went up to help with Hannah (who is special needs), but more so I could "catch up" with Melissa and cook and clean so she could rest!

Jonah and Micah are adopted from Ethiopia, and this fun family showed us Ethiopia was on the map!

I took the kids outside with some of those "firework popper things," which they all loved!

Look how well they were all sharing!!!

I don't know what's up with that goofy look on Naomi's face, but here's another shot of these four friends!

Thanks for having us, Mowrys! We hope to see you soon!

What Younglife Means To Me

We've come to the end of our final semester leading Young Life in the town in which we started Young Life. In total, we've been volunteering with Young Life for 8 years. Eight of the most fantastic years! We've been down the biggest tubing hill I've ever seen in my life---AT NIGHT---attached by tube to atleast 30 other people! We have gone to so many high school basketball games, track meets, soccer games, football games, etc...more than you can imagine! We've had 100 people in our basement every Tuesday night and 25 more on Wednesdays over the years. We've had moments where I've been in fear for my life (YOU try sailing with one high school girl when NEITHER of you know how to sail!), moments where I've nearly laughed myself into a tizzy (watch an 80 pound freshman girl get launched into the sky on a water tube, or a girl unable to ride a BIKE until she realizes the handlebars are backwards!). I've even broken bones at Young Life camp. I've had moments where I've cried with "my girls," laughed with "our guys" and been um, "misunderstood" by people in general. Most of my "Top Ten Friends" are not even twenty yet, and I wouldn't have it any other way. ...and it's all coming to a close.

I've cried and cried and prayed and prayed about this. And, in talking with a lot of other people about stepping back from one ministry to step into another ministry, I've learned that grief is normal. I've talked with people who have very amazing youth ministry going on, and they are about to step into full-time missions in ETHIOPIA! They, too, are grieving "losing" their ministry and their community, their church, and to a certain extent, their family, all-the-while being very excited for what God WILL DO!

So, while we're sad to step back from Young Life leadership, we're excited because we now have the opportunity to prepare our family of five to become a family of SEVEN! And, we will remember how amazing it was to serve God through Younglife, and we will be excited to see what God WILL DO! And, of course, we are excited for "our Younglife kids" to join us in watching God expand our family through the miracle of adoption!

Watch the video our friends made us HERE.

DC on Good Friday

We made a daytrip down to DC yesterday (We believe it was Darby's first trip to DC!). Yes, the weather was horrible. Rain, albeit not quite torrential, came down all day. People! Yes, people swarm to DC on Good Friday-go figure! We went to the Air and Space Museum first. Maybe it's because every man in my family was (or is)a pilot in the Air Force, or is currently an airline pilot, but that museum just doesn't impress me. OR, maybe it was the fact that two of their women's rooms were under construction so I had to stand in a line literally 40 women long to use the restroom. There were so many people in that museum, I didn't bother taking pictures. Then we made the short walk to the Museum of Natural History. We almost had a Mary Poppins moment here, as you can see!















We stumbled upon this sculpture garden. This house was 3 Dimensional in a very 2 Dimensional way. Thank goodness Disney just invented the FOUR-D, right? What would we do without it?!

I can't get enough of this little one!

And...a metal tree. Try makin' paper outta THIS thing!

We learned a little bit about the history of Ethiopia while we were there! Emperor Menelik II defeated the Italians as they tried to invade Ethiopia to take it over in the late 1800s. European countries were overtaking African countries at that point in history, and Ethiopia was one of only two African countries which were not overtaken. If you look at this artwork, Emperor Menelik is at the top left on the white horse. The princess is at the bottom left, being carried with the umbrella over her head. The Italians are all depicted by side profiles, and the Ethiopians are beating the snot outta them.

And, in case you didn't know where Ethiopia IS:

The magical underwater world as displayed through the art of crochetting! I'm not a knitter or crochetter, but THIS was impressive!

We saw dinosaurs, rocks, and gems...even the HOPE DIAMOND! And, so did a million and a half other people that day. In fact, at points, I was wondering if we were breaking fire code. So, that's all the pictures I have for now! After a fun family day, we hit up PF Changs for dinner and headed home. In hindsight, we totally should have hit up an Ethiopian restaurant! From what I understand, DC has a large Ethiopian population, so that will wait for another trip!

Happy Easter weekend, Everyone!

The Call

Ever wondered how to know for sure if God is calling you to something? It could be something small...could be something big. But then again, who are we to judge whether something is big or small in God's eyes? I mean, Paul says in Colossians, "...but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thangsgiving, present your requests to God." So, we should pray and pray and pray until we hear some answer, right? Um, not so sure about that one. I'm sort of a huge fan of Francis Chan. In one sermon I heard, he says (me paraphrazing here), "Is it biblical? Yes. Is it at the very heart of God?! Yes. Is it hurting anyone?! NO?!!! THEN...DO...IT!!!" Really? Just...like...do it? Um, YES! So, onto the background. Several years ago, adoption came up as a topic of discussion. We (Dallas) weren't ready yet. Dallas still had this mindset that if we could have our own biological children, why on earth would we adopt? And, from Russia? We don't have 4 weeks worth of vacation and babysitters! Time lapsed, and it came up again. We (I) began looking into adoption agencies. Russia was then ruled out. Guatemala? (closed shortly thereafter) China? (Too young...TOO LONG!!!) And then there was Africa, and that's where I, if we're going to be completely honest here, got cold feet. What about racial differences? Was I really ready to be the mother in a trans-racial family? Now you're asking, "You already mentioned Guatemala! AND CHINA!" Yes. I did. And, I will be the absolute FIRST to tell you that I was raised in a colorblind family, if such a family exists, but for one reason or another, I was scared. What was I afraid of? Was it really race? Was it AIDS? Was it adoption in general? Enter DARBY. We were blessed with our third child. Well, Darby turned one last fall, and God presented adoption to us...AGAIN! ALRIGHT ALREADY, ALMIGHTY! WE GET IT! WE HEAR YOU! WE HAVE SAID "NO" ENOUGH TIMES ALREADY! Yes. You heard me. God called. He called, and called and called. We chalked it up to "prayer." When He knew it was merely FEAR that prevented us from saying, "YES, Lord. We will be used by you." We said, "No" to the Almighty. This time, Dallas brought it up, and he did NOT back down. God had gotten ahold of his heart...and shortly thereafter, mine. Right after Christmas (2010-since I have quite a bit of catching up to do with this blog), we applied to adopt from Ethiopia. I'm not holding back. We're all in! He is the Author of life! He is the author of our story. So, we can say, "Let me pray about that..." for a long, LONG time, which might end up being forever, or 'til the urgency of the call fades, or until we are once again desensitized to the crisis, in which case, our answer to God is, "No." Take a look at this video by Francis Chan.