Thanksgiving and 5 months!!

Happy Thanksgiving! We are thankful for our Savior who loves us, and who saved us from our sin! We are thankful for our wonderful friends and family, our church and our Middle Schoolers (past and present), our jobs, our home, our puppy... the list could go on and on. We are incredibly blessed, and look forward to the blessings coming up in the next year!! :) Here are a few pix from today:

Joe's Mom, Joe, Me

Tim, Carrie, Mom, Dad, Me and Joe

And of course we had to take one of the dogs- Bandit and Mimi

And now... for the exciting news... Today marks 5 months on the waiting list! We are thankful the time is moving so quickly, and hope it continues! We can't wait to meet our Addison. We are SO excited and ready to see her face... Any more referral predictions??? Comment or email and I'll add them to the side bar... We just found out that the average waitlist time is down to 7.5 months. We've been seeing lots of referrals lately! So exciting!!

Awesome Weekend

Joe and I had an awesome weekend with 45 middle schoolers, our leader friends, and a rock/worship band, Theories of Gabriella! I know... many of you may be saying "Hanging out with middle schoolers for a weekend could never be described as awesome in my book" but SERIOUSLY we LOVE it!!! When else in "grown-up" life do you get to paint fingernails for hours, sing at the top of your lungs and mosh-pit to VERY LOUD awesome God-honoring music, crab walk on a boat dock, run around and play soccer in the rain, stay up with 1 AM watching movies, playing games and giggling, run through the bushes in the dark searching for people wearing glow-sticks, eat massive amounts of chocolate cake, watch kids have an egg toss, play games, do puzzles, and goof off with awesome kids! And then there's the awesome opportunity of listening to a speaker challenge and inspire those wild and rowdy kids with scripture, stories, and videos that challenge and inspire YOU just as much as the kids! And to top it off, just wait until you see those same wild and crazy kids STAND UP in front of their peers and describe what they LOVE about God. And don't forget- after 6 1/2 years of leading youth, our fellow leaders are our FRIENDS who we LOVE spending time and serving with! Seriously people, Youth Ministry is SO GREAT, humbling, challenging, rewarding, inspiring and FUN!

Here's the whole group (minus me, the photographer!!)

We also got to spend a little time with Chris and Lisa Kaiser (fellow Ethiopian adoptive parents). Lisa was our speaker this weekend, and she and Chris recently returned from Ethiopia on a service mission trip. We got to see Slade, their kiddo from Ethiopia, who is about 1 1/2, and his big brothers Mason and Spencer. Seeing their family, hearing her stories, and playing with Slade makes us SO excited for our own Ethiopian baby AND for our trip to Ethiopia (more on that later)!! We're close to 5 months now (another post coming soon) and we're getting SO excited! Prior to the last week or so I was feeling a little frustrated and impatient, but God has snapped me back into reality this week! Last night I figured the scenario all out (this is all completely hypothetical)- referral in February and picking up our baby in April. I told Joe I want to be a Mom before my birthday (April 28th). Who knows... I could be months off and I won't be crushed (hopefully) but seriously can't wait! Joe thinks I'm crazy for setting timelines in my head, but it helps me cope... :) I'm a recovering control-freak!! GOD is REALLY in control of our family and I'm quite alright with that (I haven't always felt that way, but he reminds me from time to time)!

FOUR

Yep, that's right 4 months down! We have been told about 8 months throughout this process, so that means we are about half way there! 4 months sounds a lot shorter than 8! The last 4 months have gone quickly and we hope that will continue to happen!! Can't wait to see Addison's face!

“…. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.” Hebrews 12:1-3

We are starting to think about our trip to Ethiopia, and really want to spend a little extra time serving there before picking up Addison if we can. Does anyone have any suggestions of organizations to partner with or projects to join?

Other exciting news: Our friends, the Pells, have a court date for 3 month old baby John T!! It's November 5th! We're so excited for you John and Sarah, and feel blessed to have friends ahead of us in this journey! Praying for a sucessful court date!

Forming my heart

I am realizing as we approach almost half-way point of our wait (based on the 8 month average wait time for referral)- I am gaining more than a daughter from Africa in this journey. I am also developing a heart for the orphan and for Africa! Did you know that a child dies from starvation or malnutrition every 3 seconds? There are 147 million orphans in our world who need loving families and homes. Here are a few videos I have found inspiring lately:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSdP6PqsbJY
This is a song by Sara Groves about a trip to Rwanda- lots of footage of people

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvRwo2oAmec
This is a video project showing orphans and orphanages in Ethiopia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duyL9UjLrdM
This is the BEST adoption video I have seen! From Ethiopia- through AGCI.

PS. If anyone knows how to upload vidoes from YouTube directly to a blog, please tell me!

Clayton Beach Trail

Here's some pix from our walk down the Clayton Beach Trail on Chuckanut Drive today...

Friends Weekend

Last weekend we went over to Wenatchee to visit the old college gang. Sarah was in town (from NC) to visit her family, so we decided to have a little reunion while she was here! The 4 of us girls were roomates and friends through college. We only get all together once or twice a year lately, so it was tons of fun!

Alicia, Sarah, Me, Jeni

With the husbands and kids

Joe, Janet, Alicia & Ayla, Sarah & Emma, Jeni & Abbie, Justin

(Brett couldn't come because he is coaching Football, and John was working in NC)

Alicia and Ayla


Justin, Jeni and baby Abbie- It was our first time meeting her!

Abbie: "Why did Janet put this huge bow on my head? I'm feeling a little lop-sided!" :)

While we were there, we helped with a suprise shower for Sarah. John and Sarah are adopting a 3 month old baby boy from Ethiopia VERY SOON! They are just waiting for a court date, and then he will be officially theirs! Jeni, Alicia, Sarah and I went to a coffee shop Saturday afternoon, and Sarah's Mom called to tell her that Emma was having a fit (which she was NOT). We returned to Sarah's Mom's house to a SUPRISE baby shower! It was so much fun! Baby John T. was given lots of clothes and blankets! The weekend was lots of fun! I can't wait to introduce our baby Addison to this group of friends and kids!

It was so great to talk with Sarah about our love for orphans and Ethiopia, and the joys and potential challenges of adoption! John and Sarah were the ones who encouraged us to seriously consider adopting from Ethiopia last January. They have been very inspirational in our process. It's so great to have friends on the same journey as us! We will be bonded for life (and we have already decided that our ET babies will HAVE to marry each other)!

We love you guys!!

Joe's first Half Marathon!!

Joe ran his first half marathon today!! He has only been training for 5 weeks and did SO GREAT!! I was so proud of him! He got up REALLY early and started at 7:30. Mom and Dad and I went to go watch him a few hours later.

Here he is approaching the end of mile 11- Isn't Bellingham beautiful?

GO JOE!!! He looked like he had just started running. This is the end of Mile 11.

The Finish Line! He finished in and 1:54- His goal was under 2 hours and he made it!

He finished 291 out of 1036 finishers!

Joe's fans:

Me (of course) and Mom & Dad

Joe G. and Whitney! Thanks for coming guys!