Getting close!

I can't believe three days from now I will be on an airplane to Ethiopia! I honestly didn't think I'd be going back this soon...a true answer to prayer.

This week has been full of packing and getting last-minute things done around the house. I'm wrapping up a few photography-related items, doing a few things for the dossier, and vacuum-packing donations in order to get them to fit in my suitcases:)

Amidst all the packing, I'm trying to spend a lot of quality time with the boys. Extra hugs and kisses above and beyond the hundreds I give them each day, snuggling on the couch, and conversations about where I'm going and who will be with them while I'm gone. Just tonight, I sat down and wrote them each a little note for each day I will be gone. Twenty little love notes decorated with colorful markers and stickers:) I'm sure they'll be a big hit...especially with Grayson. I'm going to cut a slot in the top of a shoe box and have Aaron put a new note in their "mailbox" each day.

I know, I know...I'm a horrible blogger:)

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post and a lot has been going on!

On the adoption front, we FINALLY got our home study done and submitted to our agency. We are continuing to work on paperwork for our dossier. We would love to have our dossier done sometime late March/early April, but we'll see! We totally see God at work in this paper chase as things are following a much different timeline than we envisioned..all in His timing, right? However, despite the set-backs, God has given us so much peace this time around. Sometimes I honestly forget we are even in the adoption process!! Crazy, I know!

I've also been trying to prepare for my trip to Ethiopia. I can't believe I leave in about a week and a half! I've been busy making arrangements for the boys and collecting donations. Thank you so much to all our friends and family that is coming up to watch the boys. We are so blessed to have you all! I've been telling Grayson I'm going to Ethiopia for about 10 days and he can't even muster up any sadness because he is so excited for all the visitors we will be having that week! He still remembers all the special things he got to do while we were in ET to pick up Abram. If you are wanting to help with stuff for my trip, I am still collecting children's chewable multivitamins. We hand these out on Saturdays to the kids in attendance and use almost a whole bottle each week. For children who are typically only eating one meal a day, we feel these vitamins will help make up for some of the nutrients they are missing out on.

And finally, I've been really busy trying to decide when/how to start my photography business. I've been doing pictures for donations in order to build my portfolio and am ready to take it to the next level. I've been working on my new website. Please feel free to check it out HERE.

I will continue to donate a portion of my sitting fees to either A Common Love or Connected in Hope Foundation, Inc.

Once I return from Ethiopia, I am hoping to begin booking sessions. I will also be working to sort through and edit pictures from my trip so we can feature them on our Connected in Hope website!

I'll leave you with some pictures from this past weekend:)

Okay, she's almost 13 months now! But, when we decided to get together to go to the Children's Museum, I just couldn't resist the opportunity to sneak in a little photo shoot:) So here are the pictures I came up with.

Here's another picture in front of my mobile backdrop:) Tomorrow my best friend in the whole world is bringing her little one and we're heading to the Children's Museum. Of course, we're making a little time for some pictures to test out my new indoor set-up.

Have backdrop...will travel.

I've been working to construct something that will allow me to do some pictures indoors while we anxiously wait for Spring's arrival. I hate that the bitter temperatures are keeping me from practicing as much as I would like, so I decided to do something about it. Several rooms in our house have great natural lighting throughout the day. And, the fact that we seem to always have snow on the ground has really brightened the house! So, I searched online and found a blog with a suggestion for a DIY backdrop. It's constructed from PVC pipe. I went to Lowe's and bought the materials. After much trial and error, I settled for using a chenille throw as my backdrop.

Here's a picture of my setup.



And, here's the resulting picture.

Photography class

Tonight was my third of four photography classes. I'm really enjoying it! First, I get 2 hours to myself and don't have to wait on a single person! Second, I'm learning a lot. Each week we are challenged to take what we've learned and complete a "homework assignment." I really like that this assignment makes me practice each week. And, I'm stepping out of my comfort zone and taking pictures I wouldn't normally take.

Here's my favorite picture from this week's shutter speed assignment. This is the carousel at the Children's Museum. I found a place to sit my camera and set my shutter speed to 8". That means the shutter was open for 8 full seconds (which is why I had to sit it on something to keep it still).



Here's another one from the shutter speed assignment.



I'm really looking forward to this week's assignment on depth of field!

MCP Project 52

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I have been participating in MCP's Project 52. This past week the theme was "Illustrate a Song." I took this picture of Grayson and titled it, "I Walk the Line."



