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Sunday, November 11, 2012

Frequently.

Frequently I've been getting asked a lot of the same questions about the adoption.  So I thought I'd share with you all the answers to some of these questions, thinking you might be asking the same ones.

Why did you bring him home with you? 
We passed court so Fraol is legally our child but we have to wait for the US Embassy to approve our case.  Before we can submit our case to the Embassy for review, we have to get all of Fraol's legal documents which takes about 4 - 6 weeks.  After our case is submitted to the Embassy they can approve it or ask for additional information which will lengthen the process.  Usually the process is around 10 - 12 weeks.  I'm praying for a December Embassy date...why not, right?

How are you doing with being far away?  
Life is happening and I'm so happy for that.  I'm happy to be keeping busy at work, hanging out with lots of friends, unpacking still, etc.  I do think about Fraol ALL THE TIME and I'm dying to bring him home.  I look through my photos and videos quite often I must admit.

Are you keeping the name Fraol?
Fraol will be his middle name but we will probably call him that often.  We also love Frah and Fraz as nicknames.  We are ridiculous and still don't know what we will call him besides that.  Seriously, how do you name a child?  It feels like so much pressure to have to decide what someone will be called for the rest of their life.  I thought after we met him, we would know.  But that wasn't the case.  We have it narrowed down but it seems like we are still adding to the list.  I'm pretty sure we're going to procrastinate this one as long as we can, so sorry, you'll have to wait.

Have you started a nursery?
I purposely waited to do anything on the nursery until after our court date trip.  I thought it would help me to have something to do while I wait.  I also had a theory that if I wasn't prepared to bring him home, it would be easier to leave him in Ethiopia.  Unfortunately, my theory was wrong.  It was terrible to leave him.  So I got home from our trip thinking I was going to be excited and focused on decorating and preparing a nursery.  I walk into his room and realized it was filled with a bunch of crap that I didn't know where to put and suddenly I was super unmotivated about this project.  I thought it might be a while before I started working on it.  But Wednesday, I came home from working at a coffee shop and Dave had started painting the room in the color gray we had talked about.  I jumped in and helped, hung curtains the next day and ordered the crib.  That's all it took - I'm on a roll.  The stinky part is that all that crap is still in there.

Can you tell us about what you did in Ethiopia when you weren't with your sweet baby?
Okay, nobody has asked me that question and surprisingly I'm okay with it.  I guess I just really like to talk about Fraz :).  But we had an amazing trip and I do want to share about it.

We've had the opportunity of being a part of a church in Woliso, Ethiopia.  Our first time to meet this church was in March of 2008 when we fell in love with the people and vision of this church.  Their passion for orphan care and for people to know the Gospel was evident.  We were able to participate in the partnership between this church, World Orphans and The Charis Foundation over the last 5 years.

After our first trip in 2008, we started breaking ground for two family style orphan homes on the church property.  Each house would house 10 kids and they would have live in parents which would be a couple from the church.  I was able to visit 2 times after that first trip to see the progress on the homes and spend time with their community but since changing jobs my schedule hasn't allowed me to go on the trips.

Since I've been there the homes have been completed and the kids have moved in.  I have been praying for them and so eager to meet them.  This was my chance.  We spent two days out in Woliso and I loved every moment of it.  I met the kids in the home, went to friends house for a wonderful dinner and coffee ceremony, fed monkeys, worshipped with them on Sunday morning, taught kids Sunday school, did crafts and played with the kids.  Here are some pictures of our time there.

We painted the girls nails.  They loved the sparkle kind. 

Me and Elsa, one of the newer girls to the home. 

We went into the girls room and they were all excited to show me which bed is theirs. 

 They are all so fun.  Look at those faces.

 Dave's favorite boy.  (Oops, I mean we don't play favorites...)


A new little boy to the home, Abram.  Such a cutie!

They were obsessed with my hair.  I think they did this for 45 mins!

This picture is us with the kids living in the two homes.  It's a little crazy at times as you can see.

There are monkeys at the place we stay.  Also bed bugs...yeah, I know. 

 My good friend, Marta.  She's the Pastor's wife.

With the whole family, minus Teshale (we missed you)!

God calls those that claim to follow him to care for the orphan and the widow.  Adoption is one way that we can do that but there are many other ways as well.  Our partnership with this church in Woliso  has continued to open my eyes to the deep issue of poverty and the need for all kids to have a family.  It's amazing to see these kids who were once on the street, now with food in their bellies, attending school, being loved and cared for by new parents and siblings and learning about Jesus.  Adoption may not be for everyone and that's okay.   But caring for the orphan is.  I hope and pray that I will be a life long advocate for the orphan.  Why?  Because it's the heart of God.    

3 comments:

  1. you liked abram because his little bum was hanging out - let's be really honest. ;)

    andrea is going to freak out when she sees that monkey picture.

    did you guys end up going to the spa?!

    continuing to pray for embassy to speed along.

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    1. You're on to me about Abram :) I know, I was thinking about her when I was feeding them. I'll have to email it to her! We didn't end up going to the spa. I was nervous I was going to get a boy! ha! Thanks for your prayers.

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