At the end of each week, 10 pictures are selected from all the images submitted and are featured on MCP's blog. I woke up on Saturday morning to find that my picture had been selected to be featured on their blog!!!!

Here's the link to their blog.

I Heart Faces {Smiles}

This week at I Heart Faces, the photo challenge theme is smile. I picked this one of Abram because it is so hard to get him to sit still long enough to glance at the camera...and, he even has a hint of a smile in this one! I can't wait to see all the other adorable smiles at I Heart Faces this week!

MCP Project 52

A website that I visit often is MCP Actions. I can purchase Photoshop actions here and there are a lot of great tutorials on editing pictures. I'm also a "fan" of their Facebook page. This year, like many other photography websites, they are sponsoring a year-long photo challenge. Each week there will be a theme. Your job is to post up to 3 pictures each week that goes along with the theme. It's a great way to get your creative juices flowing. And, a great opportunity to get feedback on your pictures. I've found that one of my biggest weaknesses is my lack of confidence in my photos. So, to have others encourage me by giving positive feedback on a picture is priceless. I see this year as being a year of growth for me in so many ways. I hope photography is one of them. I think participating in this weekly challenge will go a long way in helping me grow as a photographer. This week's theme is "Around the House." Here are my pictures for the week.

Florida

Tuesday evening, we returned from our Christmas and Florida vacation. We were glad to get home, but we had such a great time! The boys really enjoyed swimming this year. And, though there were many days the pool's heater was not working as well as I'd like, the boys swam a couple times every day. Abram went from being held in the pool at the beginning of the week to "motoring" around the pool on his own with help from water wings and a pool noodle. It was cutest thing and he was so proud of himself! Grayson really enjoyed swimming and spending time with his cousins. They don't get to see each other that often, but like old friends, they pick up right where they left off! I hope someday they can live right down the road from each other.

When we returned home on Tuesday evening, I did my very best not to get overwhelmed by the amount of "stuff" I had to unpack, organize, and put away. Yesterday, I got all the Christmas decorations put away and even carried the tree out. It felt great to reclaim my living room. We're still catching up on laundry, but honestly, that's nothing new:) It's been a little easier to get things accomplished as the boys are quite occupied by all the toys they got for Christmas and then had to leave behind when we went to Florida. Unpacking was like Christmas all over again for them:)

Here are some pictures from our trip!

I Heart Faces {Absolute Best Face Photo of 2010}

This week at I Heart Faces, the challenge is Best Face Photo of 2010. Of course, it ended up being a picture of one of my boys:) I just love those little faces! I especially loved that in this one, Grayson was super excited about the hat I knitted for him:) I can't wait to check out all the other wonderful pics at I Heart Faces this week!

Merry Christmas!

Tomorrow we head to Liberty for a couple of days. The boys will get to do Santa and gifts with their Granny and Grandpa and then Papa and Nini. Aaron and I are feeling extremely blessed this year. Grayson and Abram are such sweet, loving, little boys and they are so excited about Christmas:) What makes it even more fun is that they have little to no expectations. They will be thrilled with anything they receive. It's such a great age in a sense that they haven't been "spoiled" year after year and don't expect game systems, laptops, cell phones, etc. I hope that over the years we can help them to maintain this sense of gratefulness for what they have and ward off a desire for material things.

It's this time of year that I think about other children in the U.S. and around the world. How many will go without gifts, without food, without warm clothes, or without a family? As I sat and ate a sinful amount of food tonight, I wondered if my child in Ethiopia was hungry, like millions of others around the world. I don't mean to put a damper on the holidays, but sometimes it just seems so unfair. It's so hard, at this time of year, not to question God's sovereignty. But, I know it is God Himself that puts this feeling of sadness and injustice in my heart in hopes that I will be moved into action. This is something I hope to work on in 2011...giving more and "needing" less.

Merry Christmas!

Getting ready for Christmas....

We're in full swing this week. I finished all my shopping this past weekend and just have a little more wrapping to do. I'm trying to prepare for the fact that we will be gone for the next week and a half. I'm keeping up on laundry and slowly, but surely, starting to pack for a few days in Liberty and a week in Florida. For a super-organized person like myself, this task can tend to throw me in overdrive! It always gets a little stressful as my time to get things accomplished gets shorter and shorter; but, in the end, most everything always gets done and we always have such a nice time with our families.

This year, in addition to the packing and planning for going out of town, I'm making a final push on our dossier before the holidays. A lot of things have been slow to get done with many people being on vacation or offices being closed. But, I'm determined to get a few things accomplished that we are in control of. I'm hoping (and praying) that, barring any complications, we can have our dossier submitted by the end of January!

Finally, a new post:)

It's been quite a week around here! Last Friday, as we were about to head to Lafayette for my physical (necessary for our adoption paperwork) when I realized Abram had pink eye! That was the start of a crazy week for us. Saturday, I woke up with pink eye and felt horrible on top of it. Each day, Abram or I would wake up with another infected eye! Luckily, we had enough eye drops to go around. But, between pink eye, my cold/flu symptoms, and the horribly cold weather, we were stuck inside for several days! And, let's face it, after just a day of not being able to get out, the boys were acting like caged animals!!!! Finally, on Wednesday, I was feeling well enough to get to Target for some necessary groceries and just to get out of the house for a bit. Thursday was my birthday, and I was pretty much back to normal health. We went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory...mmmm:) Today, the weather was much warmer and everyone was healthy, so we went to the Jingle Rails exhibit at the Eiteljorg Museum here in Indy. The boys had a great time looking at the trains. And, despite the fact that they had been caged up for days on end, they didn't go absolutely nutty...they were very well behaved and did a great job not touching the trains and all the intricate scenery:)

Booked my flight:)

This past Friday, I booked my flight to Ethiopia! I'm leaving February 25th and will be returning March 6th. I'm going with Ryane's mom, Pam, and we will have a very busy and productive week!

We will try to spend as much time in the Mt. Entoto community as possible. Right from the airport, we will head to Mt. Entoto to observe the Saturday school program. This is a program for kids in the community to attend to work on their English, sing songs, and have a good meal. Mesfin, the man who started the program and who was funding it out of his own pocket until Connected in Hope came along, says that many families in this community only eat one meal a day. So, to receive a meal is a big deal. Mesfin has been reporting to Ryane each week the number of children attending the program. It seems that around 120-140 kids come each week, with new kids every week:) Mesfin has also appointed people in the community to serve on an Advisory Committee. This ensures that the ideas we come up with are truly fitting the needs of the community. Pam and I will meet with the Advisory Committee while we're there. I am also hoping to put my newly acquired photography skills to good use. We need to get pictures of the families and children in the program as well as pictures of the Saturday school in progress and the community itself. I can't tell you how excited I am to have a totally new environment to photograph!

We're also currently brainstorming ways to help the families in the community better support their families. We would love to establish as women's cooperative in which select women would make a product that we would then buy from them at a fair price. We would bring the product back to the U.S. and sell for a profit. The money made would then go back into the Connected in Hope funds and help support our programs. Another idea is to help families establish a "business" through microlending. We would loan them money to get started say beekeeping or raising chickens and they would pay us back over time.

We have so many ideas for this foundation...it's really exciting to be a part of. I think this trip will be a great way to find out what is feasible and what may be a bit of a stretch. But, one thing I know for sure, with God on our side, Connected in Hope is going to do GREAT things!

Hats

I love winter hats on the boys. They look so cute in them and it allows me to get away without doing much to Abram's hair:) In the years past, they wouldn't leave them on. Now, they seem to like them about as much as I do. So, I went to Michael's and bought a set of hat looms and some yarn. Last night I crocheted a hat! It was so easy! So, now I'm going to have to look into how to get fancy with them like switching the color of the yarn:) So, don't be surprised if you get a hat for Christmas!

Depraved Indifference

If you have 8 minutes to spare, please watch this video.




Not only is this man an amazing speaker, his message is so thoughtfully articulated. I was so moved by the statement, "that's MY Hudson." God's heart aches for each and every orphan like we would ache if it were our child (my Grayson, my Abram) halfway across the world, alone and hungry. This video really reminds me that it's not about my comfort level (financial, emotional, social, etc), it's about "defending the cause of the weak and the fatherless." It's about "doing unto the least of these." It's about scooping up God's Hudson (Grayson, Abram, etc) and loving him, feeding him, giving him a home until the Lord can get to him. Please Lord, take away our indifference...help us to see these children through Your eyes.

An answer to prayer

Just the other day I got a great email...a true answer to prayer.

My entire life, I've had a desire to help those in need. And, while I wouldn't trade my job as a stay-at-home mom for anything, it sometimes leave me feeling like my mind/talent/desire to give back is being wasted. So, for quite some time I've been praying that an opportunity would present itself that would allow me to find my "place" in making a difference.

That opportunity just presented itself. A friend I came to know during Abram's adoption is, along with her parents, forming a non-profit organization to benefit families in the Mt. Entoto community of Ethiopia. During a trip to Ethiopia, her mother met a man running a Saturday school program for local children. As part of the program, the kids were provided a meal on Saturday. It is a quite popular program and this man found himself running out of funding. So, Connected in Hope is being formed! Connected in Hope will help support a program that is already in place with the hope of continuing to expand.

As part of the IRS process to become a non-profit, a board of directors must be formed. This is where I come in. Ryane so generously asked me to be on the board of directors:) I was so ecstatic and honored I could barely reply to her email fast enough! And, her mom is going back to Ethiopia in March and I'm trying to make arrangements to go with her! While there, we'll spend a lot of time in the villages visiting the family and children in the program. It will be such an amazing opportunity to really feel connected to the organization I will be working with.

Thanks, Ryane for this amazing opportunity!

Our big announcement:)

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, we surprised our family with exciting news. We're adopting again! Yeah, a big surprise, huh? We're adopting from Ethiopia again, but this time we're requesting a girl! I think a girl will provide the perfect balance in our house:) Plus, I don't think I can go another year without buying baby dolls, Barbies, doll houses, etc. And, let's face it, I want to go prom dress shopping someday and plan a wedding. I love my boys...more than anything. But, how many sons do you know who come crying to their mom when something's wrong? Or, call their mom on a daily basis, just to talk. I don't think I could go through life and not have the relationship with a child that I have with my mom. This isn't to say that I don't think I will be close to my sons as adults. I know we will always be a very close-knit family. But, a mom and her daughter are just different than a mother and son. Adults sons have families of their own to provide for, care for, and keep happy. It's a big job, and one that keeps them very busy. So, I will certainly be more than understanding if my adult sons don't call me every day. But, I hope one day, my daughter will stay at home to care for her children, and when bored, will give me a call:)

Now, I also need to share how it was that Aaron and I came to this big decision to adopt again and all the ways God has already had His hand in this adoption.

I should first mention that after Abram came home, we (I) had decided that was our last adoption. I was getting tired of the financial stress it was putting on our family. I was so ready to just be out of debt. But, the Lord had different plans for us. A few months ago, Aaron accepted a job that changed things for us. Suddenly, we couldn't use the, "we can't afford it" excuse. And, quite frankly, as we began praying for guidance in how to grow our family, it became quite clear that adoption was God's plan. Within days of our prayers, we began noticing adoption all around us. At least 3 nights in a row, when we sat down to watch TV or a movie, the show would involve an adoption. Aaron suddenly started getting lots of comments and compliments on the boys when out in public. I had several people come up to me and say, " God bless your family," or something of that nature. So, it didn't take us long to see where God was leading us. But, for whatever reason, we went a couple more months without making any decisions. We kept wavering between domestic and international. There's a huge part of me that likes to take control and try to find the quickest route to achieving a goal. I was searching for the "fastest" adoption program. Aaron's heart was still in Ethiopia. Then, one day, standing in the sanctuary in bible study, God spoke to me clearer than He ever has in my 27 (almost 28) years. He literally, out of nowhere, answered a question that I hadn't even asked myself. Literally, out of thin air, I heard myself say, "it's because you don't trust Me." It took me a minute to realize that the question was, "why haven't you settled on Ethiopia." And, in that moment, I immediately knew He was right. I didn't trust Him to get us through another long wait....another emotional rollercoaster....another difficult transition. I didn't trust Him. It took me a couple of days, but I told Aaron about my unbelievably clear message from God. I knew it was what we were supposed to do, and Aaron had known for some time but didn't want to push. So, a couple of days later, I filled out our application. Then, I let it sit on the table for a few more days. I finally mailed it the week before Thanksgiving. That night, my fortune cookie at dinner said, "to reach distant places, you have to take the first step." I don't believe in fortunes, but I do believe God can use anyone/anything to send His message (even a donkey). Okay Lord, I get it. You are in control.

And so, here we go again:)

O Christmas Tree

We went to get our Christmas tree the other night. Luckily, it was the night before it turned off horribly cold. Grayson loved every minute of it. Despite our best efforts, Abram slept through every minute of it:( After we had it in the house and decorated, Grayson asked to eat his dinner by the tree. We agreed. He's since eaten lunch by it several times.